======[ Belita ]======
‘Hero?! Why is the hero here?!’
Belita was sweating profusely, trembling like a rabbit caught in front of a tiger.
The hero of Hervor, Heid.
The man standing before her was a monstrous existence she had never imagined meeting, someone she should never encounter.
Heroes, after all, are like weapons prepared by the goddess to defeat the Demon King.
There was an insurmountable gap between herself, a mere criminal, and the title of hero, as vast as the distance between a goblin and a dragon.
Of course, even having received the hero’s mark, it didn’t mean Heid would instantly be powerful enough to confront the Demon King. He wasn’t as formidable as the heroes in the stories just yet….
“Uh, uh….”
For Belita, who was rattling her teeth, it didn’t make much difference.
Whether the opponent was ten times stronger or a hundred times stronger, they were both equally insurmountable existences.
Just by looking, she could tell the man before her was strong enough that she couldn’t even dare to touch a single hair on him.
“Why not bow your head, you lowly one?”
Heid narrowed his handsome eyes as he scanned her and then tossed a piece of meat at her feet.
Thud! The head-sized chunk of meat landed on the ground and rolled like a ball, stopping just at her toes… no, it was the head itself.
“Ugh…!”
Belita involuntarily glanced down, and it felt like a centipede had crawled on her bare skin, causing her to gulp in horror.
The man’s head, hacked to pieces and smeared with congealed blood.
The bulging eyes were vacant, the nose completely torn off, and the lips stitched with thick thread.
It looked like the face of someone who had undergone horrifying torture by a cruel and twisted being. It was someone she recognized.
They weren’t close, but to put it bluntly, he was one of her adversaries.
“Hicks?!”
The Abyss Priest ranked fifth in the Reverse Sky Association. ‘Sewn Mouth’ Hicks.
Like the fourth-ranked Ord, he was one of the Abyss Priests who had been warned about Aryane getting involved in this matter.
…Considering he had come in such a state, he must have chosen the wrong spot to get involved.
“Considering your reaction… it seems you were indeed one of them.”
“Oh, really? That’s too bad. I should have burned them slowly!”
The female wizard, Diren, who had incinerated all of Belita’s subordinates with a firestorm, walked up to Heid with a mischievous grin.
“I had a bit of trouble catching that one!”
A woman with slightly dull blonde hair tied in pigtails. Her large eyes, slightly upturned, resembled those of a playful cat.
“And I even missed one! How embarrassing!”
“Diren. Your way of speaking.”
Another woman followed behind, pointing out that Diren’s tone was too frivolous.
Like Diren, she also had dull blonde hair and green eyes, dressed in armor. Her long hair cast shadows on her face, and dark circles under her eyes made her look haggard, as if she hadn’t slept in ten days.
“Aren’t you being too gloomy? Like, like, smile a bit~.”
Diren playfully lifted the corners of her mouth with her finger, teasing her sister, Diarin, who had a face as if she had seen the world.
“…”
Diarin didn’t respond. She didn’t even smile. In truth, she didn’t feel like smiling. What she longed for was simple. She just wanted to end this farce by severing the neck of the red-haired woman and return to the city.
“Diren. Be quiet for a moment. I’m speaking, aren’t I?”
Instead of Diarin, Heid slightly turned and chastised Diren.
“Oh, yes! I’m sorry~.”
Diren nodded her head with a playful tone and covered her mouth with her right hand.
Her childish demeanor was terribly rude, yet no one here pointed it out. The reasons were all different.
Heid merely chuckled at the clownish antics, while Diarin kept silent, knowing further criticism was pointless.
And Belita was neither in a position nor a situation to make such criticisms.
‘These guys…? Not “this,” but “these guys”? And you said one was missed? In that case…’
It was then that Belita finally understood the situation completely.
The two Abyss Priests targeting the heart of the Jotun, Ord and Hicks, had cooperated and met Heid, only to be utterly crushed at the same time.
Ord must have barely managed to escape, while Hicks, unable to flee, had ended up before her, merely his head remaining.
“They were annoying with their magic controlling the monsters and their curse of ‘Silence’ that interfered with casting spells.”
Heid turned back to Belita and spoke.
“However, you… don’t seem like you’ll be much of a nuisance.”
An obvious death sentence.
A chill of fear surged up her spine, striking her head with an intense clarity of death that roused Belita’s survival instincts.
