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Once upon a time, there was a girl that was born into a very...hectic family
Her father was a traveling merchant who was on the verge of bankruptcy, and there were plenty of loan sharks who were hunting his skin...which causes him to constantly move from one spot to another. While her mother was a harlot who actually enjoyed her job of pleasing frustrated men during the night
One thing led to another, and the merchant became drunk and slept with her in a tavern
Nine months later, a girl plopped out of her mother...And her name was Quinn
Quin grew up to be an orphan. With her parents being the way they were, none of them hesitated to drop her off at a nearby village and just shove the responsibilities of raising her onto its inhabitants...
Some of them reluctantly decided to take on the responsibility and raise her, but most of them were not happy with the idea of taking care of her. In the first place, the village that she was dropped on was experiencing the cruel effects of drought and pestilence. The very idea of taking someone in despite their dire state was plain foolish
However, none of them had the guts to leave a newborn baby alone in the wild, and so she was taken in
Growing up, she was seen by most of the villagers as nothing more than a burden, and an extra mouth to feed. This, of course, caused problems for her...
Almost all of the adults in the village would treat her as if she was garbage, shooing her away whenever she was nearby, and they would even resort to violence if they feel like it. The kids would also often throw stones at her as they hurl out insults like "Spawn of a whore" or "Little cockroach"...
And since she possessed the same azure-colored hair, green eyes, and pale skin just as her mother had...she had also been a victim of harassment by the villagers who are more or less...frustrated at the dire state of the village
There were some adults who would somewhat treat her like a normal human being and give out leftover foods and murky water, but that's the extent of the hospitality that the village would provide. She had no roof over her head, nobody to call a parent or a friend, and was constantly on the verge of death by the wild monsters in the nearby forest
It was no surprise that ever since then, she grew up without any emotions
It was more accurate to say that she never really learned the concept of it...In the eleven years of her life, all she knew was that she had to survive no matter what, and that the world was out for her. She closed her heart out and never loved anything, and became this cold husk of a human being that did not know how to love
Quinn became a person driven by logic and never resorted to her emotions...fueled only by her desire to live and survive
And her initial plan to accomplish that was to gain enough money to leave the dying village that she was in. The drought has already taken its toll, and the pestilence was quickly claiming the lives of everyone around her.
Quinn knew that it was only a matter of time before she herself gets infected, or the people get hungry enough to not feed her anymore...or worse, she becomes their dinner for the evening.
She began to steal from the treasury that the village had, and once she gained enough funds, she planned to leave as soon as dusk arrived. But unfortunately for her...the threads of fate seem to be against her
Because what greeted her in the morning was not the clucks of their hens, but the sound of rowdy men riding their horses. She immediately knew what was happening just by that sound alone. Quinn took her belongings and tried to sneak out using a route that she had planned...but it was no use
The men had surrounded every inch and corner of the village, and she was easily spotted and caught by them. A glance at their clothing and their mannerisms wall more than to confirm her initial suspicions...these people were bandits, and right now they were being raided...
"Kgh...R-Run away...all of you"
"M-Mother?...S-Someone please help! M-My mother is bleeding!"
"Gahaha! Where do you think you're going there, lil missy? You're gonna be my toy for tonight!"
"Kyahahahah! Come on boys, make sure to light this place up! Take all of the useful stuff you could see and kill the rest!"
Screams of dying men and crying women began to echo throughout the forest. The villagers tried their best to defend their land, but with most of them being sick, they were easily overrun by them. The sick and the elderly were slaughtered, and those who seemed to be useful to them were shoved into cages
Quinn knew that she was a beauty and would probably fetch a fine amount as a slave so she didn't really feel panicked. As long as she behaved herself and stayed quiet, the bandits would leave her alone...and since the money she had was hidden inside her clothes, she could still live out there and escape if the time is right...
So for now, she gritted her teeth and remained silent...
