—————————————
< Vacation Preparation >
The girl was always hungry.
“hungry···.”
The earliest memory a girl can recall of her childhood.
Those were the days when I would toss and turn, clutching my hungry stomach and unable to sleep due to hunger.
And every time, there was a hand stroking the girl’s shaggy hair.
“Honey. I’m sorry, Mom…”
When her mother’s hands caressed the girl’s head and cheeks for a long time, the warmth relieved her hunger a little.
“mom···.”
As the girl slowly fell asleep, exhausted from hunger, her mother’s crying voice was heard in her ears.
“I’m sorry. I’m a bad mother…”
The girl snuggled into her mother’s arms. The mother and daughter held each other tightly and endured the hungry days.
*
The second memory the girl could recall was the day she separated from her mother.
Early in the morning, her mother combed her hair and dressed her in the neatest of her worn-out clothes. She was in a very good mood that day because she had eaten bread for breakfast.
When a strange man came to the house in the afternoon, the mother knelt in front of the girl and looked her in the eye.
“Baby. From now on, listen to mommy well.”
Her mother said that the girl would go to a rich family as a maid.
The girl didn’t know what a maid was, but she smiled and nodded because she was full and felt good.
“huh!”
“If you go there, you won’t go hungry. If you just listen to what the master says, he’ll feed you plenty. So you have to listen to him, okay?”
The mother held the girl tightly until the girl whined that it hurt.
“I’ll definitely come look for you later, Mom.”
“yes!”
The mother took the girl to the man who was waiting with a bored expression.
“let’s go.”
The man with the calm expression put the girl in a carriage. Inside the carriage were several boys and girls of similar age to the girl.
The floor of the carriage was covered with dirty straw and leaves, and boys and girls in shabby clothes were crouching on it.
“······.”
The girl felt intimidated by the gloomy atmosphere and went to sit in a corner.
I put my knees together, took the bread my mother had given me out of my pocket, and ate it little by little.
“What is your name?”
The girl flinched at the sudden voice and hid the bread. When she turned around, a girl of similar age was looking at her.
She was a pretty girl with blue eyes. The blue-eyed girl spoke again.
“I won’t steal it. What’s your name?”
The girl said with a timid face.
“···Lily.”
The blue-eyed girl said, moving closer to Lily.
“I’m Wendy. I’m cold… Can I stay with you?”
“···yes.”
That day, Lily made her first friend of her own age. At first, she was awkward, but soon she was chattering like a parrot.
Wendy was a year older than Lily, but she seemed much more mature than her age, and she was a good listener.
When that night came, Lily fell asleep leaning on Wendy’s shoulder and said,
“Mom… when will you come?”
Wendy hugged her knees and buried her face in her hands. Wendy was extremely cold.
“Don’t come. You’ll never see Mom again.”
Lily said, pouting.
“That’s a lie. Mom said she’d come pick me up.”
“······.”
Wendy closed her eyes instead of answering. After a while, the two girls fell asleep, leaning against each other’s bodies.
*
By the time Lily had given up counting the days on her fingers, the carriage had reached its destination.
A man with a calm expression opened the carriage door and said.
“Get down.”
It wasn’t a rich man’s mansion.
A huge cave with a ceiling height of over tens of meters. Boys and girls who got off the carriage looked around with frightened faces.
“Where am I···.”
“I said I was going to the city···.”
“Wow, that’s scary.”
Then one of the men waiting in the cave stepped forward. He was wearing a hideous goblin mask.
“Kids. Stop whining and follow me.”
“Where is this place?”
The biggest boy among the children who got out of the carriage began to argue.
The boy, named Zeno, was the leader of the carriage. Zeno opened his eyes somewhat defiantly and spoke.
“We decided to go to the city! But why to a place like this…”
The goblin mask smirked. He pulled a whip from his waistband.
“Anyway, I said there’s definitely one. One whose subject I don’t even know.”
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
Choaack!
The whip tore into the boy’s face, and he rolled on the floor screaming.
“Eww!”
A desperate scream echoed through the cave. The boys and girls froze like stone.
“Hipp!”
Wendy held Lily’s hand tightly as she hiccupped. The goblin mask glanced at the two girls and spoke to the children again.
“Do you have any further questions?”
““······.””
“Then shut up and follow me.”
The children were locked in a large prison. There were children there before, but no one showed any interest in the new children.
Khoo-woog!
From beyond the tightly closed iron bars, the man in the goblin mask spoke.
His lips, revealed under his mask, were smiling.
