TL/Editor: Butter Cat
Status: 4/week mon-thurs
Illustrations: none
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〈 Chapter 43 〉 Chapter 43. Haggling.
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**
Thwack, crack, smack.
A festival of those who had abandoned reason, morality, and ethics was in full swing.
Like a torch burning as it consud oil, madness devoured the people and using them as fuel for its terrifying dance.
Sharp stones, rotten wood, rusted iron.
Objects, more than enough to cause harm, flew through the air, colliding with the child.
"...Ow!!...Ah, aaah!!"
"—You crAZY basTARds!!! STop It, I SAid, stOp it!!!!"
Unable to even defend herself, Alice could only endure the onslaught.
I couldn't just stand by and watch, so I started spewing out vulgar words I had never even thought of before.
That child over there, desperately apologizing, rubbing her nonexistent hands together and begging for forgiveness, what had she done wrong?
That child who is curled up, not even trying to fight back or run away, enduring the pain, what sin had she committed?
That child, calling my na desperately with tears streaming down her face, did she truly look like the cruel witch you claim she is?
I felt the ropes tightening around with every movent, constricting my limbs, which had already lost all sensation.
But, my words didn't reach them.
They just continued their actions, as if mocking , as if to show they didn't care.
Even though I was witnessing everything right before my eyes, I couldn't even break free from the ropes that bound , I could only scream, helpless.
"Sis......ter......"
“…Ah… AAAAHHH…!!”
Squeeze.
No matter how far I reached, my hands, pinned behind my back, couldn't touch the child.
I, a being who couldn't even extend a helping hand to the child who was suffering, taking the bla for a cri she didn't commit.
That was, the most unbearable thing of all.
But even so, I couldn't turn away from the sight.
Because this was my sin.
"It's !! IT’S !! I dID iT, it Was aLL , so sTOp it!! InSTeAd of hEr, pUNIsh EEEEㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ!!?"
"—Sorry, Han."
A piece of torn fabric was shoved into my open mouth.
Sothing stiff and white, it was a part of the long, torn dress Alice had been wearing.
I struggled, trying to spit it out, but Rumi's persistent hand easily overpowered my resistance and shoved it deep into my mouth.
She, with the sa hand that had dragged Alice here, the sa hand that had grabbed the child's hair and ripped her clothes, was now gagging again.
To prevent from proving Alice's innocence.
To prevent from even apologizing to the child for this situation.
To ensure my survival, by sacrificing Alice.
"But, at least you should live…"
"—, ㅡㅡㅡㅡ!!!"
".....I'm, sorry."
Rumi's trembling hand gently stroked my twitching head.
It was a small gesture of comfort, but her words and actions couldn't bring any solace.
I never intended for this to happen, not even in the tiniest bit, but in the end, this entire spectacle was my fault.
Rumi, doing this.
Alice, taking all the bla.
Everything, all of it.
I could only roar like a beast with my mouth gagged.
My hands, tied tightly, couldn't touch, and with the cloth stuffed in my mouth, I couldn't even pray, but I desperately wished for my knees, kneeling on the ground, to reach the heavens.
It didn't matter if the recipient of my prayer was God or the Devil.
Anyone, anyone who could save the child.
Even if the price of my prayer was my own soul, it would be enough if it ant I could help the child suffering before .
So please, please—
Caw, caw—
"—Fucking trash."
As if God had answered my prayer.
A great wind, blew.
**
Late autumn, the exact date I don't rember.
The day Elli and I opened our hearts to each other and beca friends.
As I leaned against a tree, sitting on a bed of fallen leaves, Alice was lying on my lap, happily playing with my hair with her fingertips. I once asked her a question that had been on my mind.
'Alice, why do you like the color black?'
'Hmm?'
'… It just seems like you like it, so I was curious.'
The child stopped her ticklish, yet strangely pleasant touch and looked at with a question mark over her head.
Although I felt a small amount of disappointnt, wanting her to continue touching, I continued the conversation because I wanted to hear Alice's thoughts.
Generally, in this world, black was a color that everyone avoided.
No. More than avoidance, it was a feeling of disgust.
It wasn't just a matter of prejudice stemming from religious 'preferences' or 'education', it was so strong that it made wonder if it was a survival instinct ingrained in people's genes, their aversion to the color black was that intense.
Even babies, who had barely learned anything or been taught anything, would cry out in fear when they saw , with my black hair and eyes.
As if they instinctively feared the color.
That's why Alice, who didn't just ignore it like Rumi, but actually expressed great fondness for my hair, calling it like the night sky, seed a little strange to .
Not that I disliked it at all.
It wasn't that I was suspicious of her actions, I just wanted to know why she thought that way.
And, Alice's answer to that was,
'Because it's the sa color as Big Sis Elli's hair.'
A rather anticlimactic answer, ntioning soone else's na.
With a pout, I showed my displeasure, asking the child.
To think I was sulking in front of a ten-year-old child, it was embarrassing now that I look back on it.
'… Big Sis, Elli?'