From the looks of it, the bandits were bringing them all the way out to the Ironscorne Empire, which was quite far from their country. Quinn had heard stories about how that country had one of the mightiest militaries in the world, and that the soldiers had a strong code of justice and honor...
"Surely we would be saved once we arrived there"...was what she was thinking as they went on
All she had to do was patiently wait
Even if the bandits would always never feed them anything, and barely gave them any water to drink...
Even if they would often pick one of the girls at random and play with them during the night, with most of them being nothing but corpses in the morning...
And even if she was mere inches away from death whenever wild monsters would attack them
She will survive...she has to...
At some point in their journey, she had already noticed that they had arrived at the lands of the Empire, and she began to wonder why they weren't being saved yet. After all, their caravan was quite large, and a patrol group would probably notice them from afar...
However, her questions were answered the moment she saw a paladin who was riding alongside the bandits. Based on the sigil on his armor, he was indeed a paladin of the Empire...and the moment Quinn saw him receiving a fat stack of gold coins from the bandits, she immediately knew that the chances of the Empire coming to their rescue was slim to none
"...I guess I have to break out on my own then..."
Quinn mumbled to herself as she looks at the lock of her cage
In order to survive, she had learned how to use a bit of magic. However, none of the spells she learned could help her right now. In the end, she decided to give up for now and wait for the perfect opportunity to waltz out...
"I just need to wait...I'm sure I'll have the chance someday..."
She kept repeating this phrase like a broken record
Whether or not it was to convince herself to not give in to the depths of despair, or if it was to pull herself out of there, she didn't know. All she knew was that she had to keep repeating this to herself...or she'll be broken...
And as she was doing this, she heard a bit of chatter come from some of the bandits
"Hey, have you heard?"
"Hah? About what?"
"They say that they've spotted a demon here recently, a really big and powerful one at that"
Quinn stopped her little chanting and slowly swooped in to listen
"Ahaha! Get the hell outta here with that bullshit story of yours. Both of us know that those creatures are just legends made up to scare little children"
"Haha! I'm fuckin serious man. I heard that this thing is the reason why most of the monsters are decreasing in the forest nowadays. Remember when we got here a couple of years back? Most of our caravan was wiped out then, but now we're nearly out of this shithole and we're still in one piece"
"Isn't that because we're close to winter and they just hibernated or something? Look man, even if there's an apex predator that's roaming in these woods, the monsters here are tough as shit, they won't go hiding because of that. And even if there is, ain't no way we're stopping because of that...or else a demon we already know will tear us a new asshole"
"Kyahaha! Ain't that the fuckin truth. The boss is already mad because of the shipment delays recently, right?"
"Yeah, you got that right. And you assholes had too much fun with some of the products so we're low on stocks now! Apparently, there's also something really important in the treasury...Fuckin a' we need to make this shipment come through no matter what"
Quinn could only look into the night sky as she continues to listen in
"A demon, huh?"
For the past centuries, there have been no sightings of one. Nowadays, that word is commonly used as an insult now...In fact, she did remember a time when the children back in the village would call her the exact same thing
She lets out a sigh as she slowly closed her eyes
Quinn had already prayed to most of the gods by this point...and since none of them are responding, she might as well pray to a demon...even if she knew deep down that she would be just like the rest...
"...Please help me...demon of the forest..."
"-! Woah, what the hell is that?!"
She was jolted awake by the scream of the bandits
From her cage, she looked up to the sky where the rest of them were looking...and she saw a massive ball of fire descend from the heavens. Its flames had a crimson hue, and she could feel the raging heat it had from afar...The bandits panicked and tried to retreat from it, but it was too late
The ball of flames landed on the ground which caused a massive explosion
The entire caravan was blasted away, which included the cage that she was on. She floated in the air for a moment before being smashed to the ground, which destroyed the cage she was on.
Quinn then crawled to a nearby tree to try to pick herself up
And the moment she did, she saw a creature emerge from the flames
She had only one way to describe what it was
"...Demon"