The Girl's Past
In the deepest dungeon of the Bennet family estate, only the faintest moonlight managed to seep through.
The cold, damp air was thick with the smell of dust and ancient stone, laced with the metallic tang of old bloodstains.
At the center of it all, a young woman who looked barely of age sat slumped against the wall, unconscious, bound in heavy iron chains. Her ash-gray hair was beautiful even in ruin. Across her bare arms and the nape of her neck, black spots bloomed like spilled ink — ominous, spreading.
Serena Bennet.
Once called the hope of the Bennet family, she was a pitiful sight now.
Before her crouched a girl.
A girl with hair as black as pitch.
With the softest of touches, she stroked the head of the chained, unconscious Serena. In that hand was pity, and tenderness, and a grief that ran deep.
…This isn't Sister's fault.
The girl repeated it to herself. Every tragedy had begun with her. Born under a fate that dragged misfortune onto everyone around her, she had even turned the sister she loved into this nightmare.
She brushed Serena's tangled hair back from her face and whispered, low enough that no one could hear — knowing full well that Serena couldn't.
"I don't think I can keep my promise to stay by your side."
To save her sister — to stop an even greater tragedy — she had to leave. She had to walk alone into a deeper darkness.
"…I'm sorry, Sister…"
With that small whisper, a single hot tear fell onto Serena's ash-gray hair.
Guilt for failing to protect her. Grief for a future they would never share. The girl buried her face in that gray hair and stayed there a long, long time.
In the freezing air of the dungeon, the tragic fate of two sisters deepened in silence.
After the terrible incident at the estate, the girl had struck a bargain with the Duke. As a result, every arrow of blame had turned toward her. Could it even be called a false accusation?
She may not have been the direct cause — but at the root of every tragedy, she had been there. In a way, she had reaped what she sowed.
The contempt and hatred in people's eyes as they looked at her. Gazes that treated her like an insect. Curses muttered under breath. Open hostility.
Unlike now, she had not yet fully mastered her ability then.
Back then…
It hurt a little.
Of course, even that pain had eventually converted into a strange kind of power — but the wounds left along the way had been real.
Was it misfortune, or fortune?
In the depths of that loneliness and those wounds, the girl met someone precious. Someone she believed might touch the broken parts of her and heal them.
"…Shut up."
A cold voice cut through the heavy air of the reception room.
Its owner sat on the sofa with her arms crossed, glaring at the vassals who had, until moments ago, been fiercely condemning Yeon. Serena Bennet.
"…Stop spouting that absolute nonsense."
Serena said it again, irritation plain in her voice. Her brow was drawn tight.
"Haa… My lady…"
The elderly head maid standing beside her let out a troubled sigh.
"Nonsense, she says. Please use language befitting a noble. No matter how angry you are, you must maintain your dignity."
She fretted and scolded out of genuine worry, but Serena paid her no mind at all. She dismissed the head maid's words with a light wave and jerked her chin toward Yeon.
"How is a kid with no abilities supposed to summon Contamination? Looking at her, she can't even handle mana properly."
Serena added with a scoff,
"And does it make any sense that someone who supposedly summoned Contamination is sitting here perfectly fine?"
Despite Serena's logical rebuttal, one of the vassals who had been hounding Yeon the hardest refused to back down. He raised his voice, full of conviction.
"But my lady! According to our investigation, every circumstance and every piece of evidence points to that child! The culprit is definitely that woman!"
In that instant, every expression vanished from Serena's face.
Her eyes, cold and still, fixed on the vassal. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet.
"What did you just say?"
Serena asked again, her voice like ice.
"Th-that woman is definitely the culprit…"
Crushed by Serena's presence, the vassal stammered without meaning to.
"You dare…"
Serena rose slowly from her seat. A suffocating pressure rolled off her body.
"No matter how much you dislike that child, she is still a member of this family who bears the name of the Bennet Duchy. And the likes of you dare call a member of the ducal house 'that woman'? You dare spit such insolent words?"
Serena stepped right up to the vassal's face and growled low.
"Do you want your head to leave your shoulders right now?"
Murderous intent glinted in her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry! My lady! I misspoke…! I've committed a capital offense!"
The vassal dropped to the floor, face deathly pale, and began to beg.
Serena looked down at him coldly — then gently wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulder and drew her a little closer against her side.
At the sudden contact, the girl's body stiffened slightly, but Serena paid it no mind. Still in that frigid voice, she spoke as if declaring it to everyone in the room.
"Listen carefully. Whatever else she may be, this child is my little sister. A princess His Grace himself accepted into this house."
Her gaze swept sharply over the vassals.
