Chapter 17

"That was close... I thought I was going to die."

The black-haired man—still with the appearance of a boy—stepped into a building that no one had entered for several hundred years.

Looking at him, the boy was covered in wounds all over his body. There were three claw marks on his arm, seemingly from a beast, indicating that he had been attacked by a monster and fled into the ruins.

The boy tightly closed the entrance of the ruins to prevent the monster from entering and used magic to light a fire.

"‘Lantern’... Phew, now I can relax a bit. I'll just ride this out for a while... Huh?"

It was only then that the boy noticed Naimiria's presence.

He looked up and down at the beautiful witch chained in the depths of the ruins, momentarily speechless.

"Ah..."

A voice escaped Naimiria's lips as if she had just remembered.

Her thoughts had stopped due to the sudden appearance of the boy, and she was at a loss for words.

The boy and the witch stared at each other under the light of the fire created by magic.

Then—

"..."

Without a word, the boy turned on his heel, reached for the door of the ruins, and tried to leave.

Noticing that the first human she had seen in a long time was about to leave, Naimiria hurriedly called out.

"Hey, wait, wait! Don't go!"

Her desperate cry echoed through the stone building, surprising even herself at the volume of her voice.

"I won't do anything! I won't scare you! Look, look, I'm a naked lady! I have beautiful breasts!"

"…No, I'm leaving because there's a naked woman here."

The boy turned around and spoke logically. His eyes wandered without looking directly at Naimiria.

"What's wrong? Look, look, I'm not scary."

"You're the one who's wrong. At least put on some underwear."

Naimiria, bound by chains, was completely naked, and with her hands and feet tied, she couldn't even cover herself.

The light from the magic revealed her chest, legs, and even more intimate parts in excruciating detail.

The boy averted his eyes, scratched his head, and sat down on the stone floor.

"Well... it's fine. There's probably a horde of monsters outside anyway. I'll keep you company for a while."

"Thank you, I'm so happy! As a thank you, you can touch my breasts!"

"…Really, can I leave now?"

The boy looked at the door with a dubious expression.

He hesitated for a moment about whether to leave but eventually shrugged and sighed.

"So... what are you doing here? Just to be safe, this isn't some weird role-play, right?"

"Mmm, in a way, it's like SM or DV or neglect... but it's been too long! I've been tied up here for centuries!"

"Centuries... No, I see. That makes sense."

The boy nodded in understanding, though he looked puzzled.

Naimiria, surprised by his quick acceptance, tilted her head.

"You believe me? I know it sounds strange."

"Well, if there's a legendary holy sword, there could be other strange things too."

The boy, with a distant look in his eyes, took out a brown object from his pocket. It was a preserved meat, a common food for adventurers.

"Want to eat?"

"No... I'd rather talk more."

"Talk... I'm curious about why you're in this situation..."

The boy looked at Naimiria and, seeing her naked body again, quickly averted his gaze.

"Well, it's not polite to pry into a woman's affairs. Let me tell you my story instead."

The boy began to recount how he came to visit these ruins.

He had come to gather a rare herb that could only be found in this jungle. On his way back, he encountered a horde of monsters, which should not have been present at this time of year.

While fleeing from the monsters, he ventured deeper and deeper into the jungle and eventually got injured.

It was then that he found the ruins and rushed inside.

"This ruin was supposed to be sealed with magic. How did you get in?"

"Sealed? I don't know. I pushed the door, and it opened. So I came in. That's all."

The boy, while applying medicine to his injured arm and leg, spoke as if it were nothing.

It shouldn't have been that easy to enter. If the seal could be broken so easily, someone would have found this place long ago.

Incidentally, Naimiria, who was unaware, didn't know that a barrier to keep people away had been set up around the ruins, which is why the adventurers from the frontier city had never found it.

"So... that's my story."

The boy continued, telling her that he was once royalty. He was exiled from the capital after being chosen as the wielder of the holy sword. He was abandoned by his family, friends, and subjects.

Finally, he asked for the boy's name, and Naimiria began to cry.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong!?"

"It's nothing..."

Naimiria didn't know why she was crying.

Perhaps she saw herself in the boy, who had been left alone.

Perhaps hearing that the boy was the wielder of the holy sword reminded her of the man who had locked her away.

Perhaps hearing the boy's surname, which was the same as 'his,' made her realize that the man she loved had married someone else.

The reason was unclear, but Naimiria cried until her body was drained of moisture.

While comforting her, the boy—Reidol—panicked and paced around the ruins.

"Being locked up in such a gloomy place must have driven you crazy. I'll take you to my town, so let's go!"

"That's nice... but the chains..."

"Hmm, what about the chains? I'll just cut them."

"Eh...?"

Reidol drew his sword and, without hesitation, cut through the chains that had bound Naimiria for centuries.

The magical chains, which had never budged in all those years, were easily severed.

"How... why..."

"Well, let's go... Oh, wait. What about the monsters?"

Reidol covered Naimiria's head with his jacket and pondered how to escape the monsters and return to the town.

Watching his side profile, Naimiria had a revelation.

(That's it... I should live for this person.)

She had followed her mother to destroy humanity, betrayed her family for her lover, and been imprisoned for centuries after being betrayed by her lover.

If there was any meaning to her absurd and futile life, it was to live for this person.

(I will live for this person. I will protect this person. I will uphold this person's will... I will dedicate my entire being to him and bear his child someday. I was surely waiting for him here for that reason.)

Naimiria was a severe romanticist, prone to mistaking coincidence for fate.

She had betrayed her family for her lover because of this nature, and even after centuries of imprisonment, her fundamental character had not changed.

Thus, Naimiria, one of the 'Six Witches of Destruction,' the Witch of Darkness, became Reidol's follower, and her existence would later greatly alter the fate of the Zain Kingdom.

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