**Chapter 1: Liberation**
In the center of a room surrounded by black walls and ceiling stood two rocking horses.
The only time a bit of light entered this small, completely dark place was when a small hatch on one wall opened to deliver food.
Three times a day.
Dry bread, water, and round candy beads were served on a tin plate.
Once, she had approached the hole to see who was pushing the food through, but all she could see was a faintly glimmering white mask in the darkness.
Sometimes she would lose consciousness after eating.
When she woke up, her body had a pleasant scent.
“Just die already.”
“She’s survived until now. There’s hope.”
“Even if she survives, she has nowhere to go. It’d be better to die.”
Ignoring the buzzing voices as usual, she put a candy bead into her mouth.
The candy bead was salty at first and then sweet.
After that, her stomach grew warm.
“Die. Die. Die.”
“Don’t listen to them.”
“Shall I tell you a scary story?”
If one had spent countless days, ever since around the age of ten, alone in this narrow, dark prison, by now, they would normally have become a lunatic far removed from the world’s norms or a beast-like idiot.
The reason she could maintain some semblance of humanity was thanks to the voices that chattered around her every day.
They were not spirits but rather the souls of many children who had died in this ducal mansion, gathering around her to lament their situations day and night.
They were the prey of the human hunting competition, the acrobats of the freak show, and the broken dolls from biological experiments, among others.
The souls of those killed in various ways by the devilish duke crowded around her because she was the only one in the ducal mansion who could hear them.
“Seven years today. Congratulations, no one will remember you even if you get out.”
Thanks to them, she knew how long she had been trapped here.
And that she was only about ten years old when she was first imprisoned here.
Her memories of how she lived before then were now hazy as if sealed away.
“Guys, something strange is happening outside. Strange people have come.”
“Don’t make up strange stories to scare her.”
“No, really, scary adults are gathering around.”
She crawled towards the chest.
Her ragged hair dragged along the stone floor.
It was so dark in the room that she couldn’t see how long her hair was, nor was it easy to check.
“Do you think that’ll protect you, stupid girl?”
“You’re being too mean.”
“This isn’t the time for this. People are coming. Maybe they’re here to rescue her.”
“Who would rescue someone abandoned by her own family?”
They were right.
If someone were coming to find her, they should have come long ago.
The concept of seven years was unfamiliar and strange to her, but she knew it was a long time.
During that long time spent here, the hope that someone would come to rescue her had long since crumbled away without a trace.
“If adults are in the same building, they’ll kill everyone. They consider them accomplices. They’ll kill her too, she’ll end up like us.”
“You’re so noisy.”
“What, after living here like a rat all this time, you don’t want to die? We all died, but you want to live?”
“It’s okay, you can survive.”
Even as ghosts, the children’s personalities and opinions varied.
The place, which was silent except for their chatter and her cries and muttering, suddenly became noisy.
There was a thumping sound all around.
The first time experiencing such a terrible noise was monstrous.
She flattened herself behind the rocking horse and shut her eyes tight.
Her tightly curled body trembled.
It was a primal, instinctive fear.
“Just die. It’s better to die now. Bite your tongue.”
“I tried that, you don’t die from biting your tongue.”
“Shut up, all of you. She’s going to live and get out of here today.”
Boom.
The entire place shook.
Her matchbox-like world was trembling.
It felt like a monster was opening its jaws to swallow her whole.
“Pull yourself together, idiot! You have to escape!”
“How can she escape from here? Just let her die.”
The next moment, it felt like the heavens and earth were collapsing.
It was a thunderous noise as if the world were shattering into pieces.
Then suddenly, it was quiet.
Oddly, she did not lose consciousness.
The voices of the ghost children were no longer heard.
Finally, all she could hear was the completely unfamiliar voice of a stranger.
“Unbelievable.”
A human voice.
With the unfamiliar sensation tickling her ears, something suddenly approached and slapped her face.
It was the outside air.
The unfamiliar, refreshing air was so strange that her skin tingled.
The light pricking her eyelids was the same.
Instinctively breathing in the outside air, she slowly opened her eyes.
Through the bright light that made her eyes ache, two large shadows swayed.
“I can’t believe this. Why is this coming out from here?”
“What the hell is this place, Your Grace?”
“Why are you asking me… What is this?”
Suddenly, she felt her hair being pulled and shivered.
It seemed her long hair had caught their attention.
“Don’t touch it, Your Grace. No matter what it is…”
“Huh? It’s not a real thread, is it?”
“Pardon?”
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed.
A figure visible between the rocking horse’s legs was approaching.
She curled up even more tightly and closed her eyes again.
She didn’t know what to do.
There was no space to escape, and her legs had no strength.
Most of all, even if she tried to escape, it was as if she had already been caught.
The terrifying footsteps stopped right next to her, and the feeling of her scalp being pulled also stopped.
In her field of vision, when she timidly opened her eyes, she saw what looked like a stranger’s foot.
She blinked vigorously in the dazzling light and looked up.
What she saw in her blurry vision were a pair of bright, blue flames.
It took a while to realize that the flames were actually a man’s eyes.
She recalled a story one of the ghosts had told her.
It was about a knight who came to rescue a princess with long hair trapped somewhere like her.
In that story, the knight climbed the tower using the princess’s hair.
But she was not a princess, and this was not a tower.
And the man standing there, wrapping her hair around his hand, didn’t look like a knight.
He had no fearsome armor or sharp weapons.
Maybe the man standing behind him did.
For a while, no sound was heard.
A strange silence flowed as the discovered and the discoverer just stared blankly at each other. Finally, she, mustering some courage, spoke first.
Her hesitant voice faintly echoed in the collapsed underground prison.
“Are you a prince?”
“…Sorry. I’m just a duke.”
—
