A young girl with long platinum hair and beautiful blue eyes wearing nothing but a dirty piece of rag and was carrying a heavy budget full of water. She passed by the villager on her way back to her house located at the entrance to the forest.
The girl was stopped by some of the villagers. They gave her some excess crops from the recent harvest and asked her to stay over at their place. This was a daily sight for the girl as she was this peerless beauty born in an unfortunate family with a bedridden mother and frequently absent father in the eyes of the villagers.
The girl noticed a commotion among the town people. The woman who handed a bag of carrots to the girl kindly explained that the witch-sama that lives in the mountain nearby had just passed away.
This got the girl curious, she asked what is a witch and why her passing away had caused the commotion. The woman replied that witches and warlocks are people with otherworldly power that can defy reality and that they can be both good or evil people. In this case, that witch was like the protection deity since she was said to have been holding off an evil dragon from attacking their country.
After a quick thank you, the girl carried everything back home. To her, the dragon or the witch were too distant from her life to be of concern.
The scene reflected in her eyes after opening the door was her mother who was covered in bruises while chained to the bed. The girl calmly put down the groceries and proceeded to cook.
The girl gently spoon fed the woman despite her weakly whispering countless curses toward the girl. After the meal, the girl continued her daily routine of house chores and tending the small farm outside the house. Before long, it was already night time.
While the girl was laying on the bed in her own little room ready to sleep, she heard a loud bang. A man kicked open the main door as per usual. Soon later, she could hear the sound of beating and weak cries of pain.
The girl's mind recalled the talk about the witch and how they have these strange powers. For the first time in her life, the girl prayed. She wished for the power that can make her wish come true.
She voiced out her wish: "My parents love each other and I am loved the fullest by my family" said the girl as she tried to find comfort in her little lie and her illusion of a happy family. Right at that moment, she felt a small tugging sensation in her mind which she quickly dismissed..
Unnoticed by the girl, the sound of the beating stopped after she made her wish. The girl was able to fall asleep earlier than usual as it was a rare quiet night of sleep for her.
The girl noticed the changes right away the next day.
For once she was awakened from the smell of food. She exited her room and found the man cooking. Sitting on the bed was the woman, now with new bandages that she didn't warp for her. The man told the girl to sit down by the table as breakfast was almost ready. The girl did so with her eyes widened.
The girl finally broke out from her stunned state when the man placed the food in front of her. He then proceeded to feed the woman, to which the woman accepted without trying to bite him like the last time she saw them together.
From there on, the man would stay in the house more frequently and take care of the woman and the girl. Once the woman recovered enough, she helped out the girl with the chores. At night she would tell her stories while brushing her long beautiful platinum hair. It was at that time the girl received her name, Pandora, and she smiled for the first time.
The man would still go out for a long time, sometimes returning with blood. However, unlike before, he would bring back some gifts and more money.
Not so long after, the woman healed enough to be able shop groceries with the girl. From a traveling merchant, the girl noticed a piece of white fabric. The merchant said it was made of the finest silk and would certainly be a great match for the girl's long platinum hair. The woman then purchased the fabric and gave it to the girl, told her that she can use it to make whatever clothes she wants at the seamstress. The girl only silently hugged the fabric in her cradle with a small smile.
A year later, the woman gave birth to another child. It was a boy with platinum hair and blue eyes inherited from the woman's side of the family much like the girl.
The six years since that fateful night were the happiest of the girl's life. She grew into a breathtaking teenager known around the area. Her brother's emerging beauty too attracted a lot of attention to their family.
A crowd of people surrounding her while she was shopping for groceries in the market area of the village became a new normal for her. The people mainly admired her beauty from a distance without the courage to approach the girl.
The villager before her gave her the bag of potato and an additional bag of appas with a blush. The girl took the bags off the seller's hand and thanked him for the extra appas.
Today they were going to expand the field outside the house. Her mother and brother were to start plowing the new field while she prepared for lunch. And soon after, the man would also be back shortly for lunch. Thinking of their faces made the girl fasten her pace with a faint smile.
When she reached the outskirts of the forest, she couldn't find her mother nor her brother outside the field. They might just be resting inside the house, thought the girl. Putting the groceries aside, she walked over to the hoe on the ground and wanted to pick it up.
Once she walked up closer to the plowed area, she noticed the numerous skeletal remains of people. Some of them still have hair and among all the bodies, the girl noticed one with hair color similar to her mother's and was wearing a paired blue necklace as her mother's.
