As golden rays of dawn gently nudged open the curtains of a graying sky, the isolated air within the confines of the solitary cell block hummed. Quimora found herself in the company of two fellow cellmates lining across the cafeteria. As the time for breakfast approached, their eyes followed the steam rising from their steaming bowls of oatmeal.

Quimora's gaze drifted beyond the cafeteria walls. Her cellmates, though understanding, couldn't fully grasp the depth of her emotions. As the line inched forward, Quimora's thoughts swirled like a whirlwind as she pressed her lips the whole time.

"Never mind us, Quimora. What's important… you never belonged to violence. You're a free bird the next morning," Hera, who is behind Jinx, encouraged Quimora.

"Right, girl! You'll enjoy a day with a job and delicious food to eat," Jinx exclaimed.

"You should be happy. The sole solace of freedom was everyone’s wish only if the magic fountain existed, though we don’t have coins here. If you're concerned about where you'll stay, don't worry! Most adventurers in our world survived without shelter, with only banana leaves as their roof. Not to brag, I also experienced having red spots after eating poisonous mushrooms," Hera laughed.

Quimora looked down, looking for the reason for her dismissal, conflicted with her desire to belong with her company which she already treated as a family. "It's just that… Why is it so sudden?"

Hera pinched her chin and looked up while she unconsciously walked along the cafeteria line. "Mmm… Usually, guards give announcements to throw out our folks here two weeks before their dismissal. But don’t worry about that! You know what's abnormal? It's that you never age for five years!"

"... unlike the other noble convicts who lost their skincare routine, I guess," Jinx followed up.

Quimora, even in her twenties, retained her teenage appearance over the past years. Her fellow convicts even concluded that she may be a descendant of the elves. However, they scanned her ears in the past and found no marks of detachment or transformation.

Changing the topic, Hera smiled at Quimora "But thanks to that, you gave me the experience of a mother." Quimora was already lucky that she ended up in the same cell as Hera. If she’s assigned to other cells, she wouldn’t have been breathing for the rest of her prison life.

"A mother? More like a father to me," Jinx joked and giggled.

"Can you shut up your blabbermouth before I split your lips in four?" Hera said. "It sounds too nice to invade others' conversations."

"What can I do? I'm deeply bored to death."

"I don't want to hear that from a jobless fraudster."

"Aw! That's so nice. Thank you very much," Jinx clasped her hands and replied with appreciation.

"I'm glad you took it as a compliment,” Hera replied but with her eyebrows furrowed.

Hera noticed Quimora still drowning in her thoughts. She thought This girl might have a hard time adjusting to her new world. She thinks it's much better here, but that would never be the case. If I'm not here, she wouldn't be taken care of.

Hera tapped her back, continuing the quest for encouragement. "Don't worry, little girl. You can see the world more than this birdcage. I think that it will also free you from the regret that you had when your family betrayed you. Don't you find it stinky here? Do you want to live in this bath-less compound? And honey, we once wished to clean our teeth and gums. After you go out to the world, it's like you're achieving your dreams for us. It's also our gift for you."

When the staff at the counter gave a meal to Quimora, she shouted, "Last meal already served! Another set of meals will be provided at seven the next day!"

In this desolate prison, only a select few were granted the meager sustenance necessary for survival. The rest were left to endure the gnawing pangs of emptiness, their bodies growing weaker with each passing day. The line that determined who ate and who starved was a brutal lottery, where the swift and the ruthless thrived, leaving the unfortunate to succumb to the relentless grasp of starvation.

Years passed, and the cycle of hunger persisted. Food shortages and demands from the surplus of convicts were a constant threat. In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, they refused to yield, clinging to the flicker of hope that one day, their torment would end.

"Hera?" Quimora's eyebrows withdrew as she gasped. She trembles while holding the tray of meals.

A hand tapped Quimora's back. When she turned her head back, Jinx smiled at her. "Don't worry, Quimora! Tomorrow will be a new day. I don't want your last memories with us to be gloomy. Here! Eat more, and you'll go on a journey tomorrow."

