Rainfall
Rainfall
The rain grew heavier.
Rainwater trickled down my cloak, seeping into my boots and chilling my toes.
If it were the past, Serin would have nagged me, saying I shouldn't catch a cold.
Elina would have drawn upon her magic to raise the temperature around my body, and Miu would have rubbed my wet hands against her cheeks to share her warmth.
I turned my steps back toward the inn.
For revenge? Or because I had lingering attachments? Neither.
It was simply because there was unfinished business, a mechanical sense of duty to definitively close a page of my life.
I had to bring it to an end. To lower the curtain on this play that had dragged the most brilliant ten years of my life into the gutter.
The stairs leading to the second floor of the inn felt much longer than usual.
Every step I took caused a creak that shattered the silence.
And Room 302.
I stood before the door from which, until just yesterday, a fishy stench and disgusting laughter had leaked out.
Through the gap in the door, a chilling killing intent and screams mixed with despair were leaking out.
"......Ugh! Ack! Pl-please......!"
A familiar voice.
Goro. The cowardly voice of the man who, just yesterday, had grabbed Serin by the hair and mocked my incompetence.
I slowly turned the doorknob.
Kkii-ik—.
As soon as the door opened, the first thing that caught my eye was fresh red blood.
And the three women standing at the center of it.
"Die. Just die. I'm going to tear off every single one of your filthy fingers and kill you."
It was Serin.
She was straddling Goro, wearing armor that looked like rags.
Thwack. Thwack.
It wasn't the refined swordsmanship she had learned as a knight.
She was simply crushing Goro's face with her fists out of instinctive hatred.
Goro's teeth rolled on the floor, and blood flowed down Serin's white thighs.
"Elina......! Save me! We weren't the ones who cast the curse......!"
Beside them, Jack was crawling on the floor.
Elina was pinning Jack's neck down with the heel of her shoe, creating thin arrows of magic at her fingertips and piercing his thighs one by one.
Torture, intentionally avoiding vital points to maximize the pain.
Every time Jack screamed, indescribable self-loathing and rage crossed Elina's eyes.
"Hoji...... shall I chew you up bit by bit? Huh? Does it hurt? I hurt way more than this!! You fucking old bastard!!!"
Miu was growling like a beast, biting into Old Man Hoji's shoulder.
The old man's screams filled the room, but it seemed they couldn't hear them.
They were taking revenge. On the men who had defiled them, on the trash who had completely destroyed their lives.
But it didn't look like righteous vengeance; it looked like the desperate struggle of demons freshly risen from hell.
I stood at the doorway and watched the scene quietly.
Like a passerby watching a commotion in someone else's living room, without any emotional agitation.
Just then, over Goro's blood-covered face, I made eye contact with Serin.
"......!"
Serin's fist stopped in mid-air. Her eyes were instantly dyed with terror.
The aura of the vengeful spirit that had been ready to tear a lion to shreds just moments ago was nowhere to be found. She trembled like a child thrown out onto the street, stripped naked.
"Ri...... Rion......?"
At Serin's voice, Elina and Miu also turned their heads.
The flame that had been searing Jack's thigh went out, and blood dripped from Miu's mouth as she had been biting into Old Man Hoji's flesh.
Only silence hung in the room.
Only the rough breathing of the three men collapsed on the floor could be heard. The heroines couldn't move, as if frozen.
It seemed they were consumed by the shame of being caught by me in the scene of their most hideous revenge, that desperate sight they least wanted me to see.
I slowly stepped into the room. I felt the sticky sensation of someone's blood on the soles of my shoes, but I ignored it.
"......Ah."
Elina let out a short groan and hurriedly tried to cover her body.
But it was already too late. The bite marks and handprints Jack had left all over her body were not things she could hide.
I stopped in front of them. And very calmly, in a soft voice no different from usual, I opened my mouth.
"Everyone's here."
"......."
No one could answer. Serin scrambled off Goro's body and sat down on the floor.
She scratched at the floor as if wanting to wash the blood on her hands with rainwater.
"Rion oppa...... that's not it...... we were......."
Miu crawled over, sobbing. I looked down at Miu and smiled slightly.
A smile that contained neither mockery nor anger, looking warm as it did in the past, but empty on the inside.
"Miu, you've got blood on your mouth. You're so messy."
I took a clean handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to her. Miu froze, unable to even take the handkerchief.
The kindness I offered, the consideration that was no different from usual, seemed to feel heavier to her than any torture.
