episode_0240
by fnovelpiaA night with deep darkness.
Elise flies across the night sky.
I blinked and found myself in a dilapidated church in an abandoned village. It was the place I used to stop by when I needed a place to rest.
It was definitely at the top, but why is it here?
The chains of the soul are gone, and the blood pact is broken.
It hasn’t even been a month since I found a place to stay, and I’ve already lost my way.
Since the ring that Karami gave me disappeared, I started to feel the urge to suck blood… .
“Oh my. Things are going awry.”
Since there was nothing to do in this remote countryside, I decided to go to Noktar and gather information.
Because that was the nest where Elise should have been.
Elise, who had flown such a long distance and arrived in Noktar, was unable to enter the city.
It was because an invisible barrier blocked the entrance.
‘This won’t go in.’
It wasn’t a story about whether or not the barrier could be broken.
This suspicious world seemed to have established an absolute truth that prevented Elise from entering Noktar.
To prevent interference with anyone inside Noktar.
The current Elise, who had not yet awakened her vampire traits, was woefully lacking in the power to twist the truth.
You can’t go to Noktar.
So where should we go?
Elise, who had lost her way, wandered aimlessly without finding her destination.
***
“Ugh!”
A single groan escaped.
A sharp pain that feels like the heart is being squeezed.
Arphia clutched her chest.
I forced my heavy eyelids up.
“Here is…?”
All that was visible were iron bars blocking off all sides. Arphia was trapped in a cramped space that was so narrow that it was difficult to even control her body.
Dull.
It rattles like riding in a cheap carriage. It bumps here and there. It feels like a rock that has fallen off a cliff, and there is nothing left of the body.
That didn’t bother him at all. After all, Arphia was used to being in pain.
But this excruciating pain, like a needle stabbing my heart without mercy, was something I never got used to even after hundreds of years.
It was especially painful for Arphia, who had been freed from eternal suffering.
“Why…?”
He must have used the Book of Spirit Usurpation to subdue the rampaging spirits. However, the passage with the spirits was now closed.
The branding on his back that Karami had engraved has disappeared.
This situation from the beginning.
The mercenaries infiltrated the Great Forest, kidnapped Arphia, and handed her over to Loperman.
Master and Karami showed up and saved them. However, Arphia was unconscious and couldn’t see it herself.
Arphia thought that although she didn’t know what was going on, she had to see it with her own eyes this time.
But the attack never came, and Arphia was dragged to Noktar.
The Noktar that Arphia arrived at was not the Noktar that she and Narsha had raised.
It was dark and dirty.
The streets were littered with vagrants.
In the place where the upper part of the Death God should have been, there was the upper part of the Desert Rose that Arphia had shattered into pieces.
Loperman welcomed Arphia, who was led to the upper level by the mercenaries.
“Oh, oh! This beautiful sight. The spirit of the forest! T, it must be. An elf! I finally have an elf!”
Collection maniac Loperman.
It used to be a life where the nobility looked down on him simply because he was a rich nouveau riche, but not anymore.
If an elf is in the water, even a noble dog won’t be able to ignore it.
“But this elf. Th-thing is strange?”
His haggard complexion makes him look like a sick person.
I can’t even stand properly.
“I guess you have a cold. You’ve been like this since the first time I saw you. Your promised role is to catch the elf and bring it back. Our job is done, so give me the money.”
“Um… .”
Loperman was suspicious, but didn’t think it was a big deal.
If you’re sick, you can get treatment.
The elves are worth it.
***
Loperman enslaved Arphia.
He sealed his power so that he could not do anything foolish, and made him follow orders absolutely.
But calling a doctor and calling a priest did not solve the root of the pain.
If there was one thing that Loperman had learned about Arphia, it was that this elf was not the elf he had heard rumors about.
I can’t shoot a bow, and I can’t control spirits.
All I have is my looks.
All he does is lie awake all day, groaning and begging for alcohol.
Lung level.
It wasn’t for nothing that Arphia was captured. She was a scumbag who was ostracized even in elven society, so she was captured by mercenaries.
You can’t even do the basics as an elf.
This is why I can’t brag in front of nobles.
It doesn’t even make it into the collection of Loperman, which only deals with luxury goods. It’s like spending a lot of money to buy trash.
Loperman used violence as if venting his anger.
“You, you damn elf! How dare you fool me?! Why on earth do elves like you exist? Why did it have to be a bitch like you to me!”
He grabbed Arphia’s hair and shook her violently, then roughly threw her away and kicked her without mercy.
The once tender skin was stained with dark bruises, and the sound of bones breaking could be heard.
Although he quickly recovered thanks to the elf’s natural healing power, it actually upset Loperman.
