“Rina.”

“Mistress.”

“Rina.”

In a familiar dark void, Rina saw Clara, Marianne, and Fran a few steps ahead of her, looking at her. The trio had gentle smiles on their faces, as they called out to her and waited for her to catch up with them.

Seeing this scene, Rina felt a smile naturally forming on her face. After all, the three people, holding out their hands to her, were people she considered close friends, no, much more than friends. They were her family. She loved them with all of her heart.

However, Rina didn't know, if they looked at her the same way. Fortunately, she knew that she was at least important to them, so her feelings for them didn't just go one way, like her relationships in her previous life.

But the moment Rina took a step forward, the scene in the void suddenly changed. Instead of the trio from earlier, a monster stood tall in front of her. But it wasn't just any monster. It was a wolf-like monster that seemed even bigger than a truck.

At first glance, Rina wasn't sure what to make out of the situation, as her brain – who would have thought – had already stopped working. But at second glance, the beast in front of her looked somewhat familiar.

“A Cerberus...,” she muttered subconsciously after identifying the wolf-like monster with three hungry-looking heads.

“R-Rina...”

“Haaah... haaah... M-Mistress...”

“*cough*... Rina... *cough*”

It was only when she heard the three faint voices, which were very much familiar to her, that she realised that the three from earlier were still present. However, in contrast to the heartwarming scene from earlier, the trio panted and stuttered as if they were close to death.

Clara was crushed under one of the Cerberus's front legs. Only her head, upper torso, and right arm were visible.

Fran was halfway inside of the monster's mouth. Half of her upper body, including her head and feet, protruded from either side of the wolf's mouth. The thick teeth, buried deep in her body, showed how grave the situation was for her.

Marianne was in pretty much the same situation, just in another of the Cerberus's three mouths.

“Clara... Fran... Marianne...”

Standing in front of the monster, Rina could only watch the horrific scene unfold as the three people she cared about most slowly succumbed to their deaths.

Yes, Rina just stood still with a blank mind and did nothing to save them.

“””AHHHHHHH!?!?”””

Only when three anguished voices rang throughout the void, did Rina come to and feel the need to do something. But no matter what she did, her body didn't move. She was, metaphorically speaking, frozen in place.

Was it out of fear of the beast in front of her?

Or was it the shock of watching her loved ones slowly die?

Whatever the reason was, she didn't do anything to get the three out of their predicament.

She just observed as the front leg of the Cerberus crushed Clara even more and as the heads sank their teeth even deeper into Fran's and Marianne's bodies.

“””AHHHHHHH!!!!!”””

Hearing them scream even louder and seeing their faces contort even more in pain made Rina want to close her eyes and plug her ears, but even then her body would not obey. So she was forced to stand still and watch the one thing feared the most unfold and come to an end.

Fortunately (!?!?), only when the trio was dead, did the screams of agony stop. And to make matters worse, only then, was Rina able to move her body again. However, it was too late. The lives of the three were gone, as their still-open eyes showed only white eyeballs.

Then, as if to mock her, and her dead loved ones, the Cerberus spat the dead Marianne and Fran out of its mouths in front of her feet. Next, it lifted the foot, that was crushing Clara, up and kicked her so that the dead blonde lay next to the other two women.

After all that, the Cerberus simply turned around and disappeared into the dark void, leaving the motionless red-haired girl and the three corpses behind.

However, before Rina could even react to all this and release the emotional stress she had been accumulating from watching all that, she heard a loud sizzle.

*ZISS*

But that was not the end of it. Along with the noise that sounded like oil being heated on a grill, Rina felt her right forearm getting hotter and hotter until the feeling turned into pure pain. It was only a few more moments later, that Rina opened her eyes.

“Oya, oya? Are you finally awake? Took you long enough, didn't it?”

At the same time as Rina heard the male voice, she noticed that the hot sensation on her right forearm had disappeared. However, the immense pain on it was still there. In fact, it was getting worse and worse. As a result, she didn't have the necessary mental capacity to realise what was going on around her, or what state she was in.

“I AM F*CKING TALKING TO YOU, YOU B*TCH!”

*Slap*

Unfortunately, not being aware of her surroundings meant, that she could not react to them. This included responding to people who spoke to her.

Her unresponsiveness seemed to infuriate the male voice so much that he made Rina feel his anger with her body, as he struck her left cheek with a stick, causing her head to turn to the right.

With the new stinging pain on her face, Rina slowly regained her awareness. With her head in the new position, she could see a burned, chained arm in front of her. When she then tried to move her right index finger, the same finger at the end of the burned arm also moved.

Seeing this, she knew that was not in a favourable state at the moment, even though her mind was still foggy.

“I give you one last chance... answer me when you're awake... else you'll regret it.”

Hearing the male voice for the third time, Rina mustered all of her remaining strength to look up slightly, only to see a familiar old face.

“... Village... Chief...?”

“Ahaha... you can still recognise me... that's good.” The chief expressed his happiness in a maniacal manner before he turned his eyes away from her and looked over her. “I think what you've seen earlier is the proof that she and that bastard are demons.”

However, Rina couldn't understand the meaning of the old man's second sentence, or rather, she couldn't hear it. After all, while he was saying that she was doing her best to turn her head to her left, towards where the chief was looking.

During her head movement, she perceived that she was being held in a medium-sized, dimly lit room, that looked like a basement with stone walls. When she had finished turning her head, she saw half a dozen people at the far end of the room.

Like the chief, they weren't unknown faces to Rina either. Everyone she saw here, as far as she could remember, held a high position in the village and were part of the crowd in front of the inn this morning. The innkeeper, for example, who was staring at her with hateful eyes, was one of them.

“So, for mocking us throughout her entire life and embarrassing us in front of the former High Priestess, I suggest we torture her before killing her.”

“I totally agree.”

“Are you sure we should do this?”

“Can't we just kill her, without torturing her?”

“Let's just finish her off quickly, it's not her fault that she is what she is.”

“Make her wish that she was never born!”

When Rina heard that the chief wanted to torture and kill her, she couldn't believe her own ears. Unfortunately, no matter how many times she told herself that she was dreaming, it was clear that she was only deluding herself.

The only saving grace for her was, that the chief's suggestion was met with at least some reluctance (?). So, hoping that the chief would spare her, she slowly turned her head to the right again and looked at him.

Unfortunately, all she could see was an old man with a mad gleam in his eye shaking his head vehemently.

“Torture and kill it is,” he said as he looked down at her and licked his lips. “I'll make you regret making me grovel on the ground like that this morning!”

He then held up a metal bar about a metre long. “[Heat]”

With a single-word chant coming from his mouth, a red seal appeared in the hand that held the rod. After a moment, the metal bar began to glow red.

When Rina felt the heat of the metal rod radiating towards her, she didn't have to think long about what she was in for, considering the state of her right arm. It was only then that she was truly awake.

'I have to get out of here!'