“Stop right there!”
Behind her mask, a flicker of surprise flashed in Yuli’s eyes.
Where did these people come from?
The knights before her had appeared out of nowhere, their intentions clear as they aimed straight at her.
Why?
Her cloak and mask were still worn perfectly, nothing out of place, so there was no reason she should be exposed.
But why… did these knights seem to have been watching her all along, lurking in the shadows just waiting for her to appear?
Why?
Thinking back to Brol inside the shop who had tried to make her stay, a chill crawled up her spine. If she hadn’t left in time, or if Iris hadn’t warned her about the situation outside, she might have already been surrounded by knights and trapped inside the store.
Why?
It was clearly her first meeting as Yuli, so why would he collude with the knights, with their target set on her?
“Behave yourself. Take off your mask and hood for inspection. If you resist, you’ll bear the consequences!”
The knight’s stern shout rang in her ears. That familiar tone, those familiar words—it was as if a key had opened the tightly locked door in Yuli’s heart, releasing the nightmare she had tried so desperately to forget.
Back then, it was also a knight who spoke the same words, coming forward without mercy, brutally tearing off the cloak she used to hide the mark on her neck and shoulder.
In that instant, all eyes on the street changed.
Fear, astonishment, anger… all of it finally converged into an overwhelming hatred, as if it would swallow her whole.
“Damn Cursed One!”
“Hiding your identity and sneaking into the city—what are you up to? Are you trying to bring the Abyss down on us and get everyone killed?!”
“Kill him!”
“Cursed Ones should just die!”
“…”
Back then, she had no means to resist—she could only watch as the knight gripped her throat tightly.
Death had never felt so close. But it wasn’t the curse that killed her—it was the cold killing intent of other humans.
Before she suffocated, the knight suddenly let her go.
The crowd voiced their displeasure at this.
The knight didn’t give in to public demand. Instead, following his orders from above, he threw her into that dark, cold underground prison.
She wasn’t the only one thrown down there—there were countless others like her, born to carry a curse.
Deep underground in the darkness, Yuli gradually lost all sense of time. Every time she closed her eyes, she couldn’t be sure if she would ever open them again.
She didn’t know how long it lasted.
Eventually, she found a chance and crawled out of that cold, dark underground prison.
She survived.
She survived that hellish place and felt the warmth of the sun again. In that moment, Yuli secretly vowed to herself—she would never, ever return to that icy, dark underworld!
So… to give up resisting and submit quietly to an inspection?
What a joke!
In that instant, the string of reason in her mind seemed to snap.
She flung open the wooden box in her arms. The dark longsword wrapped in cloth lay quietly inside.
“Drop your weapon. Don’t try any pointless resistance!”
The knight captain strode forward, his spear thrusting directly toward the wooden box in Yuli’s hands, wanting to knock it away before she could grab the sword.
His idea was simple: without a weapon, Yuli would have no choice but to surrender.
However, Yuli was faster. She gripped the hilt first, raising the sword horizontally to block.
“Clang!”
A crisp sound rang out as the spear’s blade struck the sword, the wrapped cloth barely absorbing the impact.
That wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
Of course, if the knight had used his full strength rather than merely trying to knock the box aside, even if she blocked it, the web between her thumb and forefinger might have torn.
“You!”
The knight was shocked—he hadn’t expected Yuli to resist.
If that was the case, there was no need to hold back.
He pulled back his spear, preparing to strike again, but a glint of surprise flashed in his eyes beneath his helmet.
He saw fire—flames surged from Yuli’s palm, like a ravenous beast, instantly devouring the cloth wrapped around the sword and burning it to ash. The fire then snaked around the blade like a vine.
It wasn’t just the knight captain; his comrades behind him also showed astonished expressions beneath their helmets.
They hadn’t expected this mysterious figure to be a magician.
“Even if she’s a magician, she’s alone! Go—capture her!”
The knights leveled their spears and charged at Yuli.
Perhaps it was the surge of emotion, but Yuli’s magic power erupted within her. The flames swirling around the blade soared higher, ready to ignite everything.
She gripped her sword tightly and swung it at the charging knights—at that fate that once again tried to drag her into the darkness.
The entwined flames broke free, surging into a roaring wave of fire, sweeping toward the charging knights like a flood bursting its banks.
“What?!”
Faced with Yuli’s torrent of fire, the knights had no choice but to retreat.
Those flames landing on iron armor were no joke—no one wanted to end up roasted inside their metal shells.
“Damn it…”
If only they had brought a mage skilled in ice magic with them.
Driven back by the heat, the knights could only keep retreating, not daring to come close.
When the haze and steam from the raging flames finally cleared, Yuli had already vanished from sight.
“Search! That attack must have drained her power—she can’t have gotten far. She must still be hiding in the black market—find her!”
The knight captain shouted in anger, and the team instantly scattered, searching every corner of the black market.
“Dig up the whole place if you have to—bring her out!”
“Huff…”
In a dark corner of the black market piled high with discarded wooden crates, a faint musty smell lingering in the air, Yuli leaned against the wall, catching her breath.
She still clutched the now-cooled longsword to her chest, her face beneath the mask as pale as paper, cold sweat soaking the bangs on her forehead.
That burst of a slash just now had nearly drained all the magic from her body. An unprecedented sense of weakness and exhaustion swept over her like a tide, making her vision go black—she almost fainted.
To keep herself conscious, Yuli bit down hard on her lip, using the pain to stimulate her mind.
She couldn’t collapse here… If she lost consciousness, the knights searching the black market would find her sooner or later.
Just a little more rest—once her strength returned, she would leave the black market.
“That was reckless.”
Iris floated beside her, arms folded, her eyes full of complex emotion.
“What, did you have a grudge with that group? Couldn’t hold back and went wild?”
But soon, she switched back to her teasing tone, as if she had discovered something amusing.
Yuli, at this point, had no energy to bicker with her.
“No.”
“If not, then why did you swing that sword like a madwoman, Yuli-chan?
That slash almost squeezed out every drop of magic you had left. If I hadn’t let out a little of my own, do you think you’d still be conscious enough to talk to me?”
Did this woman help her again without meaning to?
Yuli glanced up at Iris, then quickly looked away.
“What, you think I’m wrong?”
“No.”
“Is ‘no’ all you can say?”
“No.”
“Hah?”
So frustrating. Why was talking to this girl always so exhausting?
Iris puffed up her cheeks at Yuli, their eyes meeting. Seeing that Yuli still wouldn’t say a word, Iris seemed to give in and softened her tone.
“Well, I should at least praise you a bit—the firestorm you released wasn’t half bad. But I bet it was just a fluke, wasn’t it? If you try it again, I doubt it’ll work.
Silly Yuli, don’t go doing reckless things like that anymore, or you might not even know how you died.”
“What, are you worried about me, Iris?”
“And what if I am?” Iris chuckled softly, speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “Can’t I care about this body, too? If you ruin it, I’ll be heartbroken, you know?”
Hearing Iris’s words, Yuli let out a quiet laugh.
Of course.
By now, her strength had recovered a little. Using her longsword for support, Yuli staggered to her feet—she had to leave the black market before the knights found her.
There was no way to take the usual exits; she’d have to use the shortcut, slipping through the underground city to escape.
“Hey, Yuli-chan, are you sure you don’t want to rest a bit longer?”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry, I’m not that easy to kill.”
Watching Yuli’s swaying figure disappear, that sword swing, driven by wild emotion, flashed once more before Iris’s eyes.
A complicated glint flickered in her crimson eyes, and her lips curled into an unreadable smile.
“My, my, it looks like I’ve found Yuli-chan’s psychological scar.”