Chapter 8
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Hero of Justice, Verdandi Astraia (1)
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As far back as she could remember in her short life, the first words Verdandi recalled hearing were these.
"Verdandi, Mommy's so sorry..."
These were the words her mother had tearfully confessed to her even before Verdandi had learned to walk.
Even now, Verdandi couldn't understand why her mother had cried while looking at her.
Because in that memory, her mother had tried to strangle her to death.
"Sorry... I'm sorry..."
Just a little longer, and she would have suffocated to death.
Why had her mother worn such a sorrowful expression when trying to kill her?
Why had she let go with such a pained face?
At three years old, Verdandi couldn't accept the mix of guilt and love-hate in those emotions. She couldn't comprehend that even an unwanted child was loved too much to kill.
"Verdandi, Mommy loves you more than anyone in this world. This is all my fault. It's not yours..."
So, Verdandi couldn't grasp why her mother apologized through tears.
She didn't know back then that she was an unwanted child born from her mother being raped by a bandit. Nor could she accept that her own parents had nearly killed her.
She was far too young and innocent to understand an adult's circumstances.
The words from the person before you are 'false'.
The person before you is a 'villain'.
In that moment, as death loomed close, the windows that appeared before her eyes. She still remembered those sentences clearly, even years later.
"It's because Mommy loves you so much. Forgive me..."
The words from the person before you are 'false'.
The person before you is a 'villain'.
Those translucent windows, the beginning of all her nightmares, still appeared before her grown self.
For young Verdandi, they became a signpost distinguishing good from evil, the reason she began calling her parents "mother" instead of "Mommy" to keep her distance.
There was no one around her to confide in or understand the contradictory love-hate emotions.
Years passed, and Verdandi's hair grew long enough to reach her waist.
"Hey! My mom says you're a whore's kid! That's why your dad ran away!"
That's when she learned how the world saw her. Children were more sensitive to curses and provocative words than adults.
"My mom said not to play with dirty kids like you."
Whenever Verdandi tried to play with the village kids, they spat insults and shoved her away.
They pointed fingers, threw dirt to chase her off, or stuck ants on her to torment her.
"Get out of our village, you witch!"
Her face and clothes caked in mud, knees and elbows scraped and bleeding, she cried and screamed endlessly, but no one cared.
In this small village where rumors spread fast, everyone knew her origins. They knew bandits had raided long ago, raping some women and impregnating them.
'...If I work hard, people will see I'm not bad!'
Verdandi devised ways to escape the discrimination and scorn. She braided one side of her hair to keep neat.
To seem kind to adults and kids, she habitually used polite speech instead of casual. She took on all the chores to show she was a good girl.
But,
"Annoying. You just smile even when someone hits or teases you!"
"Haha, is that so..."
Instead, it backfired badly.
Verdandi became a child incapable of normal emotions. She only smiled when hit or teased, never showing sadness or anger.
No matter how hard it got, she couldn't reveal her feelings. She feared becoming a "bad kid" again and being abandoned by all.
"She does all the grunt work for free without realizing it, the idiot! Gotta use her more later."
"......"
Verdandi knew she was being used but couldn't complain or resist properly.
She just wanted to be needed by someone. She kept thinking she wanted to help others.
"Verdandi, you don't need to come to our house anymore. Bad rumors are spreading in the village..."
"Yes! Of course! I'm a good girl! I won't trouble Grandpa anymore!"
Even when hearing gossip behind her back, she loudly pretended it didn't bother her. As bad rumors snowballed, she desperately kept up a bright face.
In the end, her good intentions were rejected by the world. No matter how she tried to escape this hell, no helping hand reached out.
'...Mother, why didn't you kill me back then?'
Verdandi had begged everyone in the village except her mother to see the real her, but all refused. She trudged home in the pouring rain.
Ignoring her reflection in the puddles, she pressed on.
The person before you is a 'good person'.
Blue eyes and golden hair reflected back. The transparent window above labeled her a good person.
No matter if she was an unwanted child from a bandit, the child itself was innocent.
'Even if I'm a good person, what the villagers say is true.'
Absolute judgment of good and evil.
She could place a person's life on the scales and see the difference between their evil and good deeds.
That's why Verdandi wanted to show the world she wasn't the bad kid everyone cursed.
'...Then, doesn't that make them people who deserve to die?'
The contradictory abilities [Scales of Justice] and [Truth-Seeing Eye] blinded her eyes and clouded her judgment.
After that, Verdandi became obsessed with the concept of "justice." She yearned for an ideal human who wouldn't register as a villain in her eyes.
A perfect human untouched by her ability's verdict of evil.
Verdandi, from now on, as the Hero of Justice, you shall punish the villains of this world.
Such a Verdandi was visited in a dream days ago by a god.
The main god called the light of this world, an oracle from Solareon in the form of a lion.
"Me...?"
Indeed. Your sword shall behead the Demon King and drive out the darkness from this world.
Verdandi had secretly awaited such an oracle. Deep down, she wanted confirmation that she was right and the world was wrong.
"Thank you! Lord Solareon!"
A sense of liberation and relief burst through her chest. She smiled like a child tasting sweets for the first time.
