The Road to Hell Is Paved with Many Things
René, a young girl who lived modestly with her mother in the kingdom of Ciel-Terra, was captured by knights who raided her house on her tenth birthday.
What remains in her memory are the terrifying glances she felt even through the knights’ helmets, the fact that her feast of wild fowl breast roasted with herbs was kicked off the table as a mere distraction, and the despairing look on her mother’s face.
In fact, what happened during the time she was locked up and “tortured” in prison is something she doesn’t remember very well.
Dazed, she would faint from the intense pain and then wake up from the intense pain. Repeatedly.
At any rate, René learned that ‘recovery magic can be used to prevent a person from dying during torture and to inflict further pain’.
The questions asked to René varied between her father and some other country, but René soon realized that the purpose of the procedure was simply to inflict pain on her, as she had no knowledge of the information.
In the midst of all this, René heard.
René “Rosey” Ruvia Ciel-Terra.
That was René’s real name.
Through the abuse she received, René gradually learned the circumstances surrounding her.
She learned that her mother, of commoner descent, had fallen in love with the king and had become his queen. She was forced to leave the court because she gave birth to the silver-haired, silver-eyed René, a child of abomination. After that, she went to live in hiding in the border region where there was less prejudice against the cursed children.
The fact that the king’s brother had killed the king in a coup d’état. That behind the king’s brother’s actions were the intentions of the four major powers who wanted to exploit the rich mineral resources of Ciel-Terra. The king’s brother was trying to eradicate his brother’s bloodline as a demonstration of his power and to end the fear of retribution. That is why he has sought out René and her mother…
René was not interested in social and business affairs, as was appropriate for her age, but she knew that Ciel-Terra was on good terms with the Federation of Gireshtal, a major power in the west.
However, no matter how many mineral resources Ciel-Terra had at its disposal, its position as a small country remained weak, and the Federation was often unreasonable in its demands. The king’s brother, who was dissatisfied with this, was a radical anti-Federationist and killed his brother, who was on good terms with the Federation, with the support of other major powers. The knights who captured René also held the same anti-Federation views.
…René thought childishly that if the four great powers were behind the king’s brother, this would only cause the countries, that the king’s brother owed a favor to, to ask for more unreasonable demands, replacing the Federation, but she could not bring herself to say it out loud.
After a day of torture, René was given just enough food and water to keep her alive, and she slept shivering with anger and cold in her stone prison, whipped and in only her shredded underwear.
René had done nothing. However, there were people doing incomprehensible things because of things René did not know, and they had come to ruin everything for their own reasons.
And no matter how much René resented them, she also knew that her grudge would never reach them.
First, she cried and screamed, she did not stop screaming until her voice was hoarse. Next, René tried to resist, but just as she tried to defend herself, the accusations intensified. Once she succeeded in slapping her torturer, but in retaliation, all the fingers of her hands were broken and she was slapped repeatedly until she passed out.
Eventually, René stopped crying and screaming and just stared at her feet while she was being tortured. It hurt anyway.
The days of torture, which seemed to go on forever and ever, ended after about a month.
They were ready for the public execution of René and her mother.
René, who had been locked up separately from her mother, was able to be reunited with her on the day of the execution, as both parent and child were to be taken away from the city. But just when she thought nothing more would move her heart, she was shocked to see her mother, whom she had not seen for a long time on the day of the execution.
At first, René thought it was a zombie.
All she was wearing was a rag that had been forcibly wrapped around her. Her whole body was dirty and reeked of stench, and there were scars on her skin, which looked like she had been deeply injured and the wounds forcibly sealed shut. Her beautiful light purple hair was shaggy like an animal’s mane, and blood was sticking to it in places.
Her cheeks were hollowed and half of her teeth were knocked out. Only her eyes were shining brightly, and she was foaming at the mouth, talking incoherently and endlessly.
“… I obey you. Yes master, I obey you. Yes master, I obey you. Yes master, I …”
“M…Mommy…”
The gentle and beautiful mother was no longer there.
She didn’t even know that René was there.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, René thought that her mother might be able to help her.
To a child, a parent, especially a mother, is the equivalent of God Almighty, for better or worse. She had grown up being loved by her mother, who had always helped her whenever she was in trouble, and she couldn’t help but think that her mother might be able to help her again now.
That hope was easily dashed.
René and her mother were chained together and dragged to the place of execution. A mounted knight pulled the chain, first her mother, then René behind her. The knights on foot formed a tight group on either side of them.
It was a snowy day.
But even when she stepped on the snow with her bare, bloodstained feet, René felt nothing anymore.
Her mother, in a frenzy, went ape-like, and finally the knight hit her head as hard as he could with his gauntlets attached, and she stopped moving. She was dragged away by two knights, who held her from both sides. René followed silently. A black flame burned in the pit of her stomach. But the resentment would never reach.
While the two of them were going down the main street, many people crowded along the side of the road to watch them.
People of all ages, men and women, noble and commoner, had gathered to watch.
“Die!”
“Federal minions!”
“You filthy traitor!”
“Filthy blood!”
A stone flew and hit René on the head, causing blood to trickle down.
Cursing was surprisingly common. That was strange to René. For she had not expected the royal brother, who had forcibly taken the throne by force of arms, to be accepted. René had thought that everyone in the country was being held back by force and fear. But no. There were people who welcomed the king’s brother and saw René and her mother’s terrible suffering as a ‘heartbreakingly enjoyable show’. This cast a black shadow over René’s heart like a burnt spot on the bottom of a pot.
More people had gathered in the square in the center of the castle town, in the royal city where René had been held captive.
In the center of the square, an execution platform was set up, and a guillotine awaited its victims.
Her mother, who remained limp, was fastened to the guillotine by the neck, and her body was fastened with restraints.
The knight spoke loudly of the “filthy woman” and “who sold her body to an unjust king” and then the blade was simply dropped.
René, who was under the execution table, could not see it, but she heard the sound of the head rolling around.
A loud cheer went up. There was cheering and thunderous applause.
–I see. I’m going to die like this now. And everyone will be happy.
At that moment, René felt as if she were standing in the halls of the Demon King’s castle, as she had heard in stories.
They are monsters. They are all monsters. They were monsters in human form who had come to laugh at their deaths.
René was dragged up to the execution table.
The monsters were all looking at René. They were excited to know blood was about to be spilled.
René knew there was no escape. But in inverse proportion to that feeling of helplessness, a crazed rage and resentment was rising from deep within her body.
René’s body was fixed to the execution platform, and her head was fitted into the guillotine.
Right next to her, a knight was looking at a piece of parchment and rambling on about “unclean blood” and “child of the devil”, things that made no sense at all.
The decisive moment came just a moment later.
René’s eyes looked down at the guillotine blade, which had fallen off and was upside down as her vision whirled in an impossible direction.
The moment her head left her body, it was as if the fog of her thoughts had lifted and she remembered everything.
That she was once a human being, Satou Chojiro, who lived on earth, and that after death, the gods of this world invited her to be reborn as a “reincarnated” person.
TLN: So… new web novel that’s not romcom eh… Anyway, I decided to do this one from zero since for some reason I can’t open the previous chapters on my phone (Ain’t no way I’m reading on PC)… Btw. This is the WN version…
Thx Chion for recommendation <3
