episode_0122

Yuria Leilani. That name was etched deep into the heart of Riel Frost—a person he could never forget.

His first love. And the first he had lost.

The betrayal of someone he had believed loved him had been the most devastating experience of his life.

It remained his sharpest memory, binding him even now as he lived under the name Arina.

“There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time.”

Back then, the one who had made him feel the deepest betrayal was Marika. No matter what anyone said, the two of them had been the closest, sharing the longest bond.

But now, after learning how the Burden had consumed their party, the one who stood out as the most unsettling was Yuria. How had she ended up under the Burden’s control? How had he been forced to witness such a sight?

No matter how he thought about it, it made no sense.

This was Yuria from a time before she had fully awakened the Hero’s power.

Even if the other three had attacked her under the Burden’s lead, she should have been able to escape and come to him for help.

But Yuria hadn’t.

Without a single plea for help, without even a hint of warning—suddenly, Riel Frost had tasted despair.

In the past, consumed by grief and vengeance, he hadn’t noticed. But recently, something had begun to stand out.

The more he thought about it, the more questions arose rather than answers.

Though he couldn’t find a solution, his conversation with Erwin had made him realize one thing.

His premise had been wrong.

The reason no answer had come no matter how much he thought about it was because one single assumption had to be overturned.

The idea that Yuria would ever betray him of her own will.

Once he discarded that, the answer became painfully simple.

“It all leads to one conclusion. You weren’t forced by the Burden back then—you gave yourself to him willingly. Am I wrong?”

How many years had it been since they last faced each other like this, speaking directly? They had briefly crossed paths in Natizan, but there had been no time for conversation then.

No matter what Arina said, her long-lost lover simply stared holes into her face.

“Your silence means I can take that as the truth, right?”

“······.”

A direct hit. Arina’s conviction hardened in her heart.

First Erwin, now Yuria. Was it just rotten luck?

‘The women I thought were my comrades turned out to be damn sluts all along.’

“Aren’t you going to say anything? No matter what excuse you make, I’ll never forgive you. But even so, don’t you think it’s unfair to end things like this?”

Yuria, who had been silently staring at Arina, finally opened her mouth carefully.

“You look good, Riel. Your face is much brighter now.”

“That’s none of your business.”

Her pupils flickered slightly. Yuria’s gaze shifted to Ian behind her.

“Is that man your new lover?”

“Yes. The husband I love most in the world right now.”

“That won’t do.”

“Why? Does it disgust you to hear me say I love a man? But you don’t have the right to say that, do you? Because—”

Arina cut herself off, steadying her breathing.

Facing the truth, the surge of emotions was unbearable.

If she thought about everything that had happened, she felt like she might burst into tears right then and there—but she forced them down.

Still, she couldn’t completely hide the tremor and wetness in her voice.

“—Because you’re the one who made me this way.”

She had believed it could never be true. No, she hadn’t even been able to imagine it.

That Yuria, who had always smiled so brightly beside her, had been scheming such things behind her back.

“Did you ever love me? Were all those smiles you showed me back then lies?”

“‘Did I ever love you,’ you ask?”

Yuria mulled over the question for a moment before letting out a soft laugh and meeting Arina’s eyes.

As if to flaunt it, she planted the Holy Sword into the ground and approached Arina with a radiant smile.

The eerie grin, so out of place, and the laughter in her eyes made Arina unconsciously take a step back.

But she forced herself to stop, refusing to be overwhelmed, and glared straight at Yuria as she closed the distance.

The two stood so close that if one fell, their noses would touch. If she reached out now, she could grab Yuria’s throat and squeeze.

Yuria slowly raised her hand and gently stroked her former lover’s cheek, now smaller than her own, as if tickling her.

“I loved you. No—that’s not quite right. I still love you, Riel. Truly. More than anyone else. There’s no one in this world who loves you more than I do. That man behind you? He can’t even compare to how I feel about you.”

As if it were only natural, Yuria’s fingers traced Arina’s face, caressing it.

Arina, who had been silently waiting to hear what excuse her ex-lover would offer, roughly slapped her hand away at the insult to Ian.

“Stop spouting nonsense! You betrayed me. You still love me? Who the hell would believe that? What I want to hear is the truth. Since when were you planning to stab me in the back?”

