Stigma Effect

Proofreader: kuroneko_chan

As she climbed all the stairs, a heavy-looking door appeared. She put her ear to it, but there was no sound from the other side.

Yuriel pointed the gun forward and opened the door.

She could see a dark hallway just like the basement. In the middle of a short hallway, there were rooms with closed doors.

There were two places where the light leaked under the door.

Yuriel was about to walk forward, but as soon as her feet touched the floor, she was surprised by the loud sound of her shoes and turned back.

She was startled by the sound of her footsteps….

She thought someone was walking.

Hesitating, Yuriel took off her low-heeled shoes and placed them inside the door leading to the basement.

She can protect herself for a while because she has a gun, but she doesn’t know how many people are here, so she has to get out of there as undetected as possible.

The luminous rooms were located side by side at the end of the hallway.

Yuriel moved more carefully than when climbing the stairs. Her mouth was dry.

She walked through the hallway, feeling the creepy, tickling sensation of blood flowing from her wounded head down the back of her neck.

In the room where no light was leaking under the door, the sound of something rattling was leaking out little by little. In one room she heard the sound of a monster, and in another room she heard the suppressed voice of a human.

After walking through a long hallway and arriving in front of the door that was leaking light, she began to hear people arguing inside.

Yuriel stopped at the sound from the door on the right. They were shouting so loudly that even Yuriel beyond the door could accurately hear the conversation.

No sound could be heard from the opposite room on the left.

Ignoring their conversation and going out of the hallway, Yuriel looked at the door and sighed.

It didn’t open. The door here was locked.

It was dark and she couldn’t see well, so she fumbled with the doorknob and touched a hole in the middle for the key. Yuriel bit her lip and touched the door.

Maybe they’ll hang the key next to it.

She carefully touched the side of the door, but nothing came out.

If she shoots from here, the screaming people in the room on the right will run out and subdue Yuriel.

Yuriel tried to calm her dizzy head and listened to the sound from the room on the right.

“She’s a Temple person!”

“Did you bring a woman whose face was on the newspaper here? What were you thinking, you ignorant bastards!”

“She was wearing a robe, so we did not know that.”

“How are you going to deal with it, huh? It is said that the monster core that the child had was also stolen from that woman, and if you keep it, it means that you are a lucky person in the Temple.”

“We can’t even sell the monster core. If we sell it, we will be caught right away.”

“Think about what you’re going to do with that woman before someone comes from the Temple!”

“It’s difficult if there’s a body left. What about throwing it to monsters as food and burning all of her clothes and belongings?”

“It’s not worth it. How much money would we have if we sold her?”

“Money is not the problem, you idiot!”

“We are going to die right now, is money a problem?”

Vicious conspiracies came and went.

After listening to their conversation, Yuriel tried to calm herself down while trying to catch her breath. If she had waited for the Temple to come to rescue her, she would have almost died.

One person proposed to sell Yuriel as a slave, but he got a lot of pushback. While listening to the loud conversation for a while, Yuriel checked the doors in the hallway one by one.

Most were locked. The only unlocked door was the room opposite the arguers.

After completing the check, Yuriel, who was about to return to the basement inside the hallway, noticed that the noise from inside had stopped.

She could hear people walking down the hallway as if they were about to come out of the hallway, who had stopped the meaningless argument.

“For now, kill the woman immediately and feed her to the monsters.”

“Go down to the basement and deal with it….”

The hallway was too long to return to the basement. Hearing the sound of footsteps getting closer, Yuriel had no choice but to open the only other unlocked door.

Yuriel went into the room without even checking the inside, and soon heard people rumbling from the opposite room.

“Deal with it without leaving a trace.”

The sound of opening the locked door and the sound of going into the basement were divided.

Yuriel put her ear close to the door and heard the sound.

Please, leave the door open. Please.

The sound of the door opening at the end of the hallway was heard, footsteps of several people leaving, and the sound of closing the door. Unfortunately, there was the sound of people locking the door after them.

Yuriel closed her eyes tightly.

They locked it and left.

Yuriel let out a long sigh and looked around. If they soon confirm that Yuriel was not in the basement, the people will be running around looking for Yuriel.

Before that, anything that might be of some help….

“Gasp….!”

As soon as she looked around, she screamed. Yuriel covered her mouth and opened her eyes wide.

That monster…. right?

The monster with a leash was staring at Yuriel silently. Yuriel, seeing the brightly shining eyes of a monster, frowned at the strange feeling.

