The Crimson Flames That Devoured Our Childhood
Dear sister.
What I once thought was a bright sun turned out to be a massive pillar of fire. The scarlet flames that surged upward like a towering inferno grew larger as they swallowed our cherished memories. From the toys we used to play with to the delightful storybooks our teacher would read to us every day… the great pillar of fire swelled even bigger and drew closer to us.
“Kyaaaa!!”
Our friends screamed in terror as they fled. My sister and I tried to run as well, but then—
“Find the girls!! You can kill the men!”
[Chills—!]
A voice that sounded exactly like Father’s reached us.
Father…? Dad…?
Rita peered outside through a hole burned into the wall by the flames. There, a man who looked nothing like our father was leading a group of people straight into the orphanage.
“Find the little girls! We’re selling them to some noble trash, so if you leave even a single scratch on them, I’ll kill you!”
One of the men the leader had brought climbed the stairs, locked eyes with us, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Over here!! The kids are all gathered here!!”
The man pointed at us and came running. “Uwaaah!”
He charged up the stairs toward us, but our teacher desperately blocked his path with a mop.
“Children!! Run away now!! Hurry and get out of here!!”
She swung the mop with all her might to keep the man from advancing, but—
“You bitch, how dare you!”
Her resistance only provoked him further. He drew a knife from his coat and lunged at her.
“S-stay back!!”
“Die!”
The man stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach.
The man kept slashing at our teacher without pause. When he finally stopped, she collapsed right where she stood.
“T-teacher…”
We froze on the spot. The kind teacher who had always read us fairy tales in her gentle voice now lay motionless on the floor.
The man lifted her limp body and clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. Such a pretty face, yet you had to act up. If you’d stayed quiet, I would’ve let you live.”
He hoisted her motionless form and hurled her into the flames.
"[WHOOSH—!]"
⟨ INFERNO ⟩
The pillar of fire devoured even our teacher, who could no longer move. The man pointed at us with a furious expression.
“See that? This is what happens when you resist needlessly.”
“If you want to live, don’t do anything stupid and just follow us.”
With those words, he dragged away our paralyzed bodies.
Once we left the orphanage, we looked back at the place that had once been our home. The orphanage that had taken us in when we had nowhere else to go, the place filled with joyful memories, had become a towering pillar of fire. It burned everything until not even its shape remained.
The man handed us over to a group of burly men, and we were forcibly separated from our friends. The only silver lining—if it could even be called that—was that I wasn’t separated from my sister.
“Even a high-ranking mage couldn’t break this. I specially commissioned it.”
The man said as he fastened iron chains around us. Thick iron collars were clamped around our necks, and we were loaded into the back of a wagon—the part where the wind whistled through the gaps—and carried down a dark mountain path.
“……”
Moonlight streamed in through the holes in the wagon. In the gap where the moonlight poured through, there was one truly enormous star.
Bathed in that moonlight, I thought back to the foolish wish I had made just yesterday.
The stupid prayer that every day would be the same as today.
Could it be that my own selfishness had brought down this curse?
Was I doomed to live a life where I could only helplessly have everything taken from me?
Did my sister and I… really have no choice but to keep living like this?
As I stared powerlessly at the sky, my sister, who had been beside me the whole time, spoke in a voice drained of all strength.
“Why us…”
She spoke toward the largest star. The question of why us was exactly what Rita wanted to ask most.
Why did we always have to be the ones getting hurt?
It was the one thing Rita had always wanted to say but never could.
“Why us?! Why do we always have to be the ones getting hurt?!”
My sister’s cry echoed deep into the mountains.
“Haha…”
She let out a broken, hollow laugh. It was the moment her strong heart finally shattered.
The night passed like that, and at last we were allowed to get off the wagon.
“Kahaha!! Perfect timing—the market’s just opened!”
A man who looked like a merchant laughed when he saw us.
And so, still bound in chains, we were locked inside a narrow iron cage.
Countless people came to stare at us. They looked at my sister and me not as people, but as animals.
While enduring their gazes, I noticed a man staring intently at us.
“……”
He had black hair and golden eyes. We stared at each other for a long time. Then he called over an employee and bought us.
That was how my sister and I were adopted by the black-haired man.
As we left the shop, a pot-bellied man approached and repeatedly offered to buy us from him. The black-haired man refused every time. When the fat man tried to use force, the black-haired man easily subdued him. Many people were watching us.
The man took my sister’s hand and mine and led us away from that place.
“It’s warm…”
His hand was incredibly warm and gentle.
That was how we arrived at the man’s house. Even at first glance, it looked spotlessly clean.
It’s so clean…
His house was even cleaner than the home we used to have.
Then he cooked us a delicious meal. There were all sorts of colorful dishes. The aroma was incredibly fragrant and stimulating.
I want to eat…
I couldn’t take my eyes off the food. Everything looked delicious.
The man handed me what looked like soup. He ate a bite first while watching us. My sister followed his lead and took a bite as well.
“……!”
After putting the food in her mouth, my sister kept pounding on her chest. I grabbed hold of her. She looked like she was in pain as she beat her chest, but eventually she swallowed. Her complexion returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
Is it safe to eat…?
Since my sister had eaten it without issue, I thought it would be fine and reached for the food the man had given me, but—
“Wait!!”
The man suddenly shouted and grabbed my wrist. I was startled by the sudden contact, but he quickly let go and taught me how to use something called a spoon.
He showed us how to use utensils like spoons and forks that made eating easier, and I ate the way he demonstrated.
It was delicious. Every single dish he had prepared was incredibly tasty and stimulating. My sister and I devoured everything without leaving a single bite. I patted my full belly.
I’m so happy…
Having a full stomach made me incredibly happy. I started to think that this man might actually be a good person.
After we finished eating, the man led us somewhere.
Where are we going…?
I glanced at my sister. She was visibly trembling. The man touched the iron chains that bound us.
Not long after, the thick collar around my sister’s neck came off easily. The man who had boasted that even a high-ranking mage couldn’t undo his specially commissioned chains was proven wrong in the most anticlimactic way.
After freeing my sister, he removed the chain from my neck as well.
“……”
I touched the place where the collar had been. The thing that had tormented us was gone. The man destroyed the chains right in front of us.
“You won’t need something like this again.”
He showed us the slave contract and said,
“I’ll keep this. It’s not that I don’t trust you two… but I think I should hold onto it.”
He tucked the slave contract into his coat. Then he asked whether we wanted two rooms or just one. When my older sister, Scarlet, said she wanted to stay with me, he simply told us to do as we liked and left.
In the room he showed us, there was a soft piece of furniture called a bed. After the man left, my sister and I lay down on the fluffy bed.
It was so soft. Unlike the hard floor we usually slept on, lying on this bed felt like my body was being gently swallowed by clouds.
The man who had given us warm food and a place to sleep. Once again, I thought he might really be a good person.
My sister and I were getting ready to sleep in the bed with the lights out.
“Sister, are you asleep…?”
“No.”
As expected, Scarlet wasn’t sleeping. I asked her what she thought about the man, but just as I suspected, she didn’t trust him. She warned me to be careful around him, then turned her back to me.
I stared at her back for a long time. It was the same reliable back I had always seen. Yet today, it looked more fragile than ever.
My sister, who had always stayed by my side no matter what. To me, she was the most precious, irreplaceable person in the world.