CHAPTER 10: The Reverse Of The Curse

"Now, I am certain I am a total reed!!" Aella hissed under her breath as she ran her hands over her golden locks.

She hovered her clenched fist over the door, contemplating on whether to go ahead or just turn back and leave.

She had listened to her mother and annoying sister who convinced her to visit the witch and demand for a reversal to the curse.

And like the soft-hearted dimwit she was, she actually ventured to Old Retaril for the second time today!

Not only was it shameful for a noblewoman to frequent such a disheveled area, but it was also dangerous that the inhabitants of such unruly territory now knew her face.

She also found it ridiculous that she had come to ask the same witch who landed a curse on them for a way to take it back.

You certainly didn't ask the one who wounded you to patch you up, no?

It Aella felt preposterous for standing out the doormat of the witch's workshop.

Just as she was about to turn back to leave and save herself from any kind of embarrassment, she felt her weight being pulled backwards with an unknown force.

"Heavens! What is this?!" She tried to hold on to something but it proved futile.

She was being dragged inside the building like a prisoner being shoved into a cell.

She flapped her arms in the air, trying to fight off whatever had its grip on her but it never stopped, not until she reached the main hall of the workshop.

She flipped her head up to see Lumen Caramel sitting behind a desk with a pristine aura over her.

Like she was so innocent.

"Y-You did this?* Aella asked even though she knew it was only the witch who could have done something so fantastical.

"Obviously, dunderhead. Why would you glide about my domain without entrance? What is this, a prostitute site?" the witch let out a snark, seemingly displeased that Aella tried to avoid her.

Aella clamped her lips shut as she cleaned her damp palms on her silk dress.

The witch had been watching her all these while? Did she really have eyes over the entire kingdom like it was rumoured?

Aella was curious to know the extent of the Great Witch's powers.

"What is it, sweet face? What do you want for the second time?" the Witch asked as she leaned back on her chair leisurely.

Aella eyed the bottles and bowls on the table and she guessed she had interrupted a new recipe making.

She cleared her throat to speak her mind.

"M-My father collapsed after the Lord suddenly deemed him disloyal to the hornage and my family is in uproar as we are about to lose all we have," she didn't expect to see surprise in the witch's eyes so she wasn't taken aback by the neutral look on Lumen's face.

"And so what? The curse is already working its way into your lives, what a pity," the witch regarded her nonchalantly before she moved her eyes to the bottles on the table.

"That is why I have come to see you," Aella spoke loudly despite her heart hammering against her chest.

She didn't even know how she was able to stand straight in front of the domineering figure in front of her.

Not that Lumen Caramel had a particular horrifying feature about her but the simple fact that she had been the cause of so many misfortunes, including her family's, made her anxious to speak freely in front of her.

"Really? And what do you demand of me?" Lumen looked up and rested her angular chin on her entwined fingers.

Astonished by the direct question, Aella blinked profusely. Finding the words back in her mouth was difficult.

"Go on, speak. Or has the witch got your tongue?" Lumen snickered while turning a liquid into a bowl and stirring it with a wooden spatula.

"Uhm, isn't there a cure for the curse? I mean, anything we can do to reverse it?" Aella inquired.

"And why are you the one here querying that? Are you sure you aren't one who stole the gem?" the witch's hard glare put her body in a jolting alarm.

"N-No! I have told you several times that it was my twin! Hell, I wasn't even there when she did it. I only came here because she is too much of a wimp to do anything, she can barely even lift up a comb, forget about venturing into the evil witch's domain!" Aella's eyes widened when she inadvertently called out the witch malevolent.

But to her bewilderment, the witch looked more delighted than offended.

She pushed her chair back and rose to her heights as she glided towards Aella with her penetrating auburn orbs.

"So you inquire a way to undo the curse?" Her heels clicked against the tiled floors as Aella's heartbeat picked up with her incoming presence.

"Y-Yes, if there is…" Aella trailed off, trying not to hold on to the fickle of hope that there might actually be a way.

"Well, you met my expectations with your intellectual question, mi dear,"

Aella was shocked to hear the witch's statement.

Had she really anticipated her to come back for this? Then why didn't she just save her the journey and told her earlier?!

"Well, what is the way around this? I can't let my family be damned by the curse," Aella was ready to plead if it meant for her life to return to normalcy.

"The only to reverse this type of curse according to my knowledge is for you to get the heart of a mystical creature," 

Aella frowned, not knowing the meaning behind her vague statement.