HTWBB Chapter 1

Prologue

"Listen, all of you! With cunning and treachery she has bewitched men and thrown this entire village into chaos—"

A voice raised high cut across the pitch-black night, and a firm arm thrust suddenly upward.

Dozens of gazes filling the open ground were drawn upward as if a beacon had been planted there. The words broke off with just enough time between them to draw a single breath.

The arm's owner glanced abruptly behind him and put a little more force into his shoulder. The fist he was gripping had gone the same white.

There is something inside it.

One of those standing in the front row tilted a torch close to his face. What had not quite been concealed flashed between the gaps of the fingers like the eye of a beast.

"Ugh—aah!"

A sharp scream split the sky as if ordained. And there, before the multitude, the man who stood upright as an emperor called out with a triumphant face:

"I have the core of that vile demon beast in my hands!"

Every gaze turned to one place in an instant. It was just slightly removed from where the man stood—beneath the shade of a great tree where even the faint moonlight could not reach.

A shadow crouched small trembled faintly.

Eyes mixed with doubt turned back toward the man once more. He shrugged his shoulders lightly and stepped aside.

"See for yourselves."

The murmur that had risen fell silent in an instant. Several people hesitated, retreating two steps back.

They kept stealing glances at the shade, only watching for openings, and at last asked, fumbling for words:

"Wh—what is that?"

When no answer came, the crowd stirred again. And a moment later, someone who had been flicking his eyes between the composed-faced man and the unpleasant thing in his hand swallowed and stepped forward. It was the one holding the torch.

Moving his feet with care, he came to within three or four steps and then stopped short with a startled jolt. Hrk! A sharp breath caught in the back of his throat.

The shadow beneath the tree kept twisting out of shape and back again, over and over. Fear made the hand holding the torch tremble wildly.

He gave up on moving any closer and stretched his arm out from a distance. The reddish light drove back the dark, and at last dragged out what had been hiding within.

The first thing visible was a pair of deep-colored blue eyes. A face rigid with tension flooded with horror.

"…Rietta?"

He muttered blankly, barely managing to catch the slipping torch. What? Rietta? Rietta? Those who had somehow made out the small voice began to murmur.

An old man who had been hanging back pushed forward belatedly and snatched the torch away. Then he closed in one stride the gap he had been keeping from the "demon beast" as if a fence stood between them.

"God above. How can this be…"

The old man opened his mouth in bewilderment and took the last remaining step. Hair that had caught the amber of the torch swayed just in front of him.

Shifting his gaze without thinking, the old man went rigid as a beast caught in a trap. The cold that crept upward from the tips of his feet seemed to raise every last hair on his body.

He managed to move only his eyes upward. Eyes like dusk stared back at him. They rippled as if they might swallow him whole.

"Elder?"

At someone's call, the old man only then hurled the torch away and shrieked. The strength went out of his retreating legs and his body kept collapsing downward.

"What—what is the meaning of—"

The old man, rambling incoherently, fixed his roving gaze on one spot. The man who had arranged all of this stood at his ease and merely watched. A voice roughened by fear and fury tore through the air.

"Jeff! What on earth is the meaning of all this!"

Every gaze turned to one place again. The man—Jeff—tucked the thing in his hand inside his breast and smiled crookedly.

"I told you, didn't I. She's a demon beast."

"You mean this entire time, something like that—something so hideous—has been in our village! And on top of that, Rietta was your—"

The old man who had been running his words together shut his mouth. The bewilderment and the fear stepped back one pace and suspicion entered in their place. The eyes watching Jeff narrowed to a sharp line. The old man spoke in a voice that had sunk low and cold as the air surrounding them:

"Did you know from the start?"

His gaze swept past Rietta where she had her head bowed deeply. Jeff shook his head with gravity.

"…No. I only learned recently."

The head that had been looking steadily downward turned slowly upward. Jeff knew, without turning around, where Rietta was looking. But he couldn't know what expression she wore while looking at him. The grip of Jeff's clenched fist tightened.

A lie. How could you do this to me.

The gaze stabbing into his profile like a blade seemed to say exactly that.

Thud-da-duk. Thud-duk.

The ground beneath her feet kept growing wet. Her eyes were open, yet it was as dark as if they were closed.

Is it tears? No—perhaps blood.

Rietta thought this in a consciousness that was going dim. The voices shouting loudly back and forth, or the rope wound hard around her arms and legs—she could barely feel any of it.

'With cunning and treachery, bewitching men—'

Cunning and treachery?

'—that vile demon beast's—'

Demon beast?

Thud-duk. Something that had been running down her cheek fell to the floor. Rietta could not make any sense of this situation.

Jeff's cold face drifted slowly through her blurred vision.

He had been a man who sat across from her that very afternoon and smiled with warmth. No—longer ago than that. A man who had told her there was nothing different between her and others, who had asked her to settle in this village with him.

Even while pretending not to, he had flushed red from time to time, and confessed shyly that he would definitely marry her when he returned to the capital.

And the villagers who had screamed that she was a demon beast and ordered her killed that instant—what of them? The elder who had welcomed her warmly as she grew accustomed to an unfamiliar culture. The merchants who had watched her with kindness as she picked through this and that at their stalls.

'Rietta will be loved wherever she goes.'

The ones who had said that—and now called her a demon beast and were trying to kill her.

No. How could they do this to me—

Her blurred sight swayed dizzyingly. It felt as though a knife had been driven into her stomach and was being churned without mercy.

Rietta trembled at the wave of betrayal rising through her.

A demon beast.

But there was no chance to argue back. She had been restrained before she could, and she was dragged without ceremony to somewhere high where the wind blew strong.

The smell of the sea came in on the wind and seeped into her nose. Rietta realized this was the cliff at the edge of the village.

"Right! And what shall we do now?"

Her clouded eyes blinked slowly. She had thought focus might finally return, but someone seized her body—which had no strength to give—and wrenched her roughly upright.

Rietta knew very well whose grip this was—this firm and solid hand. Jeff's emotionless voice drove into her ear like a spear.

"What can a demon beast do when it's lost its power?"

"Wait. This doesn't seem right—"

"Don't worry. I have the core in my hand already, do I not. The moment she falls, it'll be over before she can draw a single breath."

"But the kin—"

"That too you needn't worry about. There are ways to deal with it."

Kin? One wasn't enough?

Before Rietta could turn to face him, a large hand shoved hard against her defenseless back. Her body was tilting.

Rietta tried to look straight at Jeff through her fading sight.

"My—!"

My remaining family—what did you do to them.

Rietta murmured the words that would not continue, and tried to grab hold of the air. But not even her fingertips would answer.

The elaborate gold hair streaked with red grew smaller and smaller.

Eyes full of resentment met Jeff's expressionless gaze.

How could all of you do this to me.

The droplets that had been wetting the floor scattered through the air. Over the tear tracks not yet dry, raw rage was carved in. She opened her mouth by force against the howling wind. A dreadfully rough voice slipped between her red lips.

"―. ――."

"Wa—wait—!"

Fwump!

It was someone's voice—the one who had been with Jeff. The next words were swallowed by the seawater rushing in.

Rietta felt the foam pressing against every inch of her body and let the last strength go entirely from her limbs. Her body sank as if a weight had been tied to it. She watched the moonlight growing slowly distant and closed her eyes completely.