Ch.11Chapter 11 – Hero of Justice, Verdandi Astraia (4)

“I’m sorry for showing you such an unsightly scene…!”

Verdandi said as she wiped away her tears. Her swollen eyes and reddened eyelids revealed how much she had been unable to express her emotions.

“It’s alright. There’s no such thing as a perfect person in this world. Everyone makes mistakes, fails, and learns from it.”

I smiled gently as I looked at Verdandi. She had simply become twisted because there was no one around her to properly teach her about emotions.

Just like I was in the past. Before meeting my first love, I hadn’t learned how to properly express emotions through writing.

– What’s your name? Do-hyeon? That’s an unusual name.

Yes, it feels quite distant now, but that was definitely my name in reality.

– Do-hyeon, you really can’t write. How can you put such unpleasant experiences into words?

Han Do-hyeon.

A name meaning “to place a period (玄) on the path (道).”

Anyone hearing it might think I was born to be a writer, but unlike my first love, I had no talent.

– Your writing has too many commas. The line breaks are strange too, and in the end, you’re just saying things only you understand.

I heard these words from my desk mate when I was filling out manuscript paper at school.

– Your problem is that your thinking is too extreme. Who would want to read something that’s only sad?

Her name was Yoo Seol-hwa. Unlike me, she was a writer born with natural genius.

Seol-hwa had a talent for writing elegant prose and the power to move people’s emotions.

In a way, she bears much of the responsibility for why I’m now trying so hard to save these final bosses.

– Every story should end happily. So that the writer, the reader, and the characters in the novel can all be happy.

That one sentence Seol-hwa left me had stuck in my heart like the sharpest thorn.

“…”

“Bing-yeon? Why did you suddenly stop?”

I had abruptly halted my steps as we left the house to find others, and Verdandi asked me.

“I was just lost in old memories. Thinking about someone I miss.”

I wonder what Seol-hwa would say about this situation. Being reborn into a world where novel characters breathe and live, living a life with a time limit.

And going around trying to save the final bosses to make up for the sins I committed…

“What kind of person are they? You definitely had an incredibly sad expression on your face!”

Verdandi quickly read my expression and smiled brightly. Children are sensitive to others’ emotional changes like this.

“…Was this also a setting I wrote?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Verdandi had been living this way all along.

A life that prioritized others’ emotions over her own. The stress she had accumulated over years had finally exploded.

That’s why she collapsed with just one oracle from the main deity, and why she was so easily persuaded by the words of a stranger like me.

“She was my first love. A memory from an innocent time when I knew nothing, something I can never get back now.”

“…What does ‘first love’ mean?”

As if to prove my point, Verdandi didn’t even know the term “first love.” I sighed deeply seeing her innocent expression.

“It means the first person you liked, someone for whom you hold the most tender feelings.”

“I don’t understand! There were children who confessed their love to me, but they were all just tricks to make fun of me!”

In this way, Verdandi was like a blank canvas. Similar in that no one knows what will be written on it.

If I hadn’t stopped her, she probably would have become a murderer who judged all living beings in this world as evil and slaughtered them.

“Does that also fall under the category of love?”

Abruptly, Verdandi blocked my path and asked. I couldn’t help but smile at her pure, untainted smile.

“No. Love is an emotion where you would willingly give your life for another person. For love, you might do anything, but you try not to do things that would hurt the object of your affection…”

“…Then does that mean you love me! This is embarrassing!”

To be precise, it’s closer to paternal love. I wanted all the characters in the story I created to be happy.

It’s just the mindset of a child finally doing the homework Seol-hwa left me, after putting it off again and again. It’s almost embarrassing to call such a thing love.

“No. This is the feeling of a master caring for a disciple. As you grow older, meet people, and build relationships, you’ll eventually meet someone you love and get married.”

I imagined Bi-wol, Verdandi, and Azazel in wedding dresses.

A tall, handsome man standing beside them, thanking me as they held their wedding ceremony.

If I actually saw that, I might burst into tears. I think I somewhat understand why fathers cry at wedding venues when giving away their daughters.

“You’re the first man who has cared for me like this in my life! Can’t I marry you?”

“Don’t say things that don’t even sound like jokes.”

To me, these three are like daughters. For a writer, characters in a novel often feel like children.

Although Bi-wol licked my finger today, I’ve never harbored any impure thoughts toward her.

“I am your master. There shouldn’t be any master in this world who would have such feelings for their disciple.”

Even if there were, could such a person really be called a master?

If such a teacher-student relationship developed into a romantic one, they would have to endure the world’s disapproving glances and pointing fingers.

“But couldn’t there be? The men in this village have looked at me with lewd eyes! I don’t think I have an unattractive body!”

“…At least, that’s not me. I have never once looked at my disciples that way.”

I wouldn’t be able to face the disciples of my sect.

The Ice Dragon Fate Sect, which takes in coachmen, errand boys, beggars, children without limbs, and people who have sold their bodies and organs as disciples.

On top of that, we were already being called an evil sect rather than a righteous one because we mainly use ice arts.

“That’s the truth! Master, you really are a pure person!”

Verdandi was even distinguishing whether this was true or false. She burst out laughing with a “puhehe.”

“A master is someone who makes disciples follow through reputation and respect. At least that’s what I think. If you make people follow you through force or fear, you’ll eventually lose their trust.”

I slowed my pace a bit as I looked at Verdandi. At the academy where I worked, there was an instructor who controlled students through corporal punishment under the name of “tough love.”

“…That guy was thoroughly criticized by students behind his back.”

He was the opposite of me, and although I had told him several times that his disciplinary methods were wrong, it never really sank in.

“Originally, a person’s heart is like delicate glass; there are things you’ll never know unless you speak or act.”