“Welcome to hell.”
*
One by one, the children who came together disappeared.
*
“······.”
Lily was lying on a flat stone. It was an operating table.
The girl lay naked on it, staring up at the ceiling in a dazed state.
I could hear the voices of several people here and there in my ears.
“Is this child already having his/her ···th surgery?”
“Yes. The essence of Hwaryeong, … blood, and pieces of Balrog. All were successfully transplanted.”
“The anesthesia didn’t work completely.”
“After undergoing surgery multiple times, I developed a tolerance to it···.”
“It doesn’t matter. What if your body rejects it?”
“As of now, none. But···.”
Lily would rather sleep, but the voices continued to ring.
The oldest voice spoke in an excited tone.
“···It’s highly probable. Let’s start.”
A black magic circle was drawn over Lily’s body.
Strange spells, magical potions sprayed all over your body, and sharp blades dug into your body.
“······.”
Lily felt no pain. As she stared blankly at the ceiling, everything happened regardless of the girl’s will.
How many hours, or maybe days, passed like that?
Voices full of joy were heard at the same time.
“It’s a success! … The baptism has taken hold in my body!”
“D, finally our long-cherished wish has come true…”
“Are there any side effects?”
The oldest voice spoke.
“I don’t know yet. Even if there is, it doesn’t matter.”
A very cold hand stroked the mark of some being carved beneath Lily’s navel.
“This guy will become an all-consuming monster.”
From that day on, Lily got hungry much faster and more often.
*
Lily crouched down, clutching her stomach, shedding tears as she suffered from extreme hunger that came without warning.
“hungry···.”
It was more pain than hunger, although the young girl could not yet tell the difference between the two.
It was thanks to Wendy that I was able to endure that hunger.
“Eat this.”
At every distribution, Wendy divided her share of bread in half and gave it to Lily.
“I’m not really hungry.”
“But···.”
As Lily hesitated, looking around, Wendy made a motion as if she was going to throw the sliced bread on the floor.
“If you don’t eat it, I’ll throw it away.”
“Then I’ll eat it!”
Lily ate the bread she received from Wendy in a hurry. Wendy hugged Lily tightly.
*
As time passed, Lily became more and more obsessed with food.
That was intolerable.
Something inside me kept demanding to eat.
“I’m sorry I’m hungry···.”
Every time he said that, Wendy smiled and handed him some bread.
“I’m not really hungry.”
*
*
“Those two are the only children who survived.”
The man wearing the orc mask standing next to the goblin mask nodded at the man’s words.
“I like your eyes.”
The two men’s gaze was directed towards the two girls in the prison.
““······.””
The red-eyed girl and the blonde-eyed girl. Lily and Wendy held hands tightly and glared at the two.
The man in the orc mask snickered.
“That’s interesting. Are you two friends?”
The man in the goblin mask answered in a panic.
“Yes. They’ve been together since they came here. I tried to separate them, but they wouldn’t eat and would start making a fuss…”
“Ha. What a tearful friendship.”
“This is the report on those two.”
The man in the orc mask read through the documents the man in the goblin mask had brought.
It was filled with records of experiments performed on the bodies of the two girls.
After a while, the man in the orc mask sighed and said.
“The money that went into those kids was enough to build a country.”
The goblin mask said, bending his waist at a 90 degree angle.
“Yes. That’s why I’m very nervous.”
“That’s the unit price?”
“yes?”
The man in the orc mask rolled up the papers and hit the goblin mask on the back of the head.
puck!
“If you’ve invested this much time and money, you should see results. How can you say that you haven’t even awakened your abilities in several years?”
“That, that···.”
A goblin mask dripping with sweat. The force with which he struck the back of his head gradually grew stronger.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Isn’t this proof that you didn’t do your job properly?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry···.”
To the children who were dragged into the cave, the goblin mask reigned like a devil, but now it was like a mouse in front of a cat, unable to move.
“Kick!”
The two girls covered their mouths and laughed at the sight. Then the orc mask chuckled and stopped its hand.
“You’ll have to do this right from now on. You won’t have much time left.”
“I will keep that in mind!”
After the orc mask left, the goblin mask glared at the two girls with a reddened neck.
“You guys… From now on, I’ll show you what real hell is.”
Wendy took that comment in a sarcastic tone.
“Can you do it? You said you don’t have much time?”
“This bitch!!”
*
One day, Wendy quietly woke up Lily from her sleep.
“Lily. Wake up.”
“Huh… why?”
“Look at this.”
