Cannot Escape the Devil - Chapter 1 Part 1

Translated by Gigi

Edited by Schwarzel

Something heavy was thrown over the towering stone wall. There were crowds of people gathered under the stone wall, but none of them paid attention to what was being thrown. Even though it was a bloody woman.  The attention of the gathered people was beyond the towering walls, not a woman who was already dying, or maybe already dead.

“Give me something to eat. Water or anything is fine, please.”

“Please save me! Let me get out of this place! Please.. I don’t want to die. Help me!”

“The child is dying! He needs medicine, please give me some medicine! Please!”

Asaya felt helpless and looked at the people while trying to reach out over the wall somehow.

“Pathetic people….”

Yes, it was pathetic. There won’t be anything different if she cried out here because her throat would burst. It must be a useless hope, but what on earth is ‘please save me’? Do they think they can get out of this hellish place and step into the realm beyond the wall? No, do they think they can live happily even if they did enter the wall? Sounds absurd. Even if they are lucky enough to catch the eyes of the nobles and enter the ‘Muraye Empire’ beyond the wall, most of them will be like the woman lying there and dying.

“It’s really pathetic.” Asaya muttered.

Leah, the only friend and family member who was guarding her side, stared at her.

“Who are you to talk about being pathetic? You are sitting here too.”

“That’s why I am pathetic too.”

Asaya smiled weakly as she looked at Leah, who was guarding her side silently. She had been with Leah since she was very young. Leah was  an orphan of unknown origin, wandering alone without parents, and was picked by Asaya’s father. She became a guardian who protected Asaya’s family.

“That woman, is she the woman who passed away a month ago?”

At Leah’s question, Asaya nodded.

“Perhaps.”

“I thought she would last two months, but it’s been only one month.”

“Yeah. I thought she would last for quite a while, but she couldn’t do it for long. Still, that woman, she was the most beautiful woman in this area.”

“It’s an obvious ending to be thrown like a corpse like that, so why did she throw herself in vain hope?”

“Here she is. Didn’t die in luxury but the same as everyone else.”

“But I hate such a miserable death.”

The woman’s body was no longer intact. There were signs of abuse everywhere. The bruises and sharp cuts that did not suit her fine body made a person guess how hard and miserable her life had been.

“Everything is the same when you die. Where in the world is death not miserable? Rather, that death was meaningful.”

Riches and food were received in exchange for being rolled into toys after following a nobleman. However It was not a meaningless death because she fed her family to their full stomach. The woman went over the wall to see the young nobleman passing by. He said he loved her, but unfortunately, it wasn’t true love.  It said it all when her bloody corpse came back.

“Are you really going to stick around here?”  Leah asked.

“Yes.”

“No, let’s go home now. What will be different this time?” Leah urged Asaya.

Asaya smiled bitterly.

“We have been starving for about a week now. It’s harder to steal from someone else’s because they are all dead. And the only ones left were our comrades who got everything.”

“If you move to another area, will  there be anything different ?” Leah asked.

Probably not. Asaya would be starving  to death still. After becoming a sinner and being driven to this land of death, she had a painful experience of how barren life was. The danger of human-eating demons and plagues from the corpses left by demons was better than this land. The most serious problem was famine.

“What and how to live in a land where even crops cannot grow? What can we do in this polluted place? Now that we have nothing, how long do you think we will be able to continue living day by day? I can’t stand it anymore.”

“.. Asaya, no!”

Leah tried to say something, but soon shut her mouth tight. Then she quietly looked around. There was no answer on this land anyway. Because the land of the abandoned was an infinitely harsh place.