"H–Hera! I suppose you should have this. You haven't eaten for four days."

"Don't worry, girl. I will live through this body. Do you see these pecs? They aren't here for display. Hunger can't kill me,” Hera uttered.

"That's right, Quimora!" Jinx replied. "A meathead doesn't need meat."

Hera raised her right furrowed eyebrow and growled. "Huh!? What did you say?"

"A fight!? Come on!"

Their sharp fangs appeared from their bearing teeth as they growled. They faced each other with a slight distance away. Quimora can't stop them because she's holding a tray. "Please stop fighting! Suppose, it's not appropriate that you fight with yourselves!"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Girl's right!" A boyish woman's shout from Quimora's back resonated the scene. When Jinx and Hera looked at where the shout came from, they saw a muscular tall woman who looked like a lioness and had frizzy hair. "You two shouldn't be fighting. It should be me and this little girl, right? Quimora, why don't you give this last supper to me?"

Quimora turned back and spotted the wild woman with burning eyebrows towards her. With wet eyes and trembling legs, Quimora stepped back and withdrew. Before she made a distance, the woman took her food tray.

"Oh, thank you very much, pretty girl. As I thought, you are a kind person," the lioness looked down at her and grinned with open eyes.

Hera and Jinx are stunned and stare at the woman. Behind their lips, they grit their teeth. "You teased the wrong person, bearded woman," Hera muttered with eyes that pierced towards the woman.

"Eh? Bearded woman you say? You Olympic tomboy," the woman giggled. A group of convicts gathered behind her like a team. "As I have no beard, your eyesight should be a hundred-fold blurrier that you mistook a man and a woman… is it applicable to yourself too?"

"You man-made primate of the 13th century... You're pissing me off!" Hera pulls her sleeves and stomps her feet towards the muscular woman.

"Heh! I will piss in your face."

Hera and Jinx clenched their fists as they charged to the muscular woman. As they twisted their bodies, their arms swung in a crescent at lightning speed. The muscular woman passed the tray to her ally and gripped the punches of the two. Both had the force that exerted an air that slightly pushed everyone away.

"You're still the same old grandma, Gelly," Hera muttered.

"You're still the same old Tomboy, Hera."

Luckily, the Anti-Magic field was set inside the whole prison zone, else there would be chaos. The prisoners in this place are top-tier murderers with strong magic affinity, but most of the self-proclaimed kings here are physically strong. Quimora, unlike the other prisoners, never had any ability in her possession.

Hera was one of them, while the other was Gelly. Jinx could only match them since she's a martial artist, but her body mass wasn't enough. Currently, Gelly surpasses all of the prisoners in terms of strength. Two-on-one was only a fair fight to her, even to Hera.

Gelly kicked Quimora, bumping her back on the table. Her spine created a loud clicking sound that echoed across the room. Her body was bent to a 90-degree angle, and her agony resonated with everyone who watched her.

Hera and Jinx growled at Gelly as they pulled back their punches. "Don't let me call a messenger from Hell, Gelly," Hera said, gritting her teeth.

"You can," Gelly laughed. "You'll be the one they're fetching."

Through their fists, they shed violence on each other's pride. Hera kept using her brute force while Jinx flavored her techniques. Gelly kept evading and countering both their attacks at once.

The prisoners' veins grew as they watched them, licking their lips. Instead of stopping them, they wished to join the fight instead. Gelly's group joined to distract the three, and so did the others. The cafeteria became a public market where people traded punches.

Quimora, groaning from pain, hissed and slowly opened her eyes after chaos entered her ears. The moment she woke up, a fist drew closer to her face. She intended to freeze, but her head unconsciously moved to the right, evading the punch from a random prisoner.

"OOWW!!" The prisoner immediately pulled and shook her fists. She cried while blowing her nearly-torn hand that hit the edge of the table. Another prisoner showed a flying kick directly in her face.

