As dusk fell, the small courtyard suddenly burst into life.

Bella returned from the market with the maid, while Roman and Tom rushed into the yard, their small backpacks bouncing as they ran home from school.

Luo Wei, hearing loud sobs from the courtyard, curiously descended the stairs.

"Who's crying?"

"Miss," Roman exclaimed, his chubby, rosy face tilted up eagerly, "It's Tom. His sweetheart was taken away this afternoon."

Luo Wei looked at Tom, who stood outside the door, head bowed, wiping tears and stifling his sobs.

"What happened? How could the carriage company owner's daughter be taken away?"

"It's not her. It's Tom's new crush, Lidia."

Luo Wei was taken aback. How quickly had Tom's heart changed?

"Whose daughter is Lidia? Why was she taken?"

Roman noticed the young miss wasn't pinching his cheeks today and dejectedly said, "Lidia is the daughter of the mutton stall owner's brother. Her parents died from illness when she was very young."

"Today, her aunt, Mrs. Dogg, went to the temple and reported her as a demon. Said she put rat poison in their kettle. Then Lidia was taken away."

"That's not true! Lidia isn't a demon," Tom cried out, "She used sleeping powder, not rat poison!"

Luo Wei was surprised: "How do you know?"

Tom sobbed, "Yesterday, Lidia came to me. She said she overheard Mr. and Mrs. Dogg plotting to sell her to a brothel. She wanted to run away but feared she'd be caught, so she asked me to buy her some sleeping powder."

"I got it from the doctor. Told him it was for horse-breaking. He wouldn't have sold it to me otherwise."

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have helped her get the powder. I want to turn myself in, trade places with Lidia."

"Turning yourself in won't help. Lidia can't come back," Roman said, twisting the knife, "This is clearly Mrs. Dogg's plot. She just wants Lidia gone."

At this, Tom's wails intensified, his anguish echoing for a kilometer around.

Luo Wei pinched Roman's cheek in exasperation: "Why provoke Tom further? He's distraught enough."

Roman crossed his arms coldly: "He should've told Lidia to flee yesterday. If she'd left then, she wouldn't have been caught today."

Tom's cries grew even louder at this.

"How could a young girl survive alone out there? As a street urchin?" Luo Wei shook her head. Most street beggars were boys; the world was too perilous for a little girl to survive alone.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"But why would Mrs. Dogg want to harm Lidia?" Bella, having heard Tom's account, was perplexed. "I see Mrs. Dogg daily when I buy meat. She always smiles, seeming so kind!"

"No way," Roman said, disgust evident in his voice, "Mrs. Dogg is a shrew, utterly unreasonable. Her son Marth is just as vile. He bullies weaker kids at school daily and peeps at girls in the bathroom."

Tom, wiping away tears, said angrily, "I know why she wants to harm Lidia. Mr. Dogg tried to molest her, and Marth saw. He blackmailed Lidia, threatening to tell Mrs. Dogg unless she played strip games with him."

"Lidia refused, so Marth told Mrs. Dogg that Lidia was seducing him. Mrs. Dogg flew into such a rage, she nearly beat Lidia to death!"

Roman nodded: "Yes, Marth bragged about it at school. Said Lidia didn't obey him, so he left her half-dead. He warned us to obey him too, or he'd beat us up."

Luo Wei's brow furrowed deeply: "Such young children, yet already so malicious?"

"Marth is eleven. He's tall and fat. One punch from him could knock out teeth!" Roman said.

"Lidia is only nine. She was beaten black and blue by Marth and Mrs. Dogg," Tom sobbed.

Bella covered her mouth: "Dear heavens, how can such evil exist in this world!"

She once thought her aunt not feeding her was the worst thing imaginable. Now, in comparison, she suddenly felt her aunt had been quite kind.

"Poor Lidia, what will become of her?" Bella's eyes welled with tears. "Will the temple priests clear her name?"

Roman shook his head: "I heard people saying Lidia will be dragged to the scaffold on the Day of Descent, four days from now. She'll receive a holy water baptism and undergo demon inspection."

Bella's face drained of color: "What? Demon inspection? But she's just a child!"

"Why?"

The last voice was deep and resonant. Luo Wei turned to see Troy had appeared, his green eyes clouded with a heavy gloom.

"Why?" he repeated, "Drugging alone wouldn't warrant a demon inspection. What else is there?"

The room fell silent. Bella's voice caught in her throat, and even Tom's sobs ceased as he stared miserably at the floor.

After an eternity of seconds, Roman looked directly at Troy and spoke, his voice clear and strong: "Because Lidia has long reddish-brown hair. They say she's awakened as an evil witch."

Red-haired individuals were inherently despised. They couldn't make the slightest mistake or act out of the ordinary. If they did, they'd be accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake.

The medieval witch-hunting manual "Malleus Maleficarum" detailed methods to identify witches: Witches were evil because women craved physical pleasure and could be seduced by the devil's flesh, while male wizards could not.

In their eyes, Lidia had seduced Mr. Dogg and Marth, marking her as a witch who reveled in carnal desires.

Moreover, "Malleus Maleficarum" claimed that young or old women could be witches, women with too many children or none at all were witches, and women who were either too poor or too wealthy were even more likely to be witches.

Red hair, beauty, cleanliness, frequent bathing, facial moles, enjoying gatherings with female friends—all were telltale signs of a witch.

Lidia was young, popular, childless, poor, and red-haired. She embodied almost every witch characteristic.

The method to determine a woman's witchcraft was torture. The most definitive test was trial by fire, which Roman referred to as demon inspection.

If the great fire burned for three days and three nights and she survived, it proved she was a witch. If she burned to death, it proved she wasn't.

Lidia wouldn't survive. Everyone present understood this grim truth.

"Swoosh—"

Troy unsheathed his long sword.

"Troy, what are you doing!" Luo Wei's voice cracked like a whip.

Troy met her gaze: "I'm going to save her. You said it yourself—we're the masters here."

"If I stand idle while my own kind perishes, this land will forget me along with them."

To be continued