The constant swaying of the carriage and the sickening smell of human feces broke Alice out of her quick nap. She lifted her aching body off the floor and sagged against the frigid wooden walls.
Only a few rotten holes in the walls allowed for airflow, giving her a sense of time. However, judging from the moonlight, it was definitely still nighttime.
“Ugh.” Alice buckled over to throw up, but nothing came out. Her rumbling stomach refused to offer her anything other than some foul-smelling spit that dribbled down her chin. She rubbed her stomach with her spindly fingers.
She wiped the vile dribble off her chin, and her head lazily rested on the freezing walls. She was hungry, cold, itching from the dirty rags, and downright miserable.
She was once the daughter of a wealthy merchant from a small kingdom called Eshnar. But on her eighteenth birthday, she was blessed by the spirit of darkness. Unfortunately, her life fell apart after that. Her beloved family sold her off to avoid a scandal with the church in the kingdom that worshipped all spirits but decided the spirit of darkness was evil.
“They accused me of being a psychopath, just because I strangled a rat to death for fun the next day,” Alice mumbled as a grin formed on her face. Since that fateful day, something about death and the afterlife theory fascinated her. Had the blessing corrupted her? According to societal standards, she was insane, but she rejected that notion as she could see the truth. They were all blinded by their zealous faith, but she had seen the other side.
After being sold to slave traders for three gold coins, she was on a month-long journey around the cursed forest. Quite the contrast between her cushy life as a merchant’s daughter to a potential sex slave within a day.
Alice had heard stories of those that tried to brave the cursed forest and navigate its treacherous paths. Many tried going straight through the forest to cut weeks off their travel time, only to never make it out alive. The forest was so dangerous that prisoners were often “set free” inside, only for the criminals to beg to be locked up again instead of being left for dead.
Alice was currently being transported to the much larger country on the other side of the cursed forest, simply known as the Empire. It was around three times the size of Eshnar but didn’t wage war due to the obstacle of the cursed forest.
While Alice was falling asleep again to try and escape the endless pain from her empty stomach, there was a shout outside her carriage, although the exact words were muffled and drowned out by the noise of the wheels turning.
Then something massive seemed to slam into the other side of the carriage. A loud bang shocked Alice from her half slumber, and a wave of dust and wooden splinters flew at her. Her ears rang as the carriage toppled onto its side with a massive hole exposing the night sky. Her head slammed onto the floor, the world spun, and she felt sick.
A head poked its way through the hole and glared at Alice with hungry, scarlet eyes. She could only shiver from being eyed up like a piece of grub. The colossal wolf wasted no time and started destroying her metal cage with its huge, metallic claws. Sparks illuminated the dark space as she covered her eyes.
Over the sound of the wolf’s claws tearing apart her metal cage, Alice could hear her captors shouting out orders.
“Monster attack, men! Everyone gather around me.”
“Boss, the slave carriage is being attacked,” one man said in a very panicked voice. Although these “merchants” were planning to sell many goods to the Empire, the slaves were worth the most, especially the girl blessed by spirits, Alice.
However, Alice wasn’t blessed for a reason. She knew this was her one chance to escape. She had been starving herself for an opportunity just like this one.
She could slip her bony wrists through the metal shackles chained to the floor with a lot of effort, leaving friction burns and scrapes along her raw flesh. With her successful escape from the bindings, she waited patiently for the wolf to finish obliterating her crude iron cell.
Her chance to escape would be slim, but she believed she could do it—
“FIRE!”
An arrow rammed itself into the demonic wolf’s leg, causing it to scream. Then, with its berserk status evoked, it ignored the tasty snack and charged the merchants.
With all her strength, Alice climbed on the still-hot metal bars and pulled herself out of the toppled-over carriage. For a brief second, the pleasant night wind accompanied by a sky filled with beautiful stars gave her a sense of joy. Until the seriousness of the situation set back in.
Thanks to her Stealth II skill from her blessing, she could temporarily slip past the distracted wolf only a meter away, growling at the formation of merchants wielding spears. But unfortunately, that was the limit of its capabilities.
pαпdα-ňᴏνêι·сóМ The merchants’ eyes followed her as she crept behind the wolf and began sprinting away.
Looking around desperately, she could only seek shelter in the cursed forest. Hesitant for a second, she decided it would be fine so long as she stayed near the edges. “The monsters get stronger the closer you are to the center,” she repeated like a mantra in her head.
Alice ran, almost tripping over herself, the sharp forest floor pained her bare feet, and the cold night wind was relentless on her body which was only covered with thin rags. Blood dripped from her wounds, alerting nearby monsters of a potentially injured and easy meal.
She reached around a hundred meters into the forest before hearing the men chasing and calling after her. “It would seem the wolf has lost already.” She cursed as she increased her pace. Her breath left clouds of fog as her lungs burned from exhaustion.
The merchants were hesitant to chase the girl into the forest, but they had paid three gold coins for the girl and were unwilling to lose that investment.
Because of the chasing men, Alice was forced to go deeper and deeper into the cursed forest. She was surprised she hadn’t been eaten yet, or she would be if not for the hundreds of dead bodies already lining the forest floor.
What kind of monster among monsters was she currently following? Alice didn’t know, nor did she want to find out.
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