Quimora became safe… temporarily. When she stood up and turned around, everyone fought within their worlds. Blood scattered like spraying a ketchup. For a high-profile prison, being murdered is an everyday occurrence.

This shouldn't have happened. I'm a naive person. Quimora thought while covering her ears. She panted, wept, and gritted her teeth under her pressed lips. She expected that she'd be hearing something from her subconscious, but her inner self vanished already 5 years ago. If that was her other self, this wouldn't have happened.

I should stop this. With innocence in her beating heart, she shouted. "PLEASE!"

The danger halted, even those fists millimeters away from another's face. Silence took over the room. Quimora shed her tears and muttered. "Please… Stop… There's no reason to do this…"

The prisoners hung their mouths open but laughed after. The prisoners exclaimed with widened eyes while smiling.

"Really!? Do you know where you're currently at!? We're not in some church or mental charity!"

"Which is why I smell something good in this bad place. I wonder how your fresh blood tastes."

Gelly entered the rally and said, "Your ideals don't prove a point, Quimora. You won't always be right for everyone, everywhere, whenever. You're only a dove surrounded by crows waiting to eat you."

Everyone walked towards Quimora. Hera and Jinx stood in front of Quimora to protect her. Hera thought, I already expected a hundred hands from hell's walls. This is nothing.

However, for Quimora, this is a hopeless battle, a march to death with no chances of victory. She prayed, pressing her eyes, bowing down in desperation while thinking, Save me… Saori…

A brink of light glowed above every prisoner. In a blink, the mysterious light blinded everyone's eyes, including Hera and Jinx. In a prisoner's view, it's like they've been suddenly taken by the light, but it immediately turns to darkness before they regain their vision.

What Guinelle threw in the air was an invention that wasn’t supposed to be discovered yet, a flashbang. Nobody knows how she infiltrated the small bomb inside. The scannings of the prison are lacking, unlike modern security.

Quimora felt a strong pull from her arm, escaping the cafeteria. "G–Gui…Guinevere?"

"Guinelle!" She shouted, panting while dragging Quimora towards their cell. She felt Quimora’s hand trembling, like a cold puppy. "Why didn't you run away!? You're already at death's door! Why are you chickening there?"

"I–I want to stop them…"

"Don't you dare do that! You'll look like an ant that two planets will soon crush. What can you even do?"

"Then… what should I do!?"

Guinelle continued to drag her but only for a walk. "Remember where you are. Rules are made for order, not for the universe. People here don't consider others’ morals. You should only consider yours too."

The two walked to the corridor filled with cells and prisoners. Echoes of warriors and amazons rally across the hallway. This five-story hell has never been healthy for the mind of a child. However, these two are not mature enough to think of the world.

The two ended up in the cell where their other cellmates stayed. Guinelle quickly locked the gate in case someone chased Quimora. One of their cellmates questioned, "Why are you shutting us in? What about our old pal Hera?"

"Nebula is in danger. The two will come later. They knew our situation well," Guinelle replied.

Who's Nebula? Quimora thought.

Another cellmate approached and asked, "What happened to you, Quimora? Did something hurt? Was there someone who made our baby cry?" She has a slender, athletic build and long, wavy chestnut-brown hair that falls just past her shoulders, often pulled back into a loose bun to keep it out of her face. Her eyes are a striking green, trained to be sharp and observant.

Quimora tapped her back, but no pain burned. Her eyes widened but soon turned back when the cellmate noticed. "I–I'm alright, Macy. N–Nothing really happened."

"As long as you're fine, we are too. May everyone know you'll be flying tomorrow, so beware. Too many guns are still pointed towards you. Usually, an accident will happen before graduation."

“Thank you so much for thinking about me."

Macy embraced her, not thinking about how long they had their last bath. Quimora stared at Guinelle who was looking out for the enemies. There were too many unknowns that gave birth questions to Quimora.

She's a strange person. How can she use magic within the Anti-Magic Zone? So far, she has helped me, but I don't know why. Also, why does she keep calling me Nebula?