"Looking back now, I think my sixth year was the turning point when Zanis took control of the familia."
Lili spoke calmly, without any trace of emotion, as she revealed the name of the mastermind behind it all.
The god Soma's policy was to use Divine Wine as a reward, motivating the familia members to push forward. But Zanis stole the finished product and forced every member of the familia to drink it.
At that time, the young and innocent Lili only took a single sip, and in doing so, she was dragged into the abyss.
"Soma-sama must have been terribly disappointed... because I became just like my parents— a beast chasing after money."
With money, one could buy the Divine Wine. With the wine, one could experience unparalleled joy.
Lili was captivated by the magic of the Divine Wine and never again visited Soma's chamber.
The evil spread like a plague, with cunning and madness taking root throughout the Soma Familia.
Swept up in the tide of Divine Wine, Lili too became an adventurer. Begging alone wasn't enough. To obtain more Divine Wine, she would need to put in more effort.
Fortunately, Lili was cunning enough.
Having fought in the mud and understood her own weakness, Lili used every last bit of her money to buy a crossbow. She would take up positions at key spots and launch ambush arrows at Goblins.
This allowed her to survive.
But it was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.
Lili wasn't an adventurer; she had no talent. Relying on underhanded tactics alone, there was a limit to how many monsters she could defeat.
And with the constant need to replenish arrows and supplies, the money Lili saved was still far from enough to even reach the threshold required for the Divine Wine.
"When Lili realized my limits, I changed my job to Supporter."
And that's when the nightmare of abuse began.
To avoid having her hard-earned rewards stolen, Lili deliberately stayed away from the Soma Familia and joined other adventurer groups instead.
Only those with kind hearts or those with dark histories would be willing to accept a child like her.
Unfortunately, Lili encountered only the latter.
Some adventurers lied about their earnings, giving her only a tiny fraction of what she'd earned.
Others claimed she disrupted their work, almost causing accidents, and then pinned strange accusations on her, refusing to pay anything.
Some even took Lili's self-defense weapons and healing potions, not even bothering to hide it.
That wasn't just exploitation—it was far worse, reaching into a dark, twisted abyss of cruelty.
Lili's faith in this world crumbled.
Even if she tried to argue, even if she shouted, no one cared.
Everyone treated the weak, young Lili like a joke, dismissing her without a second thought.
That was the extent of the darkness in Orario back then.
"I couldn't scrape together enough money to buy the Divine Wine... Looking back now, maybe that was a stroke of luck."
Lili gave a self-deprecating smile.
"..."
Bell listened quietly, understanding the meaning behind Lili's words.
Had Lili encountered a righteous familia willing to help when she became a supporter, she likely would have spent every last coin on Divine Wine, eventually losing her sanity.
It was her misfortune not to meet kind souls, but ironically, that misfortune had freed her from the magic of the Divine Wine.
Lili's smile faded as she continued:
"When that intoxicating magic power disappeared, Lili awoke and instantly realized she had to escape this place."
Her first thought was death.
If she ended it all, all the pain would finally come to an end.
But Lili didn't have the courage to embrace death.
Having clawed her way out of the abyss, she had an overwhelming desire to survive.
Her next thought was to run.
Escape the adventurers, escape the Soma Familia, forget everything.
Lili had always been an insignificant presence—her disappearance wouldn't affect anyone.
She made her decision swiftly.
The possibility of redemption had never crossed Lili's mind.
She assumed a new identity, pretending to be an ordinary person, and fled into a flower shop.
The shop was run by an elderly, childless couple.
They took Lili in as their own, accepting the crying girl without hesitation.
"It was a rare, precious piece of normal life— a memory that Lili would spend her entire life trying to repay."
Through Lili's eyes, the flower shop appeared before them.
It was still early, and the peaceful shop hadn't opened yet.
Lili lowered her head in desolation, as if lost in thoughts of the past, or perhaps in remorse for her sins.
After escaping into the flower shop, what awaited Lili was a warm embrace and a gentle smile.
Every simple day there filled the emptiness inside her.
But that happiness was fragile, like a bubble, easily shattered by malice.
"The Soma Familia destroyed the flower shop, stole everything of value, and even beat the old man senseless."
Tears welled up in Lili's eyes as she recalled that rainy day, filled with the sound of her own loud sobbing.
In front of the injured old man, Lili's helplessness poured out with her tears.
She could do nothing but cry and apologize.
Orario had long been consumed by darkness. The Guild and the righteous familias were already stretched thin, dealing with Evilus and could offer no help with such looting.
No redemption. No hope. Only guilt buried deep inside her.
"That old lady said to Lili, 'If only I hadn't met you...'"
How Lili wished it had been a mistake, that she hadn't heard those words correctly.
But deep inside her, the overwhelming guilt screamed back.
Why was that one simple sentence enough?
Why hadn't she cursed Lili like the others?
Even a slap would have made the pain in her heart lessen!
And most of all, why was it always warmth and kindness that got trampled?
In the pouring rain, Lili's heart was torn open.
Filling the wound was unimaginable rage and hatred.
She couldn't drag anyone else down.
She couldn't let the kind old couple suffer because of her.
This was Lili's sin, a debt she would spend her whole life trying to repay.
Cradling the book the old woman had given her, Lili carefully shielded it from the rain as she said her goodbye, tears streaming down her face.
It was the fairy tale of Cinderella.
A dust-covered girl was transformed by a fairy's magic into a peerless beauty.
For her dream, the girl attended a palace ball where the prince fell instantly in love.
When the magic wore off, she fled in panic, but the prince found her using the crystal slipper and embraced the truest version of her.
Lili loved that story.
Because the heroine, like herself, was a ragged, unwelcome Cinderella.
But that was all.
Lili didn't yearn for redemption, nor did she dream of a prince's love.
What Lili had was only baseness and cunning.
But that was enough.
The day she saw the elderly couple's tears and injuries, Lili understood everything.
She couldn't show her weakness to anyone.
She couldn't take advantage of others' kindness.
The darkness was for her alone to carry.
From that day on, money and flowers often appeared on the flower shop's doorstep.
And Lili?
She walked the path of vengeance.