The Scent of Bread in the Dark
In a pitch-black void where nothing seemed to exist, my body twitched faintly. I tried moving my fingers. They were fingers. Not some grotesque imitation that had mimicked them through a tear in reality, but my own fingers.
I flexed my toes. The same. My toes were still there, exactly as they should be. …The memory of people sniffing at me like I smelled delicious made my face burn with embarrassment.
But more than that—
‘Am I… conscious…? Yes…?’
I was conscious, but… I couldn’t be sure. Was I really Kaira? Or had I stolen all of Kaira’s memories, deluding myself into believing I was her, while actually being some unspeakable thing from beyond?
I forced my body to move. I was completely naked, and the unpleasant texture of the floor pressed against my bare skin. It wasn’t the slimy writhing of formless tentacles, at least.
It was simply… the rough scrape of damp wooden flooring against my bare thighs. Poorly finished planks with splinters, smeared with dirt and grime.
Even though the space was pitch black, a faint sliver of light leaked through a narrow gap. A rectangular one. I dragged my exhausted body toward it, crawling on limbs that refused to obey. Outside, it sounded like a city. Street noise drifted in.
Reaching the gap, I managed to lift my upper body just enough to grab what felt like a handle and push with my weight.
‘Ah… it opened…’
Harsh sunlight stung eyes that hadn’t seen light in what felt like forever. I crawled toward that burning brightness, flailing my arms weakly.
“Help… please, help me… Call a priest… a priest, please…”
Unable to even open my eyes against the overwhelming light, not knowing if anyone was even there, I stammered out a broken plea before my strength gave out completely. I collapsed on the spot.
A flickering orange light, like lantern flame, seeped through my eyelids.
‘My eyes… they hurt…’
The thread of thought began to reconnect. Floating endlessly in darkness while unconscious, even light felt too overwhelming.
“Head Priest, the female survivor appears to have regained consciousness.”
Head… priest… I see. Right, I had begged for a priest before passing out. So they had reached me in time…
“That’s a relief. We nearly lost her. Then, would the assistant priest, the doctor, and all the nurses please step out for a moment? I need to conduct a final examination and a brief interrogation now that she’s awake.”
“Understood.”
I waited until every trace of their presence had vanished before quietly speaking.
“Um… excuse me…?”
“Ah, you’re fully awake.”
The first thing I asked was the question that had been burning inside me since I woke.
“Why… am I tied up…?”
I was bound and completely naked, but I deliberately didn’t ask why they hadn’t given me any clothes. The priest tilted his head ever so slightly and offered a smile so warm his eyes nearly closed.
“In case you woke earlier than expected and thrashed about in confusion, it could have endangered the medical staff or the clergy.”
The priest looked to be around thirty—roughly the same age I had been in my previous life—with a kind, approachable face. His words were gentle.
Of course. This was exactly the sort of person whose job was to soothe the hearts of the weak with comforting words, even when he had no real solutions to offer. It was his profession, after all.
“Fortunately, your body didn’t require any major medical intervention. We also performed a divine examination, but no abnormalities were found. That’s wonderful, Lady Kaira.”
“Yes…”
It was the same conclusion the exhausted-looking priest at the Grand Temple in Poscotia had reached, and what Azalea had told me. Just how powerful and secretive was that entity, that it could lust after my body so blatantly yet remain completely undetected?
But something… felt off.
“Still, you’ve been through something incredibly dangerous. Surviving an orgy hosted by cultists is no small feat. You truly live up to being the Saint’s friend, Lady Kaira.”
Yes. This was it.
‘How does this priest… know who I am?’
My body couldn’t move, but just in case, I recalled several spells I had practiced that could be cast through silent incantation alone. I spoke carefully.
“My name is Karin.”
The priest chuckled softly.
“It’s alright, please don’t worry. We won’t capture you and send you back to the Empire. It is an honor to meet the adorable comrade whom the Saint has praised so tirelessly wherever she goes.”
With that, the priest tossed something in front of me.
