Chapter 4
The country where Cecilia lived, Lismere, was a monarchy that had built its prosperity on military power. It had accumulated national wealth through military deployments and weapons exports, but every gain always came with a cost.
Ideological conflicts and economic hardship were bearable, relatively speaking.
The real tragedy was the orphans, widows, and soldiers who had failed to adjust to society after returning from military service.
The back alleys of the city had become a breeding ground for crime and poverty as these people gathered there.
People called that place Easthollow.
(Easthollow: the emptiness of the east.)
The atmosphere…
Cecilia looked around and hunched her body nervously.
Trash was scattered throughout the narrow alleys, some of them too cramped even for cars to enter.
Cold water dripped from wet laundry hanging on old electrical wires stretched between the buildings, splashing onto the foreheads of passersby.
Cecilia stared intently at a black stray dog at the end of the alley.
Then she realized it was actually a person and hurriedly looked away in surprise.
Ruby sat on her shoulder and chattered.
「Ugh, it’s cold. This place is creepy. Even my friends who love digging through trash cans don’t come here.」
「They say you can get anything here as long as you have money. Now that I’ve changed my face, I need to get an identity card.」
Cecilia had slightly changed her plan.
She would need a forged identity card not only in this city, but also after she took a train and left.
Illegal methods had no fixed rules and were usually expensive.
Since the other side could charge whatever price they wanted, she had decided that she should get an identity card while she still had plenty of money.
「But Cecilia, you do know where the people who make these ‘identity cards’ are, right?」
「Hmm… If we keep going, won’t we eventually find them somehow?」
「What?!」
Ruby let out a shriek and frantically flapped his wings.
「No! I don’t want to freeze to death in a place like this! Surely that slippery snake hiding under your skirt…!」
「Don’t worry. If things get difficult, we can ask for help.」
Cecilia stretched her lips into a long smile and quietly took a plastic bag from inside her clothes.
Inside were two slices of bread, cut into small pieces so that mice could easily carry them away.
「City rats know everything. Sometimes I think they know even more than pigeons.」
「That’s true, but… Do you really think the ones living in the back alleys will be interested in scraps of bread?」
「I’ve never met a mouse that didn’t like bread, Ruby.」
Despite Ruby’s doubtful groan, Cecilia remained confident.
But she didn’t even realize that she was seriously mistaken about something.
Just as Davion had said, Cecilia Winterhall was no different from a weed growing inside a greenhouse.
She had spent practically her entire life confined to a vast estate where everything was provided, including fields, mountains, and valleys.
She was a woman who knew absolutely nothing about the ways of the world.
Naturally, she also had no idea about the ugly reality of the back alleys, the side of them that only young women were likely to see.
「What’s wrong?」
When Cecilia suddenly turned around, Ruby also followed her gaze, blinking his go-stone-black eyes.
That’s strange. I’m sure I heard footsteps…
Or did I?
Cecilia stared at the desolate entrance of the alley, where trash rolled around in the wind, and rubbed her left ear.
「It’s nothing. I must have heard wrong.」
But a few steps later, she stopped in the same spot again.
「Cecilia?」
They say that human intuition can sometimes be sharper than the instincts of flying creatures.
As her blood began to flow faster, a chill traveled down Cecilia’s spine.
No way.
Barely keeping her trembling body under control, she cautiously approached the entrance of the alley and leaned forward.
And then her eyes met those of a cat sitting on top of a pile of trash.
“Ah…”
A breathy sound escaped between Cecilia’s lips.
She was just about to sigh in relief and pat her chest when—
“Not that way, miss.”
The foul smell of cigarettes.
A low laugh.
Before she could even turn toward the source, a powerful blow struck the back of her head.
Huh…?
The world spun upside down in the wrong direction.
The pile of trash and the cat seemed to hold up the sky.
Like a broken incandescent light bulb flickering for the last time, Cecilia’s nervous system rapidly flashed as it desperately struggled to keep her conscious.
In that fleeting moment, which lasted less than a second, a series of memories flashed through her mind.
