275. Starvation (2)
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Water droplets fell from the sealed ceiling.
Nothing but pitch-black darkness filled my vision.
Honestly, even now I couldn't wrap my head around it.
Suddenly imprisoning someone and telling them to endure extreme hunger—what the hell did that even mean?
'No, what kind of training is this...?'
It wasn't swinging a sword,
it wasn't refining my swordsmanship through feedback,
it wasn't physical conditioning either,
and it wasn't learning how to utilize Mana.
Just stupidly, mindlessly enduring hunger?
This did nothing but drain my body. It wasn't training in any sense of the word.
There wasn't even a timeline, so I had no idea how long I had to endure this hunger.
'What a waste of time.'
On top of that, for someone like me who'd only ever received Master's brutal training, this was simply incomprehensible.
'Tch, even if she's my master's master, this feels wrong... For now, I need to get out and have a word with the Sword Emperor.'
Having made up my mind, I stretched my hand forward into the invisible darkness.
The space must not have been very wide, because my hand quickly touched the earthen wall.
'I got here by climbing down rock walls anyway. This should be a piece of cake. No, at this height, wouldn't one jump be enough?'
Recalling the Sword Emperor's face as she'd looked down at me through the hole in the ceiling earlier,
the hole really didn't look that deep.
Dash!
I immediately kicked off the ground.
Hop!
But my jump, pathetically, lifted me barely a handspan off the ground.
"Huh?"
Tilting my head, I placed my hand against the wall.
The surface was smooth, as if sliced clean by a blade.
'Hmm, well, there's nothing to grip and climb with. Then, brute force!'
I tried to force my fingertips into the wall to create a handhold.
Thud!
"Aack!"
My fingertips couldn't penetrate even a single centimeter.
No, the recoil actually left my fingertips stinging.
"What the...?"
Only then did I realize something was seriously wrong, and I drew Moonlight to slash at the wall.
Scrape!
The sword swung pathetically.
It didn't even leave a scratch on the surface.
"What's going on...?"
I checked my body for a moment, then my eyes flew wide open.
Because the Mana that I should've been able to use, even if somewhat suppressed in this place, wasn't moving at all.
No, I couldn't feel even a trace of it.
The Mana I'd always wielded as naturally as breathing had vanished overnight, leaving an eerie emptiness that felt bizarre and alien.
On top of that, my physical abilities had plummeted past rock bottom and tunneled straight into the earth—they were abysmal.
Yeah.
It felt as if—before I'd transmigrated into this Velvetsra.
As if I'd regressed to the body of an ordinary person just living in the modern world—no monsters, no Demonized Humans, no hunters.
"...Then I'm seriously screwed, aren't I?"
I scratched the back of my head and muttered in a disgruntled voice.
Was I just going to be imprisoned here with no way out?
"Well, I mean, I do have the Subspace Tattoo if it comes to that."
The Subspace Tattoo, upgraded by Rina several times, was now spacious enough to hold most items.
It was stocked with quite a lot of supplies and equipment for dealing with situations exactly like this—stranded or in an emergency.
Food and water were included.
"Hmm, how much do I have?"
I tried to open it as a test, but the Subspace Tattoo wouldn't budge either.
I made an "oh, right" face.
"Ah, right. Now that I think about it, the Subspace Tattoo runs on Mana too, doesn't it?"
Since operating the subspace never required much Mana, I'd briefly forgotten.
That the Subspace Tattoo also used Mana as an energy source.
So, to summarize my current situation.
- Ordinary person's body.
- No Mana.
- Nothing to eat.
- Can't even swing a sword properly.
In short, I was stuck—forced to undergo this bizarre training of the Sword Emperor's with no way out.
The moment I realized there truly was no escape, irritation surged up out of nowhere.
It felt like this incomprehensible training was being unilaterally forced on me without even knowing what it was supposed to achieve.
Without a single word of discussion!
"Tch, well... there's no way out. Ha, I don't know how long this'll last, but I've got no choice but to play along."
Grumbling, I plopped down onto the ground.
And so began this strange discipline—which they called the Sword Emperor's training and I read as imprisonment.
* * *
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
"Fuck... What the hell is this..."
How much time had passed?
Honestly, I had no idea.
In the pitch-black darkness where even day and night were indistinguishable,
only the sound of dripping water filled my eardrums.
At first, it was fine.
I just sat cross-legged, closed my eyes, and sorted through various thoughts in my head.