A pained scream from a familiar voice suddenly came out from within the house. The girl immediately ran toward the source of the scream. She opened the door with force and panic only to find a puddle of blood forming under her brother's lifeless body on the floor.
Her mother, standing behind her brother, was holding a blood stained kitchen knife. She turned her attention toward the girl at the door. "That scum kidnapped us both and killed my sister! How could I ever forget that!? Just the thought of baring his children disgust me! You are all mistakes that shouldn't exist!" screamed the woman as she charged toward the girl with the knife.
The girl in her stunned state didn't react fast enough to dodge the incoming blade.
The cold metal embedded in her chest brought the most intense pain she ever felt. Blood started seeping out from around the knife, painting her chest a violet red. It hurts!
The woman pulled out the knife and proceeded to stab the girl once again.
Within the agonizing pain from the repetitive stabbing, the only thing in the girl's mind was her wish for the pain to stop. Suddenly she felt a familiar tugging feeling in her mind much like the one she experienced back on that fateful night when she made her wish. Suddenly, the excruciating pain stopped, yet the girl could feel the cold of her body and the feeling of warmth exiting her body. It was the feeling of her life painlessly escaping her body. She could feel herself dying to the increasing number of wounds and blood loss. Before her eyes lost their light, she made another wish, one that denied the order of the world; She didn't want to die. At that moment, the girl felt the strongest pull on her mind, which made her momentarily lose consciousness.
Reality shifted as if it bends toward the girl's will. The girl's body that was covered in stab wounds disappeared as if it didn't belong to this world. Only the pool of blood on the floor could testify to the crime and death that occured.
The woman was confused at the scene unfolding when her target of violence suddenly disappeared before her. The next moment when the woman looked up from the floor where the body used to be, she found the cursed girl standing by the door and her body devoid of any wound. She lunged toward the girl again and this time her knife penetrated deep into the girl's skull. She was certain this would kill the girl instantly. However, the supposed corpse of the girl disappeared again and once more the girl appeared with no visible injuries.
The woman let out a crazed laugh filled with hatred. Even the world didn't let her erase the filth of her life. "It was all your doing wasn't it! There was no way I would ever fall for that scum and bare his children! You accursed witch!"
The girl looked at her perfectly fine hands and body as she tried to understand what just happened. Yet before the girl could organize her thoughts, she "died" again.
She looked to the woman wanting to tell her to stop, her throat was sliced open.
This repeated several times as everytime the girl "revived," she was killed by the woman without a moment of delay or hesitation.
Ultimately, the girl decided to run away from the woman for help. She ran outside toward the village. However, in a moment of hurry, she accidentally tripped on the digged holes on the field.
The woman paused for a second when she saw the skeleton with a grayer shade of platinum hair which the girl tripped on. "It must be my sister's will for me to kill you! Don't you dare to run away! I will kill you and that scum as many times as it takes to avenge her!"
The girl instinctually pulled her arms before her face to stop the incoming attack. Yet, the attack didn't come as she expected. Instead, she felt a splatter of blood on her. When she looked up, the woman's head was sliced off her body by a blade coming from behind her.
The woman's headless body fell next to the girl which the girl watched with horror and dread.
The attack came from her father who just returned home to find the woman trying to attack the girl. He shook off the blood on the sword and put it back to the scabbard. He then walked up to the girl and helped lift the girl up gently from the ground. He moved to bury the body of the woman and her brother. Meanwhile the girl was told to get lunch ready while he buried the bodies.
Unknown to both of them, a villager passed by and witnessed the moment when the man killed his wife and ran back to the village for help.
Later the villagers came and killed the man and from his belongings, they learned that he was the bandit leader of the area around and that it was him who had been leaking information of merchants that came to the village. Those buried corpses under the field were some of his kidnapped victims, mainly women from the assaulted merchant caravans.
The villagers asked the now alone girl if she wanted to live with them in the village. The girl declined their offer and decided to stay.
After the villagers left, the girl walked back into her room. She took out the piece of white fabric from the chest in her room. It was the first gift she ever received from the woman, thus she cherished it and kept it away until now. Perhaps it was reminiscent of the rag she used to wear before she manifested the strange power or because it was simpler to move in, the girl removed the blood-stained expensive clothes she got from the man and simply put on the white pieces of fabric. After all, not that clothes mattered to the girl anymore.
