Chapter 11: Fire Demon

When I arrived at the main building, Maia’s maid was waiting for Yudith in front of the door.

“…I will guide you.”

With those words, she turned and headed towards the room where Maia was.

As if not caring about Yudith’s short legs at all, Yudith struggled to keep up with her pace.

Occasionally, she would turn around to check if Yudith was following properly, and then look down at her with cold eyes.

How long had Yudith been following her shadow? She finally arrived in front of Maia’s door with difficulty.

Perhaps it was too difficult to keep up with the pace of an adult woman with a child’s legs, Yudith was catching her breath with difficulty in front of Maia’s door.

The maid, not caring about such things, knocked on the door and called for Maia.

“Milady, I’ve brought her.”

‘I’ve brought her.’ Not ‘I’ve escorted her,’ but ‘I’ve brought her.’ It wasn’t difficult to guess what she thought of Yudith.

From inside the tightly closed door, Maia’s voice, sounding pleased, could be heard.

“Come in.”

Maia’s voice was enough to make Yudith’s body stiffen.

The trauma etched into her hadn’t disappeared even with her death.

‘I was fine in the dining hall…’

The tightly closed door opened.

A snake-like woman with the corners of her mouth raised as if amused, looked at Yudith with her legs crossed.

Her eyes were truly like a snake’s, coldly staring at Yudith, the eyes of a predator contemplating how to devour her.

“Come closer.”

Yudith heard the sound of the door closing behind her, and a small sneer from the maid behind the closing door.

Yudith’s eyes met Maia’s.

Maia’s eyes, smiling brightly,

still didn’t treat me like a person.

-Bang

---

Yudith, covered in wounds unlike now, hid in the bushes and watched the Tea Party.

While her maid had gone to take a nap, she wandered around the bushes, unable to bear her hunger, picking and eating berries when she smelled a sweet scent she had never smelled before.

Drawn by the artificial, intense, and sweet scent that couldn’t be found in nature, her steps naturally headed there.

Hidden among the bushes, she saw a Tea Party of noble ladies she had never seen before.

On the table were unfamiliar foods that scattered a sweet scent.

Gulp.

Her mouth watered.

The thought filled her head that if there were so many foods, wouldn’t one disappearing go unnoticed?

Unable to bear her hunger, Yudith checked that people’s eyes were focused elsewhere.

Finding an empty table with no one around, she hid underneath it.

Grabbing a cookie placed on the table, she savored it under the table covered with cloth.

Even if it was choking, she poured the cookie held in her hand into her mouth and enjoyed the fragrant flavor of butter.

To not leave even a little bit of the first food she had ever eaten that was so delicious, she even licked the crumbs stuck to her hand.

So engrossed in the cookie,

she didn’t notice the people returning to the table.

“..!!!!”

Turning to the side, her eyes met Maia’s, who was looking down at her from under the table.

She realized for the first time what it felt like for her blood to run cold.

Her heart sank, and goosebumps rose all over her body.

Her gaze, glaring with disgust and anger, stared at me as if stabbing me with a knife.

“Oh my, Mrs. Sergia?”

At the sound of someone calling Maia from behind, Maia lowered the tablecloth and turned towards the voice that had called her.

Yudith, thinking she had to run away now, tried to move her feet quickly, but

for some reason, her feet were fixed to the ground and she couldn’t move.

She hit her legs, trying to move somehow, but for some reason, her feet and the ground were fixed and she couldn’t move.

Screaming silently, she tried to escape as if tearing off her feet, but Maia’s lower body could be seen entering under the table in front of Yudith, who couldn’t escape.

Maia’s high heels rose higher than Yudith’s head.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine what would happen after this.

The sharp heel of the high heel mercilessly struck Yudith’s body.

Even if she screamed, no voice came out.

She realized much later that this was Magic.

She couldn’t scream even if she wanted to, and she couldn’t escape while writhing in pain. She shed tears at the pain of her arms breaking and her flesh being pierced, but it didn’t stop.

Maia’s kicking stopped, and applause was heard from outside.

The sounds of everyone laughing and asking each other how they were doing only seemed to tear Yudith’s heart apart even more.

The sounds of everyone laughing as if they were enjoying themselves sounded as if they were mocking her, who was suffering here.

Only then did her feet move, and she ran away bleeding.

Without looking back, she jumped into the bushes and ran away.

How long had she been running?

Realizing that she had nowhere to go, she stood blankly in the forest.

Even if she ran away from here, there was a maid who tormented her in the place where she would go.

Leaning her aching body against a tree, she looked at the very small cookie crumbs held in her hand.

She licked it and dreamed of sweetness, but

she couldn’t feel the sweetness of the cookie because of the bitter taste of blood that burst out in her mouth.

---

Tick, tock, tick.

Only the sound of the clock’s hands echoed in Maia’s room.

“Sit down.”

Yudith had no choice but to act according to Maia’s will.

She had thought a lot.

My new life, returned as a gift from the Queen, was still the same as before.

The Count who brought me, the Count’s family who hated me, but if there was anything that had changed…

‘Chloe… you’re the only one.’

Only Chloe had a different color in the same gray life.

That’s why I couldn’t let go. I even felt a fear that if I lost Chloe, my life would be no different from before.

Maia in front of me was still exploring me.

My Magical power hadn’t yet manifested, and I was only gathering the Magical power that I could squeeze out somehow, and even that Magical power was used to interfere with Yudel’s whip, so there wasn’t much left.

The last drop.

I had to properly think about how to use this last drop.

“The maid is very sick, so you must be very worried.”

I felt like my insides were boiling. The way she spoke as if she hadn’t done it herself after casting a curse made me feel like throwing up.

