Chapter 002
Chapter 2. To Live, You Must Eat.
I hesitated for a moment, but then quickly snatched the piece of bread rolling at my feet. I immediately scurried to the corner of the cell and shoved the bread into my mouth.
Crunch.
A sound like splitting stone echoed in my mouth.
“!!!”
Horrified, I spat it back out only to find the bread was as hard as a brick.
It was a miracle my teeth hadn’t broken.
“Squeak! Squeeeak!” (How old is this, seriously!)
I stamped my hind feet in a fit of rage.
I could slightly understand the mindset of the villain who wanted to destroy this world. What a barbaric place, one that doesn’t even know the truth that prisoners have human rights!
“…”
I felt like that villain was staring at me with contempt, but this wasn’t the time to worry about that.
Ah, first, I had to eat to survive! Koreans run on the strength of food!
My eyes blazing, I glared at the bread.
You have to eat well while you have the chance.
Only then will I be able to seize the opportunity for revenge against the guys who used me and tossed me aside!
…Especially since the status window is gone, all I can rely on is myself.
Thus rationalizing my actions, I clutched the rock-hard bread carefully.
And began diligently gnawing at it.
“…”
The villain, who had been watching me intently, threw the remaining bread toward me and said,
“Eat slowly. I won’t take it.”
Sniffle. Not just a mouse, but being treated like a gluttonous mouse.
I swallowed the bread diligently, sniffing with a mix of self-pity and sorrow.
After completely finishing the first piece of bread, I picked up the new loaf he had thrown over. I quickly glanced over at him.
He was sitting leaning against the cold, damp stone wall, staring blankly into space.
His face looked resigned, somehow exhausted and sad.
‘Well, that’s natural.’
He lost, failed to destroy the world, and is now destined for execution soon.
But I suddenly felt that this wasn’t the only reason for his worn-out, weary expression.
‘He’s acting like an old man who has lived his life… Did he get hit with ‘time’ along with the hit to the head?’
If so, his lack of energy makes sense.
‘…But why is his face still the same? It’s annoying.’
Indeed, his beauty shone even in this situation.
Even though his lips were chapped and cracked in places, showing blood scabs, and his hair was wildly disheveled.
His thin cheeks and sharply angled jawline, visible through the cascade of black hair, strangely drew the eye.
There was an almost decadent melancholy radiating from the sad violet eyes under his lowered gaze.
Even the chill and dampness rising from the dungeon’s stone wall added to the precarious, gloomy atmosphere surrounding him.
I pouted, grumbling pointlessly.
‘Someone else saved the world only to turn into an ugly, plump mouse. Why is he, a guy about to die, so unnecessarily handsome?!’
Ah. What an unreasonable and unfair world.
‘I hope they all just go down in flames, the whole lot of them.’
To suppress the sudden surge of fury, I chewed the bread with fighting spirit.
Then I suddenly realized.
The one offering this kindness was none other than ‘the enemy I defeated.’
A sense of complex irony forced a small, bitter laugh.
The people I believed were my allies exorcised me, claiming they no longer needed me.
Yet, the villain, who was reviled by everyone as the greatest evil, was sharing his ration with me, a meager mouse.
‘…Of course, this is probably because he doesn’t know I’m the Saintess who knocked him out.’
I smiled wryly, finishing the bread without leaving a single crumb.
As my belly became round, an unbearable wave of sleepiness immediately washed over me.
It seems even mice get post-meal drowsiness.
‘Damn it. What a peanut-sized brain that can’t even overcome a low-level instinct like the need for sleep…’
I insulted my new transmigrated body and fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
Calix Neferto stared silently at the mouse sprawled out on the cold prison floor and extended his hand.
His long finger stopped short of the mouse’s nose.
He only withdrew his hand after checking the faint wisp of air brushing his fingertip several times.
“It truly is alive.”
His voice was flat and devoid of emotion, but even so, he was quite astonished.
“I distinctly confirmed that its breathing had stopped and its heart had solidified.”
A faint hint of interest and vitality gathered in his purple eyes, which had been low and somber.
The mouse had appeared shortly after he was confined here.
The creature, fearlessly scurrying around and eating bread crumbs, was struck by the curse that flowed from him and instantly dropped dead.
But then a miracle occurred.