Perhaps because he was a man she had spent several years with, Davion appeared in most of the fragments.
The memories flowed backward into the past.
Davion, who had always been frowning, had gradually begun smiling gently at her.
Under the pouring summer rain, his pitch-black eyes quietly expressed his love.
Then, just as the rain stopped and the memory was about to return to their first meeting, Cecilia finally gave up resisting and closed her eyes.
The gates of pitch-black unconsciousness opened.
And the sound that marked its beginning was the powerful beating of Ruby’s wings as he flew toward the ground.
.
.
.
Cecilia dreamed of something like a faded photo album.
By then, the sunset had spread like flames beyond the mountain ridge.
Davion was sitting on the edge of the bed, carefully holding her hand as though it might break.
Cecilia didn’t bother asking what he was thinking as he stared into empty space.
Instead, perhaps she tugged on his sleeve.
Davion turned toward her and gave her a gentle smile.
When Cecilia said something to him, that smile became brighter than ever, radiating happiness that he could no longer hide.
He whispered his answer, then bent down and kissed her.
Cecilia closed her eyes and buried her head into the pillow.
Then she sensed something strange and frowned.
“Hmm…”
She regained consciousness purely because the floor against her cheek was so cold.
When she strained her neck to turn her head, the back of her head throbbed with pain.
Her memories receded like the tide.
Cecilia coughed and slowly lifted her heavy eyelids.
Where is this…?
There was the damp, musty smell unique to an old wooden building.
The weak light from an old incandescent bulb softly illuminated the room.
The window that appeared in Cecilia’s field of vision had been boarded shut.
I’m trapped.
The moment she realized that, she hurriedly lifted her skirt and checked her legs.
Her shoes and stockings were still there, but she felt that something was subtly missing.
It’s gone.
Good heavens. Where did it go?
The frustration that rose within her was even sharper than the fear of having been kidnapped.
Cecilia hurriedly began feeling all over her body, desperately searching for something.
Then a woman’s hoarse voice quietly broke through the silence.
“Those men don’t do that kind of thing. They can get women anywhere.”
“Ah…”
Only then did Cecilia notice that there were other women trapped inside the room.
Four women who looked to be around Cecilia’s age were huddled together in a corner, watching her as though observing a strange creature.
Perhaps they had been treated horribly after being kidnapped, because they all looked miserable.
“You were unlucky too. We’re going to be sold anyway, so let’s pray we end up with a good master.”
The woman gave a sorrowful smile, as though she had completely given up on everything.
Cecilia felt a dull ache beneath her ribs.
She staggered to her feet and touched her cheek with her fingertips.
The swelling had gone down slightly, but the pockmarks were still there.
That meant less than an hour had passed since she was kidnapped.
Through the thin wall came Ruby’s panicked shrieks.
First of all, we’re not underground.
As Cecilia slowly began piecing together the situation, a drop of water suddenly fell onto her forehead.
She instinctively lifted her chin and sighed.
The ceiling had rotted in several places, leaving holes shaped along the grain of the wood.
Above it, she could hear something dragging its long body along while making a hissing sound.
So it was there.
Fortunately, she hadn’t lost it on the way here.
Finally relieved, Cecilia buried her face between her knees and let out a quiet sigh.
“But you don’t have some terrible disease, do you? It won’t spread to us, will it…?”
“No. I’ve had this face since I was born.”
“Then come over here. You can’t attract attention.”
Do they even sell a face like that?
Cecilia heard someone mutter quietly from the innermost corner of the room.
She ignored it and examined her body.
She wasn’t sure whether she should thank the people who had done this to her, but at least they hadn’t tied up her hands and feet.
Like the other women, Cecilia had a strange six-digit number written on her left arm.
It was the kind of number normally branded onto livestock being put up for sale.
Cecilia unconsciously rubbed her palm against it, trying to erase it.
Someone hurriedly grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
“Don’t. If it gets erased, they might beat you.”
Just then, a black shape appeared at the edge of Cecilia’s vision.
There was someone else in the room besides them.
