Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: Betty's Fall
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Betty came from the slums on the outskirts of the city, a rundown place so remote that she could hear the heroes battling magic beasts beyond the barrier.
Listening to those vivid sounds, Betty dreamed of becoming a hero.
'So cool.'
She wanted to protect and save people, just like those fighting outside the barrier. Betty and her older sister Karin often played hero in the alley outside their house.
But Betty had no talent. Not just for physical movement—her ability was so feeble it was practically nonexistent. She was a rare spatial teleportation user, but she could only move the length of a fingernail.
Not figuratively, but literally maybe 1cm at best.
Karin was the same. Betty at least had some ability, but Karin was born powerless without any at all. Still, both dreamed of being heroes. Dreaming was free, after all.
Her father was a researcher. After countless failures, he was fired and pushed to the city's edge—a powerless researcher.
Cast out from the affluent center to the impoverished, crime-ridden slums, he naturally drowned himself in alcohol. His broken rage turned toward Betty, who was nearly powerless, and the completely powerless Karin.
'Betty. You okay? Ugh, look at that bruise... Come here. Let's put some ointment on it.'
When Betty endured her drunken father's violence and shed tears, her sister Karin always comforted her. Even though Karin got hurt worse protecting her.
The abuse continued. Unable to bear it, Betty once sought help from the heroes.
But they didn't help. Exhausted from fighting magic beasts, they had no time for a little girl's pleas.
They moved not to save people, but only to kill magic beasts.
The violence grew harsher. Now it didn't end without blood.
'Betty, it's okay... It's okay...'
Endless days of abuse. That day, too, was one where her father beat them.
'Cough!'
The blood Karin vomited poured onto Betty's wounds. The blood slowly seeped into them.
Soon after, Betty's ability changed. It had been stuck at 1cm before, but after Karin's blood soaked in, it increased to 2cm.
Then 4cm. 8cm. Each time Karin's blood seeped in, Betty's ability grew stronger. Her mana seemed to increase bit by bit too.
Excited, Betty used her ability freely, and Karin happily praised her. It was inevitable her father would notice.
After that, his "abuse" turned into "experiments." For research to get him back to the center.
At first, it was just making Betty drink Karin's blood.
Then directly injecting it into her veins.
It worked. Betty's ability definitely grew stronger.
He couldn't figure out why Betty's mana increased and her ability strengthened. Naturally so. He was powerless from the start, stubborn enough to get chased out of the center despite that.
Soon the experiments' goal warped. Not uncovering why Betty's ability strengthened, but how to strengthen it more.
And the method he chose was tattooing Betty's body with Karin's blood.
Once the tattooing began, Betty's ability grew even steeper. Her father started covering her body in tattoos.
From hands and feet to her face, without missing a spot.
Literally days of staining herself with her sister's blood. Her own body hurting didn't matter. But watching Karin grow gaunt day by day from constant blood draws and her father tearing off flesh while pondering other methods was agonizing.
Karin could no longer play outside with Betty.
'I'm fine. Betty, don't cry.'
That's what Karin said, hugging the tearful Betty.
'Smile. You look pretty when you smile.'
Betty prayed to God.
With neighbors ignoring her and heroes not helping, only God remained.
But God didn't answer her prayers or pity her.
Slum kids were rough. That day too, mocked for her grotesque tattoos, she got pelted with stones by alley kids, bleeding as she returned home. Just another ordinary day.
But opening the door, no Karin's voice. Normally she'd hear "Betty, you're back?" from inside, then Karin would get mad seeing her bleeding from stones.
Betty called for Karin, but no reply. Instead, her father's voice called her in.
Following it inside, the first thing Betty saw was...
Karin lying pale on the bed, and beside her, vacuum-sealed red lumps.
'Betty. Come lie down here.'
Transplanting organs might strengthen the ability even more.
Her father's low voice didn't reach Betty's ears. She just stared blankly at the cold corpse.
'Betty! What are you...'
That day, Betty killed a person for the first time. No talent for physical feats, but the scattered blades around her and her increased mana from experiments were enough to kill one weak, old researcher.
Betty cried. Holding her now too-light Karin, she wept endlessly.
Of course, no one listened to her wails.
Not the neighbors. Not the heroes. Not God.
After burying Karin's body in the alley where they played in the dirt, Betty wandered the city. From the outskirts to the center.
No one.
No one saved her.
All she got was scorn and contempt for being from the slums.
It was laughable. Whether in the outskirts slums or city center, the treatment was the same.
Then, where the hell am I supposed to belong?
Exhausted, Betty used her ability to leave the city. Outside, she rose into the sky and fell. Eyes closed, head down.
Thinking of her sister, the only one on her side in the world.
But after quite some time falling with eyes closed, suddenly the sensation of plummeting stopped.
No pain, so maybe she hit headfirst and couldn't feel it. Thinking that, Betty opened her eyes.
Opening her eyes, she first saw the blond, golden-eyed man who caught her fall.
The man spoke in an intrigued tone.
Betty stared blankly at him. He set her down on the ground, met her eyes, and continued.
Betty nodded slightly. But she lacked the courage to oppose the world. No purpose, no goal. Just a life of drifting, unsure what to do.
Betty bristled and kicked the man's shin. He clutched it, silent for a moment. Expressionless, but his mouth twitched—he was enduring the pain.
Ignoring Betty's satisfied reaction, the man continued.
That was Betty and Kahatiel's first meeting.
Betty was flying through the sky.
Or more precisely, falling from it.
After her conversation with Han U-sol, Betty used her ability to teleport directly above the amusement park.
800 meters above the amusement park. A girl falls.
As she plummeted, Betty's eyes reflected the park sparkling with countless lights. She thought it looked like shards of glass glittering in the sunlight.
Shwoooong—
The finale fireworks rose into the sky.
Boom—
And burst.
Head down, Betty watched the falling sparks.
"Up close, they're even prettier."
She fell. Plummeting down. A familiar sensation.
When her father abused her.
When she found her only ally sister's corpse.
Even when she killed her father with her own hands.
A feeling she'd experienced countless times in life.
Piercing the fierce wind, Han U-sol's voice brushed her ear.
"......"
I see. Anis.
You still have someone to catch you.
Unlike me, you have true allies left.
Betty pulled the summon stone from her pocket.
Anis's shocked reaction flashed in her mind when Betty revealed herself as the culprit behind the magic beast summons.
A face saying it couldn't be true, begging it to be a lie.
Crunch. Betty bit her lip. Blood trickled from it.
I don't regret my choice.
Regretting it would make everything I've done meaningless. I'd have no purpose.
I'm still humanity's enemy. I'll keep moving to destroy the world.
Because that's my choice.
Betty forced up her trembling lips.
"Wahaha! Black sheep U-sol! If you thought I'd back down easy, you've got another thing coming!"
Anis. You might face a moment to choose someday too.
When it comes, I hope you make a choice you'll never regret.
Anis, my first friend.
We might end up enemies.
But wherever, whenever, I wish you luck.
Betty poured mana into the summon stone. A faint purple light rose from it.
Translucent, rising amid the falling fireworks, Betty laughed loudly as she kept infusing mana.
Soon the sky's flowing fireworks turned purple.
They flared brightly, and magic beasts were summoned.
And the identities of the beasts falling from the sky were...
Hundreds of goblins.
"......Huh?"
Betty blinked.
"......Ah."
Did I grab the wrong summon stone?
――Grk?
――Kiek?
――Grrrk!?
800 meters above the amusement park. Hundreds of goblins flailed as they plummeted toward the ground.