Every Day

Miura never told Akai what happened to the other villagers. He had assumed that they were still alive, and although he didn't feel anything towards them anyways, Miura kept their deaths a secret. Akai only cared about Nera's safety among them.

Every day, Akai would walk around the city hoping to sense any dragon that would happen to have come near. He was certain that the dragon would eventually come to King's City for the villagers. He knew that forest dragons were a small exception to the rule that dragons mostly keep to themselves. The other dragonslayers continued to harass people who they thought were dragons until they had to prove otherwise. Captain Leo was in charge of maintaining order among the groups of dragonslayers. However, he believed that it would waste Akai's time to bring in a bunch of suspects, so anybody suspected of being a dragon in human form would be personally checked by Leo himself.

Every day, Miura would go down to check on Nera. She was the only one allowed to go down there, while two dragonslayers guarded it. Every time Miura walked past them, they felt a chill to their spines.

The crows would constantly keep watch; never sleeping, but Nera would only stay sitting on her bed. The dungeons reeked of death from the rotting corpses. Maggots ate away at their flesh. The crows would occasionally take meal breaks eating there.

On the next day after the witch killed the other villagers, Miura brought with her one meal for the entire day. It would be the same every day. Miura would bring a slice of bread infested with maggots and a wooden bowl of water. Nera ate it without a second thought. Her spirit and vigor didn't falter. She wouldn't let it.

Miura asked, "What drives you?"

Nera ignored the witch's questions and continued to eat her meal.

"Everybody else that you knew have died. You'll never be able to leave this place. So, why do you bother to struggle?"

Nera finished her meal and replied, "Because I know that I'll get my chance to escape. I won't die here. As long as she is safe, I won't die."

"Why don't you tell me the name of this 'she'? 'She' is not a very good indicator of who I should expect. Perhaps a description?"

Nera ignored her and drank the bowl of water. She, then proceeded to do some push-ups. Miura realized that she wasn't that little girl 30 years ago. She was far stronger than most people, she thought, but that means it'll be far more satisfying to see her break. Miura was trembling in excitement. At first, she was disappointed that she couldn't harm Nera, but now, she took it as a challenge.

"Just so you are aware, I'll be the only friend you have, now. Akai will be too preoccupied in looking for that dragon who you think will save you. Your dragon friend will die, and you will be trapped in my talons until Akai is eventually bored of you," Miura said with a sadistic expression.

Nera paused for a moment, but continued to ignore her. Although she knew that the witch was spouting lies, the words still rang inside of her. They echoed constantly. Every day, she was reminded that there was no escape. Still, she continued to give a brave face even though on the inside, the voices of despair lingered.

Akai was never aware of what was going on, down there. If he was, he would have put an end to it and killed the witch where she stood. Every day, Miura came down to hand her a meal. Every day, the witch would continue to say things like "Nobody will come to save you" and "Your all alone". Nera continued to ignore these statements, but even so, she had heard them. And the crows would subtly open their mouths and say the same statements in Nera's voice as if she was hearing things. She tried to ignore them, but the constant ringing of these words continued to seep into her head. However, Nera continued to fight on. She knew that as long as Nia was safe, then she wouldn't give in to these thoughts. Just the thought of Nia would silence all of those voices.