episode_0070

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[…] Crazy bitch.]

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Kasumi, who almost uttered those words, unknowingly took a step back and widened the distance.

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I knew that this behavior could actually provoke her, but it was human instinct to keep a distance when meeting a mentally ill person.

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This was even more so if the opponent was a priest who had walked the battlefield with a warrior in the past.

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It wasn’t that she wasn’t worried about Elise cooperating with her, but Kasumi was not a great person who could put the safety of her acquaintances before her own life.

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[Do you not believe me? You must have felt his presence too, right?]

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[It’s not that I don’t believe you. Hanji’s reincarnation clearly exists in this world. The memory is vague, but I could feel its presence.]

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Personally, my honest impression was that I couldn’t help but feel that it was shameless, but regardless of that impression, I could fully feel Elena’s sincerity.

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It may be a shameless and shameless plan, but she is sincere.

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He truly loves Hanji, and sincerely wants Hanji to forgive him.

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No, I have no doubt that you will be forgiven.

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She was a woman who was blind to her faith from the beginning, but now this tendency has become more intense and her quality has deteriorated.

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In her mind, Hanji, a benevolent god, has probably long since forgiven her.

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[I know your sincerity. But do you think there is still Hanji inside that boy?]

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It’s not that I don’t believe in reincarnation.

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Because the goddess abandoned humanity, not Hanji.

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It would not be particularly strange to say that the goddess, who took pity on him, returned him to this world.

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However, it is impossible to guarantee whether the memories would have been passed on as is.

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Even if you have the same soul, if you have no memory, it is just the same soul and a different person.

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Even if he suddenly appears and talks about his past life and asks for forgiveness, the person involved will only be in trouble.

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[I don’t know what trips you’ve taken or what you’ve seen since we broke up. But don’t think that just because you worked hard will be rewarded. The world is not that easy.]

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[…] What about you? Are you saying it can end like this even though that person came back?]

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[No. But I don’t think I can be forgiven like you. No, I have no intention of being forgiven. Unlike you, I am not in love with your kindness or face.]

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Unlike the other two, Ami fell in love with his powers.

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As a warrior, what she wanted most in a mate was power.

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I have been practicing to somehow catch up with Hanji. I even sold my body to gain more strength.

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I have no regrets about that action.

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If you have any regrets… .

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[The game ended that way.]

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Ami, despairing of the differences that had not been narrowed even after touching on the taboo, participated in the plan to betray the hero.

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Even if it’s a surprise attack, if you can’t respond, it’s not strength.

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I swung my sword without any doubt, believing that.

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But after that, all she was left with was the shame that this was not a victory, and the regret that she would never be able to settle the matter again.

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[I liked his strength. So I wanted to somehow defeat him and return to my hometown with him as my groom.]

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[…] … .]

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[You asked me earlier if you could move on like this, right? My dream cannot come true anymore, so I want to at least compete with that boy named Felt. I want to die by his hands.]

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To die by his hand after a satisfying battle, leaving her presence in his memory.

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That was ARMY’s wish.

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[…] Crazy bitch.]

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[I don’t want to hear it from you.]

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[Wanting to die at the hands of someone you love is not something that should end with words that are dark. Doing something like that is just a nuisance to Hanji.]

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[You speak as if your wish is not a nuisance. So what do you do now? Are you going to fight me?]

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It is impossible to win.

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But Ami secretly thought that it might be possible for them to become closer together.

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Of course, Kasumi, the owner of the body, noticed it right away.

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“… Have you forgotten that this is my body?”

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[I probably won’t kill you, so don’t worry.]

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“Crazy bitch… .”

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Kasumi turned her head away from the demon sword and looked at Elise, with whom she seemed able to communicate.

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Even from a third party’s perspective, Kasumi, the story just moments ago was like a child’s dream, self-indulgent and lacking in reality.

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No sane person would participate in such a plan.

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Kasumi, who made such a perfectly normal judgment, asked Elise.

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“Elise, do you really intend to participate in such a foolish plan?”

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“… I’m different from you. I don’t have the confidence to be hated by Felt. I don’t have the confidence to leave Felt’s side.”

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So, I would do anything to be by his side.

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If I could be forgiven by him, I would join hands with anyone.

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“So don’t say anything more. No matter what you say, my decision doesn’t change.”

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“This childish bitch… !”

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[no use. No matter what you say to a mentally ill person, they just won’t hear you.]

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“In my opinion, you are quite mentally ill.”

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[So your words don’t reach me. I went crazy a long time ago.]

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The right hand holding the magic sword begins to aim at Elise’s neck.

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My body was bent forward, like a spring compressed to its limit, as if it would shoot out at any moment.

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However, unlike Army, who was as ferocious as a gun about to go off, Elise and Elena were extremely calm.

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Unlike Army, they had no intention of fighting from the beginning.

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[I didn’t come here to have a fist fight. Unfortunately, our paths seem to be different, but that’s no reason we can’t join hands.]

