The girl looked at the iron cauldron and the burning charcoal, shrinking fearfully as she watched the Witch stir with the ladle.
"What is your na?"
Solamus inquired without shifting her gaze toward the little girl.
"Amina,"
the girl replied timidly.
"Not pleasant to the ear,"
Solamus said indifferently,
"From now on, you shall be called Mona."
The girl was stunned and didn’t know how to respond for a mont.
After a while, she protested,
"I don’t want..."
Solamus lifted her head and glanced at her.
The girl felt a chill run through her body.
The Witch before her was stirring the ladle and seed as though she might toss her into the cauldron to make soup at any mont.
The girl’s resistance lted away and she said quietly,
"My na is Amina..."
Solamus repeated,
"Mona."
After saying this, Solamus tapped her ladle.
The girl looked at the spoon dripping with sticky Magic Potion and then at the frog legs in the pot, realizing there was no space for her to resist here.
"My na is Mona,"
she said with a sobbing tone.
In those days, masters naming servants was as casual as naming pets without any concern for the individual’s feelings.
This girl, now renad Mona, had been sold to the Witch by her own mother; her discontent and resistance were aningless.
Five-year-old Mona, who had once seen playmates grow up and then be sold to the Nobles coming to collect taxes, never imagined that one day the sa fate would befall her.
And yet, she was not sold to high-born Nobles but to a mysterious and unfathomable Witch.
"Mona... what does this na an?"
The girl mustered up the courage to ask softly.
"Loneliness,"
Solamus responded.
Life as a Witch in the Secret Forest was even harder to bear than the Angel had imagined before.
Life in Heaven was so wonderful, with the Angels creating almost anything they desired through the power of God. In comparison, the life of mortals was said to be unspeakably harsh.
And above all, Solamus struggled with loneliness.
To be a Witch in the forest ant to be cut off from the world.
"Mona, you are my apprentice,"
Solamus stated plainly.
Mona felt a surge of panic.
An apprentice to a Witch...
Would she too beco a Witch in the future? Cloaked in black, with a hooked nose, eating children?
Mona wanted to refuse but suddenly rembered she had no right to do so.
After a while, she nodded tremblingly.
Solamus turned and added so thy to the pot.
In fact, she was a gentle and understanding Angel, but now she had no choice but to maintain the aloofness expected of a Witch in the forest.
............
............
Carlo’s husband and several of her children discovered that the youngest, Amina, was missing and searched for her everywhere.
However, Carlo had been scheming for a long ti, and she chose a clever mont when no one noticed her leading Amina into the Secret Forest.
The husband and children searched for two full days and did not catch sight of Amina.
"She’s gone missing!"
Amina’s sister cried out in sorrow.
"Missing..."
Carlo feigned shock, then cried out loudly,
"Amina! Amina!"
Seeing her so distressed, the husband heaved a heavy sigh. This simple and honest man did not suspect Carlo at all.
After all, it was not uncommon for a child to disappear after heading out to play.
In the village, there was a hunter who went out hunting, only to have his child carried off by wolves, with remnants found only a week later.
Days later, they gave up the search and accepted the fact that Amina was gone.
And Carlo got what she wanted.
In the first few days, she trembled with excitent each night while holding the Magic Potion.
This was a redy that healed all ailnts!
With it, not only straightforward childbirth, but other difficult maladies would be easily addressed by the Magic Potion.
Carlo was no longer content with just being a midwife.
A greater desire was growing in her heart.
......
Soon after, following two successful childbirths, midwife Carlo seized an opportunity.
She learned from the village head that the City Lord who governed this city-state’s wife was pregnant.
The City Lord’s wife had suffered three miscarriages. Now pregnant again, the City Lord was desperate for a son to be his heir and was therefore consulting renowned doctors to ensure the safe birth of the child.
Carlo would not let this opportunity pass.
Riding on the reputation from her multiple successful deliveries, she persuaded the village head to accompany her to et the City Lord and beco the midwife for his wife.
And not long after, the City Lord t with Carlo.
Although Carlo was a coarse peasant woman, she was good at reading the room and gained the City Lord’s trust with concise speech and well-placed respect.
She successfully beca the midwife to the City Lord’s wife.
When the day arrived for the City Lord’s wife to give birth...
The lady was extrely weak, her pale skin covered in sweat, her energy flagging—a sign of a difficult birth ahead.
The servants whispered among themselves, fearing that the lady might suffer a hard labor, and perhaps even Death God would claim both lives.
Even the City Lord couldn’t help lanting his misfortune.
But Carlo was unruffled.
On the day the amniotic fluid broke, in the dimly lit room, only she and the City Lord’s wife remained.
Carlo calmly produced the Magic Potion, squeezed out a drop, and applied it to the abdon of the City Lord’s wife.
After half a day...
The City Lord’s wife, whom everyone believed was dood to a difficult labor, sohow managed to give birth smoothly to a baby boy.
The baby’s cry piercing through the silence filled the entirety of the room inside and out.
Carlo, holding the baby, walked toward the City Lord who was rushing towards her.
"My lord... it’s a boy."
In the peasant woman’s voice, there was an oddly enchanting magic, akin to that of a Witch.
The City Lord looked at the child in disbelief.
"I will reward you, in the na of the Gods, I will reward you greatly!"
Carlo smiled faintly, holding the infant tighter in her arms.
With the aid of the Magic Potion...
The midwife began her climb, step by step, towards the glory and prosperity she envisioned in her heart.
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