What Layla desired was to be completely killed.

She would’ve preferred to die painlessly if possible, if it’s not possible to feel no pain, she wanted to die neatly.

Please, she hoped that a gentle murderer would come and kill her.

She has always prayed to God that a gentle savior would appear and take her life.

Being born with a cursed body, it was ironic that she believed in God, still that was Layla’s wish.

For someone to kill her.

A beautiful and cruel savior to take her life.

***

About an hour on a mountain road, and another thirty minutes in an uninhabited plain.

From Layla’s cabin, one had to walk like that to reach the Baron’s mansion.

Even after seeing the mansion from afar, she had to walk another ten minutes to reach the entrance of the mansion.

The entrance of the mansion was visible to Layla from a distance. As well as the guard’s frown.

Layla looked at her clothes before arriving.

She knew that no one would look at her appearance, but she always checked herself again because she didn’t want to look shabby there.

The more she approached the mansion, the more the guard’s frowned. Looking at their expression, as expected, Layla’s expression hardened.

Although she had no expression on her face originally, she now has a stiff expression that was like a person’s face carved in a rock.

“Uack! Where the hell is that smell coming from? I feel like throwing up.”

Hearing the guard talked to himself, Layla stopped on her feet. However, Layla immediately hurried her feet, and eventually arrived in front of him.

“Hey. Hey. Stop there.”

The guard standing at the entrance blocked Layla with the spear that he was holding.

“This is not a place where anyone can just walk in, this is the Baron’s mansion. Get lost… huh?”

The man flared his nose as he pointed at Layla with a grim expression. He then backed away while frowning.

“Uack! What is this smell!?”

The man was nauseated and even retching.

“Did you fall in a ditch? Or did you have fun with a corpse, what is it?”

The guard looked at Layla on alert, as if he was facing a zombie that had come back from it’s tomb.

He was filled with vigilance, disgust, and was grossed out.

“Put that spear away.”

Because of that, the spear that was pointing at Layla, dangerously grazed past the tip of her nose.

However, no one paid attention to it. To the guard that almost Layla, and to Layla that almost got hurt.

“What are you doing? You couldn’t do your job properly so I had to come out. What are you doing not cleaning up that stinky thing in front of my house?”

“Ah, yes, yes. I’ll clean it up right away.”

The guard approached, as if he was about to pull Layla away at any moment, but he then frowned again and hesitated a little. It must have been because he didn’t want to touch the stinky Layla.

“Just try and touch my body. I will tell my father right away.”

Layla had changed her mind about how it would be absolutely sweet to be stabbed to death by the spear of the man just a moment ago.

It was true that she wanted to die. No matter how painful it was to die by being stabbed on her throat, it seemed to be less painful than Layla’s life.

But not in front of this woman. She doesn’t want to show how she was miserably dying.

“You, what crazy words are you saying?”

The guard dismissed Layla’s words as an insane woman’s nonsense. And putting up with his disgust, he tried to grab her arm. Only, Layla quickly pulled her arm back.

“You’re a private soldier that gets paid by Baron Valencia. I’m definitely a part of the Baron Valencia family.”

The guard, who paused for a moment at Layla’s words, scoffed.

She was a small, thin, ugly-looking woman.

She was not just thin, she was too thin that it seemed like she wasn’t eating properly, and her complexion was so bad that he wondered if she was sick just until recently.

Her clothes were shabby, and the shoes she was wearing were old and had a hole on one side.

And the most crucial thing was the unspeakable stench that she gave off.

And she says she’s a noble?

A part of the Baron? The family of the gorgeous Ariadne, who was also standing at the entrance of the mansion, with charming blonde hair, and blue eyes as beautiful as jewels? It was the sound of a passing dog’s laugh.

“Hey! Look here! Stop saying crazy things. If you have the time to talk nonsense, just go and wash up.”

Ignoring the guard’s scoff, Layla took another step towards Ariadne who was on the other side.

“I want to see my Father.”

“…”

Ariadne, who was inside the gate, was silent.

“This crazy b*tch! Don’t force the Young Lady to talk, how dare you!”

“… Not here.”

The guard trying to chase away the crazy woman forcefully, heard a noble lady’s sullen voice.

His eyes widened in surprise and looked inside. He saw the still frowning Ariadne, looking at their way with a haughty expression.

There was no one but her. The beautiful and arrogant young lady Ariadne, whom he secretly admires, answered the crazy woman’s words.

It was as if they had the same father.

“What about Mother?”

“Not here.”

He was not just hearing things.

The young lady Ariadne, who said that she takes a bath several times a day, who washes her hands a dozen of times, and the one who said that hate dirty things, was talking to the filthy stinky woman.

“Lies.”

“What would you do if I lied to you? Both Father and Mother are not here to meet important guests. If you’re done, can you please get lost?”

Ariadne started to flap her fan. As if by doing so, Layla would disappear just like the smell blown away by the wind.

“Candle… it fell down so I came here.”

“So?”

Even though she knew what she was asking for, Ariadne still asked.

Candles were valuable items. The only people in their area who could buy candles were barons or wealthy merchants. Therefore, they would order as much as they needed, and they wouldn’t even be sold in the general market.

