I hear the sound of water dripping. Slowly I open my eyes getting them adjusted to the darkness around me. After a few minutes, my eyesight is working again I view my surroundings.
[where am I? Stone walls and ceiling?]
I blink a few times trying to take in the scene around me. One of the walls is not made of stone but what appears to be iron bars of some kind, similar to what one would find in a prison. On the other side of the iron bars is what is probably a hallway with a torch mounted on the wall, giving me my only light source.
[Crap, I am definitely in a prison of some kind. Appears to be medieval, maybe like a dungeon or something?]
I stand up noticing just how weak my body feels. I look down at myself and notice I am a lot smaller than I am used to. I seem to be wearing nothing more than rags at this point, they were probably normal clothes.
[Holy crap! I am small. Wait...would that not make me a child? Why is a child in a prison! What did I do!?]
While trying to piece together any information I have, a splitting headache rips through my head, sending my body into convulsions. After what seemed like an eternity though probably just a few minutes, I regain my senses and sit up.
[Ah, so that’s how it is]
A flood of memories flows through my mind both my old ones and my new ones from this new world. My name in this world is Allynna Vassedras. I was born as the second daughter of the Emperor of the Vassedras Empire. I was born with black hair and since my father has blond hair and my mother had silver, my mother was accused of infidelity. I was raised by the midwives and other maids as neither parent wanted anything to do with me. After receiving a cold and harsh treatment from my sister and father, my mother eventually ended her own life blaming me for her troubles. I was around three and a half when this happened. Angry that her mother was no longer around to torment, she feigned her love for our mother and had me imprisoned for her death. Father naturally agreed to say that I deserved any punishment I got for destroying the family. I was also stripped of my family name because of this. Since I got all my memories back, I guess that means I turned 4 years old then.
[What a bunch of assholes. Seriously you are going to blame a 3-year-old child for the suicide of her mother...]
[Wait...her mother? Crap, that’s right. I’m a girl now.]
Deep down I feel like I lost something important.
[This...is going to get some getting used to. I guess I should have expected something like this with reincarnation though.]
While lost in thought I hear the sound of squeaking metal and the sound of what is probably a large door opening. The flood of memories makes me realize what is happening, my sister is coming to “play” with her younger sister. Instinctively I cower in fear looking for a place to hide, but I soon realize that I'm not the same defenseless 4-year-old girl anymore, I can fight back.
The sound of footsteps drew nearer with each passing moment. I stood in the back of my cell with bated breath, waiting for the nightmare to arrive.
A lone figure appears in front of my cell looking every bit a royal princess. The sound of metal on metal can be heard followed by a click, then the cell door opens.
“Hello, my dearest trash sister of mine.”
The figure standing in front of me is my older sister Neira. She was born with golden blond hair that made my ever so loving father covet. She dresses in gaudy fashion anything to show just how superior she is to the masses. Her favorite choices of colors are pink, white, and everything in-between. It honestly makes me sick now that I think about it.
“What? You have nothing to say to your older sister?”
I continue to stare at her, looking for any opening I can use as a counter-attack.
Noticing my stare, she glares at me and becomes visibly angry.
“Tch!”
“I guess I’ll have to show you your place trash! It's fine either way, I came down here to give you your birthday present.”
She reaches behind her and procures what appears to be a small club-like object.
“Since it's your birthday, I figured that best present a responsible older sister can give you are birthday beatings!”
Seriously...she can go fuck herself. My only sister will ever only be Maya, and she can’t even compare to her. Noticing an opening I make a run for it towards the cell doors, only to fall down just short of the door.
[Damn, I'm not used to this body. It's just so weak!]
Laughing manically, Neira walks towards me brandishing her sister beater.
“You poor fool. You can't escape from me. This is your punishment for killing Mother.”
She delivers a sharp kick to my stomach, sending me back a couple of feet. I retch up any bile I may have had that day from the kick. She then follows up with a blow to my face with the club, I can feel and hear my nose breaking. Any pain tolerance I built up in my past life is now completely moot. I can do nothing but lie down and sob.
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The beatings continue for an eternity before Neira finally stops, seemingly satisfied with her work, she leaves the cell and locks it back.
“Don't worry about the major injuries, I'll send down the healer to heal them. Wouldn’t want you to die, now would we?”
She turns to leave and stops for a moment, then turns around.
“Oh, and happy birthday Trash.”
She then leaves the dungeon.
After lying in my own pool of various body fluids and crying, I hear the door open again. An old man appears at the cell door and unlocks it. He walks towards me, then kneels down and starts to roughly inspect my body.
“Hmm. Yes, this injury is quite a severe one. Left orbital socket crushed. Broken nose. Probably some internal bleeding in the brain.”
He then starts to feel all over my body causing me to cry out in pain.
“Three broken ribs, perforated lung most likely. Hip looks dislocated. Cuts and scratches are superficial and a non-issue.”
He then starts to chant in a language I've never heard before with his hands placed on my head and chest. A warm green glow starts to emit from his hands and I can feel my pain melt away. After a few minutes, he stops and then places his hands on my hip. Then without warning, he pushes down and an audible pop can be heard.
“AAAAHHHHH!”
The pain was immense, having a dislocated bone popped back in place hurts like hell. The old man gets up and walks to the door leave and locks it back. He then looks at me.
