Swoosh.

Following the gentle breeze, waves ripple across the water.

Catching the scent of the sea's distinctive saltiness at the tip of her nose, the fox opens her previously closed eyelids.

Warm air brushes against her cheeks.

“……”

What she sees is nothing but the vast, endless ocean.

It was a nightmare she'd grown all too familiar with.

As always, the scene was a prison built atop the sea.

*Sigh…*

A sigh escapes from her tired heart.

The girl with fiery red hair blowing in the wind soon slumps down, leaning her back against the old iron bars.

The rusted metal groans in response.

*Creaaak.*

Without a care, the fox pulls her knees to her chest.

The water ripples just up to her ankles.

Because of this, the lower half of her body was always submerged in the sea.

Of course, since it was a dream, her clothes never got wet, yet her gaze was always complex.

It was because of a strange sense of loss.

*It’s too…quiet.*

Realizing she was dreaming made her long to wake up all the more.

Because this was an unbearably lonely world.

The warmth of the foreign sunlight…

Perhaps it was nothing but deceit.

*Irene.*

*I can’t stay by my master’s side any longer…and I shouldn’t.*

*So, this is goodbye.*

*Please…survive.*

As always, the voice she missed most would whisper to her at her loneliest moments.

The fox silently revisits the faint memory, dispelling what little bitterness remained.

It was a sort of nocturnal adaptation.

Waves drowning in silence.

The fox waited, once again, to wake from this nightmare.

For the awful emptiness to be filled.

It seemed she had dozed off for a moment.

Perhaps because of the lingering effects of a sleep spell, her consciousness had suddenly faded.

Irene regains her senses, only to be met with a throbbing headache.

“……”

What she sees is an unfamiliar ceiling.

A prison draped in deep shadows.

Open or closed, it made no difference—she was still in a cage.

The hard floor radiates a chill.

Her shoulders tremble from the cold.

She hadn’t realized it earlier, but her body had already turned icy.

The fox stifles a groan that escapes her lips.

If she'd known it would come to this, perhaps staying in the dream would have been better.

It was warm there, and there was a breeze too.

Such trivial thoughts cross her mind.

Lost in such musings as she sits there listlessly.

“Hey… Foxy Sister!”

“…?”

“This way! Over here!”

Someone calls to her.

She turns her head, puzzled by the unexpected voice, and spots a small hole in the wall.

It seems to be a person trapped in the adjacent cell.

A hand waves through the narrow bars.

“You’re finally awake?”

A young girl with a fresh face.

At most, she looked around fifteen.

When their eyes meet, she smiles shyly.

“I was worried since you were out for so long. I’m glad you’re awake!”

“You are…”

This was the same person who had warned her earlier to pretend to be asleep.

The fox stares blankly at the girl.

“Nice to meet you! It’s been ages since someone came to the next cell!”

The girl smiles in awe.

With a cheerful demeanor, she suddenly reaches her hand through the bars.

“My name’s Anne! I hope we can get along, fellow test subject.”

“A… test subject?”

“Yep!”

The girl nods vigorously.

Faced with this strange scene, the fox once again finds herself speechless.

She had been captured by an unknown group.

At first, she was in such confusion that her mind went blank, but little by little, she managed to gather some information.

Thanks to the voice speaking from the next cell.

“Sister! Do you have any other questions?”

The girl named Anne.

With her sunny disposition, she kept chattering away.

Perhaps out of concern for the new test subject, most of her chatter consisted of explanations about the place.

Occasionally, she even answered the fox’s questions.

“Hehe… but there’s still so much I don’t know.”

Of course, her answers were far from clear.

After all, the girl was also imprisoned behind bars.

With an awkward laugh, she scratched her cheek.

“They’re just things I overheard.”

“Things you… overheard?”

“Either from someone else, or from my own experience… things you just start learning if you’re locked up here long enough.”

“How long have you been here, exactly?”

“About seven months?”

While it wasn’t deeply revealing, it was enough to piece together her surroundings.

The fox began organizing her thoughts.

In summary:

*The largest dark mage organization on the continent, Baob.*

The ones who had abducted Irene.

This building was a facility they’d set up for dark magic research.

The prison where the fox was currently held was a space to contain the materials used for experiments.

It was truly nothing short of a den of evil.

*A slaver… now a cultist?*

A dry laugh escapes her lips.

She’d barely escaped being sold as a slave, only to now be destined to become a monster.

It felt as though fate itself were mocking her.

The fox clenched her teeth as she sat there.

“I’m just saying, but… it’s best to cooperate with the experiments if you can.”

“And why’s that?”

“There’s… a devil here.”

From what she’d heard, escape was next to impossible.

Every person managing the place was a dark mage.

And the head of the lab was said to be a powerful figure.

With a single gesture, they could rip apart any number of test subjects, and all those who’d previously attempted resistance had met the same fate.

Anne referred to the lab director as “the devil.”

“The devil kills test subjects for fun.”

If an experiment goes wrong, they kill you.

Even if it isn’t an experiment, they kill you.

If you act disrespectfully, they kill you.

If you meet their eyes, they kill you.

If they’re in a bad mood, they kill you.

They kill test subjects as if savoring their screams.