“I don’t know just how much farther we need to look after you.”

Ariadne, who was living comfortably and being waited on by the servants in the Baron’s mansion, said so to her poor older sister who was driven out to her cabin.

“Now that you’re old enough, shouldn’t you take care of yourself? Whether you get married and beg your husband, or make you own money. Just much longer are you going to live by livving off of us?”

Both Ariadne and Layla knew that what Ariadne said just now was absurd.

No man would marry someone who smelled like her. If they were a sane man at least.

Even if someone would show up, the Valencia could not officially marry her off.

Because there was no way they could present their eldest daughter, who was rumored to be a stinky witch, in front of people.

Ariadne sneered at Layla, who was staring at her, and pulled out her small purse.

She then took out a hundred shilling from it and threw it through the bar of the gate, as if she was giving alms to a beggar. A round copper rolled over and fell down, blocked by Layla’s shoe.

“If you need something, buy and use it.”

“I… You know I can’t go to the market.”

“Why can’t you go?”

Ariadne asked, pretending like she knew nothing.

The guard saw it. Ariadne, who had a frown on her face when she first arrived, at some point, began to smile.

It was not a good-natured smile. It was a smile imbued with the vicious pleasure of mocking and ridiculing the other party.

At that mocking smile, Layla bit her lip.

“Haa… the people in our town really don’t know anything. The people in other towns would often catch and burn witches.”

With those last words, Ariadne had already gone inside while fanning.

Layla’s hand trembled as she stared intently at the copper that she had thrown away.

Her face, filled with a mix of contempt and humiliation, was paler than when she first arrived at the mansion. She then turned around, biting her lip to the point of bleeding.

Instead of her, the guard picked up the money on the ground.

He urgently looked inside the mansion, but the owner of money, Ariadne, had already disappeared in the beautiful garden.

When he looked at the other side, the skinny woman had already gone far away. And the stench dissipates slowly as well.

***

It was raining this morning.

Layla was swearing emotionally as she watched the pouring down on her dimly lit cabin, sipping subtle scented tea.

“D*mn it! If only I had a candle! No, I would’ve been able to do something more productive even with an oil for the lamp. I would probably be able to piece together the shoes that fell apart, or fill in the holes on the pot.”

With indignation, Layla stomped on the floor with her feet.

“All I can do in this dark basement-like cabin is to look into this stupid wounds!”

Layla once again stomped her feet in anger, with her skirt lightly rolled up to her thigh, and as she said, she had purple bruises and bleeding wounds on her knees.

It wasn’t just her knees. There were scratches on her palm holding onto the table, as well on one of her cheeks.

After being humiliated in Baron Valencia’s mansion, Layla’s steps on her way back were slower than when she bravely went there. Because of that, the sun went down when she was in the middle of the forest and had yet to arrive at her cabin.

She had already lived there for ten years and the road to the forest was very clear to Layla, but she didn’t know where the stones were, or where the branches were hanging like traps.

Layla, who had nothing to illuminate the road, had no choice but to return to her cabin as she groped around the darkness.

In the end, Layla could not see the stone on her feet in the dark forest and almost flew and tumbled down.

“D*mn it!”

As she recalled her memories of yesterday, Layla’s expression crumpled again. She felt her sore wounds stinging even more.

This wouldn’t have happened if there was at least a little light.

This wouldn’t have happened if the Baron had only given her a candle or a small amount of lamp oil.

No, If only she wasn’t living alone in a forest cabin in the first place! If only she didn’t come there as if she was kicked out of the Baron’s mansion!

If only there was not a stench coming from Layla’s body…

“Haa…”

As she goes up that far, Layla’s shoulder, which has risen up, drooped down, and a sigh escaped her mouth.

There was no need for supposition. There was no ‘if’.

She was born with a foul-smelling body, and no one was pleased with Layla’s existence.

Layla’s mother, who gave birth to her, refused to breastfeed her, and her father refused to look at the face of his own child.

Layla’s younger sister, Ariadne, who was born after her, also hated her sister.

“It would’ve been better if I wasn’t born.”

There was no expression on the self-deprecating Layla. No grief nor remorse can be seen.

Whether she’s washing her face, or eating, she was so pessimistic about her birth on a daily basis that she could no longer change her expression.

“Won’t the tetanus kill me?”

Layla’s words, which she uttered to herself as she looked at her palm, contained a sincere desire for death.

If God had not made suicide a sin, Layla would’ve taken her own life if she could held a knife in her hand.

If she didn’t believe that she would be reincarnated, she would have stabbed an iron skewer on her neck or something.

Thinking that God might reicarnate Layla’s soul, that comitted suicide, into another stinky body, Layla could not die even if she wanted to.

No matter how painful it is, Layla still liked it. If she could die other than with suicide, Layla was willing to take that path.

“A filthy and sturdy body…”

No matter how you look at it, the wounds from yesterday were healing well. The wounds had stopped bleeding yesterday, the swelling had subsided a lot, and the area that bled had already scabbed.

