Whoosh!
A streak of blue-black light tore through layer after layer of the sound barrier, dragging a piercing series of sonic booms behind it before descending into the center of what had once been a village.
But beneath the flames raging toward the sky, houses were collapsing and the entire village was burning.
Figures swallowed by the fire curled in on themselves under the searing heat, reduced to fuel for the inferno.
As far as the eye could see, mottled bloodstains covered nearly every patch of ground.
Twisted severed limbs, organs spilling from torn-open abdomens, eyeballs, fingers, arms, and irregular chunks of flesh were scattered everywhere.
It looked as though some savage beast had torn its prey apart by brute force.
The entire village had become a giant slaughterhouse. The nauseating stench of blood mixed with the foul odor of scorched flesh and assaulted the senses.
By the combined light of the moon and the flames, Morgan could vaguely distinguish the mangled remains scattered together. Some were fresh, while others had already rotted.
The fresh flesh belonged to fairies.
The rotting flesh came from the corpses.
Not long ago, corpses had attacked this place.
The village was finished...
While Morgan stood stunned by the sight, several fairies suddenly stumbled out of a cellar where firelight and shadow overlapped, screaming as they fled toward the edge of the village.
"Monster! Monster!"
"Get away! Don't come near me!"
"Help! Ah... hel..."
Rip! Rip! Rip! Rip!
Before Morgan could react, a swift black shadow swept past beneath the moonlight like a ghostly wind. The sickening sound of flesh being torn apart rang out again and again.
Heads flew.
Blood sprayed.
Wings snapped.
Limbs were ripped away.
In a single instant, a scene straight from hell unfolded before Morgan's eyes.
Beneath the firelight, two red heels shaped almost like deer hooves staggered awkwardly into the Witch's view.
Those legs were already drenched in blood. Beneath the torn, peeled-back flesh, severed tendons and displaced bones could faintly be seen.
With every step, droplets of blood scattered from the wounds like roses blooming among thorns.
"Ahahahaha! Are we playing hide-and-seek? Wonderful! I love everyone so much!"
Innocent laughter echoed through the village.
The madness twisted into something so extreme that it sent chills down the spine.
"Where... are you? I have to... find you quickly."
Accompanied by the grating sound of bones grinding against one another, a petite figure with arms bent into similarly unnatural angles stepped from the deepest darkness into the firelight.
Blood dripped from her like a broken doll.
Yet her face was filled with anticipation.
"Baobhan Sith..."
Morgan's pupils contracted sharply as she saw the girl's hair dyed red by blood and suffering, along with half of her face smeared with blood and dirt.
At the sound of that familiar name, the pale doll dragging her ruined body forward abruptly stopped.
"Baobhan Sith... Baobhan Sith... the cute little girl with the red heels... very popular in the village... the plaything that brings smiles to everyone..."
"Ah... my head... my head hurts so much!"
It was as if those words had activated some forbidden memory buried deep inside her.
Baobhan Sith suddenly clutched her head with both hands, clawing frantically at her long hair as she cried out in agony.
"Baobhan Sith! Who did this to you? What happened here?!"
Morgan rushed forward at once, gripped the girl by both shoulders, and asked in a trembling voice.
"What... happened...?"
That familiar voice seemed to awaken a trace of clarity within her dull eyes.
The blood-soaked girl mechanically lifted her face and stared through a crimson haze at the figure before her, someone who, for reasons she could not understand, felt inexplicably close.
Those clear, deep blue eyes were like a mirror reflecting the past, drawing her shattered soul back into memory.
...
Several hours earlier, at Baobhan Sith's home.
After seeing Morgan off, the girl rushed inside and threw herself onto the bed. She stared at the red dress again and again, kissed it repeatedly, then finally hugged it to her chest and rolled excitedly beneath the covers.
Hehe, a present! A dress! I finally have a dress of my own!
Baobhan Sith basked in happiness for a while before eagerly putting the dress on. Standing before the full-length mirror, she examined herself over and over, admiring every stitch, every pattern, every line and contour.
It was the first gift she had ever received.
And it was a gift from a friend.
So precious.
So beautiful!
Morgan had said it was a new design she had commissioned from the weaving fairies.
Ah, it's gorgeous!
The pink-haired fairy struck pose after pose in front of the mirror, raising her smooth chin like a proud princess.
Mm-hmm, I'm even prettier!
Hehe, beautiful Baobhan Sith!
