Sylvia felt as if her eyes were burning from the tiredness. They demanded her to shut them close, blood almost seeping from her eyes.

However, with great difficulty she propped them wide open, trying her best to watch the old man in front of her.

​​

Why does he keep calling me a beast? Her mind wandered, too fatigued to even finish the thought. The insides of her brain were just as blurry as her vision.

She saw the wrinkled face which had an obscene smile on it and weakly blinked as the face came closer and closer to her, walking towards her.

But just when he was near her, she saw the face suddenly move to her right and a pair of wrinkly old hands reach forward to grab something.

Was he grabbing me? Sylvia did not even have any feeling in her body, other than the soul-crushing pain from the shackles which was ripping her apart.

She saw the man's hands come back again and as her face subconsciously frowned she saw a thick blond lock of hair.

Someone else was there in the prison with her?

Sylvia instantly sobered up and the fog in her mind cleared even though she was still under torturous pain.

"Mi… Mikel…" Her voice cracked as a few syllables escaped her parched throat and dried-up lips.

No, it can't be. Please let it not me…

With whatever energy she had left, she craned her head to the side. Please let it not be him.

Tears streamed from her eyes as she weakly tried to gaze at the figure who was beside her.

There was only one thing that could make her nightmarish reality even worse and that was finding him… chained to the wall next to her…

Sylvia didn't know if she had the strength to live through that. She struggled and she craned her neck even more, which right now felt like an impossible thing to do.

But she did it anyway because she had to know… She couldn't bear to breathe without knowing…

And when she finally got a good look, holding her heart in the palm of her hand, a soft sigh escaped her lips.

It was not him…

Her dry and reddened eyes teared up once again both from relief that it was not him and also from recognizing the figure next to her.

It was that small child whom she had seen in the dream earlier. Was it even a dream?

Sylvia shuddered to think of the possibility that the child beside her was right now undergoing the same mind-shattering pain which she was enduring.

And as she looked at the small innocent lifeless face, she watched the pair of wrinkly old hands reach forward again to roughly swat his face to the side and clip another big lock of blond hair.

"S… Stop." Sylvia moved her lips. Don't touch him. She raged inside but her body was not capable of uttering those words.

"You want me to stop?" Eric chuckled casually. "Relax I am just taking hair, aren't I?"

"Besides… Ha ha ha… Are you really in a position to be thinking about others?"

The old man walked towards Sylvia, his condescending shriveled pair of eyes glaring down at her.

"Honey… you need to worry more about what is going to happen to you." He hummed. However, he was displeased to not find the fear and the terror that his words were supposed to evoke on his captive's face.

Eric leaned closer, grabbing Sylvia's scraped chin with his hand and forcing her to look at him. "That boy next to you is going to be caged and experimented on for the rest of his life."

"But you, my dear… You… Tut… Tut… Tut…" He clicked his tongue. "You are going to become a fuck buddy for every single man in the mage council, though I don't think any of them is going to make it pleasurable for you. Ha Ha Ha."

Sylvia shuddered. Her stomach churned and bile rose up to her throat but she didn't even have enough strength in her body to vomit.

Eric chuckled, finally satisfied with the look on her face, and then let go of her chin, turning around and walking back to the table.

"Now, let's see, shall we? Just what beast are you? So beautiful and so alluring? A wolf perhaps?"

"They are elegant creatures, aren't they? I wonder how you will taste in bed. HeH."

The old mage rubbed his hands together and started mumbling to himself as he prepared the set of potions on the table.

He no longer paid attention to Sylvia who was looking at him with her bloodshot eyes, observing every single movement of his hand.

Wolf? Beast? Why does he keep repeating this same thing again? She couldn't remain awake for long and soon lost her consciousness again.

Eric, however, was still busy with the potions in his hand.

After fiddling with the various conicals and mixing several bright colored liquids, he finally sat back down letting out a long sigh and wiping the sweat off his face.

Even though he was so experienced and powerful when it came to the field of magic, he found it amusing that a simple potion can still make him sweat.

Alchemy was a tricky field but nevertheless, the old mage was more than capable and achieved what he wanted in the end.

He looked at the clear liquid swirling in the glass conical and a vicious glint crossed his eyes. "Now… it's time to find out more about you!"

But he didn't start with Sylvia just yet. He threw the blond locks of the small boy into the conical first to make sure that his potion worked.

As soon as the lock of hair touched the clear liquid, a hissing sound emerged and the potion immediately changed into a dull brown color.

"Alright. Lesser beast confirmed."

"Now, it's your turn." He stood up from the chair and approached Sylvia, taking a few strands of her long silky silver hair.