But… but I couldn’t lose Chloe. Only Chloe was different in my same life. Only Chloe had approached me.

I must never lose Chloe.

“…Please help Chloe get better.”

I bowed my head to Maia and asked for help.

If only Chloe could get better… I could easily bow my head.

Maia just stared at Yudith, who was bowing her head and asking for help, without saying anything.

Should she kill the maid now, or leave her as Yudith’s weakness without killing her?

She weighed these two options.

Killing her now wasn’t bad either. She would be able to watch the face of the bastard in front of her, bowing her head, collapse miserably.

Just imagining that expression made her body tremble with joy.

But… she also thought it would be okay to leave her as a weakness.

Later, if Magical power really, really manifested, she would need the leash of that bastard.

She wondered if she should use the maid as that leash.

Not killing her and managing her thoroughly. Making her completely submit to her.

She also thought that wasn’t bad, but…

‘…I don’t like it.’

Maia, who was a hedonist, eventually wanted the intense pleasure in front of her rather than the pleasure of the distant future.

Maia smiled bitterly.

She decided to draw out even more Magical power and further deepen Chloe’s curse.

Yudith, feeling the surge of that black Magical power, raised her head and looked at Maia in surprise.

“…!”

Maia was also surprised to see Yudith’s surprised expression.

“You…! Magical power…!”

Only Wizards can see the movement of Magical power.

There was no way Yudith, who hadn’t manifested Magical power, could have noticed.

But, seeing Yudith’s surprised expression after seeing her Magical power, she could be sure.

Yudith could already use Magic.

“Ha…! You cunning b*tch…! You hid that you could use Magic…?!”

Maia drew out even more black Magical power and tried to strongly pull up the curse as if she would kill Chloe right now.

Yudith couldn’t stay still any longer.

She drew out the last drop and cast Magic to interfere with the Magic that Maia had deployed.

Dispel Magic.

One of the Magic that Yudith had learned in her previous life.

This Magic, which interferes with the opponent’s Magic and destroys the Magic formula itself, can cancel the opponent’s Magic casting with very little Magical power.

Magic of other races, not human Magic.

The disadvantage was that it could only be used at the moment the opponent was using Magic, and Dispel Magic did not work on completed Magic.

-Paang!

The black Magical power gathered in Maia’s body burst and scattered.

“What…?”

Surprised by the first time this had happened, Maia lost her mind and looked at her hand. Yudith didn’t miss that moment and rushed in.

The small gesture of a 10-year-old child covered the body of an adult woman who was off guard.

Maia, who was sitting in a chair, fell backward in surprise and hit her head hard on the ground.

-Kooong!

For 3 seconds, she couldn’t think of anything because her head was hit.

Yudith didn’t miss those 3 seconds.

She took off Maia’s high heels and raised them high.

“You suffer the same way.”

-Kwajik!

Yudith struck Maia’s face with the high heel held in her weak hand.

Once wasn’t enough.

Twice, three times.

She struck dozens of times.

Every time she struck, the memories of that time came to mind, and she became even more resentful.

It felt like she was feeling the pain of that time again.

She struck even more until the heel of the high heel was stained with blood.

-Kwajik! Kwajik! Kwajik!

How many times had she struck? The high heel, which she had struck in a trance, was already broken and had fallen to the floor.

Regaining her senses, she looked at Maia, who was lying underneath her.

Her eyes were shattered, her nose was broken, and she was no longer the beautiful noble lady she had been.

She just looked down at Maia, who had no movement, whether she had fainted or died.

“Haa… haa…”

Yudith, who had come down from Maia, fell into thought for a moment.

If she hadn’t done this, Chloe would have died at that moment.

The curse is not lifted even by Maia’s death.

Because a curse is originally that kind of Magic.

Now it was really a fight against time.

She had to take Chloe and head to a temple where Divine power could be used somehow.

‘If I’m going to disappear like this… I need something to divert attention.’

Maia’s corpse wasn’t enough. A way to tie up everyone in the mansion.

The candlelight in the candlestick flickered in front of Yudith’s eyes.

“…Okay. Let’s finish everything and go.”

She lifted the candlestick and set fire to the curtains.

The small fire gradually grew stronger and swallowed the curtains.

The fire, not satisfied with the curtains, gradually spread and began to swallow everything around it.

This floor of the mansion was a floor used only by Maia, so there were many rooms that no one used.

She set fire to all those rooms.

The fire demon began to swallow the mansion.

She set fire and ran out, and the mansion she looked at began to be swallowed by the fire demon.

The servants who couldn’t escape began to scream.

Everyone moved busily and tried to remove the fire demon attached to the mansion, but the fire, which had already spread greatly, began to swallow the mansion uncontrollably.

Those who couldn’t avoid the rapidly spreading fire fell out of the windows, unable to bear the pain.

The sound of people falling to the floor and being crushed echoed.

Yudith just watched that scene.

Their screams of writhing in pain were the same as the screams she had made in her previous life.

‘I should have done this from the beginning.’

No, if I had, I wouldn’t have even been able to meet Chloe.

“Milady…?”

Chloe’s voice was heard from behind.

Chloe, looking at me in surprise.

The only color in my gray life.

Everything else is the same, but somehow, you are different.

Why are you different? Why are you different?

“Chloe.”

Why did you come out when you’re sick?

You must have been worried about me because of the fire, so you dragged your sick body out here, right? Thank you.

“Chloe.”

Thank you for coming to find me, dragging your sick body.

I’m fine, Chloe.

“Come here.”

Let’s leave together.

You said you’d leave with me.

We promised.

I don’t need the Count’s family, the Queen’s promise, or anyone else.

I just…

Chloe. You’re all I need.