PCS 4

Chapter 04

As long as people live in society, they’re bound to form all kinds of relationships.

And when it came to Kanis, Hwangja couldn’t tolerate any of them.

Her family. Her friends. Her companions.

He couldn’t stand Kanis directing her attention toward anyone else, so he confined her. Even though he wasn’t even her lover!

Naturally, Kanis resisted and wanted to escape from him. But the more she resisted, the more obsessed Hwangja became with locking her inside an ever smaller cage.

Eventually, he went so far as to imprison her by force inside his own palace.

‘The fact that a place like that was hidden inside the palace gave me chills too.’

Kanis did everything she could to escape, but every attempt ended in failure. Seeing how desperately she wanted to get away from him only drove Hwangja further into madness.

Ignoring Kanis’s constant pleas to be released, he instead threatened the lives of the people around her as leverage.

…The problem was that this white-haired child was one of those hostages.

And not just any hostage, either—he was the very first example. His head was cut clean off at the beginning of Hwangja’s obsession to serve as a warning.

‘Damn it!’

Yujin cursed inwardly once again.

Now she understood why she hadn’t recognized him immediately.

White hair.

An extra whose hair had turned completely white from the shock of being abandoned by his parents.

His backstory had existed only to emphasize how miserable the children trapped in the slave market had been—a device to portray the heroine’s bleak past.

The white-haired child didn’t even have a name.

At the start of the game, he appeared as Kanis’s friend, making players think he might become an important supporting character.

Instead, he was killed as punishment for Kanis’s escape attempt—a disposable tool used solely to demonstrate Hwangja’s cruelty.

‘Come on. Isn’t dying supposed to mean you finally get to rest, whether it’s Heaven or the afterlife or wherever?’

The moment she thought she had died, she’d immediately started a new life.

She hadn’t even heard of something so absurd.

She wasn’t expecting a lengthy judgment separating good from evil or angels welcoming her with the sound of trumpets.

But couldn’t they at least have given her a moment to realize she’d died?

“Hey… are you feeling a little better now?”

Still overwhelmed by confusion, Yujin looked up when Kanis finally spoke after patiently waiting for her to finish drinking.

The tail swaying gently behind Kanis openly displayed her harmless curiosity toward Yujin.

“I’m Kanis. I’ve only been here for a few days.”

When she finished speaking, her tail drooped sadly.

She had probably remembered something unpleasant from her time here.

Watching the heroine look so dejected, Yujin felt obligated to say something too.

“I’m…”

But she had no idea what to say.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

As Yujin hesitated, only moving her lips silently, Kanis seemed to understand her discomfort and continued first.

“You came here yesterday, right? I saw those men bringing you and the other kids in on a wagon.”

Kanis lowered her green eyes slightly, as though recalling the scene.

“You were the smallest one out of everyone, so I noticed you. The smallest child cried all night, then suddenly went quiet, so I thought you’d finally fallen asleep.”

“…But when morning came, you still hadn’t moved at all, so I thought you…”

Kanis trailed off.

She didn’t finish the sentence, but Yujin understood exactly what she’d been about to say.

It seemed the original owner of this body had died even earlier than in the original story.

‘Right… the game said her parents sold her into slavery themselves.’

Had her parents’ betrayal been that devastating for such a young child?

A bitter feeling filled Yujin’s mouth.

She lowered her head for a moment and silently prayed for the soul of the nameless little girl.

Perhaps feeling awkward about the silence, Kanis fidgeted with her fingers before asking,

“What’s your name?”

Yujin instinctively opened her mouth.

Then she hesitated.

What name should she give?

The name of this body?

But she knew almost nothing about the child she’d become.

After thinking for a long while, Yujin finally answered with her own name.

“I’m… Yujin.”

Since only nobles possessed family names in this world, she omitted her surname.

She was grateful that “Yujin” sounded natural enough even in a Western fantasy setting.

At the very least, in this bewildering situation, she could keep the one name that truly belonged to her.

“Yujin. I see.”

“That’s a nice name.”

