Lina's mother was sobbing as she grabbed Lina's hand.
"What the hell is this… You suddenly disappeared one day, you don't know how long we've been looking for you!"
"Ah… Mother? My mother?"
"Yes! Lina, it's really our Lina!"
"I… I must be crazy."
Lina trembled as she sat down.
It seemed that the memories of the past rushing in at that moment were too painful.
"Why am I… Why? I just thought, I should just live with him."
I said calmly as I watched her tears flow down Lina's cheeks.
"The girl is not crazy. Don't blame yourself. Because this was black magic."
Everyone blinked their eyes in surprise at the word black magic.
Black magic was an unfamiliar term to the general public.
"Huh, huh, black magic?"
"Yes. It's a very bad magic that manipulates a person's conscience. Now that it was broken, she has come to her senses."
I kindly explained.
And I asked more to confirm the hypothesis I had been thinking about before.
"Have you ever lost something like clothes?"
"Huh…? Yes. There are some things that disappeared after hanging the laundry. But it was a cheap apron…"
"Perhaps that was the condition for black magic to activate. They must have cast black magic with the clothes of the target."
After the fairy lost her wings and clothes, she lived with the woodcutter, so it must have been a medium.
I glanced at my uncle, who had lost his mind, with a puzzled expression on his face.
He couldn't hide his disbelief until he led me here, and he ran like a crazy kid when I started a fire.
"Perhaps my uncle was the first target… They must have failed because they couldn't possibly steal clothes or belongings."
In other words, he did not have a servant and took good care of his things by himself, so he was not afflicted with black magic.
"Unbelievable… Maybe that's why Lanella said she would be the maid of the lord's castle from the beginning…"
Someone spoke and my uncle's face changed horribly.
"Oh, she said she was going to be a maid?"
I asked.
"Yes. I said no because I didn't have enough money to hire her."
"That's great. It's all thanks to my uncle's eccentric nerd mind. I'm so happy."
After praising my uncle, I took a look around him.
Since there was also a fire, the people of the estate were crowded and watching.
Anyway, the general public didn't know anything about black magic, and the people here were almost cut off from the capital.
"Ahhh! You are precious!"
Lina's mother said with her eyes wide open and I scratched my cheek and muttered.
"Not a precious person, but a talented and cool person…"
When I answered carefully, my uncle intervened.
"She is a precious person!"
He gave his eyes strength and said, looking around at the people.
"She's my niece too. Got it? I'm proud of this precious, talented and cool girl. She's my niece!"
People began to buzz at the words.
"You're the lord's niece?"
"The lord had a niece? He had siblings?"
My uncle tapped me on the shoulder and said,
"My brother and I were busy making money! I didn't have time to call you!"
Everyone nodded and accepted the words.
I was a little overwhelmed by my uncle's other words.
'What do you mean you're proud?'
"It's my niece! My niece! Everyone, look carefully. My niece, who does important things in the capital city!"
It was a different problem from my parents comforting me, saying, "we are proud of your existence alone."
It was a bit thrilling to be in a blood-related relationship that he wanted to brag to everyone by showing only cool performances in front of others.
To add a little lie, I felt like I knew why Ian Wade lived so justly.
Sometimes I thought it would be too much to be recognized by everyone like Ian, but it was a really useless worry.
The feeling of receiving praise, attention, and so on was really very good.
"I… Am I recognized as your niece now?"
I spoke quietly with a puzzled look, and my uncle shook his head and replied.
"How dare I not believe that you're my niece?"
Fortunately, my uncle was not a fool.
"Hmm… I'm sorry I doubted you at first."
"No. It's perfectly normal to be wary of a niece you have never seen before. No one would feel more desperate than I am about covering up and not trusting those who claim to be blood ties."
It was then.
The door of the cabin suddenly opened, and Ian kicked two unconscious people.
One of the two was Lanella, who once worked in my mother's dressing room.
"La-Lanella… Obviously, when I asked Rayburn yesterday morning, he said she didn't come back."
My uncle muttered as if he were dumbfounded, and I ran and kicked the two unconscious people with all my might.
Ian said, arranging for me to kick them well.
"You might want to kill them, but you can't because I have to interrogate them."
"I know."
I kicked it until I was called to stop, and every time, Ian would put them back to their original position at the right angle.
After venting like that, I tied them up with a rope very roughly and said with a huff.
"And Lanella, this human being will kneel in front of my parents."
"I won't stop you."
Ian, who nodded, looked at them for a while and asked.
"Annabelle, how did you know they wouldn't die?"
"Huh?"
"In the general store, all those involved in black magic died."
"Ah."
I couldn't tell Ian the details because I was in a hurry after noticing the origin of the black magic.
From Ian's point of view, there would have been a lot of questions.
Having made all these plans, I explained as if it were insignificant.
"In the case of Morriett, he was a person who was eaten by the desire to be the most handsome. But my uncle said those two don't have a spouse."
"Right."
"That's why I thought they were really people who only moved for money. That means they were not influenced by black magic, they were just using it."
In fact, it was an inference that I couldn't say in advance because I was afraid of being wrong.
In the end, I was able to talk confidently only after confirming that I was right.
"In addition, Lanella quit everything and came all the way from the capital. I thought it didn't seem to have been eroded by black magic."
"According to your logic, those who died as they are now… They must have asked for black magic, saying they want to have a spouse by force."
"Well, that's right."
I became a little depressed and nodded.
Ian also remained grimly silent.
Nevertheless, it was a brainwashing that had to be broken.
Anyway, we all did well as planned.
I destroyed the origin of black magic, and Ian captured Lanella and Rayburn alive.
"…Thank you."
I said while looking at Ian.
"Thank you for coming all the way here and helping me."
In the midst of the flames, entering the cabin directly and immediately overpowering the two was not something that could usually be done without courage.
Of course, we had planned to extinguish the fire in advance. But we didn't know what's going to happen, and the fire was scary.
It was as important to draw out the two as removing the origin of black magic, but anyway, I was able to trust Ian and leave it to him.
The flames that fluttered as if they were going to swallow all of this area with the tapping sound gradually died down.
In the smell of burning crops and the smoke, we looked at each other awkwardly.
"What do you mean help? Of course I did what I had to do."
Ian, who muttered slowly, slowly raised his hand and touched my cheek.
I was surprised by the touch of his finger on the cheek and shrank my shoulder, and he looked me in the eye and said.
"…You had ash there."
I didn't even have time to answer anything.
"What's this?"
My uncle jumped in between us.
"Don't flirt with my niece when you're just fake lovers! Does Oscar know about this? Huh?" (pr/n: lmao I love the uncle)
Even if my uncle was blocking my way anyway, Ian's height was so great that he couldn't be covered.
Still, my uncle did his best, even waving his hand.
I took a deep breath.
Strange, there was no man who exuded an atmosphere as stoic as Ian.
In fact, he was always upright and showed little expression.
Of course, when he was with me, there were a lot of absurd situations.
I thought that Ian was too good at camouflage because he wore a pair of glasses that looked hazy. As soon as I returned to the castle, I thought I had to reveal the identity of Ian.