Chapter 5

That person stood out quite clearly.

It was because she was sitting alone, separated from everyone else, beside the door.

She was a woman with broad shoulders and a well-built body, to the point that she looked somewhat unusual.

Perhaps because she was sitting cross-legged, she also gave off a strangely masculine impression.

Her long blonde hair had come completely loose and was such a mess that Cecilia couldn’t even see her face properly.

The black satin dress that covered her entire body, as though she absolutely refused to expose even a patch of bare skin, made the woman seem even more out of place.

Was she kidnapped from some party?

No. Maybe I’ve hit my head and I’m seeing things.

“Um, that person…”

When Cecilia pointed toward the woman near the door, the woman who had grabbed her wrist shook her head.

“I asked her several times if she was all right, but she doesn’t answer. I think she might be deaf.”

Deaf?

Worried, Cecilia carefully examined the woman by the door.

For an instant, she thought their eyes met through the tangled blonde hair, but she wasn’t certain because the woman quickly lowered her head.

The others were still huddled together in the corner, trembling with fear.

As the cold sweat dried on her body, the chill rising from the floor pierced her skin like needles.

Wrapping both arms around her upper body, Cecilia began walking around the enclosed room, pounding on the walls with her fists.

“What are you doing?”

The woman who looked the oldest hurriedly grabbed Cecilia’s wrist and tried to stop her.

Fear could be seen in the way she kept glancing at the tightly closed door.

But Cecilia shook off her hand and said firmly,

“We have to get out of here somehow. We can’t just let ourselves be sold.”

I have to solve this myself.

No one is coming to rescue us.

Davion’s face appeared before her eyes again, but she shook her head and pushed the image away.

That man no longer exists in Cecilia’s life.

In the Lismere monarchy, women with white hair were uncommon.

Cecilia knew very well how valuable she would be as an attractive commodity.

That made it all the more important that her original appearance could never return.

Her hands moved faster as she searched every corner of the room.

Since it was an old building, she had assumed there would be a gap somewhere.

But the walls were completely sealed.

The boards covering the window were not flimsy enough to be torn away with bare hands, either.

In the end, that meant the only way out was through the door.

When Cecilia finally began stomping her feet impatiently, all the women screamed in terror.

“Don’t! Those men have no hesitation about killing people. You might get shot!”

It was the same woman who had grabbed Cecilia’s wrist earlier.

Cecilia checked the sparse holes in the ceiling once again and silently disagreed.

No. They won’t even have time to pull the trigger.

A pair of tiny lights was approaching from above the ceiling, accompanied by a hissing sound.

“I-I don’t know! Do whatever you want!”

When fierce footsteps began pounding outside, the woman finally gave up trying to persuade Cecilia and hurriedly hid herself in the darkness.

Cecilia quickly pressed her back against the wall beside the door.

She could feel the blonde woman who had been crouching there looking up at her.

Surprisingly, that woman wasn’t trembling at all.

She looked almost as if she were enjoying an interesting show.

Soon, the door opened with a horrifying creak.

“Well, have my cute little puppies been good?”

A terrible stench made up of all kinds of foul smells filled the room.

Cecilia completely forgot that she was hiding and nearly gagged.

The thug chuckled while holding a gun.

Then he noticed that Cecilia was missing, and his expression hardened.

“Wait. One of them is missing.”

He put the gun into his back pocket and pulled out a pocketknife.

He roughly grabbed one of the women’s hair and dragged her toward him, pressing the blade against her cheek.

“Where did the white-haired one go?”

When the woman screamed, Cecilia covered her mouth.

“I said, where did the white-haired one go, huh?!”

Just then, a long shadow, thin like a rope, slowly descended from the ceiling.

As the thug’s hand moved toward his gun again, Cecilia violently kicked the door that had been blocking her.

Bang!

「Nagi.」

“What the?!”

The thug spun around in surprise.

Between Cecilia and the thug, a viper stared directly at him, its bright yellow eyes shining.

