When Hylli spread his arms, the woman acted like she was facing a murderous demon and ran towards me, clinging to my form. She clung to my waist as she pulled on my clothes, sobbing and asking me to kill Hylli.
"Heugh, please….. Someone rip him apart.... Take him out of my sight…. Uugh."
Hylli smiled bitterly as if used to the woman's reaction.
"Oh, I forgot. Shushu, can you change my hair color for me?"
Hylli spoke casually as he asked. I changed his black hair to a light brown. I understood why he had dyed his hair that time when he was at school. Hylli looked a bit awkward with light brown hair and red eyes, but he was still handsome.
"I'm scared, I'm Scared, I'm scared."
The woman buried herself in my arms and shook.
"It's okay. It'll be okay. Shhh."
I tried to comfort her with a comforting voice. When she grasped my arm and tried to scratch me with her long, untrimmed nails, Hylli pulled me away from her.
Who was that woman, and why was she here? I had a lot of questions, but I just decided to just face it head on without any doubts. I didn't really know what was happening, but I had followed him and promised to help so I pretended I wasn't affected.
Hylli gently held the beautiful middle-aged woman and moved her to the bed. The woman kept trying to scratch Hylli's face and choke him, but Hylli just tried to calm her down.
She didn't calm down when she got back to her bed. She tugged at her hair like she was trying to rip it out and muttered to herself with a shaking voice. She soon began to scream.
"Don't throw me away. Damn it. It's not my fault! Why are you leaving!"
She was a mess of tears and snot as she shook miserably. She didn't seem to be aware of herself drooling as well.
"If it wasn't for this cursed life in my stomach! Heslan wouldn't have left me! Siana Orde Ianess! Mihael Orde Ianess!"
She tried to tear at her own breasts and stomach with her long fingernails. I was surprised when she talked about a child in her stomach, but she was too old to be able to give birth.
But I couldn't help but be surprised at the woman who was yelling. All of the names she had screamed out were names that were familiar to me.
Siana Orde Ianess was the empress, or the woman known as Hylli's mother, and Mihael Orde Ianess was the emperor, the man known as Hylli's father. The two of them were siblings as well as a married couple, and were royals who were the leaders of our empire.
"Who are you! Get out of my sight! I'm telling you to get out!"
Anyway, Hylli was taking great care of this woman who was screaming curses at his parents.
He looked at the woman who didn't even recognize him with a sad look as he gently brushed her hair.
"...Swan. Please."
Hylli supported the woman who looked completely miserable as he turned to look at Swan.
Swan just gazed at Hylli before flicking a spoon. With a loud tak, the woman soon fell asleep.
Swanhaden dragged a chair and stared at the woman who was deeply asleep, then stretched his arm to begin diagnosing her. White magic enveloped her body as Swan focused on her with a frown.
When I stared at him as he closed his eyes and focused, I could see a white magic circle stretched thinly like a thread wrapped around his body. Then, that thread-like magic circle wrapped itself methodically around the woman's head on its own.
I had never seen such a sight. I guess that was how mental treatment via white magic worked.
But there was one problem. The circle seemed like it was trying to get inside the woman's head, but a strange, black thread-like magic circle was blocking it.
Swan frowned as he kept trying again and again before opening his eyes and standing up. He paused the treatment.
"I can't. It's extremely strong black magic. She held on to the curse for such a long time that recovery is almost impossible."
Hylli's expression was filled with despair as he listened to Swanhaden's words. Hylli muttered something about how he had expected it, but he couldn't hide the despair mixed with disappointment and resignation.
"...Hylli."
I unconsciously called for Hylli. He couldn't hide his despondent expression as he held the woman's hand and shook. He held the woman's hand to his cheek. His shoulders sagged under the weight of his burdens. He didn't have an ounce of rage or murderous intent in front of her. His sadness took shape as liquid and dripped from his eyes to his knees.
I clenched my fist with a frown in sadness. I wanted to do something, anything, but I bit my lips at how useless I felt right now.
Swanhaden quietly crossed his arms on his chest and stared between me and Hylli before clicking his tongue.
"….this is so annoying."
Swan messed the back of his hair roughly and shoved Hylli off of the chair next to the woman and made him roll.
Swan took his seat back and sat next to the woman once more. He looked down at Hylli who was still on the floor and began speaking, voice clearly annoyed.
"Do you have a napkin or a handkerchief."
"…..?"
At Swan's words, Hylli took out a handkerchief from his shirt pocket.
"Hold on to that."
He dragged the chair closer to the woman and opened his hand and began to speak. Swanhaden once again began to use magic on the woman. He used the mental magic spell again and, once again, white magic circle threads began spreading back towards the woman's head.