“‘Betrayal’ isn’t the right word… but if you want the answer you’re looking for, then I suppose it was from the very beginning.”

Thud.

The sensation of her heart sinking made Arina’s legs tremble, but she forced herself to stand firm.

So it was true. She had planned this from the start…

“Were you already acquainted with the Burden? Did you fake a coincidence to bring him into the party…?”

“That’s completely off the mark. Meeting him really was an unexpected coincidence. I was lucky Leon brought him to us. I almost wondered if the Goddess had sent him as an angel to grant my wish.”

“Your wish was to throw my life into the gutter? What grudge did you have against me?!”

“‘The gutter’? How rude.”

Yuria reached out again, tilting Arina’s chin up slightly. With their gazes perfectly aligned, Yuria smiled enchantedly at her lover’s face.

“Look how beautiful you are. Shouldn’t this be called a blessing?”

The words made no sense to Arina, and her brows twitched.

“What are you talking about?”

“Even after all this, you still don’t understand? That’s so like you—”

Yuria’s hand was forcibly separated from Arina—not because Arina pushed her away.

She had always been more oblivious than most in this regard, and she lacked experience.

Unable to watch any longer, Ian stepped in, gripping Yuria’s wrist.

“That’s enough, don’t you think? She’s someone else’s woman now.”

“Hmm, but isn’t it up to Riel to decide whose woman she is from now on?”

“Arina has already chosen me. Even if she were given another chance, she’d never pick someone like you.”

Would she really? Whispering the words with her lips, Yuria shook off Ian’s hand and continued.

“Riel. It took some time for us to get together, but I fell for you at first sight. Every moment with you was fun and happy. Except for one thing.”

Arina and Yuria’s eyes met again. In that moment, as Arina pondered Yuria’s words, she realized.

The sticky obsession, possessiveness, and lust. The gazes filled with desire that she had received countless times from men—she could feel them emanating from Yuria now.

“Because… I was a man?”

“You were always so conservative. Is this hard for you to understand? But what could I do? I was born this way. As the daughter of a noble family, I couldn’t show it. If I had acted on my desires, my father would have tried to kill me. Just when I thought I’d go insane from the pent-up urges, I was chosen for the Hero’s party.”

“But you—you just said you fell for me at first sight when I was still a man.”

“I did. You were so beautiful that it overrode my usual preferences. Your blue eyes and jade-like skin drew me in more than Leon, Erwin, or Marika.”

Like a love serenade, Yuria praised Riel Frost’s beauty, upright heart, and strong will—as if those were the reasons she, a lesbian, had fallen in love with him despite him being a man.

Then, her expression dimmed slightly as she murmured.

“But you were still a man. Your height looking down on me, your voice after puberty, your bone structure. And most of all, every time we slept together, I was reminded that you were a man.”

As if it had been depressing, Yuria looked at Arina again and said:

“But now, you’re my perfect ideal. Exactly the you I wanted—smaller than me, delicate enough that I want to torment you. I wanted to pin you beneath me and make you cry.”

“Then what the hell was that act you put on with the Burden in front of me?!”

“I don’t know the details. I was told that to turn you into a woman, you first had to be driven to despair.”

“Despair?”

“Yeah. Losing your comrades, your friends, your lover. Losing your status, being abandoned by your family…?”

…………………………………….

?

It wasn’t an unfamiliar story. She had lived through all of it herself.

“Everything you did… was for that?”

“Yeah. To turn you into a woman.”

“What kind of logic is that…?”

“Marika told me she heard a revelation from the Goddess. Apparently, you were supposed to be born a woman. But by some mistake, you were born a man instead. Because of that, the Goddess’s plans were completely derailed.”

For anyone else, it might have been impossible, but for a god, changing the sex of an already-born human was feasible. It wasn’t entirely unbelievable.

“But your immense magical power and male ego made it impossible for even the Goddess to intervene directly.”

So those two things had to be taken from her. The Goddess chose the Burden as her agent to carry out the task.

And on the day she was turned into a woman, Arina’s magic and spirit had been utterly broken, leaving her in ruins.