The wolf-like monster had a leash tied around its neck and a muzzle over its mouth.

Unlike the monsters in the basement that bumped into each other to get out, this monster sat calmly and watched the situation.

If it weren’t for the muzzle, restraints, and that large size, it would have looked like it could be mistaken for a hunting dog.

Yuriel pondered for a while whether that was a real monster, and soon came to a conclusion.

It exudes an energy that can only be felt by monsters with a core. It was definitely a monster.

Unlike other monsters, it had a fairly elegant appearance. Yuriel hesitated and moved with her back against the wall. The monster’s eyes followed Yuriel.

There was another door behind the monster that turned its head as it moved.

The door was half broken and rattling as if that monster had hit itself there.

On the other side of the door, there were stairs leading up. As she slowly approached the door, she checked whether the monster was still sitting quietly. The monster was slowly getting up. The monster set its large teeth between its muzzle and began to growl.

It was wearing a muzzle, but she couldn’t be relieved. The claws were large. It looked like she would be fatally wounded just by touching it.

Yuriel pulled out her gun and stepped back again.

If there was a door like that in this room, there was a possibility that there would be a similar door in the other room as well.

Yuriel, who came out as if running away from the room where the monster was, went out and entered the empty room opposite.

There was a familiar box on the desk in the empty room. There was a box containing the robe that was stolen, some belongings, and the core of the monster.

Yuriel ran there and opened the box. The monster core was still in the box.

It seems that the debate was settled without being able to figure out how to deal with the monster core.

After taking the monster core out of the box, Yuriel put it in her pocket and looked around.

“No.”

There was no door on this side leading to another place.

So there was only one place that could go to another place. Yuriel went back to the room across the hallway and tried to think positively.

“Yes, who would think I went through the door behind the monster? So dangerous…. Wah.”

When Yuriel entered again, this time the monster roared straight away. It was in a sensitive state as if it had detected something powerful.

“Ah, maybe because of this monster core….”

Monsters had a habit of making nests with powerful monsters as their leaders. The measure for judging a monster with strong power was definitely the core.

And the monster core that Yuriel was holding now was the smallest one except for the one that was embedded in Raphlet’s chest.

Considering that the smaller the size, the greater the power, and the reaction of the monster was understandable.

Yuriel leaned her back against the wall, raised her gun, and approached the monster. As she got closer, the monster lowered its body as if it would jump at Yuriel at any moment.

She had to approach it, but she didn’t have the courage to approach it.

If she shoots the gun, people who hear the sound will gather here, so she has to refrain from shooting, yet she has to shoot the monster to go through the door….

Yuriel pondered over a difficult situation to choose from.

As she sighed and pondered, the monster suddenly wrinkled its nose and slowly started to get up.

The monster that was wary of Yuriel drew closer to Yuriel to the extent that the leash was pulled tight. The monster’s nose pointed towards Yuriel’s thigh.

Yuriel, who had stepped back so that its claws could not touch her, saw the gentle movement of the monster sniffing her scent, as if it liked her smell, and blinked its eyes.

“Why, why?”

The monster suddenly thrust its head towards her thigh and groin, the tongue fluttered in the muzzle of the mouth, as if the monster was trying to lick its young.

It seemed to think of Yuriel as a monster just like itself.

Is it because she has a core? It wasn’t like this in front of the nuclear-transferred knights or Raphlet….

She had seen the monsters guarding the nest behave like the monster in front of her a few times. Yuriel looked at the monster that had no intention of attacking her and pushed the half-broken and rattling door.

When Yuriel went inside, the monster slowly tried to follow her, but stopped because the leash became taut.

Seeing that the monster could no longer follow, Yuriel was relieved and let out a long sigh.

“Oh, that’s good. It can’t follow this far… Kyaak!”

The monster, who had been quietly bound by chains, moved its body greatly. The chain that had been fixed to the wall broke off. The movement caused a huge wound to the neck, but the monster only touched its own neck with its feet and shook its head to shed the blood. Then it followed Yuriel to the inside of the door.

The long chain dragged on the floor, making an eerie sound. Yuriel’s body, which screamed in surprise because of the monster, was gently wrapped around its tail and moved forward.

It was a gentle movement, as if to show that it did not intend to threaten.

The monster found its way in front of Yuriel.

It looked like it was trying to hide its young in case of a threat that appeared in front of her.

Yuriel pointed her gun in front of the large monster with a size that exceeded her waist. She couldn’t relax because she didn’t know when it might change its mind and attack her.

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