Page 24 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

The distant sound of someone screaming jolted Kolfinna to stand straighter. She opened her mouth to say something, but Sijur appeared unfazed and was picking at something beneath his nail. Completely unperturbed.

Strange. Had she heard wrong?

But then she heard it again, louder this time, like it was growingcloser.

As the seconds ticked by, the screaming continued. A wave of goose bumps rose along her flesh, making the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand straight. Still, Sijur appeared calm and unbothered.

She couldn’t take it anymore. “Don’t you hear that?”

“Hm?”

“The screaming.”

He gave her a strange look. “What screaming?”

“I … Never mind.”

More minutes ticked by, and this time, the screaming grew even louder. Sijur clucked his tongue and grinned. “Ah,thatscreaming.”

“You can hear it?” Kolfinna wasn’t sure if she should feel relieved that he could hear it because it was too bizarre in the first place.

“Oh, I certainly hear it now.” Sijur pushed himself off the desk, but still, he appeared unsurprised.

The office door burst open and Kolfinna nearly jumped in shock as Joran wrangled a blond woman inside, his grip on her forearm leaving pale indents whenever his hands slipped. The woman tried wrenching away, tears and snot streaming down her dirt-streaked face.

“Please, please! I beg of you—” the woman pleaded as Joran released her at Sijur’s feet.

She wore a thin, ragged dress that showed off her bony, dirty body. The skin on her wrists was peeling, red, and chafed fromwhat must’ve been tight ropes. Her hair fell over her shoulders in greasy tendrils and her eyes—they were hollowed and wild, like a desperate, cornered, starved animal.

Kolfinna’s mouth went dry and she suddenly couldn’t move.

The woman latched onto Sijur’s legs with broken, bloodied nails. “Please, I beg of you, I won’t do it again?—”

“Now, now, Olia, you should know better than to beg like that.” Sijur smiled down at her thinly, unaffected by her tears or the desperation in her voice.

Kolfinna turned to Joran to see his reaction, but his gaze was downcast and he was fiddling with the cuff of his sleeve. A typical Joran behavior, she was soon finding out.

This had to be a joke. Maybe it was a test? To see how Kolfinna would react? Because there was no other explanation why someone was in this state in front of them. Unless she was a criminal? Unless she had done something heinous? Unless …?

The woman, Olia, cried and beseeched some more, while Sijur tutted his tongue and spoke to her casually, like he was scolding a child. As if she wasn’t a clearly emaciated prisoner begging for her freedom. Kolfinna stood still, waiting for something to happen, but when the begging continued, she couldn’t stop herself anymore.

“Lieutenant General, what the hell is going on?” Her voice betrayed the confusion and horror she was feeling. The woman turned to her, as if seeing her for the first time. “Who is this woman and why?—”

“Please, help!” The woman crawled to Kolfinna and grasped her legs, her dirtied hands leaving smudges of blood and grime against Kolfinna’s pants. “Please help. I won’t steal again! I promise! I was hungry?—”

“Olia.” There was a warning in Sijur’s tone.

Tears filled the woman’s eyes. “Please.”

Kolfinna couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.

The office suddenly felt too small. The smell of defecation, urine, vomit, and blood was too strong. The desperation, the crack in the woman’s voice, the tears—it reminded her too much of her time with Hilda, stuck in a windowless room full of torture. Kolfinna’s stomach continued to twist and churn. Her vision tunneled, everything blurring except for the woman—the ragged clothes hanging off her wire-thin shoulders, her brittle hair, the faint yellowish bruises over her neck.

Sijur grabbed the woman by the shoulder and yanked her backward until she fell in a heap on the floor. He grimaced at his hand and wiped it against his thigh distractedly. “Anyway, let’s get to business, yes?”

“Business?” Kolfinna’s voice was barely a whisper. Her stomach was so knotted she was sure she’d vomit right then and there. Her mana begged to flare to the surface, but she also wanted to run away as far as possible. Away from the tragic woman who looked too similar to how Kolfinna did just mere weeks ago.

“Yes, business.”

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