Chapter 4
“Oh, what a mess!”
It was the bright morning that revealed the secret gruesome scene of last night’s slaughter. A man dressed in a black suit tried to walk on the clean floor as much as he could in a village full of wrecked houses and bloodstains. He came to this village because of his mission.
At a glance, traces of Ramia’s bloody massacre were clear. Only the young ones were devoured while the adults were murdered.
“.…There seems to be no survivors.”
Ramia must have escaped alive. The man hurriedly scribbled that there were no survivors in his notebook, then tried to leave the village quickly. Surely, it was impossible to imagine that Ramia would be dead with full of magical power buried in her mouth, and that someone could escape the killing. Just in case, he still patrolled the village just be sure. As he was close to giving up due to annoyance and was about to go, he felt a subtle magic energy coming from somewhere close. And when he followed the trail of the energy while feeling wondrous, he discovered an astonishing spectacle. Ramia’s lifeless body and a living survivor.
“It’s an unexpected discovery.”
Taking a look at the remains, Ramia was obviously slayed by a magic wielder. It meant that the killer had magic, and easy enough, there was a girl lying quietly as if she was dead in front of Ramia’s corpse, spewing out magical power. It was a bit hard to believe that the weak energy coming from the girl was the cause of Ramia’s death, but it was undoubtedly clear that she had power.
Her eyes were closed, so it’s impossible to check her condition, but she had light pink hair… It was a hair color that ordinary humans could not have. The man took off his jacket, covered the bloody girl with torn clothes, and held her small body.
“You will have to get ready to meet your new family.”
After having an unexpected finding, the man hummed and left the village.
****
The most painful and terrible memories came to life vividly in the dark. Rosha was standing alone in the murk so dark that nothing could be seen. It was strange. This blackness was unknown to her. Also, even though she had been hiding alone to avoid people, she still wanted someone to be by her side.
‘Where is this? Where is everyone? Mother, father! Where are you?’
No matter how desperately she called for her family, there was no response.
[Let’s go out and eat until dinner. Oh, it would be nice to take a walk with Polly too.]
“So it turned out that I went out with my brother. I ate ice cream with Dane in town, and saw a strange newspaper article on the poster…On my way home, Polly suddenly barked and ran away…Ahh…”
As Rosha was looking back on her memories, a sudden light came through in the dark.
[Rosha…run…]
The image of her brother, who cried out to her to run away while being eaten by Ramia, was being replayed in front of her eyes, as if it was happening at this moment. Only then the memory of the great disaster that had struck her home came to her mind, who had chosen to forget it in the space of her dreams. Rosha ran through the blinding darkness.
“Lily! Lily, where are you”?!
Her mission was to find her little sister. However, the door to oblivion, which had been firmly closed, opened, and Rosha recalled all the memories one by one.
[Go with me….I don’t want to go alone …!]
Rosha’s leg was injured, so she sent Lily away to the village first, and she was left alone and was eaten by Ramia…. The memories of that time were regenerated like a picture in the dark. However, the memory of herself being eaten was vague. All she could remember was that she opened her eyes and went down to the ruined village and did a motion with her hand to the serpent. And with that gesture, the sight of the monster collapsing came to her mind faintly.
‘If the village was attacked by Ramia. I will definitely bring adults!’
‘What about my little sister who had headed to the village?’
Rosha’s head was dizzy. Her memories of confronting her parents, eating ice cream with Dane, finding Lily under the bed, were mixed up. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, and everything became dark. The memories of that day were being drawn. Everything was confusing, but one conclusion was clear. She needed to find Lily. Unless Lily’s body was found, Rosha refused to think that her little sister was dead.
What Rosha could do now was to find her little sister first. In order to do that, she had to step out of this darkness. She lifted up her body that had been sitting down without even realizing it. Then the wall of memory that day was being played back began to crack. When the crack that started from above continued to the end and the wall was completely broken into two, white light permeated from somewhere. It was the exit from the dream.
“That’s the exit!”
Rosha did not hesitate to reach out for reality.
“Will you be ok?”
However, the man’s voice was heard at that time stopped Rosha.
“Who are you……?” Rosha asked.
