System of the Beast Slayer [litrpg Adventure]
Copyright© 1999 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 131
Before death, settle your affairs, say farewell to those you love, write your will, and apologize to those you have wronged. Otherwise, you will never be able to leave this world. —Advice to the dying
“So what do we do?” the dwarf asked. If the two Wraiths were allowed to wail day and night within the princely palace, the entire palace would never know peace.
“First, you need to understand the nature of a Wraith,” Letho said. “Wraiths are pitiful and terrifying creatures. They are forever entangled in endless suffering, body and soul. Because they believe they were wronged or betrayed in life, they remain filled with rage, hating and envying the living. Because they had wishes left unfulfilled in life, they are deeply unwilling, and refuse to depart.”
“And those intense emotions are the anchor that binds them to the world. Destroy the anchor, and we can eliminate them completely.”
“Anchor?” The dwarf frowned. “Their anchor? Don’t tell me I have to go to each of their families and settle their wishes one by one. Can’t we just use force and wipe them all out?”
Letho shook his head. “Even if I were uninjured, it would be difficult to deal with eight Wraiths at once in a cramped room. These things fear neither fire nor poison. They are extremely troublesome.”
“A frontal assault isn’t realistic. We can only use another method. The anchor should be in the room itself. That is why the Wraiths have been unable to step beyond the door since the moment they were born.”
“We have to find the anchor.”
The dwarf fell silent.
Letho guided him. “Imagine this. You were living just fine, then you were killed for no reason at all, tortured before death, in unbearable pain. Then you become a Wraith. What would your greatest wish be?”
“Hatred. Blood for blood,” the dwarf said coldly. “I would make the killer pay. I would see them destroyed.”
“And if the killer also died and became a Wraith.”
“I would haunt them forever and never let them rest.”
“So,” Roy said, patting the dwarf on the shoulder, “Salvatore has already been burned at the stake. The killer that remains is Simon, now a Wraith.”
“Then all we need to do is eliminate Sir Patrick-Laddin. The six victims will be freed,” the dwarf said, a flash of realization in his eyes. “Going further, Princess Emilia was the object of Simon’s love, Simon’s anchor. She was also the center of the Seven Deadly Sins ritual.”
“So Emilia is the root of everything. She hanged herself in the room, unable to leave, and was then entangled by a group of Wraiths. Resolve her, and everything will dissipate.”
The dwarf’s face changed. “Destroy the Princess’s Wraith?”
“More precisely, purify it. Free them from their dim, corrupted shells.”
The Witcher continued, “Wraiths do not possess complete human emotions, but they retain the final obsession from life. We find that obsession, then purify the Princess’s Wraith.”
...
The dwarf stroked his thick black-brown beard and led the two Witchers back into the royal palace.
Along the way, he spoke without pause about the Princess’s difficult circumstances within the palace.
On one hand, it was due to her lowly birth. Compared to Sigeval, ruler of a kingdom, Emilia was merely the daughter of a baron from the Ellander territory.
Sigeval had always enjoyed this sense of superiority over the status of his woman. His attitude toward Emilia was extremely cold, neglectful in daily life.
To him, the Princess was nothing more than a tool for bearing children, an emotionless puppet. Worse still, she had not borne him a single child, and thus fell even further out of favor.
“If there had been no Prince, Princess Emilia and Sir Patrick-Laddin really would have been a perfect match.”
A ridiculous thought flashed through the dwarf’s mind, then was instantly driven away.
“His Majesty undoubtedly owes the Princess an apology. That is where the anchor lies,” the bald Witcher offered his guess.
Roy’s eyes flickered with surprise. He did not believe Emilia’s anchor would be that fool of a Prince.
Moving through the princely palace, passing through the colonnaded gallery, the three finally met Ellander’s Prince, Sigeval of Cidaris, a tall, broad-shouldered, slightly plump man with a full beard.
A crown rested on his head, his face flushed and stern. A white cloak hung from his shoulders. His movements were sharp and forceful, his temper clearly volatile.
...
At the Witcher’s signal, the dwarf hesitated for a long moment before presenting the solution to Sigeval. Sigeval needed to apologize to the Wraith that Princess Emilia had become, for the injustices she had suffered.
Sigeval erupted on the spot, cursing the dwarf soundly. The latter’s thick-bearded face flushed red and blue in turn, nearly driven to the point of tendering his resignation.
In the end, after venting his rage, the Prince chose to yield.
Compared to a moment of humiliation, he found it even more intolerable to hide ignominiously in a minister’s residence and be mocked.
Soon after, under heavy guard, Sigeval arrived outside Princess Emilia’s chamber, facing the snarling, ferocious Wraith faces crowding the doorway.
He began, slowly, to speak his apology.
The scene was absurd.
A lavishly dressed, high-born ruler, trembling as he humbled himself before a group of Wraiths covered in bruises and reeking of decay.
Only then did Roy understand Letho’s intent, to make this Prince, who harbored deep prejudice against Witchers, publicly lose face and choke on it.
Deeply satisfying.
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