Why did I have to give up when I still had a chance to live on, both for myself and for the people who loved me? So long I was alive, then there might be a possibility to cultivate and build my strength to take revenge one day.

My vision was still blurry due to the high fever, but my will was strong.

I wanted to live no matter what!

I held the anesthetic fruit against my chest tightly, and finally found the strength to carry on.

After a brief moment, I recalled something important.

“Iceberg, now I have apologized, you need to apologize too for smacking my head. If you don’t do that, I sure won’t forgive you for the rest of my life. In case you don’t know, I am a pretty vengeful person.”

I thought he would apologize right away, since this was my illusion, should he go with what I wished? His mouth corner was stiff and bitter, as if he was biting down his own tongue.

“Only if you survive through this, then you are qualified to ask for my apology.”

He suddenly came close and forced my jaws open, and then quickly popped something into my mouth. It tasted so bitter that I wanted to throw up, but he made me swallow it. For a second I thought that must be some kind of poison, for I had fed him one of the most poisonous things in the world - Spotty Boar’s holy pearl.

Now I had no strength to move, he could literally feed me anything he wanted.

But wait…….how come the touch was so real?

This illusion was too real to be fake.

Oh, I must be overthinking. It got to be an illusion, that Iceberg would never say all these warm words. He didn’t care about anyone’s life or death.

“Hey, don’t die here, just live on.”

After he uttered a few words, he disappeared into the dark night.

I wanted to say something, but whatever he put in my mouth was taking into effect. My mind seemed to seep through the air, and floated upward into a far away wonderland. I felt soothing for the first time ever since getting injured.

My eyes were getting heavy, and eventually fell into a deep sleep.

This time.

There was no more horror or blood, just a dream of the peaceful night sky with blue stars.

******************

Morning dews shone like diamonds under the sunlight. The dews lay silently on the grass, until one of them dripped down into the soil. Birds were chirping happily and dancing from one twig to another. The air carried a faint scent of wild flowers.

I must be dreaming because our village was too barren to have birds and pretty flowers, but the sound and smell were so real.

Rays of sunlight pierced into the pupil of my eyes.

I scowled a little, not used to the brightness of the sun after a long night of sleep.

I slowly sat up to look around.

Surrounding the spring, there were a couple of yellow birds jumping around in the bushes, and taking a drink of water. Colorful wildflowers bloomed overnight. This place was definitely more lively and fruitful than the barren village. I hadn’t seen birds for a long time, they reminded me of my home in the modern world.

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The scene was suddenly interrupted by a few demons running over to catch those birds. Fortunately the birds were alert and flew away while chirping loudly, as if wanting to complain how cruel these two-legged creatures were. Those birds were so cute and tiny, I didn’t even think about catching them at all. Everyone here must be super hungry to water over those tiny birds.

I stared at the purple anesthetic fruit in my hand, remembering the illusion last night.

It was so weird, that my injuries were much better and the fever was completely gone, even the hunger eased a little as well. My whole being seemed to find the strength back.

That was just weird.

Maybe someone did feed me food last night?

I didn’t know anymore, and tugged the little fruit in my pocket, then stood up to get ready to work.

For I wanted to live no matter what!

To live, that meant I would need food, and in order to get food, I would need to crack rocks to collect coins!

Still, I didn’t even have my basket because those two rascals stole it, along with my few pounds of coins. I picked up my hammer and chisel and looked for those boys. By this time, everyone had already left the base and went inside the cave to work on the rocks.

The boundary mountains were full of mines. I didn’t know exactly how many there were, but based on the “tour” on the first day, it was probably not exaggerated to say no less than a town. The mine that I was put into was already endless. I couldn’t imagine how vast the entire place was, and how many slaves were actually here.

It took me quite a while to find those two boys.

“You boys, give back my basket and coins!” I said.

The two boys stared at me like I was a complete stranger. Perhaps they were surprised that I was well enough to stand here with full spirit. They probably did not expect me to get well so fast. Yesterday I was just a weak being with a sad face and a dead heart. My face was probably written with the words: I don’t want to live anymore. No wonder these two boys took advantage of my mental state and bullied me with no mercy.

Today was different.

I was not showing any sign of weakness at all. My will was strong, and I was not going to back up even one step. I recognized one of the boys named Leo, who was sneering with a lifted eyebrow right now.

“What!?”

Leo pretended like nothing had happened, “Does your stuff have your name engraved on it? Prove it if so. If you can prove it, then I will give it back to you!”

I held my hammer so tight that my hand hurt a little.

Demons' age count was different, but they just grew a lot slower than humans. It didn’t mean that a forty year old demon would look and behave like a forty year old human. Who knew how old these two boys were, but that boy named Leo looked like around fifteen and the other boy about ten years old. They were definitely in their rebellious stage. So impolite and always looking for trouble.

“Yesterday you guys stole my basket and coins! If you give them back, I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. If not, I would report it to the guards!”

The two boys first looked at me like I was an idiot, and then burst into laughter. They laughed until their stomachs hurt.

“Oh, Rene, do you hear that!? I am so freaking scared!” Leo patted the other boy’s shoulders.

Rene laughed so hard that his tears almost came out, “Me too, I almost shit my pants!”

These two boys were so ill-mannered that I wanted to hit their heads with the hammer in my hand. I told myself to calm down because I was much older, therefore I shouldn't take their words by heart, but oh boy, how mad I was to deal with these two rascals when life was already hard enough.

I just wanted to crack rocks with no interruption. How hard would this little wish be?

These two little devils just doubled my misery. It wasn’t like I asked for their apology for beating me up yesterday because I was not here to teach them morals, nor did I have the ability to either. I didn’t even care about their apology now, and just wanted my own stuff back, but they made it sound like whatever they did was justified.

I was not going to walk away.

“Hurry and return my basket and coins! This is the last warning!” I held the hammer in front of them, and shouted with force.

Leo’s expression was so cunning, “It was us, but what can you do about it? You aren’t even strong enough to be our opponent either. Do you really think you stand a chance?”

They might be so used to this kind of situation, because they weren’t scared even the slightest. This was probably not the first time they had stolen things from someone. They held their hammers tight and walked toward me a few steps. Their eyes glittered with evilness, and sneered wildly.

“Rene, I think we can make the blanket ahead of time now for the incoming winter.” Leo said.

“Yeah, another blanket!” Rene jumped with excitement.

Despite that evil smile, Rene looked like a pretty little girl. I didn’t say this for an insult, but for a fact. If it wasn’t for Rene’s clothes, I would really think he was a girl with all the silver hair buns and that pretty little face. Yes, demons’ hair color varied. Mostly were dark colors, but occasionally there were exceptions.

“What are you guys talking about? What blanket?” I asked coldly.

Rene giggled, “If you die, we will skin you and make a blanket. Although you are an ugly girl, won’t be the prettiest blanket, but it’s still better than nothing!”