Chapter 102: I Wanted to Be Happy

My mother had a habit of extravagance.

Even though we had no income, she would buy luxurious gemstones, beautiful clothes, and stock up on cosmetics. Whenever she heard about a new beauty treatment, she would try it all and spend money like water.

There were several hundred gold coins that she received when she parted ways with her wealthy merchant husband, but she had used up all of that when I was fourteen years old. Normally, it should have been enough for my mother and me to live comfortably without any worries.

According to my mother, it wasn’t wasteful spending but an investment. She stubbornly believed that if she became beautiful again, Lord Tubris would come to take her back.

Even when her savings ran out, my mother didn’t stop her extravagant habits. She would borrow money in any way she could and buy clothes that she would never even wear. She never stopped her wastefulness, even if it meant going without proper meals.

I had to work. As a woman with no connections or education, the only jobs I could do were either becoming an adventurer or a prostitute. I did both.

During the day, I worked as an adventurer, and at night, I would change into revealing clothes and stand on the roadside. My chastity was bought by a middle-aged man with three silver coins. I suppose one could say it was a decent price.

I worked tirelessly and returned home, only to find more new clothes and debts piling up. It was a never-ending cycle.

One day, when I sold off some dusty clothes, my mother became furious and lashed out at me. Those were things that were necessary when Lord Tubris came to pick her up, things she needed as a wealthy merchant’s wife.

At that moment, my mother’s face resembled a swollen goblin. It was not the appearance of someone desired by a wealthy merchant’s husband as a lover or a second wife.

“I’m sorry, Mother…”

I found myself apologizing. My mother was pitiful, miserable, and pathetic. Without understanding why, I apologized and cried.

No matter how much my emaciated mother hit me, it had no effect. Only my heart ached.

Perhaps my mother realized that she had gone too far, as the next day when she returned home, she wore a bright smile and presented me with new clothes. The money she had hidden in the back of the chest was gone.

I had reached my limit. No matter how hard I tried, money slipped through my fingers like sand. The only reason I was alive was that I had no reason to die.

Was it a coincidence or a whim? One day, I overslept a little, and when I woke up after sunrise, my mother had prepared breakfast for me. It had been over a decade since she had done anything other than dress up.

She greeted me with a gentle smile and called me by my name. The profile of my mother, illuminated by the morning sun streaming through the window, was truly beautiful.

That’s why I decided to kill her while she was still beautiful.

My mother’s thin neck was as fragile as a twig to me, who had trained as an adventurer. I grabbed her head from behind and twisted it in one swift motion. It snapped easily. My mother probably didn’t even understand what had happened. I was relieved that I could kill her without causing her any pain.

“I’m glad, Mother.”

I smiled at my mother with her twisted neck. Her smile would forever remain beautiful within me.

I no longer had my hard-earned money spent without permission.

I was free, liberated. However, there was a gaping hole in my heart.

I began participating in dungeon explorations not for the sake of money but to seek danger. It was only when I exposed myself to danger that I could forget the past.

The environment was, to put it mildly, the worst. The stench of mold, excrement, and decaying flesh permeated every pore of my body. I once scrubbed myself so hard that my skin peeled and bled, but the smell wouldn’t go away.

Whether it had truly seeped into my being or if I was deluding myself into thinking it was still there, I couldn’t tell. I understood that I could no longer step into a world illuminated by the sun.

There were days when I encountered hardly any monsters in the dungeon. It was just luck. When we easily found the stairs and advanced to the fifth floor, we entered a strange and grand hall. It felt like a temple of some sinister cult.

The party of four, including me, investigated the temple, but we couldn’t figure out when it was built or which god it worshipped. We had no education, and deciphering ancient texts was out of the question.

In the center of the temple, there was a large jar. It was big enough to accommodate two adults. When I touched the jar, I heard voices reverberating from inside.

“Make a contract with me. I will give you wealth that you can never exhaust in your lifetime.”

I looked around. The voice from the jar was quite loud, but it seemed that only I could hear it, not my companions.

“It’s useless. Only you can hear me.”

I peered into the jar. Despite holding a torch, it was pitch black inside, and I couldn’t see anything.

“Why did you choose me?”

“Impudent to think you’re a chosen one. I just called out to the first person who touched the jar. I threw a random stone, and it happened to hit you. That’s all.”

Let’s call the demon in the jar “Rouge” since it had no other name. It sneered, but I wasn’t angry. My emotions had long worn out. I just vaguely thought that I must be being made a fool of.

“How about it? Will you make a contract with me?”

The demon said with amusement. It must be enjoying how foolish humans react rather than me specifically.

I couldn’t trust the words “wealth that you can never exhaust.” My mother had once possessed what seemed like an infinite amount of gold coins, but they disappeared surprisingly easily. That’s how money is.

I became interested in what kind of wealth this demon was talking about.

“Fine, let’s make a contract.”

“You’re quick to decide. That’s fine. The key to becoming a winner in life is to quickly seize opportunities.”

“What do I need to do?”

“Can you kill your comrades for the sake of money?”

The demon said it as the ultimate choice, but I still felt nothing.

“It’s easy if I stab them from behind. What’s next?”

“Throw their freshly dead bodies into the jar. In about thirty minutes, their souls will be processed and turn into beautiful gemstones.”

Before the demon finished speaking, I had already moved. I stabbed a knife into the neck of the man I had killed first, struggling to get him into the jar. As usual, the inside of the jar was pitch black, and I couldn’t see anything. I could hear squelching sounds, as if something was being chewed.

I stood still and waited for it to finish. Then, when the chewing sound stopped, a hand reached out from the edge of the jar. The man I had killed crawled out of the jar. He didn’t look the same as before. His skin was ashen, and jewels were embedded in both of his eyes.

“That’s a corpse that will move according to your wishes. If you gouge out its jewel eyes, you can make a good amount of money. Of course, it will die again.”

Enticed by the demon’s voice, I reached out to the corpse’s face. I stuck my fingers into its eye sockets and tore out its optic nerves. The man collapsed on the spot. He was nothing more than a discarded shell now.

In my hand was a vividly red ruby. This was interesting. Perhaps I could regain some control over my life. A smile naturally formed on my face.

My name is Rouge. I am a woman who looks stunningly beautiful with blood-red lips.

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