“That’s why I told you to lie low… at least if you play dead, they’ll often pass you by.”

The director seemed more interested in slaughter than in research.

Their faith in God was merely an excuse for slaughter; at heart, they were a monster that reveled in blood.

Not a shred of hope could be seen.

“……”

A despairing situation.

Irene maintained a blank expression, but she couldn’t hide the tremble in her eyes.

A crushing sense of helplessness weighed on her shoulders.

The headache pounded in her skull.

As she massaged her temples alone…

Suddenly, a hand reached through the bars, offering her something.

“Sister, take this.”

“…What is it?”

“It’s a blanket!”

The girl hands her a worn-out rag.

Though it was frayed and torn, the girl called it a blanket.

Their eyes meet, and the girl smiles warmly.

“You’ve been shivering for a while now. It might not be very warm, but it’s better than nothing.”

“You’re lending this to me…?”

“I run hot, so I don’t need it!”

“…Thank you.”

“Heehee.”

Anne’s reaction is bright.

It might sound rude, but the fox thought the girl wasn’t quite normal.

Perhaps she’d gone mad, having been a test subject at such a young age.

*How can she smile in a place like this…?*

Pushing aside those thoughts, she drapes the blanket over herself.

The scratchy fabric that Anne had handed her covered her shoulders.

Even so, she was still cold.

How much time had passed?

It felt like around three days.

During her time in this dark mage’s lair, the fox had seen hell.

Through the bars, she could hear it.

*Ahh, ugh, cough, groan…*

*No, no! Don’t do this!!!*

*Please, please… I’m begging you! Please!!!*

*Aaaargh!!!*

*Something’s…growing in my stomach! It’s eating me from the inside!*

Screams echoed endlessly.

The sounds of wails, and groans from the distant corridor painted an unspeakable picture.

Occasionally, there were even cries that sounded inhuman.

Whether it was truly a non-human sound or the screams of someone who’d “lost their humanity” was unknown.

*Aaaargh! Stop it!!!*

While many were led to the lab, very few returned to the cells.

In the past three days, forty-seven went out, and only two returned.

One could barely walk.

Another returned with some of their body grotesquely transformed.

*Shriek! Shriek!*

The fox had been placed in the cell furthest from the lab.

Even so, the raw sounds faintly reached her ears.

She had to suppress her nausea multiple times.

“……”

She was still alive.

The dark mages hadn’t touched Irene.

More accurately, they hadn’t been able to.

The devil himself had said he would personally experiment on her in a week.

*I’ll handle this one myself.*

*A fox beastkin… an ideal specimen.*

The devil had spoken with a lecherous gaze.

So, the other cultists had no choice but to back off, smacking their lips in disappointment.

A week was all she had left.

Irene could do nothing but wait.

There was no hope.

At first, she had thought to resist, but after meeting the lab director, her mind had changed.

The devil’s power was overwhelming.

At least on par with a professor from Gallimar.

A single chant could wipe out all the test subjects.

“……”

She eventually becomes numb.

The fox sits silently, leaning her back against the wall.

“Sister.”

“……”

“Do you know something amazing?”

“……?”

Anne peeks through the bars.

Perhaps worried by the fox’s pale complexion, she tries to divert her attention.

“The time here flows differently from the outside.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just what I said.”

The girl shrugs lightly.

“Once, the devil got completely drunk and started bragging in the halls…”

Apparently, this was a special place.

Some dragon’s corpse was buried here… I don’t remember the details, but he did mention something about time being twisted around here.

“A week here is only a day outside.”

“A week… is a day?”

“You’ve been here for three days, but outside, it’s only been a few hours.”

“……”

The fox stares blankly.

Anne scratches her cheek, as if embarrassed by her own words.

“Believe it or not. Honestly, it sounds far-fetched. I’ve never heard of a place like that, unless it’s beyond the empire’s borders…”

“……”

“I’m sure the devil was just spouting nonsense because he was drunk.”

Anne grumbles quietly.

Her brows furrow for a moment, but then she smiles brightly.

A clear smile.

“But thinking about it like this, it gives me a bit of hope.”

“Hope…?”

“Yes, hope.”

If only a few hours have passed, surely someone’s searching for you, right?

Would it be so wrong to hope for a miracle?

“Who knows! Maybe some prince on a white horse will come save us.”

“……”

“Didn’t you have someone like that around?”

“…I don’t know.”

The fox avoids Anne’s gaze.

She responds indifferently, but a certain face crosses her mind.

Golden hair, narrowed eyes.

Why was she thinking of that person now?

Irene bites her lip, unknowingly.

*…It would be foolish to hope for him.*

He’d always seen her as just a toy.

If she disappeared, he’d move on easily.

He’d just find a new toy.

The fox convinces herself.

Don’t give him your trust.

Just as she always had.

*I just need to… stay here on my own.*

The fox quietly endures her agonizing thoughts.

Yet.

“He better be safe.”

The fox didn’t know.

That to find her, forces capable of leveling a nation were already mobilizing.

White eyes gleam in the darkness.

“If he isn’t safe… I can’t say what I’ll do.”

The pure white banner flutters.

A dark force filled with bloodlust cuts across the night sky.

On a mission to retrieve the fox.