Forced Enlistment into the Sacrificial Festival
Aria’s small, solitary cell—her tiny nest—was as silent as the grave. The only thing that heavily dominated the air in the cramped room was the overwhelming scent of grease wafting from the paper box on the rickety table.
Curled up on her bed, Aria covered her mouth and nose with both hands, squeezing her eyes shut. But the violent aroma of 21st-century fried chicken—born from olive oil, flour, and spices—was mercilessly ravaging her fragile reason, twisting her stomach into knots.
Gurgle-! A sound like the shriek of a beast erupted from her belly.
'No... Oh, God of Light, please hold me fast. This is a trap of the heretics. It is the temptation of a demon, gnawing at my soul.'
She cried out the name of Lumen hundreds of times in her heart. But her body was already past its limit. Soaked in the stress of fatigue and responsibility, and deprived of proper protein and fat, her body began to betray her, screaming for survival even against her own will.
Like a puppet controlled by invisible strings, Aria slowly rose. Her pale lips trembled, and her unfocused blue eyes were fixed solely on the piece of chicken on the table.
A trembling white hand reached out. The moment her fingertips touched the crispy batter, which still held a hint of warmth, a sharp thrill raced down her spine.
Tears streaming down her face, Aria carefully picked up the golden piece of meat and brought it to her lips. She bit off a tiny piece.
Crunch! The batter shattered in her mouth with a delightful sound. Hot oil and savory, spicy juices struck the tip of her tongue. As the tender, chewy meat mixed with her saliva and slid down her esophagus, Aria’s pupils dilated wildly.
"Ah..."
It was a pleasure that shattered her reason. An overwhelming, stimulating taste she had never experienced in her pious life as a saintess.
'Lord Lumen, I am sorry... How dare I...' Though she was offering prayers of repentance in her heart while shedding tears of blood, her body reacted in an entirely different way.
"Ugh... Ugh!"
Like a beast, she shoved the remaining chicken into her mouth. Chew, chew. She moved her jaw frantically, devouring the meat. Her cheeks puffed out until they felt ready to burst, and her lips glistened with a mixture of oil and tears.
It was a grotesque meal, a blend of guilt and pleasure.
Having swallowed two large pieces of chicken, bones and all, in an instant, she gasped and clutched her throat. The intense seasoning and grease had left her throat burning with thirst.
Her desperate gaze turned to the silver can in the corner of the table.
Aria gripped the can with both hands, hesitating for a moment. She didn't know how to open this strange lump of metal, which had no cap or glass stopper. But recalling the brief moment she had seen a canned good open automatically, she followed her instincts, hooked her fingernail into the small metal ring on top, and pulled with all her might.
Hiss-! Pop! With a crisp sound, the lid opened, and white foam surged upward.
Without hesitation, Aria pressed her lips to the opening and gulped down the cold, golden liquid.
"Phew!"
The stinging, refreshing sensation of carbonation, sharp enough to tear through her throat, perfectly washed away her greasy stomach. The subtle scent of hops and the sweetness of grain lingered on the tip of her nose. To her, who had spent her entire life drinking only clear water, the stimulating carbonation of this non-alcoholic beer was like a lightning bolt that jolted her soul awake.
Gulp. Gulp. Having emptied the entire can in one breath without even pausing to breathe, Aria pulled her lips away and gasped for air.
Clang...
The empty can slipped from her hand and hit the floor. The empty chicken box and the rolling aluminum can.
The moment she looked down at the wreckage, her frantic survival instinct subsided, and the thread of her reason barely managed to snap back into place.
"What... what have I done..."
Aria rubbed her lips with trembling, oil-stained hands. In the end, she had completely succumbed to the temptation thrown by the heretical Outer God. The shallow faith she had sworn to protect with her soul had been shattered, unable to overcome the temptation of a few pieces of fried chicken and a can of beer in a paper box.
"Sob... ugh, sob..."
Aria slumped onto the stone floor, buried her face in her knees, and began to wail.
A terrible self-loathing for her own weakness. A horrific guilt for betraying her god. But what drove her even more insane was the fact that the joy of fullness and the pleasure of quenching her thirst she had just felt were so incredibly sweet.
"Why... why won't you just leave me alone!"
She let out a scream of resentment toward the void. If they were going to let her starve to death, why did they keep sending such sweet and overwhelming miracles, testing and corrupting her so cruelly?
It was then, as she lay on the floor, sobbing and shedding tears of blood, that it happened.
Hum-! Thud.
The air tore open above the tear-soaked stone floor, and something fell with a heavy thud. Aria, covered in tears, looked up.
It was a completely different object from the parchment contracts or plastic packaging the mysterious Outer God had sent before. A single scroll made of pitch-black leather, as if it had condensed the darkness of the abyss, lay there alone.
A disgusting stench, a mixture of the smell of blood and rotting mud, wafted from the scroll.
"W-what is this now... Are you asking me to sign another contract! I told you clearly that I refuse!"
