Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Witch of the Fallen Kingdom
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Long ago, in a small kingdom where warm breezes blew, there lived a beautiful princess.
“Princess! What did you dream about today?”
The children asked with bright, innocent smiles.
The princess tilted her head for a moment, then replied with sparkling eyes.
“Hmm… What kind of dream do you want to have?”
“Pippy! A dream where I play with Pippy!”
At the child’s answer, the princess smiled warmly and extended her hand.
From her fingertips bloomed a small light, and in an instant, a little spirit with a tail and ears…
Pippy appeared.
“Wowww!”
As the children cheered, the spirit Pippy raced across the field with the child, bursting into giggles.
The princess watched the scene, looking happier than anyone.
“Princess is the best!”
A race blessed by demons.
They were called the “demonkin,” born with special powers.
And among them, the one blessed by both dreams and spirits.
The girl hailed as the kingdom’s hope.
That child was the princess who would later be known as the “Witch of the Fallen Kingdom,” Bellamir Ru Elody.
***
Elody was special.
With her ability to create “dreams,” she could show anyone their heart’s desire, if only for a moment.
Children gathered around her, and spirits answered her call with joy.
The palace garden was always filled with laughter and light.
But…
As time passed, that laughter gradually faded.
The longer the time spent dreaming, the crueler reality became.
“…….”
On the surface, the kingdom was at peace.
Enemies vanished, famines lessened, and the king and his subjects enjoyed prosperity.
But that peace did not last.
The ministers and priests gathered in the court all spoke with one voice.
“…Her power is too dangerous.”
“She carries the blood of demons.”
“She will bring disaster.”
No one looked at her with warmth.
Even after showing so many dreams, all she received in return was fear and disgust.
Elody couldn’t understand.
She had only wanted to fulfill everyone’s dreams.
To make children laugh, to comfort the sick, to send warm spirits to the lonely.
Why…
Why was she, a princess, called a “witch”?
“…….”
Through the glass windows of the court, she saw children being dragged away crying into their parents’ arms.
In the streets, people throwing stones at the spirits she had summoned.
And… even on the throne, her father’s gaze turning away from her.
For the first time, Elody realized.
The dreams she created… could never become “reality” for anyone.
And in that reality… she was no longer a “princess,” but a “witch.”
“…….”
Elody swallowed her tears and headed to the small mountain behind the court.
It was her favorite place.
The only spot where she could breathe freely amid the avoiding glances even within the palace.
And there… was a spirit.
“…Hello.”
【…You’re back again, little one.】
A massive shadow lifted its head.
It was Bahamut, the spirit king thought to exist only in legends.
【What’s the matter today?】
“……Nothing.”
【…I see. Nothing today, huh.】
“Bahamut….”
【…You called?】
“I already knew… that I was a foundling.”
【…….】
Elody clenched her fingertips, her face a mix of smile and sob.
“I’m not Father’s real daughter. Not from the beginning.”
She remembered.
The whispers of the palace servants when she couldn’t even walk yet.
—“She’s not the princess…”
—“Why…? That child is demonkin.”
The king always denied it, but Elody’s ears could never forget those whispers.
Perhaps… the king knew too.
That the child on his knee wasn’t his own flesh and blood.
Or… that he never thought of her as a “daughter” at all.
“…I could never be a princess.”
Suddenly, it all connected.
Why they turned their backs no matter how much joy she showed.
Why they fled farther the more dreams she offered.
The truth that she wasn’t the “kingdom’s princess”… but a “demonkin child” from birth.
“Sorry… I held on too long….”
【….】
“…You don’t have to wait for someone like me anymore.”
Elody turned away.
She knew.
That the spirit before her…
Waited here every day for her sake.
“You don’t need to listen to my stories anymore….”
Elody said.
No need to listen to stories like hers.
The words of a “witch”… would surely be poison.
And she feared that poison… might taint even Bahamut.
“….”
From that day on, Elody shut herself in the palace.
Days passed…
Months passed, years passed.
“Y-Your Highness…!”
Her nightmare didn’t end.
In the end… disaster struck.
“…….”
The nations of the world, fearing her power…
Began attacking the kingdom.
- Boom…!!
The modest little palace couldn’t even resist.
The blazing walls crumbled, the sturdy pillars shattered.
Thus… the kingdom she once called “home” became ruins in a single night.
“…….”
Elody walked through those ruins.
Silently over the charred debris.
“It’s… your fault…!!”
Thud!