“Do, you damn bitch…! You didn’t even moan once. Oh yeah. Let’s see how long you can hold out!”
What Loperman has prepared are potions and poisons that will turn a person’s ego and personality into liquid.
He mixed them together and administered them generously to Arphia.
It didn’t take long for Arphia’s spirit to melt away.
***
I don’t know how much time has passed.
It’s been a long time since I lost any sense of time.
Arphia, whose brain was poisoned by drugs, was unable to move a single finger on her own. Thinking itself was impossible.
A single sentence faintly floats through Arpia’s mind.
-I will take away all the pain that Ms. Arphia has been going through.
Who… said that?
I don’t want to forget.
You must not forget.
But it doesn’t come to mind.
What is that?
No, there’s no need to think about it.
Of course, the pain that has been with me my whole life will never go away.
It’s okay.
Because I’m used to being sick.
I can’t even see properly anymore, probably because of the effects of the drugs.
A cold is something that can be seen faintly beyond the eyelids.
For some reason, just looking at it is annoying… … .
***
Kkudangtang!
Mirabelle was roughly thrown out.
I rolled on the floor without any strength.
“You’re a hairless bitch. You won’t have any food tomorrow either. Let’s see how long you can resist.”
bang!
The iron gate was closed.
As the Baron left, other slaves approached Mirabelle.
Her small body was covered in traces of abuse. Her blue hair, which Karami had given her for being beautiful, was messily disheveled.
“Are you okay?”
“Why are you resisting and getting beaten? I understand how you feel, but being stubborn will only make the situation worse. If you do something wrong, you could die.”
Mirabelle rebelled against the Baron with all her might.
Never call me master.
He struggles desperately to get rid of the chains.
Mirabelle’s actions greatly offended the Baron.
“Just please her a little. You’re pretty, so you’ll be loved just for that.”
“To me… there is only one master.”
Despite the many hardships, Mirabelle’s will did not waver. She seemed to be struggling to get up, but then she pulled on her chains again.
He hated the idea of having something like this around his neck that didn’t belong to him.
Even so, the wound on his neck only grew worse.
There was no way that I could break free of the metal chains with my weak hands that didn’t have the strength to eat properly.
“I don’t care if you starve, get beaten, or die, but please don’t cause trouble. Because of you, the master’s sparks are flying to us.”
Mirabelle, who had been pulling at her chains like she had lost her mind, shifted her gaze slightly.
“You guys… do you call that person master?”
“Isn’t that obvious? That person is a noble and we are slaves. What can we do but do what the person who feeds us says?”
Mirabelle looked at them with pitying eyes.
If they had met Karami, they wouldn’t have done that.
It was not someone else, but a woman who was hurt by the pitying gaze of a fellow slave.
“From what I can tell from what you’re saying, you must have had a previous owner. If you were that precious, why would you be here like this?”
“… … .”
“You have been abandoned by the master you desperately seek.”
Mirabelle stopped moving. Her words had penetrated what Mirabelle was trying to ignore.
Because I thought maybe that might be the case.
He repeatedly refused his master’s orders, rebelled, and even prevented him from leaving.
He was hated by his master.
Since the contract cannot be terminated, this terrible punishment may have been handed down instead.
That means going back to the past and choosing not to seek it at all.
Mirabelle thought so.
In fact, if everything up until now was a delusion caused by the shock of losing my mother and being abandoned by my father… … .
I prayed desperately that it wouldn’t be like that.
***
There is no place in this world where a witch can feel safe.
It was the same in the nameless village, and even if I was sold into slavery and imprisoned in the baron’s mansion.
The knights who were chasing the whereabouts of Mirabelle, who had disappeared in the middle of the journey, finally reached the Baron.
Since protecting a witch was a serious crime, the Baron handed Mirabelle over to the Knights Templar as if he were exorcising a ghost.
Town square.
Mirabelle is tied to a tree, surrounded by piles of straw.
Witch hunt. The same punishment her mother had suffered.
Those were the words of the abandoned, unsaved witch.
Hururuk.
The fire was lit.
As the sparks spread, fierce flames surrounded Mirabelle.
A hot heat that burns away without a shred of doubt the fervent wish that it was just a dream.
Perhaps this is the true liberation that Karami spoke of someday.
By death.
Liberation from the hell of this world.
Please, in my next life, I want to be born as my master’s slave.
Mirabelle closed her eyes tenderly.
The sound of straw burning.
The sound of cheering at the witch’s death.
And one more thing.
“Kid. Hmm, was it Mirabelle? Even if it’s a virtual thing, isn’t she too indifferent to death?”
A familiar voice.
But the tone of speech does not match the memory.
Mirabelle opened her eyes.
What was floating before my eyes was a single nine-tailed fox with a pink tail waving.
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