That day, too, the maiden awoke with an intense pain.
It felt as though ants were crawling through her veins. If they were nibbling her insides with their pointed beaks, it might produce a similar agony.
Kehk, kek.
Her wide-open eyes were brimming with dew. However, her dry throat could not even properly let out a wail, and the body fixed upon the cold bed would only twitch uselessly, unable to move.
Today, her vision seemed strange.
When she closed one eye, the remaining vision became entirely blurry. It was a situation where anyone else might have screamed in terror.
But the maiden’s expression remained unexpectedly calm.
Ah, today I’ve gone blind.
She merely wore an expression mixed with resignation and despair.
Then, from somewhere, footsteps approached.
The maiden’s fine hairs stood on end, and her eyes, filled with fear, turned towards the source. She inhaled weakly, trying desperately to escape from here.
Of course, it was a futile attempt.
Even the frail maiden knew resistance was meaningless after her limbs had been securely bound.
Her sobs rose in her throat. Though she hadn’t consumed food or water, she thought no sound would emerge, yet her tears and moans were drenched with moisture.
A man cloaked in an eerie garb appeared, bathed in misty, dim lighting.
His attire wasn’t the only odd thing about him; his facial features were grotesquely twisted, as if he were an unfinished sculpture.
Miltram, the Dark Priest.
As he looked at the maiden, he dabbed a single tear from the eye on his nose beside the maiden’s face.
“Ah, my poor Miss… you still seem unfamiliar with pain.”
“Ha, Hai Ma… Oi Ma…”
Because all her teeth had been extracted recently, every plea from her mouth dissolved into a sound like the wind escaping.
But even to that earnest voice, Miltram only shook his head.
“That cannot be. This is also part of a ‘contract.’”
“Na, Na Han… Such a… I’ve never made such a promise.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think.”
As he said this, the man rummaged through his robes, revealing a syringe filled with a suspicious liquid.
The maiden’s body began convulsing as if trying to escape, her brain predicting the forthcoming pain and forcing her consciousness to slip away.
It was a pitiful sight.
Especially since all her efforts were ultimately meaningless.
With a snap, the syringe in the man’s hand pierced through the girl’s carotid artery.
With the intense hallucinogenic effect, a bubbling sound emitted from the maiden’s mouth. But Miltram only shed tears as he watched.
“Ah! Ahhh! AAAAAAAH!”
“Pathetic Miss… How could such cruelty exist?”
Tears dribbled down as the girl screamed. Her ragged breaths became harsh, and prayers for salvation involuntarily flowed from her lips.
“Ha, Heaven… Save… me!”
“There is no God.”
As if pronouncing a cruel sentence, Miltram whispered, like a judge.
“If only that were the case, you wouldn’t be enduring this, would you? Haven’t you realized yet? For us, the abandoned ones, there is no one to rely on but ourselves.”
“No!”
Perhaps in the throes of extreme pain, an awakening occurred within her.
From her mouth emerged a normal voice for the first time in who knows how long. Her eyes, bloodshot, burned with a fierce light.
“I haven’t been abandoned!”
“You have been.”
“Lie… do not!”
Was it hatred or a wish?
In her golden eyes, blue flames flickered. With a heart as though spitting blood, the girl cried out.
“I’m just temporarily kept here… Mom and Dad said so. They’ll come back for me! Mom, Dad… save me!”
Her sobs continued as she hiccuped.
The solitary sight of the girl sobbing evoked sympathy. Miltram wasn’t an exception either; a long sigh escaped his lips.
His eyes of sympathy surveyed the girl from above.
“If you can’t believe it… I’ll show you.”
Then, the brutal hand of the man crushed her fingers with a crack.
The girl, whose senses had been heightened to the extreme by the injected drug, felt as if a white flash of lightning struck her brain. Soon after, her whole body began trembling in convulsions.
Her vision swayed.
It was a warm, cozy home. Familiar faces sat there.
