Chapter 2

The next morning.

On a main street where cars and carriages moved chaotically among one another, Cecilia stood there for a long time in a daze, blinking her large eyes.

Ruby was no different.

Hidden inside Cecilia’s cloak, he could not seem to find the words to say anything and only clicked his beak.

What… is this?

There seemed to be two, no, three times as many city constables patrolling the streets as usual.

Did a murder happen last night or something?

The constables were randomly stopping pedestrians they came across and checking their identities. They seemed to be particularly focused on young women traveling alone.

Huh? This is bad.

Officially, Cecilia was a dead person.

She had never expected something like this, so naturally, she had no forged identification or travel permit.

Her white hair already made her stand out, and if she lied to a constable and the news somehow reached Davion…

No.

The image of her husband, which she had forcibly buried deep in her subconscious, began to appear before her eyes.

Before his image could become any clearer, Cecilia hurriedly changed direction and slipped into an alley as though she were running away.

But, good heavens, there were constables standing right at the entrance of the alley too!

「I’ll look around from the sky and find somewhere without any humans wearing hats.」

Ruby pushed off Cecilia’s shoulder and flew energetically into the air.

Cecilia did her best to follow Ruby, but she still could not escape the watchful eyes of the constables who were patrolling every corner of the city.

“Lady, please excuse me for a moment.”

Gasp.

A huge man suddenly blocked her path.

Cecilia was so startled that she lost her balance and staggered backward. Ruby’s flustered cry echoed helplessly from above her head.

“An unpleasant incident has occurred in this area recently, so I need to verify your identity.”

Cecilia was so terrified that she could not even breathe. She simply froze where she stood.

But thankfully, the thing she had feared did not happen.

Bang!

An unfamiliar noise came from deeper inside the alley.

Not only Cecilia, but the constable blocking her also instinctively turned toward the sound.

A moment later, something crashed down with a tremendous clatter, and a boy wearing a hood raced past them.

Several constables chased after him, shouting.

“Get him! He’s a pickpocket!”

The constable in front of Cecilia quickly understood the situation.

He pulled his hat down low and ran after his colleagues, chasing the boy.

…Did he leave?

Good heavens.

She had gotten lucky.

It felt as though she had been struck by lightning in that brief moment.

Cecilia leaned against the nearest wall, clutched her chest, and tried to steady her breathing.

The terrifying fear gradually turned into relief, and belatedly, cold sweat began running down the back of her neck.

The Davion in her mind was frowning with a disappointed expression.

Go away.

Cecilia squeezed her eyes shut.

A flash of light appeared across her eyelids, and his image disappeared like a mirage.

Only the faint sound of a quiet sigh remained at the tips of her ears, like a fading afterimage.

「Cecilia!」

Once the constables had gone far enough away, Ruby hurriedly descended to the ground.

He slipped inside Cecilia’s cloak and shuddered all over with her as though he had also been terrified.

「I thought you were going to be caught for sure…」

Cecilia pulled Ruby tightly against her chest.

As always, he carried the cool scent of winter after his flight.

「That constable just now had a camera hanging from his waist. If that hadn’t been a pickpocket, he definitely would have taken a picture of my face.」

「We should be grateful to that small male human… So what do we do now?」

Cecilia did not want to use hair dye if she could avoid it. It was obviously harmful to small animals like Ruby.

Her hair could be hidden under a hood anyway.

The real problem was her face. Just like what had almost happened moments ago, she might suddenly have her picture taken.

「Is there any way I can hide my face…?」

A cloud briefly covered the sun.

Cecilia’s reflection appeared like a mirror in a puddle of rainwater at her feet.

She stared blankly down at herself for about a minute.

Then, suddenly, a good idea came to her, and a triumphant smile spread across her face.

「There’s somewhere I need to stop by.」

* * *

Moving around as cautiously as a frightened sewer rat, Cecilia finally arrived at a shabby pharmacy that did not even have a sign.

“Is anyone there?”

Creak.

