CHap 48-The Girl’s Past

 

As if pure white snow had blanketed the world, the surroundings were an endless expanse of white.

Only two people existed there.

One was a girl.

Her entire body was covered in such horrific wounds that it was hard to even look at her.

Torn, slashed, and burned marks.

A battered body with hardly any unscathed areas.

However, there wasn’t even a hint of pain on the girl’s face.

She was merely staring at a point in the empty air with vacant eyes.

It was an expression so empty that it was hard to believe a living human could make it.

As if her soul had been completely drained, leaving only an empty shell.

And in front of that girl, a man was kneeling.

The head of the Bennett Ducal Family and an 8-level swordsmaster, Isaac Bennett.

His always-composed and dignified demeanor was nowhere to be found.

In a disheveled state, he desperately clasped his hands together, pleading before the girl.

“Please… I beg you. Save my daughter… Serena. With your power, it’s possible, isn’t it? I’ll pay any price. So please…”

His voice was trembling wretchedly.

There was no trace of the proud Duke.

Only the desperate cry of a father on the verge of losing his daughter remained.

At Isaac’s plea, a very slight change occurred in the expression of the girl, who had been blankly staring into the air.

A faint light flickered in her empty eyes, and her brow furrowed slightly, as if she couldn’t quite understand.

And finally, after a very long silence, she opened her mouth.

Her voice was clear, unlike her wounded body, but it carried no emotion.

“…I don’t understand.”

The girl murmured softly.

Her gaze turned to the kneeling Isaac.

“I didn’t know… you valued Serena that much.”

There was no blame or resentment in those words.

Just pure question.

Like a child learning a completely unexpected fact for the first time.

The girl was still staring indifferently at her father, who was sobbing at her feet, with empty eyes.

“You know what it means to ask me to save Serena, right?”

Isaac didn’t answer. He simply lowered his head and trembled.

“If I use my divine power in this state… I’ll die.”

The girl calmly predicted her own death.

As if it were nothing.

It was at that moment.

Upon hearing the girl’s words, Isaac Bennett’s body, which had been lowered, began to tremble violently.

And when he slowly raised his head, no trace of sadness or despair could be found on his face.

Instead, a terrifying rage and twisted madness that had surged up in an instant were consuming his eyes.

“…So?”

Isaac growled.

He stood up abruptly and brought his face close to hers, as if to grab her by the collar, and began to shout.

His voice was like the roar of a beast that had lost its reason.

“So what are you saying! Are you afraid of death now?”

His eyes were bloodshot.

“You’re just a tool! A nameless tool sent down by the transcendent to save humans! If you’re a tool, then fulfill your mission! Save my daughter! Save Serena right now!!!”

Isaac’s mad cry echoed through the empty space.

However, on the face of the girl who had just faced his ugly true self, a faint look of relief passed by.

“…That’s a relief.”

The girl said quietly.

“That you’re still the same piece of trash.”

There was not contempt or anger in those words, but even a strange sense of satisfaction.

The girl lightly pushed Isaac’s chest.

It was a movement with almost no force, but Isaac, who had been consumed by madness, staggered back a few steps powerlessly.

“I’m going to save Serena.”

The girl said, looking straight at Isaac, in a firm tone different from before.

“Not because you asked me to. Because she’s my sister. I will definitely save her.”

Her voice contained a sincere affection for her sister Serena.

It was a temperature difference that was so different from her attitude towards Isaac.

“Instead…”

The girl continued.

“I have one request.”

“…What is it?”

As hope for saving his daughter arose, a faint vitality returned to Isaac’s face.

“Let me meet the Guardian Witch at the academy.”

The girl’s voice was calm, but it carried an undeniable weight.

“To save Serena… I need her power.”

…

A familiar space.

A high ceiling, bookshelves filling the walls, and a view of the academy outside the window.

It was the academy headmaster’s office.

The girl was standing in the center of the room.

Although she had changed into clean clothes, her arms, neck, and face, which were exposed between the clothes, were still covered with terrible scars.

The blood was no longer flowing, but the scars vividly testified to the pain she had suffered.

Her eyes were still empty.

She was standing in the center of the room, facing a woman sitting behind a desk, looking at her with interest.

A white robe and a pointed hat. She was petite, but her presence more than filled the room.

The Guardian Witch, Dorothy Lightshield.

“Hmm…”

Dorothy rested her chin on her hand and scanned the girl up and down.

Her gaze lingered for a moment on the scars on the girl’s body.

“So, what did you say was your business? You want me to engrave my magic on you?”

