Aftermath
“You fucking bitch! Get your hands off her!!”
“!!”
The voice belonged to the young master to whom she had devoted her entire being.
“Emma!!”
It was Edward—the young master she loved.
Young Master! You’ve woken up…!
Thank goodness.
She had been so terrified that it might take forever for him to regain consciousness—or that he might never open his eyes again. But seeing him shout like that, it seemed there was no serious problem.
She was not the only one who rejoiced at the sight of Edward.
“Hyeonu! Hyeonu!”
The Hero had seen him as well. She beamed and called his name with pure delight.
But that was not the young master’s name.
Shut up.
“Don’t call the young master by some weird name!”
Emma shouted up at the Hero from where she lay collapsed on the ground.
“Ah.”
The Hero’s face lit with sudden recollection of what she had been about to do. She turned her head toward Emma and raised the sword she had paused mid-swing once more.
And then—
“Hyeonu! Hyeonu! I’ll wipe out everything that stands between us!!”
She announced her next move to Edward and brought the raised blade down to finish Emma.
This time Emma truly felt her end approaching.
Ah… I’m so sorry for showing you such a pathetic sight.
At least I got to see the young master’s face one last time. I’m glad.
Just as she prepared herself for death—
“I told you to get your hands off her!! You fucking bitch!!”
“Hyeo… Hyeonu?”
The Hero froze again the moment Edward hurled another curse at her.
Young Master…!
In all the long years she had served him, she had never once heard him raise his voice like that.
He grumbled and complained often enough, but it was always at the level of muttering. Actually shouting—or truly losing his temper—was something she almost never saw.
And yet that Edward…
Her young master, who had only just risen from his sickbed…
had roared loud enough for the entire mansion garden to hear, all to protect her.
It must have been agony for a man’s body, yet he had screamed until his throat nearly tore just to stop the Hero from killing her.
Had the Hero really thought that first shout had been directed at her?
She stood frozen, face blank with shock.
Edward did not waste the opening.
“Emma, get out of there now!”
“Young Master!!”
Emma, who had briefly given up on living, was furious with herself.
Her life was never something she was free to throw away.
It belonged to the young master she served—so why had she decided on her own to abandon it?
She had forced the young master who had just woken from his sickbed into this ordeal.
She was a failure as a personal maid.
The crime of failing to eliminate the Hero in one blow.
The crime of collapsing after losing to the Hero.
And the greatest crime of all—forcing the young master to overexert himself just to stop the Hero.
These unforgivable failures had to be redeemed, right now.
Following Edward’s order, Emma swung her dagger at the Hero as she forced herself back to her feet.
Clang!
“Emma!?”
Edward’s eyes went wide at the sight of her wielding a blade.
He had never once seen her fight.
Emma had always known how uncomfortable Edward felt around strong women, so she had spent nearly a decade performing the role of a frail, gentle girl. Of course he would be shocked.
I never wanted the young master to find out…!
She had acted for almost ten years just to show him the version of herself he wanted.
This is all your fault!
To make up for her failures.
To vent the rage of having her true self exposed to Edward.
Every trace of the cornered, desperate girl vanished. She poured out fierce Aura and swung her dagger at the Hero without pause, each strike harder than the last.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Kh…! Hyeonu… are you taking that bitch’s side?”
The Hero blocked Emma’s far more ferocious assault while calling out to Edward in a voice thick with resentment.
“I told you not to call the young master by that name!!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Emma pressed even harder, blades flashing without rest.
Yet—
“Hyeonu! Hyeonu!”
The Hero casually parried every strike and kept calling Edward’s name.
“I don’t give a damn about any Hyeonu—I’m not that person! Stop tormenting my maid, you fucking bitch!!”
Edward spat the curse back at her, voice raw with fury.
“Hyeonu… no—then Ed! It’s me! Hye-yeong! And I was the one who—”
“I don’t fucking know! Who the hell are you!? I don’t know anyone like you!”
Edward showed not the slightest intention of acknowledging or listening to a word she said.
“Liar! And why won’t you listen to me!!”
Edward kept denying everything, but of course the Hero refused to believe him.
“Why have you been lying to me this whole time!!”
“Don’t you dare yell at the young master!! Ugh!?”
Emma tried to pour even more relentless attacks onto the Hero who kept shouting at Edward while casually batting her strikes aside.
But then—
Fwaaaaaah!!
The Aura wrapping the Hero’s body grew sharper in color, and the Aura blade swelled even larger.
