Chapter : 09
Unfortunately, Adel failed to keep that resolve.
Strangely enough, yesterday’s memories faded like a lie the moment he woke up today.
What color her hair had been.
What kind of voice she had.
What trivial, insignificant conversations they had shared.
At times, his memory became so tattered that he remembered her as two different people.
Amid all that, there was only one thing he could remember—the words she left behind just before departing.
“This is all your fault.”
“I’m letting you off lightly because it’s me. If it had been someone else, you’d already be dead.”
“Be grateful to me.”
“Blame yourself. Blame the you who is only worth that much.”
“Always remember—this is the most ideal form of education for correcting someone as rotten as you.”
Every morning felt like the first, yet her words continued to pile up endlessly. Unable to distinguish the passage of time, Adel carved her words one by one into the wall, measuring the days as her voice occupied his head like auditory hallucinations.
By his reckoning, it had been nearly ten months.
As always, the woman who visited him today forced him to swallow every drop of the potion she had prepared.
Normally, she would have spoken about this and that. But today was different.
As she stared unblinkingly at Adel, a strange light appeared in her eyes.
When she first came, his body had been two or three times larger than hers. Now, he had shrunk to be even smaller than she was. His age was impossible to determine, and even his eye and hair color had been completely altered by the potions.
For the first time, a genuinely sincere smile spread across her face.
She snapped her thumb and forefinger—snap—and the mana that bloomed from her hand wrapped around Adel.
“Now you’ll fall into the same hell as me, —Den.”
Her voice gradually faded. As his consciousness drifted away, Adel half-closed his eyes.
She gently closed his eyelids with her own hand, as if he had already died.
He opened his eyes again two days later.
The moment consciousness returned, the cursed words she had spoken filled his mind as always.
Unlike when he had been imprisoned, his memories no longer disappeared day by day.
Being able to remember yesterday should have been a blessing—but not for him.
The voices in his head tormented him relentlessly, regardless of time. To the point where he almost believed he truly was a wicked child, and that the punishment she had bestowed upon him was entirely justified.
Unconsciously, Adel curled himself up, burying his face in his knees and covering his ears.
The curse didn’t reach him through sound—it shook his very mind—but if he didn’t do this much, he felt like he would truly go insane.
“Really… you’re selling me a child?”
A woman’s unfamiliar voice brushed past his ears and vanished.
He couldn’t grasp the situation clearly while stuffed inside a sack, but instinctively, he understood that the person speaking was buying him.
“I’ll give you a special discount.”
“Oh my, that’s wonderful news!”
As the outside voices tangled and faded within his brain, the sack shifted once. Soon after, a pale light slammed into his eyes.
Adel stared at the gentle-looking woman beyond the light.
“…Tch. It’s a boy. Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter if I use him for something else.”
The woman’s voice before him overlapped with the voices in his head.
“Pathetic thing. You should be grateful even for this much.”
He felt a rough hand grab his arm and yank him out. A hollow laugh escaped him.
Maybe I really am someone who doesn’t even deserve this. If so, there wouldn’t be any benevolent god willing to save someone like me.
And yet, in that moment—
Absurdly contradictory as it was, a god appeared before him.
When he slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was an unusually small pair of feet.
Following them upward, he met the gaze of a woman with an utterly indifferent face—someone who seemed to contain both the sun and darkness within her.
Adel flinched, barely managing to steady his trembling body.
The voices gnawing at his mind visibly subsided the moment his hand brushed the toe of her shoe.
Like night fleeing before the sun.
Like a mere demon crushed beneath an angel’s wings.
The thoughts that had ruled his fragile self fell silent in the presence of this overwhelming being.
“…Well. If that’s the case, it’s not really my problem.”
Her voice flowed sweetly into his ears.
For a moment, he couldn’t think. Her voice alone dominated his entire consciousness.
The countless voices swirling in his head vanished cleanly at a single syllable from her lips.
“Really?! Then… I can really take him?”
Another woman’s voice pierced his ears—the one who had tossed him away like livestock.
Adel quickly looked toward the woman called Luisa, but her expression hadn’t changed. Indifferent, yet holding an emotion he couldn’t understand.
With strength gone from his hands, he reached out and clutched the frayed hem of her trousers.
