Chapter 1063: Lizbeth's Heaven And Hell (3)

Time passed.

The eight year old child that looked like a beggar roamed the streets collecting scraps and selling them for even less than what their value was.

After the caretaker's death, officials had come to collect her body, and the house she owned now belonged to the eight year old child.

Fortune may have sided with the child this time as nobody coveted this house and did not give the child a hard time.

The house was really just four walls of bricks on a small piece of land. Even the land was worthless as it was in a place nobody would want to come at.

The child had a roof over her head. She did not have clothes to protect her from the rain or the winter, but she had the woman's stove.

This stove had a red rock in the middle of it, which could be ignited by a small spark. This could be created by rubbing two rocks over it.

This red rock gave out a continuous warmth and the flames did not rise or die down. This was a common fire rock that could be bought for a few nickels, nothing too expensive.

Although the current Lizbeth knew it was a common rock right now, back then, this was the most valuable thing to have ever existed for her. It kept her warm in the cold rain and winter. The rock was her best friend in her darkest times.

Time passed once again as Lizbeth blinked.

She was thirteen years old now.

She had grown, but not by much. Her body was scrawny and her appearance really was that of a beggar. Her hair was disheveled and she did not look like a girl in any sense whatsoever.

Being thirteen now, she decided it was time she turned her life around for the better.

She made a journey towards a nearby pond. There, the awakening root was growing in abundance.

Before consuming that, she decided to clean herself up a bit.

Dirt was washed away, but her hair was still brittle and dirty green with her clothes seeing no change in appearance.

Her face was clean though, and she did somewhat resemble a girl.

On this day, the thirteen year old consumed the awakening root.

Barely any change happened to her. There was no tribulation, no instability in the core, no nothing.

The core was just formed without a hitch.

Lizbeth could feel the presence of elements around her from this day onwards. She could just sense that they were there, not use them.

Being a beggar, she had no one to teach her spells or magic or get her on the cultivation path.

Still, Lizbeth knew she shouldn't be disheartened and give up.

She was a lonely child, but one full of hope. She used to pray to the unknown person watching over her and even talk to them.

There was nobody to listen to her, but Lizbeth still spoke things out loud in the air, as if someone would hear it.

It was lonely, but she wasn't depressed or sad. She was filled with hope. Hope that, one day, things will change for the better.

Time passed as Lizbeth blinked.

The newly awakened Lizbeth found out that many people did not know the basics of treatments to their injuries. Since she had some knowledge, she monopolized it and helped the people in the settlement. She charged them some money for it too, but it wasn't more than a few nickels.

Few days later, someone heard that there was a person treating everyone's wounds. It was a group of men who couldn't watch others profit from their livestocks.

Lizbeth went to her and tried to hide from them. She was cowering in a corner, covered by a ragged blanket, and prayed to the unknown person above and hoped for the best.

For the past few days, she had been overworking to amass nickels. There was this one medicine book she saw in the market and its cost was twenty copper coins. It was a big amount for her and hence she worked really hard. This was what gathered the group of men's attention.

The awakened Lizbeth had burned herself out by overworking. At this moment, the fear was starting to be replaced by drowsiness.

Moments before she fell asleep, she heard footsteps and the voices of a few men.

'Oh no, they... caught... up...'

The awakened Lizbeth thought this before she collapsed.

Lack of nutrients, lack of water, lack of sleep, overworking... all of this has piled up and made her crash right now.

She did not get up until the next day's afternoon.

The current adult Lizbeth let out a sigh as she watched her awakened self wake up.

'It will happen any minute now...'

The awakened thirteen year old Lizbeth felt something warm at her lower body.

She touched the place down there and saw dark red thing on her fingers.

"Huh?"

She touched the place again and saw her hand.

"Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Lizbeth panicked and immediately took off her tattered clothes to check herself.

The current Lizbeth had a look at her younger self's body too.

Blood was leaking from her privates and trickled down her inner thighs. There was even dried up blood there.

In the main area, there was a lot of dried up lot and things were still leaking.

"Ouch!"

The awakened Lizbeth yelled and fell to the floor. She clutched her stomach and kept grunting as a sharp pain came from her lower abdomen region.