"If anyone dares treat a princess of the Bennet Duchy so carelessly again, I will punish them severely in the name of this family."
At Serena's firm words, the vassals could say nothing more. With stiff, uneasy faces, they only managed, "Understood, my lady."
Suspicion and discontent still lingered in their eyes, but none of them dared challenge her.
"That's enough. Mari stays. Everyone else, get out."
At Serena's gesture, the knights and other servants filed out of the reception room, hesitant and awkward.
Only three people remained: Serena, the girl, and the head maid, Mari.
The taut tension drained away. As if the coldness had never been there, Serena's rigid expression softened. She smiled brightly and held out her hand to the girl.
"Well? Was Sister pretty cool?"
Her voice was full of mischief, her eyes sparkling with pride. Completely different from the ruthless figure of moments before — she looked every bit a girl her age.
The girl stared blankly at the offered hand.
The warmth that had wrapped around her. The voice that had defended her. And this person smiling so brightly right in front of her.
She hesitated for just a moment — then carefully took Serena's hand.
"Huh? Huh-huh? Did you see? Mari! Did you see?!"
The instant the girl took her hand, Serena erupted into a flurry of excitement. She shook the girl's hand toward Mari and cried out,
"Look at this! Finally! She finally held my hand! All those years of effort!"
She bounced on her feet like a child, radiant with joy.
Beside her, Head Maid Mari let out a deep sigh.
"…Which is exactly why I keep asking you to maintain some dignity, my lady."
Worry and exhaustion were plain in her voice. But Serena, as if Mari's scolding couldn't reach her at all, just kept smiling brightly with the girl's hand still in hers.
It was night.
Rain was falling outside. The sound of it striking the window only made the silence in the room heavier.
A single faint lamp barely lit the space.
On the bed, Serena sat curled in on herself. Her shoulders trembled faintly; her face was buried in the pillow. A soft, broken sob drifted out.
"Mom… Dad…"
Nothing remained of the strong, confident figure she usually was. Right now she was only a fragile girl, crushed under the grief of losing her mother and the hollow ache of being abandoned by her father.
The black-haired girl watched her quietly from the doorway.
She hesitated a moment, then approached the bed without a sound. She climbed up beside Serena and gently rested her head against the girl's hunched shoulder.
No words of comfort. Just being there, quietly. That was all she could do.
Sensing her presence, Serena slowly lifted her head. Tear-reddened eyes found the girl.
"Yeon…?"
She called the girl's name in a trembling voice. And in the next breath, Serena seized the girl's hand tightly. Desperation lived in that grip.
"You… you must never betray me."
Serena spoke as if pleading. Tears spilled down her cheeks again.
"Now… the only family I have left is you. So… please… never leave me. Promise me."
The girl said nothing. She only looked at Serena in silence. Her sorrow and loneliness came through whole and clear.
After a moment, the girl answered in a voice that was small but certain.
"…Okay, Sister."
"Promise… you're promising, right?"
Serena asked again, as if she needed to hear it twice.
The girl nodded without a word.
"Pinky swear… promise me."
Serena held out a trembling little finger.
In the dark, the two girls linked their pinkies together.
Flame swallowed the night sky.
The Bennet family estate burned like a giant torch.
Screams and shouts, the roar of collapsing buildings, and the hideous howls of monsters tangled together into pure chaos.
Inside and outside the burning mansion, vassals and servants fled in terror.
The same landscape as that day. The nightmare night when Annie and the others had died so meaninglessly was playing out all over again.
But something was different.
The girl was no longer what she had been in the past — a powerless worm too weak to protect anyone.
While the vassals ran for their lives from the monsters, the girl walked in the opposite direction: toward the heart of the swarm, through the wreckage of the burning estate.
Her small steps were startlingly calm, and utterly resolute.
As she walked, she drew a small dagger from her clothes and, without hesitation, began cutting wounds into her own body. Forearms. Thighs. Shoulders. Red blood ran freely, but no pain showed on her face.
If anything, the wounds seemed to wake something inside her. Her eyes began to gleam, brighter and brighter.
The moment she met the front of the monster horde, she no longer hesitated.
Crunch! Thud!
Like a black flash, the girl drove into the middle of them.
Her small dagger carried destructive force beyond imagination. A body pushed to the absolute limit of its mana was a weapon in its own right.
Unlike the past, when she had been helpless and forced to run, the girl now swept the monsters aside with overwhelming power — literally cut them down.
Monster screams and the crack of breaking bone rang out between the roar of the flames. Blood and flesh sprayed in every direction, but she did not stop.
In her mind, there was only one thought.
Sister… you have to be safe…!