Lucian sucked in a deep breath as his eyes snapped open. Memories of what happened to him flooded into his head like a bad dream that had almost suffocated him, and now he was finally waking up. He believed he was waking up until he felt the chain around his neck, wrist, and ankle.

A dark look fills Lucian's eyes as he realizes that his nightmare is his current reality; there is no escape for him.

"You are human, aren't you?" Wisteria asked. She stood outside Lucian's cellar, watching him. For hours she had been waiting for him to regain his consciousness.

"And you?" Lucian glared at her. "You are a fucking beast. Why are you pretending to be what you are not? Damn psychopath." He added in rage.

Lucian had been captured way too many times; he knew by now how useless it was for him to make useless attempts to beg his captors to let him go. They won't let him go, not until they get what they want or get rid of him.

'What does this disgusting beast want?' Lucian thought, narrowing his eyes at Wisteria. The chains that bind him were cold, but the cold was the least of his problems.

"You are human." Wisteria repeated to herself. She could feel it, and also she didn't want to believe that Lucian was a beast; if he was, then she was going to have to kill him. Beasts weren't allowed in her dungeon. "A human with a beast aura and ability." She muttered. "This must be the reason why you were able to constantly break out of my enchantment; it's meant for humans, not beasts. Tell me how you were able to acquire a beast ability while still maintaining your human form."

Lucian remained quiet and glared at Wisteria.

"Tell me if you want to."

"To live?" Lucian scoffs arrogantly. "It doesn't matter what I say; as long as you have set your mind on killing me, you are still going to kill me."

Wisteria frowned. "And if I say that I'm not interested in killing you?"

"Why?" Lucian asks, giving Wisteria a suspicious look, "A freak like you has no reason to keep me alive; besides, I'm sure that your people want me dead."

'I'm your mother.' Wisteria thought, 'It doesn't matter what anyone says, I'm not going to let my son die again.'

"It seems like you are more interested in dying than staying alive." Wisteria opens Lucian's cellar and steps in.

"Not really." Lucian tries to activate his beast ability, but the chains he had been bound with stop his ability and send out little cold shards into his bloodstream, freezing his body, leaving him in pain.

Lucian grinds his teeth as he stops himself from screaming, refusing to give Wisteria the pleasure of watching him suffer.

"If you don't stop trying to use your beast magic, you are going to die." Wisteria's worried tone made Lucian frown at her.

"I'm not interested in dying." Lucian allows himself to speak after painfully enduring the punishment given to him. It didn't last long; if it did, he would be dead. The ice shard was a temporary punishment for whenever Lucian tries using his beast magic. "I'm being realistic; there's more chance of me ending up dead in this cellar than surviving it."

"I guess you aren't going to say anything about your beast ability." Wisteria's finger traces Lucian's neck. "I guess I'm going to have to find out my own way."

Lucian paled at her words; he didn't know what her method to find out the truth was, but his fearful heart filled him with different gruesome imaginations.

"I will tell you the truth only if you tell me why a beast like you is shapeshifting into a human. Why is everyone in your damned village so obsessed with humans, their lifestyle, and their activities?" Lucian was curious, but he knew that Wisteria wouldn't answer because he had no right to question her. His question was a poor attempt to have a reason to remain silent about his ability, even though he did have questions about Wisteria, her people, and the villages.

"I suppose it's easy for someone like you who came from another world to think that every beast, monster, and demon was born that way, but you are wrong, Lucian. There are some of us who had been a different kind of creature, and then something terrible happens, and we don't get to choose who we are anymore. It is unfair. A lot of things in this world are unfair!" Wisteria shouted in anger as she remembered the past.

"You mean…?" Lucian asked as he listened carefully, unable to believe it.

"Yes. I was once human. Everyone in the village was once human." Wisteria's voice was filled with pain. She didn't like talking about her past; never did she dream that she was going to be telling a stranger that she has taken as a son, a replacement for her original son, who could never come back.

"That's impossible." Lucian shakes his head in disbelief. Beasts were ruthless, disgusting creatures that could never be human. If Wisteria's claim was true, this explains the reason why she wanted to know so much about his beast ability that let him still maintain his human form. "Then that means—the way the village is set up, every human activity that you guys obsessively practice is all something you have all done before?" He questions himself.

"It's not impossible, child." Wisteria said she had been alive for 100 of years, trying hard not to lose the human part of herself. "When you get yourself trapped in an evil contract with the devil without thinking twice, you will be surprised with the sort of evil that wicked creature hits you with after betraying you at the end." Wisteria gave out a dry laugh. "My father, who was the original chief of the village, signed a contract with a demon. He wouldn't have done it if only they had helped us from the beginning. They call themselves gods, but they are unreliable, selfish, and the worst kind of gods that should never have existed in the first place. Betrayal upon betrayal, Lucian. The only thing those 12 useless gods are good at is acting righteous."

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