episode_0034

“Here, I should conceive the young lady.”

The prospective groom’s secondary declaration of affection.

Of course… it’s not real, but rather a momentary intent to take some of my blood while handling the aftermath.

My sacrifice,

I quietly accepted it and transferred my magic power.

[Activating Emperor of Blood (EX).]

[Manifestation – The duration of the avatar is 5 minutes.]

“…When the knights sound the horn, at least as someone wielding a sword, I should serve as a meat shield.”

It’s the bare minimum insurance.

With this avatar I’ve created, surely even if I’m held captive by demons or in Uriah’s hands, I will unhesitatingly offer up that life.

Until the demons I’ve summoned return to the shadows of Uriah, I couldn’t appear before them.

I couldn’t just reveal Uriah’s nature as a vampire.

Surely, what could happen in those 5 minutes?

Was it then?

The point of no return when the snowball effect began rolling.

The worst part of trauma is that even if you think you’ve forgotten in your mind, your body remembers at crucial moments.

Isabella, the saint, experienced the same thing.

[…Is this place really safe?]

[Of all places, why here with that saint…]

[To think such a force invaded this small village… Damn, do we have to flee to another place again?]

Eyes filled with suspicion.

Regrets of those who have given up.

Even though I don’t want to see or hear the voices of the anxious citizens who have already lost their village, they are visible and ringing in my ears.

Hands stained with indelible blood, now even as a fugitive.

Feeling this helpless, memories of a similar experience from the past came to mind.

The loyal knight commander who thought he was carrying out his orders faithfully.

-Really, he’s a cruel person. He can nonchalantly kill hundreds and stand proudly.

The village chief who, while crying, cursed the earth when one village was set ablaze.

-You, because of you… all the people in my village…!!!!

A woman who silently prayed for herself amidst the many who were celebrating her.

Please find the English translation of the given Korean webnovel below:

—

Please, please. If I die on the road…

Sinope grabbed my arm.

It’s all because of my own actions, succumbing to the devil’s whispers, commanding everyone. The priest who always supported and helped me, the grandfather who, in a time when it was difficult for me to even have a piece of bread, generously allowed a piece of bread for others in the village, the maid who sincerely prayed for me and helped me with discomforts. They’re all gone now. They turned their backs on me. Simply because of a shiver, I wear a different mask than before. No one listens to me anymore. Even if I speak out loud, my sincerity doesn’t get through. No one understands. I’m alone. I had to endure everyone’s hateful glances and superficial politeness while feeling the curse from behind.

“Do you believe that you are innocent?”

The last words of the priest I respected.

“Hypocrites always stand like that. Even if you are a saint of perfect justice politically.”

Behind you, you are just a villain to be cursed.

His words always were,

“May the lonely death judge you along with the many you’ve killed,” as everyone stares at me with strange faces. Now, I can’t even recognize who is making what expression. Really, whose side am I on?

“…”

I looked at the lady-in-waiting who is the only one looking at me without a mask.

“…R-Rence.”

“…Yes?”

“Laurence… s…”

As usual, my hand trembled. It was a very fragile voice that didn’t suit the duty of a saint of justice. My breath intermittently broke, and my body felt weak. Isabella called the woman’s name in the midst of suffocating pain, but she couldn’t lift her head.

Her weakened appearance seemed to withstand the accumulated sins until the end. Just before her breath was cut off and her pupils rolled back, a faint voice was heard.

In the narrowing tunnel, the figure of a knight desperately trying to release her hand appeared.

The sound of a bell ringing. Wasn’t it said that it would only ring in an emergency? Perhaps it was her knight, Lawrence, who rang it.

“Lady! What’s—”

—

Get out of the way! Damn it…

Unconsciously, his right hand, which had started self-harming, presses against the saint’s throat. His arms and legs convulse, and despite struggling against death, the world gradually drifts further away. Any will beyond his right hand collapses, and his once defiant eyes slowly grow hazy.

