Yeonhwa’s expression suddenly froze as she listened to my story.
It was just a brief moment, but it seemed like there was something suspicious about it.
Was my storytelling that bad? But everyone said my voice was nice…
“Unnie…”
“Hm?”
“Excuse me, but doesn’t the situation seem strange?”
“What situation?”
From Yeonhwa’s perspective, it was understandable to feel that way.
During the short time Shia was isolated in the mountains, the Demon Lord’s army attacked. Everyone in the village, except Shia, was assaulted.
There was no evidence, but Yeonhwa couldn’t shake off the suspicion that the Emperor had concocted some sort of scheme.
However, it felt wrong to outright say that the Emperor was strange, considering that Shia often expressed how she missed Menelapie.
Or was her longing actually about sharpening the blade of revenge, pledging to crush her upon their next meeting?
“The timing is just too odd! Right when Unnie was isolated, the Demon Lord’s army invaded the village. And then the Emperor…”
“Just listen. The story isn’t over yet.”
○○○
Shia had lived comfortably under the Emperor’s arrangements for nearly a year.
The villagers were kind. They didn’t ostracize Shia for being an outsider.
In return, Shia healed the villagers and worked hard, living happily alongside them.
After falling into this world, Shia found true happiness just by being able to walk side by side with them.
Unbeknownst to her, she had to consume a Malicious Entity, yet she spent her days blissfully unaware.
“…Ah…”
Happiness turned to ashes, and unlike her solid body as the Mangja Seongnyeo, the happiness she held in this world was incredibly fragile.
That day, Shia saw the Demon Lord’s army for the first time, sober.
Crackle…
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
The Lord of Despair is hungry!
Kill them all! Whatever remains will be ours!
Just a moment ago, they had walked through the marketplace together.
They were the ones who made mushroom soup and shared it with Shia.
The grandfather who bragged about his grandson joining the knight’s brigade.
The girl who tended to the prettiest flowers in the village.
The woman who ran a ranch.
The grandmother who visited to wake Shia before noon on days she overslept.
The village boys who subtly showed they liked Shia.
The village women who envied Shia’s large chest.
Some had confessed to her despite being turned down.
Yet they were all living happily in the same village as Shia.
“Ah…Ugh… Aaaah!”
It was the first time she had seen human flesh so easily torn apart.
So this is how a human bone looks…
Muscles stretch like fibers…
The scent of human blood is this sweet…
“W-Wagh…!”
On the burning edge of the village, Shia crumpled and began to retch.
Where’s Menelapie?
Didn’t she say to call for help if needed?
Why isn’t she coming…?
Where could she be?
Help me. Help me. Please…
There might still be survivors…!
‘What if Menelapie can’t help? I heard just days ago that the Northern Front was in danger, and Menelapie was at the front lines…’
If Menelapie couldn’t come, what should I do?
Do I have to take action?
I’m the only one here with any power.
Though I’m something far from a human known as the Mangja Seongnyeo.
“I’m… so scared.”
But Shia was terrified.
She had been afraid for nearly two years since arriving in this world. It had been a year since she settled in this village.
Even so, Shia remained afraid.
She could potentially save the living, but despite that, she only sat in silence and cried at the village’s edge.
And then the Demon Lord’s army left.
What was their purpose in coming to the village?
Was it simple pillaging?
Or were they similar to the Special Forces?
Yet such trivial questions didn’t even cross Shia’s mind.
Shia walked through the burnt and turned to ashes village.
In every corner, the corpses of the villagers had been brutally dismembered, thrown away like trash.
Some of the Demon Lord’s army were literally feasting on the villagers, packing whatever remained in sacks.
“Ah, hey…? Excuse me? Is anyone… Ugh…”
She felt weak.
She retched at her own weakness.
Wasn’t there a saying that all the injustices of this world stemmed from one’s own weakness? Ah, yes, that saying is a hundred percent true.
Shia walked endlessly to what used to be the village square.
The fountain, crafted by a decent sculptor, lay shattered.
The fountain that once sprayed clean water was stained red with what felt like dozens of gallons of blood.