The pain was so much that it felt like someone was punching her from inside out.

The agonizing moment... the current Lizbeth could still not bear to watch it.

It was here, in this very place.

She lost it. She lost her purity and was defiled by the men while she was unconscious.

Even though she looked like a beggar, her one mistake to make a lot of money cost her dearly.

The awakened Lizbeth that was in pain kept yelling and screaming, but nobody came to her rescue.

She screamed for quite some time until her throat gave out from being sore.

After some time, when Lizbeth felt a bit better, she opened her eyes and decided to wear her clothes back and not be in a shameful state like this.

So what if bad things had happened? She shouldn't be disheartened or give up. There was still a lot more to look forward to in life. Like that medicinal book that cost twenty copper coins.

She had almost finished amassing the money. She can learn a lot about the new herbs. Maybe this will distract her from the painful events of last night too.

The current Lizbeth watched her younger self with eyes full of pity as she knew exactly what she was thinking.

'It hasn't hit her yet...'

The current Lizbeth saw the awakened Lizbeth nod her head, then get up to fetch her clothes and wear them. It was now...

"Huh?"

The awakened Lizbeth rubbed her eyes.

"Huh? What? Why are things blurry?"

She rubbed her eyes aggressively again.

"W-w-what's happening?! Why are things blurry?"

The awakened Lizbeth panicked and ran around the house like a headless chicken. She hit her head on the wall as the room wasn't too big and fell down.

"Ahhhh!"

She clutched her head and screamed in pain again.

The current Lizbeth sighed once again. It was at this moment in her life did she realize she could not see past a meter's length.

As she aged, the distance had shortened even further, and the current her could not even look at things ten centimeters away properly without her glasses. Everything was blurry.

Lizbeth blinked again. The scene changed once again.

The awakened Lizbeth had learnt that her vision could be fixed with glasses. Thankfully they weren't too expensive.

Although not expensive, it still cost her five copper coins, setting her back from her goal once again.

After getting her glasses, which were clear rectangular, black, and made of cheap material, she began working again with what little knowledge she had of medicine and eventually purchased the book.

Purchasing the book had exhausted all her savings. She had no money to even afford food and had to live on lentils soup.

Even after the caretaker's death, Lizbeth still had that soup only despite making some money. Her reasoning was that if it filled her stomach, then why bother to spend money on food?

'Sigh... if only I wasn't as foolish back then...'

The frugality bit her really hard. The reason for her poor vision was the lack of nutrients in her body. She was a growing child but never got the right food. Occasionally the caretaker would give her a piece of fruit, which was like once or twice in a year, but that's about it.

Things were nowhere near enough to satiate her body's need, hence the weak vision.

It took her some time to realize, but once she did, Lizbeth tried to make a food that would be balanced and give her proper nutrition.

This was when she came across porridge. She could cook lentils with rice and eat them. Both stuff were somewhat expensive, but Lizbeth thought she would literally die if she didn't eat, so she spent some money on it.

Lizbeth learned, Lizbeth applied, Lizbeth purchased, Lizbeth learned, and Lizbeth applied.

That's how things went on for a long time. She bought materials and resources to learn medicine, then applied them on people, made money, and purchased more materials. Most of her money was gone in this and with the leftovers, she purchased food.

A monotonous life eventually saw a change this one fine day when Lizbeth overheard someone saying:

11:39

"...hey... did you hear? The mansion's owners are back."

"What? Really? How long has it been since they left?"

"About a century."

"Shit, to come back after such a long time..."

Lizbeth's trembled when she heard this. The mansion that was being talked about was the place she had been in before her mother kicked her away.

Memories of the past returned to her and she remembered how her mother had said that she could see them one day if she lived long enough.

She had lived for a century, it was long enough now, right?

With that thought, Lizbeth decided to pay them a visit.

The current Lizbeth could only sigh tiredly. The memories were too painful to watch.

Still, this scene was something she was looking forward to. She did not remember much of it, so she was curious to see what happened here.

She knew there was a memory gap in her mind, and it should belong to this place if her guess was correct.

'I really hope I find the answer out...'

Lizbeth thought to herself and blinked.

The scene changed.