The knee-high boots blurred, distorted, and returned to normal, over and over. The repulsive face rippled as if swallowed by a hazy mist.
Iris felt a strange, chilling sensation at the traces that flickered into view and vanished amidst the ripples.
Her body tensed on its own, and her breath hitched. Unable to even blink, she stared with a vacant expression at the slave trader, who blurred and solidified.
'Why... why is this happening?'
Her stomach churned; she felt like she might vomit at any moment. Her head spun as if she were suffering from a high fever.
"Hah, hah... haak..."
Her blocked breath escaped in intermittent gasps, making her shoulders heave violently. Was it because of the crimson mist? Or perhaps the sword the slave trader wielded had been coated in poison?
All sorts of questions swirled in her mind, but none of them provided an answer.
Blink, blink.
Each time she blinked, the slave trader's arm looked like someone she knew, and the blood-soaked clothes seemed familiar. The intelligent Iris immediately grasped the 'answer,' but quickly erased it from her mind.
There was no need to keep something that could not—and must not—happen in her head. As she stared blankly at the blurry slave trader, someone approached and tapped Iris.
"Hey, get going. We need to prepare for the next match."
She turned her gaze blankly to see a man she had never seen before. Broad shoulders, a head twice the size of a normal person's, and a height that stood at least two meters.
He looked like he could pack quite a punch.
Iris stared at the man blankly, then turned her gaze back to the fallen slave trader. Since the air had cleared, the frequency with which the slave trader's form distorted had increased.
"Can't you hear me?"
The irritable voice accompanied a rough hand that grabbed and pulled her arm.
"What the? You fought in a match with a body this light?"
The man shook Iris's arm, looking surprised.
"Ugh..."
With her head already spinning, the shaking made Iris feel like she was about to vomit.
"Ah, shit..."
At that sight, the man roughly threw Iris aside. After rolling on the ground, Iris instinctively grabbed the sword that had fallen nearby. The Demon Sword Gargandoa, its contract broken upon Rian's death, fell into Iris's hands.
Thud!
The moment she gripped the Demon Sword, Iris's vision lurched violently.
Monster, a monster like you shouldn't be alive.
You, how are you alive? Are you a monster?
Disgusting! Monster! Monster! Monster!
Screaming voices echoed in her head. Feeling her vision lurch even more, Iris lowered the hand covering her mouth and braced herself against the floor. If she didn't, she felt like she would collapse.
A useful! Item, isn't it?
Sister, sister, sisterrrr.
You know? I want to live?
Hehe, that's right, hehe, that's right, hehe, that's right?
The terrible memories Iris had barely suppressed began to spill out on their own. The voice tones jumped around, and the same words were repeated over and over. A voice like nails on a chalkboard even burst into laughter right by her ear.
"Aah—, please, please stop... stop!"
She screamed and shook her head violently. But the voices only multiplied; they did not stop. Like someone who had suddenly regained all their memories, all sorts of recollections flooded out, clouding her vision.
"Ugh... I hate this, aaah! Br-brother... brother... save me, brother. Rian!"
The moment she shouted at the top of her lungs, her mind went quiet in an instant.
Rian is the one you killed, isn't he?
The vividly audible voice felt like a chaotic mix of a woman, a man, a child, and an old person. Iris was more shocked by the content than the bizarreness of the voice, and she jerked her head up.
Now, look at what you've done.
Her face twisted to the side on its own with a creak. Her head, turned to the limit as if someone had grabbed it and forced it sideways, soon looked downward.
"Uh...?"
Iris stared down at her 'brother' with a vacant face.
"Uh, why? Why...? Sur-surely the slave... trader..."
Staring at her brother, who had died without even closing his eyes, Iris twisted her expression into a smile. Faced with stress she couldn't possibly handle, her body had reflexively let out a laugh.
"No... it's not. This isn't it..."
Iris just muttered those words, completely dazed, her mind shattering into pieces.
Grab.
The man from earlier grabbed Rian by the scruff of his neck and hoisted him up.
"Phew, thankfully his neck and everything are still attached. It's a pain to clean up if they get chopped into pieces."
After saying that, the man began to drag Rian away, half-dragging him somewhere. Iris just watched her brother getting further away; she didn't follow.
She still couldn't accept that the one she had stabbed was her brother, or that he had died. It was only natural.
To her, right now, her only sanctuary and goal in life was Rian. She had stabbed and killed him herself? That was impossible.
