Episode 120 – And, Congratulations.

*

Lara could only remain silent, unable to offer any response.

But Mella no longer needed any answer beyond that silence.

Mella’s lips twisted grotesquely, then slowly trembled, beginning to form a particular expression.

A sneer.

It was an awkward, forced smile, as if someone were forcibly pulling up the corners of her mouth.

Like piercing a massively inflated balloon with a sharp needle, Mella’s raspy voice cut through the silence.

“…Why?”

“Mella, surely you don’t think I knew Edgar would come back to life…”

“Lies.”

“…Mella?”

“Li, li, lies. Lara. Blatant lies.”

Lara swallowed hard as she looked at Mella’s expression.

The skin around Mella’s reddened eyes was torn in places, and blood mixed with tears streamed down her face.

It almost looked like she was crying blood.

Mella’s curly, orange hair was dry and brittle, sticking up in strands and shaking menacingly like a lion’s mane.

Her once-sparkling hazel eyes had lost their light, swallowed by a dark hatred, and were embedded even more deeply and darkly than her black pupils.

Mella opened her mouth with an eerie expression and tone.

Her voice, already gone bad like her heart, changed erratically in pitch, emitting an unstable and miserable sound in a bizarre way.

“I knew it.”

“…Mella, calm down.”

“Of course, I knew it. Lara. That you li, liked Ed, gar.”

“…!”

“How could I not know? I’m Edgar’s lover. Sadly, Edgar didn’t seem to notice at all, though. Right?”

“…Mella, stop…”

“You were planning to monopolize Edgar, weren’t you?”

“Mella,”

“You thought it was great, didn’t you? That stupid bitch. She doesn’t know anything, you sneered… Right? You actually hated me for sharing love with Edgar, didn’t you?”

“I really…”

“So you abandoned me to live with Robin, who killed Edgar?”

“Mella, I was tricked into marrying Robin too! I really didn’t know…”

“In the end, you were the only one who got away!”

“No!”

When Lara denied it loudly, Mella jumped up from her spot as if she had been shot and rushed at Lara.

It seemed as if she had gathered all the strength in her trembling legs, as if she had been launched from the floor towards Lara.

Lara, startled, grabbed the hand that flew towards her neck and pushed it away, but Mella bumped her shoulder into Lara’s chest and shouted.

“You, you made me like this!”

“Mella!”

“You made me give my body to the man who killed Edgar! You made me!”

“No!”

“Shut your mouth! You disgusting bitch!”

Lara was so surprised that she opened her mouth and dropped her jaw.

It might be impossible to describe in words the shock Lara received at that moment.

It was something that could not be expressed in words, and a magnitude that could not be represented by any number.

Having lost both parents at a young age and drifted into the world of crime, Ed had spent his entire adolescence among criminals, so he used very harsh language, but there was a time in the past when he had completely stopped swearing.

It started when he joined the Hero Party, when Mella asked Ed not to use bad language.

Mella, who was Ed’s childhood friend from the same village, also lost her parents at a young age like Ed due to a monster attack on the village, but she was entrusted to the Goddess Church and became a Saintess.

Becoming a Saintess naturally required innate destiny and talent, but one could never become a Saintess without a strong faith in goodness and the Goddess, and a pure heart that sympathized with others.

Naturally, as she had risen to such a position, Mella had never uttered a curse or vulgar word.

Throughout the journey to defeat the Demon King, in any situation, whether she was scammed, woke up to find her body covered in bugs, fell into a trap, or the party was nearly wiped out by the Demon King, Mella never uttered a wrong word.

Even when Ed died, and even during those days when she was constantly trying to kill herself.

During the party days, Lara and Ed had even bet on whether Mella was holding back from swearing or if she was under a spell that prevented her from doing so.

But the fact that such words came out of Mella’s mouth, and that they were directed at her, was a world-shattering shock to Lara.

“Bitch, you loser who couldn’t get loved by Edgar, me, me!”

Mella went berserk, scattering tears of blood.

Lara, who kept pushing away the returning hands with their missing fingernails, felt something bubbling up from her stomach, constantly welling up at the back of her throat.

When she was struggling after losing Edgar, how much I dedicated myself to Mella,

I even married Robin to stay by your side for you, who didn’t know when you would take your own life!

Without revealing the secret of Edgar’s demise to anyone, not knowing how much I lived a life of wasted regret, unlike you, who enjoyed the life of a Countess for 13 years, lingering near that terrible monstrosity that held Edgar’s corpse and brought death to everyone who approached,

Knowing that would happen, I thought it was enough for me to suffer alone, and I wanted you to be happy until the end!

