chapter 12: Anna's past
(Warning: This section contains descriptions related to violence and torture.)
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In the depths of the forest during winter, a young girl was kidnapped. Bandits had abducted the only daughter of a noble family with the intention of extorting a large amount of gold and then fleeing to another kingdom. The kidnapped girl's name was Anna.
The bandits took Anna to a cave. Since it was winter, the weather was bitterly cold, so a few of them went to gather firewood to keep the little girl from freezing to death.
They collected the wood and started a fire, but Anna's condition began to deteriorate rapidly. Without delay, they lit the fire and did their best to keep Anna warm. After all, if Anna were to perish, the duke, or perhaps the entire kingdom, might come after them.
Thus, they spent the evening there, striving to keep Anna warm. The next day, they began writing a letter to the Duke to send a message and demand ransom. Some of the bandits headed towards the city. The city, Tresca, was one of the largest cities in the Asina kingdom. As they arrived, they spotted a group of youths and approached them.
One of the bandits said, "Hey, youngsters, anyone interested in making some money?"
Meanwhile, chaos ensued at the Duke's residence as Anna's abduction had already been discovered by her brother, Jeheria. The relationship between Jeheria and Anna was complex. Jeheria had first laid eyes on Anna as a baby, and from that moment on, he felt a strong desire to protect her. In his eyes, his sweet Anna belonged only to him. Fortunately, their parents had not shown much interest in Anna, or she would have surely wanted to harm them.
Jeheria had already begun assembling a group to find Anna when the guards brought a group of men before him. "Who are these?" Jeheria asked, and the captain of the guards began to speak, "Sir, these men have brought a letter about Anna. They claim that a group unknown to them approached and offered them a sum of gold to deliver this letter to you." Jeheria's expression quickly changed as he took the letter from the guard and began to read. In the letter, it was stated that if a large sum of money were placed at a location in the Slazad Forest, Anna would be returned unharmed. There was also a map indicating where to place the money.
Jeheria glared fiercely at the peasant group brought before him. By evening that day, the group who brought the letter had been tortured to death inhumanely. The duke's castle was filled with screams that day. The next day, Jeheria set out with a few of his trusted men to the designated location to send the money.
Slazad Forest derived its name from the Slazad River, and encountering monsters in this forest was not uncommon. The designated location was a village somewhat deep within the forest. When Jeheria arrived at the planned location and left the money, he returned. Shortly after, one of the bandits took the money and returned to the cave. Upon returning to the cave, they took Anna and released her in a part of the city. Once they were sure that Anna had been taken by the duke's guards, they began to flee the kingdom, but Jeheria soon caught up with them. It seemed that Jeheria had followed them after the bandits took the money.
Although the bandits were quite professional, Jeheria managed to find their tracks, and when they released Anna, he attacked. All the bandits were brought to the dungeon of the duke's castle. When they arrived there, the screams from the dungeon made the bandits' hair stand on end. The leader of the bandits took out a knife from his shoe and looked at his companions. "We have no other choice; we either suffer and die here for who knows how long, or we die now, powerless. Decide after me," he said, and the bandits looked at each other with fearful expressions. While all this was happening, Jeheria had descended into the dungeon and overheard the bandits' conversation. He quietly ordered his guards, and when they reached the dungeon, they found the leader dead, and the other bandits were planning to go the same route, but Jeheria prevented that.
Torture would last for days, and eventually, the prisoners would lose their sanity and finally find peace. A few days later, one evening, the door to Anna's room was violently opened. Finally, Anna's parents had gone to the capital, and Jeheria, seizing the opportunity, had come to Anna's room.
"You know what's going to happen, don't you, sister" Jeheria said and Anna undressed and revealed her little body. Whenever she made a mistake, her brother would come to her room when they were alone and ask Anna to undress. At first, of course, Anna refused, but after a while, she realized that the more she rejected her brother, the more it would hurt.
Jeheria started hitting Anna's little body with the whip in his hand. Each blow caused deep wounds in both Anna's body and heart. Jeheria continued to scream and hit violently. "You belong to me!","I always told you not to make mistakes, it's your fault!","How can you not listen to my orders!"
When he finally stopped, Anna's body was covered in blood. Jeheria gave her the best healing potion and hugged Anna. "I'm sorry for hurting you, brother. You can't imagine how worried I am. I can't lose something that belongs to me again!" She said these words with a disgusting expression on her face. Anna was now used to this cruelty. After all, she had nothing to do. At first she tried to explain the situation to his parents, but the only answer she received from them was that he was "jealous of Jeheria".
Jeheria even reveals himself to Anna's parents.
When he found out that she had snitched, he hit her so hard that some of the wounds on her body did not heal. so she had to endure it alone. When she grew up, she dreamed that her Prince Charming would come and save her from her brother and kidnap her from this house. At least this dream eased the pain a little.
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