News of Adeline's death spread throughout the Delarosa's territory like a domino effect, accelerating the inevitable surrender of her people. Everyone already knew they couldn't win. Thus, her death cemented that truth.
Ultimately, most members were loyal to the Delarosa Household itself and not to an authoritative individual like High Witch Adeline. As such, they were freed of command upon her death and had no aversion to surrendering.
In fact, Adeline's surrendered subordinates even assisted with the aftermath's cleanup.
With the convenience of magic and the effort of several hundred witches, the Delarosa's estate returned to its post-battle state in a matter of minutes, albeit only in appearance for some parts.
After all, Vaan's flames had ripped holes through the main residential building, which had a strong defense against outside attacks.
The ceilings could be patched up, but the materials lost to the flames couldn't be easily replaced.
While a portion of Arabelle's force went to free Marchioness Belline's loyal subordinates held in the underground cellar, Vaan followed Linetta and Lillias's lead to their mother's bedchamber.
Linetta and Lillias both stopped at the door to take a deep breath and calm their turbulent emotions before proceeding to enter.
It had been a while since they had seen their mother. Even when they were home, they had not been able to see their mother since she fell ill and was bedridden.
Their aunt had banned everyone from entering their mother's bedchamber. They were told their mother's illness was highly contagious and deadly.
Everyone who ever came to treat Marchioness Belline died shortly after their first visit. But thinking back on it, Linetta and Lillias believed Adeline had silenced them to conceal her secret.
Over time, Marchioness Belline's illness evolved into something truly untreatable.
Whether it was Vaan, Linetta, Lillias, or Arabelle, everyone frowned the moment they entered Marchioness Belline's bedchamber.
Vaan's fire barrier had burned its surroundings during its time protecting Marchioness Belline's bedridden body. However, it still failed to erase the terrible stench that suffocated the room.
Naturally, the source of the horrendous stench came from Marchioness Belline's body, which was wrapped in dirty, black-stained bandages that didn't seem to have been washed or replaced in years.
Furthermore, underneath such dirty bandages, Vaan could see that Marchioness Belline's skin was plagued with rot and black pus.
If not for the weak breath of life coming from Marchioness Belline's body, Vaan would have assumed he was looking at a mummified corpse.
Nevertheless, his observation and thought only lasted an instant before Vaan decisively waved his hand, burning away all the foul airborne diseases in front of him.
He quickly pulled Linetta and Lillias back several steps in the next instant, with Arabelle following closely beside him.
"Be careful. Breathing in the foul air will make you sick."
Linetta and Lillias heard Vaan's warning, but they were distracted, devastated by the state of their mother.
It was far worse than they could have imagined.
After Vaan burned away the foul air in the immediate surroundings, he spread his flames into a dome shape like it was casting out a net to contain the rest of the foul air in the room. Then, he skillfully yet effortlessly shrank the fire dome, pushing the foul air back to its source – Marchioness Belline, who was at the center of it.
"Vahn… Our mother… Can you save her?" Linetta asked with a trembling voice, fearing his answer.
Although she had a lot of faith in Vaan's extensive knowledge and means, her mother's condition was beyond anything she had ever seen.
To save her was no different from trying to bring someone back to life.
Marchioness Belline would have already been dead if she had not protected her core organs with mana all this while. Her perseverance and determination to live was noteworthy.
"Of course," Vaan assured.
Although he confidently promised Linetta, Marchioness Belline's situation was quite tricky. Her original disease, the mutated corpse poison, had given birth to hundreds of variant diseases, which continued to multiply in numbers.
If Marchioness Belline weren't bedridden, she would have been a walking disaster, spreading her terrible diseases and death everywhere like a Queen of Plague.
Such a highly aggressive, self-multiplying disease would have been very difficult to contain once it broke out. The death toll would have also been unimaginably high if it did.
Fortunately, he had it under control before it got the chance.
"Still, I must say… Your mother's condition wasn't this bad when I arrived. Adeline's death must have triggered the rapid changes in her body," Vaan mentioned with a frown before adding, "It seems we have underestimated Adeline's viciousness."
They had not been thorough with their interrogation.
Given Marchioness Belline had been reduced to a bedridden state, Adeline had plenty of chances to kill her over the years.
However, Adeline kept her alive to suffer a fate worse than death.
The mutated corpse poison was born from Adeline's life experiments on her unborn children in their dead fetus states. Since they came from her body, it wasn't farfetched to say they were also a part of her. As such, she also had some control over the mutated corpse poison.
As long as Adeline lived, she would keep Belline teetering on the edge of life and death, suffering unimaginable pain and torment. And if she died, a terrible self-multiplying plague of death would have been unleashed on the world, taking countless lives with her.
Adeline wasn't a fallen witch or a demon, but she was worse than both of them combined; she was like an incarnate of evil.
When Arabelle and the two young ladies listened to Vaan's analysis, they were shocked by the potential future that could have unfolded.
Fortunately, they had gone to Marchioness Belline right after Adeline's death, giving Vaan a chance to control the spread before the worse happened.
Nevertheless, Marchioness Belline's disease-spreading body was declining as they spoke.
"You should hurry, Lord Vahn. I don't think Lady Belline can hold on much longer," Arabelle stated seriously.
Vaan acknowledged with a nod.
After carefully studying Belline's declining condition, Vaan thought of multiple solutions with his vast knowledge.
However, most of them required ingredient collection and preparation, which were time-consuming and ultimately troublesome to do.
That said, there was no need for him to go through all the trouble himself when he had a reliable clan of true dragons, masters of magic, he could call upon to solve the problems for him.
'Zodreg, come down and treat this person right now.'
'Yes, Supreme Leader!'
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