The Tyrant’s Guardian is an Evil Witch
Chapter 1

The Uninvited Child Guest

The day the child arrived at the castle, it was snowing so much you could barely see in front of you. The child was dressed in clothes that were too big for his body, and he looked malnourished. His golden hair was dull, and his face was overrun with white, dry patches of skin.

His stature was small, making him look closer to four years old than his actual age of seven. Despite appearing unattractive, his face—similar to that of his famously rakish father—was beautiful enough for him to be mistaken for a girl. But the child’s appearance wasn’t what was important right now.

“You’re saying this child is… the son of His Majesty the Emperor?” the elderly butler, Edmund, asked, after belatedly pulling himself together.

With a small nod, the child carefully handed me a letter. A sigh unconsciously slipped out as I accepted it.

“Since we have conveyed His Majesty’s wishes, we will be on our way, Ice Witch.”

The men accompanying the child seemed eager to leave after delivering the letter. In particular, the man at the front made it obvious that he didn’t want to be delayed in this place even by a second. The golden emblem embossed on his cape indicated that he was one of the royal magicians. There was only one reason he could be so pressed to go back into the freezing cold without even staying to rest by the fire—it was difficult to withstand the force of magic that flowed throughout all of Belos.

Unlike ordinary individuals who couldn’t use magic, magicians with dubious proficiency often felt that Belos’ powerful magic was a force that threatened to crumple their entire bodies. However, even considering that, the man’s attitude was excessively rude.

Edmund exploded angrily, “Show some respect! Her Highness is the sole archduchess of the empire. How dare you greet Her Highness without kneeling? Even if you have been sent by the emperor, this kind of discourtesy will not be tolerated!”

Half-listening to the quarrel between Edmund and the emperor’s men, I closely examined the child before me. I didn’t know how to take this situation. As the atmosphere became more menacing, the child hunched his shoulders, obviously intimidated. His small face and hands were red from the cold.

“That’s enough, Edmund. Let’s go inside.”

“Your Highness…”

“It’s too cold for a child.”

The child, who had been looking only at the ground, suddenly lifted his head and looked directly at me. The reluctant expression on my face was perfectly reflected in his large, clear purple eyes.

What a peculiar child.

It was rare to find someone who could look me directly in the eye, even among fearless warriors.

“Aren’t they all doomed to freeze to death on the way back anyway? It is enough to wish them well.”

Snorting, I turned my back on the emperor’s men. The magician—who I could tell at a glance was unskilled—would probably be unable to survive the ferocious magic of this land. While the child’s destiny had allowed them to arrive safely, now that their part had ended, they would have no such luck any longer. If they were lucky, about half of them would survive.

Fools.

If they had shown me proper respect, they would have been able to return safely to the capital with my blessing. As Edmund and the child hesitantly followed me, I stole a glance at the boy and let out a sigh.

What am I to do with you, you little nuisance?

***

I had been on my way to college as usual when I got in a car accident and died. When I woke up, I had become Clete, a witch from the novel The Tyrant’s Heart. I couldn’t describe how bewildered I was after realizing I’d suddenly gone from a twenty-year-old college freshman to a witch who was several hundred years old.

Clete. That was the name of the archduchess who ruled over the northernmost part of the empire, Belos, where snow covered the ground all year long. Due to her unique appearance and powers, she was called by many names—The Archduchess of Frost, the Snow Queen, and the White Witch.

After accomplishing the great feat of helping the first emperor establish the empire, she returned to rule Belos—her birthplace—upon his death. Even as a side character without many lines, Clete played an important role in the development of the novel, especially since she was the antagonist who interfered in the romance of the two main characters.

How did she interfere again?

It had been so long since I’d entered the novel that I could barely remember how the story went.

I know I wrote the summary down somewhere…

After rummaging through a dusty pile of papers, I finally found the paper with the summary written on it at the bottom of the pile. Although the paper was old and worn, with traces of rot from the years it had been sitting in that pile, the writing on it was still decipherable. I shook off the dust and started to read.

According to the original novel, the relationship between the protagonist and the witch was approximately thus—the protagonist, Alpen, born as the emperor’s illegitimate son, lost his birth mother at a young age, and spent his time at the palace trying not to step on anyone’s toes until he was seven years old. Then he had been sent to the ruler of Belos, Clete, who naturally did not welcome him. For a witch, a human child was nothing but a bother and an annoyance.

However, Clete could not ignore the royal decree because of her promise to the first emperor. Having no choice but to take the young boy in, she paid him no attention as he grew up, until he left the Castle of Ice.