'Yes! Big Sis Saelli!! She's my family!! Umm.... She told not to tell anyone, so it's a secret…. But I'll tell you, Sis Sia, just because we're special!'
'Hmm...? So why?'
'—Big Sis Elli has black hair, just like you, Sis Sia, a really beautiful, pure black.'
Alice's words, saying that everyone she was close to had black hair and that she wished her hair was black too, surprised in many ways.
First, I was surprised to find out that there was soone else with the sa hair color as .
And then I was surprised again to learn that this kind and lovely child only had two people she was close to, including .
It seed like her guardian was rather overprotective of her.
Well, seeing Alice's innocent nature, it was understandable.
After that, the conversation revolved around 'Saelli', the person I assud was Alice's guardian.
Of course, every bit of information was followed by a very suspicious "She told not to tell anyone about this—".
I thought about forming a connection with her, thinking we might be the sa, but the more I heard, the more disconnected it felt, and with Alice saying that this person avoided and disliked eting people, I eventually gave up.
And the mories of that day ended there.
It was none of my business.
That's what I thought—
—Craaaack!!
To describe it as a sound made by the wind would be incorrect. It was a sound too ominous and violent to be just the wind.
Monts later, I heard a scream piercing the air, and a warm liquid splashed onto my face. I forced my eyes open, blown about by the fierce storm, trying to grasp the situation.
But I soon realized that my action was aningless.
Because right there in front of , soone who hadn't been there before, soone I presud was responsible for the current situation, stood.
Flutter, flutter.
Black hair, fluttered in the wind.
"........"
".......Huh?"
For a mont, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
It was more realistic to believe that my eyes were malfunctioning.
Crunch, munch, munch.
Right in front of , a woman was chewing on a lump of flesh.
The woman, I didn't know how she had gotten past everyone and reached this spot, but she was holding Alice's bleeding body in her arms, as if it were sothing precious.
Crunch, crack, munch.
Sounds I didn't want to understand, continued to reach my ears.
Her mouth opened and closed unnaturally wide, and I saw blood spurting out in all direction from the lump of flesh she was chewing on.
Splash, even my face, which had been watching in a daze, wasn't spared.
What seed like an adult's forearm, no—it was definitely a man's forearm, disappeared into the woman's mouth in a matter of seconds.
Not even a bone remained.
Her mouth, which had just devoured sothing impossible, slowly closed as if nothing had happened, and I shuddered at the sight, feeling like I was watching a scene from a movie, even though it was all real.
What, is that?
What, in the world, is that?
I wasn't the only one who felt an instinctive fear at the sight of her bright red lips parting slightly.
No one else made a sound, except for the person screaming in the distance, presumably the owner of the arm.
A beautiful sound, unbelievable that it flowed from that thing's mouth,was heard in the silence.
"It was a mistake, to trust it and let her play."
"........."
"To think that I, after all I've been through, would still hold onto a shred of hope for humans... I'm ashad of myself."
Her voice was cold, yet hot.
It was strange, but I couldn't describe it any other way.
Her tone was polite, so much so that it was hard to believe those words ca from soone who had just bitten off an arm and swallowed it whole.
But for , that polite tone was even more terrifying.
Because it felt like she was suppressing her anger.
Like she was forcibly holding back an explosion that was about to erupt.
And despite that, the coldness and hostility in her words, impossible to conceal, were just as chilling as her previous actions.
I wonder what she’s thinking right now.
Her eyes, looking up at the sky, were tightly shut, as if refusing to see anything around her.
"Humans should live among humans… I always thought that—."
"...Who, are you…?"
"—But, that also depends on the human."
The beast's eyes turned towards us.
They were blood-red, as intense as the burning flas.
And within them, I saw vertically slit pupils, sothing that didn't seem human.
The woman didn't even glance at the Village Head, who was stamring, as if he didn't even exist.
Slowly, she walked towards us.
This, is a monster.
I had never seen one in my life.
I had always dismissed them as creatures of myth and legend.
But even I could tell, she was sothing otherworldly.
".......Ah... Aaah..."
"Wi...witch....!"
The people who had been relentlessly throwing stones just monts ago were now frozen in place, like frogs caught in a snake's gaze, unable to even flee.
Contrasting her nacing glare, the woman was gently caressing the child in her arms, as if handling a delicate glass figurine.
Lick, lick.
Her bright red tongue slowly crawled across Alice's blood-covered face.
Alice's original skin that was hidden by blood was slowly beginning to show as the woman's Adam's apple moves slightly up and down to swallow the saliva and blood that has gathered.
The sight made gag, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from her.
Her hair is as black as condensed darkness, unlike mine.
Her mysterious eyes, burning red like the setting sun.
The familiar appearance I had surely heard about sowhere suddenly reminded of my conversation with Alice.
"—Kill them all. Every single one, without leaving a drop of blood."
Caw, caw.
The sky darkened. As if in response, a flock of crows, covering the sky, began to caw in unison.
Wild beasts of unknown species erged from the bushes, their jaws agape.
Saelli.
Alice's guardian.
The person Alice called her only family.
The monster bared its fangs at everyone.
**
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