Ch.46Anne’s Diary (2)

“Whoosh…”

Gentle waves follow the breeze.

The fox lifts her eyelids as she catches the distinctive salty scent of the sea.

Warm air brushes against her cheek.

“……”

What meets her eyes is none other than an endless, vast ocean.

It was a nightmare that had become all too familiar by now.

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

“Sigh…”

A sigh escapes her lips from the wearisome feeling.

After letting her crimson hair flutter in the breeze for a moment, the girl soon sits down, leaning her back against the old iron bars.

The rusted metal groans.

Creak.

Regardless, the fox hugs her knees.

The water level ripples up to her ankles.

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

Of course, since it was a dream, her clothes didn’t get wet, but the girl always had a complicated look in her eyes.

It was due to a sense of loss.

‘It’s too… quiet.’

When she was aware that this was a dream, she kept wanting to wake up.

It was an unbearably lonely world.

The unnatural warmth of sunlight.

Perhaps it was all a deception.

-Irene.

-I can no longer stay by your side as your mentor… nor should I.

-So this is farewell.

-Please, live on.

As always.

The most longed-for voice brushes past her ears in the loneliest moment.

The fox mulls over the faint memory, shaking off what little bitterness remained.

A kind of dark adaptation.

Waves drowning in silence.

The fox waited quietly again.

To wake from this nightmare.

For the nauseating sense of loss to be filled.

***

It seems she had fallen asleep for a moment.

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

Irene comes to her senses with an oncoming headache.

“……”

What meets her eyes is an unfamiliar ceiling.

A prison where darkness flows thickly.

It was truly regrettable that whether her eyes were open or closed, she was still in a cell.

Coldness rises from the hard floor.

Her shoulders tremble with chills.

She hadn’t noticed due to the extreme tension, but the girl’s body was already cold.

The fox swallows the groan that escapes.

If she had known it would be like this, wouldn’t it have been better to stay in the dream?

It was warm there, and the wind was blowing.

Pathetic thoughts cross her mind.

As she was sitting there helplessly, passing time.

“Um… Fox sister!”

“…?”

“Over here! Over here!”

Someone calls out to the fox.

As she looks around at the unexpected voice, she notices a small hole in the wall.

It seemed to be someone imprisoned in the adjacent cell.

They were waving their hand through the closely set bars.

“Are you finally conscious?”

A young-faced girl.

She couldn’t have been more than fifteen, even at the highest estimate.

When their eyes meet, she smiles broadly.

“I was worried because you were unconscious for so long, but I’m glad you’re awake!”

“You are…”

Just earlier.

The very person who had warned her to pretend to be asleep.

The fox stares blankly at the girl.

“Nice to meet you! It’s been so long since someone came into the next room!”

The girl smiles as if finding it fascinating.

She soon puts her cheerful demeanor aside and suddenly extends her hand through the bars.

“My name is Anne! Let’s get along well, fellow test subjects.”

“Test, test subjects…?”

“Yes!”

The girl nods her head vigorously.

Faced with this incongruous scene, the fox once again found herself at a loss for words.

***

Having been kidnapped by an unknown group.

At first, her mind was in chaos and everything seemed dark, but Irene was able to gradually collect some information.

It was thanks to the voice calling out to her from the next cell.

“Sister! Do you have any more questions?”

The girl named Anne.

The cheerful child chattered away, stringing together words.

Whether she was concerned about the newly arrived test subject, most of her explanations were about the facility.

Sometimes she would answer the fox’s questions.

“Hehe… but there’s still a lot I don’t know.”

Of course, her answers weren’t particularly clear.

That was understandable, as the girl was also behind bars.

She scratches her cheek awkwardly.

“They’re just things I’ve picked up.”

“Things you’ve picked up…?”

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

“How long have you been here?”

“About 7 months or so?”

Though not deeply detailed, it was enough to grasp the situation.

The fox organized her complicated 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 prepared for their black magic research.

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

It was nothing short of a den of evil.

‘First slave traders… now cultists.’

A laugh escapes involuntarily.

She had barely avoided becoming a slave, but now she was about to become a monster.

It even felt like she was being toyed with by fate.

The fox bit her lip firmly while sitting down.

“Just in case you don’t know, I should tell you… it’s better to comply with the experiments as much as possible.”

“Why is that?”

“…There’s a demon here.”

From what she heard, escape was nearly impossible.

The personnel managing this place were all black mages.

Especially the director of the research facility, who had reached the pinnacle of his craft.

With a single gesture, countless test subjects would be torn apart, and all those who had previously attempted to resist met the same end.

Anne called the director a ‘demon.’

“The demon kills test subjects for fun.”

He kills if the experiment doesn’t go as planned.

He kills even if it’s not for an experiment.

He kills if you act impudent.

He kills if your eyes meet his.

He kills because he’s in a bad mood.

He kills enjoying the screams of the test subjects.

“That’s why I told you to lie down… if you stay quiet and still, he usually passes by without bothering you.”

The director seemed more interested in slaughter than research.

