Chapter 43 The Villainess's Friendship: I'm a pawn that can be discarded at will...

“You probably can’t imagine how humiliating it is to marry a man more than forty years older than yourself.” Isolde took a deep breath and gradually calmed down. She pushed Lilith away, took a few steps back, sat on a huge chair covered with animal skins, and then gestured for Lilith to sit on the small stool next to her.

“If sharing this makes you feel better, I’m willing to listen,” Lilith said, looking at her with concern.

"When I was young, I was the top student at the Thuringian convent school for women. The old nuns often said that if I were a man, I would definitely have the opportunity to study at the greatest university in all of Europe. Unfortunately, I am a woman, and I was born into a noble family that had fallen on hard times. My parents were greedy for money and married me off to faraway Italy for financial reasons."

"At sixteen, I was sent to a convent in Padua to learn Italian. Two years later, I married Count Alta. He was older than my father, yet he became my husband. Even though I was just an immature little girl then, I was tormented by fear and worry, and at one point even contemplated suicide. I knew that suicide was a sin explicitly forbidden in the Bible. But no matter how devoutly I prayed to God, pleading for His mercy, I could not change my predetermined fate. At that time, the only person who helped me was the Knight Tristan, who had escorted me from Thuringia all the way to Italy."

"He promised me that one day he would come for me and take me away from this terrible place. So I forced myself to obey Count Alta and forced myself to live. That cruel old man imprisoned me in this castle, forbidding me from having any contact with the outside world. I could only keep going by continuing my hobbies, whether it was studying cooking, planting herbs, or those lonely nights spent reading by lamplight, all in preparation for the day Tristan would come to take me away."

“But one day, I discovered that I was pregnant with that old man’s child… If I gave birth to his child, I would be imprisoned forever in Count Alta’s family, becoming a tool for him to procreate and reproduce. So I used a recipe from a magic book to make a potion to kill the fetus and performed surgery on myself to remove the stillborn baby.”

Isolde spoke casually. Her slender, frail body was huddled in the enormous animal-skin chair, appearing petite yet incredibly resolute. Lilith's eyes widened in disbelief. Menstrual cramps already tormented her to the point of being unable to care for herself at times; she couldn't even imagine the immense endurance and determination required to cut open her own body and remove the fetus.

She marveled at Isolde's wisdom and was also impressed by her ruthlessness. Lilith herself was often lenient with herself but strict with others, but Isolde was equally ruthless with herself and treated everyone the same.

“You’re really amazing,” Lilith exclaimed.

"It was only out of necessity. In my most painful, broken, and vulnerable moments, only the obsession with seeing Tristan sustained me... Later, when the truth came out, my husband was furious, so I concocted poison and put it in his food to kill him. I grew tired of his servants, so I gave them some money and dismissed them. They did nothing all day and quickly spent the money, so they put on animal skins and became bandits, robbing traveling merchants like you, promising me they wouldn't disturb the people in my territory. And so I lived here with Hilde, waiting for Tristan to come to me."

Lilith gasped. She had roughly guessed the first part, but she hadn't expected that the bandits who robbed them were also connected to Isolde.

“But you already have the key to the castle gate in your own hands. You don’t need Tristan to take you away. You don’t need to give him your territory, your honor and your wealth. You are perfectly capable of managing all of this yourself, and you do it better than any man.”

"..."

“You see, you didn’t refute me. In fact, you know very well that what I said is not wrong. You don’t need that imaginary being to guide you, nor do you need a shell that looks like him to store your hopes. You are more capable and stronger than you think.”

Isolde raised her head and looked at Heinrich, who was lying in the center of the array: "But... I still want to continue this summoning ritual. I have studied for a very long time to learn how to draw this array... If I finally prove that my magic is useless, then I will return it to you. If I succeed, I ask that you allow me to keep Tristan with me."

“Alright. It’s a deal.” Lilith stood up, smiling as she extended her hand to shake hands with Isolde. “Whatever the outcome, I want you to know that your cooking is delicious, your potions are incredibly effective, and you are a remarkable witch. When you’re done with your work, I’d like to share my story with you. Would you like to be my friend?”

"Can someone as awful and wicked as me have friends?" Isolde asked, her hand trembling as she grasped his.

“Of course we can, because we’re the same kind of people.” Lilith smiled confidently. “Besides, no matter how bad we are, can we be worse than the men around us? If you were truly an irredeemable villain, why would you be so kind as to save me from being lost in the forest? You’re actually very kind.”

“Lilith…” No one had ever said such a thing to her before. Isolde’s eyes filled with tears, and she was so moved that she almost cried.

"Wait for me, I'll write to you when I get back to Venice and invite you to my house to hang out with me. I've met many smart and independent widows in Venice, and we can have tea parties together. You'll meet lots and lots of new friends."

"Really……?"

"Those who hate me call me Lilith the Moneylender, which is the same as infanticide or abortion—a sin that will send you to hell after death. Maybe we can continue playing together in hell someday."

Isolde shook his head solemnly and gave Lilith a genuine smile for the first time.

/

When Heinrich woke up, he was lying in bed in the guest room. He didn't know how long he had slept, but he saw that it was dawn outside the window and the sunlight was bright. He quickly got up and knocked on Lilith's door, where he saw Lilith dressed in smart riding clothes, sitting at her desk packing her luggage.

"You're awake," Lilith said with a smile. "Do you remember who you are?"

"I am Heinrich."

“Well, I won the bet.” Lilith jumped up lightly, threw herself into Heinrich’s arms and hugged him, but suddenly bounced away as if she had been electrocuted, pushed open the door and ran toward Isolde’s bedroom.

