[Note : blue: speech, red: thoughts, green: item/skills]

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Gregory was a man who lived with his adopted daughter, in a house in the middle of the forest, on the continent of Azevaria.

It is not that Gregory wanted to live away from others, but that he has an obnoxious personality, and being a heavy drinker made it worse.

 

"Oi, get me some more beer!" shouted Gregory, who threw an empty bottle toward Regina, his adopted daughter.

 

"Eek! O-okay!", Regina was startled while doing the laundry for both of them.

 

Regina quickly moved to the storage where she placed all the beers, to get a few bottles and place them on Gregory's table.

 

Regina was a girl about the age of 16 years old, her hair was long, with a color of pale gold, and her eyes were sky blue.

She looked like a worn-out doll, with her clothing old and ragged, looking malnourished, with bruises all over, and her hair disheveled.

 

She was picked up by Gregory years ago when she was a young girl lying unconscious near the forest river.

 

The reason Gregory picked her up was not that of kindness, but that he wanted to have a slave.

 

He only needed to give her one meal a day, and she had to do all the chores he demanded, what a wonderful deal he thought!

And he could always use the excuses of saving her to force her to do his bidding, whenever she was reluctant.

 

Regina's daily chores consist of waking up before sunrise, cleaning the house, preparing breakfast for Gregory, doing laundry, heading out to gather water and food in the forest, then going to the nearby village to buy beers whenever Gregory demanded.

 

She would get beaten whenever she could not finish her chores by the end of the day, and whenever he was in a bad mood.

 

There were two villages near where Regina lived, Ananda and Berlau, but only Berlau sold beers and food.

 

Regina was afraid of running away, she once got caught by Gregory for running away and was beaten until she had to limp for weeks.

 

Regina would get beaten and abused by Gregory whenever he became drunk too.

Nobody could help her, because owning a slave was legal under the laws of the Azevaria Empire.

 

Whenever Gregory became dead drunk, Regina would sneak out of her house and head to Ananda.

Ananda was a small farm village, the villagers were all very kind to Regina, and she would play with the village kids.

Ananda was her only salvation, for she could forget all the unpleasant things, even for a moment, while she was there.

 

Mary, the innkeeper, would feed Regina food whenever she visited, and although she would still feel hungry all the time, she would be too embarrassed to tell Mary.

Grandpa Jimmy would tell her stories of when he was a young adventurer.

Grandma Yunny is a quiet person, but she would listen to all the complaints and cries of Regina and then pat her head.

Tim is a lively kid, almost a brat who loves to prank Regina.

Many other villagers were all kind to Regina, she always wished she would live here, instead of that dreaded house back in the forest.

 

This time, after heading back from sneaking out to Ananda, 

Regina noticed something amiss.

There was light in her house, which should not be, since Gregory should still be passing out from being drunk.

As she walked closer to her house, her heart beat faster, and she started to feel a bad premonition of what was about to come.

Sweat dripped down from her forehead, her legs shook as she walked timidly and stealthily to the front of the house, she opened the door slowly.

 

“Where have you sneaked off to, you little bitch?!” Gregory shouted as he sat on the chair, glaring at Regina.

 

"I-i-in the forest, trying to g-gather food..."

 

"Stop lying you wretch, I knew you were out there playing while I was drunk and asleep!"

Gregory shouted at Regina before she could even complete her sentence.

 

He got up from his chair, walked toward the frightened Regina, grabbed her arm, and threw her on the floor.

He then started to strip Regina as he continued to beat her.

 

As Gregory was hitting Regina, he saw a man cloaked in black, with jet-black hair, standing in front of his still-opened door, looking at him.

 

“Who the hell are you?!” Gregory stood up and walked towards the man cloaked in black, trying to look intimidating.

The man ignored Gregory, and walked past him, towards Regina.

 

“How dare you ignore me, you bastard!” Gregory picked up a nearby chair and tried to swing it at the mysterious man's head from the back.

The cloaked man took up a gun from his waist and shot Gregory, hitting his hand without even looking behind.

 

“Who are you?! I will report this to the authorities!”

 

The man continued to ignore Gregory, he handed Regina a spare cloak to cover her body, picked her up, and carried her outside the house.

 

Regina was too frightened to scream or resist.

 

"That thing is mine, don't you dare snatch it away from me!"

Gregory wanted to attack the man cloaked in black but was too scared to do it.

 

"Wait here."

He told Regina as he went back into the house, and closed the door because

he does not want to frighten Regina any further by showing her what will happen next.

 

"W-who are you?! What do you want?! You won't get away with this!"

Gregory continued to question the man while trying to look intimidating.

 

The mysterious man did not want to reply to Gregory, instead, he took out a reddish bullet from his pouch, loaded it into his gun, and pointed it at Gregory.

 

“L-l-let’s talk this out, you want that slave, I will give it to yo-”

Before Gregory could finish his sentence, the mysterious man 

shot him right in the head, killing him.

 

Fire started to burst out from the bullet wound on his head, engulfing his whole body.

The fire eventually spreads to the house, setting the house in flames.

 

Then he walked out of the house, and looked at Regina,

"Eek! W-w-what happened?... and who are you?" Regina asked with a frightened look.

 

The man's expression suddenly became sad, and then he said

 

"I am Ilmari-”, the man paused for a second without finishing saying his name,

 

“Just call me Richard, we should leave this place as soon as possible before the soldiers arrive.”

 

"What do you mean?!"

 

"Don't worry, just follow me, I will protect you."

 

The flames burst open the door and showed the body of Gregory in fire, lying on the floor, lifeless, which frightened Regina further.

 

"No...I don't believe you!" Regina ran away in the direction of Ananda.

 

"Help!" Regina shouted as she arrived near Ananda.

"Help me!" Regina shouted again, but nobody answered

 

Regina could not find anybody in the vicinity, all she saw was a ruined village.

As Richard walked closer to Regina, she became angry, her heart filled with grief and rage for the first time.

 

"Why did you do this?! Why did you kill everybody?!"

"There was nobody here when I passed by"

Richard answered with a confused look on his face.

"You are lying! They were still here moments ago! I even played with the kids here!"

 

"I am not lying, this village seemed to be ruined for a long time, nobody lived here."

 

"B-but... You are lying!" 

Tears flowed down Regina’s cheek as she fell to the ground, exhausted from all these events happening.

 

As Regina looked closer at the ruined village, she noticed the ruined marks could not be recent.

And she realized Richard could not have done this.

Regina got more confused because she just played with the villagers moments ago,

Her head started to ache as she tried to find an answer to this desperately.

As her head was about to be split in half mentally, she finally remembered,

She remembered the past, she remembered what happened,

 

There was nobody here to begin with.

Ananda was a ruined village, she was always alone, playing by herself.

At one point, she started to imagine what it would be like if this was not a ruined village,

and what the villagers would be like.

From that point on, Regina started to have imaginary friends.

 

"No...this can't be real..." 

Tears continued to flow out from Regina’s eyes as she could not stop crying.

"We must get away from here now, any delay, and we are going to get in trouble."

Richard places his hands on Regina's shoulder as he calmly tells Regina what to do.

 

"Now put this on" Richard covers Regina’s face with the hood from the cloak she was wearing that he handed her earlier.

 

Regina had no choice but to listen to Richard and follow him out of fear...