Ch.101Chapter 101. So What Did You Do Wrong?

When the familiar light faded and she opened her eyes, Arsil found herself standing in a landscape both familiar and strange.

A peculiar forest that failed to evoke any warmth, filled with overgrown vegetation whose roots and branches twisted and burrowed in grotesque angles.

It was the narrow, elongated forest surrounding Sewage Alley.

Could it really have been this easy to come here?

She felt foolish for spending five years wondering how to find time and a way to visit this place.

Moreover, the silence—devoid even of birdsong—felt ominously foreboding.

“You haven’t forgotten the way, have you?” Ravin asked playfully, but Arsil pressed her lips together and moved forward, retracing her memories.

Her mind questioned if this was the right place, but her body seemed to know the way instinctively.

Walking straight ahead, then veering sideways at what appeared to be a path, following the winding route…

“Ah…”

And there it was—the entrance to Sewage Alley, the place she had missed and longed for.

The entrance, formed from the ruins of an old castle and merely an obstacle to be climbed over, was now littered with gray skeletons scattered about, each still clothed.

Even Ravin, who hadn’t been here for quite some time though not as long as Arsil, lost his playful demeanor, replaced by a somber expression.

Black marks were pressed into the rough surface of the ruined stones.

Over five years, the once-abundant bloodstains had largely been washed away by nature, leaving behind only a few dark marks.

Despite her trembling body, which she tried to suppress with her arms, Arsil entered through the gateway.

She glimpsed a brown skeleton with torn sleeves.

Arsil knew well whose distinctive attire that had been.

“That’s Jack. A bastard from the Church’s Holy Knight Order split his neck with a sword.”

Ravin picked up a small skull and placed it on top of the neckless bones.

“Lapham was telling me to go get Lin when his head was taken off.”

Arsil looked around among the skeletons.

Near the entrance was where Ravin’s gang had established themselves.

As a demonstration that they could leave this place anytime, they had set up their hideout near the entrance and fought with Arsil’s group daily to take Lin away.

‘Come with us, Arsil!’

‘Jack! I’m telling you we can do it!’

‘Then at least give us Issi!’

‘Were you gay, Lapham?!’

Though they had quarreled roughly, the images of those who had been friends remained vivid in her mind.

Arsil ventured deeper and deeper inside.

Without overlapping, each child of Sewage Alley had performed their duties in their respective positions.

Everywhere her eyes fell, she recalled who had been doing what.

“Yes, I always watched and provoked you from there.”

The top of a towering ruin.

That had been Ravin’s spot.

Going further in, they reached the hideout of Arsil’s gang, which had taken over Brak’s former place.

“After you left, Lina took over the gang.”

“Issi… not Lin?”

“Lin was uniquely weak against Lina.”

That was the only thing Ravin held against Lin.

“That show-off made a mess of everything even with Lin backing her up.”

“…She’s still like that now.”

“Right, that’s the problem.”

Staggering into the hideout, Arsil reconstructed the faces of those she missed, reviving old memories.

Faces visible only to Ravin and Arsil, but now lost forever.

In the midst of this, Arsil discovered several joined metal desks and atop them, a twisted and split cutting board.

Issi’s place—where Lin used to cook.

“I thought… when I returned someday, Lin would be here to welcome me.”

Arsil spoke while stroking the cutting board.

Her dried lips felt slightly uncomfortable.

“That she would embrace me with a gentle smile.”

She had wanted to build a magnificent academy and show Lin the kitchen, to see her surprise.

But now Sewage Alley had become a place befitting ruins, filled only with skeletons.

An abandoned place where nothing remained of what she had tried to protect.

“What happened?”

“……”

“What the hell happened after I left?!”

Ravin sat down casually on a nearby rock.

This was the second time, wasn’t it?

Fortunately, with the person involved present, he could skip the period when Arsil was still around.

Ravin calmly revealed everything.

How support had been cut off as if by magic after Arsil became a Saint and went to the Church, and how the two gangs began fighting with murderous intent.

Arsil, who had been listening numbly, trembled with clenched fists when Ravin mentioned that the Church’s Holy Knight Order, led by Castiga, had ravaged Sewage Alley from the entrance.

Then, when he said that the Imperial Army, searching for the Empire’s sole heir, had ransacked the interior under Linaschien’s direct command, she couldn’t contain herself and struck a nearby rock.

Crack!

The rock cracked deeply, scattering fragments under the Saint’s power.

“How did you survive?”

“My gang members died in my place, telling me I had to live. I drank Grum’s potion and fled, then found Lin collapsed.”

“Lin was collapsed?”

“From what Lin told me… Lina stabbed her and left her to die.”

“Ha….”

And yet she faced her with such nonchalance, even playing word games every time they met?

Her vision turned red with rage, and she felt dizzy.

There were too many shocking truths to process.

It was a moment of realization—how much she hadn’t known, how much time she had wasted doing meaningless things elsewhere.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Both you and Lin… you could have just told me. Why did you let me act like a fool alone…?”

“If we had, you would have confronted Lina immediately.”

“Of course I would have!”

“Don’t be mistaken, Arsil. You had no power. You were just a combatant named Saint, a chess piece of the Church. The only reason Lina didn’t touch you was because she was working with the Church. If you had shown hostility as someone who knew her past, she could have easily made you a corpse and claimed you died in battle.”