This is proof that you are the Hero. Cherish it.
Above Verdandi's head, a laurel wreath of light formed like an angel's halo.
"I'm a Hero now! My mother who doesn't love me is a villain who deserves to die!"
After waking, Verdandi confirmed everything, made thorough preparations and calculations.
"I will execute justice!"
She firmly believed she was the good one, and everyone else villains.
Golden wheat fields swayed unharvested, autumn leaves scattered, announcing the village's fall scenery.
"So this is Wonderhill Village."
I stepped down from the carriage and looked around. The villagers' sharp gazes pierced us.
This village had to be closed off to outsiders. I'd set it that way.
"For a rural village, the people sure aren't friendly!"
"Of course not. That's how this place is."
It was a hell designed solely to twist Verdandi into a warped Hero. A hell for one person alone.
"Master, where are the people who need our help? You mentioned it when we set out for the Western Regions."
"...In the back alleys, you'll find plague victims and kids who've sold their bodies and organs for money."
I said it with a bitter smile. I'd written this ugly underbelly hidden beneath the village's beautiful facade.
"Then the villagers..."
"Yeah, they drove the rest out to the alleys to save themselves. Even beggars from the Beggar Clan know righteousness and chivalry."
The reason Verdandi judged the villagers villains, why no one pitied her—it was simple.
The village head and residents conspired to isolate the failures, living separately.
"...Everyone's in on it. Master's profound insight leaves this disciple Biwol in deepest admiration."
Biwol grasped my words immediately and nodded. I patted her head gently in approval.
"To think my martial sister is in such a nauseating place—this Biwol cannot help but lament. Now I understand why Master came to save her."
"I rushed here by ship ahead of the kingdom's people, lest they get there first..."
Wolfram tried petting Biwol's head too, but,
"Don't touch me. Under heaven, only one may pet my head: the supreme of the unorthodox, the greatest of past and present—my Master."
No, Biwol. I'm not the supreme of the unorthodox.
I was dumbfounded hearing my disciple hype me up. I wasn't the greatest of past and present either.
My Five Poisons Cult origins qualified me as unorthodox.
But with the young leader above me, and Biwol as the Heavenly Demon's vessel, those titles didn't fit.
"Plus, he even has the title of Dragon."
"That puts him on par with a Dragon Slayer, right? What a guy."
"You two embarrass me."
Flabbergasted, I hung my head and wiped cold sweat. Fantasy and wuxia blending before my eyes—even in my own novel, it felt excessive.
"...Master, there's a thick bloody scent ahead."
"Lead the way, Biwol."
As I scanned for Verdandi's traces, Biwol wrinkled her nose and pointed somewhere.
"Over there, I think."
A drab house of gray bricks, dreary to behold. It matched the description I'd written for her home.
"Anyone home?"
I knocked on the door with my knuckles, but no sign of life.
Strange. In the original, her mother should welcome Wolfram warmly, leading to Verdandi's appearance.
"Anyone there? We've come to see the Hero!"
A prickling unease stabbed me, my body shivering anxiously. I knocked harder.
Bang bang bang.
No response despite the pounding, but Biwol frowned, her expression shifting.
"Master, the blood scent's thickening. The injured person's breathing is weakening. At this rate..."
"...Can't wait. I'll break in. If there's an injured person inside, handle it."
Ice White Divine Art, First Form: Ice Shattering Fist
I slammed my fist into the door—boom!—and it shattered to splinters.
"Huh? Who are you people!"
Thus, Wolfram, Biwol, and I entered, greeted by a house smeared in blood.
"...Verdandi Astraia."
Inside, a middle-aged woman bleeding against the wall, and a blood-soaked girl smiling.
"You know my name! What an honor!"
The girl was unmistakably Verdandi, the final boss from my novel.
"Hah, huff... People, people are dying...!!"
"Not yet. She's still breathing."
Biwol reassured the gasping Wolfram.
Verdandi was deviating from the original. She should've tried killing the Gold Tower Lord.
Where had it gone wrong?
"Gold Tower Lord, can you use healing magic?"
"Y-yeah! If she hasn't died yet, I can treat her!"
I calmly asked Wolfram to heal Verdandi's mother. With Biwol's help, we could save her without alerting Verdandi.
"Biwol, assist the Gold Tower Lord in saving that woman. And stay far back."
I'd planned to subdue Verdandi using Biwol, but now that was impossible.
"B-but... Master..."
"It's fine. This is something I must handle alone."
I smiled reassuringly at Biwol, who nodded and moved with Wolfram.
"An arch-villain trying to save someone? Truly astonishing! As expected of fellow villains!"
"...Does your ability label me an arch-villain? Unexpected."
"Arch-villain" was the pinnacle Verdandi reached by novel's end, piled with evil deeds.
The ending I'd planned but never wrote for [Must Kill the Hero].
She was meant to see herself as an arch-villain and end her life in suicide.
"No thought of talking it out peacefully... right?"
"No need to say it—I'm ready to fight! Why try sneaking a villain out right in front of me!"
Only I could face Verdandi.
"I am Bing Yeon, come from the East to take you as my disciple."
"...What did you just say?"
"From now on, you will serve me as your master."