Chapter 242
Stockholm Syndrome.
All of them were suffering severely from this condition.
Even though the demons had abused them their entire lives, they still wanted to return to them, even now.
The thought alone made her stomach twist. How could they want to go back? To willingly step into the chains that had held them down, crushed them, torn them apart piece by piece…
“WHY? Just WHY?” a crazed slave muttered while biting his fingernails. His fingers were gnawed down to the quick, raw and red, trembling as he chewed on them with a strange desperation. “Why would someone interfere!? Maybe my… my master would have taken me away if only everything hadn’t been interrupted…”
Hearing this, a few other slaves had a strange glint in their eyes. “Right… m-my owner would never abandon me…”
“M-My mistress too, s-she is often strict but a-at least I-I could still live…”
Looking at the scene, the black-haired girl felt a surge of anger. A hot, pulsing wave, rising from her gut to her throat until her chest felt tight. How could they think like this? Even when their lives had been spared from the butcher, they were still blaming the mysterious person.
Were they even in their right minds?
Her jaw clenched tightly. She could feel her teeth grinding together, and a dull ache was building along her jaw. All of them were adults, yet she couldn’t understand why they were acting this way.
Shouldn’t this be the time for them to plan their escape?
It was a golden opportunity to leave this accursed land forever and find somewhere safer.
Somewhere without the demons’ shadow looming over every sunrise, where they could breathe without fear.
She didn’t know where it would be safe, and she wasn’t even sure if such a place existed for them, but one thing she knew for certain was that they had to leave quickly before the demons returned.
And if possible, she wanted to find that mysterious person who had saved them. She believed that if they grouped together with him, they might truly be safe from the demons.
But… the others weren’t even thinking straight. Their eyes were glazed, as if they were looking at something far away, something only they could see. She gritted her teeth and spoke.
“Stop arguing and blaming the savior! If not for that person, we all would have been beheaded. We need to get out of here quickly before the demons return!”
The arguing slaves paused and looked at the young girl.
“E-Escape? I-I wouldn’t dare… no.”
“Right… we cannot leave… where would we even go…?”
“Humanity has abandoned us anyway. We might as well go back to our owner…”
“Y-You’re right… I… I’ll go back too…”
Many others voiced agreement, and the girl’s expression turned to disbelief.
It was like watching drowning people refuse the hand reaching to pull them to shore, choosing the darkness below instead.
She couldn’t understand why they would want to return to their cruel lives, even after being given a chance to escape.
No, she had to stop them.
“What are you all saying!? Why are you trying to go back? Let’s leave!”
She ran up to an elderly woman and tried pulling her back to prevent her from leaving.
“L-Let go of me!” the woman screamed hysterically and pushed the girl away with force.
Crash!
The ground rushed up to meet her, and she landed hard, gravel biting into her knees and palms.
The girl was thrown back by the force, falling and scraping her knees.
“Ouch!” she groaned in pain as she looked down at her knees, which were now scratched and bleeding from the rough texture of the road.
Blood welled up, bright against the dirt, stinging as it trickled down her legs.
The slaves didn’t even bother to look back and began running to their places, to their demonic owners.
She was discarded. No one listened to her; no one cared about her. It was as if her voice was nothing more than a breeze, swept away without a second thought. She tried to get up but stumbled forward in pain. Her knees were hurt and bleeding now.
She gathered her courage and tried to support herself against a nearby wooden crate.
The rough wood dug into her palms, but she held on, feeling the splinters bite into her skin as if the pain could anchor her in this nightmare.
A few slaves still remained who, unlike the others, hesitated. She closed her eyes and calmed her mind.
In the silence, she forced herself to breathe, each breath shallow and quick, her chest tight with the weight of everything unsaid.
Opening her eyes, she glanced at the others and asked in a low yet somewhat hopeful voice, “Well… since you didn’t go back, that must mean you also want to escape, right?”
They looked at each other, their faces filled with fear and hesitation. One woman clutched her arms around herself, her shoulders hunched as if trying to make herself smaller, less visible. Another young man kept glancing over his shoulder, flinching at every distant noise. It was clear they, too, were contemplating whether to return or not.
But the cruel days of torture held them back.
“H-How do we get out of here?”
A boy in his late teens asked the others.
“S-Should we just run toward the north gate? I heard there are the fewest guards there,” someone suggested.
“No, I overheard my mistress say on the way here that the city has been sealed on the Inquisitor’s orders.”
“W-What…? What do we do now!?”
Panic spread among the remaining few slaves.
“N-No… I’m going back too… it’s hopeless…” One of them broke down and ran back in a hurry.
The black-haired girl swallowed hard, her throat dry as sand. “Huff…” She rubbed her thigh, trying to soothe the pain. She had expected this to some extent.
She felt too tired to stop them from leaving, she knew there was not much she could do.
A bitter laugh echoed in her mind. Here they were, given a chance at freedom, and they were too afraid to take it. Was this what the demons had reduced them to?