Over time, the scab would fall off, new flesh would grow, and there would be no traces of the wound, as if it was never injured.

Death was still far away. Unfortunately.

“Tsk…”

Seeing her wound heal well, she clicked her tongue.

It was then.

Bang bang bang!

Someone knocked as if trying to smash that door that was already about to break due to the wind and the rain. Startled, Layla looked towards it.

Blink, blink.

Wondering if she was just hearing things, Layla stiffened as she looked at the door.

Bang Bang Bang!

As if to prove that she wasn’t just hearing things, there was another loud knock on the door.

The sound has a steady interval, it was certainly a sound of a person knocking at the door. It was not a wild boar banging its body on the door, nor a deer kicking it with its front paw.

However, it was strange. No one would come near the cabin where the witches lived. Even more so, no one would knock on her door.

Layla slowly, very slowly, got up from her seat. And slowly approached the door like a possessed person.

It was still windy and raining, and the door was creaking.

Layla’s heart raced rapidly due to tension, as if something was about to happen. Layla stood in front of the door, gently pressing her heart with her hand.

“Is nobody there?”

When a young man’s voice came through the door, Layla’s shoulder rose like a frightened kitten.

True to its original purpose of being a passage for people to enter and exit, this door had no common partitions nor a hole to peek at through.

Layla swallowed dryly and shouted at the person outside.

“Get lost!”

It was quite outside. Only the sound of the wind and rain, and the branches being swayed by them, could be heard. As well as the creaking door.

‘Did they leave?’

Layla rolled her eyes, as she gently moved her ear closer to the door. No sound was heard.

However, her ever-sensitive sense was still saying that there was still a person in front of the door.

What if he was a subjugator who came to kill the witch? If they came to cut off her neck, she would welcome it, but if she made a mistake, she could be dragged away and subjected to severe turtore.

Or maybe it was a very bad villain who came to hide in this deep valley. Someone who committed crimes such as murder, arson, or r*pe.

The arsonist probably can’t do anything in this rain. If it was a murderer, she could open the door right away and hand them a knife. But she hates it if they were a r*pist.

Layla wanted to go to God just as pure as she was, because she wanted to be assured that she would be rewarded with being born as someone who smelled nothing in her next life.

Bang Bang Bang!

Not knowing what Layla was thinking, there was another knock on the door.

“I was out hunting when it rained heavily that I got lost. Please allow me to come and take a rest for a while.”

Layla’s eyes narrowed at the voice that followed.

It wasn’t too low nor too high, it was a slightly thick voice. He spoke very politely, and his intonations were refined, just like a well-educated man.

Quite frankly, it was a sexy and wonderful voice.

‘A r*pist’

The unknown man outside was accused by Layla, who was inside, as r*pist due to him having a sexy voice.

Her eyes hurried to find a weapon. A scissor, or a knife, or something like a poker.

(T/N: Poker: A stick usually used to poke firewood on a fire.)

While Layla’s eyes were busy looking for a weapon, a sexy voice, mixed with the sound of the rain and wind, was heard again.

“Please. I’ll give you plenty of compensation.”

It was a much more emotional voice than earlier. Not to mention, the voice got sexier when the emotion got added.

When she found the scissor on the shelf and was about to pick it up, Layla’s feet stopped.

“Compensation?”

Ignoring the voice that would melt other women if they heard it, Layla only heard that word.

Layla glanced at the scissor once and the empty candlestick once. And the lamp that had already gone out.

And the last one was the door. Or the person on the other side of the door.

In the dark, Layla’s withered eyes stared at the door as if she could see beyond it.

“Hello?”

When he didn’t hear anything from the inside, worried, he called out to Layla, who was inside, in a more mournful voice from the outside.

“Wait.”

Layla said, quickly picking up the scissor on the shelf.

She needs the compensation. A candle or a lamp oil would be great, but money is also good.

Unless it’s that sh*tty Ariadne’s money.

“Whew…”

Layla took a deep breath, and hid the scissor in her hand behind her waist. Then she grabbed the lock of the door. For a moment, she hesitated to open the door.

Somehow, she had a feeling that she would never be able to go back once she opened the door.

“Please.”

While Layla hesitated, another was heard again from the other side of the door.

“I understand.”

Layla’s hand finally released the lock. Then she slowly opened the door.

A man’s figure began to be seen through the gap in the slightly opened door.

As expected, he was wearing a very luxurious looking attire, but it was drenched in water.

His body was clearly exposed under the clothes clinging into it. He had long legs, a solid, and a wide shoulder. It was a robust body.

Layla had to raise her head to see the man’s face, which was way above her head. The man’s face was dimly visible in the shadow of the forest where the rain and wind blew.

At that moment, a white flash of light tore through the sky, like a revelation from God that Layla should see the man clearly.

As the surrounding briefly brightened up, Layla saw the man clearly.

A back hair like the color of the night sky, and gold eyes that gleamed coldly. His pointed and high nose was enough to leave a sharp impression.

And if Layla saw it right, the man was smiling.

The man, who had clearly spoken in a pitiful manner to let him in earlier, had a satisfied smile, like a carnivore that had succeeded in hunting.

***