The poorly oiled door made a spine-chilling sound every time it opened or closed.

An owl resting on a perch by the window caught sight of Cecilia and let out a loud screech.

It was announcing that a customer had arrived.

The pharmacy was tiny, barely thirty-three square meters, but shelves taller than a person filled the place in a tangled maze.

Cecilia hunched her shoulders as much as possible so she would not bump into the shelves and carefully made her way inside.

A middle-aged woman wearing a large, feathered wide-brimmed hat was sitting behind the counter, reading a newspaper.

「Crow!」

A lizard that had been playing with coins on the counter opened its mouth threateningly at Ruby.

「Shh. Don’t treat a customer like that.」

The woman covered the lizard’s eyes with her hand and folded the newspaper.

Then she noticed Cecilia, and a spark of interest appeared in her eyes.

“Oh my, I get to see such a distinguished lady twice.”

“Thank you for last time, Miss Aida. Somehow, I’ve ended up owing you quite a lot.”

Before explaining why she had come, Cecilia clasped both hands together and politely thanked her first.

Even though it had only been about three weeks since she had accidentally discovered this place, the events that followed were still vivid in her memory.

This is a drug that temporarily stops the heart. With this, you’ll be able to cut your husband cleanly out of the rest of your life.

When Aida had held out that brown bottle before her, Cecilia had felt as though a light had finally appeared at the end of the pitch-black tunnel she had been trapped in.

To put it somewhat dramatically, it would not have been an exaggeration to say that Aida had saved her that day.

“I suppose I’ve received more gratitude than I deserve. You paid the proper price for it, so you don’t need to think of it as a debt.”

Aida removed her hat, revealing thick reddish-brown hair that swayed all the way down to her waist.

She smoked a long-stemmed pipe like a witch from a fairy tale.

“Anyway, what brings the ‘former’ Countess of Winterhall here this time?”

“Um… Do you happen to have some kind of medicine that can make a person invisible?”

“Of course not. Magic isn’t all-powerful.”

Oh no.

At the firm answer, Cecilia let out an awkward groan.

Aida’s low voice gently soothed Cecilia’s troubled heart.

“There was a time when magic was all-powerful, of course. You could make your body invisible, and with just a few spells, you could make anything happen exactly as you imagined. But now, only traces of magic remain. At most, they can be used to make medicines with unusual effects or communicate with animals… But why do you need such a medicine?”

“For some reason, the inspections suddenly became much stricter, so I can’t walk around the streets. The constables are even carrying cameras.”

Remembering what had happened in the alley, Cecilia felt a chill inside her ribs.

Half-frightened, she hesitated before whispering,

“If my husband finds out that I’m alive, then I’ll really be…”

“Well then, how about this?”

Aida suddenly interrupted her and placed a flat, cylindrical container on the counter.

“It’s an ointment made through research into wasp venom and smallpox. When you apply it, your skin swells and red spots appear. If you use it on your face, it will not only hide your appearance, but everyone will avoid you because they’ll think you’re suffering from an infectious disease. However, the effect only lasts about an hour, so don’t forget to apply it frequently.”

The container, wrapped in pitch-black packaging, gave off an ominous feeling.

Cecilia held it right in front of her nose and took a deep breath.

Then she accidentally gagged.

Good heavens…

She had not even tried it yet, but somehow, she already trusted it.

“How much is one bottle?”

Aida tapped the gold coin she was holding against the counter and showed the number four with her other hand.

If it only lasts an hour, I’ll need at least five bottles…

While Cecilia calculated the state of her finances in her head, Ruby poked his head out from behind her cloak.

「That’s pretty expensive. Don’t you have some kind of witch-member discount? Or maybe a set discount?」

…A discount!

Cecilia’s head shot up.

Two pairs of eyes, one human and one crow, sparkled with intense anticipation.

Aida let out a puff of white smoke through the gap between her teeth and clicked her tongue sympathetically.

“You poor thing. I suppose your husband didn’t give you enough traveling money?”