“For me, it was a blessing. Thanks to that, I got the perfect lover I could never have had otherwise.”

“And for that, you…!”

“You hated the idea of your lover being with another man, didn’t you? I’m sorry. But I had no choice.”

“That’s—! That’s not the point! Because of you, I was—how many times did I…! How many times…!”

Raped. Begging him not to get me pregnant, forced into humiliating positions, made to say vulgar things to excite him.

She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. Especially not in front of Ian.

“Oh, that? I don’t mind. Chastity, purity—those are just childish concepts men obsess over.”

“How can you say that doesn’t matter?! It matters to me! I’ll never forget it!”

“Riel…”

Yuria trailed off as if shocked, but the next moment, she clapped her hands and laughed like it was nothing.

“Then let’s just kill the Burden.”

“What?”

“Thinking about it, it’s about time to discard him anyway. I thought it was better for him to be the one to completely destroy your male ego, but I don’t think we need him anymore.”

Stunned by the horrifying statement, Arina froze as Yuria slowly walked toward her.

Suppressing the nausea rising in her throat, Arina covered her mouth and asked without being able to meet her eyes.

“Yuria… were you always like this?”

“Yeah. You’d never understand a woman loving another woman, would you? You’ve always been so rigid about these things. I wish you could be as open-minded about this as you are about magic.”

“That’s—”

“Sorry, but let me say this first. Can’t I be happy too? I volunteered for dangerous work to save the world. As your lover, I did everything you wanted without fail. Even now, I have no intention of abandoning my duty. I fought hard even while you were gone. Now, all I need is you. You patriarchal men always say this, don’t you? ‘Heroes have their pleasures.’ Treating women like serving girls, acting however you please. And yet, as a woman, I’m not allowed even this small desire?”

The words themselves weren’t false. Though not as well as when Arina had been present, the current Hero’s party had achieved feats unmatched by previous generations. Of course, Yuria was at the center of it all.

Though she claimed not to show it, it was as if she had already seen through the male-supremacist thoughts Arina had harbored.

Yuria reached out her hand.

“Riel, nothing has changed. I still love you, and I’ll still be your lover. So take my hand. Come back to me. I’ll defeat the Demon King, the Demon God, whatever stands in our way—just be mine.”

It was an incredibly tempting offer. She could regain her friends, her status, the lover she had loved. It was everything she had dreamed of every night.

Defeat the Demon King, be recognized by everyone, and spend the rest of her life with the people she loved.

All it would take was one compromise. Letting herself be pinned beneath her lover and whimpering like a bitch wasn’t so hard now.

If it meant reclaiming everything she had lost in the past, that much was—

“Get your hand away.”

Yuria frowned at Ian’s interference once again.

“You’re getting noisy. I’m not interested in you. Just because you managed to seduce Riel when she was weak, you think you’re something special? Know your place. Pretty boys like you are a dime a dozen for her. What could you possibly do for Riel?”

“Anything she needs.”

“Words are cheap. You know what they say—people should know their limits—”

“Enough.”

Arina pushed Ian aside and stepped forward.

In the past—before she had met Ian—she might have accepted this offer. Those days had been that lonely and painful.

“But not anymore. Yuria, I don’t need you or the others anymore.”

“Riel. That man doesn’t love you. Do you really think he could love the male Riel Frost?”

Of course not. She didn’t even need to ask to know that.

“But I could. I loved you as a man, and I love you as a woman. Why can’t you see that I’m the only one who can?!”

“I don’t need that.”

As she spoke, Arina’s hand slashed through the air.

It was where Yuria had been standing, but her afterimage scattered as the Holy Sword returned to Arina’s grip.

Arina’s eyes, as if expecting this, tracked Yuria’s movements perfectly.

“Ian Felix, who loves me as Arina. That’s all I need. Nothing else.”

Yuria covered her face upon hearing the answer.

When she lowered her hands, her face was split by a grin so wide it looked like it might tear.

The Hero raised her Holy Sword.

“Then I’ll just have to take you by force!”

The Holy Sword struck the earth, shaking the ground.

Magic swirled, overturning the atmosphere.

The battle to determine the strongest between the mightiest Hero and the mightiest mage—humanity’s two greatest champions—had begun.