Chapter 252

Re​a​d on KatReadingCa​fe

Content Warning

A warning, implied cannibalism inbound. Read at your own discretion.

The scent of blood brushed the tip of her nose.

Though she knew it was an illusion, the stench didn’t fade.

The smell of blood spread like a thick morning fog, chilling and pervasive.

Regina reflexively fumbled across her desk.

Her poorly maintained nails scraped against the desk, producing an unpleasant sound.

After a moment of fumbling, her fingers finally touched a nearly empty perfume bottle.

“…”

She sprayed the perfume.

With a hiss, a strong fragrance filled the air.

The citrus scent tried to overpower the stench, but the smell of blood didn’t easily subside.

Regina irritably sprayed the perfume several more times.

Hiss. Hiss. Hiss.

Only after exhausting the last drops of the perfume did she finally stop.

The room was now filled with an overpowering perfume scent, enough to make her head spin.

Yet, even within the tangy fragrance, the faint scent of blood lingered.

Regina tossed the perfume bottle aside and leaned against the wall.

The bottle bounced and rolled across the floor before finally coming to a stop against a pile of trash.

A messy heap of garbage. Empty perfume bottles were piled up like a mountain.

“…”

The smell wouldn’t go away.

The scent of blood clinging to her body refused to fade.

No matter how much she washed, sprayed perfume, or covered her nose.

The metallic stench stubbornly clung to her, irritating her senses.

She knew.

Regina was aware.

This stench was all an illusion.

A fabrication of guilt, something that didn’t truly exist.

Regina stared blankly at her hands.

Through her purple hair, she could see her palms drenched in sweat.

Even the sweat she shed was a drug.

Everything her body secreted was a drug.

A potent drug that drove anyone who tasted it to madness, craving it insatiably.

But for Regina herself, it had no significant effect. It was no different from perfume. Even the most refined and addictive drugs could only provide a brief distraction. She wished she could lose herself in the drug’s effects.

For the first time, she resented her immunity to supernatural abilities.

How nice it would be if she could escape her worries and anxieties like other addicts.

Even though she knew it was just escapism, Regina couldn’t stop the thought.

It wouldn’t fade.

She couldn’t forget.

The nightmare of that day kept coming back.

The saw tearing through flesh.

The muffled screams that couldn’t escape.

The blood that painted her entire body crimson.

The desperate thrashing and the burning stench.

The ashes scattering. The chunks of flesh littering the floor. Her vision turned red. The floor, the ceiling, the walls—everything was red. Red flowed everywhere.

“Ugh!”

Regina quickly covered her mouth.

She almost vomited everything in her stomach again.

Since she hadn’t eaten properly, all that came up was yellow bile.

Clenching her teeth against the churning in her stomach, Regina bit down hard.

‘Don’t think about it… don’t think about it…’

The nausea didn’t stop easily.

Once it started, it wouldn’t subside until her stomach was completely turned inside out.

Having experienced it so many times, she had naturally learned how to cope.

Regina repeated the mantra to herself and took deep breaths.

But, cruelly, the act of trying to forget only stimulated the memories.

It stirred them up.

Regina covered her mouth with both hands and bowed her head. The taste of blood lingered in her mouth.

A foul smell swirled around her.

Finally unable to bear it, Regina rushed to the bathroom.

“Ugh!”

She buried her head in the toilet and vomited everything in her stomach.

The strong perfume scent mixed with the disgusting stench.

Her esophagus burned with nausea, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“Huff, huff, ugh…”

Gasping for breath, she collapsed to her knees.

Regina trembled like a leaf, curling up into a ball.

The memories she tried to avoid kept forcing themselves into her mind.

No matter how hard she tried to forget, it didn’t work.

It hadn’t been long enough to forget.

The memories were too vivid to erase.

That day.

The day she tried to run away with Lucia.

Her escape ended before it even began.

In hindsight, it was inevitable. After all, Regina had been playing right into Astaroth’s hands from the very beginning.

Under normal circumstances, she would have easily figured it out, but at the time, Regina was mentally cornered.

She tortured Lucia. Tore her flesh, broke her bones, and burned her wounds.

The muffled screams that couldn’t even form words drove her to the brink of madness.

Every time her body was drenched in blood, guilt burned her mind.

‘Run away. I have to run away.’ That was all Regina could think of at the time. Perhaps that was also part of Astaroth’s plan. Enjoying the sight of Regina breaking down.

