episode_0046

Whoosh-

Waves rippled along with the gentle breeze.

As the distinct salty scent of the sea brushed her nose, the fox lifted her closed eyelids.

Warm air caressed her cheek.

“…”

What came into view was none other than the endlessly spreading open sea.

It was a nightmare that had become all too familiar.

The setting, without fail, was a prison built upon the sea.

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped her, born of weariness.

The girl, whose crimson hair had billowed for a moment, soon leaned her back against the rusty iron bars and sank to the ground.

The rusted iron lever groaned.

Creak.

Regardless, the fox hugged her knees.

The water surface lapped up to ankle height.

Because of this, the fox’s lower body had to be submerged in the sea.

Of course, perhaps because it was a dream, her clothes didn’t get wet, but each time, the girl wore a complex expression.

It was due to a certain sense of loss.

‘It’s too… quiet.’

When she realized it was a dream, she constantly wanted to wake up.

Because it was a terribly lonely world.

The alien warmth of the sunlight.

Perhaps it was a deception.

-Irene.

-You can no longer remain by your master’s side… Nor should you.

-So, farewell.

-Please find a shining star.

As always.

The most longed-for voice brushed her ears in her loneliest moment.

The fox mulled over her faint memories, shaking off the remaining bitterness.

It was a form of dark adaptation.

Waves drowning in silence.

The fox waited quietly again.

To wake from this nightmare.

For the sickening feeling of loss to be filled.

***

It seemed she had fallen asleep for a moment.

Perhaps it was due to the lingering effects of the sleep magic. Her consciousness had cut off.

Irene snapped awake to a surging headache.

“…”

What greeted her vision was an unfamiliar ceiling.

The prison, where darkness flowed thickly.

It was truly regrettable that whether her eyes were open or closed, she was still behind bars.

Coldness rose from the hard floor.

Her shoulders trembled from the chill.

Though she hadn’t noticed it due to the extreme tension, the girl’s body was already chilled.

The fox swallowed the groan that threatened to escape.

If she had known this, wouldn’t it have been better to remain in the dream?

It was warm and even had a breeze.

Trivial thoughts flitted through her mind.

As she sat there, powerless, passing the time.

“Hey… Fox Unnie!”

“…”

“Over here! This way!”

Someone called out to the fox.

As she looked around at the sudden voice, a small hole drilled into the wall caught her eye.

It seemed to be someone confined in the cell right next to hers.

A hand waved through the closely set bars.

“Are you finally awake?”

A young girl with a youthful face.

At most, she couldn’t have been more than fifteen.

When their eyes met, she smiled softly.

“I was worried because you were unconscious for so long, so I’m relieved you woke up!”

“You…”

Just earlier.

She was the one who had warned her to pretend to be asleep.

The fox stared blankly at the girl.

“Nice to meet you! It feels like it’s been a really long time since someone new moved into the next cell!”

The girl smiled, as if finding it wondrous.

She soon put aside her bright demeanor and boldly extended her hand through the bars.

“My name is Anne! I hope we can get along well as fellow test subjects.”

“T-test subject…?”

“Yes!”

The girl nodded bravely.

Faced with such an alien scene, the fox was once again left speechless.

***

A situation of being kidnapped by an unknown group.

At first, her mind was muddled and her vision clouded, but Irene was slowly able to gather information.

Thanks to the voice that called out from the next cell.

“Unnie! Do you have any more questions?”

The girl named Anne.

The cheerful child chattered on, elaborating.

As if concerned for the newly arrived test subject, most of her words were explanations about the facility.

Sometimes, she also answered the fox’s questions.

“Hehe… But I still don’t know much.”

Of course, her answers weren’t very clear.

That was to be expected, as the girl herself was also confined behind bars.

She awkwardly scratched her cheek.

“They’re just things I’ve overheard.”

“Overheard things…?”

“Things I heard from someone, or experienced myself… things you learn when you’re locked up for a long time.”

“How long have you been here?”

“About seven months?”

Though not profound details, they were enough to grasp the situation.

The fox organized her complex thoughts.

To summarize, it was like this:

‘Baob, the continent’s largest black magic organization.’

The identity of those who kidnapped Irene.

This building was a facility they prepared for black magic research.

And the prison where the fox currently resided was a space to confine the materials to be used in experiments.

It was nothing short of a den of evil.

‘Slave traders… and now a cult.’

A bitter chuckle escaped her involuntarily.

She had barely escaped becoming a slave, and now she was about to become a monster.

She even felt as if she was being played by fate.

The fox, still sitting, bit her lip firmly.

“Just in case you don’t know… it’s best to obediently follow the experiments.”

“Why is that?”

“…Because there’s a devil here.”

From what she had heard, escape was close to impossible.

All the personnel managing this place were black magicians.

In particular, the research director was someone who had reached a peak state.

With just one gesture, countless test subjects were torn apart, and all those who had tried to resist earlier had met the same end, she said.

Anne called the research director ‘the devil.’

“The devil kills test subjects for fun.”

If an experiment doesn’t go as planned, he kills them.

He kills them even if it’s not specifically an experiment.

He kills them if they act insolent.

He kills them if their eyes meet his.

He kills them if he’s in a bad mood.

He kills them as if enjoying their screams.

“That’s why I told you to lie down… If you just hold your breath, he passes by without touching you.”

The director seemed more interested in slaughter than research.

His belief in God was merely an excuse for bloodshed; he was, in essence, a monster who reveled in gore.

Not even a glimmer of hope was visible.

“…”

A desperate situation.

Irene maintained a blank expression, but she couldn’t hide the tremor in her pupils.

