Deep within a dense forest, a petite girl in a black dress rapidly darted between the trees.
Moonlight slipped through the gaps in the leaves, casting mottled patches of light across her blue-violet ponytail as it bounced behind her.
She leaped toward a tree ahead and lightly kicked off a thick branch with her black leather boot.
The next instant—
Crack—
The seemingly sturdy branch proved unexpectedly fragile.
With a miserable snap, it broke beneath her feet.
"Again?!"
The girl cried out as her body lost its foothold and began falling uncontrollably.
"Will this ever end?!"
She twisted her petite body in midair, found the right angle, and kicked against the tree trunk.
Using the force, she landed steadily on the ground.
"Tch... This is already the seventh time tonight, isn't it...?"
Her pale green eyes stared at the broken branch lying beside her feet.
Even her voice trembled faintly.
The girl's name was Meili Portroute.
Despite her childlike appearance, her true occupation was that of an assassin.
A few days earlier, while Meili was feeding the mabeasts she had tamed, the intermediary responsible for delivering her assignments brought her a new job.
'Two days from now, quietly kill everyone still living in Roswaal Mansion.'
When Meili first saw the request, she was stunned.
Was this some kind of joke?
Roswaal was the legendary Court Mage.
Even if an assassin like her did not care about his social status, with Roswaal present, forget killing everyone—She would have to be incredibly careful just to kill one person without being discovered.
And they wanted it done through assassination?
Were they afraid the mission was not difficult enough already?
Meili had wanted to reject the commission.
But—
"Have you forgotten my teachings so quickly?"
"Didn't I tell you that you must continue living for my sake?"
"Or do you need me to educate you again?"
"That's fine too."
"No matter how many times Meili wants to learn, Mother can teach you."
"After all, educating a child is a [Mother's] responsibility."
A beautiful voice echoed beside her ears.
Most people would probably imagine its owner to be some graceful and enchanting princess from the sound alone.
But Meili, who knew exactly who that voice belonged to, immediately shuddered.
Her petite body began trembling uncontrollably.
That person was her [Mother].
The one who had once ordered Elsa to retrieve Meili from among a group of mabeasts protecting her, back when Meili did not even understand what kind of existence she herself was.
And in a twisted sense—
That [Mother] had indeed fulfilled the responsibilities of motherhood.
Because Meili did not understand language, she taught her how to speak—
At the price of taking away Meili's ability to lament.
Because Meili did not know how to walk, she taught her how—At the price of destroying Meili's means of resistance.
Because Meili did not know how to survive, she taught her how—At the price of carving fear so deeply into Meili's bones that she no longer even dared to hope for death.
Meili, who had understood nothing since birth, experienced regret for the first time within that place.
A hell worse than hell.
A nightmare worse than nightmares.
An evil darker than evil itself.
Now, standing before this [Mother] who would do absolutely anything in pursuit of love—No matter how unwilling Meili was, her body reacted faster than her thoughts.
Was [Mother] somehow forcing her to obey?
Or had Meili simply spent her entire life building herself around other people's expectations and drifting wherever they pushed her?
Even Meili did not know.
All she knew was that by the time she came back to her senses, her body had already acted on its own.
Pretending to be a lost little girl, she infiltrated the village near Roswaal Mansion.
Before long, while still worrying about how she would complete the mission—She spotted the blue-haired maid who had left Roswaal Mansion to purchase food.
Something was clearly wrong with the maid's condition.
An opportunity.
Meili realized it immediately.
Through [Mother's] "education," she had learned countless ways to kill people with curses.
And because of her unusual constitution, Meili could also control various mabeasts and make them obey her.
So while the blue-haired maid was distracted by some village children—Meili commanded a dog-like mabeast to secretly bite her.
Through the wound, she poured every curse she had into the maid all at once.
With that—There would be no way to remove the curses except by capturing Meili, the curse caster herself.
'They're out in the open, while I'm hidden.'
'The advantage is mine.'
Thinking that, Meili retreated deep into the forest within Roswaal's territory.
