She could clearly remember that night just by closing her eyelids.
“Look, you two stay put.”
Those were the last words of Mialanze’s father.
He picked up his sword, which he had not used for a long time, and went out to drive away the ‘poachers’, but he was killed by more than ten ‘poachers’ who attacked him and tore him to pieces.
A scene she saw through the gap in the door. Her father, who died dancing madly under the moon. Fresh blood splattered and vulgar laughter echoed.
“Help this child… please!”
Those were the last words of Mialanze’s mother.
The human language that her mother, a Cat-Beast Ketsee, had studied so hard in order to talk to her father. The ‘poachers’ scoffed at her mother’s one-worded language and then killed her.
If she had been a beastman, there would have been a buyer for her, but they still killed her mother without capturing her, because in front of Mialanze, a half-breed of beastman and human, whose birth was so rare that it was almost a … miracle, the finest prey, a mere Ketsee was a fraction of a penny.
Mialanze realized the situation when she saw an adventurer among the ‘poachers’.
It was the same man Mialanze had found and rescued about six months earlier when he had fallen ill in the woods.
Mialanze and her family lived in the woods to avoid being seen. Only an occasional visit from a merchant who had known her father for a long time, and few people knew of Mialanze’s existence. The rescued man brought back information and then became a ‘poacher’.
Her mother, who had been united with a human, was kicked out of the tribe’s village, and her father, too, lived half-hidden in the forest, away from the curious eyes toward the couple and their daughter, Mialanze.
But even so, they could not be so selfishly heartless as to abandon the stranded and stay away.
And yet.
And yet.
“Rejoice. You have a buyer. A nobleman from the country of Ciel-Terra. Hihi… You’ll be living a very different and glamorous life from the one you’re used to in this shady forest, okay?”
The man who had once been saved by Mialanze was smiling so wryly that his smile almost overflowed from his face, perhaps thinking of the payment he would receive.
＊ ＊ ＊
At a hut along the road just a little further north from the city of Terra Kaine.
“Damn …! That abominable ‘Rose Princess of Hellrage’!”
An elderly man with a face like a wrinkled monkey gritted his teeth as he looked out of the window at the skyward march of the undead cavalry.
He wore a dark green jousting, gleaming and decorated with gold thread, out of place in such a crude building as a mountain hut.
The man was one of Ciel-Terra’s former courtiers.
He was Frank Rupert Seebach, Marquis Seebach.
He was one of the first to escape when the royal capital fell. Afterwards, he took refuge in Terra Kaine, relying on Marks, Marquis Edfeldt.
However, the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” arrived here as well.
Marks hurriedly gathered mercenaries and adventurers, but there was no way they could stand up against the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, who had defeated even the royal knights.
If only Marks’ “secret plan” worked, they would have been able to do something, but whether or not it would be in time was uncertain. He would have to either stand firm and hold out or hide himself until that time.
So Frank took refuge in a place far away from the city and hid himself to wait. The date of the attack, specified in the text spread by the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, was today. For this reason, Frank had been hiding in this place since last night.
This was a hut used by hunters as a base for their hunts and a resting place for those on the road. Frank had brought enough supplies here to hunker down for a few days. No fireplace was used to prevent smoke, and an artifact for heating, which looked like an orange lamp, barely warmed the air inside the hut.
In the small hut with Frank were four adventurers he had recruited to escort him (as a courtier, Frank had no knights under his command). Two private soldiers he had hired to guard his estate in the capital. A squire to look after them.
And the most expensive property at hand: a servant, a domestic animal, a concubine, a toy … and a half-human girl, Mialanze, a hybrid between Cat-Beast Ketsee and a human being.
“Master, are you sure it’s safe this close to the city?”
One of the hired adventurers voiced his concern.
Frank raised his eyebrows, obviously offended.
“What? You’re an adventurer, and you’re questioning my thinking?”
“No, but I…”
“My back hurts so bad coming all the way out here!”
There was no doubt that it was close. So close that he could see the undead airborne cavalry flying over the city from the window.
But Frank had no intention of going any farther. His back was in bad shape, and he didn’t feel like going very far.
“And I must return to the city as soon as it is clear of danger. I’ve got a lot of stuff in Marks’ mansion… No, well, Marks won’t take it, but if he’s not careful, the guys who are coming now will… Oh, anyway! If I say it’s okay, it’s okay! You guys just do your job as told!”
The adventurer slumped down, looking like he couldn’t say anything else.
Seeing this, Frank sniffed, looking at him like he was in the wrong. He was an idiot, he thought, and he was talking nonsense because he opened his mouth without thinking.
Frank tried to find a chair to sit down and calm down, but all the chairs by the wall were rough pieces of wood, too wild for him to even look at, let alone sit on. He had been sitting there for a while now, and already his buttocks and back were beginning to ache.