She lighted the house on fire and moved toward the deeper part of the forest. She no longer wanted to be there and be reminded of the incident. Using her stranger power, she no longer had any bodily need, no dirt could ever cling on to her, and her body stopped growing just as she wished. Stopping her need to eat helped a lot in her life in the forest.
There were times some people wandered into the forest and asked her to leave the forest. However, when the girl used her power to make them speak the truth, none of them were really there for her. They were all just lying for their own greed, since, unknown to the girl, rumors outside had it that an unmatched beauty lived in the forest with the power to change reality. Most of these rumors came from wanderers that got teleported outside of the forest and some were fantasized and exaggerated by others. The forest became known as the forest of truth as people noticed that they couldn't lie when they were in the forest.
The girl silently looked down, from the tree branch she was sitting on, at the arguing couples below her with her beautiful blue eyes. Ever since she moved into the forest, she had been testing her power on the people who wandered into the forest. There were times when she tested couples on truth telling, their relationship remained unchanged, meaning they had been truthful to each other since the beginning. Those were times that the girl found satisfaction when people were being true to themselves and their own feelings. However, it did bring wonders to the girl that if she would ever find someone who could resist her power and treat her with sincerity. She wanted a constant that wouldn't change, something that even her power couldn't influence. If such a feeling or person exists, then it would be nothing but "hope" to the girl in the gray world where everything bend to her power and the vanity (emptiness) of reality created from her power.
Over the course of time, the girl heard tales of the powerful emperor of the country this forest was located in. From the traveling bards, she would hear about the love story between the emperor and his beloved queen or the brave story of him slaying the evil dragon that plagued the country who even a witch couldn't kill.
The girl wondered if this emperor could be the "hope" she was looking for. As if it was arranged by fate, she heard from some soldiers scouting the forest that the emperor and his family were planning to visit the forest.
A few days after the soldiers finished surveilling the forest, a fancy carriage guarded by a few soldiers stopped at the outside of the forest.
The emperor was standing with his wife and the child in her arms as they admired the pond in the forest. They exchanged words of love and vows as they heard about the rumor of the forest of truth.
The girl silently watched them behind a tree, she felt a stream of tears roll down from her eyes. Perhaps this was what she had been looking for, a feeling that was strong that her power couldn't waver. Or perhaps, the man could be the one that can resist her power.
With the little anticipation and hope she had left, she said "He loves me the fullest," as she walked out from the trees. Immediately, she felt the tugging in her mind, however, it wasn't as strong as that time when she prayed to live.
"Oh my beloved, how pleasant for you to join me in the view!" said the emperor, whose attention was completely taken by the entering girl. The wife was confused by his sudden change of attitude and asked him about the girl. Only for him to turn back toward the wife and ask who she was instead.
He proceeded to make a declaration of his love for the girl while the wife and the girl stood there dumbfounded at the situation.
The wife was the first to react. She cursed at the girl for bewitching her loved one and took a step toward the girl.
The man ran his sword through the woman and the child in her arm. "How dare this bitch insult you my love! Her claim to be my wife was nothing but a mad person's gibberish! Ah, how much her blood tainted the beautiful view of the forest. Shall we move to somewhere more pleasant, my love?" said the man as he extended his arm toward the girl.
The death before her caused something in the girl to snap. She hit the man's hand away and angrily asked him about the vows he made to his wife. To which the man replied with confusion, he told the girl that she had always been his lover and not this strange mad woman who claimed to be his wife.
The girl angrily told the man to disappear from her and that she never wanted to see him again much like a child throwing a tantrum. After she lashed out the words, she felt an intense pain as if a hammer was brought down on her mind and blood started gushing out her mouth and eyes.
As if in response to her words, the man disappeared instantly and the supposed dead wife and child were brought back to life.
The girl immediately sent herself away from the pond and back to the new house in the forest she had been living in before her consciousness faded from the recoil of her power. Meanwhile, the woman was left by the pond wondering who was the father for the child in her arms.
After several weeks, the girl finally recovered fully and she learned that the country had been thrown into a turmoil as it had gone kingless overnight. However, none of that mattered to the girl.
She thought this man was special and how wrong she was. If even one of the strongest beings in this world couldn't resist her power, then she shall search beyond this world to search for her "hope." Thus, the witch of Vainglory began her long journey to find her special one, who can resist the vanity (emptiness) of reality from her power.
Author's note: This fic is part of my Witches' Beloved One fic which is also cross posted on ff and ao3.