At the academy, I was called the “handsome teacher” or “sculpture-like beauty,” nicknames that were too much for me, but my specialty was in counseling.

Listening to students’ dreams and concerns, helping them not to go down the wrong path.

That was my small refuge after giving up on my dream of becoming a writer.

“So that’s why you embraced me so warmly! If I had the right to choose a father, I think I would want someone like you!”

Hearing Verdandi’s words, I could only smile bitterly inside. After all, I was the one who had written her narrative.

In the past, I had been told by my father that I was “an unwanted son,” and I had simply transferred that into my writing.

How did it end up like this?

“You don’t need to be so formal with me. Just calling me ‘master’ is enough.”

I stroked Verdandi’s head as I would do with Bi-wol. It felt a bit dry, as if quite some time had passed.

“Is… ‘master’ sufficient?”

Verdandi nodded vigorously with sparkling eyes. It seemed she had wanted to call me master all along, just like Bi-wol did.

Her tone sounded a bit awkward, but it was better than being overly formal by attaching honorifics to my name.

“Yes, I see your mother is up ahead. Let’s go see her.”

“Yes, Master!”

Verdandi hesitated slightly, afraid to move forward, and I gently pushed her back with my palm.

This part I cannot help with. The relationship between parent and child is something they must resolve themselves.

* * *

When Aila regained consciousness, she couldn’t believe the situation around her. Hadn’t Verdandi stabbed her in the abdomen with a kitchen knife while resenting her?

The wound on her abdomen, where even some intestines had protruded, was now completely healed as if it had never happened.

“You almost died. A little later and you would have been gone.”

The woman who had been called the Golden Tower Lady earlier was frowning while drinking wine.

“Did you save me?”

“I did, but save your thanks for later when you’re with your daughter. Someone threw themselves into your family fight.”

Wolfram sighed with relief as she looked at Aila. If it hadn’t been for Bing-yeon’s quick response and judgment, things could have gone very wrong.

“With my daughter…? Wait, what happened to Verdandi?”

“She’s coming over there. Good luck.”

As Wolfram said, footsteps could be heard in the distance, and a girl wearing a golden laurel wreath was approaching her.

“Verdandi…?”

It was her beloved daughter, Verdandi.

Watching Verdandi walk slowly and then start running, Aila showed an expression of disbelief.

– Even beasts cherish their young, but I was almost killed by my mother when I was a newborn!

Aila wondered if Verdandi remembered that she had tried to kill her when she was young. She thought Verdandi was too young to remember, and it had ultimately been an unsuccessful attempt.

Even while bleeding from the knife wound, Aila tried not to lose consciousness so she could hear the emotions Verdandi had been suppressing all this time.

This was all her fault, because she hadn’t loved Verdandi enough.

“Are you hurt anywhere…?”

“Mother…”

Because of this, these were the first words Aila spoke to Verdandi.

The very ordinary words of a parent worried about their child.

“It’s all my fault, dear. I should have understood your feelings earlier… At the very least, I should have listened to your concerns.”

“…Ha.”

Verdandi was speechless at Aila’s attitude. She couldn’t understand why her mother would say she was wrong even after nearly being killed by a knife.

“…I hate you, Mother.”

Verdandi’s hands clenched into fists. She was angry that her mother was asking for forgiveness even in this situation.

“You almost died because of me, and even knowing how the villagers look at me, you’re not angry at all. I hate that about you.”

“It’s all my fault. It happened because I wasn’t good enough. I’m sorry, my daughter.”

Aila gently caressed her cheek and then spread her arms wide to embrace her.

If she could have shown her love like this earlier, why didn’t she?

“Stop saying you’re sorry! You didn’t do anything wrong!”

Verdandi spoke with tension in her voice. It was a voice mixed with tears.

“Wasn’t I an unwanted child? Aren’t I the daughter of some unknown man who raped you?”

“…”

“This is all my fault! I was deceived by the deity’s oracle and thought you were evil!”

She wished her mother would slap her cheek. She wished she would show contempt and say she was disgusting.

If not that, she wished her mother would scold her and ask why she did it.

“Why aren’t you angry? I almost killed you!”

Verdandi couldn’t stop crying as Aila just embraced her and sobbed.

She knew she should say she was sorry too, that she had done wrong. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t express her true feelings.

“That’s because your mother loves you more than anyone else, Verdandi.”

“…Master.”

“A parent is someone who blames themselves for doing something wrong, even when their child stabs them with a knife.”

Bing-yeon appeared beside Verdandi and spoke. His tone was soft and warm, as if comforting her.

“You should apologize too. There’s no guarantee that a broken relationship will return to normal, but shouldn’t you resolve these old feelings?”

“…”

At Bing-yeon’s words, Verdandi closed her eyes gently and gathered her courage. She felt that if she didn’t speak now, she might never be able to.

“I’m sorry… Mom… I was wrong…”

It was a statement barely made while crying like a young child, without the usual extreme formality.

“Yes, my daughter. You’ve been through a lot.”

Aila and Verdandi embraced each other, crying profusely as they released the walls they had built up between them.

“Mom… I’m sorry… Did it hurt a lot…?”

“No, it’s okay. These things happen. It was my fault first…”

The mother and daughter repeated apologies and reassurances to each other, talking about the past they hadn’t been able to discuss.

* * *

As I was watching the two reconcile with a pleased expression, a cold voice came from beside me.

“Master.”

“Bi-wol, where have you been? I received your help in this matter. Thank you for your hard work…”

The owner of the voice was Bi-wol, and I was about to pat her head as usual to tell her she did well, but…

“Master, do you like that martial sister more than me?”

My disciple’s expression was strange. It felt as if she wasn’t the Bi-wol I knew.

“…Who are you?”

I couldn’t help but say these words.