His head tilts backward.

In this dark world, he awakens to someone’s call.

“…..!”

Taking a pill from her bosom, the saint hastily pushes it into her mouth and rinses her face with water that drips from her silvery hair.

When she regains her composure, before her eyes stands Ian, who had just been pretending to be a fool… no, acting, holding a bucket in one hand.

She looks at her own neck, feeling even the faint bloodstains left by the slap.

A red handprint filled with hateful emotions remains as evidence of what was done to her neck.

“What, are you… Ian, Gongja, demon… I did not ring the bell.”

I don’t know what she’s saying, but it seems disrespectful.

It’s disgraceful.

Her instinct to protect her dignity and pride is extremely fierce.

Seeing the dreadful expression on Ian’s face, she pours more water over his head.

“Ian, Gongja! Even if that’s the case, such disrespect to the lady!!!”

“Shut up, I’m trying to save her now.”

“What, what kind of nonsense is that…!!”

Snatching the water-filled bucket nervously, the saint gives herself one last baptism.

Her heart, which had stopped, feels like it’s barely beating again.

As she flips her wet hair back behind her ear and gently closes and opens her eyes, in the chilly silence that follows, only the sound of breathing can be heard.

Once the situation calms down somewhat, the saint catches her breath and speaks.

“Stop it. Lawrence, I’m sorry for calling you out of the blue like this. It’s embarrassing for someone seeking help to do such things on their own.”

Ian, who had been silently observing, replied, “No, I just thought it was something I had to do.”

“…You’re not at all like a fool. As always.”

The saintly woman smiled as if she had lost her color, avoiding his gaze. Her eyes, once filled with a vibrant golden hue, could no longer meet his face. Her entire body was drenched in disarray. Occasionally, her pale skin peeked through her clothes, but the saint paid it no mind. She felt there was no longer any value in hiding.

In the sky, a demon was circling. Then came the pounding noise. Dozens of adult men pressed against the warehouse gate, trying to stop it, but soon the door shattered into pieces, and the demon, screaming, rushed toward the saint.

“Lonely death will judge you.”

The demon transformed his hand into large thorn-like spikes.

This is it. I’m going to die.

“Milady!”

A knight, belatedly realizing, drew his sword, but it was too late. As her vision blurred, the saint deliberately released the divine power that had been protecting her.

Fine. It’s okay to die now.

Surely, those who had killed until now had led this demon here. The weight of the corpses seemed to crush her.

“…Pwoosh!”

A brief sound of flesh being pierced was heard. Then, in the moment her eyes closed briefly…

…Strange. There was definitely a piercing sound. Then, a jolting impact as the unprotected woman’s body rolled on the ground brought her sight back.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Unfortunate, her body was unharmed. If she had been stabbed, she surely wouldn’t have even recognized what was in front of her.

However, seeing Ian Gongja impaled by the demon’s hand instead of her was the reason.

“……”

A fist-sized hole pierced his chest right in the center. Then, his final blade moved to cleave the demon, but weakly, along with the corpse, Ian’s body pooled blood like a hot puddle on the ground.

The wounds he received while forcibly shielding her were the kind that left him uncertain whether he could save himself or not.

“Ian Gongja? God, why… No, wait. Why… Why would someone like you… Torture me just a moment ago, then suddenly act like this?”

…Why did this person, who until a moment ago had been torturing and threatening her, suddenly change?

He even treated her with a demeanor so villainous that it made the saint feel ashamed.

Certainly, she knew that he must have been brought here against his will due to some request. Why would he throw away his life like that? Moreover, he had reached that level through tremendous effort. Obtaining Ora Blade was not something easily achieved with just talent. Surely, he must have endured unimaginable pain and hardships. All that effort becoming utterly futile in the face of the eternal and unchanging ‘death’. Did he accept it without hesitation for the sake of others…?

No, at least if it was a sacrifice for humanity, she could understand. It meant there was absolutely no need for him to throw himself for the saint who had allied herself with demons and treated him so rudely.