Do you know how much I cried watching Edgar, who didn’t open his heart to me even after his resurrection, even though Mella wasn’t by his side?

Do you know how sincerely I wanted to avoid you knowing the truth and struggling, or at least postpone it as much as possible, even though I wanted to take terrible revenge on that damn Robin?

Seeing you happy by Robin’s side without knowing anything, how much I regretted and suffered from Edgar’s broken heart,

Why are you the only one who feels so wronged and struggling, even though you monopolized his heart for so long, a heart I never had even once?

I didn’t even have a single chance, so why do I have to be blamed by you, who wasted all the chances?

Lara grabbed Mella’s hand, which was flying towards her cheek, and pushed it away as if throwing it away, shouting.

“Why is that my fault!”

“Iik!”

Mella fell to the floor and glared at Lara with her ruined face, shedding tears of blood.

Lara’s heart ached as she saw Mella collapsing again, just like 20 years ago.

The chilling fear that her cold fingers were strangling her heart covered Lara’s body, thinking that Mella might take her own life if she left like this.

However, she could no longer help Mella.

Neither Robin, who had been hiding his ugly secrets, nor Jennifer, who was already dead,

And neither was Edgar.

Lara suddenly wondered if it was them, who had been helping her all along, who had broken Mella so much.

During the party days, she was dignified and endured any danger, and yet she continued to do good and be kind to everyone.

But she let go of her mental tension due to her sweet romance with Edgar and became weak, and when Edgar disappeared, she literally collapsed.

Maybe they should have just watched her and let her overcome it on her own, only monitoring her so she wouldn’t die.

But they, at least Lara, who didn’t know the truth, couldn’t do that.

Even though her own wounds from Edgar’s death hadn’t healed, she protected her, hugged her, and comforted her every day.

In the meantime, Robin must have comforted Mella while hiding his sinister intentions and mixing in subtle seduction.

In the end, Mella overcame Edgar’s death, but instead became extremely dependent.

5 years, maybe 10 years, or even more, but should they have just watched her until she overcame it on her own?

Lara glared at Mella and opened her mouth.

“Yes, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry to you, but stop saying that all of this is my fault, that I did it to deceive you, Mella. That’s just bullshit.”

“Lara! You made me!”

“The reason you’re like this is because Robin was a son of a bitch. The reason I’m like this too! The reason Edgar is living in that hideous monster body! It’s all because of that!”

“You hid that!”

“And, it’s because you, who became weak from Edgar’s death, finally gave up on overcoming it yourself and relied on the help of those around you, and eventually on Robin. Am I wrong?”

“You thief! You had Lily with Robin too! Why only me!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. When did I ever say that only you were wrong? Stop living in your fantasy, Mella. Edgar is dead, resurrected, and no longer your lover.”

“…No, no!”

“I’ve been watching you for the past few days. Even if you lock yourself in your room, crying and dreaming, the Edgar from that time won’t come back. Even if he didn’t know, even if he was deceived by Robin, Edgar, who was despaired by the wounds we inflicted, can’t be the same as before.”

“Stop, stop it! Shut your mouth!”

Mella screamed, trying to cover Lara’s voice with a tearing shriek.

“Why only you, why only you got such a chance? Why didn’t I have a chance to know the truth! Why can’t I!”

“…Ha, haha”

Lara couldn’t help but laugh at Mella’s desperate cry.

Why can’t only I?

That was the thought she had been having her whole life since she met Edgar.

It was a question without an answer that she kept in her head, lightly resenting Edgar for never opening his heart to her.

But for Mella, who had the chance she had envied all her life, to ask her that question,

It was utterly ironic.

“Mella,”

“…”

“If I had been Edgar’s lover, if Edgar had allowed me his heart even once, I would never have embraced Robin. Or anyone else for that matter. Even if Edgar died, even if I could never see him again, even if I had to live alone for the rest of my long elven life. Never.”

“…Stop, shut your mouth.”

“If I had even one chance to love each other with Edgar,”

“I said shut up!”

“You ruined all those chances even though you had them.”

“No, no! No!”

“Why can’t only I? How dare you say that to me? You, who had all those chances? You, who monopolized Edgar’s love?”

“Lara!”

“During the Hero Party’s journey, when you and Edgar were leaning on each other’s shoulders in front of the bonfire while on watch, how could you say that to me, who was lying alone in the tent every night, tearing at my heart and feeling lonely, wondering why only I couldn’t! How can you, who spread your legs for Robin, say that to me!”

“Shut your mouth! You fucking bastard!”

The two of them screamed at each other, no longer able to have a conversation, but rather a scream.

It was not communication at all.

They weren’t responding to each other’s words at all, only swearing, shouting, and their anger and resentment colliding madly.