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[I don’t want to admit it, but you are saying weakly that this situation would be to your advantage.]

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[…] Yes, it has to be that way. There is her in this cursed city.]

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[what?]

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As soon as she finished speaking, a huge tremor shook the world.

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When I turned my attention to the place I thought was the source of the tremor, I saw a building rising up from the fog-like dust.

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At that surreal sight, a name naturally comes to Ami’s mind.

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The name that I hate the most and resent the most.

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[…] Could it be that he came too?]

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[Yes, you understand now, right? We have no choice.]

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*****

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Lina wasn’t particularly good at cooking.

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In particular, I had a hard time controlling the fire, so when I lived in the village, I burned my meat several times and I still vividly remember being scolded by my mother for that.

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Since all the animals in the forest were the property of the lord, it was very rare for her, a peasant, to have the opportunity to eat meat.

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As in other rural areas, meat was very valuable, as it was only wild boars caught in the fields or dried meat brought in by peddlers.

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Every time she ate such precious burnt meat and was scolded by her mother, the charred meat next to her gave off a foul smell.

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The bad smell seemed to make her mother angry, so Lina hated the smell of burning from then on.

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The stench that I thought I would never want to smell again was now rising from every corner of the street.

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The smell of burning people.

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What was shocking was that the smell was not much different from the smell of burning pork.

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In fact, if you take away the name ‘human’, even humans are nothing more than meat.

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It would be strange for something to smell particularly different when burned.

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Those are all meat.

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There is no need to treat them as special just because they are of the same race.

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She repeated this to herself several times, but the feeling of harming people was something that could not be erased through self-justification, and it tormented her.

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[It looks like you haven’t made up your mind yet.]

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A sweet voice ringing in my ears.

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Even though she was the same woman, Lina raised her head at the sound of a voice that was so seductive that it instantly made her blush.

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“… It’s not like that. I have decided.”

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[Yes, actually, there is no need to feel guilty. All of those who died today are like living corpses who are only alive because they cannot die.]

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“… … .”

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[Just think of it as bailing you out. They say that these days, temples take care of hopeless patients themselves, right? What we do is no different from that.]

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If the victims had heard it, they would have been outraged and thought it was nonsense, but the voice of the deceased never reached them.

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Okay, just have to be patient.

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Compared to the pain of being separated from Felt forever, feelings of guilt are just a breeze that will soon pass.

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As she consoled herself, Lina looked at the book in her hand.

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After breaking up with Felt in the worst way possible, when she was alone in the dormitory and crying endlessly, she, Medea, came to visit Lina.

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I was surprised at first.

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I was beyond shocked and seriously doubted my own sanity.

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Who wouldn’t think that a book suddenly appeared through a window and started talking to them?

[Don’t you want to get Felt back?]

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she said

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He said that he needed his power to get his old lover back called Hanji, and that if he would lend his power for that, he would give him a child named Felt instead.

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Surprisingly, when Medea confessed her situation without hiding anything, Lina felt disgusted by those words and at the same time began to feel a sense of kinship.

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If he had that kind of power, he would have done it without a moment of hesitation.

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Funny enough, while feeling disgust for Medea, he also deeply sympathized with her feelings.

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[Hanji was mine from the beginning. We were together from the village, and you should have always been by my side… . They say that beautiful flowers are infested with bugs. There was a bug that wouldn’t fall even if I cut it out, so I didn’t care if it died, so I tried to keep its soul by my side forever… .]

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Things went wrong.

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It is said that she spent a long time preparing a plan to retrieve the missing soul of Hanji.

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The fact that the royal capital is like this and the two people betraying Hanji were all part of the plan.

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However, the plan went awry in the end.

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The soul that was supposed to be in her hands left her and traveled to a far away place.

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Although the cause could not be explained, Medea had no doubt that Hanji’s soul would return to her someday.

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[I am Hanji’s soul, and you are his body.]

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That was the contract between Medea and Lina, who lost their bodies.

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If I were to be greedy, I wanted to get all the felt, but sometimes you have to compromise.

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To get Felt back, Lina killed many people.

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Of course, she didn’t do it herself, but it was as if she participated in this when she lent her body.

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[The morale needed to create a dungeon will soon be filled. If that happens, the first step is complete. You know what happens next, right?]

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“I know, you’re killing your old friends somewhere, right?”

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[That’s right, those guys must have come here. I can feel it. And they will try to take Hanji away from me again. Those sluts who think they just need a little encouragement from the side will try to do something like that to me again. You know this feeling too, right?]

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“… You know.”

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[This is no coincidence. To borrow a phrase from that fanatic year, it was like an ordeal. So, there is no need to feel guilty or anything. Because love comes with trials.]

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Yes.

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This is an ordeal.

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After overcoming this ordeal, the future awaits Felt and Haroha.

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So you shouldn’t hesitate.

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Flames rose again, and the smell of burning meat tickled Lina’s nose.

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And the building began to rise toward the sky.