'I, I killed the slave trader. So... so it's not true. Yes, this is all because of that strange mist.'
Iris muttered endlessly to herself as she brushed herself off and stood up.
Shing.
She didn't pay attention to the sword in her hand and quickly moved toward the entrance she had come from. When Iris entered the waiting area, she saw the Rat Beastkin.
"Can I... now... go up?"
"Yeah. You can go up right away. First, go grab your stuff from the floor you were originally on and—"
"No, I want to... go right away."
The Rat Beastkin tilted his head and thought.
'Did she suddenly find her voice?'
He was puzzled by Iris answering much more fluidly than before, but he quickly brushed the doubt aside. The Arena was full of people who suddenly went crazy and changed.
Iris suddenly finding her voice was a trivial change.
The Rat Beastkin immediately put Iris on the elevator and took her to the floor where Rian stayed.
"There's an empty room, but it hasn't been cleaned yet—"
"What about... brother's room?"
The Rat Beastkin twitched his whiskers, about to add something, but not wanting to deal with the blood-soaked Iris any longer, he told a slave cleaning the hallway to take Iris to Rian's room.
Watching Iris leave with the slave with a bright expression, the Rat Beastkin snorted with laughter.
'She doesn't even know who she killed, does she?'
She might make a scene later, so it seemed like any work assigned to Iris for the time being should be relayed through someone else. The Rat Beastkin left on the elevator, and Iris arrived at Rian's room.
The door wasn't locked, so she was able to enter immediately. Iris shook her head rapidly, her eyes sparkling as she sought Rian.
Clatter.
The Demon Sword she had been holding fell to the floor. Her grip had loosened without her realizing it.
Iris didn't care whether the Demon Sword rolled on the floor or not and began to search the room, which was much larger than the one before.
"Brother, brother..."
She kept calling for Rian, rummaging through the entire room with flashing eyes.
She searched everywhere, from the bathroom to inside the closet, but Rian could not be found anywhere.
Her fingertips trembled, and her throat heaved as if she were gasping for air. Feeling her whole body turning cold, Iris said in a voice mixed with laughter.
"Surely, surely he just... had some business and went... out."
A buzzing sound began to flood her mind. Iris shook her head violently, then took out Rian's clothes hanging in the wide-open closet, hugged them to her chest, and slumped to the floor.
"His cl-clothes are all here. And I'm here, his sister... I'm here! So he'll be back soon!"
Iris trembled her lips, trying hard to erase the scene appearing in her mind.
Hugging Rian's clothes, she lay on the bed filled with his scent, curled up, and held her breath.
She heard his footsteps from afar, and the door opened quietly. Then she would jump up and run to him... then...
Hugging Rian's clothes, Iris traced the past and waited and waited for him to return.
...But he did not return.
The boundary between night and day. At the time when the world began to be swallowed by darkness, someone came to the room where Iris was holding her breath.
Iris immediately realized through the sound of the footsteps that the person who had come to the room was not Rian.
Knock, knock, knock.
So, even when she heard the knocking, she did not move.
"Hey! The guest says he'll let you see your brother, so come out!"
"....!"
Whoosh!
Iris jumped up from the bed and rushed toward the door. She was so out of it that she didn't notice the slender, needle-like Demon Sword clinging tightly to her ankle.
Clatter!
When she opened the door roughly, the man who had thrown Iris in the arena was standing there. He frowned and tried to grab Iris's wrist, but Iris dodged it with feline agility.
"Ha... fine, do whatever you want. Just make sure you follow properly."
The man was about to argue with Iris, but realizing he was short on time, he started walking ahead.
Iris, who wanted to see Rian, followed behind him without a word.
"Go in."
The place they arrived at was in front of Angsho's room. Iris was already out of her mind, so she opened the door and went inside immediately.
Clatter, creak.
It made a sound like the door was about to fall off because she couldn't control her strength, but she didn't care. Iris walked quickly, then eventually started running.
"Hah, haak...!"
She wouldn't be tired from running just this much, but because her emotions were so intense, her breathing became ragged.
She quickly passed through the gloomy hallway, illuminated only by candlelight, and found double doors at the end of the hall.
Bang!
Iris opened the doors as if to smash them and went inside.
"Haak, hah... brother!"
Arriving in the open living room while raising her voice, Iris quickly scanned her surroundings. Then, her eyes met something.
"Ah, you've arrived just in time."
Rian's vacant eyes, his chest pierced through as he lay sprawled on the living room table, stared straight at Iris.