Cute Baobhan Sith!
Baobhan Sith, whom everyone loves!
The most popular little girl in the village, the girl with the red heels!
As the fairy girl lost herself in smug admiration, however, the little feet beneath her skirt, shaped somewhat like deer hooves, stood bare on the dirty floor and looked rather shabby.
Baobhan Sith instinctively tucked them farther beneath her dress, regret filling her eyes.
If only I had a pair of beautiful shoes too, then I'd be perfect.
I should decorate the most sensitive and special part of my body as beautifully as possible.
Bold, extravagant, enchanting, elegant.
Mm-hmm. They would definitely become my finest treasure!
Oh, right. Someone this cute and beautiful can't be the only one who gets to admire it.
I have to show everyone!
After spending several hours fussing in front of the mirror and still not getting enough of it, Baobhan Sith eagerly went out to show her friends her most dazzling appearance.
"Hehe, cute, right? Beautiful, right? My friend gave this to me!"
In the dim courtyard, the pink-haired girl tugged happily at the hem of her dress, chattering away as she proudly showed it off.
"Yuu?"
Inside the low fence lined with straw, the sole member of her audience poked out its deer-like head. It blinked innocently, made a puzzled sound, then lowered its head and went back to chewing tender leaves.
"Tsk, seriously! You have no taste at all! Keep that up and I'll chop you into pieces and eat you!"
Having failed to receive the reaction she wanted, the fairy girl widened her eyes and waved her arms threateningly at the idiot inside the enclosure.
The little creature did not react at all. It simply continued eating, clearly accustomed to its owner's occasional outbursts.
After all, she had threatened it countless times before and had never actually followed through.
Grrr...
After spending most of the day worked up with excitement, Baobhan Sith finally began to calm down.
Only then did her stomach growl loudly, and hunger swept over her.
You're eating, so I should eat too...
Baobhan Sith rubbed her stomach, carefully smoothed the wrinkles from her precious dress, then lifted the hem and hopped into the enclosure.
A trace of guilt appeared in her eyes as she gently stroked the little deer's neck.
"Good. Don't move. It'll only hurt a little. I'm sorry about last time. I'll be more careful today."
"Yuu..."
The little creature lowered its head obediently and settled onto the ground on all fours.
Under the moonlight, Baobhan Sith parted her lips and revealed her fangs. She carefully lowered her head and pierced the fawn's skin, slowly drinking the blood that served as her food and easing the hunger in her stomach.
After feeding for a short while, Baobhan Sith raised her head and curled her pink tongue around the blood at the corner of her lips, licking away every drop.
"Such a good girl! Here, this is your reward."
Smiling, the fairy girl patted the little deer on the head and poured a basket of even fresher leaves into the feeding trough as both reward and compensation.
The little deer affectionately licked its owner's palm, then happily began eating its extra meal.
Baobhan Sith... the cute little girl with the red heels...
If only I had a beautiful pair of shoes.
Bathed in moonlight, the fairy girl looked down at her "deer hooves," her eyes filled with longing.
"Monster!"
"Go away! Get away!"
"No! Help!"
Just as Baobhan Sith was imagining her future shoes, panicked screams and cries for help erupted outside.
Oh no, the corpses got into the village!
The moment the fairy girl caught the familiar stench of decay, her face changed and she rushed toward the door.
But just before she ran outside, Baobhan Sith abruptly stopped.
She carefully removed the precious dress, placed it beside the bed, then quickly changed back into her usual shabby gray clothes before following the cries for help.
In an alley, several distorted figures wreathed in black mist were chasing the living, biting and clawing at anything they caught.
A few fairies fleeing in panic had been forced into a dead end.
With nowhere left to hide, they could only stare helplessly as elongated shadows crept closer beneath the moonlight.
Thud!
At that moment, a wooden club as thick as an arm flew from around a corner and struck one of the corpses in the head.
The corpses paused and stiffly turned.
"I'll lure them away!"
Standing beneath the moonlight at the mouth of the alley, Baobhan Sith was white with fear and her teeth were chattering, but she still forced every scrap of courage from her body and called out.
Baobhan Sith is a good girl!
Baobhan Sith is the hero who saves everyone!
Everyone in the village will love me!
Don't be afraid. It won't hurt at all.
The fairy girl kept muttering to herself, desperately trying to build up her courage.
Her tightly clenched right hand trembled as she opened it and raised it high.