Sh-she’s getting stronger even now!?
The Hero’s rate of growth was truly terrifying.
“It’s all because of you that Hyeonu—Ed—won’t listen to me!!”
Roaring with rage, the Hero swung the massive Aura sword straight at Emma.
KRAAAAAANG!!
“Ugh!”
It was not the sound of steel meeting steel—it was an explosion. The overwhelming blow sent Emma tumbling across the ground once more.
“Die!!”
This time the Hero truly meant to finish her, swinging again.
“No! Grace, protect Emma!”
Edward barked the order at his personal guard knight.
“Yes! Young Master!”
Grace had already reached the scene during the time Edward had been shouting and Emma had been trading blows. She drew her sword, cloaked it in Aura, and struck at the Hero without hesitation.
KRAAAAAANG!!
Another explosive impact rocked the air.
But unlike Emma, Grace did not give ground. She stood firm in front of the Hero.
“You again?”
“What an absurd growth rate… I should have cut you down properly earlier… Tch!”
Grace clicked her tongue. At the banquet hall the Hero had barely managed to block her blade; now she was parrying with ease.
“Emma, that’s enough. Fall back.”
“B-but—!”
“I’m going all out. You’ll only get in the way.”
“…Understood.”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
The Hero refused to let Emma retreat and moved to attack—
KRAAAAAANG!!
—only to be forced onto the defensive by Grace’s immediate slash.
“Kh!!”
After blocking the strike, the Hero looked shaken.
Her own surging power had overwhelmed Emma and sent her flying. Even though she had lost the first exchange, she had been certain she could beat Grace this time.
Being pushed back again left her reeling.
Grace declared coldly:
“I won’t hold back this time.”
Fwaaaaaah!!
“!!”
Aura flooded every inch of her body as she drew every last drop of mana from her flesh.
The Hero flinched hard under the sheer scale of that Aura and killing intent.
The Hero’s own Aura was vast and vividly colored—yet Grace’s was greater still.
This was not the banquet hall in the middle of the day. They were outdoors, and Edward was nowhere near the danger zone. Grace could finally fight with everything she had.
“You die here.”
Grace was certain.
The Hero was not extraordinary enough to survive this.
If I don’t kill her today, she will become a true catastrophe for Master.
This might be the last moment she would ever be able to defeat the Hero.
Therefore—
“I cut!”
Grace poured every ounce of her full power into the swing.
KRAAAAAANG!!
“Khhhk!!”
This time the Hero could not casually bat the attack aside.
She had grown at an insane pace—enough to crush Emma—but the gap between her and Grace was still absolute.
Just like at the debutante banquet, she could only barely defend.
She blocked even this…! Her growth really is absurd!
Yet even that defense was enough to stun Grace.
“I won’t give you a single breath!”
KRAAAAAANG!!
“Khhrrraaagh!!”
Grace raised her momentum higher still, slashing harder and faster.
KRAAAAAANG!!
“Hah…! Hah…!”
Even mid-exchange the Hero was clearly still growing—but this time Grace’s raw power outstripped that growth.
KRAAAANG!!
CLANG-SHATTER!!
“Kyaaaaah!!”
At last the Aura wrapping the Hero’s body and her sword itself shattered under Grace’s assault.
“This ends it!”
Just as Grace moved to deliver the finishing blow—
“No! No! Hyeonu! No—Ed!!”
With no mana left to draw and no means of resistance remaining, the Hero screamed.
She called Edward’s name in a voice that was almost a shriek.
“Begging for your life… and to the Young Master, no less!! It’s far too late for that!”
“Hyeonu!!”
Grace raised her sword high, determined to finish it quickly.
If she hesitated even a moment, her kind and gentle master might order her to show mercy.
That could not be allowed.
Because in Grace’s eyes, this Hero would never give up.
And she would keep growing.
Even if Grace herself trained relentlessly and raised her own realm, she could no longer be certain of victory. So she meant to end it here, without fail.
“I cut!”
The blade was a hair’s breadth from the Hero’s neck when—
CHAAAAANG!!
A pure white light flared in front of the Hero and deflected Grace’s strike.
“You must not!!!”
“Wh-what!?”
Grace reeled in shock.
She had been so focused on the Hero that she had no attention left for her surroundings.
Who would have expected an interrupter to appear?
And then, when she saw who had blocked her attack, fury exploded through her.
“You’re interfering again!!”
“You must never kill the Hero!!”
Standing with both arms spread wide, shielding the Hero with her own body, was Pope Tenesa.