Chapter 365

Chapter 151 Red and Black

Those demons looked no different from ordinary people at first glance. However, they always liked to wrap themselves in dark, long robes or cloaks, regardless of the season or weather.

They called themselves “those who dwell in shadows unseen by even the gods.”

On that cold night, they found a girl lying on a cliff, barely alive. They had planned to kill her, but a black-clothed woman, who had been informed and rushed over, stopped them in time. She saved the girl’s life.

Afterwards, the girl fell into a coma due to severe injuries for thirteen days. When she woke up again, she found herself in an unfamiliar place.

That place seemed to be an artificially excavated cave.

The inside of the cave was extremely complex, with countless deep tunnels leading to one rocky chamber after another, seemingly endless. The air was filled with the stench of decay, and from time to time, faint cries could be heard coming from behind the closed wooden doors of the chambers.

The place where she stayed was one of these chambers.

The girl was very afraid.

But what terrified her even more was that she had lost all sensation below her waist—she couldn’t walk anymore, not even stand up. Her once pale, straight legs felt as if they no longer belonged to her.

The girl was paralyzed.

She couldn’t accept this cruel reality and dared not imagine the miserable life ahead of her. She lost all hope for a better life and even the courage to continue living. In the first few days after arriving at the cave, she repeatedly rolled off her sickbed at night, crawled to the wooden table, grabbed the scissors from the silver tray, and held them against her neck for a long time—she yearned for release.

But she never dared to cut herself.

The girl did not want to die.

Compared to the pain within her heart, dying silently here, unable to see her beloved parents and brother again, was something she feared even more.

Moreover…

The girl thought that the middle-aged woman who saved her was a good person.

The middle-aged woman was known here as “Doctor Romanie.”

Doctor Romanie took meticulous care of her, making sure she received three meals a day, supervising her medication, and hoping she would recover soon. She promised to do her best to help the girl regain the ability to walk—this gave the girl a glimmer of hope. Although she knew that hope was slim.

But it gave her the motivation to live.

She hoped that Doctor Romanie could heal her and take her home.

Therefore, no matter how disgusting the things the others made her eat, or how terrifying the red, murky liquid they injected into her, the girl chose to close her eyes and endure. Even when countless nights were spent in agony, drenched in cold sweat, almost suffocating, she endured alone.

For a princess who had been pampered just a month ago, this was unimaginable. But now… it didn’t matter.

As long as she could stand again and return home, she was willing to accept any incomprehensible and excruciating treatment.

Besides, she had no other choice.

Days passed by like this.

Gradually, the girl learned from the occasional conversations of others that this was a secret medical facility called a “clinic,” which was used to house those suffering from incurable diseases, abandoned by their loved ones and society, and bring them to the cave for treatment.

And Doctor Romanie was the manager of this “clinic.”

Everyone else here, except the patients, wore tight black robes, their faces hidden in the shadow of their hoods, wandering through the various chambers every day, making the patients consume strange medications and recording everything in dirty leather-bound books.

Doctor Romanie told the girl that most of the patients here currently had illnesses that were incurable. If they could not

Enough money and donations to the church for a miracle blessing meant only waiting to die… And miraculous healings were not as omnipotent as imagined. Even a holy maiden had her limits—such as the girl’s injured spine. Given the current situation, even the most powerful miracles could do nothing.

That’s why they needed people like them, constantly trying new methods to break through the dilemmas of herbal medicine and find more effective medical means.

The girl believed her words.

Even when she occasionally heard someone struggling and crying, and saw those in rotten, stinking corpses being dragged out from other dark rooms, she only thought they were patients who couldn’t be saved. Although she was afraid, she firmly believed that she would recover.

She could only think this way.

Besides… her condition was indeed improving day by day.

The girl could feel it; although her lower body still had no sensation, her mental state was gradually improving, and she was no longer pessimistic. She even began to think about going outside to see the world.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but she felt very lonely here.

Except for Dr. Romanie, she had almost no one to talk to. Those in black robes were always faceless, and she was afraid of them. The “clinic” had rules that prohibited patients from contacting each other.

According to Dr. Romanie, some chronic diseases were highly contagious, so these precautions were necessary, especially for the girl. She couldn’t meet anyone, talk to them, or leave the dark room. At most, Dr. Romanie would push her wheelchair around briefly, then she had to return.

But even so, due to Dr. Romanie’s leniency, she sometimes had the chance to encounter other patients and hear their names from Dr. Romanie.

The girl knew she was special here.

Because she was personally cared for by Dr. Romanie. Other patients rarely, if ever, received any attention from him.

The girl also knew that another patient, besides herself, was under Dr. Romanie’s meticulous care.

It was a very young child with beautiful silver hair and gem-like crimson eyes. The girl had seen her once.

Dr. Romanie told her that the little girl’s name was Ilyush, the youngest patient here.

The girl didn’t understand why only they were cared for. Once, she asked Dr. Romanie, but he just smiled and didn’t answer.

In the days that followed, more and more bodies were carried out from the dark rooms. Every day and night, she faced death directly, and her heart gradually became restless, often feeling anxious.

She knew that the place where she had fallen, that precipice hidden among the steep cliffs, was where they discarded the deceased “patients.” She feared that one day she might return there, falling into eternal darkness.

Countless nights, she was awakened by such nightmares and couldn’t fall back asleep.

The girl wanted to go home.

She knew, despite not knowing exactly where the cave was, it couldn’t be far from the Winter City.

She wanted to go home, to see her parents and brother in the castle again. They wouldn’t find her and would be very sad and worried… The girl couldn’t wait until she fully recovered. If it didn’t affect her treatment, even just going back to see them, letting them know she was alive, would be fine.

Even if she couldn’t walk, if the journey wasn’t too long, Dr. Romanie could take her, and hire a unicorn carriage… she should be able to go back, right?

After much deliberation, she finally made up her mind.

She proposed her idea.

And everything started from here, peeling away the layers of lies, revealing the ugly and dark truth hidden beneath the facade of this “clinic.”