This time, Swan used a different approach. Instead of trying to enter her mind with his circle, he began to remove the thin black magic circle threads one by one and made them disappear.
When one thread disappeared, another appeared back. But Swanhaden continued to try and look for the biggest thread to make that disappear. Whenever he removed a thread, he became paler, but it looked like he had figured something out.
As I quietly appraised the situation, I thought that there was something that I could do about that black magic circle surrounding the woman.
I quietly approached Swan, who was busy concentrating, and spread my hand towards the black magic circle.
I magnified the thread that seemed to be made from black magic and took a closer look at it. I had never actually seen black magic before, so it was interesting. Both white and black magic seemed to be all over the place without any reason or rhyme. It wasn't a kind of magic that could be handled by a normal human.
The layout of it seemed to be restricting outside forces from affecting it, but it was limiting white magic only so it was harder to work with. It looked obvious that white and black magic were polar opposites.
If it was this case, I couldn't take care of the curse completely but I could make something like an entrance for Swan's white magic circle to enter the woman without issues.
I messed with the layout of the circle slightly to create a path for Swan's magic to enter. Swan's eyes were closed as he focused, then paused when he found something strange and opened his eyes.
Swan seemed to have gotten some damage as he overdid his magic. He had basically absorbed the black magic circle as he took care of it, but it looked like he had taken it unto himself.
Swan coughed once. Blood, dark enough to look black, came out of his mouth. Hylli handed the handkerchief to Swan.
Swan spit the black blood on Hylli's face.
"Here, now wipe your face with that."
Swan smiled mockingly with a haughty pose. Hylli looked like he was just about to yell but saw how bad of a state Swan was in. He quietly wiped the blood off of his face.
Swan scowled as he caught his breath, then locked eyes with me, who watched the whole thing.
"...I actually wanted to wipe that off for you myself."
Swanhaden suddenly added as he snatched the handkerchief from Hylli. He carefully wiped off the blood on Hylli's face, hand gentle like he was cleaning glass.
Swan, who had finished wiping Hylli's face clean, sat back on the chair and looked at the woman suspiciously.
"It's strange. All I did was a one-time treatment for the curse."
At Swan's talk of something strange, Hylli frowned in worry.
"…but the curse's defense magic suddenly got a weak spot."
Swanhaden spoke as he looked at me. Hylli looked at me too. The two of them looked at me with a suspicious glance, so I just gave them a thumbs up.
Swan smiled as he looked at me and turned to look at Hylli.
"Anyway, I can recover the memory loss and the mind problems."
"…..!"
Hylli looked surprised. His hands shook, along with the bloodied handkerchief that was still clenched in his fist.
"But there's nothing that can be done about her forthcoming death."
Hylli's excitement clambered down as he slowly nodded.
"I have been prepared for that."
"Now that the defenses are down, I'll try to treat her as much as I can. Hang on."
Swan took a brief moment of rest and turned back to the woman, spreading his hand wide to activate his magic. It looked like things were progressing smoothly now.
Hylli trudged to the nearest wall and slid down the floor. I didn't have any more magic to keep Hylli's hair light brown. He stared at his hair began to turn black as I sat next to Hylli.
The floor was covered in plush carpet, so my butt didn't hurt all that much.
I gently patted Hylli's back as he curled into himself.
Hylli glanced at me as I pat his back and thanked me sincerely. He muttered that he was so, so glad that he brought me with him and seemed to notice that I was confused by the whole situation.
When he calmed down a bit, he began to speak about the truth that I had been so curious about.
"The person over there is my mother. My real mother."
Hylli muttered in a low voice as he sighed. He began to speak again. I was completely shocked from the first thing he had uttered.
No, honestly, that was a bit too dramatic. I did have a sneaking suspicion. The woman's beauty and Hylli's beauty was similar in a lot of ways. And Hylli did call her 'mother' earlier.
"The empress couldn't have children for a lot of different reasons. So she tried to have a child through my mother. And that's me."
"….."
"Empress Siana was jealous of my mother, who was soon to be married on her own. She was jealous of my mother's beauty, and of the happy life she had with her lover."
I continued to pat Hylli's back as he told me his story. It was a series of surprises, but I tried my best to not look surprised.
TL;DR: The woman in the room was put under a black magic curse. Swan tries to extract the curse but fails, and Shushu checks out the magic circle for the curse and is able to tamper with it enough for Swan to be able to fix a bit. Hylli admits that the woman in the room is his birth mother, and that the empress was jealous of his mother's beauty and joy and had the emperor sexually assault her to have Hylli.