"Serin, you should put something over your armor. You'll catch a cold."
I turned my gaze to look at Serin. Serin's shoulders visibly shrank.
"Elina, you too. You're a mage, what's with that appearance?"
My voice was calm. I didn't get angry, nor did I curse.
As if nothing had happened yesterday. As if I were a person whose memory of them moaning under men and cursing me had been completely erased from my mind.
But the more I did so, the paler their complexions became.
They seemed to wish I would rather scream, slap their cheeks, and curse at them, calling them 'you dirty whores.'
That way, the weight of their guilt would be lightened, even if just a little.
But I didn't do that. Because I didn't even feel they were worth it. Within me, they had already ceased to be people and had become passing scenery.
I approached Goro, who was lying on the floor, gasping. Goro looked up at me with eyes filled with terror.
"Ri, Rion captain...... please save me! Those women are crazy! We were just......!"
I didn't listen to the end of Goro's words and turned my head to look at Serin.
"Serin, are you going to kill this guy?"
"......Huh?"
I looked down calmly at Goro's mangled face. The attitude he had shown just yesterday, lusting after Serin's body and mocking me, was nowhere to be found.
In those eyes, cowardly begging for his life, only primal fear remained.
I raised my head to look at Serin. She was still sitting on the floor, looking up at me with dazed eyes.
"I asked you. Are you going to kill this person?"
My voice was so calm that it sounded eerie even to my own ears.
A light tone, as if asking about the dinner menu for tonight. Serin trembled her lips and barely managed to spit out my name.
"Rion... no, it's not that. That... I, I'll handle it all. Don't look at this dirty stuff. Can't you just go outside? I... I'll finish it all, and then..."
Serin couldn't continue her sentence and sobbed. Her voice was tattered like paper soaked in rain.
Perhaps she wanted to prevent me from becoming a part of this dirty scene.
Hearing my words, Elina approached in a hurry.
She stopped at a distance that barely touched my feet, and opened my mouth cautiously, as if treating a fragile glass craft.
"Rion-nim...... are you going to do it yourself? Things like that...... things like that, we'll do. Please don't dirty Rion-nim's hands with such filthy things. Please...... please stay as noble as you were before. We, people like us, will handle it all......."
Elina's words were laced with desperate self-deprecation. A twisted loyalty, acknowledging that she had already become something dirty, and wanting to preserve only me from that hell.
Miu also chimed in, her blood-stained lips trembling.
"That's right, oppa....... This doesn't suit you. You're always a warm...... and kind person. Your eyes right now, they're too scary. So we...... we'll peel these guys' skin off and offer it to you. Okay? So just watch, oppa."
Miu reached out to grab the hem of my sleeve, but after meeting my gaze, she was startled and pulled her hand back. What are they seeing in me right now?
I listened quietly to their worried, or rather, self-satisfying suggestions, and then tilted my head and asked.
"Why? Can't you do it?"
"Rion......."
"These men are the ones who took my 10 years."
My gaze slowly swept across the room.
Jack crawling on the floor, Old Man Hoji trembling in the corner. And Elina and Miu, who had been driving them like beasts.
I slowly approached Goro and knelt down beside him. Goro's blood stained my clothes, but I didn't care.
"They are the ones who stole your nobility, Serin, defiled your loyalty, Elina, and ruined your pride, Miu. They are your enemies, but to me, they are the ones who made me lose my precious companions."
Companions. When that word came out, the heroines' faces collapsed in an instant.
They now knew painfully well that they didn't deserve that word.
"So, that's why. Could you yield these people to me?"
I stared straight into Serin's eyes once again.
"I want to finish it myself. If you do it... for some reason, it won't feel satisfying. To turn the page of my life, I have to put a period with my own hands."
"......."
Serin bit her lip. Tears finally burst from her eyes and flowed down her cheeks. The tears mixed with Goro's blood, leaving a grotesque mark.
After a long silence, Serin dropped her head powerlessly.
"...Yes. If that's what Rion wants... anything is fine. I'll do as Rion says. How could we... how could we dare to block your path."
"If Rion-nim wishes... then do so. We'll just... if there's anything we can help with on the side, please tell us."
Elina also put down her staff and stepped back.
"Do whatever you want, oppa... Miu is on your side."
Miu also tucked her tail and retreated to the corner. I smiled brightly, as if satisfied.
"Thanks. You're all such good girls."