Her voice was mixed with curiosity and a bit of doubt.

“Yes.”

The girl answered without hesitation.

“If I have that magic… it will create synergy with my Unique Ability and allow me to use the Evil God’s power. That would definitely help protect Terra…”

The girl’s words were cut off there.

As she was explaining her plan, Dorothy got up from her seat and quietly approached the girl.

Then, she gently grabbed the girl’s arm and carefully touched the scars hidden under the sleeve of her clothes.

Scars that still had a reddish tinge as if they hadn’t healed yet, strangely twisted skin tissues.

Dorothy’s brow furrowed slightly.

Her voice lowered.

“…This. Who did this?”

Her voice contained not just simple curiosity, but a cold anger.

The girl blinked as if she was momentarily embarrassed by Dorothy’s question.

And then, as if it were nothing, she answered rather proudly.

“Ah! I did it. My Unique Ability that I mentioned earlier. I get stronger with pain! So I deliberately…”

The girl calmly, so calmly, said that she had injured her own body.

Faced with that even bright expression, Dorothy was speechless.

“…I see. I guess so…”

Dorothy didn’t say anything more.

She let go of the girl’s arm and made a wistful and sad expression, as if recalling something very old.

And then she slowly closed her eyes.

A suffocating silence filled the headmaster’s office.

The girl looked at Dorothy with an uneasy or expectant expression.

Finally, Dorothy slowly opened her eyes and opened her mouth.

“…Okay.”

A short but clear word of permission.

At that one word, the girl’s face brightened noticeably. Life returned to her empty eyes, and a faint but sincere smile bloomed on her lips.

“Instead…”

Dorothy added.

“There’s a condition.”

At the words that there was a condition, the smile disappeared from the girl’s face in an instant.

Her expression calmed down again, and a firm determination arose in its place, as if she would endure any difficulty.

She answered without hesitation.

“Yes. Of course. Tell me any condition. If it’s something I can do… anything…”

Her voice was even tinged with determination.

Dorothy watched the girl for a moment, then made a very unexpected condition.

“Become my disciple.”

“…Yes?”

The girl’s eyes widened and she was startled, as if she had heard something she had never expected.

Even her voice was trembling slightly.

“B-Become your disciple? How could someone like me dare… I have no talent, I haven’t learned anything… I’m just…”

The girl was flustered and couldn’t continue speaking properly.

Dorothy watched the girl’s reaction quietly, then smiled mischievously and asked back.

“Oh my. So you’re saying you won’t do it? I’m offering to take you as my disciple myself.”

“No! It’s not that I won’t do it!”

The girl was startled again and waved her hands.

“I… It’s just so sudden…”

The girl still looked at Dorothy with an incredulous expression.

Dorothy smiled faintly, as if the girl’s appearance was cute or pitiful.

And then she quietly approached and hugged the girl tightly in her arms without hesitation.

A warm and soft sensation.

It was warmth like a mother’s embrace that she had forgotten for a long time.

The girl’s body stiffened slightly at the sudden hug.

Awkward and embarrassed, she fidgeted uncomfortably in Dorothy’s arms.

It seemed that being in such close contact with someone was a very unfamiliar experience in itself.

Dorothy ignored the girl’s reaction and instead hugged her even tighter and whispered softly.

“Tsk tsk… A girl’s body is full of such terrible scars.”

With those words, Dorothy began to gather soft healing magical power in one hand.

A dazzling green light bloomed from her palm.

And she took that hand over the scars that remained all over the girl’s body.

Srrreuk-

With a warm and ticklish feeling, an amazing thing happened.

Everywhere Dorothy’s touch reached, the hideous scars that had covered the girl’s body for a long time began to disappear as if melting snow.

The marks that had been torn and slashed, the traces of burns, and even the strangely twisted skin tissues…

Everything returned to its original clean and smooth skin.

When the treatment was over, Dorothy released the girl from her arms.

The girl looked down at her arms and legs, where the scars had completely disappeared, as if they were amazing.

She touched them, rubbed them, and tilted her head.

At that pure reaction, a faint smile reappeared on Dorothy’s lips.

…

Emilia was staring at Yeon Bennet’s records spread out on the bookshelf with empty eyes.

The shock, guilt, and pity that had stirred her heart a moment ago had faded away, and only an emptiness of unknown depth remained in their place.

As if even her tears had dried up, her eyes were shining dryly.

Emilia silently turned the next page with mechanical movements.

Because there were still many stories she had to see.

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading!