"Oh my, what a loud noise." Medeia rubbed her ears, then jumped down. She stood right before the woman, so she couldn’t run away.
"Please ... please spare my life." She knelt before Medeia. "I have a little sister."
Judging by her condition now, Medeia assumed that her sister was also part of the Stormclad Leader’s harem.
"I asked you before, what is your name?" Medeia repeated her question.
She lowered her head and murmured, "Ma-Matilda ... I’m Matilda Biermenn."
Medeia thought the mask was blocking her voice, so she took off the ugly white mask from Matilda’s face.
Matilda reflexively covered her face with her hands, but Medeia had caught a glimpse of her face.
She was beautiful, not the kind of beauty that took people’s breath away, but her face was decent enough. "I don’t understand. Why are they asking you to cover your face?"
"I have a deformity." Matilda hesitated, pulling her hands away to show Medeia her face. She was beautiful, but she had a flaw in her face, a line that cut across her right cheek, stark against her pale skin.
Medeia had no particular expression on her face. She’d seen so many people with wounds in hell, so such a small scar like that didn’t surprise her.
"Did someone do this to you?" asked Medeia.
Matilda shook her head. "I was the one who did it," she clenched her fist. "I thought the Stormclad wouldn’t take me back to their base if I wasn’t perfect, so I cut my own face."
"Yes. They wouldn’t even look at my face. But ..." Matilda’s voice shook as she said, "They took my little sister instead. She was thirteen when they took her."
So Matilda begged the Stormclad to let her live in the base with her sister. They agreed, but she had to live as one of their slaves.
A worse kind of life than becoming the leader’s wife.
The leader of Stormclad liked to collect beautiful women, even if they were children. The grown women would immediately become his wife and bear children who would pass on his legacy.
The little girls, on the other hand, would remain in the harem and be married off when they turned 16.
"Today is my sister’s 16th birthday. So, please ... Please let me live." Matilda begged, "At least spare my life until I can get my sister out of this hell."
Medeia pretended to think about it. She enjoyed seeing a human tremble in fear. "Let’s see ... how about you give me some information and I’ll let you live?"
Matilda nodded quickly. "I will give you all the information I know."
Medeia asked immediately, "How many people are in this base?"
"I don’t know the exact number, but-"
"Oh, don’t lie to me." Medeia cut her off. "You’ve been planning to take your sister away for three years, so you must know everything about this base."
Matilda held her breath as Medeia caught her lying. She took several deep breaths before she said, "There are 648 people on this base. 53 of them were women who were captured from many places," she said, "I plan to rescue them all."
"What is your plan?" Medeia sat on the box and looked interested in her explanation. "Come on, you chose this day specifically, so you must already have a big plan."
"Today is the leader’s medication day. This time I really don’t know much about his illness, but once a month he would stay in his room for a whole day to focus on treating his illness."
Medeia was right. The Red Beard and his men took many medicinal herbs in Vermillion Forest because their leader needed them.
"I planned to sabotage Redbeard and his men’s vehicles as soon as they arrived, but they were late and I don’t think Leader will be taking any medication today." Matilda muttered, "They had never been late before."
"I’m afraid they won’t be returning to base at all." Medeia crossed her arms over her chest. "But don’t worry, you can still escape today. Well, it depends on your luck actually, but there’s no harm in trying, right?"
Matilda looked confused. She didn’t understand why Medeia was so confident. "How is that possible?"
Medeia lowered her eyes and murmured, "If he really cares about me, then this place is going to be wrecked soon."
"You like to ask so many questions, don’t you?" Medeia stood up, then clapped her hands. "All right, time is up. With this much chaos, many people might come here in no time."
Medeia kicked one of the bodies because it was in her way. The system showed that she had about 4 minutes before her demonic power was deactivated.
"It’s so much fun talking to you, Matilda." Medeia tapped her horns. "But you know ... people will accuse me of being the Lost if they know I can grow horns out of my head, so ...."
Medeia made a gesture of strangling her own neck as a warning that she would kill Matilda to shut her mouth forever.
Matilda widened her eyes. She slowly backed away, trying to find something to fight with. "You had promised me, you’ll let me live!"
Medeia tilted her head, looking innocent. "Did I?"
"I’m kidding!" Medeia laughed out loud, amused at Matilda’s frightened reaction. "I’ll be punished if I kill you anyway."
Matilda didn’t understand her at all. She was changing from hot to cold, from evil to friendly, or vice versa.
"What are you waiting for? Go to your sister and start packing." Medeia shooed her away.
Before Matilda could react, they heard people approaching the front door. They wondered why the first floor had suddenly gone quiet, so some men decided to check on them.
A broad smile appeared on Medeia’s face. She licked her lips because she couldn’t wait to devour more human souls—no, she meant the bad humans’ souls.
"You must know another way out of this room, right?" Medeia spoke to Matilda without looking at her. "Leave now before they see you here."
Or rather, Matilda had to go before she saw what Medeia was going to do once the men stepped into the room.