Yet, they appeared melancholy and sorrowful.
“Your name is Liya.”
“Li… Liya?”
“That’s right. From now on, you are ‘Liya Percus.’ Our family.”
With a crackle, the girl screamed and regained consciousness.
Her labored breaths and blurred pupils didn’t dull the horror in her expression.
Could it be a dream?
No. Her parents hadn’t looked at her with such strange expressions.
To the bewildered girl, Miltram mercilessly revealed the truth.
“The fake sent in your place is witnessing this scene. It seems the Percus family has decided to abandon you.”
“Giye, it’s… a lie…”
The girl cried, wanting to deny it, but each time, Miltram sighed and continued to torture her.
As if struck by lightning, the girl’s vision changed.
The girl shyly enjoyed a grand banquet.
“No…”
In front of the family that kept their distance, the girl seemed destined to remain shy forever—until the day she met a boy training in an open field every night.
The boy, who introduced himself as her “Little Brother,” smiled brightly as he patted her head.
The boy smiled kindly and said:
“I’ll protect you from now on.”
It was a phrase the girl had never heard and a desperate promise she longed for.
As thunderbolts raged in her mind for days,
Meanwhile, the girl became increasingly familiar with her family’s embrace.
She tried on clothes while forcing a strained smile.
She watched the boy train idly; then she held his hand and went to play behind the mountain.
There was a beautiful flower field there.
The girl turned red and bowed her head as she slid a flower ring the boy made her onto her finger.
“So it suits you, Liya.”
The boy beamed with a clearer smile than ever.
“No… No… No!”
Don’t smile.
Don’t be happy.
Feel familial love? Feel affection? You, of all people, dare to love?
No, no.
It couldn’t be.
Because… because…
“Because I’m Liya!”
She wanted to shout it again and again, louder each time.
But time passed helplessly.
Every time her body and soul were worn down, her world changed like an illusion.
As the days went by and the girl increasingly lost her laughter, the girl who looked like her laughed more.
Oil of resentment seeped into the gaps of her shattered soul.
Whom should she hate?
The parents who abandoned her?
“That’s only natural.”
Miltram’s snickering whisper could be heard.
Meanwhile, with a body no longer even capable of feeling pain properly, the girl murmured senselessly.
“And that… fake, too…”
“Why is that?”
Already knowing the answer, the man eagerly rubbed his hands like a teacher eagerly awaiting his disciple’s splendid response.
His eyes were filled with anticipation.
The girl did not betray those expectations.
“Because… it’s mine.”
The lifeless golden eyes once again came alight.
Grinding her teeth together with a chilling sound, feeling her molars crack, the girl howled with hatred.
“Mine, mine, mine! It must be all mine!”
That smile, her family, even her beloved older brother!
All of it belonged to the girl. The hatred of the girl, who had had her entire life stolen, was deep and heavy.
At that moment, with a groan, the iron bed restraining the girl shook.
Out through her sightless eyes, already burnt nerves, and shattered body oozed streams of ink-like liquid.
Miltram cried out in amazement as he knelt down.
“I must reclaim it…!”
“Finally, you have been perfected.”
When a thunderous explosion shook the world,
Torn apart were not the heavens, but the irons binding the girl. Steel restraints and the bed rolled grotesquely across the floor.
The sharp metallic collision sounded almost like a scream.
Perhaps it was the scream that the girl had been holding in finally being let out.
Miltram was now sobbing on the ground, banging his head.
“O Great Vessel of Greed…”
Regardless of Miltram’s actions, the girl’s mind was now filled with thoughts of a certain man.
Ian Percus.
The only blood relation who hadn’t abandoned the girl—no, the one person who showered her with endless affection, even if only through an illusion.
She needed to reclaim him first.
Only then could the girl finally reclaim her life.
Her first love.
The end of her childhood, the onset of adolescence.
Even if it meant distorted, mad love.