The land of Clete’s rule, Belos, was so harsh and unforgiving that most normal people could not survive living there. Not only that, the place was overrun with monsters because of the overflow of magic. There were also frequent cases of corpses becoming undead if they were not cremated. In such a place, Alpen encountered countless life-or-death situations and even began to suffer from madness as a result of being exposed to such strong magic.

Then, the year Alpen turned eighteen, the crown prince died of an illness. Alpen was summoned by the emperor to the palace as the sole surviving heir of the royal bloodline. Not wanting to follow the emperor’s wishes, he disobeyed the summons and left the Castle of Ice to become a wandering mercenary.

Spending the next few years as a mercenary only made his aggressive personality worse. Barely twenty years old when he became a Sword Master, Alpen would accomplish great feats in every war he fought, eventually gaining the title, War God.

After achieving victory after victory, one day Alpen decided to take back his rightful place and moved to overthrow the emperor with the forces he had gathered. The fact that he would choose to forcefully seize what had been freely offered was a perspective most people could not understand.

Nevertheless, an unprecedented civil war ensued as a result, and following the emperor’s command, Clete spent seven days and nights in a violent battle against the child she had once raised. However, she eventually lost and died at his hands. At death’s door, Clete gathered her last remaining strength to curse Alpen.

“Usurper, fate will place you in the most noble position, and it will take the brightest mind from your life. May you wander endlessly through solitude and futility after losing your companion and your love…”

I clicked my tongue at that part. What kind of curse was that? If it were me, I would have cursed him with a life-long illness or baldness for three generations. Fitting for a romance novel, the antagonist’s curse was a bit tacky. As if thinking the same thing, Alpen had sneered at Clete.

“Love? That is nothing but useless trash to me. A companion would only get in my way. Thanks to your blessing, my journey will be smooth and easy. Thank you, Archduchess.”

After mutilating Clete’s corpse, Alpen killed his father, the emperor, and ascended the throne. Then, after a few years, he fell victim to an ambush by the opposing party while he was out on a hunt—it was all due to his excessive confidence and lack of vigilance. The one to save him in this predicament was the heroine, Saint Ophelia.

Having fallen in love at first sight, the pair kept meeting secretly, but the moment Alpen whispered his love to her, Clete’s curse was activated. Through an illusion, Ophelia came to realize his cruel and merciless nature—her holy powers revealed to her the truth of what she had seen. As a result, Ophelia fled, with Alpen chasing after her.

If I remembered correctly, the novel ended tragically. Until the very end, Ophelia refused to love Alpen. To be honest, I could only recall the pivotal scenes rather than the story as a whole. I had liked it for being a warm and cozy piece of trash.

No, no.

I didn’t have time for these kinds of thoughts. The child—the protagonist whose middle name spelled disaster—had finally come to me. What was I supposed to do? I had taken over Clete’s body two hundred years ago, long before the great-great-great-great-grandparents of the main cast had been born.

At first, I was startled when I realized that I had taken over the body of a character who would die at the hands of the protagonist. I had been at ease, however, when I understood that there was a lot of time left. With the excuse of waiting until the main characters were born, I had spent my time lazing away in the Castle of Ice for no less than two hundred years.

Over a long enough time to watch an empire rise and fall, I had blissfully forgotten what I was supposed to do. In addition, the never-ending winter in Belos made it difficult to remember that time was passing. It was as the saying goes—time flies when you’re having fun.

At first, the child’s sudden appearance had bewildered me. After belatedly recalling the protagonist from my long-buried memories, I was struck dumb with surprise. Having spent all that time lazing about, I did not have a plan of action.

I’m f*cked…

That was the only way to describe how I was feeling. Pitying the freezing child, I had taken him in for the time being, but the problem was what came next.

Tossing aside the letter I had barely read, I sank into a chair. Along with the request to become the child’s guardian, the letter detailed the reward I would receive in compensation. The terms would have been appealing to ordinary nobles, but to me, they were all useless. The tone was also rather arrogant for someone requesting a favor. Full of anger, I glared at the dark red emblem of the emperor.

“To use the Sacred Pact for something like this… He dares to treat me like a nanny, as if it isn’t all thanks to me that they live without worrying about barbarians.”

From generation to generation, each emperor had been brazen and cunning, just like their ancestors. It was disgraceful how they normally treated me like an ice monster and only tried to take advantage of me when it suited them. That was why even the subordinates of the royal family viewed me as nothing more than a rag with which to wipe the emperor’s feet.