Thirty years ago, it may not have been as long as thirty years, but twenty-five or six years was certainly enough. That time was a little far away for people of their age, after all, as an individual, the time that he did not have or could not experience was always far away. Like those who talk in a tavern about the world forty or fifty years ago and what it will be like in the next forty or fifty years, they are not really examining or speculating on those times, but only recalling and imagining them according to their own will.

So even though Glenn thinks she's telling the truth, it's just a story she's heard from other older witches, and what makes it enough for witches to believe it is that it's about a living member of a witch colony, that is, about Hela. Legend has it that at that time, the witches had just won the reign of Heartbreaker's Bay, and the banner of the Heartless Witch Order was hoisted in the city for the first time.

But everything comes at a price, and the previous rulers of the witches would not give up the rule of Heartbreaker Bay. The older witches were reluctant to talk about the war that established their current status, and the younger generation only knew that the witches at that time had suffered a great loss of vitality after this war, and the witches who died in the war accounted for one-third of the witches at that time! There were even some obscure rumors that many witches had lost something more precious than their lives during those war years, their fertility. It was only in recent years that new young witches had grown up and finally recovered. However, as it stands, as long as the witches can control Heartbreaker Bay for another five years, everything they have to pay to gain control of this place will be worth it.

And Hela was born after the last big battle. Generally speaking, witches, although quite cruel to their companions, are especially careful about the continuation of their race due to their short lifespan, and even the most unkind big witches will explicitly protect their pregnant kindred. But war does not go as desired, and the witches' enemies are also aware of their weaknesses, so they decisively choose the most vicious way of revenge when the situation is not in their favor. They raided the rear camp of the witch colony and brutally killed most of the pregnant witches.

Hela's mother was the manager of the rear camp at the time, but she was also pregnant. If there was a time when witches were at their weakest, it had to be when they were pregnant. Especially the closer the fetus is born, the weaker the mother becomes. Moreover, since it was already the end of the war, the Great Witch was desperate to defeat her enemies in one fell swoop, so she sent the guardians who were supposed to guard the rear camp to the front line, trying to gather all the strength of the Witch Order to crush the opponents. The combination of the two circumstances shows how desperate the witches in the rear camp were at that time.

In the face of this hopeless situation, if it were an ordinary person, he might have died with resentment. If the resentment against the witch group abandoning them is stronger, it may become another resentful legend in this sea. But they are witches after all, and even if they are weakened by pregnancy, they are the darlings of crows and black cats that exist with death and destruction. So the witches of the rear camp made a decision, a cruel, terrible, but reasonable decision. They sacrificed their wombs and used the resentment of the unborn dead to use the most vicious curse even in the history of witches. No one knows how the curse came into effect, the only thing that is certain is that all members of the hostile forces involved in the raid have completely disappeared under the curse. And the caster of the curse also died en masse at a huge cost.

On the first day of the Witches' reign in Heartbreaker's Bay, they held a funeral for their sisters who had died in battle, and according to witch tradition, the dead should return to the soup pot and pass on their wisdom and strength to their fellow citizens. But because these witches died at the cost of unleashing the curse, their bodies remained pregnant, and even ordinary people who didn't know magic could see the terrible resentment that lingered in these dead. So burial became their end.

"It was raining heavily that day, and all the witches and other allies allied with us were present at the funeral. Even the most unruly guy wore a black mourning dress on that day as a sign of respect for the deceased. All the coffins were made by the best stonemasons in the city, and each one required six people to lift. This was partly to prevent ghouls and the like from harassing them, but also to the great witch's fear that the sisters who had died with a grudge would come back to her one night to take revenge on her. ”

Karen's tone gradually became serious, and his eyes looked at the dark corridor behind the child, as if he saw that distant scene in it, "The funeral began in the evening, the newly cultivated fields were expropriated into a cemetery, and three wooden boats loaded with gold, silver and gems surrounded the coffin, and in the darkness chanted the requiem that had been handed down long before we came to this land. In the dark rain, no one knows how many guests there are, and it is said that even those who have left this world have returned here. Some even claimed to have seen people who were supposed to be lying in coffins in the crowd of people watching the ceremony. ”

A cold wind blew through the hall, and the two rows of candles swayed, and the child with the knife and fork felt a chill behind his back. But the story of the witch has not yet reached its climax, "All the coffins, almost all the coffins have been placed." Only the ancestor in charge of the rear camp remained, the one who offered to release the curse. While moving her coffin, the heavy rain fell silent. I mean, while the rain is still falling, everyone can hear everyone else's breathing. Then, as the Great Witch sprinkled the first handful of earth on the coffin, from the top coffin came the cry, the cry of a baby. ”

"Yes, that kid is me. Maybe my mother secretly changed the curse, or maybe it was pure luck, but anyway, I survived. Born in a grave, hence the name Hela. This is me, the Grave Daughter of the Heartless Witches. A calm voice added. The child's gaze then turned to the witch, and he was surprised to find that Hela, who had been like a dried corpse, had changed dramatically. Her shriveled cheeks puffed up again, and her parched hair was shiny. But the child also noticed that the bouquet of roses in front of her had turned black, and the bright petals were rotting and clumped, sticky on the table.