A cut ran across her pale palm, bright red blood flowing freely from the wound.
The sweet, metallic scent immediately drew the corpses searching for fresh life.
They hissed and growled as they instinctively converged on the bait before them.
The trapped fairies scattered at once, fleeing in every direction.
But the commotion behind them drew the attention of two corpses back toward the fleeing group.
"Rrgh..."
Black mist boiled around them as the corpses locked onto new targets and lunged at the last two fairies, violently pinning them to the ground.
"Help! Baobhan Sith, help!"
The little fairies struggled frantically, their faces drained of color as they screamed for help.
Thud! Thud!
At the final instant, a small figure charged in from behind and knocked both corpses aside.
"Run!"
Baobhan Sith wrapped her arms tightly around the waists of the two corpses and shouted at the fairies she had just saved.
Snapping back to their senses, they immediately scattered in terror, fleeing without looking back.
Behind them, the tangled figures writhed in pain and struggle, reduced to something resembling wild beasts tearing and biting at one another.
The night was deep.
No one knew how many corpses lurked in the darkness, or how many terrifying monsters might still be hidden there.
The villagers under attack had no sense of coordination whatsoever and scattered wildly in panic.
Amid the chaos, someone knocked over a lamp.
Burning oil spilled from it and immediately ignited the rows of wooden houses.
But under the bright firelight, the fairies gradually realized that there were not actually many corpses pursuing them.
Many of them had already been lured toward the central square.
Little by little, the villagers recovered from their panic.
Gathering their courage, they began casting spells and eliminating the scattered corpses one by one.
At last, having reclaimed their village, the residents gathered triumphantly in the square, cheerful and confident as they prepared to wipe out the few remaining corpses.
But beneath the roaring firelight, the fairies suddenly froze.
The square was covered in densely scattered pieces of flesh and limbs, all violently torn apart.
Even more horrifying was the hunched figure crouching among the piles of corpses like a wild beast.
She was soaked in blood.
Her teeth tore through the gray-green flesh of the dead.
And she drank their filthy blood in great mouthfuls.
"Baobhan Sith..."
At the sight of that familiar hair color, startled voices rose from among the fairies.
"Everyone... everyone's safe... I did it... Thank goodness..."
The slender, beast-like figure suddenly froze. She rose dazedly and turned around, the blood-red haze in her eyes gradually receding. With a relieved sigh, she spread her scratched arms and staggered down from the pile of corpses toward the companions she had saved.
"Monster! Stay away from us!"
But the shrill cries of disgust, along with the familiar faces twisted with revulsion beneath the firelight, left the fairy girl frozen in place. She had approached them full of joy, hoping to be welcomed and praised.
"I'm... Baobhan Sith... Baobhan Sith with the red heels... Baobhan Sith, whom everyone loves... There must be some mistake..."
Her bewildered murmuring was met by a burst of laughter from the crowd.
"Hahaha! Look at her! A fool we only kept around for entertainment actually got so stupid she forgot her place and thought we liked her?"
"Everyone loves you? You're just some lower-tier fairy who appeared out of nowhere, with no kin and no parents, barely scraping by in our village. And you actually thought you were popular? That's hilarious!"
"And those deer hooves! They look exactly like livestock. How ridiculous!"
Under the barrage of mocking gazes, Baobhan Sith's face flushed with humiliation. She lowered her head and hurriedly tried to hide her conspicuous deer hooves beneath her skirt.
Their undisguised ridicule and malice were like blades, tearing apart the pitiful dream she had woven for herself and stabbing relentlessly into her heart.
"No! No! I just... I just saved everyone! You wouldn't hate me!"
Baobhan Sith clamped her hands over her ears and shook her head desperately. Then she remembered what she had done, and a faint glimmer of hope returned to her eyes as she raised her head to protest.
"Who asked you to save us, you useless piece of trash? You even made me trip!"
"You drank blood from corpses. That's disgusting!"
"Ugh! The place she touched me is so itchy, and I've got bumps now! What if her claws are poisonous?"
"Exactly! My back hurts too! It must be her fault!"
The fairies clamored among themselves, condemning the outsider who did not belong among them. Their disgusted gazes treated her like some disease-ridden monster.
"No... no... I didn't do it..."
Baobhan Sith shook her head frantically, tears filling her eyes. Stumbling unevenly through the pile of corpses on her deer-like feet, she tried to approach her former companions and explain herself.