Detailed abilities unknown. Suspected of studying transmutation and destruction magic with malicious intent. After committing treason by transforming part of the Imperial Capital’s millennium-old walls into scattering sand, she vanished without a trace. Extremely dangerous. Do not engage alone. Report immediately to an Imperial Inquisitor. Rewards for information, killing, or capture are as follows…
It was the wanted poster Arun had once shown me—the one with my face from graduation day, magically reproduced. The likeness was identical to how I looked now, thanks to all the time I had rewound.
The Witch of Sand, mage Kaira. After only a month of traveling with Pirel, I had somehow become a wicked sorceress who practiced sinister magic. I barely knew any transmutation beyond Melbrick’s Eccentric Character Replication, and my destructive spells were so weak I could only manage them with help from my slime daughter. And now I even had a ridiculous nickname.
The Emperor and his inner circle probably knew the truth—that I could turn back time—but of course they couldn’t put that on a wanted poster.
“I am the head priest of the central cathedral in Kil Madun. This is the edge of the Holy See, and just across the stream lies the territory of those who worship unsavory gods… Yet I consider it a profound honor and blessing to bear the calling of overseeing such a place. I am merely a humble servant of the Radiant One.”
I pretended to listen to the priest’s self-introduction while staring intently at the paper. The only thing that had changed was the bounty on my head. Thirty gold coins for credible information on my whereabouts. One hundred for my head or any other body part. One hundred and fifty if delivered alive.
One hundred and fifty Imperial gold coins… In Earth terms, that’s roughly fifty to a hundred million won. So that’s the price of my life.
It would be a fortune to an ordinary farmer, but not enough to make a merchant in the capital risk their neck. Above all, for the life I valued more than anything else, the price was absurdly cheap.
I laughed bitterly to myself, then cautiously asked the man who was staring at my bound, naked body.
“By the way… what happened to that inn…?”
The priest’s expression hardened. There was clearly something he didn’t want to tell me, but he quickly smoothed his face and began speaking plainly.
“Since you were caught up in the incident, you probably remember most of it. Several cultists entered the inn where you were staying and attempted to perform one of their incomprehensible, wicked rituals. It seems their so-called ‘god’ became involved. We suspect the power ran wild and twisted everyone inside the building beyond recognition. That is the inevitable fate of those who worship beings they cannot comprehend.”
“Twisted… you mean…”
“You’ve fought the Demon King’s minions before, haven’t you? They all ended up like that. Though perhaps ‘ended up’ isn’t quite accurate. They were twisted halfway and then dried up into brittle gray corpses. They were merely low-ranking cultists, not the Demon King himself.”
My body began to tremble uncontrollably. What I had done… Because of me, they had all… died…
“When we rushed over after receiving your plea for help, they had already become ash-gray corpses that would crumble at the slightest touch. Men, women, the elderly, the young—everyone.”
I let my head fall limply to the side.
“I see…”
“The interior had become a cursed place where a grotesque shadow from beyond reality greedily reached out and moved of its own will. We poured every ounce of our holy power into purifying it with light. The owner is dead, and I’m not sure if anyone will want to take over a building where such a thing happened, but… the structure itself is now safe. I can assure you of that.”
The entire inside of the inn had felt like a space severed from reality. Still, the fact that he could purify something like that proved he was a highly skilled and devout clergyman.
There was a metallic clink as the restraints came undone. The priest was releasing the bindings that had held me firmly to the bed.
“You’re… letting me go…?!”
The priest looked at me as if I had asked something obvious.
“Is there any reason we wouldn’t? At the very least, every head priest of a diocese directly under the Holy See knows the truth. We know that you are innocent, Lady Kaira.”
“But how…?”
“Every time the Saint attends a gathering at the Grand Temple, she seeks out each diocesan priest and repeats it until our ears ache. That Hero Kaira is a wonderful person who was framed and purged by the Empire. Why else would I, all the way out here so far from the Empire, have kept that wanted poster? The Saint brought it herself. So that if you ever sought refuge, no matter which village or cathedral you reached, someone would recognize you and offer help.”
The priest smiled brightly and added a few more words.
“Aside from the diocesan priests, your appearance isn’t widely known, so you may rest easy. Not among the laity, nor even among priests who don’t oversee dioceses. Unless, of course, someone recently visited the Imperial Capital.”
