Chapter – 04
Lismere, where Cecilia lived, was a principality that had built its prosperity on military power. It had accumulated national wealth through troop deployments and arms exports, but gain always came with loss.
Ideological conflicts and economic hardship were bearable, comparatively speaking. The real tragedy was the orphans, widows, and soldiers who had failed to adapt to society after returning from deployment.
The back alleys of the city had become a breeding ground for crime and poverty, where these people gathered.
People called that place “Easthollow” (Easthollow: the void in the east).
‘The atmosphere…….’
As she looked around, Cecilia tensed and hunched her body.
Garbage was scattered throughout alleys so narrow that even cars could not enter. Cold water dripped from wet laundry hanging on old electrical wires stretched between the buildings, soaking the foreheads of passersby.
Cecilia stared intently at a black stray dog at the end of the alley, only to realize with a start that it was actually a person. She hurriedly averted her gaze. Ruby sat on her shoulder and chattered.
「Ugh, it’s cold. It’s creepy. Even my friends who love rummaging through garbage cans don’t come to places like this.」
「Still, 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 slightly altered her plan. In any case, she would need a forged identity card not only in this city but even after taking a train out of it.
Shortcuts were usually expensive and came without principles. Since the other side would charge whatever price they pleased, she decided she should obtain an identity card while she still had plenty of money.
「But Cecilia, you do know where the people who make those ‘identity cards’ are, right?」
「Hmm…… I suppose I’ll find them somehow if I keep going.」
「What?!」
Ruby shrieked and flapped her wings.
「No! I don’t want to freeze to death in a place like this! Surely even that slippery snake hiding under your skirt……!」
「Don’t worry. If things come to that, I can ask for help.」
With her lips stretched into a long smile, Cecilia quietly pulled a plastic bag from inside her clothes.
Two slices of white bread had been cut into small pieces so that mice could easily carry them away.
「The city’s sewer rats know everything. Sometimes they know more than pigeons, you know?」
「That may be true…… But do you really think the ones living in the back alleys will be interested in pieces of bread?」
「I’ve never seen a rat that doesn’t like bread, Ruby.」
Despite Ruby’s doubtful groan, Cecilia remained confident.
But she did not even realize that she was seriously mistaken about something.
As Davion had said, Cecilia Winterhall was no different from a weed grown inside a greenhouse. She had spent practically her entire life confined to a vast estate equipped with everything one could imagine, including fields, mountains, and valleys. She was a woman who knew absolutely nothing about the ways of the world.
Naturally, she had no idea what the back alleys were really like for a young woman.
「What’s wrong?」
When Cecilia suddenly turned around, Ruby also followed her gaze and blinked her two go-stone-like eyes.
Strange. She could have sworn she had heard footsteps……
‘Or not?’
Cecilia stared at the desolate entrance to the alley, where garbage rolled across the ground, and fiddled with her left ear.
「No, it’s nothing. I must have heard wrong.」
But after that, she had barely taken a few steps before stopping in the same spot again.
「Cecilia?」
They say human intuition can sometimes be sharper than the instincts of flying creatures. Her blood began to flow rapidly, and a chill crept up Cecilia’s spine.
No way.
Barely keeping her body under control as it began to twist with fear, she cautiously approached the entrance of the alley and leaned forward. Then her eyes met those of a cat sitting atop a pile of garbage.
“Ah…….”
A breathless sound escaped Cecilia’s lips.
She was just about to sigh in relief and pat her chest when—
“You’re looking in the wrong direction, young lady.”
The foul smell of cigarettes and a low chuckle.
Before she could even turn toward the source, a powerful blow crashed into the back of her head.
‘Huh……?’
The world spun upside down in the wrong direction, while the pile of garbage and the cat seemed to hold up the sky. Like a shattered incandescent light bulb, Cecilia’s nervous system flickered rapidly as it desperately struggled to keep her conscious.
In a fleeting instant lasting less than a second, a montage of memories flashed through her mind. Perhaps because he was the man she had spent years with, Davion appeared in most of the fragmented moments.
