Given the differences in size, age, and numbers, even after demonization, Tina was no match for them.
Soon, Tina was firmly pinned down by several half-orcs.
No matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free from the rough hands of the half-orcs.
When Alpha came to from the pain, the coarse hair amidst her bulging muscles visibly bristled.
“Good, very good! I’ll kill you!”
The underlings held Tina’s limbs as Alpha staggered forward two steps. Her thick arm completely engulfed Tina’s head.
With just a little force, she could twist Tina’s head off.
“That’s enough!”
Estina roared, and a silver-plated lasso accurately looped around Alpha’s neck.
Pulling back, the silver-plated iron blade embedded in the rope pierced deep into the flesh. A plume of white smoke shot skyward along with a guttural roar.
Bam—!
Alpha crashed to the ground, her blackened fingers desperately clawing at the rope. But the more she struggled, the tighter the rope constricted and the deeper the blade sank.
“Stand down at once!”
Estina successfully intimidated all the prisoners. Next, three guards shackled Tina with silver-plated chains.
Estina had anticipated this situation. After receiving Lafeier’s official orders the day before, she had removed the spikes from the chains.
Now, the chains only served to restrict Tina’s movements.
And Tina, as a half-demon, had an innate extreme sensitivity to silver that instinctively made her afraid to exert force. If she used force, the silver plating would press against her and burn her skin.
Soon, a few more guards arrived.
Under Estina’s direction, they locked the hybrids back in their cells and confined the demonized Tina and Alpha separately in the small dark rooms.
That was the whole story.
Lafeier put down the documents, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. A layer of smugness gradually spread across his brow.
“I have a plan.”
A bold idea danced in his mind. A plan to kill three birds with one stone: win over Tina, control the prison’s riot index, and push for prison system reform.
All he had to do was hand out a knife, nothing more.
His gaze locked onto the reward for executing criminals: that silver dagger and high-grade life potion. Pure silver could easily cut through the tough skin of the Blood Race and hybrids, killing them effortlessly. Even just holding it would make them cower in fear.
—
Thump thump thump—
In the pitch-black prison, the crisp sounds of knocking on steel plates grew heavier in the small, stuffy space. Over and over, they echoed in Tina’s ears.
A searing pain burned across her forehead, her brain buzzing, her whole body feeling adrift in a void. Each breath felt like sucking in rough gravel, scraping a bloody smell through her nasal cavity and stirring a tearing agony in her throat.
Tina curled up in a corner of that cramped space less than a square meter, her entire body drenched in sweat. Her face was deathly pale; she trembled and couldn’t stop taking deep breaths. If she stopped breathing, she felt her lungs would explode. But each breath brought her excruciating pain.
Slowly, her consciousness began to blur and chaos.
In just a few seconds, the pain and humiliation she had endured over the past decade or more were soothed by the faint glow of the Red Sun Radiance that had risen shallowly in her heart, silencing their clamor.
‘That night, I will never forget.’
‘The taste of being treated gently by someone surpasses all the suffering in the world.’
‘The silkiness of exquisite fabric, the richness of the thick soup, the softness of the milk-scented bread, the touch that gently brushed my forehead and caressed my dirty shoulders, and the gentle words that made me forget the faint pain of my wounds…’
‘Like a dream, yet truly real.’
‘Because the pain grew more intense because of it, the humiliation became heavier, and that unwillingness and despair tore through my small, fragile body after I briefly witnessed what happiness was.’
‘My world had color for the first time, and that color made all the past murky, chaotic experiences pitiful, lamentable, hateful, and fearsome.’
Her eyes stung, but no tears came.
An arc-shaped shaft spread from the base of her horns to her whole brain, pulling at her nerves like lightning splitting under the heavy pressure of rolling thunderclouds. The tips of her limbs began to go numb, losing sensation, and it gradually spread inward.
‘Equality… an equal death… now seems right before my eyes.’
‘I still remember what that Lord said. My enemy.’
‘The meaning of humiliation, the meaning of harm, quietly came into my mind after I learned what happiness was.’
‘When I, Tina, was once again shrouded in that malice, drowned in humiliation, and beaten black and blue, I saw a fleeting shadow of that Lord.’
‘It was as if she was telling me: Fight back.’
‘Fight back.’
‘Use everything to defend your dignity.’
‘The reason people are equal is that they each have only one life.’
‘Death doesn’t care who is nobler or who is lower.’
‘Let death, that rare fair thing, take away the meaning of my existence.’
‘A person can be destroyed, but not defeated.’
Without a doubt, she had done it.
She hadn’t killed Alpha, but she had killed the cowardly version of herself.
Then, she would welcome a death belonging to courage, a death belonging to equality, a death belonging to Tina—who had defended her precious dignity. Not the death of her as Kelisidina, but of her as Tina.
This was the death of her self, her fate, and her love that had never come to fruition.
Then, a great surge of grief and rage burst forth from her dying body.
‘Why couldn’t I kill her?’
‘If I were given another chance, I would without hesitation return to her every bit of the pain and suffering I’ve endured over these long years!’
—
Click—
The heavy iron door first opened a crack, a sliver of light cutting through the darkness.
An illusion? No, this was…
The door was fully opened.
The familiar face of a man, clear and bright under the holy radiance. She seemed to see behind him a long, golden staircase leading straight to heaven.
‘Could someone like me go to heaven?’
‘God is merciful; perhaps He would let me go.’
And the angel who welcomed her…
“Lord Lafeier, you really are an angel.”
Gulp~
A potion was shoved into the girl’s mouth.
Gulp, gulp~
“How do you feel? A bit better?”
Lafeier asked with concern.
Tina was a little at a loss. After the potion entered her body, it rampaged inside her like a lost lamb, carrying a faint sweetness—though not as sweet as that sour candy from that day. But what shocked her was that the sweetness in the potion spread to every inch of her body all the same.
The flow of life burst forth from the depths of her dried-up spinal cord, driving her blood to circulate quickly. Soon, Tina felt her body grow hot. Not the damp, sticky heat of being trapped in the cell, but the heat of a heartbeat growing more vigorous and alive!
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.