If the people from Roswaal Mansion dared enter the forest to capture her for the sake of that blue-haired maid—
They would have to face every mabeast Meili had tamed over the years.
Forget Roswaal alone.
Even if every member of the Royal Guard besides Reinhard entered this forest together, several of them would probably die here.
What Meili had not expected—Was that perhaps Roswaal simply did not care much about his maids.
Because instead of coming personally—He sent some pretty boy to find her.
Even after everything she had endured, Meili was still fundamentally a child.
So in her eyes, Roswaal's behavior was nothing less than a provocation.
She immediately decided to kill the man to vent her anger.
However—
When she ordered her naughty little animals to bite him to death, the previously ferocious mabeasts suddenly stopped obeying her.
After checking them, Meili discovered something absurd.
These mabeasts, which could normally chew through rocks and swallow them whole—Had suddenly developed diarrhea?
And not just one or two of them.
Every single mabeast had gotten diarrhea at the exact same time.
Forget following her orders.
The ones capable of remaining where they stood were already displaying remarkable willpower.
Most of the vicious mabeasts now wore strangely human expressions as they desperately fought over the healthiest-looking tree in the forest.
Fortunately, snake-type mabeasts did not suffer quite as much inconvenience from diarrhea as dog-type ones.
Even in that condition, they could maintain basic combat ability.
Otherwise—Without her mabeasts, Meili genuinely lacked confidence in defeating that man with her small arms and legs.
She had learned countless killing techniques from [Mother].
But her age was an unavoidable disadvantage.
With her body still undeveloped, she was naturally weaker in close combat against opponents with roughly equal skill.
Compared to direct combat, assassination—Or simply trampling enemies beneath a mabeast—Suited her much better.
Meili looked toward the few remaining mabeasts and prepared to issue another command.
The next instant—
RUMBLE—!
A bolt of lightning several meters wide crashed down from the sky.
In an instant, dazzling white light completely robbed Meili of her vision.
By the time she recovered from her daze—There were no mabeasts left in front of her.
Only traces of black ash scattered into the wind and disappeared between heaven and earth.
At this point—Even the slowest person would have realized what was happening.
This was not simply Meili having terrible luck.
It was an inevitability.
Something that absolutely had to happen.
The moment Meili decided to kill that man—The causality of the planet itself distorted.
The gears of fate turned—And forced this result upon her.
Before the overwhelming power of nature, every preparation Meili had made became as meaningless as the mabeasts that had just vanished into ash.
"What was that just now?"
"Yang magic?"
"Fire magic?"
"Or something like Mother's...?"
Meili stared wide-eyed at what had just happened, her pale green pupils filled with confusion.
As far as she knew, even [Mother's] abilities could not produce such overwhelming destruction through sheer offensive power.
To casually manipulate lightning from the heavens—Besides Volcanica, whose mana was supposedly vast enough to purify the entire world—Perhaps only the Witch of Envy from centuries ago could have done something like this.
How the hell was she supposed to fight that?!
Meili looked toward the distant man leisurely strolling in her direction as though he were merely out shopping.
She immediately chose the most sensible answer.
Run!
The terror [Mother] had carved into her body long ago had now been awakened again by the man before her.
If she were captured by someone who appeared even stronger than [Mother]—Meili did not know what would happen to her.
And she had absolutely no desire to find out.
She used every skill she possessed.
Everything she had learned throughout her life was put into practice.
Trap after trap was placed along the route—All for the sole purpose of escaping alive.
Yet—Falling trees.
Boulders blocking her path.
Crows dropping stones onto her from above.
Branches inexplicably snapping beneath her feet.
It was as though the entire world had abandoned her.
Everything Meili encountered seemed determined to block her escape.
...
Back in the present—After falling from the tree, Meili furiously stomped on the broken branch several times to vent her anger.
Then she circled around the road blocked by rocks and continued running toward the edge of the forest.
Finally—The trees began thinning.
Her field of vision gradually opened.
Seeing this, joy surged through her.
Meili accelerated and burst out of the forest in a single breath.
