Rebellious Grey: The Demon Girl Rises from Slavery
In the city of Granveld, where human greed turns flesh into currency, demons are born already condemned. Gurei—thirteen years old, horned, hungry, and utterly alone—has known nothing but the stinking gutters of the Ash Bottom slum. When a bounty hunter's iron grip drags her from the rain-soaked streets into the slave market's cold machinery, she is stripped of her name, her rags, and what little freedom she had left, reduced to nothing more than "property" to be priced and sold.
But something b
Rebellious Grey: The Demon Girl Rises from Slavery - A blade of death at the end of thirst...
The sky above the arena was stained the color of blood.
Not from the setting sun. The sun had only just passed its peak, but it hung dim and coppery behind the dust and the heat haze. Twelve thousand spectators packed the stands, and every time their murmuring swelled, that red air seemed to tremble.
Golbach Arena. The largest theater of slaughter on the continent.
Today's stars: Serafina, the Queen of the Cruel Blade. And the death-god's egg she had raised with her own hands—Gurei the Defiant.
"Lady Serafina's gonna win, no question!"
"Damn right! There's no way that little brat beats the Queen of the Cruel Blade!"
"But that 'Defiant' one ain't no pushover either. That look she had in the mock sea battle... those were a beast's eyes."
"Doesn't matter how many beasts you round up. They don't reach the Queen."
The betting odds ran ten to one in Serafina's favor. And still, there were those who put their money on Gurei—because of the defiant fire she'd shown them all along.
In the holding cells below.
Gurei was strapping on the gladiator's gear she'd been issued. Brown leather armor covering her shoulders, arms, and waist. A bronze guard across her forehead. A filthy black loincloth and fundoshi. Her gray hair was tied back in a ponytail with a single cord. Two bull-like horns swept forward from her head. A brand seared into her chest. And around her neck, a heavy black-iron collar.
And her eyes—dark violet, without a single highlight.
(Today, I end this.)
Gurei gripped the crude longsword. Ninety centimeters of blade. A proper gladiator's sword, the kind Serafina had taught her to use.
(I'll take that woman down without killing her.)
Dislocate the joints. Cut the tendons. Take her out of the fight. Not kill. She didn't want to kill.
(But that woman is coming to kill me.)
Serafina's words from last night clung to the inside of her ears.
"I'm looking forward to it. My sweet little death god."
The breath that had brushed her ear. The fingers that had stroked her collar. That woman was serious.
(Even so, I—)
The iron grate clanged open.
The jailer jerked his chin without a word. Time to go.
Gurei slid the longsword through her belt and started down the underground passage. The stone walls reeked of sweat and blood and mold. A path she'd walked countless times. But today, the smell seemed impossibly thick.
Light glimmered at the end of the corridor.
The arena's heat pressed in like a wave.
—And Gurei stood upon the sand.
"UOOOOOOOOOH!!"
A thunderclap of cheering. But to Gurei's ears, it was only the distant roar of the tide.
The gate on the far side swung open.
Serafina appeared.
Long, glossy black hair. Bronzed skin. Long, pointed ears. A golden laurel wreath upon her head. A black corset threaded with gold emphasized her full chest and narrow waist. And on her back, that executioner's greatsword.
The Queen of the Cruel Blade.
The crowd's frenzy swelled to a peak. As if answering their cheers, Serafina slowly drew the greatsword. Its blade stood as tall as Gurei herself—a double-edged monster. When she swung it, a human neck flew like a twig.
Serafina's gray-green eyes fixed squarely on Gurei.
"You came, Gurei. What a perfect day for this."
Gurei drew her longsword and raised it to center guard.
"...I've come to kill you."
"Oh, I like that. Those eyes. That's exactly the look I wanted."
Serafina hefted the greatsword one-handed, effortless. Its tip pointed at Gurei's throat.
"Shall we begin, Gurei? The real fight—yours and mine."
The starting gong thundered.
Gurei kicked off the ground.
One step, two, three—closing the distance. Her target: Serafina's right arm. The joint of the arm that held the greatsword.
(Don't kill. Neutralize.)