After complimenting her, Kanis carefully observed Yujin’s expression before asking,

“Are you feeling calmer now?”

“Yeah… Oh, thanks for the water.”

“It’s nothing.”

She smiled softly.

“Um… if you’re okay with it, could you tell me how you ended up here?”

“So… how I got here?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s been telling each other what they saw on the way here.”

“…Why?”

The only thing Yujin had seen before arriving here was the blinding glare of headlights.

She couldn’t think of anything useful to tell her.

Her question came out colder than intended, almost sounding suspicious.

But Kanis merely smiled reassuringly before answering firmly,

“If we know the way in, maybe we can figure out the way out.”

Despite still being just a child, conviction shone brightly in her green eyes.

‘As expected.’

Yujin looked at Kanis with growing admiration.

She had always liked this heroine while playing the game.

Kind.

Courageous.

Always standing tall no matter what.

Even after being captured by slave traders, Kanis hadn’t given in to despair.

She comforted the children around her while quietly planning an escape.

That was exactly the Kanis Yujin knew.

‘So she’d been gathering information for her escape.’

Instead of leaving the children to sit silently in fear, giving them hope that sharing what they knew might help them escape was far more meaningful.

“Even something you only caught a glimpse of is fine.”

“Just tell me whatever you remember.”

Kanis looked at Yujin with earnest eyes.

“Ah… I…”

The moment Yujin met those hopeful green eyes, she desperately wanted to tell Kanis something—anything that might help.

But she couldn’t.

She knew nothing about the route that had brought her to this slave market.

She knew everything else.

She knew what Kanis would go through.

She knew what kind of place the palace was, even though it couldn’t be seen from here.

She knew what kind of world this was.

But she couldn’t tell her the way.

This wasn’t the kind of game where you freely explored maps or gathered items yourself.

Golden Cage was a story-driven game where everything depended solely on the choices the protagonist made.

‘What am I supposed to do?’

Not just about answering Kanis’s question.

Yujin honestly had no idea how she should survive after suddenly being thrown into this world.

Everything had happened far too suddenly.

Just then—

Flap.

The curtain was suddenly pulled aside.

Bright sunlight poured into the room.

A figure stepped through the dazzling light.

“What is this place?”

He looked like a statue sculpted by a god using only the most precious things in existence.

Gold and silver adorned his eyes and hair.

His skin seemed dusted with crushed diamonds.

His lips resembled sacred blood.

His teeth looked as though they had been carved from ivory itself.

His broad shoulders and well-built frame still commanded overwhelming presence even beneath a perfectly tailored military uniform.

The flawless young man entered with the brilliant light at his back.

‘Prince Mikael!’

Yujin recognized him immediately.

He looked exactly as the game had described—a being with the appearance of a beloved angel crafted by God Himself.

But his appearance…

‘Holy…’

The illustrations in the game hadn’t been bad.

On the contrary, they had been praised by fans for their exceptional artwork.

Yet seeing him in person made every image she’d ever seen feel woefully inadequate.

Yujin was stunned.

Even within the game, Prince Mikael’s beauty had been praised as unparalleled throughout the world.

His event illustrations alone had been breathtaking.

But—

‘Can a human being actually look like that?’

His face was enough to inspire nothing but pure awe.

It was so overwhelmingly beautiful that every handsome man Yujin had ever seen—in movies, television, or anywhere else—was instantly erased from memory.

The sheer visual impact left her completely speechless.

Because of that, she realized only a moment too late that the godlike boy was staring directly at her.

‘W-What?’

The instant she became aware of those inhuman golden eyes fixed on her, she suddenly became painfully conscious of everything about herself.

Even her own breathing felt awkward.

She grew so stiff that she almost forgot how long she was supposed to wait after exhaling before taking another breath.

Then the angel before her—

At least, an angel on the outside—

Finally spoke.

“What is this bizarre thing?”

His tone was arrogant, the kind of voice that naturally looked down on everyone.

And having heard that line countless times before, Yujin immediately remembered the familiar scene.