Chapter 46
Whoosh-.
Waves rippled following the gentle wind.
Smelling the characteristic salty scent of the sea brushing her nose, the fox lifted her closed eyelids.
Warm air brushed her cheeks.
"......"
What appeared in her vision was none other than an endlessly stretching vast sea.
It was a nightmare that had become too familiar now.
The background was invariably a prison built on the sea.
"Haa..."
A sigh escaped due to her weary heart.
The girl who had been letting her auburn hair flutter for a moment soon sat down, leaning her back against the old iron bars.
The rusted iron bars let out a groan.
Creak.
Regardless, the fox hugged her knees.
The water surface lapping up to ankle height.
Because of that, the fox's lower body had to be submerged in the sea.
Of course, perhaps because it was a dream, her clothes didn't get wet, but the girl always had a complex look.
It was due to a kind of sense of loss.
'It's too... quiet.'
As she was aware it was a dream, she kept wanting to wake up.
Because it was a terribly lonely world.
The alien warmth of sunlight.
Perhaps it was deception.
-Irene.
-I can no longer stay by your side as your master... Nor should I.
-So this is farewell.
-Please live on.
As always.
The most longed-for voice brushed her ear at the loneliest moment.
The fox chewed over vague memories and shook off the remaining bitterness.
It was a kind of dark adaptation.
Waves drowning in silence.
The fox quietly waited again.
To wake from this nightmare.
For the nauseating sense of loss to be filled.
***
It seemed she had fallen asleep for a moment.
Perhaps because the effects of the sleep magic remained. Her consciousness had been cut off.
Irene came to her senses from the oncoming headache.
"......"
What appeared in her vision was an unfamiliar ceiling.
A prison where darkness flowed thickly.
It was truly regrettable that whether her eyes were open or closed, she was equally in an iron cage.
Coldness rose from the hard floor.
Her shoulders trembled from chills.
Though she hadn't felt it due to the extreme tension, the girl's body was already coldly chilled.
The fox swallowed the groan leaking out.
If she had known it would be like this, wouldn't it have been better to stay in the dream?
It was warm and the wind was blowing there.
Trivial thoughts brushed her mind.
As she was sitting helplessly like that, passing time.
"Hey... Fox sister!"
"...?"
"Over here! Over here!"
Someone called the fox.
As she looked around at the sudden voice, a small hole drilled in the wall caught her eye.
It seemed to be a person trapped in the cell right next to her.
They were waving their hand between the densely set bars.
"Have you finally come to your senses?"
A girl with a youthful face.
Even estimating generously, she would have been at most fifteen years old.
She smiled brightly when their eyes met.
"I was worried because you were unconscious for so long, I'm glad you woke up!"
"You are..."
Earlier.
The very person who had warned her to pretend to be asleep.
The fox stared blankly at the girl.
"Nice to meet you! It's been so long since someone came into the next room!"
The girl smiled as if finding it fascinating.
She soon put her bright atmosphere behind her and suddenly extended her hand through the bars.
"My name is Anne! Please take care of me, fellow experimental subject."
"Ex-Experimental subject...?"
"Yes!"
The girl nodded vigorously.
Faced with this alien scene, the fox had to lose her words once again.
***
In a situation of being kidnapped by an unknown group.
Though at first her mind was confused and everything was pitch black, Irene was able to gradually gather some information.
It was thanks to the voice calling out from the next room.
"Sister! Do you have any more questions?"
The girl named Anne.
The child with a bright atmosphere chattered on.
As if worried about the newly arrived experimental subject, most of it was explanations about this facility.
Sometimes she also answered the fox's questions.
"Hehe... But there's still a lot I don't know."
Of course, her answers weren't very clear.
That was understandable, as the girl was also in the same situation of being behind iron bars.
She scratched her cheek as if embarrassed.
"They're just things I've picked up."
"Things you've picked up...?"
"Things I've heard from someone, or experienced directly... Things you come to know when you're locked up for a long time."
"How long have you been here?"
"About 7 months?"
Though they weren't deep contents, it was enough to grasp the situation.
The fox organized her complex thoughts.
To summarize, it was like this:
'The continent's largest black magician group, Baob'
The identity of those who kidnapped Irene.
This building was a facility they had prepared for black magic research.
The prison where the fox was currently staying was a space to confine materials to be used in experiments.
It was truly nothing less than a den of evil.
'Slave traders... and now cultists.'
A hollow laugh burst out involuntarily.
She had barely avoided becoming a slave, but now she was about to become a monster.
It even felt like she was being played by fate.
The fox bit her lip tightly while sitting down.
"Just in case you don't know, I'm telling you... It's better to obediently follow the experiments as much as possible."
"Why is that?"
"...There's a devil."
From what she heard, escape was nearly impossible.
The personnel managing this place were all black magicians.
Especially the research director was a person who had reached the pinnacle.
With one gesture, numerous experimental subjects were torn apart, and all those who had attempted rebellion before met the same end.
Anne called the research director 'the devil'.
"The devil kills experimental subjects for fun."
He kills if experiments don't go as he wants.
He kills even if it's not particularly for experiments.
He kills if you act arrogant.
He kills if your gazes meet.
He kills because he's in a bad mood.
He kills as if enjoying the screams of experimental subjects.
"That's why I told you to lie down... At least if you hold your breath, he passes by without touching you."
The director seemed more interested in slaughter than research.
Faith in God was just an excuse for massacre, he was essentially a monster who enjoyed blood.