"Hey! Can you tell me what happened last night? Why did I sleep for so long?" Heinrich hurriedly called after her.

“Last night I made my first good friend on this trip.” Lilith turned around, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. “Isolde really is a witch, a witch even more powerful than me. You don’t have to keep acting anymore, just tell her your true identity: you are Heinrich, and I am Liliana, your mistress.”

/

After Heinrich finally understood what had happened from the two ladies, and listened to them discuss for several hours the different cuisines of Germany and Italy and the interesting stories of their time at the monastery school, the maid Hilde had already prepared Lilith and his travel baggage.

Although those bandits had once been Isolde's servants, they were no longer under her jurisdiction, and Isolde could not recover their goods, only offering some compensation for their luggage and horses. She prepared several sets of clean clothes, dry rations, and some change for each of them. For Lilith, who was also a widow, she provided a decent black lace dress, some medicine to relieve menstrual cramps and fever, and a letter confirming that the two were under the protection of Countess Althae.

Before leaving, Isolde took Lilith's hand and handed her a palm-sized medicine bottle containing several herbal balls rolled into pills.

“I used to know some Italian girls at the monastery school… Although I never saw them again, some of them wrote to me asking me to send them this medicine. I hope you will never have the chance to use it… But just in case, you can take it with you, just in case,” Isolde whispered in Lilith’s ear.

"What's this?"

"It's an abortion pill that can cause a natural miscarriage. It's an improved version of the original prescription I used, so the baby can be expelled naturally without any surgery. I only have one request. Please don't use it to hurt anyone, okay?"

“I promise you,” Lilith smiled and hugged Isolde tightly. “Thank you for the gift. I look forward to seeing you again. Be sure to come to Venice to see me!”

“I definitely will.” Isolde pushed her away somewhat embarrassedly, looking at Heinrich with a very apologetic expression. “I’m sorry for forcing you to play the role of my first love for so long. Your acting was really not very good, enough to make me realize that my magic has indeed failed, and Tristan is not coming back. You must take good care of your mistress.”

"Hmm." Heinrich felt embarrassed.

"Alright, it's getting late. You should set off now. We'll meet again sometime."

Lilith put the gift in her pocket, grabbed the reins, squeezed the mane, stepped onto the stirrups, and finally managed to mount the horse on her own without any help. They had been delayed for two days in this forest, and the carriage was too slow to catch up, so they had to ride horses together to have a chance to arrive in Zurich on the planned date.

The air was crisp and fresh after two days of torrential rain, the forest filled with the scent of sunshine and earth. Lilith gradually got used to the jolting motion on horseback. She tried cracking the whip, urging the horse to gallop along the path. Isolde's horses knew the terrain well and quickly led them out of the forest. On the open plains, Lilith rode faster, the biting wind brushing against her cheeks, and suddenly she felt a profound sense of quiet around her.

When she came to her senses, she turned around to look at Heinrich and found him far, far behind her. So she reined in her horse and stopped to wait for him.

"What's wrong?" Lilith smiled sweetly. "Is it Tristan's will at work, causing you to still be so attached to Isolde?"

"Please don't make fun of me. She drugged me twice, and my head still hurts." Heinrich frowned as he caught up with Lilith. His horse was carrying their goods, and the heavily laden horse couldn't gallop as fast as Lilith's lightly loaded horse.

"Thank you for your hard work. Well... actually, on second thought, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let you stay there."

"Why are you saying such things again?" Heinrich's face fell, his once neatly combed blond hair now disheveled by the wind, hanging loosely on his forehead, looking as if it were about to crumble. "I am your slave, how can I marry another woman?"

"Because you are my slave, your property is also my property. If you marry her, her property will become your property, and then all of it will become my property."

“…” Heinrich remained silent.

"It's just a bit unfair to do that. After all, Isolde is a lord who inherited her husband's position, and I'd rather maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with her. It's been a long time since I've made a new friend, and she's really a very interesting woman. But while making friends is enjoyable, we can't let anything interfere with our work. We need to get back to work mode as soon as possible. I believe you can be of greater value working alongside me."

Lilith tightened the reins, adjusted the horse's direction, and prepared to continue on her way when she suddenly heard Heinrich's resentful voice behind her.

"So... to you, I'm just a pawn that can be discarded at will, is that it?"

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Author's Note: Thank you so much for all the comments, nutrient solutions, and feedback! Thank you so much!!!

The Isolde arc has ended! I personally really like this character, and I hope she'll appear again in future episodes!

"Tristan and Isolde" is a popular medieval legend. It tells the story of a princess who falls in love with a guard but is forced to marry another king. Later, the guard marries, and the princess, heartbroken, commits suicide. My first reaction upon reading this story was that the man was such a scoundrel and the woman so pitiful, so I wanted to give this ancient love story a new ending.

Furthermore, Isolde's image was also inspired by Countess Caterina Sforza of Forlì in Italy during the Renaissance. She was very beautiful and skilled in beauty and skincare (hence Isolde's ageless appearance?). She was also very courageous, daring to openly challenge the enemy when they were at the gates of the city. However, she was also a pathetic romantic, falling out of touch with her loyal subjects for the sake of a young and naive male lover, and in the end, her country still fell into enemy hands.

However, Isolde discovered her passion while researching potions (chemistry/food?) and made friends with Lilith, a woman who also pursued independence, which enabled her to successfully break free from the illusion of love and become a truly independent person.

Heinrich and Lilith need to keep working! Something very exciting is about to happen while they're working! ^_^ More updates tomorrow!