Thud!
A jagged stone suddenly whistled through the air and struck her squarely on the forehead.
Dizziness and sharp pain hit her at once. Crimson blood flowed freely from the wound, spilling into her eye, wetting her lashes, and staining half her face.
"You're filthy! Get away!"
"Yeah! Don't come near us!"
The fairies picked up stones one after another and hurled them without mercy, freely venting their malice.
"I didn't do it... I didn't..."
Under the moonlight, the pink-haired fairy girl stood alone atop the mound of corpses. She hurriedly covered her head and crouched helplessly on the ground, enduring the barrage of stones while repeating the same defense over and over.
The light in her once-vivid eyes gradually faded.
"Look! Her wounds are healing!"
The fairies throwing stones suddenly noticed that Baobhan Sith's injuries were visibly closing as blood energy flowed through her body.
Another wave of noisy discussion immediately swept through the crowd.
"That's strange. It happened before too. I definitely saw one of the living corpses bite her, so why was she fine?"
"And remember when her arm was broken? An injury that serious was completely healed by the next day!"
"That's not all! I remember she escaped from the Land of Bones. She had no kin, no inherited memories, and nowhere she belonged. There was an insect plague raging nearby at the time. How could an ordinary fairy possibly make it out of that forest alive?"
As the discussion continued, one fairy suddenly seemed to realize something. Fear crept into their gaze as they stared at the girl among the corpses.
"Wait! What if this freak is the source of the disaster?"
"That's right! It has to be! Haven't you noticed? Ever since she came here, the village keeps getting attacked by living corpses!"
"Exactly! Even the berry harvest has gotten much worse! It has to be this walking disaster's fault!"
The more they spoke, the more frightened they became. Soon, the fairies were staring at the girl cowering among the corpses with open fear.
"It wasn't me! I didn't do anything!"
Like a wounded little animal trapped among thorns, Baobhan Sith shook her head desperately through tear-filled eyes and hoarsely tried to defend herself.
But the sight of her weakness and helplessness only awakened the fairies' urge to vent their anger. Their vicious cries grew louder and louder.
"She brought the disaster here!"
"Disgusting pig!"
"We can't let this scourge stay!"
"Burn her!"
"Yeah! Burn her!"
The cries spread through the crowd until the mob reached a unanimous decision and cheered together.
Several fairies, emboldened by the others, roughly dragged the "scourge" down from the pile of corpses.
"No... it hurts... Ugh, it hurts!"
Baobhan Sith cried and struggled, but her resistance was pitifully weak. It only encouraged the mob to become even more brutal.
"Stop squirming, freak!"
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Four sharpened wooden spears pierced Baobhan Sith's limbs with dull, sickening sounds, pinning the innocent fairy girl miserably to the ground.
Bright red blood spread across the earth like writhing crimson serpents.
"Ah... ah... Aaaaaah! No... it hurts... it hurts so much..."
The tortured girl screamed in agony, her eyes filled with desperate pleading.
"Aren't we... going a little too far?"
Her suffering caused a few fairies to hesitate.
"Did you forget? She was feeding on those corpses. She's one of them! How could something like her even feel pain?"
"Exactly! She's just a lump of meat. Why is she making so much noise?"
"Burn her already! Make her shut up!"
The chorus of voices brought out an even crueler side in the impatient fairies. They urged the others to hurry and gather firewood so they could burn the scourge alive.
"Hehe, look what I found!"
Before long, several fairies searching for firewood returned triumphantly with a beautiful red dress.
"I saw it first!"
"Nonsense! I did!"
Rip...
The little fairies immediately began fighting over it. As they pulled with all their strength, the vivid red dress tore apart.
Strips of fabric fluttered through the air like butterflies and scattered around Baobhan Sith.
By the dim firelight, the tortured girl saw the familiar patterns and stitching on the torn pieces.
Her dull pupils trembled and contracted.
"A gift... my friend's gift... it's gone... I'll get scolded..."
"Shut up, pig!"
The fairy who had lost her share of the spoils kicked Baobhan Sith in irritation.
But the girl lying there like a corpse barely reacted.
The tormentor grew even more annoyed.
Then her eyes shifted, and before long she dragged a trembling little deer over to Baobhan Sith.
"Yuu..."
The confused little creature immediately lowered its head upon seeing its owner and gently nudged Baobhan Sith's pale cheek. Its slightly rough tongue licked away the filth on the fairy girl's face.