“Wiz Grandma… Anckuran, Grandpa Sanagi…? Is anyone there?”
She searched the village hall.
No one.
All that remained was blood.
Only remnants indicating what the Demon Lord’s army had eaten were scattered everywhere.
Ah, everything is so bloody.
There was so much blood in a human body.
“…No one… is here…?”
Ah, I feel sick…
I want to throw up.
There’s nothing in my stomach, but I feel nauseated.
“…Hah, Hah… Ah… Ah… Menelapie, where are you…? Why aren’t you coming…?”
And so Shia collapsed.
On the ashes of the burnt.
Over the puddle of blood.
On the corpses of those she couldn’t protect.
Shia hated and blamed herself.
What a pathetic girl.
A coward who has power but can’t use it.
What a miserable girl.
Is it fine as long as she survives alone?
Oh, you foolish girl.
You idiot.
You damn girl.
You worthless girl.
How much did she detest and blame herself?
Far in the distance, she heard the sound of hooves approaching.
Clop, clop echoed the ground.
Were they rushing?
The horses breathed heavily.
Others were outside the village, but only one person was rushing towards her.
“…Shia…”
“………”
It was Menelapie.
It’s been a while.
Since she went to the Northern Front, it has been way too long.
Did she get hurt a lot?
Her once glorious golden hair was smeared. Her face looked weary. Her armor and cloak were tattered as if torn by swords or something.
But it didn’t bother Shia at all.
Menelapie, perhaps wanting to comfort her, approached and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
“…Everyone is dead.”
“…I see.”
WHAM!!
With that statement, Shia’s fist slammed into Menelapie’s face.
“Kuah, Ugh…!”
“Why did you just show up now?!”
Shia’s eyes were bloodshot.
Was it anger? Sadness? Self-hatred? Probably all of them.
She had been a coward, unable to muster the courage to protect her villagers.
But here she was, unhesitatingly swinging her fist at Menelapie, who had treated her kindly. What kind of idiot was she?
“…Everyone is dead. I told you to help me, yet you didn’t come.”
“…Shia.”
“Why didn’t you come? You said the Demon Lord’s army wouldn’t come here since it’s the rear of the Imperial capital! Why did everyone die? Why did they have to die?!”
Sitting on Menelapie’s shoulders, Shia glared at her with a face that could be either a smile or a cry.
She wanted to lose consciousness. But the soul of the Mangja Seongnyeo was resilient enough not to break from such a trivial issue.
“Ah, right. I told you to help, and you came now… was it intentional?”
As she looked at Menelapie’s face, Shia laughed while sobbing.
Was she trying to find something to blame?
“Right, right! Finally, it makes sense! It all makes sense!!!”
With one hand gripping her neck, Shia poured all her resentment onto Menelapie.
Now she had someone to blame.
It was all this girl’s fault.
Yes, this scheme was all orchestrated by that so-called Emperor!
“Isn’t that right? Because I’m an absolute coward, that’s why it all happened?!”
Shia laughed, as if her delusions had suddenly turned into reality.
“Of course, it doesn’t mean anything to sacrifice a village to fix my warped mind! Being an Emperor means making a village crumble and fixing my mind is nothing to you, right!”
Seemingly demanding an answer, Shia faced Menelapie with her twisted expression.
Menelapie grimaced and spat out her response as if she were going to vomit.
“Yes, it was intentional.”
“………”
Something feels off.
“Then what has changed?”
It felt strange.
While it was all true, somehow it sounded different.
“You were weak. You chose not to stand up for your villagers. A coward that hid in fear even while witnessing the attack.”
Yet why did it sound different despite it being completely true?
“Shia, if exchanging a village for a strategic weapon, like you, spoken of in prophecy, is possible, it would also be profitable.”
○○○○○○
“That was one hell of a thing!”
“…Haha, is that so?”
Instead of feeling peace, Yeonhwa jumped up, seemingly ready to shout in anger, sensing the frost flowing weakly from her shoulders as if she had failed to control her emotions again.
