Truth 2

Han Seoyeon told the truth.

She confessed all the secrets she had hidden without leaving anything out.

It was courage.

To correct the mistakes she had made.

To take responsibility.

“…I too have something I must tell you all, taking this opportunity.”

So as a lover.

Michaela too, should no longer keep hiding.

“About the identity of that man who attacked you, Ha-yul.”

Her lover had shown courage.

Then it would be illogical for her not to show courage.

“And about my own past as well.”

Turning away because it was scary.

Turning her back because it was ugly.

Something she didn’t want to tell anyone.

Perhaps something she wished to forget somewhere in her heart.

Not anymore.

Although anxiety still remained.

Facing the past.

Even if it’s a path stained with blood, arrogantly.

Michaela will move forward.

“Seoyeon, you said you have memories of your past life.”

“…Yes.”

“I’m the same.”

Memories of a past life.

A life before the present.

“I have memories of a world different from this one.”

When she wasn’t an Academy student who came to study abroad in Korea from Germany.

Michaela remembered that.

“That place is completely different from this world. There’s no science. No Gates, no monsters, no mana. Nothing that exists on the planet called Earth exists there.”

Another world.

There’s no other way to express it but with that term.

“I was an inhabitant of such a world.”

Inhabitant.

Actually, expressing it that way wasn’t quite right.

Because she was nothing more than a mere scabbard.

The Sword of Winter.

The original sin of being born with that power defined as an ability in this world.

A childhood marred by abuse.

Michaela shook her head.

There was no need to add unnecessary stories.

“I went on an adventure.”

She didn’t live a long life.

It was certainly a short life, if one were to call it short.

The time spent on adventure was only a small part of that.

In numbers, it might be around 2 years.

But that time was irreplaceable.

The only moments of value in Michaela’s past life.

“I made a friend. A friend kinder and gentler than anyone else,”

The hero.

The benefactor who saved her from hell.

Her first friend.

“I experienced many events. I experienced many encounters.”

Michaela went on adventures with him.

She set out on a journey to save the world.

“And.”

It was during that journey.

“I also met that man. The man who hurt you, Ha-yul.”

It was when she met a young man.

“My first meeting with that man was strange. He had unusual black hair and black eyes. His attire was also peculiar. He wore clothes that looked like they were from this world. Above all, he lacked knowledge. Like a newborn baby. As if he was someone experiencing everything for the first time.”

A young man with nowhere to go.

The hero accepted him as a companion.

“At first, it wasn’t bad. The man volunteered for various and mischievous tasks. Some of my old companions even took a liking to him.”

Surprisingly, things weren’t wrong from the first meeting.

If they had been, there wouldn’t have been anyone to cry for him when he was killed.

“There was a turning point. The man changed.”

But because people are dual-natured.

Because they are beings that can change at any time.

“At that time, we had a powerful enemy we had to defeat.”

The change originated from the end of the adventure.

Before and after the final battle.

“We were strong. But the man was weak.”

A powerful demon king.

The hero’s party opposing him.

A mere guide couldn’t withstand it.

He would easily lose his life.

“So we left the man in a safe place. To ensure that the man wouldn’t die no matter what. Even if we lost our lives, so that at least the man could live.”

It was consideration.

However, it might not have been consideration for someone.

“But there was a difference in perception. The man took this as an insult.”

He could have been sufficiently disappointed.

After all, they had shared joys and sorrows for two whole years.

“The man left the group without a word. We searched for him.”

If Michaela herself were placed in the same situation, even she might not have been different.

Up to that point, it wasn’t a big deal.

“The first one to find him was none other than me.”

If there was a problem.

It was the fact that the first to find him was Michaela Ernst von Wittelsbach.

“The man I met again was consumed by inferiority. He was busy belittling my friend’s achievements. He continued to speak ill and even planned revenge out of vain resentment.”

The fact that it was a mere scabbard who didn’t understand people’s hearts that first met the man filled with resentment.

“Perhaps it might have been a momentary slip of the tongue. Something that could have been resolved sufficiently through dialogue.”

