Tinasha’s smile turned sweet and wholesome. As she sipped her tea, she exuded the dignity of the master of this tower. The elegance of her actions, coupled with her beauty, would have made it difficult not to mistake her for a member of the royal family. That is, if it hadn’t been for the unusual surroundings.

As Oscar’s eyes widened a little, Litola cut in. “However, in the case of those who came for things like wanting their deathly ill child healed, my master granted those requests even if the challengers failed.”

“Don’t speak out of turn.” Tinasha looked embarrassed and averted her gaze from Oscar. The intimidating air she’d so confidently held a moment ago vanished, and now she looked even younger than she appeared.

Oscar’s impression of the witch was constantly changing, a fact he found amusing. “It’s hard to get a handle on you.”

“It’s fine if you don’t.” The sulky reply was adorable.

“Do you not go into town? I’ve heard the other witches appear before people more often than you do.”

“Only if there’s something I have to go out and get myself… I don’t really want to thoughtlessly interfere in humans’ lives, though. My power is not something that should be wielded on a whim.”

“I see. If only the Witch of Silence could take a page out of your book.”

Tinasha cocked her head at Oscar suddenly dropping another witch’s name. “Does that have something to do with the reason you came here?” she asked.

“…Which is why I’d like you to lift the curse.”

In response to her question, Oscar had explained the events of that night fifteen years ago.

Frowning, Tinasha had listened with her arms crossed. When he finished speaking, she let out a deep sigh. “Why did she give you a curse like that?”

“My dad doesn’t want to talk about it, so I haven’t asked. Apparently, it has something to do with my mom, who died before it happened.”

“…I see.” For a moment, Tinasha’s eyes narrowed as if she had realized something, but before Oscar could puzzle over it, her expression returned to normal. She uncrossed her arms and lightly tapped her forehead with her index finger.

“I must inform you ahead of time that a ‘curse’ may not always be lifted.”

“What do you mean?”

“What we call magic is organized under common rules and operates based on that, but a curse follows no rules. Language…is not just words; it also encompasses all nonverbal communication methods, like body language. But the words we choose carry the meaning we define for them, and pouring magic into that makes it a curse. Of course, this is different depending on the person who’s cursed…so in extreme cases, if a way to break the curse is not defined at the time the words are spoken, even the caster cannot undo it.”

“…So it can’t be broken?”

“It can’t, but on the other hand, curses aren’t things of exceptional power. They block or bend the flow of natural energy, depending on the will of the individual. They don’t have the power to kill someone directly. At most, they work in indirect ways…but they aren’t unavoidable.”

Feeling dubious about such an explanation, Oscar asked another question. “But isn’t this curse pretty strong?”

“Yes, yours exceeds those normal limits. That’s because what’s been placed on you is not actually a curse but something more akin to a blessing or protection.”

“What?”

Oscar was dumbfounded, and Tinasha got up from her seat. Leaning her slender body over the table, she reached out to him with a pure-white hand. Her skin was so pale, it made one think of freshly fallen snow. One look at the witch’s fingers as they came closer, and Oscar couldn’t move.

Her soft palm didn’t touch him, though; instead, she grazed her fingers along his face without touching it. Quite suddenly, a red sigil emerged from the spot where Tinasha had nearly stroked him.

“What’s that?”

“I’ve visualized the blessing placed on you. This is just one part of it, though.” Tinasha pulled her hand back, and the sigil vanished as quickly as it had appeared. She sat back down.

“Blessings and curses are basically cast the same way, but the direction of power is different. You take the energy that’s already here and boost it. In your case, you’ve had something fairly strong placed on you, owing to how much power the caster had. What’s been cast on you takes advantage of that and will likely wrap any child you conceive in tremendous energy while in the womb, protecting it. A normal mother’s body could not withstand such a thing.”

Oscar was uncharacteristically taken aback by such an extremely novel explanation and sat there in shock. Across from him, the witch looked on him with pity.

“Um, so what you’re saying is that, after all that, you can’t undo it…?” Oscar asked.

“If I could analyze what’s been cast on you, I could use magic to reduce the effects, but the enchantment has been a part of you for close to twenty years now… That’s the Witch of Silence for you.” As if squinting at something hard to see, Tinasha narrowed her eyes and focused her gaze on Oscar’s chest. “I do feel so sorry for you, but…”

“Hey…”

An awkward silence fell. The heavy mood felt like it would last forever, but Tinasha broke it by jumping up and lightly clapping her hands together.