The guards were all asleep. Wendy confirmed this and held out her palm to Lily.
Damn it.
A fist-sized iceberg bloomed on Wendy’s palm. Lily opened her eyes wide and whispered.
“How did you do it?”
“I don’t know. It just happened suddenly.”
It was the ‘awakening’ that Goblin Mask had been longing for. Of course, Wendy had no intention of telling him that fact.
Tsk tsk, tsk tsk.
The ice on her palm continued to change shape. Wendy learned her abilities at a frightening speed.
At the same time, Wendy’s blonde hair turned blue.
Ssssssssut.
After a while, Wendy’s eyes lit up coldly as the atmosphere changed.
“Lily. Let’s get out of here.”
“···huh.”
That night the two girls escaped the cave.
But it didn’t take long for him to get caught.
*
“This reckless woman. I thought she’d wake up already.”
“Let go! Let go of it!”
The goblin mask grabbed Wendy by the throat. A sinister smile appeared on his lips beneath the mask.
“Let go of Wendy!”
Lily struggled as she was grabbed by the burly men. However, the goblin mask did not even glance at Lily.
“If you had told me earlier, we wouldn’t have suffered like this.”
“asleep!”
Damn it!
Wendy reached out and shot a blast of ice at the goblin mask, but a transparent shield protected it.
“I don’t know, maybe in a few years. It’s still out of the question for me.”
The goblin mask laughed out loud, and Lily fell into despair.
“Hehe. You will now be leashed and serve us for the rest of your life.”
But Wendy wasn’t.
The blue-eyed girl had no intention of returning to prison, even if it meant dying.
Wendy said, looking at Lily.
“Remember what I told you before? If we get out of here….”
“Wendy···?”
“If you survive, please.”
Before even hearing Lily’s answer, Wendy unleashed all the power within her body.
A blizzard swept around the girl’s body.
Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk!
A bitter cold that rapidly freezes everything around it, and even freezes oneself.
“Kwaaaaah!”
The goblin mask with its frozen arm screamed, and the men chasing the two girls along with it began to freeze as well.
And at that moment, flames rose from Lily’s body to protect her master.
Hurrruk!
A smile appeared on Wendy’s lips when she saw that. Wendy moved her stiff lips and said.
‘thank god.’
“Wendy!”
Then the goblin mask with one of its arms shattered into pieces shouted.
“Catch that kid!”
‘Run away!’
The blizzard grew stronger, and Lily started running without thinking.
I ran until all the voices following me disappeared and my eyes turned yellow from hunger.
I don’t know how many days I ran away.
The moment the dimensional gate appeared in front of her, Lily jumped in with joy.
Because I knew there was someone there who could help me.
“mister!”
Lily, who had passed through the dimensional gate, soon discovered a familiar back and shouted.
“Mister! Mister! Help me! Wendy···.”
Lily grabbed the arm of the familiar figure and spun it around.
“Are you talking about me?”
The one who turned around was wearing a goblin mask.
*
“Haaak!”
Lily woke up with a start, her forehead covered in cold sweat.
Even after waking up from her dream, Lily couldn’t fall back asleep and shivered.
This was the first time I had such a vivid nightmare.
Could it be because the Great One said earlier that we should go to the Gaia Continent?
Lily couldn’t quite calm her anxious mind.
After a while, Lily carefully opened the door to the man’s room and went in.
Squeak.
“Sir… Okay?”
“······.”
There was no answer. Lily carefully dug into the man’s bed.
“Sir, you know… I don’t want to go back….”
“······.”
“But, I have to go back···.”
“······.”
“I miss my mom too, and I made a promise with Wendy···.”
“······.”
The man tossed and turned to the other side.
Lily buried her face in his broad back.
“Mom, are you doing well….”
Lily began to tell her story, mumbling.
A story that has never been told. A story that could not be told.
I wanted to forget everything on Earth while eating something delicious.
A story too horrible for a young girl to experience,
He barely managed to continue with a sobbing voice.
Later on, the pronunciation became so slurred that it was impossible to understand.
“Huh, huh-huh~.”
Meanwhile, the man did not move at all.
Until Lily got tired of talking and fell asleep.
Crisp, crunchy···.
When the child’s breathing finally stabilized, the man slowly opened his eyes.
“······.”
The man slowly got out of bed so as not to wake the child.
I covered her with the blanket, carefully wiped her puffy eyes, and left the room.
“It’s a goblin mask···.”
I have a feeling this vacation will be a little long.
< Vacation Preparation > End
ⓒ Ganjjajang