The dead mouse suddenly opened its eyes again and began running around and squeaking in confusion.
Since it was both noisy and fascinating, he threw it a piece of bread, and the mouse immediately tried to swallow it whole.
Calix recalled the sight of the mouse spitting out the bread in horror and chuckled faintly.
“Did its brain get damaged from coming back to life?”
After seeming confused for a moment, the mouse proceeded to eat the loaf, which was the size of its body, without a trace, and then stretched out contentedly and fell asleep.
“A truly extraordinary creature in many ways.”
He added with a twisted, sardonic smile.
“And suspicious, too.”
A year ago, he might have considered this mouse a sign of hope or salvation sent by the gods.
But now he knew the gods of this world were utterly merciless, at least towards him.
Therefore, this ‘miracle’ must surely be a trick by the gods, meant to inflict greater despair.
Or perhaps part of a plan to make him a tool of destruction once more.
His chilly purple gaze fell onto the cold, damp stone floor.
He stared for a long time at the small thing lying as though collapsed upon it, then suddenly closed his eyes tight.
“Tsk.”
He let out a short click of his tongue, then ripped a piece from the hem of his trousers and spread it on the floor.
He then carefully picked up the sleeping mouse and placed it down on the cloth.
The mouse stirred momentarily at the change in its bedding but quickly curled its plump body into a ball and fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
It was just as he was staring blankly at the mouse’s rising and falling back.
“…Huu. I’m worried, truly worried.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think? It’s because of the Saintess, of course.”
Muttering voices drifted in from afar, and Calix sharpened his hearing.
Judging by the rather deep tones, it seemed to be a group of older guards chatting together.
“Speaking of which, the Saintess still hasn’t regained consciousness, has she?”
“It’s been five days now.”
“No wonder. She looked uncomfortable throughout the victory celebration party; there was a reason for it after all.”
“To think that she pushed herself to show her face for the sake of low-ranking soldiers like us, despite being unwell, and ended up like this…”
“Haa. Being too benevolent is a problem, too.”
Listening to their conversation, Calix sighed inwardly.
‘…She still hasn’t woken up.’
A sense of bleak despair washed over his heart, which was already heavy with apology and guilt.
‘I owe her a debt that I can never repay in a lifetime.’
To him, she was the benefactor of his life.
She was the one who forcibly stopped him when he was a puppet of destruction, committing wicked acts against his will.
‘I wish I could at least express my gratitude, but even that would be selfish of me.’
Even as he smiled bitterly, the guards’ chatter continued.
“No, no. What problem does the Saintess have? This is all the fault of that demon locked up in the cell!”
“You’re right! All of this is because of that cursed bastard!”
“Tsk. It makes my blood boil to see him living comfortably like that in the cell.”
“That bastard should be hanged in the streets and stoned to death right now!”
“Damn it. Even a wretch like that is still called a Prince…”
“If the Saintess hadn’t revealed his true identity a year ago that day, we would still be upholding him as a Prince, wouldn’t we?”
“Ugh. Just thinking about that gives me goosebumps.”
“…Agh! I can’t take this anymore!”
“W-Whoa? Where are you going?”
“Let me go! I’m going to die of anger at this rate! I need to break one of that bastard’s arms to feel better!”
“Man, calm down!”
“How can I calm down?! That murderous wretch is the reason my daughter—!”
Calix pressed his eyes shut, listening to the guards’ increasingly agitated voices.
‘I’m sorry.’
It was a phrase he had repeated more than ten thousand times today alone.
The reason he only repeated it inwardly was that he didn’t even deserve forgiveness.
No matter that he had been completely possessed by the curse for the past year, that was no excuse.
The fact remains that he swore to be the protecting sword of the Neferto Empire, yet his hands took the lives of countless citizens.
But he swore on everything he had that he never, for a single moment, wished for destruction.
Even when he learned that he was born as a tool to destroy this world, he didn’t wish for it.
Instead of falling into despair and resenting the world and fate, he tried to take his own life.
He would have died hundreds, thousands of times over if it meant saving the world with his single life.
‘…The problem is that it’s impossible.’
He sighed faintly and leaned against the prison wall.
He could feel the unpleasant thing that had tormented him since childhood stirring inside his body.
The ‘Curse of Ruin,’ prepared to put an end to this world abandoned by the gods.
