Maou no Hajimekata

Returning to "Between Summons," there was no sign of Maribel and Lil. Livestock, which should have come with Maribel, is also disappearing. Lil must have taken him to the livestock shed properly.

"This way."

Speaking to Sophia, who was looking at the only door during the summons, Oul invites her to the wall in the corner of the room. When Oul touched the wall, his arm crept into the wall without any resistance. What you see on the wall is just a phantom, and the passage to the outside is here. Naturally, the door is a trap, and if you open it and try to get out, you will be waiting for a pit that has been planted in the bottom.

It's a precaution in case they find the destination.

Sophia never sees such a trick with a strange eye, and she follows Oulu in silence. The trick was like a doll with no emotions whatsoever.

"... you know, Oul, that kid's kind of... isn't that weird?

Eunice asks in a whisper as she walks next to Oul.

"What?

In contrast, Oul is unwilling to suppress his voice.

"... I don't know... not what that wound looks like..."

Does Eunice not realize who the discomfort is or clouds the words?

Oul was a little curious as to how he would rate it if it were Lil, but when he took Sophia to his chamber, regardless, he ordered him to look back and gratuitously.

Take it off.

When ordered to the point, without words, Sophia takes off the clothes she was wearing. The movement did not stop, and I could not see the fear or the shame.

At the tip of Oulu's sharp gaze, Sophia took off all her clothes and also removed her underwear to look unwrapped.

Eunice frowns in mercy and lays her eyes down. Sophia's wounds were so tragic.

The burns covered the left half of his face more from his forehead, neck to left arm, and left breast to hips without being widespread.

Oul was even impressed that it was something that didn't die well after such a wound.

Despite exposing herself to such nakedness, Sophia did not change her expression at all, nor did she show a bare gesture of concealing her body. When I saw him standing without being slightly mobile, I felt the illusion that he was looking at a puppet with a bad taste.

But Oul had figured out that it wasn't her nature.

"... Beautiful"

Sophia's cheeks tremble slightly as Oul squeaks.

Indeed, Sophia was more beautiful than ever the more limited she was to her right half. Long, glossy black hair with obsidian long cut eyes. The whiteness of the skin is as lustrous as ceramic, the hands and feet are quietly long, but where they should come out, they insist firmly on their presence. It's a beauty reminiscent of an exquisite doll.

And it was as if all that beauty was for the ugly left half. Without hair growing, the scalp exposes bumpy skin like the surface of the moon, and the eyelids peek into the burning orbits. His cheeks peeked at the lines of his muscles behind his thin skin, his lips twitching like Hill, who sucked blood upside down.

Her skin burned red and black. Nowhere was she smooth, stretching like an old cow's knee. There was nothing to be on the tip of the left chest, only a slight residual deposition of pigment could be seen, exposing to bumpy scars as if hardening a boiling magma.

As for the area, the scar is narrower than where it is not. But when this wound was her essence, it seemed as if she were claiming that beauty was solely to highlight the ugliness.

"How did you get that wound?

Eunice looks anxiously at Oulu. There was a willingness in his eyes to protest why he would ask such a thing.

"When I was young, I wore baked oil."

In contrast, Sophia's eyes don't even shake.

"Why is that?

"To avoid being attacked by bandits, I wore it myself."

Eunice opened her eyes to surprise.

"You have little daughters your age because of that bandit."

"Yes, my slightly better looking daughter was caught, offended and killed by bandits. The only thing left in the village is my ugly daughter and me uglier than that."

Oulu grins lightly. Sophia still didn't change her expression, but the emotions behind it were overflowing with words.

"That village is your sacrifice, and no more bandits will attack you. Those who fail to reach the village will be killed by Gargoyle."

"Yes."

Emotionally, Sophia snorted. It doesn't matter what the heart feels like. Actually, I guess it doesn't matter.

"You know a girl named Maribel? I've sacrificed before you, my 4,5-year-old blonde daughter."

"... that would probably be your true name. It's simply called Marie in the village."

For the first time, Sophia stares slightly. Eunice thought it was simply because Sophia didn't know Marie's real name, but Oul had another sentiment.

"That's still young, but it's only beautiful to be chosen for sacrifice. My skin is like silk, my hair is like I've been pruning out the sun's rays. In another decade, you'll grow up to be the kind of beauty everyone wants to get."

"... Yes"

"Everyone will love that girl. Avoid rain, the light of day falls soft, and the earth embraces warmly. Neither the sickness nor the beast will harm her, and even the hungriest bandits will have mercy on her and raise her."

As many magicians as Oulu chant, it is no longer a prophecy. And at the same time, it's a curse.

Maribel will soon grow up under the asylum of Oulu.

"Envious?

Suddenly Oul peered into Sophia's eyes. For the first time, Sophia gets stuck in words on that question.

"You are a cursed child, a hated child. Everyone avoids you and turns away. Even hungry bandits, yes. From the earth which thou hast treaded, no rice shall sprout, and the earth shall be hardened by cold frost, and the wind shall cease, and the sun shall be covered by clouds. Because the world hates you. Because I fear you, the terrible beast that dwells in darkness."

Sophia stares back into Oul's eyes. But in its eyes, unlike earlier, it stood firmly in the color of its emotions.

"The people of the village would have been afraid of you. That's not because you look ugly. Because my daughter dressed in baked oil to protect herself was horrible. Because you were horrible to survive half your body being burned. Because you were horrible when you looked like a person, not a person."

For the first time, Sophia distorted her expression. Tight as a doll, ugly as a nightmare, crooked.

"... you hate me, don't you?

It's not anger, it's not sadness, it's not anger.

"Yeah, hate. Everything."

It was a deep, deep laugh.