Three people lead Lilith and her group to the inner parts of this cave hideout, everyone else following from behind, but keeping a safe distance between themselves and Lilith.

The inner parts of the cave were in an even worse state than the entrance. Spider, lizards and all sorts of unpleasant insects were crawling on the walls.

Everyone looked used to this, and even the women of Purple Solanum didn't flinch at the sight. The only one with an unpleasant expression was Isabelle.

She was feeling very uncomfortable inside this cave, even though it was nicely lit up with lanterns...but those lanterns made it easy for her to clearly see these insects. Seeing the insects crawl and hearing their noise, Isabelle got reminded of her few days inside the 'forest of dusk'.

Those five days were the worst part of her small life......constantly looking for food, water, shelter...but not finding anything......the fear of eating some wrong sort of fruit or plant.....being on her toes all the times to avoid coming in contact with any wild monster or animal.

The smell of her own urine and shit entering her nose.....having to constantly sniff around that awful smell of her own body. The lack of food and water making her throat become itchy like crazy......the feeling of relief she got when finally scratching the itchy throat....but the relief followed by the sudden rash and sting from the torn out skin around her throat, made her mind dwell deeper into the madness. At least with the pain occupying her brain, she didn't have to think about the pointlessness of her life.

That day Isabelle got to know that the emotional pain can be much scarier than the physical one...........but even with all that...the nightmare didn't end.

During the fifth and final day, she remembers thinking about brook.....but instead of thanking him as she should for giving up his own life for her......she curses her saviour.

At first, Isabelle was feeling greatly indebted to brook....he died in a heroic way, saving the princess with his death. She thought that she has to live so that brook's death doesn't go in vain.........but that feeling soon turned into something unpleasant and dark.

Isabelle thoughts slowing shifting from 'He Gave me another chance at life' to........... 'He left me in this nightmare'............ 'Why did he throw me in this forest?'..........'Did he throw me here, knowing I wouldn't survive?'........ 'At the castle, it would have been an easy and quick death....but now I have to die with all this pain'

And all these thoughts soon turned into one single sentence

'He's responsible for my misery'

'Timothy is responsible for my misery'

'Brother is responsible for my agony'

'Everyone is to be blamed for making me go through this'

Thoughts like these were going through her brain like a hurricane on the fifth and final day. Even while being chased by that sabre, these thoughts corrupted her mind......she fell down....but instead of fear lurking inside her mind...own madness was there. Her dry and psychotic laughs giving life to her own madness......

'I can finally die' becoming her sole wish

.......but her wish didn't get fulfilled.

Her wish got taken away from her by Lillith.

...

While thinking about stuff this...Isabelle noticed that everyone stopped in front of a door. She also halted her walking and looked ahead...

In front of her were a few women she has come to know yesterday...lead by some random three people. Then she looked behind and saw a whole crowd of people...caution written all over their faces.

Isabelle again looked ahead and saw Lilith's back.....the back of the woman who ruined her wish.......the strong back of the woman who didn't let die......the firm and straight back of the woman who didn't leave after saving her.

She may be the royal princess of Great Nora Empire......but there is nothing great about her, there's nothing royal about her.

She's nothing but a useless princess.

A princess, a royalty with bad magic affinity. A princess who couldn't do anything but run when her parents got murdered. A princess who couldn't help but blame others when life became hard.

But...

This woman in front of her....these women whom she met yesterday...... they weren't like her.

"Boss is inside this room, only one of you can go inside. Also, a few of our men will also follow you inside" the sudden words interrupting Isabelle's thinking and putting them on a halt.

"Hmm...fine. But this little girl will also come with me" spoke Lilith, pointing at Isabelle to come inside with her.

"Didn't you he...Hiii!!—"  his disapproval got cut off with a sharp glare from Lilith and he agreed. Showcasing their lingering fear after witnessing Lilith kill their comrades in a grotesque manner.

The little girl's face was covered with a hood, making her highly suspicious...but they loved their lives more. What would they do if they figure out that the girl under this hood is the wanted princess Isabelle?

Probably not anything good

and I wouldn't be able to even to resist.....that's how weak I am.....

'But these women are strong' Isabelle completed her previous thoughts and followed Lilith inside the room.

...

The inside of the room was dimly lit. There was stone equipment lying around for exercise, a table with a jug on top along with some bread on the steel plate, the stone walls plain and a big bed...clearly this person isn't very into the house decoration.

Inside this room, there were few people. Apart from Lilith and Isabelle, there were five other men inside the room and a quite muscular man sleeping on the bed.

"Boss! wake up. A Lady wants to meet you"

"mmm" the boss just grumbled and shook the man's hand. The man again tried to wake the boss up....but to no use.

Without noticing, Lilith walked ahead and stood near the side of the bed. When the four men standing near the door finally noticed, they saw Lilith standing beside the fifth man, near the boss's bed. The fifth man got shocked seeing Lilith suddenly appear beside him and jumped in shock.

The same shock went through Isabelle's body. She quickly walked and stood behind Lilith.

"Wake up" spoke Lilith

"Mhmm..." only gibberish sounds

"Last time...Wake up!!" no trace of emotion in Lilith's voice

"..bhbhu...njg..." again only gibberish.

