RAGNA POV...
Blood seemed to be seeping out of me from everywhere at once, warm and sticky as it slid down my skin, while my face felt grotesquely swollen, my lips so thick and numb that it felt as if an entire elite squad of enraged beehives had declared war on my mouth and won.
Through half-lidded eyes, I could see myself curled up on the ground, arms drawn in tight as if I could somehow shield what little remained of me from further harm, and beside me stood Tom, desperately throwing himself between my body and theirs, shouting and pleading with a cracked voice.
Yet all of it was meaningless, because they outnumbered him, and all it took was a casual shove from the brown-haired boy to send him stumbling aside like an inconvenience.
It grew so unbearable that even she couldn’t watch anymore.
"STOP IT!"
The scream cut through the air like a blade.
The moment Auntie Gloria’s voice rang out, she rushed toward us without hesitation, her hands forcefully pushing the boys away from me as if they were nothing more than sacks of filth, and before anyone could react, she grabbed the one who had struck me last and slapped him across the face again and again, each strike fueled by raw rage rather than restraint.
"Auntie lilith! Thank goodness it was you!"
Tom cried out, his voice trembling as he played his part perfectly, every word shaped just the way I needed it.
"I was so scared they’d try to attack him again before I could get help... They were trying to kill him, Aunty! Please, I don’t think he has much strength left!"
She hurried to my side immediately, gently helping me sit up, and the instant her fingers touched me, I let out a weak yelp and trembled violently, even that feather-light contact sending waves of pain through my body—pain convincing enough to make her heart ache.
Every time I tried to speak, she saw it: the ruined mess my mouth had become, blood pooling between my swollen lips, staining my teeth crimson.
"Tom, who did this to him? Whose devilish children are these?!"
She shouted, her voice shaking with fury as she looked at me, her poor, broken nephew, her anger and grief tangling together so tightly it nearly suffocated her.
I could feel her thoughts without her saying them—he’s a cursed child, so what? Has he ever hurt anyone?—and when she glared at the boys, the hatred in her eyes was so sharp that if looks were knives, Taken would have been skewered a hundred times over.
"Auntie, it was Gustav! It’s all Gustav’s fault!"
Tom shouted, pointing with shaking hands.
"These are his friends—he told them to beat Ragna! They even talked about their plan when they thought no one was listening!"
Her eyes widened in shock.
She froze, as if the words themselves had struck her harder than any slap ever could. She tried to deny it, tried desperately to reject the truth, but disgust quickly followed—disgust toward Gustav, toward his cruelty, toward how someone could betray their own blood with such animalistic malice.
Instead of wasting time on that runt, she turned back to me, realizing I couldn’t even speak properly anymore.
And then there was the realization that twisted the knife deeper—she recognized two of the boys. Children who played with her own kids.
Looking at their blank, shameless faces, as if they’d done nothing wrong, and at the blood-stained wooden sticks still clutched in their hands, made her anger boil over again.
As she looked at me, she couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain I must have endured. Blood seeped from my swollen skin, bruises blooming grotesquely across my body, and with every passing second, guilt wrapped tighter around her chest.
’What am I supposed to tell Elina?
That her son came to sell vegetables... and returned like this?’
"Why won’t these people ever learn?" she muttered aloud, her thoughts spilling freely.
"If he were a normal child, would they have attacked him? And how could they know that today, of all days, my children and I would be out of town?"
She knew Elina and John well. Despite being cursed and loathed by the villagers for raising a demon child, they had never harbored hatred toward anyone, never lashed out, never cursed back.
Most parents would’ve snapped. Some would’ve killed their own child out of fear—or burned the village down in retaliation.
But they hadn’t.
And that injustice made her blood boil.
Hidden beneath my weak sobs and broken breaths, a victorious smirk threatened to surface.
’This is only phase one, I thought calmly.
There’s no need to feed her facts anymore—my condition itself is the evidence. It’s far more powerful when she pieces everything together on her own.’
"Go and call Elina—now!"
Lilith barked at Tom, fear creeping into her voice as she realized how dire my state appeared.
That... was exactly what I had been waiting for.
Her expression darkened as she looked down at me again, doubt and sorrow twisting together.
"Why... why do people do this to you?" she whispered.
And that was my cue.
"Is it because... I have six eyes?" I cried out hoarsely, my voice cracking as I forced the words past blood and pain.
"Because I’m ugly?"
I coughed violently, blood spilling from my mouth as I continued screaming, every word soaked in agony I carefully chose not to heal.
"I couldn’t make any friends... Everyone hated me! The moment they saw me, they ran away! Some threw stones at me like I was a beast!"
My voice broken completely.
"Everyone hated me so much that even my brother got sick of my existence!" I sobbed.
"No matter how hard I try... no matter how nice I become... I’m always just a disgusting monster to them!"
I looked up at her with trembling eyes.
"Am I really that ugly? Am I so hideous that nobody could ever want to be my friend?"
She hugged me tightly as I sobbed into her arms, her heart shattering as she held what she believed was nothing more than a pitiful, innocent child desperate for love.
It didn’t take long before hurried footsteps and Christy’s panicked voice echoed through the area.
"My child—my Ragna! What happened to him?!"
She rushed over, and the moment she saw me in that condition, tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes. Words failed her.
For the first time in her life, she didn’t know whether to scream at Lilith, attack the children, or call John.
She could only cry.
Gently, desperately, she lifted me from the ground and pressed me against her chest, holding me as if she could shield me from the entire world, her tears soaking into my hair as she whispered my name over and over again.
And in her embrace...
I smiled.