NOVEL WEB Chapter 5
Eleina was abandoned.
She was not merely branded a failure in her father’s heart and left behind.
He truly abandoned her.
She was forsaken by the elves.
Left out in the forest, she had fallen from being the chief’s daughter to becoming a slave.
Her father had cast her aside.
The Elf Tribe Leader had discarded her.
Her body bore scars and lash marks, with shackles around her wrists and ankles, and a fixed collar around her neck.
Those solid shackles rendered her powerless to find a way to escape or even to untie them,
As she recalled her father’s last words—the man who threw her out, who traded her to the high-ups of the human village.
“I want to get out—? Fine, go out and roll like a dog. You’re no longer an elf. You’re not my daughter, nor a resident of this forest.”
With those words, her father had departed. He returned to the forest, pretending not to see the approaching humans who sought to cage the young elf.
How great it would have been if he’d shown himself just once, the figure she had so longed to see. Lost in memories of a non-existent monstrosity, Eleina had utterly broken.
What lay before her, as she once dreamt, were humans who sought to exploit her for their own desires—dragging her away, parading her in a public square, holding up a sign with her gender, age, race, and origin written on it, uttering degrading phrases that only they could comprehend.
It must have been numbers inscribed on that sign, though the format might have been a bit off; Eleina was certain it was numbers.
As a middle-aged man in ridiculous clothing stepped back after finishing his speech,
Those around her began to rise one by one, holding up signs bearing numbers. Most were men, but there were some women, too. Regardless of gender, their gazes were anything but clean.
They were filthy and disgusting. More revolting than the elves, more repulsive than her father. The stories shared by the creatures of the forest felt untrue, so vile and ugly were the scenes before her.
It was disgusting, nothing else came to mind. There were no words in her head that could express their dog-like smiles.
“…Disgusting…”
In that moment, Eleina’s light faded.
Her eyes, which once shone as if they would never dim, lost their glow and plummeted into darkness.
Heading to some abyss deeper than the one’s she was already lost in, it seemed as though she would never shine again; her azure eyes were consumed by darkness.
She despised her father. The one who brought her into this hell.
She hated the humans, those who gazed at her with lewd smiles, undressing her with their eyes, hoping to indulge their desires.
Eleina bowed her head deeply. Her downcast eyes looked around, glaring at those who were nothing like the images she had imagined.
Men who leered as they propped up their masculine parts, the price for her body—initially starting at hundreds—quickly skyrocketed past thousands, eventually reaching hundreds of thousands.
It must have been too much for them to handle; hundreds of them sighed in disappointment and plopped down in their seats.
With each blight on her dignity, Eleina’s eyes were slowly dimming.
What would become of her now? Sold off to become some human’s plaything? Or perhaps a sex slave?
They said humans had stronger sexual urges than other races. So much so that even succubi, who made sexual acts their main diet, would yield to them.
While most humans wouldn’t stand a chance against succubi, occasionally, there would be humans whose depravity surpassed that of succubi.
Out of a hundred, at least ten were said to be like that.
It had been said that there were those who, regardless of the vitality they were born with, surpassed succubi in lewdness alone.
The knowledge of this filled Eleina with even more shame and disgust.
She dropped her shoulders. Unable to bet on a price she couldn’t afford, she watched the audience waiting for the next slave and the portly man with his crooked beard who was fiercely bidding.
In an unavoidable slump, she almost bent her waist to the ground.
Even though she was chained, her trembling legs felt like they would buckle at any moment as she prepared to relinquish everything.
At that moment,
Crack!
She heard the sound of something breaking.
Too weak to even muster the strength to turn, Eleina was utterly defeated.
But the crowd could not hide their shock. Stammering, eyes wide, they began to push away as if to say “Don’t come any closer!”
“Hah…”
With a voice so deep and thick, it brought doubts about its origin, yet his words and actions didn’t match.
“What’s with all this nonsense?”
Raising one leg and striking a proud pose while scratching his head, the man looked like a third-rate thug.
Eleina slowly lifted her waist.
In contrast, the terrified people struggled to maintain their posture, trying to bow low.
As the thick black mist grew more pronounced, the one who emitted it, unbeknownst to them, was the one forcefully staving it off as they struggled to lower their heads out of fear.
Her clouded eyes reflected a handsome young man, so strikingly beautiful that not even the elves she had lived with in the forest could compare.
Though his demeanor seemed a bit off, Eleina was far too drained to care.
With her dead eyes, she stared at the half-beast wrapping himself in magical energy.
Did he notice her gaze? He turned his head, tilting it in question, sparking curiosity in Kyall.
Eleina kept her eyes fixed on the handsome man in front of her.
Even the magically adorned man just gazed back at her silently, not moving at all.
Eleina managed a weak smile, lifting the corners of her mouth ever so slightly.
She was thanking this man, just for being there.
Why?
Because he saw Eleina for who she was.
With not even a flicker of ugly emotions, he merely looked at her as if she were a living, breathing being.
This made her extraordinarily happy. The broken Eleina felt a momentary gratitude toward him.
Unlike her cursed and vile parents, who saw her as a tool to throw away or as a disgusting doll to manipulate and trample on, he regarded her without any filthy sentiment.
He was the only one here who saw her as a real person.
The pitiful elf, chained in iron, with scars all over her body, forced to be the prey of the crowd’s filthy, debased gazes until she would leave.
The man’s gaze turned serious.
He seemed to see her as a pitiful being.
He averted his gaze, watching the desperate ones around who still sought to flee for survival or were mustering their last strength to kneel.
They appeared to her as the ugliness she had felt before.
The mist that extended from within the man’s body thickened, creating a giant vortex that seemed to destroy and ruin everything around him.
“Filthy bastards. No matter the scenario, this is too much.”
His deep voice grew louder.
“From what I see, you lot aren’t even human.”
Grinding his teeth, he began to angrily voice the humiliation she had endured.
Soon, those who were bowed down in tears and submission, even to the point of considering doing a handstand, found no leniency before this man.
With a calm voice that carried his fury, the man spoke each word like a decree, and they could do nothing but wait to be swept up in the storm.
Those feeling the vile rage of someone intent on ending them soon learned that the first to die would be them.
Their necks snapped, and blades of thick mist cut through flesh and shattered bones, ultimately slicing through innards.
Eleina, the pitiful elf girl, could only watch.
Unaware that this man, angry on her behalf, would flip her fate as a mere human toy upside down, the girl watched him.
A fine stream of tears began to trickle from her dimming eyes.
The elf’s eyes, yearning for salvation, began to flicker with a light long thought irretrievable.