Faith in god was merely an excuse for carnage; essentially, he was a monster who enjoyed bloodshed.

Not even a glimmer of hope was visible.

“……”

A desperate situation.

Irene maintained an expressionless face, but she couldn’t hide the trembling in her pupils.

A terrible sense of powerlessness weighed on her shoulders.

Her head throbbed as if it would split.

As she was holding her brow alone.

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

“Sister, take this.”

“…What is this?”

“It’s a blanket!”

The girl handed over a worn-out rag.

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

The eyes that met hers smiled brightly.

“You’ve been shivering for a while now. It’s all tattered so it won’t be very warm, but cover yourself with it anyway.”

“You’re lending it to me…?”

“I run hot, so I don’t need it!”

“…Thank you.”

“Hehehe.”

Anne responds as if pleased.

It might be somewhat rude to say, but the fox thought she wasn’t quite normal.

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

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

With such thoughts in mind, she drapes the blanket over herself.

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

Nevertheless.

She was still cold.

***

How much time had passed?

By her estimation, it felt like about 3 days had gone by.

During the few days spent in the black mages’ den, the fox was experiencing scenes from hell.

Things visible beyond the iron bars.

-Ugh, kuk, uggh, kugak…!

-N-no… No!! D-don’t do it!!!

-S-spare, spare me…! P-ple, please…!!

-Kyaaaaaaaa!!!

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

Screams echoing without pause.

The wailing heard all too frequently made one imagine what was happening at the end of that corridor.

Occasionally, there were screams mixed in that weren’t human.

Whether they were truly cries of non-humans.

Or cries of those who had “become non-human” was unknown.

-Kyaaa! Aaaaa!! Stop iiiit!!!

Faint screams brushing past.

Many test subjects were taken to the laboratory, but significantly fewer returned to their cells.

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

Even they could barely walk.

One even had parts of their body grotesquely transformed.

-Kirik! Kiiiiik!!

The face twisted like a spider was horrifying.

Irene was imprisoned in a cell furthest from the laboratory, but.

Nevertheless, the raw noises faintly reached her ears.

She had to suppress the urge to retch several times from the overwhelming disgust.

“……”

The fox was still alive.

The black mages hadn’t touched Irene.

More accurately, they couldn’t.

The demon had personally said he would handle her in a week.

-I’ll experiment on this one myself.

-A fox beastkin… what a truly fantastic sacrifice.

The demon had said with a sticky gaze.

In the end, the other believers could only step back, licking their lips.

Life narrowed down to a week.

Now Irene was just quietly waiting for time to pass.

No hope was in sight.

At first, she thought about fighting back, but her mind changed right after facing the research director.

The demon’s level was truly overwhelming.

At least on par with a professor from Gallimar.

A single incantation would massacre all the test subjects.

“……”

In the end, she was left in a daze.

The fox remains silent.

As she was sitting quietly with her back against the wall.

“Sister.”

“……”

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

“…?”

Anne peeks through the bars.

Concerned about the fox’s pale complexion, the girl was trying to divert her attention elsewhere.

“The time here flows differently from the time outside.”

“What does that mean…?”

“Exactly what I said.”

The girl shrugs her shoulders lightly.

“Once, the demon was completely drunk. As he was going back and forth down the corridor, he was boasting about something…”

This place is some special land.

He said it was land where some dragon’s corpse was buried… I don’t remember the detailed explanation.

I just remember him saying that the time axis around here is twisted.

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

“A week is… a day?”

“It’s been 3 days since you came here, but outside, it might not even have been a few hours yet?”

“……”

The fox stares with a blank gaze.

Anne, continuing her explanation, scratches her cheek awkwardly.

“Of course, believe it or not. Honestly, it sounds too far-fetched. I’ve never heard of such a region existing. Unless it’s land outside the Empire’s territory…”

“……”

“The demon was definitely talking nonsense because he was drunk.”

Anne grumbles quietly.

The girl furrowed her brow for a moment, but ends with a bright smile.

It was a transparent smile.

“But thinking like this gives me a little hope.”

“Hope…?”

“Yes, hope.”

If only a few hours have passed, someone must be searching hard for you, sister.

Isn’t it okay to expect a miracle, just a little?

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

“……”

“Do you have someone like that around you?”

“…I wonder.”

The fox gently averts her eyes.

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

Deep blonde hair and narrow eyes.

Why was she thinking of that person now?

Irene unconsciously bites her lip.

‘…Expecting anything from that person would be foolish.’

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

It was obvious they would just move on if she disappeared.

They would just find a new toy.

The fox gives herself a suggestion.

Not to place trust, she tells herself.

As she always had.

‘I just… need to be alone like this.’

The fox mulled over her painful monologue.

But.

“I hope they’re safe.”

The fox didn’t know.

That forces capable of annihilating an entire country were moving to find her.

White pupils flash in the darkness.

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

A fluttering pure white banner.

A group shrouded in black, filled with killing intent, was crossing the night sky.

To reclaim the fox.