“I see…”
Azalea… Oh, Azalea… Saint, my Saint… Tears streamed down my face as I lay with my head turned to the right. Azalea had done everything she possibly could for me, except officially grant me asylum.
If I lived here in the territory directly under the Light Denomination, I would probably be fine…
I raised my hands and stared at my palms. These were the same hands that had turned into hideous tentacles, finger by finger. I didn’t know how they had recovered. I hadn’t turned back time. But I couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t change again. And if they did, I had no way of predicting when.
I sat up from the loosened restraints and looked around the small room. It was neat and clean, apparently used for preparing vestments. Not a place that suited someone as corrupted as me.
In one corner, a neatly organized bundle of traveling supplies caught my eye. It drew my gaze immediately, because—
“Those are my things…”
They were all mine.
“During the purification we found items that appeared to belong to a mage. I brought them just in case. I’m glad they truly belong to you, Lady Kaira.”
“Thank you… You’re very considerate. Even toward someone like me… What was it you called me? The Witch of Sand.”
The priest clicked his tongue and shook his head slightly.
“Please do not refer to yourself by that dishonorable name. Here, you are simply the Saint’s dear friend.”
I smiled bitterly, walked silently to my belongings, and began dressing. …There was no underwear. Well, of course they wouldn’t have brought that.
As I put on my robe and rolled up my leather clothes to place on top of my backpack, something fell with a soft clink.
‘Ah, the brooch…’
The red glass brooch Iskil had given me. It must have been damaged when I threw my robe aside. I closed my eyes and focused for a moment, but as expected, time did not rewind.
I picked it up carefully and slipped it into the same pocket as my precious pocket watch, then asked the priest cautiously.
“Do you happen to have any unused necklaces I could buy…?”
The priest tilted his head. “A necklace?” he murmured softly.
“The brooch is precious to me, but if I attach it to my robe it will keep getting knocked around and damaged. I thought I’d turn it into a short necklace and have it properly set.”
“I see.”
The priest removed the holy necklace hanging around his own neck—the one bearing the eight-rayed emblem of the Light Denomination—and handed it to me.
“This should work. There’s a holy relic artisan at the cathedral. Ask him and he’ll drill a hole in the brooch for you right away.”
“What? But this is a ceremonial holy object…”
“Holy objects exist to help those in need. All the more so if that person is the Saint’s precious friend. Besides…”
The priest closed his eyes and sniffed a few times.
“For someone who carries the same sacred scent as the holy bread blessed with light and stored in the sanctuary, it would be the most blessed fate a relic could ask for.”
‘Ah…’
The smell of bread had returned.
For some reason, I felt glad. Sometimes it had embarrassed me, sometimes it had been a nuisance. When people had sniffed it and then gang-raped me, it had even felt absurd. But this strange trait I had carried my whole life had finally come back.
‘Then… this power probably wasn’t granted by that thing from beyond.’
As I walked toward the relic shop the priest had recommended, I thought quietly to myself.
Come to think of it, that peculiar talent of evoking longing and nostalgia had earned me a great deal of kindness from people. I simply hadn’t realized it. Perhaps it had even saved me from death’s door more than once.
Maybe the reason I, who had torn reality and twisted fate to survive, had managed to meet friendly people and stay sane this long was, ironically, thanks to that scent.
Yes. It came back to me clearly now. Even during that horrific orgy in the darkness-corrupted inn, that last trace of fragrance—my father’s scent—had awakened my mind.
Perhaps this was a gift from something other than that malevolent, madness-filled entity from beyond.
I decided to believe that for now. If I didn’t, I wasn’t sure my heart could endure the fear of not knowing when that corruption might return.
The brooch setting was finished with absurd speed. I threaded the thin gold chain through it and wore it like a necklace, tucking it beneath the collar of my dress.
It was time to thank the priest and leave. A cathedral with dazzling white marble interiors like this didn’t suit someone like me.
A bright, clean place like this was no home for a witch steeped in darkness.
In the narrow corridor inside the sacred hall, I stopped walking. The crushing weight of my exhausting life felt too heavy, so I let out a long sigh.
“Haa…”
The Witch of Sand… huh…