“You won’t be able to live a normal life like before.”
Even at Rosha’s question, the man who did not reveal himself but only said what he wanted to say. But she as nott offended by his words.
“Even if you go out to the outside world, you don’t have a family to protect you anymore.”
The truth stabbed Rosha’s heart because that was her fear.
“Stay here with me.”
Suddenly, the surroundings brightened. Even in the brilliant field of view, the man’s identity could not be seen. Instead, Rosha’s favorite sweet treats were stacked on a small table. Also on the floor were her favorite dolls, toys, and flowers.
“If you stay here, I’ll give you everything you want.”
An unknown man persuaded Rosha in a sweet voice. Then, she picked up one of the dolls that were on the floor. It was the doll that had made her cry because she was forced to give it to Lily in the past.
“I have to go.” Rosha put it down because these dolls had no meaning to her now.
“You won’t regret it?” The man asked.
Rosha recalled her last view of Lily’s face. Her little sister would be all alone if she did not go out into the world to look for her. For her parents, who were not in the world anymore, she had to take responsibility for Lily as an older sister.
“I won’t regret it.”
The man kept calling Rosha’s name. However, Rosha, who turned away from the man’s voice, reached out to the real world without hesitation. Even though the real world made her sick, she had something precious to find.
***
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the dazzling sunlight coming through the window opposite the bed. But it wasn’t the bright lighting that made Rosha’s face frown, it was the intense pain that came with it.
“No.777, are you up?”
While she was grasping the clothes near her chest, a voice could be heard from somewhere. Rosha belatedly got up when she realized that there was someone beside her.
“Huh? Ugh!”
But as soon as she moved, the pain spread all over her body. Rosha gasped, covering her chest.
“Don’t over do it, you will get hurt.”
There was no sincerity in the way the person was speaking. Rosha, who couldn’t release her vigilance, raised her head and looked up at her opponent. A middle-aged man with a serious face holding a glass of dark green liquid came into her view.
“Drink this. The pain will get better.”
She hesitated because the drink was given by someone who she had only met for the first time, but her hesitation only lasted for a short while.
“Ugh!”
As the pain came again, Rosha took the glass from the man. The green liquid spilled over the blanket, but Rosha, who had a hard time breathing, drank the liquid without a break.
“Tsk,Tsk. Now the maid has more work to do.”
After drinking the liquid from the man who clicked his tongue in annoyance, Rocha felt the pain in her chest subsided. The tip of her tongue was bitter, but it was a great pain reliever so it did not matter.
Rosha sighed, lied down, and took in the scenery around her. The walls of the spacious room were white without any patterns. However, an alarm clock, golden frames and paintings filled the emptiness. The furnishings and decorations in the room were colorful. In addition, a bed made of wood with square pillars, tied with a white curtain, and a carpet with geometric patterns was laid on the floor.
“Where am I?”
At Rosha’s question, the middle-aged man clicked his tongue again, removing the monocle from his eye.
“This is the capital city, and far from the town where you lived.”
“Why am I here…….?”
“Because you were lucky to survive and we found you.”
“….”
“You must be very fortunate. If we hadn’t found you, you would be dead by now.”
The man in a white gown handed over the mirror to Rosha, who seemed to still not understand his words. Rosha received the mirror in a daze and carefully lifted it up. When she looked at her face in the mirror, she was speechless. Her eyes and hair color were very unique. Her hair was pale pink like cherry blossoms, and her eyes were dark pink.
“I’m afraid you might get it wrong, but no one has dyed your hair. You know it’s impossible to even change the color of your eyes, right?”
“…..”
“Oh, of course I know that it’s stupid, but there are also kids who sometimes ask these stupid questions.”
“….”
“I’d rather you ask a question that’s more obvious than that. For example, why did your hair color change so much….?”
“What happened to our village?”
Rosha cut off the man’s words that were getting longer and longer. The man, who had been shut down by her, stopped talking as if he was confused.
“Aren’t you curious about the color of your hair and eyes?”
“There is something more important than that.”
The pain got better, and she knew that the man was not a bad person. Then, there was something else she needed to do.
“Have you seen any other survivors from my village?”
****