Astaroth laughed as she looked at Regina, who had been hopelessly captured. She said she would punish her for betraying their friendship. But in return, she would forgive everything.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Regina clawed at her head.

She no longer had the will to resist Astaroth’s malice.

She bitterly resented the weakened control of the mask.

If only she had been completely brainwashed like before, she wouldn’t be suffering like this.

“Damn you…”

She gritted her teeth. Astaroth’s laughter echoed in her ears. Her pitiful state and the overwhelming despair drained all strength from her body.

Astaroth picked up a piece of flesh from the floor.

A piece of Lucia’s body that Regina had cut and torn off.

Lightly igniting it, Astaroth roasted the flesh and laughed mischievously.

The perfectly roasted flesh.

Astaroth offered it as a ‘gift’.

And that.

A piece of human flesh.

Lucia’s flesh.

I…

“Ugh…!”

Bile rose up her throat.

Regina trembled as she swallowed her tears.

Since then, Regina had never been able to eat meat again.

No, she couldn’t even eat properly.

If she weren’t a supernatural, she might have collapsed from malnutrition long ago.

She gripped her neck with both hands and squeezed hard. Saliva dripped from her lips.

Regina felt her consciousness fading amidst the suffocating pain.

It was an extreme measure. If she lost consciousness, she could escape these horrifying memories.

But before Regina could pass out.

A knock on the door jolted her back to awareness.

“Regina! Are you there?”

A familiar voice.

Another troublemaker from Class D.

It was Seri.

“How are you feeling? Are you okay? Can you come to school today?”

Regina’s lips twitched. She didn’t want to answer. She couldn’t. Whenever she faced Seri, Regina found herself at a loss for words.

A fellow slave to the mask. Under Astaroth’s control. And it was none other than Regina herself who had put Seri in that position.

Who was it that sold Seri, saying she had useful abilities? It was Regina.

“Hmm… You don’t want to go to school today either? Well, I can’t help it. Alright, I’ll make up some excuse for the teacher.”

Another troublemaker, Carlos, hadn’t been attending the academy lately either.

At first, Seri had thrown a tantrum, saying she didn’t want to go to school alone, but after seeing Regina’s pale face, she quickly changed her attitude.

She must have looked really bad. Well, not sleeping or eating properly, it would be strange if she looked fine.

Seri left after leaving her regards. Regina held her breath until the sound of footsteps completely disappeared, then finally let out a deep sigh.

How many days had it been now? The days of refusing to go to school and holing up in her dorm.

Until recently, she had managed to attend school despite the difficulty. But ever since the day Lucia was discharged, her symptoms had rapidly worsened. The moment she saw Lucia smiling as if nothing had happened, Regina couldn’t hold back the nausea.

“Why… are you smiling…? How… can you smile…?”

After going through something like that.

After suffering so much.

As if nothing had happened.

As if it were nothing.

She couldn’t understand.

She couldn’t accept it.

It even made her afraid.

There’s no way she’s fine. Absolutely not. It’s all an act. She’s pretending to be fine. She’s wearing a smiling mask.

That’s why it’s scary. How can she do that? If it were me, I wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed, let alone smile. I’d still be struggling with the pain of that day.

In fact, I still am. If I, the perpetrator, am suffering this much, how much more must you, the victim, be suffering?

I don’t have the courage to face her again.

When I see that smile.

I don’t have the confidence to pretend to be fine.

I want to run away and never face her again.

But the fact that I can’t is terrifying. Regina’s head slumped down. She glared at the desk beyond the bathroom. There, the red fox mask lies alone.

Astaroth’s mask.

The mask that controlled Regina. Astaroth had returned the mask and made a “request”.

To keep an eye on Lucia.

To listen for any news about her.

Until now, Regina had used the excuse of not having a specific time frame to avoid it.

But she couldn’t delay it forever.

She had to fulfill Astaroth’s “request”.

She had to watch Lucia.

‘I don’t want to.’

‘I really don’t want to…’

But as Astaroth’s “friend (slave)”, I have no choice.

“Damn it…”

She cursed and buried her head in her hands.

Her slumped shoulders looked truly pitiful.

Regina bit her lip and blinked away the moisture in her eyes.

The strong perfume scent, the smell of blood, and the stench of vomit assaulted her nose.

“What a fucking miserable life.”

Regina muttered blankly.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Astaroth tortures Regina not because she hates her, but because she likes her.

The more she likes something, the more she wants to hurt and destroy it.

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Between becoming a dog (literally) and cannibalism, probably not a bad outcome.

Probably.