Mella, who was already in a weakened state, was the first to fall out of the commotion that lasted for several minutes.

Mella suddenly stopped talking and looked at Lara, who was panting with a face full of despair.

She lowered her head and bowed to the floor, begging in a voice that had been torn apart like the cry of a strange bird.

“Please, I beg you.”

“…”

“Give me back Edgar,”

“…Ha,”

Lara squatted down and carefully lifted Mella’s head from the floor and said.

“Don’t talk as if Edgar is mine. Edgar is neither your lover nor my man.”

“Please, give him back. Lara, I beg you, give me Edgar,”

“…Mella, the Edgar we broke can no longer love anyone.”

At Lara’s words, Mella suddenly recalled Edgar’s face as he looked at her.

That terrifyingly empty expression.

How much despair must have been piled up to create that seemingly empty appearance,

Edgar’s words that she should just live if she wanted to atone no longer felt so harsh.

Because at least she was feeling a pain that felt like it was burning her soul, compared to Edgar, who was so broken that he couldn’t feel anything.

“Oh, oh… Ah, Edgar.”

“…Even if we resent this cruel and capricious fate, we… shouldn’t pretend to be victims. At least as long as Edgar is there, you and I don’t deserve to do such a thing.”

At Lara’s words, Mella slowly lowered her head again and finally spat out the words she had never been able to convey to Edgar.

“Ah, Edgar, I’m sorry!”

“…”

“I’m… re… ally, so… rry.”

Lara slowly got up from her seat.

Lara’s sensitive ears, which stretched out long to the side, picked up the sound of a carriage entering the mansion’s entrance.

It seemed that Robin had arrived.

Lara slowly approached the window and said.

“Don’t think about killing Robin, don’t think about going to him and arguing, and, although it’s unlikely, if you really feel sorry for Edgar, don’t think about telling Robin everything.”

“…”

“I’ll be watching you. Mella. So if you try to pull any tricks,”

“…”

“I’ll kill you.”

Lara put her foot on the window frame and bent down to go out the window.

At that moment, she heard Mella’s dazed murmur.

“…Edgar, I’m sorry,”

“…”

“And… I love you.”

“…Shit,”

Lara was furious at Mella for daring to utter the word ‘love’ to Edgar even after she had said that.

It seemed that she hadn’t understood even after she had said so much.

Lara, who wanted to make sure that Mella never uttered the word love towards Edgar again, said briefly as she went out the window.

“Mella.”

“…?”

“Congratulations on your pregnancy.”

*

I said I would keep watching, but Lara, who had been watching Mella with her eyes open for several days, was honestly at her limit.

Thanks to Mella, who was repeating sleep and wakefulness and spending irregular days, it was impossible to fall asleep at the right time, so she literally hadn’t slept for several days.

Of course, Edgar also knew that Lara wasn’t a machine, so he told her that she could switch with Lily when she was tired.

Lara ran across the roofs of Sioland and quickly returned to Edgar’s mansion.

‘Before I go to bed, I want to see Edgar’s face.’

Even though she had told Mella that Edgar was not hers, the sight of Mella begging her to return Edgar to her planted a slight sense of superiority in Lara’s heart.

The composure she had barely found seemed to disappear again after seeing Edgar, who had been broken, but ironically, Mella’s abject plea gave Lara that composure again.

How long will it take to heal Edgar’s heart, which has been so broken that he can’t love anyone?

That creepy empty face.

Since it was so completely broken, it might take at least 10 or 20 years.

Maybe it will be 100 years, 200 years, or even more.

But Lara, who is an elf, had the time to wait for that long time.

“In the end, Edgar is mine.”

Lara murmured and opened the door of the mansion and entered.

Mena and Lily were the first to react to the sound of the mansion’s large front door opening.

The two welcomed Lara, who had entered through the front door.

“Mom, you’re here?”

“Lily,”

“You’ve had a hard time.”

“Thank you, but I’m sorry, Lily, I’m going to switch with you, is that okay?”

“Ah, yes, I understand. Where is Mella Imo’s room?”

“It’s the 7th window on the 3rd floor of the east wall of the building. Remember, you must stop her if she tries to talk to someone about Edgar or tries to take her own life.”

“…So I’m actually going to see that appearance that I saw in my father’s… no, Robin’s memories…”

Lily had a complicated expression.

Lara stroked Lily’s head and changed the subject.

“Where’s Edgar? I want to see his face before I go to bed because I have something to say?”

“Ah… I guess Mom doesn’t know where Edgar is either,”

“…What?”

At Lily’s next answer, Lara dropped the bow she was holding without realizing it.

“Edgar… didn’t come back last night.”

.