She had that kind of power.

Regardless of her own stupidity and clumsiness, the power the Imperial Princess possessed far outweighed such shortcomings.

“Then… then why was Lin hiding herself behind a mask?”

“Initially it was because Luci told her to keep covered, but ultimately it was fortunate.”

“But why! Was it because that bitch, the Imperial Princess, might recognize her?”

“That’s part of it, but.”

As Arsil’s voice grew louder, Ravin became calmer in contrast.

“There was someone in the Hero’s party who, along with Lina, led the Imperial Army in massacring the alley.”

“What…?”

Who could it be?

To the confused Arsil, Ravin quietly asked:

“It makes sense, doesn’t it? That one person. The one who tempted you to betray Luci.”

“…Rainfold.”

“Yes, he approached Lina directly, and they fell for each other at first sight. Right there, Lina stabbed Lin, and Rainfold led the army in a massacre through the alley. Lin had to wear a mask to survive and couldn’t reveal her identity.”

Staggering, Arsil sat down on the rock she had shattered.

Sharp fragments poked her bottom, but she felt nothing.

“The children, as they died, worried about you rather than blaming or resenting you.”

Arsil lifted her head to look at the sky.

The gloomy sky seemed ready to pour rain at any moment.

“Here, you were straightforward but upright, friendly, and full of affection.”

Ravin also opened his palm to check if raindrops were falling.

“But after leaving this place, that Arsil disappeared, replaced by an isolated, suspicious person who stubbornly looked only forward.”

“Back then, I…”

“You say you couldn’t do anything in your situation, but by that logic, what about me? I barely survived, was a thief, then became a guild master in Valtercruz, and even its ruler. Your logic can’t explain that.”

Ravin’s calm eyes pierced through Arsil.

“How could Lin, a mere porter, capture the Demon King’s horn and escape with Luci, who was infected with demonic energy and had her limbs severed? She was in an even worse situation than you. By your logic, this couldn’t be explained or happen either.”

Ravin stood up and approached the Saint.

Arsil looked up at Ravin, whose expression was cold.

“Because it was full of impossibilities. What could a 15-year-old girl do in a big city like Valtercruz? What could a porter who was ostracized by her party members do against those formidable heroes?”

Arsil couldn’t answer.

So Ravin told her.

“It was hope. It was just a tiny bit of hope, but I had hope to create a new home and meet you all again, and Lin had hope, however slim, to break through this crisis and save the world.”

Hope, a word she had forgotten for a long time.

“And it was you who taught us that hope. It was you who said we could do it, even in this wretched alley. It was none other than you who told us to have hope and will. Yet you’ve been avoiding the things you could do, the things you had to do, by making excuses and finding reasons why you couldn’t.”

Ravin asked:

“Arsil, do you understand what you did wrong?”

Arsil answered with a trembling voice:

“Even though I became a Saint, I didn’t try to learn about the alley… I could have found out somehow, could have searched…”

Ravin shook his head and asked again:

“Do you understand what you did wrong?”

“I didn’t recognize Lin… I made her suffer and eventually caused her to be infected by the Demon King’s demonic energy… And… I betrayed Luci too…”

“Last chance, Arsil.”

Ravin firmly shook his head again.

“So what did you ultimately do wrong?”

At Ravin’s quiet question, Arsil shed the tears she had been holding back.

She spilled out the reason that had been stuck in her throat due to uncertainty, along with her sobs.

“I became arrogant… I only saw what I wanted to see and heard what I wanted to hear…! I committed a great sin against everyone, not just Lin…!”

Sobbing heavily, Arsil continued to confess her sins.

“When I despaired that there was no hope, I became a puppet who just did as told! I looked at people crookedly… and acted threateningly… The porter… was also a comrade… Whether it was Lin, or could have been Jack, or could have been Lapham… I should have treated them as my precious comrades… I was neither worthy of being a Saint, nor of being Arsil!”

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Ravin let Arsil cry.

He let her cry her heart out, regret, and reflect.

The sobbing of the once straightforward woman who had now broken down was pitiful, but Ravin wasn’t soft enough to sympathize with self-inflicted suffering.

Ravin left Arsil alone until she stopped crying loudly.

Plop.

Raindrops began to fall.

When tears and rainwater mixed to the point of being indistinguishable, Arsil staggered to her feet and embraced Ravin.

“I’m sorry….”

How wicked I must be.

Of course you should be sorry.

You were wrong.

But,

Somehow, Ravin found himself shedding a tear as well.

“When we go back, apologize to Lin and Luci.”

“Will they forgive me?”

“Ask for forgiveness before worrying about receiving it, you idiot.”

“Yes… I will definitely do that…”

The rain continued to fall for a long time.

Then, as if it had never happened, it cleared up and bright sunshine beamed down.

Awkwardly separated from Arsil, Ravin noticed the outline of her large breasts showing through the white clerical robe wet from the rain.

Hmm, quite provocative for a clerical robe.

Just as he was about to speak to Arsil with this frivolous thought,

“What are you doing here?”

Ravin and Arsil encountered a group of elves led by Naidrian.

Arsil recognized them as the elven council members she had seen before.

Even among their stern expressions, the Saint could feel their contemptuous gazes.

“This is elven land.”

“…What’s that supposed to mean?”

At Naidrian’s sharp declaration, Arsil clenched her fist and took a step forward.