“I suppose I will be seeing you next week.”
He then turns and leaves.
.
.
.
I am just laying down on the floor with nothing but my thoughts.
[So, I guess this is the curse that stupid demi-god put on me. Being punished for things I never did.]
“THIS IS SUCH BULLSHIT!”
I crawl over towards my bedding and curl up before passing out from the exhaustion.
Weeks and months went by and every week I would receive my “punishment”. With each passing week, I felt myself lose part of who I was. Four years had passed since then and I was finally ready and determined to escape even if it meant my death.
I was sitting on the floor making little dolls out of my straw bedding. I got really good at this as well as having a conversation with myself. Though I'm kind of crazy so I don’t talk to me very much, especially when I am telling me about my old war stories. Did you know that I think I came from another world before? When I first told me I laughed, it was a good story. I am just now finishing up my doll and I place it the other 13.
The dungeon door opened and I hear the usual footsteps approach me. This time I have a plan, well not really, but I plan to plan out my plan here in a moment. The figure of Neira appears at the cell door and opens it and walks over to me. All the while I am ignoring her and continue to play with my dolls, they are the better company anyway.
“Happy birthday Trash! Congrats on turning 8. Honestly, I didn’t think you would last this long, but you did!”
I continue to ignore her already knowing what is in store for me. Thanks to her my body is covered in scars. Though thankfully when whenever Delm, that’s the healer guy, comes by to heal me some of my scars get fainter some haven even started disappearing. So, thanks to that I’m not just a big walking pile of scars.
“HEY! Trash, I am talking to you”
Oh, I forgot she was there for a moment.
In anger, Neira grabs me by the collar and lifts me up. Thanks to the meager food meant to just barely sustain me, I am seriously underweight so I don’t weigh much. Using this moment, I jab her in the eye with my finger and finish her off with a swift chop to her throat. Screaming in pain she drops me and clutches her throat. I bolt toward the door as fast as I can taking care not to trip this time, been working on that too. Leaving the cell, I see the large door that leads out of the dungeon and to freedom. I run with all the energy I can muster towards the door. I get past it! I am free!
I continue to run down the hallway past other doors. I see another large door up ahead; I can taste the freedom already. I push open the door and see...a lot of soldiers in various kinds of metal armor.
[Shit...this was the barracks wasn’t it. Such a rookie mistake, I was so caught up in the moment I threw caution to the wind]
Alert, all the soldiers rushed over to me. I catch movement to my right and see a gauntlet covered fist.
Darkness
*Splash*
I wake up, my sight slowly coming back. In front of me is Neira wearing an eye patch.
[Did I mess her up that much?]
I try to move but I soon realized I am chained to a pillar. Delm is standing behind Neira on my left and to my right is some other man I've never seen before. He was really ugly, looked like he fought with a rack of swords with his face. Thinking about it I probably don’t look any better.
“So, the bitch is alive.”
I can feel a coldness from her that I never felt before. The look in her eye is frightening even to me.
[She is out for more than just blood]
“I was going to take it easy on your birthday beating today since I was feeling generous, but now that you dare attack me and damage my precious face...I’ll make you suffer.”
I feel my body tense up; I know that today's beating will be worse. I start praying to any god that will hear me, but then I remember why I am in this stupid situation in the first place. Gods suck, they can all go rot in hell for all I care. Maybe there is a demon, devil, or something else that will help.
I feel a nauseating pain, and I realize that Neira just swung her club into my face.
“Delm, heal her.”
“Yes, your highness.”
He reaches over to my face and heals my wounds, then quickly steps away. This process repeats over and over until I can no longer keep count nor care anymore.
“Looks like the trash isn't even responding anymore. Guess I'll need to move on to the step.”
“Skarr. Give me that branding iron.”
[Oh, I guess the other guy's name is Skarr]
Skarr simply grunts and walks toward a firepit of some sort where various metal instruments are heating by the fire, most of them red hot. He grabs a poker with some kind of shape at the end it. As he brings it closer, I recognize that the tip looks similar to something like a coat of arms. Neira puts on a glove and grabs the branding iron.
“Skarr turn her around and lift up her sad excuse of a shirt.”
Skarr moves over towards me. I am now just starting to get a grasp of the situation and I start to panic. He roughly grabs and turns me around, not caring how my arms are bending, and lifts up my shirt. Suddenly feel a searing pain on my lower back. Pain so bad I cannot even react to it, so my body shuts down seemingly to protect my mind from further damage.
“Eh!? Seriously, no reaction at all?”
“Turn her back around.”
Skarr complies with a grunt and returns me to my original position. I stare blankly back at them; I can feel as if any life I had in my eyes was gone at that moment.
“Tch!’
“This bitch is broken now. Damn it.”
“Delm give me your dagger.”
“Your highness, are you sure you...”
“GIVE ME YOUR DAGGER!”
“Yes, your highness”
Delm reluctantly hands over his dagger to Neira.
“Well, I suppose these good times were bound to end at some point, shame that.”
And with a single thrust, the dagger enters my heart cavity and I slowly start to lose consciousness.
“Skarr take her to the forest on the outskirts of the capital and dump...”
Everything fades to black. I guess I died again. Achievement get, Dying Twice.