Then—A beautiful night sky filled with countless stars reflected in her eyes.
The moon hung high overhead, radiating soft silver light.
The heavens looked almost like a painting created solely to portray the joy she felt at this moment.
"I finally escaped Roswaal Mansion's barrier!"
"I don't know where all those rocks and trees forced me to detour to, but as long as I'm outside the barrier, trying to catch me now will—"
While speaking, Meili looked forward and began planning her next escape route.
Then—Her words froze halfway through her throat.
Because there was nowhere left to go.
There was no longer anything ahead that could be called a "road."
A violent gust of wind swept upward from the endless abyss beneath the cliff, stinging her face and instantly kicking her out of her joy at escaping.
Meili slowly looked back.
The distant figure was steadily approaching.
Her hand instinctively reached beneath her black cloak toward a hidden pocket.
Elsa had once told her—
'Don't blindly obey that woman.'
'Otherwise, no matter how many lives you have, they won't be enough.'
So compared to seeing something worse than hell again—Perhaps death would actually be a form of salvation.
But—
"It's gone?!"
Meili's hand grasped nothing.
Her pocket was completely empty.
The small knife she always carried for suicide, specifically to prevent herself from ever being captured by someone like [Mother] again—Had been lost somewhere during her escape.
Meili stared once more into the pitch-black abyss before her.
She began calculating the probability that she could jump and successfully die without that man's strange ability somehow interfering.
For the first time in a long while—Meili tasted despair.
Unable to lament.
Unable to resist.
Not even permitted to die.
Meili once again remembered the [Terror] she had gradually begun forgetting thanks to Elsa constantly reaching out to help her.
...
"Is this bastard the curse caster who attacked Rem?!"
Inside Roswaal Mansion, Ram stood protectively in front of Rem and glared furiously at the little girl Shiro was holding.
If Rem had not been present—Ram probably would have already torn apart the bastard who had cursed her sister.
At this moment, Meili resembled an emotionless doll.
She hugged her knees tightly to her chest and curled herself into a ball, allowing Shiro to hold her suspended in the air by the collar.
Looking at her strange condition, Shiro said—
"Yeah, she should be the one."
"Although I don't know why, she became like this the moment I caught her."
"I didn't even do anything to her."
As he spoke, Shiro used his free hand to touch his own face.
He should have been considered fairly attractive by most people's standards.
So why did this little girl look at him as though she had seen a ghost?
"Hah."
"This bastard probably realized that staying alive only wastes perfectly good air."
"She doesn't even have the courage to die, so she must have decided to remain like this and slowly rot away."
Ram sneered without mercy.
She seemed to be deliberately provoking Meili, perhaps hoping to watch the assassin struggle pitifully and vent some of her anger.
Unfortunately for her—Meili did not even respond.
Her eyes remained as lifeless and still as stagnant water.
"So what do we do with her?"
"You two are the victims."
"I'll leave this kid's fate to Ram and Rem."
Shiro looked toward Ram and the Rem standing behind her.
But the instant those words left his mouth—He suddenly felt Meili move slightly in his grip.
Then—Light finally returned to her eyes.
That reaction completely confused Shiro.
'What does that mean?'
'Why does she suddenly look hopeful after hearing that I'm handing her over to the two people she tried to kill?'
'Do I seriously look that terrifying???'
"A leech that survives by destroying other people's families and sucking their blood has no reason to continue existing!"
Ram's meaning was obvious.
An assassin who threatened Rem's life should simply be killed.
There was no need to ask them what to do with her.
Emilia looked toward the little girl with a trace of pity.
Still—She did not speak up to stop Ram.
Betty had already explained what happened.
The child might look pitiful, but she had genuinely tried to kill someone in the mansion.
Whatever treatment she received from Ram afterward was ultimately the consequence of her own actions.
When it came to distinguishing right from wrong—Emilia was unexpectedly clear-headed.
However—What the furious Ram never expected was—
"Wait, Sister."
Rem, standing behind her, suddenly spoke.
…