I figured even this tedious training might be bearable.
I organized everything I'd learned from Master so far.
"Always keep your center of gravity low, and pay attention to the direction of the toes on your trailing foot. That's how you keep freedom in your next movement."
I also replayed the main story and sub stories of this world.
"Is Alice's Personal Story really about awakening to the Sword Emperor's blade?"
And I thought about the characters living in this world.
"Gukbap, Poppy, Shin Se-hee, Ga-eul sunbae, Sofia, Ichika... Master. Rina...? Let's skip the grade-school magical girl."
On top of that, I retraced everything I'd overcome so far—checking whether I'd missed anything, objectively evaluating whether I could've done better. That time was genuinely productive.
"Hmm, still, the Gulliver's Travels episode was kinda messed up. Seriously lucky we wrapped that one up fast..."
Looking back on the past and planning what I needed to do next made the time fly by.
"I'm getting sleepy."
When I got drowsy, I'd just close my eyes for a bit.
"Yaaawn, what should I think about today... Doesn't feel like there's anything left to think about..."
When I woke up, I'd get up and pick up the train of thought again.
But.
At some point, even that hit its limit.
Grrrrrowl—!
"Ah..."
Because my stomach was lodging a fierce protest.
I could somehow manage the thirst with the water droplets falling from above.
But the hunger—that was a different story.
"I'm hungry..."
The words slipped out between my lips before I knew it.
But no matter how I groped around, my hands found nothing but the hard floor. Nothing edible came into my grasp.
The hunger gradually reached its peak, and thinking about anything else became impossible.
Only the fierce desire to put something in my mouth, chew it, and swallow it blazed up in my mind.
At first, I was in denial.
"Hey, isn't it about time to let me out? This doesn't really seem like it has any training effect. How long am I supposed to keep up this pointless bullshit?"
But the ceiling answered with silence.
*
Next came anger.
"Sword Emperor! Let me out, now! I don't want to do this stupid, inefficient training anymore! What the hell is this anyway?! Hey! Sword Emperor! I said let me out!!"
Driven to the peak of irritation by hunger, I screamed at the top of my lungs toward the ceiling.
But the Sword Emperor did not open the ceiling.
*
Then came bargaining.
"Lee Yu-ri, Kang Do-hee! Are you out there? I think I've been in here for a while now, aren't you looking for me too? I'm in here! That woman, the Sword Emperor, imprisoned me! Open the ceiling, quick! My phone, nothing's working right now!!!"
But my party members did not open the ceiling.
*
Next came depression.
"...Seriously, what did I do wrong."
From endlessly shouting people's names, screaming to be saved, begging to be rescued, my voice came out as a harsh metallic rasp.
I was even too exhausted to stick out my tongue and catch the water droplets to drink.
I looked up at the ceiling, which showed no sign of opening, and spat out curses.
"Fuck... What the hell is this..."
What had I done so wrong to deserve this suffering?
I was just a pitiful stranger who'd been transmigrated into this world for no real reason.
And yet, trying to somehow save this godforsaken, doomed world,
I'd swung my sword like my life depended on it every single day, fought those terrifying monsters, and battled demonized-human bastards who treated human lives like flies.
What reason could there possibly be for me to be treated like this?
A surge.
"Hnk..."
Tears streamed down my face from sheer misery.
*
And the final stage.
Acceptance.
"Am I... seriously dying here like this? Wow, fuck... This is such a goddamn ridiculous way to die... Absolutely insane. Shitty-ass world..."
I lay sprawled on my back on the floor, staring up at the sealed ceiling, mumbling weakly.
Now, death was truly close.
My head was spinning, and my vision was hazy.
It felt like every last ounce of strength had drained even from a single finger.
No one would ever imagine they'd die like this—so futilely, in a place like this.
Not chewed up in a monster's jaws, not cut down by a blade—starving to death.
"Ha... Ha... Ha..."
The sheer absurdity of it forced an empty laugh out of me.
That was when it happened.
Thump.
I heard something drop right beside my ear.
A dull thud—different in texture from the constant dripping of water.
"An auditory hallucination...?"
Even so, I weakly stretched out my hand and groped along the floor beside my head.
And then, something came into my hand.
Feeling it out with trembling fingers, I soon realized what it was.
"...Wh-why the hell is this...?"
What I held in my hand was the snack Master always ate as a meal replacement.
A calorie bar.