QT: Against My Will

363 6.01 – Her Second Lifetime – The Wheel Of Time

+— Author’s note —-+

I’m so happy that I finished yet another arc! *jumps around crazily*

Before we march into the new ARC 6, I have a few questions:

Did ARC 5’s end satisfy you?

Would you like to read more 18+ chapters, or do you have enough?

What to expect next:

– BS’s and XM’s parenthood journey.

– Stinky Bun.

– Adventure, Magic, Monsters.

.....

– New overpowered characters. I recommend you to try and match each one of them with the MCs and Sidecharacters you’ve read about before ??

Edited by Psycho S.

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° “Dai An, I’m hungry.”

° “I know, just hold on,” the eleven years old Dai An said to the little girl on her back as she studied the map in her hands, “We just have to cross this...” She looked up at the barren desert, and compared it to the thin line of blue on her map, “...to catch fish.”

° The scene suddenly changed, and Dai An was being pinned down by her father as her mother fed her the gruesome soup, “Dai An, open your mouth! You have to eat!”

° Throughout the begging cries of her parents, the girl refused to eat. Her fear of food overcame her carnivorous hunger for food.

° The long period of drought and unexpected climate changes caused a famine so severe throughout the country that cannibalism became a prevalent occurrence. Families were often reduced because of parents trading their own children for the children of their neighbors. This trade was done so the parents wouldn’t feel guilty and wind up killing (and eating) their own kids.

° Dai An, who had three younger siblings, was now the only one child left in the family. Her little sisters weren’t killed and they also weren’t exchanged. They starved to death, then, afterwards, they were eaten by her and her parents. Their culture dictated that suicide was sinful and an act of blasphemy.

° ‘Being strong is the only choice I have?’

° ‘But... the price to survive is always so high.’

° Dai An saw things she couldn’t scrub from her mind. People ate stuff that wasn’t food, not caring if it killed them. The starving ‘humans’ would eat anything as long as it ended their gnawing pain... Stopping the hunger that clawed their insides and tore them apart was their number one obsession. It was hard to fight for herself when living meant living in this hell.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

° The famine prevailed relentlessly, and the hollow pain in Dai An’s stomach was starting to take over a portion of her mind. Chewing on her thumb, she placed a few stones on her siblings’ graves in an organized pattern. The light and laughter in her eyes ceased to exist with their absence, “If you are here, please... give me a sign. Show me a path to a better place.”

° If ghosts really existed, she would want to become one. Ghosts were considered to be a kind of existence that had no physical body; a body that could roam around the world without experiencing the pangs of hunger or pain humans did.

° She didn’t want her father to join the army again. She had to find a way to make him stay and move out from this desert first because there was no way for her and her mother to survive without him by their side.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

° A year passed by, and the village below appeared as many doll-houses from behind the closed and bolted windows. Dai An hovered her fingers before her eyes and pretended that she controlled their every move with the hangman’s tightrope. They were dolls with thoughts, with feelings and wishes, each only born to serve the one that puppets them from above. Everybody had the same disease. Everybody wanted to feel free...

° Newborn cries filled the room and Dai An’s father burst into tears of relief and joy. He turned his glossy eyes to his wife and his tired daughter, who had just helped out her mother with giving birth to her brother, “Wife, I think our Dai An has a high chance of becoming a royal concubine, don’t you agree?”

° According to statutory law, all young unmarried women had to go through a ‘selection process’. Only girls who were married or with certified physical disabilities or deformities were spared. No household was exempt from the selection. The social background of these girls had no meaning; there was no barrier to protect them. Many emperors chose concubines from the general public. Only the Empress had to have a special background.

° Dai An’s family could be considered to be a noble family that had fallen from grace. She glanced at her father’s right hand that had a few missing fingers. Thanks to a certain accident during their hunting session, he was exempted from joining the army. She was now the one who mostly took care of what went on her parent’s plates. After they moved to a better place, their wealth slowly recovered.

° “Father, I want to be a maid in waiting,” Dai An, who had no plans to avoid the selection, wanted to be the highest rank among the maids. Her bloodline didn’t allow her to become an Empress, but it could help her get close to one.

° Maids in waiting were usually from the richer families or nobles from the lower rank that had received a good education. They were responsible for following and waiting for Empress or the Royal Concubines.

° “Maids are usually the victims of abuse, especially from imperial concubines! You will receive severe punishment! You might even be put to death for a minor mistake!” Dai An’s parents tried to persuade their daughter to change her opinion. Though they received many marriage proposals, nobody in the village was deemed fit for their daughter. For them, it was most beneficial to let her stay at home. That was what their daughter made them believe, “Dai An!”

° “Unlike a concubine, I can at least choose to leave the Palace whenever I wish. I only have to survive until the age of twenty-five,” Dai An was curious about the people at the top of the food chain. Now that she saw the outside world, she wanted to see the world hidden behind high walls; the one that was open only for certain, selected individuals, “I will be given a big reward for my service and the Palace officials will arrange a rich marriage partner for me.”

° The future Palace official, Ru Quan, who barely reached the age of nine, would have surely arranged the most suitable marriage partner for her if he heard what she just said.

· · ———- · ???· ———- · ·

° With the heavy clouds that gradually came to life, the rain-soaked ground tenderly grew plants that were both strong and beautiful in the bountiful days. Dai An walked out, the bare soles of her feet touching the earth. Her toes bathed in the newly poured rain as she harvested the sweet roots that had been growing in their garden. Long-sleeved clothes and a round hat covered her skin, preventing her skin from darkening.

° She couldn’t live a normal life when half of her heart begged to be at the absolute top of the food chain, and the other half begged to find answers for many questions hidden deep inside. Her mind on the other hand saw danger with every step she took. It prioritized safety over everything else. She found that she was not smart enough to come up with answers to the questions she had, so she hoped that by visiting the place where the best of the best resided, she would obtain some enlightenment.

° Knowledge: the one thing that she seeked the most right now. No place could have more knowledge than the one, particular location where the Emperor resided.

° There were many rumors regarding the ones above all. Did blue blood flow through the old Emperor’s veins? Could he truly summon rain whenever he lifted his powerful hand? Could he predict the future if he lifted his head and looked at the stars at night for only two seconds? If all of these rumors were true, then if she drank his blood, would she gain his powers?

+– ANTIPIRACY NOTE –+

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