She swung the longsword at Serafina's elbow.
CLANG!!
The greatsword batted it aside.
"Too soft. You'll never take my arm like that."
Serafina's greatsword swept in horizontally. Gurei dropped low to evade and lunged at her feet. The target: the back of the left knee. Sever the tendon, stop the movement.
But Serafina's knee was no longer there.
Thud.
Impact in her gut.
Serafina's knee strike had caught Gurei square in the solar plexus.
"Gah—!"
Her body lifted, then slammed onto the sand. She couldn't breathe. Bile surged up her throat.
"What's this, Gurei? Are you going easy on me?"
Serafina looked down at the fallen Gurei and tilted her head.
"...I won't kill you. I don't want to kill you."
Gurei gritted her teeth and stood.
"What the hell are you playing at?"
Serafina's voice sharpened for the first time.
"I'm here to kill you. And you won't kill me? Neutralize? That lukewarm crap won't ever reach my life!"
The greatsword howled down.
Gurei tried to parry with her longsword. But the weight behind it drove her and her blade into the ground.
CRASH!!
Sand burst. Gurei's body tumbled across the ground again.
"Was your promise to your friend—to become free—really that cheap?!"
—Kain.
Serafina didn't know that name. But her words pressed a branding iron straight into the depths of Gurei's chest.
"Become free."
That day, at the bottom of the ash, the promise she'd made with Kain.
(What does that woman know?)
(That woman has no right to trample on my promise with Kain.)
Gurei's vision flooded red.
Rage.
A pure, killing intent she had never felt before erupted from the pit of her stomach.
(Kill her.)
(I'll kill this woman.)
(This woman who trampled my promise with Kain—I will kill her.)
Gurei rose slowly.
The hesitation had vanished from her eyes. Those dark violet eyes, devoid of any highlight, saw only Serafina—as prey.
"...I'm going to kill you."
Gurei's voice was low and quiet. But that quiet was somehow more terrifying.
"Yes. That's it. That's the look I wanted."
Serafina smiled, delighted.
"Come, Gurei. Make your blade reach my life!"
Gurei kicked off the ground.
—The real fight had begun.
The longsword aimed for Serafina's neck. Serafina deflected with the greatsword and countered. Gurei evaded the blow by a hair and dove inside her guard.
Clang! Clang! CLANG!!
Sword against sword, scattering sparks.
The crowd's roar grew distant.
Gurei's consciousness focused on a single thing: taking Serafina's life.
(Kill. Kill. Kill.)
(I'll kill this woman.)
Serafina's greatsword grazed Gurei's shoulder. The leather armor split, blood flying. But she felt no pain.
(Faster. Sharper.)
Gurei aimed for Serafina's right arm. The arm that held the greatsword.
Shhk.
The tip of the longsword carved through Serafina's right forearm.
"—!"
For the first time, Serafina let out a sound of pain.
Blood dripped onto the sand.
"Not bad, Gurei. Your blade's reaching me now."
Even wounded, Serafina did not let go of the greatsword with her right arm.
"But this isn't the end, is it? Go deeper. Carve deeper."
Gurei closed the distance again without a word.
(I'll cut that arm off.)
(Take the greatsword.)
The longsword swept in an arc meant to sever Serafina's right arm at the root.
Serafina caught it with the greatsword.
GIIING!!
Metal shrieked. Strength clashed head-on with strength.
(Heavy...!)
Even wounded, Serafina's raw power overwhelmed Gurei.
"What's wrong, Gurei! Is that all you've got! You can't even take one of my arms!"
Serafina shoved her back all at once.
Gurei's body was flung backward.
But she righted herself midair and, the instant she landed, was running again.
(Give up?)
(I will kill her.)
She swung the longsword up from a low stance, aiming for Serafina's right elbow.
Serafina had read it. The greatsword knocked the longsword aside, and Gurei's stance broke.
"Too soft."
The greatsword came down at Gurei's head.
—Death.
Gurei thrust out her left arm on instinct.
CRUNCH!!
The greatsword shattered the armor on Gurei's left arm. Leather tore, flesh beneath split, and bone crunched.
