Miroslava Salzar②
Miroslava despises men.
If you asked her what made her that way, the first thing she would name would be her father.
Her family, the Salzar merchant company, is ranked as one of the top three major merchant companies in the Canaria Kingdom.
It was her father who built that big business in only one generation.
Going from a small clothing store on the corner of the streets of the royal capital to a huge merchant company in just three decades, her father was undoubtedly a character of greatness in the merchant world.
However, as a father, he was a failure– No, he was the worst.
He always had women next to him. Moreover, the women's faces were different every day. He was as energetic or even more so towards women as he was to his business.
Miroslava was the daughter of his seventh concubine.
Her mother was a wandering dancer; a passionate dancer with red, flame-like hair who gave birth to her.
The young Miroslava did not live in the main mansion of the Salzar family, but in a cheap villa. The residents of the area secretly called it the concubine mansion.
She has no memories of her talking to her father from when she was little. While the children of his proper wives wore colorful clothing, she was dressed in shabby homemade clothes of the concubine mansion.
Inside her home, her mom and the other concubines would put on makeup, polish their skin, and keep each other in check as they waited for her father to visit.
In the young Miroslava's eyes, the sight of her mother was very disgraceful.
She thought that she would never want to become like her mother.
That's why she studied hard.
She aimed for the door for intellectuals, the sage academy-
All in order to refine her knowledge and not become a woman who'll need to sell her looks.
It's just that, although academic ability can be achieved through hard work, she could not come up with the exam fees as a child no matter what.
She had to reluctantly ask her father for it. Not as a freebie, but as an investment.
She got him to invest in her by telling him that if his daughter makes it in the sage academy, his company's reputation will rise.
When she passed the examination, she cried tears of joy.
Like that, she had successfully escaped from the "Concubine mansion".
However, even the sage academy that she worked so hard to get in to could not become a home for her.
Her outward appearance was her first set back.
Miroslava at that time was not really interested in making herself look pretty.
She made sure that she was clean, but she did not care for her hair and her freckles would stand out. Even when she had bags under her eyes, she did not put on any makeup.
Makeup is for women who want to flirt with men. That was the idea Miroslava had.
Moreover, she had a fear that she would become like her mother if she started to use makeup.
Since Miroslava was like that, she was not popular amongst the opposite sex, and the same sex didn't try to get to know her.
But even with that, she thought that she was fine by herself. If no one bothered her, then she could just completely focus on her studies.
In fact, she was an excellent student. Not only was her knowledge and skills on magic better than her seniors', but she was also proud of that fact and did not try to act humble.
As a result, she was isolated from her peers. It wasn't only that, but both direct and indirect harassment towards her began to take place.
The ones that were harassing her weren't limited to the guys. Just because she wasn't liked by the opposite gender, it didn’t mean the girls got along with her either.
When girls her same age brought up talks about makeup or guys, Miroslava, who had gone through so much to make it in the academy, only saw them as idiots.
Her feelings were naturally conveyed to the girls around her by the way she acted around them.
The few acquaintances that she had left one after another and before she realized it, there wasn't a single person left in the academy that talked to her.
The days of this chronic unhappiness continued for her.
It was not until when she went on an ecology research trip to research a certain monster that she reached the turning point of her life.
At that time, Miroslava was at the home village of Lars and Iria.
Lars, who was interested in the world outside of his village, was surprised at the fact that despite them being only one year of age apart, Miroslava was already a researcher. He came up with all kinds of excuses and followed her around.
Miroslava disliked it at first, but as she warmed up to the way Lars acted towards her regardless of her appearance and gender, she started to feel happy being around him.
It was also at that time that she found out that Lars yearned to become an adventurer.
The sage academy is a place to research magic, but there are people out there who become adventurers after they graduate.
However, that was mostly for people who had poor grades.
The talented individuals would receive job offerings as a court magic caster or as a researcher at some state institutions.
As a matter of fact, she had her eyes on that path. Her magic aptitude, for fire in particular, was at a level high enough to be the first person in five years who had people from outside the academy keep tabs on her.
No matter how attracted she was to Lars, she couldn't throw away her bright future for a guy that was one year younger than her.
Her fate with Lars should have come to an end there.
However, the situation suddenly changed.
Originally, Miroslava, who had finished her course two years earlier at the age of fifteen, should have graduated the academy as a prodigy.
But on the day of her examination, she did not show up at the meeting place.
She was locked in an old library that was located in the basement of her dorm. Even if she tried to break the door open with magic, it would have been dangerous for the caster inside that narrow space.
Moreover, she was in a situation where she did not want to destroy the precious books in there.
The culprit was still unknown to this day. Miroslava explained the situation and complained for a re-test after she broke free somehow, but they did not give her one.
It was the result of her stepping on the royal family's tail when they came to see the well anticipated prodigy but did not get to see her.
Thus, Miroslava did not receive any honorable duties and was forced to leave the academy without graduating.
Miroslava was originally alone. Moreover, no one would help her and incite the royal family's anger, so she became an adventurer in the end.
