“Hey! Wait, wait, wait...!”
Suddenly shut off from the outside world, Sarah called urgently after the man. She sensed him hesitate as he was about to leave.
She still had no idea where she was or how she had ended up in this situation, but none of that mattered now.
What mattered was getting out.
And to do that, she would have to use that.
The god watching from hell probably wouldn't approve, but surely they must have anticipated this possibility when they brought her back to life.
With that thought, Sarah decided it was time to put her one and only talent to use.
“Is this about money? I... I have some savings. If you want, I'll give you whatever you ask. Just... could you let me go without anyone knowing?”
Sitting as close to the bars as she could, Sarah put on a frightened voice to stop the man from leaving.
“Oh, really? You've got money?”
Getting his attention was easy. Slave traders, past and present, were equally obsessed with money. All she had to do was mention it, and they took the bait.
“How much have you saved?”
“Well... could you take the cover off first? It's so dark and frightening in here...”
Now was the time to make him wait. Making a small request first would only increase his impatience.
“Tch. What a nuisance.”
Despite his grumbling, the man removed the cloth covering the cage.
“There. Satisfied? Now tell me where your money is. I'll check how much you've got and decide whether to let you go.”
The slave trader clearly thought himself clever, but his lie was so obvious that even a child wouldn't have believed it.
“Well... it's a little difficult to say out loud...”
Using that plausible excuse, Sarah beckoned him closer.
He grumbled about her demands, but the prospect of money was evidently too tempting. He leaned toward her without much resistance.
Still not close enough.
“Could you come a little closer?”
He moved nearer.
But the distance still wasn't quite right.
“Just a little more...”
“Damn it. If you're lying or you don't have much, you're dead.”
Cursing, the man took a large step forward and bent his head toward her.
“Urgh!”
Sarah thrust her hands through the bars and seized his hair with all her strength.
She yanked his head forward.
Clang!
His head struck the iron cage.
“You insolent bastard! How dare you touch my head?! Huh?!”
Retaliating for what he had done to her earlier, Sarah shook his head violently.
“You bitch! What the hell are you doing?!”
Thud! Thud!
Unable to fight back immediately, the slave trader could only scream curses as his head repeatedly struck the bars.
“Let go! You bitch, you're just like Sarah Rosenbaum!”
Sarah froze.
The man had suddenly shouted her name.
It was so unexpected that even Sarah herself was momentarily caught off guard. But she didn't miss the contempt in his voice, and her anger flared.
“What?! Say that again! How dare you use that name like that?!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
After venting some of her anger, Sarah roughly turned his head to face her before he could recover his senses.
Then she gave him an order.
“Enough nonsense. Look me straight in the eyes!”
She commanded him to meet her gaze.
“...?!”
The man's face had been twisted in pain, but his eyes suddenly widened.
His unfocused gaze was drawn toward Sarah as though pulled by a magnet.
And so, just as she intended, he looked directly into her amethyst-colored eyes, which glowed with an ominous light.
“...”
Almost immediately, his body went limp.
His eyes grew vacant and hazy, as though he had fallen into a trance.
Seizing the opportunity, Sarah parted her lips.
“Open it.”
A chilling whisper echoed through the air, its sound unlike anything human vocal cords could produce.
“Ugh... guh...”
The man groaned sluggishly at the sound of Sarah's voice.
His unfocused eyes rolled back, and the veins beneath his skin turned black, tainted by the curse seeping from Sarah's fingertips.
Grinding his teeth in agony, he struggled to respond.
“N... nn... nnn...”
Sarah frowned, dissatisfied with the result.
The power flowing through her magical circuits was weaker than she had expected.
Had it been too long since she last used magic?
Regaining her focus, Sarah repeated her command more forcefully.
“Open it!”
This time, she felt the power surge through her circuits, growing hot as it swirled violently.
Now she was certain the spell would work.
“Urgh...!”
Until she suddenly coughed up a mouthful of hot blood.
“...?”
Sarah tilted her head in confusion at the unexpected spray of blood.
Was that hers?
The question occupied her thoughts for a moment.
Then the pain struck.
“Ugh...”
A searing pain erupted in the center of her chest, as though the fires of hell were scorching her from within.
Sarah doubled over, clutching her heart with her free hand.
The location of the pain was disturbingly familiar.
Searching her memory, she realized that it was precisely where the Holy Sword had struck her moments before her death.
Her expression hardened.
A truth she had completely forgotten since dying came rushing back to her.