Not even a ray of hope was visible.
"......"
A desperate situation.
Though Irene was expressionless, she couldn't hide the wavering of her pupils.
A terrible sense of exhaustion weighed on her shoulders.
Her head rang as if about to split from the headache.
As she was rubbing her brow alone.
Suddenly the hand sticking out between the bars held out something.
"Sister, take this."
"...What's this?"
"It's a blanket!"
The girl handing over a worn-out rag.
Though it was in a miserable state, worn and torn, the girl claimed it was a blanket.
The eyes that met smiled brightly.
"You've been shivering this whole time. It's all tattered so it won't be very warm, but cover yourself anyway."
"You're lending it to me...?"
"I don't need it because I run hot!"
"...Thank you."
"Hehehe."
Anne reacted as if pleased.
Though it might be a somewhat rude expression, the fox thought she wasn't normal.
Had she gone mad after becoming an experimental subject at such a young age?
'How can she be so bright in this situation......'
Putting such thoughts behind her, she covered herself with the blanket.
The rag handed over by grimy hands, its somewhat stiff sensation wrapped the fox's shoulders.
Nevertheless.
She was still cold.
***
How much time had passed?
It felt like about 3 days had gone by.
During the few days spent in the black magicians' den, the fox was experiencing scenes of hell.
Things appearing beyond the iron bars.
-Ugh, gack, ughugh, cough...!
-N-No... No!! D-Don't!!!
-Sp-Spare, spare me...! Pl-Plea, please...!!
-Kyaaaaaaah!!!
-Something, something is growing in my stomach!! Something is eating my stomach!!
Screams ringing out incessantly.
The wails heard not infrequently made one imagine what was happening at the end of that corridor.
Screams that weren't human were mixed in occasionally.
Whether those were truly cries of non-humans.
Or cries of those who had 'become non-human' was unknown.
-Kyaah! Aaaah!! Stooop!!!
Shouts brushing by quietly.
Many experimental subjects went towards the laboratory, but the number returning to the iron bars was significantly less.
Over the past three days, 47 went out and 2 returned.
Even they couldn't walk properly.
Moreover, one had parts of their body grotesquely transformed.
-Kiruck! Kieeek!!
The face twisted like a spider was horrifying.
Though Irene was trapped in the iron bars farthest from the laboratory.
Nevertheless, the raw noises faintly reached her ears.
She had to hold back dry heaves several times from the nausea washing over her.
"......"
The fox was still alive.
The black magicians hadn't touched Irene.
More precisely, they couldn't.
Because the devil had said he would personally handle her a week later.
-I'll experiment on this one myself.
-A fox beastkin... What a truly fantastic sacrifice.
The devil spoke with sticky eyes.
In the end, the other believers had no choice but to step back while licking their lips.
The range of life narrowed to a week.
Now Irene was just quietly waiting for time to pass.
No hope was visible.
At first she had thought about fighting back, but her mind changed right after facing the research director.
The devil's realm was truly overwhelming.
At least Galimar professor level.
One line of incantation and all experimental subjects would be annihilated.
"......"
She ended up losing her mind.
The fox held her silence.
As she was quietly sitting like that with her back against the wall.
"Sister."
"......"
"Do you know about this? It's really amazing."
"...?"
Anne peeked through the bars.
As if worried about the fox with her pale complexion, the girl was trying to turn her attention elsewhere.
"They say time flows differently here compared to outside."
"What does that mean...?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
The girl lightly shrugged her shoulders.
"Once the devil was completely drunk. This is what he was boasting about while going back and forth in the corridor......"
He said this is some special land.
He said it was land where some dragon's corpse was buried... Actually I don't remember the detailed explanation.
I only vaguely remember him saying the time axis is twisted around here.
"He said a week here is only one day outside."
"A week is... one day?"
"Though it's been 3 days since you came here, it might not even be a few hours outside?"
"......"
The fox stared with a blank gaze.
Anne, who had been continuing her explanation to that, scratched her cheek as if embarrassed.
"Of course, believe it or not. Honestly, it sounds like too far-fetched a story. I've never heard of such a region existing. Unless it's land outside imperial territory......"
"......"
"The devil must have been talking nonsense while drunk."
Anne grumbled quietly.
The girl furrowed her brow for a moment, but in the end smiled brightly.
It was a transparent smile.
"But thinking like this gives me a little hope."
"Hope...?"
"Yes, hope."
If only a few hours have passed, someone must be earnestly searching for you, sister.
Isn't it okay to expect a bit of a miracle?
"You never know! Maybe someone will appear like a prince on a white horse and save us."
"......"
"Wasn't there someone like that around you?"
"...I wonder."
The fox quietly averted her eyes.
Though she reacted indifferently, on the other hand there was a face that immediately brushed her mind.
Deep golden hair and narrow slit eyes.
Why was that person coming to mind now?
Irene unknowingly bit her lip.
'...It would be foolish to rely on that person.'
From the start, he was someone who only saw her as a mere toy.
It was obvious he would casually pass over her disappearance.
He would just find a new toy.
The fox gave herself suggestions.
Not to give trust.
As she always had.
'I just... should be alone like this.'
The fox chewed over her painful monologue alone.
But.
"I hope you're safe."
The fox didn't know.
The fact that forces capable of annihilating a country were moving to find her who had disappeared.
White pupils flashed in the darkness.
"If you're not safe... I don't know what I might do."
Pure white banners fluttering.
A shadowy group full of killing intent was crossing the night sky.
To recapture the fox.