Episode 5: Ranael Was Unhappy
“Oh my, how funny. Even though she’s just that, she still has Irves blood. Blonde hair and blue eyes.”
A young woman’s voice came from behind the duke, who was sitting with his legs crossed.
“Raphiana, it’s cold. Why did you come all the way here?”
“I was curious. I wanted to see who Lord Nahar chose instead of me. I was so angry I couldn’t sleep.”
She was a blue eyed woman with wavy blonde hair flowing down to her waist. Wrapped in what looked like a fur coat made from twenty silver foxes, she looked surprisingly similar to Ranael. And yet, the feeling she gave off was completely different.
Unlike Ranael’s gentle eyes, Raphiana’s eyes slanted slightly upward like the duke’s, and an arrogant smile rested on her lips.
“There’s a younger sister too. Now we just have to find out which one it is.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Raphiana’s blue eyes sparkled, as if she were about to start an exciting game. Ranael could not tell whether her trembling body was from the cold or from fear.
Ranael lowered her head. At least in front of these people, she did not want to show them her tears.
“First, we’ll ask. It’s our first meeting today, but as her uncle, shouldn’t I be kind?”
The duke put on a friendly looking smile.
“Now then, tell me. Did you contract with Lord Nahar? Or was it your sister?”
Before she knew it, Ranael had collapsed with her face pressed to the ground, her whole body shaking violently. One of the knights grabbed her hair roughly and forced her head up.
“When you talk, you should look people in the eyes. Looks like your filthy parents didn’t even teach you that.”
The duke’s voice was still calm and relaxed. Raphiana smiled beautifully, clearly enjoying herself.
Ranael could not say a single word.
“My dear niece, even without hands, without feet, or with both eyes gouged out, you can still make spirit stones. I know, because I’ve already tried it.”
Before the duke even finished speaking, a sharp ringing sound sliced through the air. A knight drew his blade from its sheath. The cold blade lowered in front of Ranael’s face, reflecting her terrified blue eyes.
“Why make it so complicated? I can’t stand seeing blood. It’s too cruel.”
Raphiana smiled brightly. To her, this whole situation still seemed unbearably fun.
“Throw her into the lake. If she’s contracted with the Spirit King, she’ll survive. If not, she’ll drown.”
“What if she runs away by herself? Soft hearted as you are, you might not be able to do it. But those ones might even abandon their own blood.”
Raphiana was already standing beside the duke. Her face, dyed red by the flickering flames, looked almost like a monster’s. The duke gently took his daughter’s hand.
“If she runs away, her sister will slowly die with all her fingers and toes torn out. That’s not too heartless, is it?”
Raphiana frowned as if she had heard something awful. When the duke nodded in agreement and gestured, a knight slung Ranael over his shoulder.
No matter how hard she struggled, she could not escape. Ranael quickly weighed her options. Dying now, or living her whole life locked in the black house and slowly dying. Which was better? She wanted to save Erna at least. But she could not find an answer.
Before her tangled thoughts could reach a conclusion, her body was thrown into cold, dark water. With a loud splash, the winter lake pierced her skin like knives.
She remembered her father’s body leaning against the wall of the underground prison.
“Let’s just die. Let’s die together with Erna. Could the place death takes us really be worse than this hell?”
Ranael simply closed her eyes. Once submerged in the icy water, the pain strangely faded away.
She could not breathe. The iron chains on her legs slowly dragged her down toward the bottom of the lake.
“Ah… Erna, Mom, Dad… my spirit. Nahar. Nahar.”
Without realizing it, she softly called Nahar’s name. In her fading vision, she thought she saw her blue dog.
“I can’t let them find out…”
Her body felt light. She felt no pain at all. Death had saved her from hell.
After Ranael fell into the lake, Erna was dragged out of the black house as well. She was told to save her sister, who had sunk to the bottom of the lake. That was Erna’s trial.
Erna was also a spirit mage, but not a contractor, so without a spirit stone, she could not use spirit power. Clutching her eyes, now darkened with dirt, Erna screamed in despair.
“She’s going to die! My sister isn’t a contractor! Aaaah! Sister! Sister! What if you die! Save her! You bastards!”
Even when the knights restrained her, Erna struggled like she had lost her mind.
When they went to capture Ranael and Erna, the knights had asked the villagers about the sisters’ ages. The eldest was twenty, the younger sixteen. Ages could be lied about by a few years, but unlike the mature looking Ranael, Erna clearly had a young face.
Since Raphiana and Ranael were already twenty, the chance of them forming a contract now was practically zero. But Erna still had time left before adulthood.
Either way, they needed a contractor who could make spirit stones. Even if a spirit stone was used sparingly, one could only be used about ten times. Even if only those with the Irves name used them, the supply Seran had made before dying would run out within ten years.
The duke cursed his own carelessness. Killing Seran too early left a bitter taste in his mouth. He should have squeezed him dry until the very end before killing him. What a waste.
He could not make the same mistake again. Even if Erna was not the Spirit King’s contractor, as long as she was the last candidate, she had to be kept alive. If that little girl refused to cooperate in making spirit stones, cutting off an arm or a leg or two would do.
Still, someone who screamed about dying without understanding anything was difficult to handle. He wanted to get rid of Ranael, who was not a contractor, but keeping her alive as a hostage seemed cleaner.
After finishing his thoughts, irritation was clear on the duke’s face. These filthy things ruining his plans felt like painful hangnails.
Blood flowing from Erna’s head stained the white snow red. Seeing that sight, the duke clicked his tongue. Using spirit power, he pulled Ranael up from the bottom of the lake.
The lake water wrapped around her and lifted her onto the snow. It was a miracle that Ranael, who looked like a frozen corpse, was still alive.
The sisters were locked back inside the black house. Perhaps he had decided to keep them alive, because the duke did not put them in the underground prison again. The tips of Ranael’s fingers and toes were frozen, dark blue like rotting flesh.
Erna forgot even to sleep as she kept rubbing her sister’s hands and feet. When the frozen body finally began to thaw, a burning fever followed.
Other than occasional groans, Ranael did not move at all. Erna could not stop thinking about their father as he had looked in the underground prison.
Erna cried loudly, then held back her tears, then cried again, over and over.
“Sister! Sister… h-hic.”
“E… Erna… are you okay?”
The first thing Ranael saw when she regained consciousness was Erna. Ranael had suffered for a full three days after being thrown into the icy lake. She survived, but when she opened her eyes, she was still in the middle of hell.
The black house consisted of an underground prison, a small bathroom and living room on the first floor, and a room on the second floor. There was no furniture and no windows, so even sunlight never entered. Still, it was better than the underground prison. It was a two year grace period until Erna turned eighteen.
Like pigs or chickens raised only to be eaten, the duke kept Erna alive so he could eventually use her. Erna and Ranael were hostages to each other.
Because the black house had no windows, it was hard to tell day from night. Only a finger length of light slipped in through a small crack in the single door.
Every few days, just enough food to keep them from dying was brought in. A single barrel of water was delivered, and they had to carefully divide it between drinking and washing.
“Ranael, we can be happy. Happiness is something you choose.”
She remembered her mother’s words, words she had always held close to her heart. Ranael shook her head. Her mother was wrong. In this hell, Ranael could no longer feel happiness.
When the sounds of birds and insects outside faded away, silence crept in.
“I should have died back then.”
That thought quietly raised its head. Whenever it did, Ranael gently stroked Erna’s sleeping face. She could not leave this child alone in hell.
Ranael was unhappy.