“The chairs are lumpy and the hut is a dump. I should have brought cushions… No, wait. I know.”
Frank chuckled.
Then, he took out a small metal box-like magical artifact from his pocket, and spoke into it.
“Hey, Mialanze. Take the place of my chair. Get down on all fours.”
Mialanze, who had been sitting in the corner of the hut like an ornament, shuddered.
Every time Frank ordered her to do something, Mialanze’s heart turned into a boiling pot of disgust, fear, and anger.
But regardless of her feelings, her body moved. It was the power of the “S*ave Collar” she had placed around her neck.
When Frank uttered a command to the command device he was holding, the wearer of the collar was forced to obey, completely regardless of their own will. Mialanze was unable to escape or kill Frank because she was forbidden to do so by the power of the collar.
Mialanze’s body automatically dropped to all fours.
Then Frank sat down on Mialanze’s back.
“Kuh…!”
“Hmm. It’s a terrible seat, but it’s soft and somewhat warm.”
Despite his criticism, Frank was satisfied.
The adventurers around him refused to make eye contact. They may have had their own private thoughts about the Marquis Seebach’s bad taste in entertainment, but they did not openly criticize their employer for it.
Mialanze’s body creaked.
Mialanze, who had been enduring it through clenched teeth, suddenly thought of something and turned the anger swirling in her chest into words.
“You … should have been killed in the capital.”
“What did you say?”
Mialanze rarely talked back.
It was not because she was afraid of punishment when she rebelled, but because she felt that talking back was just what Frank would want her to do. Frank was most frustrated when she looked at him as if nothing was wrong.
But today, for some reason, she was not in that mood.
“You are a heretic who does not deserve to live. You take other people’s lives for fun, and you do what you like to others …! The undead monster who kills people for revenge is much more reasonable, isn’t it? It deserves to be destroyed, such a country! A monster with a human face like you is heavily favored…”
The weight disappeared from Mialanze’s back. And just as she thought.
“Kyaaaah!?”
An impact shook Mialanze’s head, and she collapsed.
“Kuhahahahaha! You’re talking nonsense!”
Frank was standing there with firewood he had pulled out of the fireplace.
He struck Mialanze with it.
Mialanze fell down, but her body obeyed Frank’s order and tried to get on all fours again.
Frank struck her again.
“Ahh …!”
“It’s been about 10 years since I bought you? Hmm? Good, good, even the young maids’ eyes are rotten, but yours are not yet dead! That’s what makes you worth disciplining, isn’t it!!”
Frank exclaimed in an excited, hoarse voice.
Frank liked Mialanze.
For him, there was no greater amusement than to watch Mialanze physically tormented, mentally forced, and struggling and trying desperately to fend for herself.
Ten years. One short phrase, but enough time for the young Mialanze to have grown to adulthood. Mialanze had been ens*aved by this man as livestock and humiliated by him incessantly for longer than she had been happy living in the forest.
“No matter how much you hate me! You cannot defy me! Let it be engraved in your soul who is your master!”
“Tsk… Ugh! Ugh…!”
The firewood swung down mercilessly and struck Mialanze.
Her body was completely immobilized. Raising her voice was the only resistance Mialanze could muster.
“Die! Die! Die! You, you, you…!”
“You say ‘die’ instead of ‘kill’? Oh, you understand, don’t you? You seem to know that you can’t do anything about it anyway!”
“Ugh…!”
The firewood struck Mialanze on the back.
With gritted teeth, Mialanze held back a scream.
–If only I had the power to … kill this man! Kill…! Kill…! Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill.
If only she could kill people with just a thought, Mialanze wondered.
No matter how much she filled her heart with murderous intent, her resentment would never reach him.
It should never have happened.
Suddenly, the area shook violently.
“Woah, Aah!?”
Frank screamed pitifully and fell over. Mialanze, who had been forced down, collapsed to the ground as if crushed.
Mialanze looked up again.
The hut was half blown away.
The walls and pillars remained at about half their original height, but the rest of the building had been gutted. A chilly wind blew through the space, and sunlight poured down from the clear blue sky.
“I thought there was a strange reaction to «Life Sensing» and came…”
Someone landed on the masonry of the chimney that had reached the halfway point.
Looking up, Mialanze saw the silver glow she had dreamed of.
A beautiful girl with silver hair and eyes.
On the skirt of her white dress was a rose of fresh blood.
In one hand, she held her own head, and in the other, a bright red sword that looked like it had been carved out of a jewel.
Named monster “Rose Princess of Hellrage”.
Her innocent face twisted ferociously and she laughed.
“Bingo. It must be Marquis Seebach.”
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