TDCE

1

Something heavy was thrown over the towering stone wall. There were crowds of people gathered under the stone wall, but none of them paid attention to what was thrown.

Even though it was a bloody woman.

The attention of the gathered people was beyond the towering walls, not a woman whose life was dying, or maybe already dead.

"Give me something to eat. Water or anything. Please..."

"Please save me! Let me go out of this place! Please... I don't want to die! Help me..."

"The child is dying, needs medicine, please give me medicine, please..."

Asaya looked at the helpless people trying to reach out over the wall somehow.
'Pathetic people.'

Yes, it was pathetic. There won't be anything different if I cried out here until my throat feel bursting. It would be a useless hope, but what on earth is 'save me'? Do they think they can get out of this hellish place and step into the realm beyond the wall?

No, do you think you can live happily even if you enter the wall? Sounds absurd.

Even if they were lucky enough to catch the eyes of the nobles and entered the "Muraje Empire" beyond the wall, most of them would be forced to turn like the lying women over there, dying.

"It's really pathetic."

Leah, the only friend and family member who was guarding next to Asaya, stared at her and murmured.

"Who are you calling that pathetic thing? You are sitting here, too."

"That's why I am pathetic, too."

Asaya smiled weakly as she looked at Leah, who was guarding her side silently. She had been with Leah since she was very young. An orphan of unknown origin, wandering alone without parents, and reaped by Asaya's father, she was once an escort to protect Asaya's family.

"That woman, is it the woman who passed away a month ago?"

At Leah's question, Asaya nodded.

"Perhaps."

"I thought she would last two months, but only one month."

"Yeah. I thought she would last for quite a while, but she couldn't. Still, that woman, she was a beautiful woman in this area."

"It's an obvious ending to be thrown into a corpse like that, so why did they throw her body in vain hope?"

"It might look like that here. But there, to die is the same thing as going over there to enjoy luxury."

"But I hate such a miserable death."

The woman's body wasn't even intact. There were signs of abuse everywhere. Her short-lived fingers and sharp cuts that didn't suit her fine body made her guess how hard and miserable her life must have been.

But what was miserable was the same here.

"When they die, they're all the same. Where in the world is death not miserable? Rather, that death has meaning," Asaya said.

Riches and food received in exchange of being rolled into toys after following a nobleman. It wouldn't be a meaningless death because they fed their family to their full stomach. When she said she was going over the wall, a shyly joy face came to mind. She went over the wall to see the young nobleman passing by.

She shouted that she seemed to love him, but unfortunately, it wasn't true love, seeing that what was back was a bloody corpse.

"Are you really trying to keep dying here?" Leah asked.

"Huh."

"No, let's go home now. What will be different with this?"

Asaya smiled bitterly. "We've been starving for about a week now."

"....."

Asaya continued. "It's also harder to steal someone else's. All died, and the only ones left were our comrades who had also booked a ticket to the underworld because they had nothing to pay or eat."

"....if we move to another area, there might be something. "

"What would be different in other places?"

I will stave to death. After becoming a sinner and being driven into this land of death, I had a painful experience of how cruel life was.

The danger of human-eating demons and plagues from the corpses left by demons was better. The most serious problem was famine.

"What and how to live in a land where crops cannot grow? What do we do in this all-polluted place? Now that we have nothing, how long do you think it will be to continue living day by day? I can't stand it anymore."

"....Asaya. Ha, no."

Leah tried to say something, but soon shut her mouth tight, then quietly looked around. There was no answers in this land anyway.

Because the land of the abandoned was definitely an infinitely harsh place for the abandoned.

***

As the call bell rang loudly, a dark shade cast over Marshall's face. He swept his dry face down and checked his watch. 10:30 PM. It was a bedtime for Edwin Cabelheider, the owner of this mansion. At a very young age, a genius who took the place of one of the masters of the 12 estates.

The young master was the youngest and the brightest of the 12 people who received the title of "Grand Duke". A knife-like kid with sharpness, toughness, and beauty all over his body.

He was one of the royals. Other grand dukes called him so.

He was accustomed to getting attention wherever he went, and he was a man who had no choice but to pay attention. A young genius, a great handsome man, a demon of August.

Various and colorful modifiers always followed his name. Next to his name, which was often adorned the front page of manuscripts, the names of numerous women constantly went up and down. Of course, the most of the scandalous scandals ended with short and concise words such as nonsensical and false facts, but the popularity of his name in the marriage market soared uncontrollably that it was scary.

That was why his life was always upbeat. Just like now.

'You're scolded.' Marshall sighed.

When he saw the call bell ringing, it seemed like it was right after four months.

Oh, it'sonly been 30 minutes since I sent the newly hired priest...

Marshall took a deep breath, firmly holding his breath.

Then, carefully knocking on the door of his master's room twice, he opened the door and went inside.

"Did you call?"

"Who chose this woman?"

Instead of answering, Marshall identified the woman sitting under the bed. He could see a woman trembling with a bloody dagger.

Edwin's white gown and white bed linen were strained red with blood. Even by looking at a glance, the amount of blood shed was considerably much.

Marshall sighed.

"Remove it," Edwin said.

"Okay."

"Everything I picked is not normal."