"GAAAAAH!!"
For the first time, Gurei screamed aloud.
Her left arm was useless now. Agony seared through her brain.
But—
(I was waiting for this opening.)
Gurei let her shattered left arm coil around Serafina's greatsword, locking it in place.
"What—?!"
Serafina's eyes went wide.
Gurei drove the longsword in her right hand straight into Serafina's right arm—into the elbow of the arm that held the greatsword.
SHHHKK!!
The blade cut flesh, shattered bone, and ran the arm through.
"AAAAAAAH!!"
Serafina's scream echoed across the arena.
The greatsword slipped from her hand.
Thud.
The executioner's blade sank heavily into the sand.
"...You did it, Gurei. You cut... my arm."
Serafina's right arm dangled limp from the elbow down. Blood poured like a waterfall, dyeing the sand black-red.
"Now you can't swing that greatsword."
Gurei clutched her shattered left arm and breathed raggedly.
"...That's right. I can't swing the greatsword anymore."
Serafina cradled her wounded right arm with her left and smiled.
"But I can still fight."
The next instant—
Serafina kicked off the ground and flew into Gurei's guard.
Having abandoned the greatsword, she challenged her to a final battle with nothing but her body.
"You want my life, don't you! Then bite through this throat!"
Serafina dug her left hand into Gurei's shoulder.
And then—
Her mouth opened wide, aimed at Gurei's windpipe.
White teeth.
Gray-green eyes filled with madness and ecstasy.
(She's going to bite me...!)
Gurei thrust the armor on her right arm in front of her throat.
CHMP!!
Serafina's teeth sank deep into the armor on Gurei's arm.
The leather split; the metal beneath shrieked.
"Guh... uuuh...!"
Serafina growled, teeth still clamped on the armor.
(This woman would go this far...)
(She's trying to kill me.)
(She's letting herself be killed by me.)
Serafina's teeth bit deeper into Gurei's right arm.
Blood dripped through the gaps in the armor.
(At this rate, she'll bite my arm clean off.)
Gurei reversed her grip on the longsword.
(Kill her.)
(Kill her, right now, this instant.)
The tip of the longsword touched Serafina's throat.
And then—
Serafina slowly pulled her face away from the armor.
Her mouth was stained red with blood.
"...I knew you would."
Serafina wore a serene smile.
"I always believed you were the only one who could make a blade reach my life."
Those words pushed Gurei forward.
(—Master.)
Gurei drove the longsword into Serafina's throat.
Shlkk.
The dull sound of a blade piercing flesh.
Serafina's body shuddered.
"...Thank you, Gurei."
Serafina's lips moved faintly.
"You were... my... very best..."
That was all. The strength drained from Serafina's body.
Gurei caught the collapsing Serafina on reflex, cradling her.
Serafina's large frame bore down on Gurei's small body.
(Heavy.)
(Warm.)
(...She's dying.)
Serafina's blood soaked Gurei red.
And then—
Serafina's neck moved, slowly.
Her mouth opened once more, aimed at Gurei's windpipe.
(She's still alive...!)
(To the very last moment, she's trying to kill me...!)
Gurei couldn't move.
With the longsword still buried in her, she simply watched Serafina's final bite.
Clack.
Serafina's teeth snapped shut on empty air, a few millimeters short of Gurei's throat.
And then—
The last of the strength left her body.
A peaceful smile spread across her face.
Serafina, the Queen of the Cruel Blade, passed quietly in her disciple's arms.
—She had won.
Gurei laid Serafina's body gently on the sand.
(I won, and yet)
(Why does it hurt this much?)
Something pulsed violently deep in Gurei's chest.
(I killed that woman.)
(I killed her with my own hands.)
Gurei looked at her hands.
Her hands, stained with blood.
Her hands, which had killed her master.
(I killed that woman to be free.)
(Now I can be free.)
(...Is freedom really this heavy?)
Gurei looked up at the sky.
The coppery sky.
The crowd's cheers echoed in the distance.
But to Gurei's ears, nothing reached her anymore.
"...The winner—Gurei the Defiant!!"
The referee's voice rang across the
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.