“I don’t know much about the world you lived in, but the Emperor is a powerful figure and a ruler! In dramas and movies, powerful figures are often involved in sinister schemes or shady dealings! You know! Just as you said, it makes sense that a village in the rear would be attacked! The Emperor says you’re a coward. He must have intentionally sacrificed a village to transform you into some weapon…!”
“Are you foolish enough to try lying right now?”
“…Huh?”
What on earth is this all of a sudden?
As Shia spoke in a soothing voice, Yeonhwa looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“Say anything. Truth, lie, I don’t care.”
“Um… uh, Shia Unnie has an A-cup.”
“Lie.”
“…I have two mothers.”
“Truth.”
“Eh?!”
“The backstory of having two mothers is intriguing, but let’s keep going with this for now.”
Yeonhwa’s eyes widened as if sensing something unusual.
“Yeonseo Grandma is a Hunter streamer.”
“Truth. Didn’t she say so last time?”
“My allowance is 50 million won a month.”
“Lie. You don’t have an allowance; you just carry a card.”
“I… am bigger in the chest than you.”
“Lie.”
“Ugh….”
A back-and-forth of truths and lies continued for a while.
She didn’t know why they were suddenly playing this game, but Yeonhwa started asking about all sorts of things within her reach, from trivial matters to serious subjects.
“…How did you do that?”
“In the previous world, Seongnyeos couldn’t tell lies. It wasn’t a rule but breaking it wouldn’t be a problem… In other words, conversely, it means Seongnyeos are sensitive to lies.”
“…Ah.”
“Of course, I can’t always tell the truth from lies. By strengthening my senses with a bit of mana, I can catch subtle things like heart rates, gazes, and expressions. That’s how I can naturally discern the truth from lies.”
“But why are you suddenly talking about this?”
With that, Shia smiled and picked up a piece of meat from the plate in front of her.
“I just lied about everything Menelapie said.”
“What?!”
“From describing me as a coward to suggesting I would trade a village to be turned into some weapon—every bit of it was a lie.”
“Uh…”
Yeonhwa’s expression became enigmatic in a way that suggested she hadn’t expected that.
Not as a joke; she was bound to believe that the past Shia was a weak coward because she had heard the stories.
○○○○○
“…That’s a lie.”
“Why would I say something like that now…”
“You told me on the day we first met.”
Releasing the grip from Menelapie’s neck, Shia hung her head low.
“You said one could see everything from my expression.”
Indeed, it was all visible.
“You’re the same.”
For some reason, at that moment, none of the words Menelapie had said rang true from her perspective.
She didn’t even think of Shia as a coward.
“………”
Later, she found out from a knight commander that Menelapie truly had poured everything she had to reach Shia. The Northern Front had literally collapsed while she single-handedly faced the Demon Lord’s army for three days, without even taking a moment’s rest, to allow the soldiers to retreat.
When she finally arrived, she was in a state of complete exhaustion, with arrows stuck in her and wounds from swords and spears hastily stitched up, forcing herself onto her horse to race here.
And Shia had struck her down.
In an effort to tolerate Shia’s whining.
To hear Shia’s resentments.
She sacrificed herself.
Is it permitted for the Emperor to be this way?
As the Emperor, why was she treating Shia like this…?
Perhaps her wounds were reopening.
She must have been hurting a lot.
“You bad girl… if you do this too, if you make me feel this miserable… what should I do? I’m the reason they all died…!”
Menelapie’s lies were meant for Shia’s mental comfort, perhaps?
Anyway, she had willingly become a target to be blamed for Shia, who was in desperate need of blame.
How wretched she would feel for not knowing even that.
“A coward like me chose to hide, and because of that, people died…!”
“I see.”
“I could have saved at least one more person… I should have… I just hid and cried like a damn coward…!”
I couldn’t control my feelings.
Before the self-loathing exploded within, Menelapie hugged me.
The scent of dust, earth, light blood, and the tired, gentle embrace of Menelapie’s warmth.
It was the most soothing and comforting moment Shia had ever felt while living as the Mangja Seongnyeo.
“No one will see this. It’s just me.”