“Since you’ve come all the way here, I’ll at least do what I can to help.”

As she spoke, she brought out a shallow bowl of water from the depths of the room and set it on the table. Magical designs were carved the inside, and what little water it held sparkled in the light of the setting sun.

“Do you have something you can try?” Oscar asked.

“There’s a simple countermeasure.”

Sitting back down, the witch held her right hand over the scrying bowl. Ripples appeared on the surface of the water, though there had not been any wind.

“Because the issue lies in the fact that the mother won’t be able to withstand the protective power the baby carries, you must choose a strong woman who can.”

“…That is simple. Does a woman like that exist?”

“There are sure to be one or two somewhere on the mainland…most likely. I’m going to search with an emphasis on magical power and magical resistance, so ignore anything else.”

The image of a faraway forest appeared on the surface of the water. Oscar clenched his forehead so tightly he was going to give himself a headache.

“What if it’s someone’s wife or an old woman or a child?”

“If she’s married, she’s off-limits, and we can’t do anything about that. We can, however, fix old age with magic… If she’s a child, then that’s great; you can raise her to be just what you like! Age gaps of twenty years are normal in a royal family, after all,” Tinasha replied brightly with a smile. “I haven’t really started searching yet, though, so please be optimistic.”

“Right…” Feeling like he really was going to get a migraine, Oscar held his head in both hands.

Regardless of the fair amount of hope he’d had in taking on the tower, Oscar’s worst fears had been confirmed by the witch, and now this was happening. What’s more, it seemed the one who’d placed the “curse” in the first place couldn’t even remove it. Oscar was really in a fix. Were there truly no other options? Stewing over how he now had to be “optimistic,” something suddenly occurred to him.

“Tinasha.”

“Whoa! What?”

“Did that startle you?”

As if in response to her surprise, some water splashed onto the table even though she hadn’t touched it. Tinasha wiped off her wet right hand.

“Because hardly anyone calls me by my name…,” she answered.

“But you’re the one who told it to me.”

“I’m sorry.” Tinasha took a cloth from Litola and mopped the water off the table. Folding the cloth, she again asked, “So what is it?”

“Ah, uh, what about you?”

Tinasha didn’t seem to understand the question and was pointing at herself with a puzzled expression.

In response, Oscar restated his query more clearly, “Could you withstand the Witch of Silence’s magic?”

“Easily, but… Wait…”

Tinasha finally understood, and her face visibly paled.

“Well then, that’s sorted.” Oscar resettled himself in his chair and drained the last of his tea. Tinasha jumped half out of her seat, face white as a ghost.

“Hey, hold on just a minute…”

“You’re a sure thing compared to a woman who might not even exist. My wish as champion is for you to descend from this tower and be my wife.” Oscar made the request with complete confidence, as though it were his right.

Tinasha froze, but soon enough, her small hands slapped down on the table. “I—I cannot do something like that!”

“You said you’d do what you could, didn’t you?” Oscar drawled.

“There are limits! I can’t!”

Amused, Oscar watched her yell herself blue in the face. “Are you actually married?”

“I have never been married.”

“Are you seeing someone?”

“I never have.”

“You said there were ways to fix old age.”

“Yes, I’m old, but it’s irritating to have you call me old! And that’s not the point!” Tinasha was leaning over the table, her smile twitching. Cold sweat started to dot her forehead. “It’s not wise to introduce a witch into the royal family’s lineage. The royal council would all vomit blood over the idea.”

“I’d kinda like to see that…” Oscar lazily dodged her desperate attempts at resistance, and the witch collapsed into her chair, exhausted.

“You’re like Reg in a lot of ways, but you’re also not like him at all… You’ve got some personality.”

“Guess I’m bad-natured,” Oscar replied calmly, earning a glare from Tinasha.

The witch shook her head and took some deep breaths. “In any case, the answer is no. If I let wishes like that slide, I’d be your great-grandmother.”

Though imperceptibly, Oscar was surprised to hear those words but, at the same time, found them plausible. His great-grandfather, the one Tinasha had said was too pure, had probably fallen in love with this witch seventy years ago. Apparently, Tinasha hadn’t accepted his proposal. Such circumstances differed greatly from the fairy tale about his great-grandfather that was told in Farsas. It interested Oscar somewhat. He wanted to ask for details, but since they’d only just met, that would’ve likely been impolite. Oscar swallowed his childish questions.