Blood flowed.
From her forehead split by a stone…
Tears and blood mixed, spreading red.
Elody couldn’t lift her head.
“If you weren’t here…!!”
“Witch…”
“Damn witch—”
“It’s all because of you—”
Elody realized.
What she always wanted was a “dream shared together”…
But to people, it returned only as a name: “nightmare.”
“…Sorry.”
Her small voice didn’t reach anyone.
No, even if it did, it meant nothing.
People weren’t waiting for her apology.
“…….”
Blood-red sunset illuminated the fallen kingdom.
Smoke rose over the ruined court.
“───!!”
“─────!”
“─────!!!”
Wherever she passed, people threw stones, hurled curses.
Even children hid behind parents, pointing and crying at her.
“I…”
She looked at her own palm.
The small hand that had cradled so many wishes.
But now… wounded and scarred from stones.
“…Did I do something wrong?”
There was no right answer.
But countless fingers pointed at her.
Countless mouths called her name.
So… the world had already decided the answer.
“…I’m a witch.”
Elody repeated those words over and over…
And finally, seeking solace, headed to the mountain she loved most.
And there… she saw what she shouldn’t have.
“…….”
The once radiant glow of the spirit.
Now bereft of light, its massive body scattering into the air and vanishing.
“B-Bahamut…?”
Spirit King, Bahamut.
The only being who waited for her.
Its enormous body was breaking into pieces like shards.
…Humans had even gotten to Bahamut.
They had crushed the one light most precious to her.
“…….”
Elody realized.
Bahamut had always waited for her there.
Asking for nothing, just wanting to be by her side.
But… she had never met its gaze.
Turned away, ignored, only realizing too late.
“…….”
Elody’s cry tore through the sky.
But that scream changed nothing.
“…….”
Days passed.
Hunger, cold—none could bring her down.
The demonkin blood kept her enduring.
And…
“Child.”
“…….”
An unfamiliar voice called.
Elody looked up.
There…
“What’s your name?”
Stood a woman who looked just like her.
Pale purple hair.
Eyes vivid as fresh blood.
“…Elody.”
“Yes… Elody.”
The woman beckoned.
Lifting Elody’s chin with her fingertips, she leaned in close and asked.
“What’s your dream?”
“…My dream.”
Elody froze blankly for a moment.
A dream.
She had always lived to hear and fulfill others’ dreams.
She had never once thought of her own.
“…….”
But.
This time was different.
“…A nightmare.”
“Hehe… Good answer.”
If she was no longer a “princess,” branded a “witch” by the world.
If that name could never be erased…
Then… better to become a nightmare.
“From now on, your name is Bellamir.”
In that moment…
An impure fragment seeped into Elody’s heart.
Her existence cracked, red shadows spreading through the fissures.
───────!!
The blue moonlight illuminating the world shattered in an instant, dyed blood-red.
Sss…
Bahamut’s husk wrapped in shadow, rising once more.
Revived as a monster, bereft of light, within the crimson shadows.
The kingdom too was consumed beneath that red moonlight…
And from the shadows, countless impure beings were born.
“Ahh…….”
Elody… no, Bellamir smiled.
Endlessly.
As if vowing never to shed tears again.
“If I can’t be your dream….”
From that day on.
The world called her a “catastrophe.”
“I’ll be your nightmare….”
Elody fell into deep slumber.
Whether “sweet dream” or “nightmare.”
That dream… never woke.
No… it could never wake.
“I’m a witch, after all….”
【…….】
“Right…? Bahamut.”
***
[ You have pierced the essence of the “Witch of the Fallen Kingdom” Bellamir Ru Elody. ]
[ Acquired 【Fragment of Lust】. ]
[ 【Fragment of Lust】 is subsumed into the unique trait 【All-Encompassing Heaven and Earth】. ]
“…….”
Had years passed?
Or just hours?
What flowed through my mind like a panorama was the life of the being “Bellamir Ru Elody.”
All those scenes poured into my head, blurring my sense of time.
“What the hell….”
Bellamir, pierced through the chest, still clung to breath.
But the red shadows encircling her feet were crumbling away.
“What have you done—!!”
“……!”
───────!!
Bellamir screamed.
With that cry, countless spirits writhed, even the dragon-formed Bahamut howling.
Impure beings surged toward me like waves.
“…Tch.”
I clicked my tongue and pulled back.
Thud.
Placing my foot on Leviathan’s head, I swam the abyss, gauging the situation.
