The Daughter of Evil - Volume 4 - Chapter 4.22

chapter 4, section 2-with that person; scene 2
Praefacio of Blue, page 262-270

<The Confession of Madam Freezis, Mikina Freezis>

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God, I must confess.

I was raised with great care, as the only daughter of the Sfarz clan, Marlon’s most prominent and distinguished family.

I knew well that my father, Duke Sfarz, loved me deeply. For that reason I could understand why he so greatly objected to an acquaintanceship between myself and Keel Freezis.

He was a man of humble birth getting close to his daughter with his eyes set on the Sfarz family’s fortune and ability at gathering information–that was my father’s assessment of Keel.

I could understand. But I couldn’t agree.

I couldn’t just watch silently while my father tried to use his influence to ensnare Keel.

Before I knew it, Keel and I were on a boat heading to Elphegort together.

At the time, I had already become pregnant with his child.

I had made my decision.

My jewels, gold coins, the mansion, servants…I had made the decision to abandon everything that I had been given from the moment I was born. As long as I had Keel, and–and the child inside my belly, then that was all I needed. I later learned that we were able to get past our pursuers due to the at-the-time prince Kyle’s influence.

Elphegort was a region blessed by nature, encircled by forest.

And so we began our new life in the home that we’d rented in the central region of Aceid, the capital.

First, our child was born safely into this world on the day that I celebrated my eighteenth birthday. She was a very adorable baby. Keel had said that she “looks like a little monkey”, continuing to cry tears of joy the entire time.

We named that child “Yukina”.

Keel promised to wash his hands of the dangerous work that he had carried out up until that point, saying it was “for our child”.

Even so, we had to do some sort of work to survive. Using the scant assets that Keel had brought along when we left Marlon, he started a general store. I also helped in his job as best I could.

But we didn’t do so well as merchants. A few customers who were immigrants like us came to the shop as far as it went, but Elphe people were cold towards foreigners, and at first made no effort to even approach our store. We couldn’t get on well with only immigrants buying our wares.

After thinking all night about what sort of goods were in demand, we amiably greeted the people passing by our store, and made sure the interior was always immaculate…As our efforts began to pile up, though it was only little by little, Elphes started to come as customers too. The first time we were able to sell something to an Elphe, Keel and I jumped for joy.

However, our proceedings were just barely enough to scrape by. The madam of the inn was a foreigner like us, and so thanks to her arranging for us to have food out of concern for us, being as young as we were, we got by without starving. But I still began to grow anxious about how we would manage if things kept going on like that.

That anxiety grew even bigger when I discovered that I had gotten pregnant again. We were struggling enough as it was–how would things go with another child added to the mix? Around then I heard some gossip from a traveler who had come to the shop as a customer–that a shaman in the village of Yatski was making an abortion drug.

Preparing myself, I headed for the village of Yatski. I continued to cry the entire way. I soon became unable to see through my tears. Because of that I slipped off a cliff during my trip, and fell.

When I came to, I was lying on a bed in an inn.

And to my surprise, I was being nursed to health by King Kyle’s mother, the Empress Dowager Prim. I couldn’t understand what she was doing there.

It seemed that she had covertly come here all the way from Marlon to see the Yatski shaman as I had. She wouldn’t tell me the particulars of it, but as I was able to catch sight of several small glass bottles with white and yellow powder in them in her personal effects it was probably to get those.

I lost my restraint, and opened up to the Empress Dowager about everything. I let out my feelings and circumstances until my voice ran out.

She was silent, and listened to the entirety of my story. And then simply informed me, “You don’t have to abort your child.”

The queen gave to me a present. It was some kind of spoon, and she told me that it was “an item that grants its owner great economic fortune”. As long as I had this Keel’s and my shop would succeed, and so I would give birth to a healthy baby without fretting over it–that is what she said to me before returning home to Marlon. Fortunately, falling from the cliff as I did didn’t seem to have any influence on the child in my belly.

I was dubious of the effects of the spoon at first. But from the next day onward, our circumstances actually began to change.

I was unable to stand around in the shop as I was recuperating, but according to what Keel told me, that day a single man in shabby clothes appeared in the shop, and, after seeming extremely pleased with Keel’s customer service, left after buying only a single pipe.