That had nothing to do with the existence of Lars.
The reason why she did not go to Lars right away was because she didn’t want him to see that unsightly side of her.
She could not tell him that she chased after him after she was kicked out from the academy.
She was the one who decided to become an adventurer. She decided that she would make a name for herself as one and then she'll go see him.
… For Miroslava, who then nearly got violated after joining a party for the first time while under such impatience, it might not be so unreasonable for her to develop such strong hate for men.
And now, Miroslava had been chased into a corner by this man for many times.
Sora Mitsurugi misunderstood just one thing about her.
Miroslava did not understand the situation she was in. But if she did — she would probably end her own life.
At first she thought he was taking revenge on her for setting him up, and he was going to bring her to some place without people and get violent on her.
But that thought was gone in a day.
Each time Sora took her by her lips, she felt something important was being sucked out of her. It wasn't just once or twice she thought that she was going to die.
She tried to kill this man– No, this monster that was in front of her. He was something else in the form of a human. He had clearly repelled her magic when the Sora she knew was supposed to be level one.
However, this monster with Sora's appearance was strong. She couldn't escape as her life as a prisoner continued.
She also had the option to choose death. She warned him that, but Sora only lightly shrugged his shoulders at her.
It was either because he thought she wasn't going to go through with it or it didn’t matter to him if she dies.
Perhaps it was the former, but it could also be the latter as well.
In short, he did not care that much about her being alive or not. He had no intention to kill her, but it didn't really matter to him if she dies in the end.
Having believed that, Miroslava stopped resisting. She didn't want to die.
If he was going to do something more despicable then she would try to fight back no matter how many times she’d need to. She wouldn't die from just pretending to be okay with him kissing her.
However, there's no meaning in kissing some monster that she didn't know the true nature of.
Every time they kissed, she felt disgust that made her want to vomit. But even so, her body heated up from a strong feeling of pleasure.
Her mind and body did not match. She was about to go crazy.
She was already thinking of giving up on everything and not caring at all about what he does to her.
However, If she did that, the other party might lose interest in her.
Surely, she was "delicious" to him because she was alive. Being "alive" here has a spiritual meaning to it. A prey that has given up on everything and does not resist would not taste good.
In the depths of Thetis Forest, inside this territory of demonic beasts, the reason he prepared a place that people could live in would be to prolong her life, even for a bit.
That's why, Miroslava has to act alive. She had no choice but to act as a "live" prey for the other side if she wanted to live.
Live prey. Right, she was just like some live feed right now, she thought.
She was kept alive to be delicious food for the monster.
Like Sora when he was once captured by the Fly Lord.
The one who set him up was her.
Sora probably also felt the same despair and horror that she was feeling.
He probably wanted to scream out "I don't want to die!" like her.
–Although it's too late now, she wanted to deeply apologize to him.
It wasn't until she found herself in the same situation that she understood for the first time. This is hell. A living hell.
If you let other people get a taste of this kind of thing, of course they'll hate you, of course they'll despise you. Even Miroslava would do the same.
Although she called Sora a monster, it was her that created that monster.
From the day those thoughts crossed her mind, Miroslava's attitude towards him changed.
What the other side wanted her to do, she did it before she was asked to. Sora might have thought that she was trying to butter up to him. In fact, she can't say that she didn't have that intention at all.
But the root of it came from her wish to atone. If she was going to be eaten by him, then it can't be helped, she thought.
That moment was probably when Miroslava Salzar was truely devoured.
Not her body or her soul, but something that was as important as those two things was devoured.
And so, Miroslava who had fallen so far down was able to see it for the first time, the true nature of the "thing" that captured her, that has been tormenting her and was now eating her.
The mythical creature that was extending out in Sora's shadow.
Five days after that day, Miroslava Salzar was seen on the streets of Ishka.
It was about a month after she had disappeared. The guild staff, adventurers, and especially her party members, Lars, Iria, and Lunamaria, who had continued to desperately look for her, all ran to her in excitement, overjoyed at the news.
That was when they noticed that Miroslava's long, red hair that she was proud of had been shortened to her shoulder's length.
A month had passed since she went missing as it was. When they asked her what on earth happened to her, she strangely shrugged her shoulders and apologized to them.
She said that she was not satisfied with the guild's house arrest and disappeared in protest of that.
She confessed that she left the room of her own accord and claimed responsibility for it.
When the guild people heard of this, their faces went red in anger after a moment of shock.
It was only natural, since they can't let her make a fool out of them anymore than that.
Miroslava bowed her head deeply and apologized to them. She told them she cooled her head after having some time alone and she will accept any punishment from them– With those words, the scene died down.
After that, she was taken to the guild for a sound scolding. But in any case, the situation has finally been settled.
The search for Sora, who was the heavy suspect in this incident, had also been canceled.
That Sora returned to the city of Ishka ten days after that.
At that time, Sora had brought a slave back with him.
There were only two people including Sora who knew that this slave would be the start of a new disturbance at that point…