The Blind Girl Who Became a Slave (1)

In a world filled with nothing but darkness, I had been waiting only to die. For a very long time—or perhaps only a short one—I drifted through a blurred half-consciousness, unable to tell whether I was dead or still alive.

A heavy jolt.

What was that? Not the hazy dark. Some strange sensation had reached me.

Sensation...? What had that even been, to begin with? All I could call to mind was pain. My awareness still lay crushed beneath that deep dark, so I borrowed the memory of pain and tried to force my eyes open.

What...? Nothing but darkness after all.

I closed them again.

"...up!"

A sound had reached me.

Sound...? Everyone who might have stayed to watch me die was already gone. Was I imagining it?

"...ake up!!"

Sound. It was sound. Not a hallucination. I had to open my eyes, quickly—!

But... how did one open them again?

"Wake up!!!"

A sharp crack, and with it a stinging pain. My mind may have forgotten, but my body still remembered. At the bite of that pain, my eyes flew open.

"This one's a rare top-grade. I told you not to put your hands on her so carelessly."

"She didn't make a sound the whole way here. Didn't blink once. How was I supposed to know if she was a corpse or top-grade goods?"

"Here. One look at these eyes and it's obvious she's top-grade. Handle her gently from now on."

"Tch..."

The voices came through clear: one thin and slick, a swindler's voice, and one rough as a street thug. I definitely had sensation. So why couldn't I see what was in front of me? Had I failed to open my eyes after all? I used that earlier feeling and moved them.

"Hey! Open your eyes!!"

My cheek was struck again. I was fairly certain my eyes were open this time. So why couldn't I see a thing? And before that—where was this, and who were these people, that they thought they could slap me? I was certain I had been dying in the Demon King's castle. Had they saved me? But I had never heard voices like these. They were no one I knew. I would have to ask them myself.

I tried to open my mouth and ask where I was, but—how did one speak, again? I felt like someone who had spent ten years at least as a living corpse and forgotten how to use a body entirely. What was the last thing I had said? Thinking back, all I had done was sob. Still, the lesser evil was better than the worst. I dredged up the memory of wailing and forced a voice out.

"Huuuuuuhhh..."

"Huh. She reacts. Why's she crying all stiff like that?"

"Is that even crying? Doesn't matter. Either way, she'll sell for more than if she just lies there like a corpse."

Had my voice always been this thin? It used to be a husky middle register. Now it was young and clear, like a bead of jade. Then again, every other sense was wrong. No reason my ears alone would be working properly.

"Hey. Quit that freakish noise and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠talk straight."

I wanted to talk straight too. But the only way I could remember to make a sound was by crying.

"Huuuuuuhhh."

"Stop that crying and speak clearly!"

A slap.

"Quit hitting her! If she gets a mark, are you going to pay for it?"

"Fuck... Spit it out, nice and clear, before you eat another one."

My mind had been too hazy to notice before, but it hurt. Badly. Something felt wet at the corners of my eyes, and when I wondered what it was, I realized it was the same thing that used to spill out of me when I wailed. In other words, the hand was heavy enough to wring tears from me—the Hero. Heavy enough to remind even a Hero's body of the taste of iron. Then these men were Demon King officers, or stood among humanity's strongest...? These vulgar, foul-mouthed men? If they were that strong, there was no way I wouldn't know them. No. Maybe my senses had gone strange, and I had simply grown terribly weak to pain.

"You'd better open that mouth before you take another."

So what I wanted to say was this: it hurt, and I did not want to be hit.

"Stuhhh... stoooppp..."

"Hey, put your hand down."

"You don't get it. This is the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fastest way."

Again came the hiss of air being cut, and my body flared with sensation on instinct.

"S-sto... stop... h-hitting..."

"See? Told you I was right!"

"Ha... Put one real wound on her and your share is gone this time."

"Cheapskate."

"Look at that face. The voice alone gives you a feel for it, doesn't it? This time it's real. We can take a proper cut."

"All right, all right."

I still didn't know what feeling they meant, but I was beginning to get a feeling for how to speak.

"Um... wh-where... where is this...?"

"Heh. That's what you ask, this late?"

"Hey, isn't this one defective? Slow in the head or something?"

"What does that matter? If it doesn't show, we fudge it a little and sell her. That's all."

"Haha! Clever bastard."

"E-excuse me, an answer, please..."

"Shut up, you moron! You're the first bitch I've seen who gets dragged all the way here and still doesn't know what kind of shit she's in."

One thing was certain. This was not a place that meant me well. Someone who could treat me before I bled to death, and whose blows were hard enough to startle tears out of me. The officers still left in the Demon King's castle, then? Patch me up and find some use for me, no matter how...? No. They flinched at the thought of a mark on my appearance. Maybe they meant to stuff me and keep me as a living specimen.

"Th-then... are you of the Demon King's army?"