‘…Time hasn’t passed.’
Just like with the “Space Sorcerer.”
Reality was frozen; only the clock within me ticked on.
“…….”
My consciousness wavered.
Penalty for piercing her essence, or prolonged sync with Bellamir.
Her emotions seeped into me.
“…Fuck.”
I muttered a curse, wiping the blood from my lips.
Then… I took a deep breath and locked eyes with Neru from afar.
“…….”
“…….”
A brief exchange of glances.
I led Leviathan away from Bellamir, luring the spirits.
──────!!
- Boom!!
Bahamut and Leviathan collided… the massive shockwave sweeping the surroundings.
The impact flung me off Leviathan’s head, but…
“Nyaak…!”
Neru, merged with the floor in hiding, aimed her dagger at Bellamir’s back.
Her movements cat-like, swift and lithe, but…
Bahamut whipped its long tail as if waiting, smashing Neru into the wall.
Thud!
Neru bounced off the wall, but her dagger was deeply embedded at Bellamir’s feet.
And wrapping that dagger… were red threads entwining each other.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Red Thread: Guidance】
You guide fate.
Fate begins at your fingertips.
The red thread extends toward the bound one, in your direction alone.
: The “bound one” offers absolute fate to the “guide.”
: The “guide” can summon the “bound one” at any time.
: The “guide” can go to the “bound one” at any time.
No one knows what that thread connects to.
It could be love, hatred, friendship, or a curse.
But one thing is certain…
You were always at the end of that thread.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Whoosh…!
The thread of fate pulled me.
I let fate guide my body, reaching for Neru’s dagger.
“…Ah.”
In that instant, my sight caught Bellamir’s face.
Eyes still resenting the world, shedding tears of rage or sorrow unknown.
I… opened my mouth toward her.
“…Sorry.”
Not an apology for killing her.
Just words slipping out unconsciously, from not understanding, knowing nothing.
“…….”
How she came to be called a witch.
Why the princess girl fell.
The cruelty of the humans who made it so…
I knew it all, yet understood nothing.
“…I really don’t get it.”
Even with the power to “understand” catastrophes…
I understood nothing in the end.
And…
Stab.
I… twisted that life away.
***
“Ah… Aaaah….”
Bellamir… no, Elody’s hands flailed in the air.
───────!!
With a roar, the corrupted spirits scattered one by one.
And… a red liquid, blood or tears unknown, trailed down Elody’s cheek.
Thud.
Thud.
Massive footsteps shook the ground.
Bahamut.
The monster still wouldn’t leave its master…
I shook my head, making Leviathan step back before it.
“B-Bahamut….”
Elody reached out, but her fingertips crumbled in the air.
Crack.
Even her eyes shattered into fragments and vanished.
“Where… where are you… I’m scared….”
Witch.
Catastrophe.
The being called by those names now wailed like a frightened child.
…Thud.
Bahamut lowered its massive head.
Pressing its forehead to the girl’s small one… embracing her to the end.
“Ah….”
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Bellamir Ru Elody ]
Attribute
: 「Dreamlike」
Unique Skill
: 【…】
Unique Trait
: 【…】
Stats
: Stamina: 10 (E)
: Strength: 5 (F)
: Intelligence: 20 (C)
: Willpower: 20 (C)
: Mana: 35 (A)
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Crack.
Elody’s lower body scattered into the air.
“I don’t want to die…….”
Crack.
Once more, her arms shattered like windblown petals and vanished.
…That was when.
Bahamut opened its rotting, festering maw.
【Spirit… King… Bahamut….】
Once the radiant king of spirits.
【…Lost… life… but….】
The king robbed of life by cruel humans.
【To you… regained… life….】
And now… the king raising its decayed flesh.
To the end, it sought to embrace its young, fragile lord.
“Bahamut….”
Elody’s trembling lips.
Her remaining hand caressed Bahamut’s wing, but…
Crack.
Even those fingertips melted into the air.
The flesh that had touched foreheads to the last shattered and scattered.
“…….”
Thus…
The girl called a catastrophe.
The princess called a witch.
Elody’s end was…
A final moment all too wretched, all too ephemeral.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Fragment of Lust】
I thank the gods who gave me an unyielding soul.
: Receives infinite love from spirits.
: Dreams mingle with reality, turning illusions into truth.
This child wanted to be loved.
Even rejected, abandoned, ignored.
To the end, she waited for someone’s embrace.
Even if that love was false, that embrace an illusion.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