“…D-Don’t… please. Don’t.”
I don’t want to be separated from you.
The few minutes spent with her were the happiest moments he could remember in nearly a year.
However—
“I hate clichés.”
Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
He didn’t understand exactly what she meant, but he knew instinctively that it wasn’t in his favor.
Despite his desperate expression, she showed no emotion. No hesitation.
“Take him. I won’t bother with something this trivial.”
As always, the god turned away from him. His pleas to be saved were useless.
Ah… so blessings truly never fall upon me. A god wouldn’t be generous enough to grant mercy to someone as worthless as I am.
In the end, he was dragged away by Merihen, the woman who had bought him.
She had promised to make him work as a servant, but once they arrived home, she didn’t make Adel do a single thing.
Rather than didn’t, it was more accurate to say she couldn’t. Frightened by Luisa’s warning, she kept her distance.
After that, she simply gave up because of Adel’s behavior.
Clicking her tongue as she looked at Adel huddled in the corner of the living room, Merihen muttered,
“With him like that, he’s useless for research or chores.”
He was trembling so violently it was doubtful he could even stand—work was out of the question.
Complaining that she should’ve known better when she got him so cheaply, Merihen soon lost all interest in Adel.
Whether he groaned in pain or shook uncontrollably, she didn’t care.
Only once did she speak to him in a coaxing, gentle voice.
“Hey, kid. Wouldn’t it be better for you to give up on life quickly? I think it’d be easier for both of us.”
Her tone was soft and kind—but the meaning was ice-cold.
Adel snorted inwardly at her words and closed his eyes.
Attachment to life? He hadn’t had anything like that since the moment he first woke up. And by now, even thoughts of revenge were impossible—his body and mind were far too exhausted.
Time passed. He had no idea how many days went by.
Wishing for his consciousness to fade completely, Adel recalled the angel he had last seen.
The woman who had done this to him wanted him to fall into hell—but Adel had already seen an angel.
So the one destined to step into hell would be that woman alone.
The voices were still screaming loudly inside his head. He covered his ears again and curled up.
Strangely enough, as the end drew near, the raging voices seemed to weaken.
It had to be an illusion. There was no reason for that to happen. He thought it was simply because death was approaching and his mind was growing dull.
It should have been.
But—
“Hey, kid.”
Like a miracle, a voice drove away the darkness inside him.
“A-Angel…?”
“I’m not an angel.”
Was it a hallucination before death? Adel reached out and clumsily traced her face.
At this point, he should have woken from this extravagant dream. Yet the warmth of her cheek beneath his hand felt unnervingly vivid.
“I can feel you. This isn’t… a dream?”
The foolish thought slipped out loud.
“That’s right. It’s not a dream.”
She kindly confirmed his foolish words.
After that, he seemed to babble incoherently. His angel—far more than he deserved—held him gently. Adel collapsed into her embrace, leaning against the solid support of her body.
Strangely, she smelled like sunlight.
Instinctively, Adel squirmed closer, wrapping his dangling legs tightly around her waist and burying his face into her shoulder.
“So? Want to be mine instead of his, kid?”
And on top of saving him from this mire—
Could you really be… an angel sent to me by god?
The thought struck him like lightning.
Adel’s lips twitched upward. The elation flooding him peaked the moment his eyes met Merihen’s.
Yes—that look.
Eyes filled with defeat, hatred overflowing, yet unable to even dare reach for what stood before them.
Ah. I was chosen by that angel.
He bit down hard on his lip to suppress a laugh that threatened to burst out—but his trembling body betrayed him.
Seeing this, she gently patted his back, comforting him tenderly.
As his intoxicated emotions gradually settled, she asked him his name.
Adel wanted to answer anything his angel asked—but sadly, this time, even he didn’t know the answer.
“You really have terrible luck.”
She didn’t scold him for not knowing his name. She simply looked at him with pity.
And he welcomed that pity. Enough to wish she would look at him that way for the rest of his life.
“But still…”
You saved me.
No—perhaps she truly was a god. Like Clona, the goddess of birth, or Apos, the goddess of death.
Yet she cut him off firmly.
“I’m not an angel. I’m Luisa.”
Luisa.
At that moment, within Adel’s heart, a new god named Luisa was born.