At last, that warmth and moisture brought a faint glimmer back into her lifeless eyes.
Slash!
But in the next instant, a sharp blade flashed across the fawn's neck.
Hot crimson blood sprayed freely over Baobhan Sith's upper body, drowning the last trace of light in her eyes beneath a sea of red.
Thud!
The little deer collapsed onto its owner, its legs twitching as the light slowly faded from its eyes.
Ah...
It was gone.
Everything had been taken from her.
I only wanted everyone to like me.
I didn't do anything wrong.
Why?
Why...?
Her tiny body curled inward and trembled. She wanted to cry, but no matter how hard she tried, her aching throat could not produce even the faintest sob.
"Hey, pig. Don't you love drinking blood? Enjoy it. This is your last meal."
Having vented her anger, the fairy sneered mockingly and lifted her foot, intending to stomp one last time on the two motionless bodies.
Whoosh!
But the instant her leg came down, the air was sliced apart.
A strange sensation of weightlessness followed.
"Ah! What happened?! My foot! My foot!"
The fairy pitched forward and crashed heavily into the dirt.
Clutching the stump where her right foot had been severed cleanly at the ankle, she screamed in agony.
"Shut up, pig!"
A crimson flash swept past.
The scream stopped instantly.
A head rolled into the dust as blood erupted from the severed neck like a fountain, spraying in every direction.
The surrounding fairies, drenched from head to toe, screamed in terror and stumbled backward.
At the same time, scarlet blood energy began converging toward the center of the square, gathering into an eerie haze.
Beneath the blood cocoon, a deathly pale arm with twisted bones pushed aside the shriveled body of the fawn.
Under the horrified, disbelieving gazes of the fairies, the girl whose limbs bore grotesque wounds like a broken doll slowly rose to her feet in an unnatural posture.
"Ah... ah... Aaaaaah! It's all your fault! All your fault! Kill them! Boring fairies... weak creatures... kill them all!"
The demon returned from a blood-red hell muttered venomously.
The scarlet aura around her boiled violently, carrying what sounded like the wails and sobs of countless vengeful spirits.
Run!
In an instant, goosebumps erupted across the fairies' skin, and a chill seeped into their marrow and souls.
Every fairy present was overwhelmed by the urge to flee.
They screamed and scattered in all directions, running for their lives with everything they had to escape that crimson hell.
"Ha... haa... Found you... caught you...! I absolutely won't... let you escape...! Painful Phantom Lament...!!"
Under the cold moonlight, the blood-soaked fairy slowly raised her head.
Her gaze locked onto one familiar figure after another.
A deranged smile spread across her face as she extended her twisted arm forward and suddenly clenched all five fingers.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
A series of muffled bursts rang out, like spikes piercing water-filled bags.
Clouds of blood erupted from the bodies of the fleeing fairies.
At the same time, crimson spikes shaped like flower petals blossomed outward from within them.
Bloody and alluring.
Terrifying and beautiful.
One victim after another came apart, flesh rupturing and bones splintering.
Across the blood-soaked red-black earth, only pairs of fairy heels remained.
They were the trophies chosen by the hunter.
"Ha... ah... ah... Run, insects!
"I'm going to crush every one of you... chop you apart... eat you...!"
Standing atop the pile of corpses, the blood-red fairy made her declaration with obvious delight, malice spilling from her eyes like a cat toying with mice beneath its paws.
With a light sweep of her pale arm, walls of crimson light erupted from the ground around the village, sealing the entire area off from the outside world and turning it into a hunting ground.
Thus began a bloody massacre.
...
Hum!
In an instant, the crimson sky that seemed to drip with blood shattered like a mirror.
A beam of tranquil lake-blue light pierced into the world filled with blood and madness.
"Who... are you? Do you know where those people are? I have to... find them quickly. While I'm still... myself..."
At the center of the village, now reduced to blackened ruins by the flames, the monster awakened by malice tilted her head and questioned the figure before her in a broken voice.
The Witch, who had peered into the past using the secret art [Water Mirror], slowly opened her eyes.
She tapped her staff lightly.
Several conspicuous points of light immediately appeared in hidden corners throughout the village.
The cold blue lake light illuminated face after terrified, twisted face.
"Ahahahaha! Found them! Found them! Thank you, thank you, stranger! Thanks to you, I found them!"
