Chapter 5 Recollection

After the woman had left, Min Yoo dragged her small, battered body and reached out her hands to the bread that the woman had thrown on the ground. She brought it near her mouth and bit into it then began munching the bread. It tasted like dust, and it was hard to bite into, nevertheless she continued eating. It was the only thing she could do to calm her hunger. She was still trembling and twitching from time to time due to the trauma she just got. She was in the body of a child, so naturally her mental state has slightly changed as well despite her soul being that of an adult in her late twenties.

Min Yoo's POV

After I finished eating the 'bread' that could be barely called food, I tried to get up and lie on the bed soon after I climbed it. While being beaten up earlier, the memories of the previous owner surfaced back instantly as though a scene was re-enacting right in front of her in her mind.

It seems like I was reincarnated and not transmigrated in this world. That's why I felt familiar with those people and thus why I trembled instinctively like it was a natural thing to do. So, I supposed it was just today that I remembered my past life when I have been here from the beginning and that was also the reason, I was gaining the memories of the previous me who lived unaware of her past life which was also my memories of the past four years.

It really was traumatic to the point where I feel nauseous, but I held myself from vomiting since I would only starve and suffer at night. The piece of bread was enough to keep me alive, but it was not enough to fill my hunger which was caused from starving for days. The memories were mostly about the previous owner's miserable past. The place where she was in was the orphanage where she was abandoned at a very young age. She was barely one year old at the time.

The orphanage was in fact a slave market in disguise. They pretended to be an ordinary orphanage where orphans stay. They bring in children from the slums and give them food, shelter and clothing. They obviously brought children with good looks. They were then sold to nobles when they reach adulthood (16 years old). Some children were abused because they were defect products. Defect products in other words they could not be sold. Most of the reasons were when the child had a handicap or when they were useless in every particular aspect.

Every child has to have at least one thing they are good at so they would be able to serve their owners once they are sold but the previous owner neither had any skill nor was, she normal. She had white silverish hair which people believed to be the feature of those from the demonic clans. She was unable to speak as well, and she could not see. She was not born blind, but an incident caused her to be blind. But for some reason, she can see still see things despite being blind. She can sense the objects and any living being near her proximity. Though she can only see everything in black and white, so I suppose she was not completely blind, but in fact color blind.

She had known nothing but misery since she was an infant. She was never fed proper milk and even when she grew up, they gave her a very small amounts of food. She barely ate three times per day, at most two to three times per week. From the memoirs, Min Yoo deduced that she was currently 4 years old. She was nameless and had no identity attached to herself.

Min Yoo only thought of one thing after looking through the previous owner's memories, that was to escape from this hell. Even if she had to go to the slums, she had to escape here, but the question was how. She was but a young child who was not able to defend herself let alone survive in this unknown world.

That woman earlier was apparently the vice director of the fake orphanage and the daughter of the owner of the slave market. She personally abused children due to her wicked personality, to simply put she's a sadist. She did not even know the structure of the orphanage well nor did she know the exit. Even if she got out, how would she bypass the guards who would be at the entrance of the orphanage.

The only solution was to be pretend to be obedient and give in to whatever they say. I will observe slowly and try my best to survive out of this hell hole, was what I thought. Never had I ever thought that I would come to regret my decision not to plan my escape and to comply with their 'orders', nevertheless it was already something that was meant to happen. It would be what one would call fate, an unfortunate fate.

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One month had passed by in the blink of an eye.

In the past month, that woman visited her seven times in total and every time she came, she assaulted her, although, she was given food to eat and water to drink. Min Yoo then pretended to be meek, obedient and stopped retaliating from being hit, thus the woman grew tired of her and stopped bothering her as though she ceased to exist. She also got the liberty to walk around the yard in the orphanage. She could come out of her room every now and then, but if she stayed out of her room too much, she would be punished.

She saw many other children like her. three quarter were treated well, and they were still less skinny than her. Some were taken away by some men who she presumed to be the staffs of the slave market or the servants of nobles. Sometimes, there were nobles who bought children instead of the adults. They are bought for adoption instead of slavery though it is a 'very' rare occurrence from what she heard.

She saw some teenagers as well, they looked at her with empty eyes, like those who had resigned to their fates. She got to know some of the parts of the orphanage, for example on the left side lived the 'products' in a small room each. On the right side was the fake director's office, it's also the place where the transactions occur. Since that woman is the real mastermind, she hired a person to play the role of the director in order to deceive the people.

On the west side was the entrance, it was filled with guards on the inside, at least 6 to 8 people. They all wore armors and had a sword on their waists which made her realize that she was in another world, completely foreign to the one she came from. She did not know what kind of world it was yet but one thing's for sure. The weak will always be trampled on and the strong would be revered. That is a law that does not change no matter where or which world you are in. It's just a matter of survival to the fittest, just like the law of the jungle.

She learned of things that surprised her, there was magic in this world. There were magic traps laid at the doorsteps of the orphanage no, actually it was everywhere in the orphanage. After learning of all this, she grew depressed even more depressed. She thought that she would stay here for a few more years so that she could plan her escape, but it turns out that escaping was just a piping dream now She could barely afford to even think in her perilous situation, so she gave up on all of her pre-prepared plans as it was too much of a far fetch dream. She had resigned to resign to her fate for now but that doesn't mean she's going down without a fight.

She was not sure if she will survive for a few years after all that she has seen, so she has to do something. She should try to get someone to buy her so she can get out of here. But who would buy a color blind and mute like her. She was also the skinnier and youngest in this orphanage, so what else could she possibly do? She closed her eyes and tried to sleep in this uncomfortable bed. She was still a child, so she needed a lot of sleep.

She has to survive. She doesn't want to die again just yet, she barely enjoyed her previous life, and yet here she was being the most miserable person in this world. She wondered who reincarnated her, and why they did they to it. For what purpose? She'd rather be dead than live like this on second thought, but she won't give up so easily. She'll endure all of it to the very end and get out of here alive even if it means she has to kill her way out of here. She will then one day get her revenge and damned all those who have harmed her. She swore with her last life's name that she would definitely survive no matter what.