That was the start of everything. One month later, everything in our store had been about sold out. At the time we didn’t yet know that that shabby man’s true identity was that of Thorny Elphen, the king of Elphegort.

Fame begets fame, and our shop started to go on track. Around the time Shaw was born, we had almost nothing left we needed to worry about in our lives. We had enough means to hire a nursemaid to help in taking care of Shaw, for times when we were too busy with work.

Finally, the fame of our store had extended its reach overseas, and we gained customers who would expressly come to us from far off places. But that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

My father in Marlon had realized our whereabouts.

At that time King Kyle had just inherited the throne from his father, and as many important people had unexpectedly died of illness just before, the state of affairs was in disorder. Nonetheless, my father showed up before me suddenly one day. At that time Keel was absent, having gone out to visit a client.

Standing by my father’s side with a grin on her face was the Elphe nursemaid I had hired, holding Shaw in her arms. She was the one responsible for selling our information to my father.

He demanded that I return to Marlon, but I refused. When I did, he told me that he planned to take Shaw back home with him as heir to the Sfarz family. I violently resisted, trying to take Shaw back, but I was held down by the servants that my father had brought with him.

The way things were going, he would have stolen Shaw away.

I won’t hand Shaw over to anyone.

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–Shaw is mine –

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When that thought struck in my mind, suddenly my father’s body became engulfed in blue flames.

Not just my father. The servants who had been holding me and the Elphe nursemaid began to burn at the same time.

Even now I can’t forget the screams I heard then.

Before I knew it, everyone had been burned black. Bizarrely, the building, the floor, the ceiling, and my own clothes and body, had not received even a single scorch mark.

Shaw was safe too. I remember quickly giving him medical care, as he had the slightest of burn scars on his back.

I crossed over to Marlon to have an audience with Prim, who had at that time become the Empress Dowager. And she informed me that the spoon was one of the Vessels of Deadly Sin, and that without realizing it I had made a contract with the “Demon of Greed”.

I was warned that the demon would eventually devour and completely destroy not just me, but the souls of Keel and my children. If I wanted to avoid that, I would do as her on-staff sorceress, Abyss I.R., commanded, and help with the Empress Dowager’s plans–that is what she demanded of me. The Empress Dowager was seeking for me to become her supporter in place of my father, Duke Sfarz. I had no hope of going against her. I never met directly with Abyss I.R.–all of her orders either came through the “Very Amazing Green Onion” that could deliver her words to me from afar, or were conveyed via the girl named Ney, who would come to me as a messenger.

Part of the wealth that the Freezis Firm had obtained was secretly used as funds for the Empress Dowager’s ambitions. Among other things I had King Kyle possessed by a demon using the vessel of deadly sin, the “Venom Sword”.

As for Michaela—I feel so horribly sorry for that. I was the one who told her whereabouts to Ney. It was incredibly painful to face Clarith, who had no idea of what I had done. For that reason I was frankly quite relieved to hear that she had quit working as our servant.

I was the one who pushed Keel to participate in the revolution when he was still mulling it over. After the annexation of Lucifenia, I was the one who suggested to Keel that he should collaborate with King Kyle’s military expansion. The fact that the Freezis family’s economic power grew exponentially as a result of that only increased my guilt. Our happiness had come at the expense of countless people’s misfortune.

On the other hand, I was terrified. I was afraid that Keel would discover Abyss I.R.’s existence thanks to what happened with King Kyle, and figure everything out that I had been doing by getting too deeply involved. I was afraid that Abyss might fear that and try to off Keel. And in the end, both of those things became a reality after all.

Visiting Held Monastery was also done at Abyss’ direction. It was under the pretense of seeing Clarith, but really it was to observe the former princess of Lucifenia, Riliane. It seems Abyss had kept Riliane’s survival a secret from the Empress Dowager.

I know the reason why, now that I have become Abyss’ puppet.

Abyss has been considering Riliane as a candidate for a new body that she could control.

Even if she has no magical ability, a body that has been taken over by a “Demon of Deadly Sin” can freely manipulate the “Vessels of Deadly Sin"…

–Just like me.

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Oh, God.

I can still hear that voice inside my head.

“Give over everything”…

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Ah, Yukina.

Run away.

Right now, away from here.

I—I don’t want

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To kill you.