"Hey.." suddenly spoke Lilith to the man standing beside her.

"Y-Yes....?"

Lilith smiled at him, seeing a beauty like her smile at him made him unexpectedly embarrassed

"Be useful"

But before he could get over his sudden fluster and wrap his head around the words just been said, his mind went blank and the last thing he saw was his four other comrades despaired faces.

Lilith with the speed of light swung her sword horizontally and chopped the man's head off. The head flew vertically in the air from the sudden force, blood splurted from the exposed neck, flying upwards and falling on the man's head in the air. His head reached the max height and started falling down due to gravity but it didn't hit the floor.

Lilith grabbed his head by the hair while falling down, following the momentum she motioned her arms backward in a circular motion, liking bringing an axe down at the wooden plank and smashed the sleeping boss's head with it.

"OUCH!!!!"

the boss suddenly woke and touched his now broken nose, he moved his hand around his face and witnessed two types of blood on his face.

The one from his own broken nose and what about the other?

He turned his face and saw a chopped head staring at him closely with a blank expression. He moved his eyes upwards and saw a fair hand holding the head by the hair.

His eyes met with the woman's in front of him and before he could do anything the blade of her sword was already just a centimetre away from his own throat.

Finally recovering from the shock, the four other men started rushing towards Lilith but got stopped seeing the boss's stop hand.

"What do you want?" even though his pyjama is already soiled with his piss, he still showed a brave front. The blanket was covering his lower body so Lilith couldn't see the soiled pyjama.

'Looks like this one is not spineless' thought Lilith but before she could speak

"HA!" the boss shouted

and a sudden unseen force pushed her hand away along with the sword. Lilith's arm got pushed backwards, leaving her open. (1 second)

The boss quickly grabbed a knife from under his pillow and swung it towards the nearest body part which was Lilith's belly. Lilith's sword arm stopped being pushed backward and now her arm was too far back, for her to stop the knife with it. (2 seconds)

Lilith used her other free hand and grabbed the knife from the sides, stopping it from just a tip away from her belly. The sides of the knife were sharp and sliced Lilith's palm a little. Blood flew from the sliced palm but didn't follow gravity. (3 seconds)

The splurted out blood froze in the air and quickly joined together to form a string of blood, the origin of the string coming out of Lilith's sliced palm or more precisely from inside the wound. The boss suddenly got shocked seeing this atrocity, "You....." and his face became filled with disbelief (4 seconds)

Quickly realizing his blunder he tried to pull his hand back but that moment of shock was all Lilith needed. The string of blood was small in size due to the low amount of blood gushed out but it was still enough. The bloody strings moved dexterously like a snake and wrapped around the knife's hilt along with the boss's fingers holding the knife. (5 seconds)

The knife along with the hand was not stuck just a tip away from Lilith's belly, the blood strings proved exceptionally strong and didn't allow the hand to be pulled back. But the boss was also not going to back down, his other hand was still free. He formed a fist and swung it towards Lilith's face, he knew that her other hand has already recovered from the push back but it would still take a second for her to swing that sword at him and before that his fist would definitely meet her face and punch her away. (6 seconds)

But contrary to his expectations, the sword moved faster than he expected....or he didn't expect this speed at all. It moved with the speed nearing the light and cleanly separated his hand from the arm. (7 seconds)

"Ah...aggghhh...!" the boss expressed a low scream filled with dread and looked at the woman in front while flailing his sliced arm in the air.

The fist formed hand fell down, and the blood gushing from the exposed arm painted Lilith's expressionless face red. Looking just like a devil from his nightmare. (8 seconds)

All of this happened quickly in 8 seconds. The first four-second the men were shocked from witnessing the sudden head bash, the next three-second they unsheathed their weapons and at the last second, they took their first step....but now it was all over and they just froze there in horror.

The boss's remaining hand was still tied by the blood strings. The string of blood moved a little, half-wrapped completely around the hilt and the other half keeping the hand in its place. The grip around the tilt tightened its hold and broke the knife's hilt, showcasing the immense power it holds.

The strings unwrapped the boss's hand, leaving a deep red mark from how tightly it held the hand and finally retraced back inside the wound on the palm.

A sudden squishy sound reverberated from inside the wound, the small string has now turned back into viscous blood.

The knife was broken, his other hand was sliced off...now the man only had his legs to fights.....but the will was now gone.

Isabelle's hands were sweaty, her legs were feeling heavy, her heart was pounding with unease, her breathing rough....but there was a little spark in her eyes.

The spark which had vanished due to the events of the past few days. Though it was little...but it was there.

An ambition rising inside Isabelle's heart seeing the close but distant back of Lilith.

'I want to be strong as well' a spark not out of some heroic reason, a spark not lit for helping others

But a spark lit for a completely selfish reason.

Was this the reason why Lilith made her tag along? Did Lilith want to lit a fire inside Isabelle's heart by telling her to come inside with her?

what is it that this woman want? why is she doing all of this for me?

am I special?

Then a sudden thought came to Isabelle's mind

Why haven't I felt the hunger for almost 12 hours now?

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COVER