The montage flowed backward into the past.
Davion, who had always been frowning, had gradually begun to smile gently at her. Beneath the pouring midsummer rain, his pitch-black eyes quietly expressed his love.
Then, just as the rain stopped and their first meeting was about to return, Cecilia finally gave up resisting and closed her eyes.
The gates of pitch-black unconsciousness opened.
What heralded its beginning was the powerful sound of Ruby’s wings as she flew upward from the ground.
.
.
.
Cecilia dreamed of a faded photo album.
By then, a flame-like sunset was spreading beyond the mountain ridge. Davion sat on the edge of the bed, carefully holding the hand of Cecilia, who had just awakened, as though it might break.
Cecilia did not bother asking what he was thinking as he stared into empty space. Instead, perhaps she tugged at his sleeve.
Davion turned toward her and smiled softly. His smile became brighter than ever when Cecilia said something, radiating happiness he could not hide.
He whispered a reply before leaning down to kiss her. Cecilia closed her eyes and buried her head in the pillow, but then she sensed something strange and frowned.
“Mm…….”
The only reason Cecilia regained consciousness was because the floor against her cheek was unbearably cold. When she put strength into her neck to turn her head, a throbbing pain shot through the back of her head.
Her memories receded like the tide. Cecilia coughed and lifted her heavy eyelids.
‘Where is this……?’
There was the damp, musty smell characteristic of an old wooden building. The faint light pouring from an old incandescent bulb softly illuminated the room.
The window that appeared in Cecilia’s field of vision had been boarded up.
She was trapped.
The moment she realized this, she hurriedly lifted her skirt and examined her legs. Her shoes and stockings were still there, but she felt a subtle sense of emptiness.
‘It’s gone.’
Good heavens. Where did it go?
Her sense of dismay surged even more fiercely than the fear of having been kidnapped. Cecilia hurriedly began feeling around her body, searching for something.
Then, a low female voice, hoarse from disuse, quietly tore through the silence.
“They don’t do things like that. They can get women anywhere.”
“Ah…….”
Only then did Cecilia realize that there were other women trapped inside the room.
Four women who appeared to be around Cecilia’s age were huddled together in a corner, watching her as though observing her. Perhaps they had been subjected to terrible treatment after being kidnapped, because none of them looked well.
“You were unlucky too. You’re going to be sold anyway, so let’s pray we find good masters.”
A forlorn smile, as though she had abandoned everything, was returned to Cecilia. A dull ache spread beneath her ribs. Cecilia staggered to her feet and touched her cheek with her fingertips.
The swelling had subsided a little, but the pockmarks had not disappeared. That meant less than an hour had passed since she was kidnapped.
Beyond the thin wall, Ruby’s panicked shrieks echoed.
‘At least this isn’t underground.’
As Cecilia gradually assessed the situation, a drop of water suddenly fell onto her forehead with a plop. She instinctively raised her chin and sighed.
Parts of the ceiling had rotted away, leaving holes shaped along the grain of the wood. Above it, she could hear something with a long body dragging itself across the surface with a hissing sound.
There you are.
Fortunately, it hadn’t been lost along the way. Finally relieved, Cecilia buried her face between her knees and managed to catch her breath.
“But you don’t have some terrible disease, do you? You’re not going to spread it to us, are you……?”
“No. My face has been like this since I was born.”
“Then come over here. You shouldn’t stand out.”
‘Can a face like that really be sold?’
Someone hiding in the innermost corner muttered under their breath. Regardless, Cecilia examined her own body. She wasn’t sure whether she should be grateful to the people who had done this to her, but they had not tied her hands or feet.
Including the other women, Cecilia had a bizarre six-digit number written on her left arm.
It was the kind of number normally branded onto livestock put up for sale.
When Cecilia instinctively rubbed it with her palm, 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 figure entered the edge of Cecilia’s vision.
There was someone else in the room besides them.
