Chapter 7: Poisonous Charm

<<Flashback to 12 years ago>>

It was a windy winter afternoon in the Holy Shrine.

The exhilarated Aisha ran through the empty hallway with her short legs. Her arms were filled with various kinds of herbs.

As a priestess, it was believed that she couldn't be overexposed to the outside world, or the negative energy would affect her badly. So Aisha mostly spent her time inside the shrine. The number of servants was also limited and rotated periodically.

However, there was one servant who had always been by her side. It was an old servant and her nanny from childhood. Except for Maya, she was the only one who was allowed to be by her side all the time. For her, the nanny was her family.

Aisha was delighted that day. Today, she took a little adventure with Maya to the mountain and found some herbs.

Aisha remembered her nanny always kept some with her, so she gathered some for her, thinking these would make her happy.

Opening up the door to the kitchen, Aisha saw the old woman standing near the stove. She held a staff which held her steady as she turned her head towards her. The wrinkle in her forehead loosened as she smiled.

"Priestess? Why are you looking all sweaty? Did you sneak out with Maya again?"

"Shh. It's a secret from Ren, alright?" Aisha pressed her finger into her lips before smiling brightly. "I brought this for you, Nanny!"

"My, my, you picked up a lot. You sure are working hard." The nanny looked visibly happy and checked on the herbs on the table.

When she examined them one by one, her hand stopped stiffly on top of one of the herbs. "This one is…."

"Ah, that one is pretty hard to get because it grows on the cliff's edge. We don't know what it is for, but since it's pretty hard to get, it should be valuable, right?"

The nanny went silent for a moment before turning back to check on the soup she had made. "Priestess, the food is almost ready. Why don't you go inside and warm yourself first?"

"Okay!"

Oblivious to the change in the nanny's expression, Aisha went inside to wash her hand and waited beside the fireplace. Not long after that, the nanny came with a food tray in her hand.

"Priestess, it's time to eat." She said while putting a tray of food in front of the food.

"I'm so hungry! Nanny's soup is the best when the weather is cold." Aisha's mouth drooled, looking at the delicious-looking soup in front of her. The food she got during prayer or ritual sessions was always bland, so her nanny's cooking was the best for her.

All the workouts this afternoon got her hungry, so she didn't waste any time and immediately dug in.

She thought that day would end like any other day.

After this, the nanny would help her prepare for the Priestess training, then she would tuck her into the bed. Eventually, she would fall asleep while listening to the nanny's bedtime stories.

That was why what happened after that was something she would never have expected.

"Ugh." Aisha groaned when her inside felt like it was burning. She was used to pain due to the ritual she always did, but this one took the cake.

After the burning sensation came the excruciating pain all over her body. It felt like she was being pierced by a thousand knives at once.

In the next moment, she felt a warm liquid flooding her mouth. She coughed it up, and blood immediately splattered on the table. The smell of rusty iron filled the room, making her feel nauseated and throwing up some more blood.

"Cough, cough! Na-nanny! He-Help!"

Aisha's vision was hazy, so she couldn't see the nanny's expression well. When she reached out her bloody hand to her, it was harshly slapped away.

"Don't blame me for this. You are the one who brings the final ingredients to me. At last, I will finally be freed from a jinx like you!"

Aisha was s

That was clearly her nanny's voice, but she would never speak to her like that. The nanny was sometimes strict, but she was gentle and warm.

So much that Aisha thought of her as her own mother.

Aisha coughed violently, and the floor under her felt increasingly cold. "Na-nanny… I'm hurt. It's so hurt. Please save me…."

"Ha. For your sake, do you know just how many people were sacrificed? You can't even bear this much pain for all the sin you have committed?"

Aisha could no longer maintain her balance as she fell to the floor.

"If it weren't you, I wouldn't live as miserably as this. This is all because of you. If only you weren't born, then no one would suffer."

"I will not rot in this place forever. I have been treating you well all this time, so can you please die for me?"

The nanny's voice grew further and further away from her. Her throat felt like it was burning. She tried to say something to the nanny, but no sound came out.

Then, she heard the sound of the door slamming close, and suddenly she couldn't feel the nanny's presence anymore.

It didn't take long for her to understand. Her nanny had left her to die alone.

Aisha was abandoned by her parents once again.

Death had always been close to her. She wasn't afraid of it.

Yet when she thought about her nanny leaving her, she felt inexplicably scared and sad. Tears rolled down her eyes as the pain gnawed at her consciousness.

Eventually, Aisha succumbed to the pain and closed her eyes.

After that day, she had never seen her nanny again. When she opened her eyes again, Maya and Ren were waiting beside her.

Maya cried as soon as she saw her awake, while Ren looked pained. Neither of them mentioned the nanny, nor did Aisha ever ask them about her. As though they tacitly agreed to erase that person from their memories forever.

Ren later told her that her food had been mixed with special herbs. Normally the herb wouldn't have a dangerous side-effect, but when consumed by a person with a particular body condition, it could turn into a deadly poison.

The nanny was knowledgeable about herbs, and as her caretaker, she naturally knew Aisha's body condition well. Aisha handed over the final ingredients to her, and the nanny immediately took her chance.

As if she couldn't wait for another day to get rid of her.

Aisha occasionally dreamt about her nanny, whose face she couldn't remember anymore. It was brief, and the old woman's affection for her was probably fake, but Aisha was still grateful to her. The nanny was the figure closest to her parents that she could ever have.

Aisha didn't want to forget her.

In the rare times when she was allowed to go out, sometimes she would find the same herb. She would take them with her, grind them into a fine powder, and carry them in the small bottle like a charm.

She always kept the charm with her. It was like a reminder to her that she was unwanted and destined to be alone.