The Holy Sword was a sacred relic imbued with the divine power of judgment, created to punish evil.
The wounds it inflicted did not merely damage the physical body. They also harmed the very soul, corrupted by wickedness.
And a mage's magical circuits were bound not to the body, but to the soul.
In other words...
Her magical circuits were damaged.
The magical circuits of the great black mage Sarah Rosenbaum...
They had been shattered.
“Grrgh... gurgle...”
While Sarah struggled with this revelation, the man whose head she was still holding began to writhe in pain.
The half-cast black magic was weakening, and his suppressed consciousness was starting to return.
“No!”
Sarah cried out in despair.
The realization that her damaged magical circuits prevented her from casting even such a simple spell was almost unbearable.
At this rate, she would never escape!
Overwhelmed by the sudden danger, Sarah ignored the pain and desperately forced out what little magic she could still muster.
“Open it! Right now!”
“Guh... cough, cough...!”
“Guh... guh... ugh...”
The excessive strain made Sarah cough up more blood, while the man began bleeding profusely as well.
It was a gruesome sight.
But she was making progress.
The man, who had been shaking his head in resistance, finally began fumbling at his waistband for the key.
Yes. You can do it.
Just a little more. Just a little more...!
Crash!
“Ugh!”
I'm done for...!
Startled by the impact, Sarah lost her grip on the man and squeezed her eyes shut.
The pitch-black darkness, through which she could not see an inch ahead, seemed to mock her.
Goodbye. I'm your future, and you're done for.
“Ugh!”
The thunderous noise continued several more times.
When the commotion finally subsided, Sarah heard shouting from outside.
Whatever was happening out there, it sounded ominous.
“Ugh... cough, cough... What... Why am I on the ground...?”
Soon afterward, the man who had been sprawled on the floor regained consciousness.
He coughed violently, his eyes still clouded by the lingering effects of the spell.
Looking around, he caught sight of Sarah sitting inside the cage, blood dripping from her lips.
“You... you... Why are you bleeding...?”
The man staggered and pointed at her with trembling fingers.
Fresh blood trickled down his chin.
When he instinctively wiped it away, his hand came back covered in red.
His eyes widened in shock.
He looked from Sarah to the blood on his hand, then back again, clearly demanding an explanation.
“This... this... this...!”
Finally, as though he had worked out the connection between them, he let out an incoherent cry and charged toward her.
“...!”
Eek!
Suddenly finding herself the prey rather than the predator, Sarah scrambled backward before the man's arm could reach her through the bars.
She pressed herself against the opposite side of the cage, her back striking the iron bars.
His hand missed her nose by a narrow margin.
“You insolent wench! Get over here right now!”
Unable to reach her, the man shook the cage violently, shouting threats.
Sarah huddled in the corner to avoid his fury.
Outwardly, she appeared frightened.
In reality, she was desperately searching for a way out of the situation.
“...?”
Then she suddenly sensed a faint presence behind her.
Had one of the other slave traders returned?
If so, her situation would become even worse.
...There's no one there?
But when she turned around, all she saw was an empty hallway.
Had she imagined it?
Perhaps her unfamiliar body had caused her to misjudge what she sensed.
Thinking so, she turned her attention forward again.
Slash!
“Today, I'm going to teach you a lesson—!”
Before the man could finish his sentence, his head was severed in an instant.
His shrill, piglike screams stopped abruptly, and bright red blood spurted from his neck like a fountain.
For one brief moment, time seemed to slow.
The spray of blood arced toward Sarah, scattering in every direction.
Through the crimson droplets, she caught sight of a dazzling white streak, like a flash of light.
Someone was there.
“...!”
The instant she realized it, time seemed to resume its normal pace.
The slave trader's blood narrowly missed Sarah's feet.
A moment later, she heard the dull thud of his severed head striking the ground some distance away.
Sarah flinched.
Instinctively hunching her shoulders, she watched the scene warily, drawing herself into an even more defensive posture.
“...”
The headless body slowly slumped to one side.
Where the man had stood, a pair of sturdy legs were now planted firmly on the ground.
Sarah held her breath, remaining perfectly still so as not to provoke the figure who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Despite the slave trader's loud shouting, she hadn't noticed anyone approaching until they were almost directly in front of her.
The same had probably been true of the slave trader, who had just been sent to hell.
A heavy silence settled over the scene of the sudden death.
“...”
Against that silence, the quiet mutter of the man standing amid the pool of blood was perfectly audible.
“Not even a scream?”