Boom!
Belita reflexively kicked the ground and launched herself in the opposite direction with all her might.
‘I have to run…!’
Not towards the man standing there with an exposed weakness, but in precisely the opposite direction.
There was no option to fight.
Even if she used the Troll’s arm and her innate blessings for a surprise attack, she was certain her head would be severed before her fingertips could even touch her opponent’s head.
The opponent had faced two priests blessed by the abyss at once, killing one without a scratch and chasing the other away.
Even she, not to mention her master Aryane, would have given up on fighting alone against such a powerful being.
“Is that a rabbit?”
…In truth, even for her, the option of running didn’t truly exist now.
Crack!
As Diren muttered lowly, looking at Belita as she attempted to flee, the ground where her toes touched yawned open, capturing her ankles.
Earthen binding magic.
“Gah, what…!”
Belita clenched her teeth.
The pile of earth that had suddenly shot up from her ankles to her waist hardened like rock, trapping her lower body entirely.
‘Was this a mistake…!’
Belita was sure there was no way to escape.
The Troll’s arm could have smashed such boulders, but those standing before her were not opponents who would allow her that luxury.
“You lack manners. I never told you to turn your back, yet here you are, trying to escape.”
As Heid approached leisurely, mocking her, Belita felt as though scenes from her life flashed before her eyes.
“If you wish to leave, drop that box to the ground. Then I will allow you to leave this place. At least your soul.”
Leave her body behind and depart. It was explicit mockery; a taunt that no matter how she struggled, there was no escape for her.
Belita already understood this, but….
“…I, Belita, cannot leave empty-handed.”
She still had one option left, that could be deemed a final desperate act.
“You seem to value this heart quite a lot, huh? Prince.”
Therefore, she forced a trembling grin, thinking of the orders given by her master in her mind.
– Find the heart of the Jotun and bring it back.
That was the first order Aryane had given her.
Now, it was an unachievable command.
However.
There was still a second order remaining.
– If it’s impossible to acquire… then destroy it. So that no one can have it.
If I cannot possess it, then no one shall.
The second command, overflowing with the Abyss Priest’s malice, infused the last bit of strength into Belita’s left hand.
Crack!
Without anyone being able to stop her, the Troll’s arm crushed the massive box into fragments.
Along with the rotting flesh contained within.
“…Hah.”
Diarin bowed her head and let out a soft sigh.
“Ahh! She broke it! What a waste!”
Diren gave an exaggerated look of shock, jumping a little as if fireworks had gone off before her eyes.
“…How about it? A lowly woman’s handmade meat porridge. Would you like some of this?”
Belita grinned as she displayed the mashed flesh, dripping with putrid water.
The fulfillment of having achieved at least the second order, coupled with the satisfaction of scratching her opponent’s insides before she ultimately died, brought forth her smile.
“Hah.”
Heid also clicked his tongue and laughed. The emotions within his laughter were of a completely different kind than Belita’s.
“You lowly being. You’ve made me take pointless steps. Did you not think you would regret it?” Heid asked, wrapping his left hand around his right fist. To Belita’s ears, it sounded like a threat that he would make her regret it.
“Hah. I’m going to die anyway, what’s there to regret?”
Of course, it was a threat that wouldn’t work on Belita, who had already given up her life. Since regardless, she would die, what was there to regret?
“Do you think you can die? Such shallow thinking.”
“Why? Do you plan to leave me alive to torture me? Go ahead, you bastard.”
Belita spat and cursed, having given up on her life. She was no longer afraid of Heid.
Surely, he wouldn’t dare to try and assault her, maintaining his princely dignity. The most he could do was perhaps torture her or toss her to the prisoners in the dungeon.
If it were to come to such, she would just kill herself immediately.
Before Heid could come too close, she could simply whack her head with the Troll’s arm, and it would be a clean end.
Belita took a deep breath and infused her left arm with strength again, swallowing her dry saliva to suppress her attachment to life.
“Well… it might be different than you think. Very much.”
Heid chuckled at her defiant response and pulled out his sword.
The Holy Sword of the Kingdom of Hervor, Týrving.
Scrape, scrape…!
The squelchy sound of flesh and bone tearing and splattering.
Belita, frozen in shock, stared blankly at the scene before her as if she had forgotten to defend herself.
“What, what are you doing…?”
