Fiora woke up to a murmuring voice. An unfamiliar interior greeted her.
A high, dark ceiling… walls of packed earth with no decoration… and a curtain woven from straw.
"What kind of house is this? And where am I?" She raised her hand to rub her eyes.
But then she noticed her little finger was tied with a red string. It connected to—
"Hik!" Fiora gasped and instinctively covered her mouth.
Beside her lay a man—
No, not quite a man. He had fur-covered ears shaped differently from human ears.
She finally grasped her surroundings.
The dark ceiling and walls were made of earth. Even the bed beneath her was shaped from hardened soil.
The man sharing the bed with her was the golden-haired man she last saw before fainting.
"Is he the one who saved me…?" she whispered.
Her eyes trailed from his face down to his perfectly built body.
She had seen many of the kingdom's knights, yet none were this handsome. His face resembled the popular minstrel adored by the nobles.
While she observed his features, her ears caught murmuring voices from behind the curtain. The same voices that woke her up.
"Is it really okay to take things from the leader's cave?" a young girl asked hesitantly.
"Hush! We're not stealing. The leader is already dead. The rules say that once the owner dies, others can take the deceased's possessions," a mature woman replied. "We're just arriving earlier than everyone else."
"But everyone else is still busy preparing for the funeral—"
"Stop talking! We already loaded all the meat, pelts, straw mats, and wooden decorations into the cart. But we can't leave the clay pots, firewood, or berries either. Move! Hurry!"
"I-It's wrong, Mom… I won't do it," the girl muttered.
Pak!
"Wrong? What's wrong about it? We've been suffering, yet inside the leader's cave he hoarded all this food! He lied to us! He let us starve!"
"Mom, the leader hunted all this himself. He shared it with families who really needed help. He gave us some once, didn't he?"
"Yeah, once! We suffer every day!" the woman barked. "Stop spouting nonsense and move!"
Inside the small cave room, Fiora couldn't see them, but from the sounds, she guessed the girl was being beaten.
She wanted to get up and check.
But then she remembered she was in no condition to intervene.
Looking at the pale man beside her, she realized he must be the "leader" they were talking about.
"So this man is already dead?" she whispered. "Did he die after saving me?"
A pang of guilt struck her. "He died… and now he's being plundered. How sad."
Without realizing it, she lightly tapped the man's broad chest.
And in an instant, her vision changed.
Her eyes widened in shock.
"Is this…?"
She covered her mouth with her left hand. Her right hand hesitantly touched his chest again.
This time, she didn't pull back.
Her vision shifted. She didn't see skin or muscle. She saw the organs inside his chest.
"It's the same as last time… when I saved that little boy. I hope he returned home safely."
The memory washed over her, and she let out a long sigh.
"If not for that boy, none of this would have—
No… even without him, it still would have happened. Because Eve… she trapped me."
A few days earlier, Fiora had suddenly been summoned to accompany her younger sister.
Evelyn was going to escort Prince Xaviar, Emperor Julius's younger brother, on a walk through the forest garden.
This forest garden was part of the eastern woods where Fiora usually gathered herbs and flowers. She knew the area well.
While Evelyn and Prince Xaviar relaxed by the lakeside, Fiora went to find a rare flower Evelyn wanted to show the prince.
Suddenly, she heard a child crying near a cliff. She run to that sound.
At the edge, stood a young boy, trembling. In front of him was a large wild boar.
Fiora immediately drew the boar's attention.
The boar didn't attack the boy, but the terrified child stumbled backward—
and fell off the cliff.
Meanwhile, Fiora wasn't fast enough to outrun the boar. Its tusks slammed into her.
Her regeneration healed her even when her entire body was drenched in blood.
But the pain—
the pain of those massive tusks ripping into her flesh was unbearable.
With what little consciousness she had left, she chose to jump off the cliff herself.
At least she wouldn't be gored again.
For some time, Fiora lay unconscious inside the cliff.
When she awoke, most of her internal wounds had healed.
She found the boy nearby. His body was scraped all over, likely from hitting rocks. Blood covered his forehead.
Fiora touched him to wake him—
but her vision suddenly changed.
She could see inside his body: the wound on his head, the bruised organs, everything.
Though confused, she felt sorry for him and wished she could heal him.
The moment she wished it, the boy's wounds slowly healed, just as hers did.
Fiora was shocked. But also relieved.
After healing him, exhaustion washed over her, but she still needed to bring them both back up.
She took a long, winding path far from the boar's territory.
Along the way, she staggered countless times. Her body felt weak, her vision blurry, even though her injuries were healing.
Near the top, she saw a silhouette.
She shouted for help, and as the figure approached, she laid both herself and the boy on the cliff edge, and then her consciousness faded again.
When she woke up, she was already in prison.
From the guards' conversations, she learned Evelyn had told the king that Fiora possessed strange powers, like a beastman.
And all the recent "weird events" in the kingdom were, according to Evelyn, caused by Fiora.
Fiora couldn't believe her sweet, innocent sister had actually said such things.
Only a few hours later, Fiora was summoned to the king's meeting room—
and banished.
Evelyn… she pretended to beg for Fiora to stay, but every word she said only strengthened the king's decision to exile her.
Now, thinking back on it all, Fiora finally understood. Evelyn had been planning everything for a long time.
Perhaps even the wild boar had been arranged by her.
The poor boy who got caught in the chaos was the most unfortunate one.
Fiora exhaled deeply. "So what about me now? Where do I go? Should I just stay here?"
Her gaze shifted back to the man with strange ears.
"He's the leader of this tribe, right? If I save him… maybe I can ask to stay here!"
...