“…”

Brittany Ian, having received a very simple command, checked the saint’s face. Seemingly proud to have completed the mission safely, he flashed an inappropriate smile. Then, he stopped his function.

As the saint faced him, her expression turned cold. She couldn’t say anything. In the end, he did not wear a mask. Not hearing, which meant it was his true feelings.

In the end, there was no face to tell him what to say, as he attempted to defile his noble sacrifice.

-Thud!

-Kugugugung!!

“Saint! You must leave this place quickly!”

The urgent voice of a knight echoed in her ears. Perhaps the demons who had been trying to invade from outside had started to come in after the door had just opened. However, in such a situation, Isabella’s eyes only saw one person.

“…”

She quietly embraced his body. It had grown cold. However, what gave warmth to his body was none other than the saint’s sanctity. The desperate world seemed to slow down. A world that felt like only the two of them.

With a voice that might or might not reach only him, the saint asked him a question she had pondered all her life. Speaking so earnestly to a stranger she had met just yesterday was unfamiliar to her, but now she wanted to ask. Hoping deeply that this question would reach you.

Ian, do you… know about the time I encountered a demon in my childhood?

…

Your silence implies that you do. Then you must also know that my entire family was slaughtered there, and that the incident was concealed from the world. I believe you are well aware.

…

In that incident, my family and village were taken from human hands.

…

Humans fell victim to the research conducted on summoning demons. My younger brother and sister were murdered before my eyes by the thugs who had once been human.

…

I… I’m not sure anymore. I used to believe that I saved more people than most with these two hands. But now, it seems that I have killed far more humans viciously than the monsters I call demons.

…

Killing a person may be a sin, but killing a villain turns one into a hero in stories… Saving people… Killing villains… It feels like I’ve repeated this balancing act countless times.

…

Visitor from Britannia, what do you think I am…?

…

“Am I… like a demon…?”

A response as sharp as a blade returned.

“You are not a demon.”

A natural conclusion reached by the only rational part of his split consciousness.

Of course, the meaning behind the simple question of ‘demon or human’ as a race was not so straightforward.

With that single word, the expression of the saint changed.

And then, without hesitation, she tore her own clothes to place them over his wounds, ensuring she could continue to treat him.

“…Lawrence, take him and escape.”

“B-but!-”

“It’s an order.”

She was undoubtedly a support-class saint.

Of course, there were support saints who engaged in close combat, but Isabella was a long-range support.

She had little experience with close combat.

But her racing heart told her something.

If she retreated further and fled from here, she would forget even the person who sacrificed themselves for her last.

Normally, a civilian-like body, completely untrained, running solely on magic, was akin to a tantrum of wanting to die.

Living as a wizard all his life, Ian was akin to a painting that was completely ineffective against assassins at close range. Even low-level demons would have to risk their lives at close quarters. Three demons appeared right in front of him, and they were all mid to high-level. If the knights had seen this, they would undoubtedly have urged everyone to flee. It was the “common sense” of this world. In truth, he himself thought that this was tantamount to throwing away his life. “It’s not right for me to discard the life of someone who sacrificed themselves for me.” His gaze remained fixed on the figure moving away from him. He was an enigma from start to finish. What kind of person sacrifices themselves when the situation suddenly becomes life-threatening after being hostile? And even smiles at the end, as if it were something to be proud of. Even though he must have seemed like a demon to himself. “…Finding satisfaction in saving people is admirable. I felt that emotion too.” Now, as the saint of justice, he had to fulfill his duty. He was convinced that he wasn’t a demon. Even if it meant sacrificing his own life just the same. Ian headed towards where the bell had rung. [Incredible selflessness!!!] […?????The favorability rating of the saint (*Isabella) increases from -70 to +150!!!!] [The saint (*Isabella) has developed deep feelings for you.] [Congratulations! – The one who stole the saint’s heart. Acquires a nickname!] “…Why is he like this again?”