「Bite him.」

Nagi opened its torn-looking jaws and swallowed the thug’s face whole.

Along with his scream.

* * *

Animals had several clear characteristics.

With the exception of dogs, they generally did not like humans.

If anything, they were more likely to be wary and afraid of them.

Animals with young, in particular, did their best to avoid being noticed by humans.

But once they opened their hearts to someone, they remained loyal to and loved that person until the day they died, no matter who they were.

Going back several years, to when Ruby was still a baby crow…

Cecilia had climbed a tree and rescued him just as he was about to be eaten by a snake.

Then what happened to that snake?

The snake that Cecilia had thrown into the stream at the time?

「You’re mean!」

That night, after rescuing the baby crow, Cecilia had fallen asleep.

In the middle of the night, a strange voice suddenly startled her awake.

A white-and-black-striped viper was sitting on her chest, hissing angrily.

The snake glared at the bewildered Cecilia, raised its fangs, and let out an angry cry.

「I’m hungry because of you! Look at this! I’m hurt! It hurts! It really hurts!」

Animals become more intelligent and gain knowledge the more they communicate with humans.

Conversely, animals that have never communicated with humans have limited language abilities and cannot even form long sentences.

This was especially true for animals that did not live in groups.

「It hurts!」

Judging by its voice, it was a young female.

She had probably been in the world for only about four months.

Cecilia propped her elbow against the bed and raised her upper body.

The viper showed her its side.

Perhaps it had hit a rock when Cecilia threw it into the stream, because blood was flowing from a wound along its side.

Oh.

Cecilia became flustered and broke into a cold sweat.

「I’m sorry. I was just thinking about saving the babies, so I… I’ll put some medicine on it, so don’t be angry, okay?」

「Give me food, too. I’m hungry. If you don’t, I’ll eat a human tomorrow!」

「Th-That wouldn’t be okay.」

The viper followed Cecilia down the stairs, hissing all the way.

Cecilia reached the small kitchen and rummaged through the basket on the sink for a long while.

Then she looked down at the viper and cautiously asked,

「Um… do you eat fish, by any chance?」

Unfortunately, Cecilia was a vegetarian who only ate eggs and fish, so she had no meat that a snake would like.

* * *

The snake venom quickly spread through the man’s tiny blood vessels.

The thug’s body silently collapsed onto the wooden floor.

Nagi waited until he lost consciousness, then slowly unwound its body from around the man’s head.

「Good job, Nagi.」

「What about that crow you call Ruby?」

「He’s outside.」

Nagi listened to Ruby’s cries for a moment, then made a prim little snorting sound before smoothly slipping underneath Cecilia’s skirt.

It usually wrapped itself around Cecilia’s left leg and stayed hidden from people’s eyes.

Cecilia knew very well how powerful snake venom could be.

Only a few seconds earlier, the man’s body had been trembling intermittently.

Now it had become as still as a corpse.

She didn’t want to check whether he was still breathing.

Cecilia knelt where she was and stretched her arm as far away as possible, picking up the gun that had fallen onto the floor.

The gun was loaded.

So he really was planning to shoot someone…

After checking the gun and looking up, Cecilia saw the women huddled in the corner flinch and cling tightly to one another.

The way they looked at her was as though they were looking at some terrifying monster.

Cecilia’s mouth turned bitter.

Nagi poked its head out from beneath her skirt and snorted.

「Humans!」

「We need to get out immediately. I need to find out how many people are outside.」

Just then, a sewer rat was hurriedly walking along the edge of the wall.

Cecilia felt around her waist, then let out a frustrated groan.

The pocket where she had kept the bag of bread was completely empty.

It seemed that all her belongings had been taken when she was kidnapped.

Then I guess I have no choice…

She knew it was rude, but she couldn’t think of any other good option.

She blocked the rat’s path with the toe of her shoe and suddenly spoke to it.

「Hey, you. Do you happen to know how many humans there are inside this building?」