“Ah, ugh…!”

Startled, Livia jerked her head like she was having a seizure, but the hand didn’t let go. Grasping his wrist with both hands, she struggled, gritting her teeth as if she intended to bite his fingers off.

“Oh dear… Didn’t you dip your tongue in the Styx?”

The long fingers slid slowly over her wet tongue, rendering her efforts futile.

Her soft tongue was helplessly toyed with.

“100 days…”

The fingertips pushed all the way to the back of her mouth, swirling around, exploring the cavern of her mouth. Her forced-open mouth felt numb and humiliated. Watching her distorted face with interest, he suddenly murmured.

“Yes. It’s just a moment. If it can be enjoyable, then such a brief time doesn’t matter.”

…Had she succeeded?

Unconsciously, she swallowed hard with his fingers still in her mouth, causing her throat to tighten around the deeply lodged fingers.

At that moment, his probing actions stopped.

“……”

What was that?

With a chilling feeling, she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. He gazed down at her expressionlessly, moving his hand slowly. Forward a little, then back again. Repeatedly pressing down on her tongue, a wave of nausea surged up.

“Ugh… ugh…!”

As her breath caught, her throat constricted involuntarily. Livia, tears streaming from the physiological reaction, clutched his forearm. Simultaneously, the movement of the fingers probing her mouth ceased.

“During the 100 days, you will face seven trials. While enduring these trials, you may approach me as much as you like. However, if I remain unharmed after 100 days…”

Suddenly, the hand rummaging in her mouth withdrew, and in an instant, her body was lifted.

Pulled backward as if led by a monster’s hand, her body was swiftly yanked away.

Thud!

“Ugh!”

She slammed into a wall she hadn’t known was there. The pain in her back felt as if it would break, and Livia stifled a groan. A giant shadow loomed over her panting form.

“On the 101st day, you will not be unharmed.”

A massive bubble rose up. The storm of swirling water droplets shook the dark, cold prison that confined her.

“It will be interesting to see whether I die first or you wish for death yourself.”

Clang, clang!

Rusty iron bars clattered as sand and shells collided with them, making a loud noise. She shielded her face with her arms to fend off the stinging debris.

The fierce storm of water subsided as if it had never happened.

When Livia looked up again, only the damp darkness and thick silence remained.

***

People didn’t know, but Livia’s life had been difficult from the moment she was born.

The harshest part was that she remembered everything from birth.

A two-year-old baby abandoned in a harsh winter, taken in reluctantly by a shabby orphanage. But even that was robbed by thieves, and before she turned six, she was back on the streets.

With thin, emaciated hands, she begged and clung to passersby. Then, by luck, she was struck by a noble’s foot and taken to their home.

“Poor thing, maybe I should just raise her. Once she’s cleaned up, she’s quite pretty.”

The woman’s eyes appraised the six-year-old child up and down. Yet Livia didn’t find it uncomfortable.

Her house was many times larger than the orphanage Livia had known, the clothes they gave her were clean and soft, and warm meals were served at every mealtime.

To a penniless beggar child, the woman was a benefactor.

That year, and the next, Livia was happy. Or rather, she wasn’t unhappy. Life was comfortable, and she didn’t have to worry about the cold or hunger the next day. So she wasn’t unhappy.

Until she had a real ‘child’ of her own.

“…Hmm. It seems difficult to raise a child whose origins are unknown. But since I had grown fond of you, I would find another place that could take you in.”

And so, Livia found herself back on the streets.

The place the noblewoman had promised to find for her took the donation money and sold Livia to a slaver.

The slaver intended to take Livia to a neighboring country known for treating people like livestock.

When she overheard them laughing about how well-fed she looked and how they could get a good price for her, Livia didn’t hesitate to escape.

She held back tears as she ran across endless plains, swam through icy rivers with gritted teeth, and hid in the dark forest, suppressing her fear.

Having not eaten for days, she felt as though she might die at any moment.

Just when she wondered if dying there would be better than living such a harsh life, a small hand grasped hers.

“…Hey, are you hungry?”

It was a little child who looked three or four years younger than Livia. Without hesitation, the child handed her the bread he had been holding tightly with both hands.

“I’m not hungry. You look hungry. Eat this.”

The child’s name was Lete.

He was the small hand that had picked up Livia, who had been abandoned twice since birth. The men from the Horn family whom Lete had brought along said they would get adults.

“A child as small as you… How did you end up like this? This won’t do. Let’s get you treated first.”

He carried her in his broad chest while running frantically. Even when she saw the worried face of the adult man examining her condition, she felt indifferent.

She thought she was just lucky. She wouldn’t die this time. Anyway, she would be abandoned again…

In a house full of men, Livia was treated like a precious little pearl. A subtle sadness spread across their faces when they asked where she had come from and how she got there.

But that bitter sympathy was somewhat sweet. At least the pitying looks didn’t starve or hit her.

“Hey kiddo, what’s your name?”

At the orphanage, she had been Ekia, at the noblewoman’s house, she had been Rode, and before being sold to the slaver, she had been called ‘that thing.’ While she hesitated over what to say, the boy asked.

“…Do you not have a name yet?”

Why had she done that?

Without realizing it, Livia nodded. The boy was startled and went to get his father. Little Lete toddled over. The three men put their heads together and then spoke to her.

“How about Livia?”

They said the most beautiful lake in their city was named Livia. They mentioned that the forest surrounding the lake resembled her eyes. They hoped she would have a life as peaceful as that lake, which had remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

Thus, Ekia, who had become Rode, was completed with the name Livia Horn.

***

If someone had asked her what she hated the most, Livia could have answered without hesitation.

Hunger.

Perhaps due to the memories of wandering the streets and nearly starving to death as a child, Livia detested the feeling of hunger.

The taste didn’t matter much to her. As long as she could fill her stomach without harming herself, that was enough.

So when Livia received the witch’s blood and entered the sea, she was happiest about not being hungry anymore.

Even when she fell into the underworld shortly after, she was glad not to feel hunger or fatigue. However, now it was the complete opposite.

‘…I feel like I’m going to die.’

The intense hunger, like a long fork scraping her stomach, was close to torture. Honestly, being crushed to death by the sea god’s grip had been less painful than this.

Damn it, at least that had ended quickly.

‘What kind of… trial is this…’

No, the fact that curses came out naturally meant it was indeed a trial.

Livia gritted her teeth, clutching her hungry stomach as she walked through the empty corridor.

‘By the way, where on earth is this place?’