Aria reached out toward the scroll, her voice filled with bitterness. "Please, just... sob... leave me alone!"
Filled with anger and sorrow, she grabbed the scroll violently, as if to tear it to shreds, and unfolded it roughly.
But the content written inside was not the contract of mercy and compromise she had expected. Terrible red characters, as if written in sticky blood on the black leather, squirmed grotesquely, piercing Aria’s vision.
[Welcome to your voluntary enlistment in the Sacrificial Festival.]
[With your soul, body, blood, flesh, and screams,]
[Please become, if only for a moment, the amusement of the Great Ones who walk between the stars.]
[Your sacrifice is but a crumb that will not even be remembered.]
It was not a proposal or a contract. It was a chilling death threat spat out by the true dregs of the abyss that had destroyed Eden, a unilateral notification of slaughter for the sacrificial lamb.
"No!"
A chill of death raced up Aria’s spine. She let out a piercing scream and tried to throw the scroll to the floor.
But the scroll’s reaction was much faster. Snap!
Before it even hit the floor, the surface of the black leather scroll distorted grotesquely, and dozens of crimson, blood-red tentacles exploded from within.
"Aaaaaah-!"
Thick tentacles covered in slime instantly wrapped around Aria’s limbs and waist like snakes.
Aria didn't even have a chance to struggle. The tentacles constricted her slender body with immense strength and began to drag her mercilessly toward the pitch-black gap of darkness inside the scroll.
"S-save me...!"
Aria let out a pathetic scream, reaching out toward the void one last time.
But the tentacles showed no mercy, crushing even her voice as they swallowed her whole.
Whoosh-! Pop.
With a bizarre friction sound that tore through the air, Aria’s form vanished without a trace.
The old solitary cell fell silent. On the floor, only the empty chicken box, the crushed non-alcoholic beer can, and a single black scroll remained in the eerie silence, as if mocking the fact that a being once known as Saintess Aria had ever lived and breathed in this place.
Meanwhile, outside the monitor, I slumped into my chair at the narrow kitchen table.
Between watching the chicken mukbang and being busy digging up dirt on lawyers for my false accusation trial, I hadn't even had the time to take care of my own meals.
In the end, hours after the delivery arrived, I opened the soggy, cold chicken box and cracked open a lukewarm beer can that had lost all its chill. Chewing on the cold chicken, I habitually turned up the volume on the living room news channel.
"Yeah, sure they would." I scoffed, swallowing the lukewarm beer. "Back during the IMF, they said the country was saved by the gold collection drive, then later claimed the crisis came because citizens wasted foreign currency on overseas travel. Even as time passes, the repertoire of blaming the citizens never changes."
I devoured the chicken whole, my mind beginning to map out my own brilliant future investment plan.
The most urgent goal right now was the perfect corruption of Saintess Aria into my apostle.
If only she would sign the contract, I could pay off the divine power loan I'd taken out using my house deed as collateral.
Once the debt was cleared, the era of perfect, pure-profit money printing would begin. Whether I squeezed their labor to sweep up the gold and silver coins of the ruined city, or made them pan for gold in the mines or rivers, the remaining profit after taking my commission would be enormous in the mid-to-long term.
"With the profits from that, I'll safely and steadily accumulate US covered-call ETFs every month. At this rate, if I push hard for just one year, I'll reach my target amount and be able to achieve a perfect FIRE-tribe retirement."
I couldn't stop the laughter leaking out.
"What if I hit the jackpot and make it big in the 10-billion-won range? Renting out an entire VIP suite on a cruise ship for a year-long world tour wouldn't be bad either."
The future of sipping cocktails by a cruise ship pool felt less like a dream and more like reality.
"Burp."
I shoved the trash into a corner and sat back down in the chair in front of the computer, as if possessed.
"Well, I fed her well, so nothing should happen for a while."
I grabbed the mouse and rolled the camera view around the screen.
But when my gaze fell upon Aria’s solitary cell in the innermost part of the ward building, I realized something was wrong.
"Huh? Where did the saintess go?"
The cell was empty. She wasn't on the bed, nor was she in the corner of the room. The woman who had been staging a hunger strike was gone without a trace.
"Did she go to the bathroom?" I shifted the view and searched the entire castle, starting from the ward, but I couldn't see even a strand of Aria’s silver hair anywhere.
A cold intuition raced down my spine. I urgently zoomed the view back into the solitary cell.
The chicken bone remnants and crushed beer can Aria had left behind. And on the floor, I noticed a black object that hadn't been there before.
"What is that?"
I moved the mouse pointer and clicked on the beast-leather-like black scroll lying on the floor. Then, an item description window with an unpleasant red font popped up in the center of the screen.
[Item: Death Warrant of the Abyss]
[Grade: Mythic]
[Description: A one-way ticket to the 'Sacrificial Festival' sent by the Seven Calamities. The target has been forcibly abducted to the slaughterhouse.]