“…Ugh, Huh…”
I don’t have the right to cry.
A coward couldn’t muster the courage to save the villagers.
Despite having power but being an ultimate coward…!
“Sometimes, it’s okay to cry.”
For some reason, when I heard those words, something began to flow from my eyes.
Once it started, it didn’t want to stop.
“Ah… Aaaaah…!”
I’m not sure how long I cried.
Even now, I don’t remember why I wept.
Was it anger at myself?
Was it the fear of the Demon Lord’s army?
Was it the self-loathing of surviving alone?
Was it being resentful for being a coward?
Probably all of those feelings.
During that time, I was a total crybaby.
Even back then and now, I cried again.
Looking back, it’s quite embarrassing…
I stopped crying around the time the dawn broke.
“…Are you okay…?”
“…Not okay.”
I must have felt anxious.
I must have felt scared.
Killing the Demon Lord’s army was one thing, but what if killing them awakened a hunger inside me?
What if the humans looked at me differently…? And would I really be able to stop the craving to devour the Demon Lord’s army?
No, surely, it must have been terrifying, Shia.
As you said, even after consuming the Demon Lord’s army, there is no guarantee that the hunger would completely subside. That unquenched hunger may even turn towards humans after the Demon Lord’s army is gone.
You were probably scared of that, knowing that you couldn’t do anything.
It wouldn’t be okay. It would hurt, it would be painful. You would feel self-loathing.
“I have also experienced similar things. That is why I understand you.”
“…You?”
You’re much stronger than me.
You seem glorious beyond compare.
You are the Emperor, right?
But if you’ve experienced something similar, it feels too surreal…?
No, I know you’re not lying, but it just doesn’t make sense.
“I wasn’t strong from the beginning either. I wasn’t born an Emperor. I can’t remember too well, but… I was a weak and fragile girl who could easily be knocked out.”
I can’t even imagine that.
“I lost people, followers, love, my parents, those I loved dearly—all of them are gone.”
You lost something as well…
“Yes, and it was for this reason I took up the sword, to not lose what I loved again.”
Menelapie, holding Shia close, lifted her head.
Her eyes were incredibly clear.
The calm confession in those eyes shone like gold.
“If you don’t want to lose any more, then grip tightly.”
“…But I’m a coward.”
I was terrified.
I remain scared.
Even after losing, Shia was still terrified.
But, Menelapie smiled as if to say it was alright.
“It is okay. If you don’t want to grip a sword…”
And the scarred, injured hand of the Emperor held Shia’s hand tightly.
She had really suffered a lot.
So many bruises, so many scars.
“I will give you the sword called Menelapie Heilum.”
“……..”
It felt like a vow that a knight in a fairy tale or legend would make.
Why would the Emperor of an entire Empire make such a passionate promise to Shia? I still don’t understand.
But the moment I heard those words, I felt myself captivated, as if entranced by Menelapie.
“Strike as you wish. If what you desire is just, I will gladly cut it down.”
“I will become your sword.”
“Until the day we slay the Demon Lord. Until the day we cleanse evil from this world…”
“Shall we grasp hands again as those who have made mistakes? As the ones who have lost? As those who are insufficient?”
“I will grant you courage. You just need to strike.”
A courage that never existed blossomed within.
How could one not muster the courage even upon hearing such words?
Shia dried her tears then.
My weakness stayed the same.
The coward within me remained intact.
But now, it’s okay.
Because there’s someone providing me with courage by my side.
They would grasp my filthy cowardly sobbing hand; how could I not be happy and welcome that?
“Alright. Let’s give it a shot.”
Humans are really something else; courage is so fickle.
You can only gain it through loss.
But regardless, from that day onward, my world changed.
Not as the human Isia.
But as the Mangja Seongnyeo Shia.
○○○○○
“With that being said, Yeonhwa, you have already experienced loss. You can grow much stronger than now.”
“…I think I understand why you still miss that Emperor even after coming here.”
“Right? If it’s Menelapie, you could even become friends with a fool.”
…Though it’s likely that day will never come.