Bathed in blood and moonlight, the fairy girl giggled gleefully.
"Crush them... crush them, crush them! Ants gathered around honey... let them all be crushed beneath my heels!! Hehehe... hehe... Ahahahahaha!"
The girl stepped forward with the grace of a cat.
Crimson light gathered in her hand, condensing into an exquisite silver-gray conical hammer with a blood-red, heart-shaped gem embedded at its center.
As she lightly raised the hammer, the crimson aura spiraled inward.
Fairies hiding throughout the village screamed as they were dragged from the shadows one after another.
"Wait, Baobhan Sith! We had nothing to do with it!"
"We love you! We're innocent! Please spare us!"
"No! Help! How could this happen?!"
"Ahhh! It hurts! My hands! My feet!"
Amid curses and desperate pleas, an eerie force compressed the fairies' muscles, bones, and blood.
Their bodies groaned under the unbearable pressure as they were crushed smaller and smaller, until each became a doll-like creature barely three inches tall.
Thud!
The delicate hammer came down.
All the screams and clamor stopped at once.
One eerie flower of blood and thorns after another bloomed across the ground.
...
After the long night finally passed, morning sunlight pierced through the gloom and cast itself across the earth.
The ruined village lay silent and desolate, burned to the ground, with thin wisps of smoke still rising from the ashes.
Even beneath the morning light, the only two living beings left remained in the darkness beneath the shade of the trees.
A gentle breeze passed through, thinning the lingering scent of blood.
Curled beside the Witch's knees, the pink-haired girl slept like an infant.
Her eyelashes trembled.
Slowly, she woke from her long sleep, her gray eyes filled with confusion.
"...Huh? Who... am I? What have I been doing all this time...? It feels like I had a really happy dream..."
"Baobhan Sith. You are a Witch, my daughter..."
Morgan lowered her head and placed one hand behind the fairy girl's head, gently combing through her slightly disheveled pink hair.
Her blue eyes were calm and tender.
"Ah! I remember now... I'm a Witch! Look at me, Mother!"
Brilliant light suddenly filled Baobhan Sith's dull gray eyes, and her small face flushed with excitement.
But then her gaze fell upon the devastated land ahead and the village buried beneath smoldering ashes.
A stab of pain shot through her mind.
Her trembling hands instinctively clutched her head, and her face twisted painfully.
"Ah... my head hurts... What happened to me?"
For some reason, her eyes began to sting.
Crystal-clear tears slipped from their corners.
But before that inexplicable sorrow could grow inside her, a pair of warm hands cupped her cheeks.
Morgan's thumbs gently wiped away the tears as she spoke sternly.
"Pull yourself together, Baobhan Sith. If you want to stay by my side, you cannot be this weak. At the very least, you need to break that bad habit of crying so easily."
"Ah! Mother, please don't abandon me! I'll do it, I promise!"
Panic immediately overwhelmed her.
The thought of losing the person she could rely on turned Baobhan Sith's face deathly pale, and she hurriedly promised without hesitation.
"I will train you into a proper Knight. No one will ever humiliate you again."
The Witch gently stroked the fairy girl's head, speaking in a slow, measured tone as her gaze grew distant.
Having trained an entire Fae Round Table, Morgan was certainly qualified to say so.
Then she glanced toward the small new grave beside the village and added with a slight frown,
"Remember this. I would rather see you dominate and trample others than become some pitiful creature who allows herself to be bullied."
"I will! I promise!"
The fairy girl vowed solemnly, a flicker of madness passing through her eyes.
That's right!
Aside from Mother, everything else in this world is nothing but insects and pigs that I can trample however I like!
The stronger I become, the more I bully them, the happier Mother will be!
And the more she'll love me!
Hehe. That has to be right!
Having reached this conclusion, the cute girl was no longer afraid.
She nodded vigorously, her heart overflowing with happiness.
As the sun climbed higher and the mist dispersed, two shadows sheltered beneath a Magecraft barrier crossed the ruined village and gradually disappeared into the distance.
The cute little girl with the red heels, the one who had been so "popular" in the village and could "bring smiles to everyone," was dead.
From blood-soaked cries and despair, a Witch had been born.
Her hair dyed red by suffering, she wrapped herself in violence and distortion like armor, hid behind madness and cruelty, and became the Rose Knight blooming among thorns.
And she was also a [cute] girl who would keep "working hard" for one simple reason.
She wanted her mother to love her.