... A devastated scene of a small village of a group of bandit.
A dark canopy of dark mana cover the sky of the village.
Dried corpses scattered all over the place, seemingly died in pain.
The curse.
That was the identity of this dark mana and what's makes these people suffer to the death.
At the center of the darkness, a girl with white hair stood, silently looked at the corpse of the leader of this bandit group.
Bulky but fat body, unshaved beard, bald head with sinister facial features... Truly a typical evil people.
He was the one who assault her village, kill mans and catch womans, a devil in the form of human.
... But it was a scene from the past.
Riana's past.
Her dream.
The same dream that continue to haunt her nights for over 100 years.
The day she awakened her ability to wield great curse.
The day she fulfilled her desire to vengeance and lost her life's purpose.
That young girl stood at the spot for three days already.
She ponder, ponder, ponder, and continue to pondering.
What's now?
Shortly, that was her question.
Riana sure that at the fifth day, she would runs out of mana and left at the of near death.
She at that time... Felt relieved.
She thought that she finally be freed from this painful world.
But unfortunately, a group of Adventurer found her and saved her in the end.
It is seems that her [Canopy of pain] can be seen from the near town and attract attention of the Adventurers and the town's guard.
They wary of the eerie darkness that rise at the center of the forest and send an emergency quest to investigate the darkness.
The result was they found the dwelling of the devastated bandit group that used to haunted this area and a dying young girl.
The only question remained is, what was the cause of the annihilation?
No one can found the answer.
And Riana at that time don't want to say anything. She's too busy with her thought about what she would do after her revenge fulfilled.
Strangly enough, she don't feel happy at all.
Just empty remained in her heart.
At that time, she realized.
That the deceased won't be glad or back even if she killed all the bad guys.
***
The scene shifted quickly as the dream further advanced.
Past, past, past... All of them was her memories of the past.
The scene when her comrades laughed at her for being heavyly drunk also replayed once more.
Like a torture.
Like a curse.
Truly laughable.
The one who used to wield great curse haunted by a curse herself?
What a joke!
No one would believed her even if she tell others the truth.
Yes, no one.
Except him.
... But he was no longer alife.
Riana awaked not long after.
She still sleepy.
So sleepy and tired.
But she don't want to see these scenes anymore that she wake up on the middle of the night.
Very contrast to her state of mind, the laughters and shouts of the Adventurers that no longer strained by her precense was so cheerful that she almost misunderstood that their laughter was insult towards her.
Riana sat at her bed, sighed and wiped her slightly wet eyes.
She's lucky enough to get a room with a window, so she pushed open the window and glanced at the midnight townscape of Harad.
The town's looks, if described, is a bit scary.
There's almost no light source, after all.
Even her room is only had the moonlight as the light source.
Well, that's not a problem for a skilled mage like her, though.
She could just cast [Night vision] spell, a low-level spell that every mage with a certain level of skill could master quickly, and the night would looked as bright as the daytime.
But she do not cast [Night vision].
She choose to. Because she feel like enjoying the stars and moon tonight.
Used the spell to erase the darkness of the night would only makes more difficult to gazing the light of sky objects.
She leaned at the window and prop her chin with her hands.
Her blue eyes looked at the sky, but what she really see is was so far away beyond the current sky she gazed.
What she gazed was the sky 100 years ago.
The sky covered with a sea of dark clouds all year.
"A Lady who can appreciate the starry sky was a true Lady right, Lady Pristress?"
The dreams tortured her, that was the truth.
Yet, these dreams was her anchor.
Anchor that help her to always remembering their faces, smiles, gazes and words.
Every single of them was undoubtedly is her precious memories.
An unforgettable and not to forgetted moments.
Her precious... Treasures.
These treasures haunted her nights, tortured and cursed her, and yet these treasures itself was the ones keeping her in shape.
The ones protect her from decayed from the long life's pains.
The ones that prevented her to broken completely.
So ironic, indeed.
What a life she live is, really.
"Spare me, guys..."
A bitter, tired but notalgic smile formed at her lips without she even realized.
And that smile eventually led to a sigh.
"Just... Why can't I die already?"
She can't hold it anymore.
So tears welled off.
"Killing myself would be too painful, you know?"
She bite her lips bitterly.
"I want to aged with you guys, too!"
"Family maybe not an option, but I want us to at least drink together at our aged times, with wrinkles formed on our faces, smiled and laugh at our past self!"
"But... I can't. Why..."
She sobbed, wiped her eyes again and again.
The night atmosphere only worsened her anguish.
And that sadness.
Irritated her.
She raise her head to the sky.
"F*ck you, world!"
She shout to the world, to the life, to the everything that makes sad cuz that pissing her off.
"Motherf*cker Gods!"
She curse to the divine entity that start the great war, kill many people, cause chaos everywhere, makes trouble to everyone, just to obtain more power!
"Argh! Dammit F*ck! F*ck! F*ck! FFFUUUUUUUAACK!!!"
Her stressed mind also pissed her off.
Everything is pissed her off.
So, she needed a refreshing session.
"..."
Riana stopped throwing tantrum after she realized it.
She immediately hopped off her bed, dressed up, and then jumped off the room from the window.
Let's kill some monsters to vent this anger and sadness.
Decided that, Riana walked away the Sunsmile inn while shadow boxing the air with angry huffs.
To further strengthen the effectivity of the refreshing sesson, she would use her punches instead of curses to killing some monsters.
Because since ancient times, punching the face of others was a good way to vent your frustation.
But punching someone else is bad, so monsters is a nice alternative.
"Fufufufufufu~."
While giggiling in eerie tone, the figure of white haired beauty engulfed by the shadow of the forest trees and disappeared from the reach of the moonlight.