"...?"

"Pfft—hahahaha!! Gis, didn't I say so? Defective bitch."

"Ha... damn it. Do we gag her and sell her like that? It'll tank the merchandise value... tch."

"Kid. I don't know if you took your fairy tales a little too much to heart, but the Demon King's been dead for eleven years. Eleven years since our oh-so-great Hero, Elencia, crushed the Demon King."

The Demon King had been dead for eleven years...? What in the world had happened? And Elencia was the Hero? That traitor...?

"The Hero...? Elencia...?"

"Yeah. Duke Elencia, who put down that piece-of-trash traitor Louisnes and wiped out the Demon King. Don't know that much, and in the Empire you're a spy."

Ah. I remembered. So it really, truly had ended that way. I had never cared about the honor or the fame of being the one who caught the Demon King, but... I was the traitor? The traitor was...

"Enough chatter. Let's stamp the brand and call it a day."

"Oh, it's ready already? Hey! Move!"

Metal clanked.

"Ngh—!"

Some unknown force yanked me, and I collapsed onto what was probably a wooden floor. I had to get up. My body would not move.

"You getting up or what? Need another hit before your head clears?"

The memory of that pain made my body clench somewhere without my meaning it to. Where... where was it? I followed the feeling slowly and found the sensation in my hands. After that, it was simple. Working back from the hands, I recovered my arms as well, and from there I grasped the feel of my whole body well enough. Now I would plant my hands and stand. One... two.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

A clank.

Huh...? Why wouldn't it work? Th-then I would get up on my legs. One... two...

Another clank.

"Can't even stand right! Useless bitch."

And again, that pulling force.

Clank.

"Kkh—khhk—kheuk—"

I couldn't breathe. Something was choking my neck. And in the meantime, as the sense of my body grew sharper, my arms and legs felt wrong. Something made of iron was binding them.

"I said handle her carefully. One scratch and the price drops hard. These aren't low-grade goods."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Quit the nagging."

"Haa... Just get going."

"I got yelled at because of you. Hurry up!"

"Kkh—!"

The sudden pull caught me before I could answer it, and I fell again.

"Hey! You bastard!"

"Why is this my fault?! If it feels like you're being dragged, walk on your own!"

How was I supposed to react when I couldn't see? I couldn't actually feel it, but maybe they had bound my sight the same way as my limbs. Some rough spell, so that only they could see my eyes.

"Um... could you undo just the restraint on my eyes...?"

"Huh...? What kind of nonsense is that?"

"A restraint on your eyes...?"

That cold reaction. So I had guessed wrong. A reason I couldn't see... a reason I couldn't see... what had there been? If I traced my most recent memory... I had defeated the Demon King, and the Demon King had been ranting something. What had he said? What the Demon King had spat out... A curse. Yes, he had called it a curse. And after that, Elencia betrayed me. Betrayal...? Then... the curse of betrayal...? The curse! What had the curse said?

"Hey. Look this way."

Lost in the thought, I startled and turned toward the voice.

"Hey... this is it, right?"

"Damn it... no doubt. Who looks at where a sound came from instead of where you're pointing?"

"...What?"

"Hey! Stay still."

A moment later I felt a warmth against my face, but their reaction was the opposite of warm.

"Hey, I'm shining it right in this bitch's eyes and there's no reaction at all?"

"Ha... And here I thought a top-grade had finally rolled in..."

No reaction in my eyes...? So it wasn't something physical, or magical, covering them. Ah. I remembered.

Don't tell me I had survived thanks to the Demon King's curse? Survived, and gone blind...? That was horror enough, but there must have been more to the curse.

"Hey, what are we doing with this bitch? Eyes like that, we're not getting a high price!"

"Nothing for it. We'll have to put a blindfold on her... And even if that fails, a kid with a face like that still sells high."

They had been calling me this bitch, and kid, for a while now. What was that about? I could let the bitch go, but I was six foot one. Were they something like ten feet tall? Don't tell me—!

"M-my appearance... what does it look like?"

"Things are already shit, and now what other shit is this!"

"No... forget it. A blind kid collapsed in the street—looks like a rough life. You want to know what you look like?"

"Y-yes...! I really wanted to know... Could I ask you to tell me...?"

It wasn't a lie. I truly wanted to know. If my memory was right, the Demon King's curse was...

"You... look like a girl of about ten. Height around four foot seven. Snow-white hair with a blue sheen, grown all the way to your waist, and light blue eyes shining like jewels. Beautiful, honestly. If only the eyes had been sound, you'd have been true top-grade..."

Those bastards... The ones who betrayed me and left me under a curse like this were bastards too, but losing my strong body... Turning young, I could let that go. Losing the Hero's power, I could endure that as well. But this. Why did I have to lose my strong little son, too?

Even if I weren't blind, the world was dark enough.