Chapter 10
The sound of heeled footsteps, thud— thud— echoing on the floor, made her head ring. Swallowing the pain, Jeina gritted her teeth.
A rough hand seized her face.
“How did this power ever come to reside in you? In a witch like you…?”
The Pope poured strength into the hand clutching her face, reciting the words as if disgusted.
“It’s far too precious a power to be wasted on you.”
With her mouth twisted and blocked shut by the force, she couldn’t even utter a moan. Soon, her mana began to drain helplessly into the Pope’s hand.
Through his fingers, she could see his gaze, glittering with obsession.
Absurdly, the man who had acted as if he’d have a seizure at the thought of even touching her, became utterly intoxicated with euphoria the very moment he absorbed her mana.
“Haha, ha! Haha. Yes, it was all meant to come to me. All of this, all of it… is the work of God’s providence. How generous He is…”
In her fading consciousness, her body grew increasingly hollow, and before her eyes, her own mana was becoming a filthy impurity.
Blink, blink… As her heavy eyelids closed, she thought.
When will all of this end? Does it even have an end?
* * *
Blink, blink. She stared blankly at the restraint clamped around her wrist, then tentatively channeled a wisp of mana from her fingertips.
Failed, as expected…
Jeina tossed and turned restlessly. Her cascading hair had grown surprisingly long without her noticing. She indifferently brushed aside the tangled black strands that had fallen over her face and continued to blink, blink, killing time. It was as if she were a true wellspring of mana; no matter how much was drawn out, her mana never seemed to deplete.
Restless boredom, and a petty sense of guilt. If this continued, a long rest would surely find her.
Her back ached from lying down for so long. Slowly, she let her eyes close, counting silently in her mind.
One, two…
“…Huh? Mmm?”
Had she just fallen asleep?
Strangely, her body and mind felt refreshed. She was sure she had only closed her eyes for a moment—a mere few seconds seemed to have passed… Yet, in those few seconds, her condition had changed dramatically. Her body felt light and her mind clear, like someone who had just woken from a deep sleep.
The unfamiliar comfort made her head feel almost fuzzy…
“Or maybe, finally…”
Had she died? She jerked upright.
But the space was the same, and she seemed to be herself still. It was unmistakably the same cramped, filthy dungeon she had been imprisoned in, her clothes still tattered and worn.
“Ha.”
They say humans are creatures of adaptation. She let out a hollow laugh, recalling a line she’d read in a book long ago.
“After living here so long, it’s starting to feel just like home, isn’t it?”
She took a step, then another, almost without thinking. Her footsteps were unbelievably light, as if she had returned to how she was before. To that time before she was trapped in the long darkness, when mana rippled within her and magical power overflowed uncontrollably.
Jeina glanced down at her now-long legs, ran her hands over the curves of her body, and spread her slender fingers wide.
No matter how she looked at it, her body was a bit too developed to be called just a child’s anymore.
The short legs that the mischievous mages used to tease her about were gone; in their place, fairly long legs stood firmly on the ground.
And that wasn’t all. She had expected some curves, but not to this extent. As Jeina bowed her head, a particularly prominent and swollen area came into view. With a dazed expression, she cupped the rounded forms. Her hands were filled with unfamiliar fullness.
“It’s real? When did these get so big?”
Moreover, the bones below her cinched waist jutted out prominently. Jeina ran her hands along the gentle curve and gave a small nod.
‘Well, considering they even draw that damned blood from my body… I suppose this much change is to be expected?’
Her once short fingers were now long and slender, elegant, almost like Erta’s or Luccia’s hands.
It seemed she had found the answer to the question, ‘When will you ever grow up, being so tiny?’ Finally, she had a form similar to theirs, able to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
It would be even better if she could clearly see her current appearance with her own two eyes… She regretted not having a mirror.
“…Really, just because I’m feeling a bit better, my mind is wandering. What would I even do with a mirror? Planning on going out or something?”
Muttering at the uncomfortably clingy emotions, she shook her head for no reason. Feeling her hair swing with a heavy, distinct weight, she squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them abruptly.
“…Whoa!”
Suddenly, as if by a lie, a mirror appeared before her eyes. The dungeon echoed with her loud exclamation, something that hadn’t happened in a long time. Jeina stared wide-eyed at the woman in the mirror.
As if testifying to the years that had passed, there was definitely no trace of a chubby eleven-year-old left in her anywhere.
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