If the first person the man had met was the hero.

Or if it had been the other companions.

If they had talked, what would have happened?

She often thinks about it.

“I couldn’t do that.”

Wouldn’t there have been a different ending?

Wouldn’t there have been a happy ending for everyone?

“…I killed the man.”

It was a meaningless assumption.

Because it was Michaela herself who broke that possibility.

“I too ended my life on the guillotine. Because I killed a person. I received punishment.”

There was no regret for that murder.

─There shouldn’t be.

“And I was reincarnated. With memories of my past life. The fact that that man also reincarnated just like me was something I hadn’t even considered.”

Michaela looked at Lee Ha-yul.

At her who was once covered in wounds because of that man.

“Ha-yul, I wanted to tell at least you. Because you are the victim. You have the right to know who the perpetrator is, what kind of person he is.”

Lee Ha-yul was the victim.

The victim had the right to know the truth.

“The reason that man became twisted might be because of me. Because of that, you got hurt. I’m sorry. I want to apologize. To everyone here who had painful experiences because of that man.”

So Michaela apologized.

And then she made a resolution.

“…That man will target me. Because he had strong hatred towards me.”

There won’t be a next time.

Michaela will put an end to her connection with the man.

“I swear, I will defeat that man again.”

Returning to the dormitory was quite a long-awaited event.

More precisely, returning to a dormitory with an atmosphere that wasn’t awkward.

Michaela sat down next to Han Seoyeon.

Close enough for their body temperatures to almost touch.

“…Hey.”

“What is it?”

Han Seoyeon asked carefully, with a hesitant voice.

“What did Michaela look like in her past life?”

“That’s a question I don’t understand the meaning of.”

“Like, your appearance, or gender.”

Michaela answered without hesitation.

“Exactly as you see me now. There’s no special difference.”

“…Really?”

Michaela’s appearance was no different then and now.

She was herself.

Silver hair and blue eyes.

Skin pale as a corpse.

It’s a strange question with a strange point.

Michaela couldn’t help but think so.

“Michaela, you like girls…?”

“What do you mean?”

“What would you do if I wasn’t purely a girl?”

Han Seoyeon was different.

She wasn’t an ordinary girl, after all.

“For example, if I was a man in my past life.”

It’s a confession that doesn’t really need to be made.

Nevertheless, not wanting to hide it from her lover.

“If I had a different appearance than now.”

Han Seoyeon spoke the facts as they were.

“Even so, could you still love me?”

The girl named Han Seoyeon is beautiful.

By objective aesthetic standards, she certainly qualifies as a pretty girl.

If that appearance isn’t the whole truth.

If there’s a lie hidden.

‘…I wonder if Michaela will dislike me.’

Appearance is one of the reasons for love.

People desire beautiful exteriors because they want to be loved.

Michaela might be the same.

Because she’s just an ordinary girl.

“I was wondering what you were going to say.”

Michaela smiled leisurely.

“Let me tell you, I’m not particularly a homosexual. It just happens that the person I like is a girl. I like your kind heart. I like you alone.”

The reason she loves Han Seoyeon is just one.

Han Seoyeon’s existence itself.

“There’s no need to have such anxiety.”

For that reason, how could she dislike her lover?

Michaela wasn’t that fickle a woman.

“If you’re still anxious.”

She held her hand.

It was a soft, girlish hand.

“Just be a girl in love in front of me.”

“…Okay.”

They naturally lay down on the bed.

Come to think of it, they hadn’t done this in a while.

“I’ll be a girl only in front of Michaela.”

Suddenly, desire surges like a flood.

“…That’s cheating. Saying such things.”

Honestly, if one could resist this, they wouldn’t be lovers.

“Is it okay if I take that as seduction?”

“…Yes.”

Lying on top of the girl as if crushing her.

Intertwining their legs.

Thinking about subjugating all of that, from the present to the past life, the very soul itself, there was a satisfying sense of conquest in its own way.

That’s why she swears.

No more, truly now, she won’t make the girl cry.