A terrible sense of exhaustion pressed down on her shoulders.

Her head throbbed as if it would crack from the headache.

As she pinched her brows alone,

Suddenly, a hand extended through the bars, offering something.

“Unnie, take this.”

“…This?”

“It’s a blanket!”

The girl offered a tattered old rag.

It was worn and torn, looking unsightly, but the girl insisted it was a blanket.

Her eyes, meeting Irene’s, smiled faintly.

“You’ve been shivering ever since. It’s worn out so it won’t be very warm, but please cover yourself with it.”

“Are you lending it to me…?”

“I get hot easily, so I don’t need it!”

“…Thank you.”

“Hehehe.”

Anne responded as if pleased.

It might be a slightly rude thought, but the fox couldn’t help but think she wasn’t normal.

Had she gone mad from becoming a test subject at such a young age?

‘How can she be so cheerful in a situation like this…?’

Pushing such thoughts aside, she draped the blanket over herself.

The piece of cloth, handed over by grimy hands, with its somewhat stiff texture, wrapped around the fox’s shoulders.

Even so.

She was still cold.

***

How much time had passed?

It felt as if about three days had gone by.

During the few days spent in the black magicians’ den, the fox was experiencing the scenery of hell.

Things seen beyond the iron bars.

-Ugh, hack, gurgle, choke…!

-No, no!! Don’t, don’t do it!!!

-S-save, save me, please! P-please, please!!!

-Aaaaaaaah!!!

-Something’s growing in my stomach, in my stomach!! Something’s eating away at my stomach!!

Loud screams echoed incessantly.

The frequent wails made one imagine the events unfolding at the end of that corridor.

Interspersed were screams that weren’t human.

Whether they were truly the cries of something non-human.

Or the cries of something that ‘had ceased to be human’ was unknown.

-Aaaah! Aaahhh!! Stooop!!!

A faint shout brushed by.

Many test subjects went to the laboratory, but the number returning to their cells was remarkably small.

Over the past three days, 47 went out and 2 returned.

Even those two couldn’t walk properly.

One even had parts of their body grotesquely transformed.

-Screech! Squeal!!

The face, twisted like a spider, was horrifying.

Irene was confined in the cell furthest from the laboratory.

Nevertheless, the raw sounds faintly reached her ears.

She had to suppress the urge to gag several times from the surging nausea.

“…”

The fox was still alive.

The black magicians hadn’t touched Irene.

More precisely, they couldn’t.

Because the devil himself had said he would ‘handle’ her in a week.

-I will experiment on this one myself.

-A fox beastman… Is this not truly a fantastic sacrifice?

The devil said with sticky eyes.

In the end, the remaining followers had no choice but to lick their lips and retreat.

A life span narrowed to one week.

Now Irene could only quietly wait for the time.

No hope was visible.

At first, she thought about resisting, but her mind changed immediately after facing the research director.

Because the devil’s level was simply overwhelming.

At the very least, he was on par with a professor from Gallimard.

A single incantation could annihilate all test subjects.

“…”

In the end, she lost her spirit.

The fox embraced silence.

As she sat quietly, leaning against the wall.

“Unnie.”

“…”

“Do you know something? It’s really amazing.”

“…”

Anne peered through the bars.

Perhaps worried about the pale-faced fox, the girl was trying to divert her attention.

“They say time flows differently here than outside.”

“What does that mean…?”

“Just what it says.”

The girl shrugged lightly.

“Once, the devil got really drunk. He was boasting about something while walking the halls…”

“He said this place was some special land. A land where a dragon’s corpse is buried, I think… I don’t remember the details, honestly. I just remember him saying that the time axis was twisted around this area.”

“He said one week here is only one day outside.”

“One week… one day?”

“You’ve been here for three days, Unnie, but outside, it probably hasn’t even been a few hours yet, has it?”

“…”

The fox stared with a blank expression.

Anne, who had been continuing her explanation, awkwardly scratched her cheek.

“Of course, it’s up to you whether you believe it or not. Honestly, it sounds too far-fetched. I’ve never heard of such a region. Maybe if it were outside the empire’s territory, but…”

“…”

“The devil was definitely just drunk and spouting nonsense.”

Anne muttered softly.

The girl frowned for a moment, but then she smiled softly.

It was a transparent smile.

“But still, thinking like this gives me a little bit of hope.”

“Hope…?”

“Yes, hope.”

“If only a few hours have passed, then someone must surely be looking hard for you, Unnie.

Isn’t it okay to expect a small miracle?”

“You never know! Someone might appear like a prince on a white horse and save us.”

“…”

“Wasn’t there anyone like that around you?”

“…I wonder.”

The fox subtly avoided her gaze.

While responding indifferently, there was a face that immediately flashed through her mind.

Thick blonde hair and narrow, slit eyes.

Why was that person coming to mind now?

Irene unconsciously bit her lip.

‘…It would be foolish to expect anything from that person.’

After all, he was someone who saw her as nothing more than a mere toy.

It was obvious he would simply brush it off if she disappeared.

He would just find a new toy, she thought.

The fox gave herself a suggestion.

Don’t give him your trust.

Just like always.

‘I just… need to be alone like this.’

The fox silently mulled over her painful monologue.

But.

“You’d better be safe.”

The fox didn’t know.

That powers capable of annihilating an entire country were moving to find her, the disappeared one.

White eyes gleamed in the darkness.

“If you’re not safe… I don’t know what I might do.”

Pure white banners fluttered.

A shadowy organization, filled with murderous intent, was crossing the night sky.

To reclaim the fox.