Chapter 18

Choko was surprised to see that Nero seemed to know very little, even about herself, but she avoided asking so as not to invade Nero's privacy.

Looking now and seeing Nero up close in the moonlight, Choko could see a very beautiful, otherworldly face. It was so beautiful that she thought Nero was the most beautiful woman she has ever seen in her life. And when her long white lashes blinked, her solar violet eyes looked even more beautiful.

"Choko?" Nero, seeing that Choko was staring at her without blinking, felt a little embarrassed.

"Ah! Sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts..." Choko made up an excuse.

"Mm, this... Hunter Guild, right?" Nero said, looking back at the moon. "I want to apply."

"That would be incredible!" Choko raised her voice and regretted it shortly afterward. She covered her mouth and took a deep breath, and said, "That would be great. We can even form a group and explore a dungeon when Jair recovers. What do you think about that?" Choko looked at Nero expectantly.

"Okay, I... agree," Nero said slowly, afraid to exchange words.

"Hehe~ I'm so happy." Choko said with a cute expression, placing both hands on her cheeks. Nero laughed, finding her funny.

"Choko, Nero, you can get some sleep. I'll be on the lookout in the meantime," Breno came out of the tent and spoke to the girls outside.

"Okay." Nero and Choko did not reject his offer. They admitted they could barely stay awake for long. Breno had shown up at a good time.

Inside the tent, Jana was sleeping in a corner, Choko was in the middle, and Nero was in the right corner. Nero was still a little scared to fall asleep because of the dream she had before, but sleep overcame her, and she ended up dreaming.

*

"Who are you?... Mom, Dad, Big Sister!... Why are you doing this to me?"

"You are just another one of our experiments."

"Where am I? Why did my sister do this to me?"

"Hi, I'm Yui."

"Nera is going to brush her teeth."

"I'll be alright right, Mom!"

"Because of you, my older sister doesn't pay any more attention to me!"

"Get those needles out of me! I was not born to be become an experiment..."

-

{Nera - 5 years old.}

"Big sister, are you going to hunt now?" Nera asked.

"Yes," Nera's older sister, Elsa, replied.

"Let me go with you?" Nera asked innocently.

"No, you are still very young," Elsa answered her while stroking Nera's head with a gentle smile.

"Girls, the food is ready! Wash your hands and come eat."

"I'll be right there, Mom!" Nera shouted in response.

"Wait, Nera."

"Mhm?" Nera looking to the side, seeing her middle sister Eliane.

"I know how you can go hunting with us," Eliane whispered.

"How?" Nera asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Easy, just hide in the boat before we leave!" She replied quietly.

"Ohh! I will!" Nera had a revelation and responded cheerfully, happy with the idea her sister gave her.

-

{Inside a big hunting boat on the high seas}

"Nera, come out. It's your sister Eliane."

"Are we already at sea?" Nera came out from behind a door.

"Yes," Eliana replied. As if she had remembered something, she said, "Oh, you must be thirsty. Take this with you."

"Thank you, sister!" Nera said and took a bottle of water from her sister.

After drinking for a few seconds, Nera said, "Eliana, I am feeling weak, and I am a little dizzy."

Eliane didn't speak, she just waved her hands with a wicked smile on her face.

"It's your fault that things came to this," Eliana said with undisguised anger.

"Sister, what's going on?" Nera asked, confused, "I don't understand."

Eliane laughed devilishly and said, "Because of you, my older sister doesn't pay any more attention to me. You need to disappear. After all, you are just someone my sister met at sea. That's right! You are not our sister; you are just someone my sister met at sea and my mother started raising you as a daughter. But this has gone too far; you need to disappear. You are just a hindrance in my life."

When she finished speaking, a few people in black appeared.

"It is yours now. You can take it. And make sure she never appears in front of me again, or else I will kill her personally." Eliana told them.

"Right." The man in charge nodded and said, "Here's five thousand Essence Coin as agreed."

"..." Nera cried a lot as she felt her eyes get heavy.

-

Nera woke up later in a strange place, much like a cave and with iron bars at the entrance to the cave.

"You will stay in that cell from now on," said a tall man with horns on his head.

"Where is my mother? Let me go!" Nera screamed but was ignored no matter how much she screamed.

The man, before leaving, said to her, "Behave and do everything you are told, and you can live in a room."

-

{1 year later.}

After going through some experiments and staying there for 1 year, Nera was assigned to stay in a room and became roommates with a girl about her age.

Entering the room, she was greeted by a girl with long pink hair and white wings on her back.

"Hi, I'm Yui."

"Hi, I'm Nera."

Nera got to know and talk to Yui every day. In addition to the experiments, they were just stuck inside that room, with only each other as company.

"Yui, aren't you sad that you ended up here?" asked Nera.

"I was never loved by my parents, I always had to ask for food on the street, until they sold me to these people," Yui replied.

"My sister... my sister said that I was found at sea and was not really her sister and sold me to them," Nera said sadly as she remembered.

{Edited by: Azurtha}