After an hour of floating in the air, both of them came back with exhausted looks on their faces.

“I forgot how exhausting that guy can actually be.”

“Return me my lost sleep hours.”

“At least I got my permission, now just let me do my job.” The man looked at me in new spirits. Then he took out a pair of gloves out of his pocket and put them on. Entered the cell and turned towards the woman.

“Translate everything she says from this point. I’m going to get serious.”

The woman closed her book that she was reading and smiled.

“Finally.”

After their little exchange, he turned to me and asked.

“State your name.”

“What’s your name?” Translation was here.

I smiled at him and spoke very clearly.

“Envy.”

“One of the sins. Ah! That must mean that you are one of The Seven Demon Generals.”

After thinking, that guy started laughing in the ugliest way I’ve seen.

“Kyohohoho!”

‘Guess that’s why they are calling him Kyo.’

“What did you do to the housemaster of house Liorne?” He asked again.

“What did you do to the housemaster of house Liorne?”

“I left his body in recognizable condition and I ate his daughter Elise.”

“S-She said that she left Elise’s father in recognizable condition and she ate Elise herself.” The woman was clearly disturbed by her own imagination.

To my surprise, he punched me in the gut, hard.

“Guh-” That hurt.

“Don’t lie, how could you have eaten her?”

“N-Normally how you would eat an animal, that’s how I ate her.”

“Normally how you would eat an animal, that’s how she ate her.” She translated once more.

He punched me again.

“No lies! Tell me. How did you get inside the mansion? Who gave you the instruction to kill them? What are the demons planning?”

“I was sold as merchandise to the head of the house, no one instructed me to kill them.” I spoke a bit quietly, because I was out of breath from his punches.

“What did she say!?” He turned to the woman.

“Sorry, she spoke very quietly just now. I couldn’t make anything out.”

He punched again.

“Louder!”

“I was sold as merchandise to the head of the house, no one instructed me to kill them.” I repeated again.

“She was sold as merchandise to the head of the house, no one instructed her to kill them.”

He punched me again.

“What are the demons planning!?”

“I have no idea. I don’t have any information.”

“She has no idea. She doesn’t have any information.”

He punched again with even more force.

“I said no more lies!”

“Kuh-” I passed out from the last punch.

---

I woke up tied to a chair with my hands behind it, I couldn’t move, not even move a finger. My eyes were covered, the cell was in complete silence and it was getting oddly cold.

‘I’m naked.’ I realized.

After thirty minutes it was uncontrollably cold, I was shivering. I couldn’t help but feel the cold on my skin, because the blindfold took away my sight and it only enhanced my sensitivity to other things.

‘I’m scared.’

---

After sitting on the chair for the next five hours, it felt like that at least. I heard the cell door creak. Both, the man and woman walked in. He took off my blindfold and took a look at me.

“She looks awful.” The woman spoke instead.

Yes, I was looking really bad after a full night without sleep.

“That’s the point of torture. It can be of various forms, not only physical.” The man named Kyo looked at the woman with the classic, ‘Are you stupid or what?’ look.

“Okay okay. What are going to do today?”

“Well… Since every individual has different fears, I’ll be trying out other forms. Such as… drowning.”

Then they left again.

---

“Here, I said to this cell, you left-brained fuck!” I heard his voice.

When I raised my head, I saw another fox bringing along a big bucket of water. When he saw me, he hurriedly looked away.

‘He has a name also?’

“What’s the matter? Can’t look at her? Why is that?”

“H-H-Her e-existence i-is c-considered t-taboo. N-no o-one c-can l-look a-at h-her, b-because i-if y-you w-will, y-you w-will d-die.”

“Her existence is considered taboo. No one can look at her, because if you will, you will die.”

“You are from the same place?”

The boy nodded.

“Place the bucket here and tell me more about her. Remember, if you lie, you will get thrown down there again.” Kyo spoke with a smile.

“S-She i‑is s-someone r-really b-bad, e-even t-the q-queen w-wanted to k-kill h-her, b-but t-the d-dragon k-king i-intervened and she was excommunicated.

“She is someone really bad, even the queen wanted to kill her, but the dragon king intervened and she was excommunicated.”

“Hoh? Even the dragon king tried to help her.”

When I heard some information about myself, my head started hurting, as if it would split into two.

I started seeing a vision. More like a memory.

---

I started seeing a vision.

I was standing on a big scaffold with my hands cuffed behind me. Everyone was booing at me and throwing everything they had at their possession.

“Boo!”

“Kill her!”

“Kill the cursed one!”

“She’s a monster! She doesn’t deserve to live!”

Everything was flying at me, small pebbles, apples, tomatoes, both normal and rotten. They were trying to humiliate me as much as possible. Suddenly, guards marched in and opened a way for a woman who had a crown made of silver that had purple jewels embedded into it.

“Silence!” A single guard called out. When everyone stopped, he continued.

“Here comes her excellency, queen, Freya!”

When the woman named Freya leisurely made her way to the scaffolding, as if this was a walk near a lake, she turned towards other foxes.

“This traitor!” She looked at me.

“This monster! She killed others. She took their lives. She didn’t just take their lives, she took their bodies also! She has committed the two greatest taboos of our fox community!”

“Those taboos are…”

And everything past that blackens and I find my face being forced inside a water bucket.

---

“Hmm? What’s happening over there?” He turned around to face me. He then walked over to my back and kicked the chair, causing me to fly off of it and land face-first on the floor.

“Time to wake up!” He took my head and started drowning me.

*Drowning sounds*

When a couple of seconds passed, he took out my head and looked at me.

“Who are you?”

*cough cough*

“Kuh- I don’t know.”

“She doesn’t know.”

He lowered my head into the bucket once again.

“Looks like she is uncooperative. That leaves me one thing, my hobbies!”

“Ooops.” He forgot about me. He took my head out of the bucket, and tossed me over to the boy. I hit the ground hard and landed near his feet.

“Carry her to where I will be going.”

“Carry her to where he will be going.” The woman was here all the time, translating our sentences.

---

*POV- Pride*

 

After reaching the first little village out of six, in my journey towards Valentine, I tried looking for place to stay for the night. House after house kept refusing.

“Aaah… Looks like I’ll be camping in the forest tonight.” I was starting to regret not having any camping gear with myself now.

“The most I can do is protect myself and make a fire. *sigh*”

“Excuse me, are you the one who’s asking for a place to stay?” A girl that looked to be around twelve asked me. When I looked at her, I saw her wild hair that was getting in her face, as she kept readjusting them.

“Yeah, I’m the same guy looking for a place to stay. Maybe you can offer me something?”

“Can you come with me? My parents said they can help.”

“Okay, thanks in advance.”

She took me to a house that looked like in need of repainting. But it still looked clean.

“Mom, Dad! I brought him!”

They looked at me and spoke.

“Are you the gentleman who’s asking for a place to stay the night?”

“Yes, yes I am.”

“We have place where you can stay, although it’s not the best to suit a noble like you.”

“Oh, no need to worry about that, tomorrow I’ll be getting back to my journey.”

“Where are you heading?”

“Towards Valentine.”

“Valentine is it? I heard that the road is dangerous nowadays.”

“How is it dangerous if I may know?”

“Listen here young man! Information isn’t free you know.”

I took out a single golden sun and handed it to her. She happily took it and continued.

“The road is said to be full of bandits and if not them, then monsters roam the road at night.”

“What kind of monsters?”

“There isn’t much news about them, but people keep saying that demon foxes are getting active.”

“Thank you for the information.” I thanked her.

“Oh nothing, nothing. We should get going, the sun is going to set.”

“Then please lead the way.”