It was an unbelievable sight that could leave anyone dumbfounded.
If anyone, even those who knew what was happening, had seen it, they would be as dazed as she was.
“What is that, an arm…?”
Seeing the man pulling a sword out of his own left arm.
“Ow. That looks painful. Sis, why is our country’s holy sword all like that?”
“…No idea.”
Diren shook her head with a horrified expression. The sight of a jagged sword emerging from a person’s arm was nothing short of grotesque to her.
Scrape, scrape…!
And thus, the Holy Sword of the Kingdom of Hervor, Týrving, finally revealed itself to the world.
The shape of a large sword with a hilt about one and a half hands long.
A purple jewel was embedded in the center of the crossguard, and the bluish blade had small serrations all over, exuding a sinister aura.
“Huuuh….”
Heid, having drawn the sword, sighed deeply as he lowered his left arm, merging the split part of his arm back together, leaving it intact.
It was an unfathomable phenomenon for Belita.
The very idea of such a big sword being inside a human arm, and the arm that had been violently split instantaneously reverting to its original state.
‘…No, it’s a holy sword, right?’
Rather than a holy sword, it felt more like some kind of cursed weapon, the manner of its summoning was bizarre.
In her astonishment at such a strange sight, Belita, without realizing it herself, lost the opportunity to strike her own head and end her life.
“It’s over.”
Before she regained her senses, Heid aimed Týrving’s blade at her and activated its power.
“…Or should I call it a new beginning?”
A cruel smile spread across Heid’s lips as he spoke, and then—
Woouuum!
The jewel beneath Týrving’s hilt vibrated lightly, unleashing a purple glow.
The power of submission.
Except for those bearing the hero’s mark and the Demon King, no one in the world could resist its absolute force of brainwashing, which penetrated Belita’s mind like mist.
“…”
Diarin, who had been quietly watching the scene, finally spoke softly.
“Isn’t it a waste to use the holy sword’s power against such a woman?”
Using the holy sword’s power against a mere thug would be excessive waste, she cautioned.
“It doesn’t matter. I won’t leave her like this for life.”
Heid replied with a light scoff.
While the power of Týrving’s submission could only brainwash three at most, it didn’t mean it could only be used thrice in a lifetime.
Attempting to brainwash beyond that would merely undo the brainwashing of the first person controlled.
“Even so, as a performance, it’s of no use at all….”
“I should make her pay for making me take a detour, right? Besides, this girl is presumably a lackey of the Abyss Priests. She might know some useful information.”
“…Is that all, punishment and information gathering?”
Diarin’s voice lowered slightly, as if she harbored some suspicions.
“Diarin.”
The discomfort in Heid’s crimson eyes was palpable. He warned her softly, almost as if gritting his teeth.
The atmosphere had turned icy with an ominous tension. At that moment,
“What’s this, what’s this? Are you perhaps worried that a new girl might join? How cute~!”
Diren, clinging to her sister, excitedly chimed in, playfully contrasting the somber mood.
Watching the scene with an expressionless face, Heid soon let out a soft sigh and wiped away the discomfort that had lingered in his gaze.
“Don’t cross the line, Diarin. Don’t feel sorry for that thing.”
“…I apologize.”
Diarin replied with a deep bow, her face hidden behind her hair, but tightly biting her distorted lips.
“What should we do with this woman, your Highness? What would be the most entertaining?”
Diren glanced briefly at her older sister and, beaming, hugged Heid’s arm, asking enthusiastically.
“Well, we’ll have to find out if she’s useful or not… starting now.”
“If she’s not useful, do we kill her? Burn her?”
“No, rather… hmmm. Yeah, that sounds good.”
Heid scratched his chin as if deep in thought before nodding in agreement.
“Right in the middle of the plaza, let her display the most disgraceful act she can conceive. Let her engrave a humiliation she will never forget for the rest of her life.”
If Belita turned out to be utterly useless after brainwashing, Heid thought it would be entertaining to play with her a bit until he got bored and leave her to disgrace herself in the public square.
“How does that sound? Doesn’t it seem fun?”
“It does sound fun!”
Diren cheered and clapped her hands, a bright smile plastered on her face.
“…”
Diarin, standing behind them, silently glared at the dazed Belita as if she were a corpse, her expression dark.
Having met someone she should never have encountered, having committed an act she should never have done, the woman had been stripped of her right to die as a human being.
