Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: The Saint's Inner Voice is Heard
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“If you were to actually see the scene of your parents dying again, wouldn’t your thoughts change?”
“You bitch….”
“Good. That’s the look you should have. Ah… I told you, the contempt and insults from someone you love are so exciting!”
Bellamora flicked her fingers, her face melting into an expression of lust. She was even laughing, as if she found my contemptuous glare adorable.
“…That is not love. It’s certainly not pure love.”
Victoria seemed stung by Bellamora’s statement, looking at me while biting her lip and trailing off.
- I did insult you a lot too, Astal, but that was all a gamble because I didn’t want my feelings to show… I never meant to torment or hurt you….
Victoria’s inner voice expressed worry, fearing she might have done the same thing as Bellamora. The trembling, frightened tone was clearly directed at me.
“Who cares what anyone says? You and I are still close. That demon bitch has crossed a line, that’s all.”
I placed a hand on my chest, gripping and twisting it forcefully to overload my Mana Core as I spoke.
Hot blood trickled from my eyes, nose, and mouth, and even breathing became painfully difficult in an instant, but…
“I don’t think badly of you. I mean… I do think you’re a bit mischievous and annoying, though.”
I spoke as nonchalantly as possible to reassure Victoria.
Victoria and I had built a lot of familiarity and bonds over the year we’d spent together. We were somewhere between lovers and friends—close enough to have seen each other naked for treatment.
Of course, her criticisms and insults had sometimes hurt, but if they stemmed from her contradictory life as someone living on borrowed time, I could roughly understand.
People, when faced with death, tend to cling to life, however pitifully, and dream of a future.
After all, I too had initially joined the Demon King subjugation to find a place to die, but ended up wanting to live a little longer after meeting Victoria.
“My, you know that won’t deal a proper fatal wound to me, right?”
Bellamora sneered, wiping the wound on her cheek with her hand as she looked at the Core Sword I’d drawn. My opponent was a Sage-class mage, on par with me.
“Victoria, can you place your hand on the Core Sword?”
“It’s terribly hot and pulses like a living thing, so thick and substantial. To make a Saint touch such a vicious object… you truly have a perverted taste….”
“Don’t make lewd jokes about my Mana Core.”
“It’s a joke. I just wanted to say something like that at least once. You won’t die of embarrassment, right?”
- Surely the thing that lifted me up is just as splendid and magnificent… I did sneak a peek during treatment before, but I didn’t know it could get bigger and harder….
Even in this moment facing Bellamora, Victoria didn’t hold back her jokes aimed at me.
To me, hearing her inner thoughts, the sight of her kneeling reverently and stroking my Core Sword felt somewhat indecent.
“…So, should I infuse it with holy magic or divine power like last time?”
“Yes. The demonic energy inherent in demons and the divine power a Saint holds are like polar opposites, repelling each other.”
I nodded without being able to properly meet Victoria’s gaze. This was likely the very reason Hero Kyle had paired me with Victoria.
The Succubus Bellamora and the Saint Victoria were a perfect mismatch; their very existences were grating to each other.
One was a lewd, promiscuous demon who burrowed into men’s memories to steal their vitality.
The other was a faithful servant of God who would lose her divine power and become an ordinary person if her virginity were taken by a man.
“I shall offer a prayer, imbuing your sword with my warm breath.”
“…….”
“Please don’t die. If you die, I’ll spread rumors across the continent that you were a perverted mage who teased me.”
- I hope Astal doesn’t overexert himself using magic… But he’d hate it even more if I used a miracle….
Of course, right now, with their outfits and statements, it was hard to tell who was the Succubus and who was the Saint.
“What a pointless thing to do. What’s the point of pulling your heart out, prepared to die? This is a dream, after all.”
Bellamora shrugged, narrowing her eyes as she watched the scene. No matter how much of a holy sword imbued with divine power it was, this place was an Illusionary Dream she had created.
No matter how much I swung the sword, trying to inflict a fatal wound on her would be useless.
But,
“It should buy us some time, at least.”
I wasn’t fighting Bellamora alone right now. Wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth with my other hand, I burned with fighting spirit.
Right here with me was Victoria, who had followed me even into an Illusionary Dream, and outside, my comrades were searching every corner of the estate for the enemy’s weakness.
Kyle wouldn’t have made the judgment to pair me with Victoria separately without any plan or countermeasure. He was surely trying to find a way to save this entire estate right now.
‘If it’s the Kyle Dragonica I know, he definitely would.’
I smirked, thinking of the red-haired Hero’s face.
He was the guy who, despite overexerting himself to guard the spatial teleportation gate alone last time, kept saying he was fine and asking me to buy him a meal later.
“Well, fine. If you insist on choosing pain… I won’t stop you.”
Before Bellamora could snap her fingers, I charged at her with the Core Sword, kicking off the ground.
The puddles made from the blood of people I knew made a squelching, sloshing sound with each step, as if grabbing at my ankles.
- Hyung, why didn’t you save me…?
- Astal oppa… I wanted to become a mage like you too….
The limbs and heads of children I was close to rolled into view, and each time, voices blaming me and a heart-wrenching sensation washed over me like hallucinations.
Just as guilt began to writhe in my mind for a moment…
“I’ll cooperate. Astal.”
A soft, warm voice whispered beside me.
Victoria, charging with her pure white hammer to crush Bellamora’s skull, moved in a way that shattered the ground and shook the earth, but…
“Yeah, that’s more like you.”
Seeing Victoria’s figure actually reassured me. Being next to her made even this sad past seem insignificant.
A corner of my chest warmed, and even the sad and painful past seemed to float away, my worries vanishing. I looked at Victoria and raised the corner of my mouth slightly.
“Accel, Strength.”
I immediately overlaid two magic circles on the Core Sword, creating and activating a rotating three-dimensional magic circle within the blade.
I could have made it rain to imbue the sword with various magics, but what I needed now was pure strength and speed.
Kwaang—! Kang!
The large hammer and sword drew a clear trajectory toward Bellamora’s neck, and in that moment, swung to sever her life, it was impossible to tell which would strike first.
“I told you it’s useless. Well, of course, I got burned enough for my hands to sting….”
Bellamora blocked my Core Sword and Victoria’s hammer using only her thumbs and index fingers on both hands.
Sssss—! The sound and smell of burning flesh spread.
Bellamora flicked her severely burned hands lightly and smiled nonchalantly.
“…This is all my dream. I can do as I please. Don’t you believe that in dreams, everyone is like an invincible immortal?”
Ttak—! When Bellamora snapped her fingers, the surrounding scenery rapidly changed, and memories I knew well unfolded before my eyes.
- Astal, you must survive.
My father, Claude Kaisaros, putting me on a horse while biting back tears, maintained a serene expression even with death before him.
- Astal… I’m sorry we couldn’t properly celebrate your 10th birthday.
My mother, Celine Kaisaros, casting various defensive spells on the horse and me to get us safely out of the village, couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
Seeing their figures, trembling hands gripping farming tools as they tried to fight the demons with bodies that had never properly wielded weapons…
‘No, if this continues… Mom and Dad will be killed by Dullahans….’
I struggled desperately, trying to force my unresponsive body to move, to stop my parents from fighting.
- Even if you end up alone, remember that we will always be by your side.
- Don’t you dare lay a finger on my son! You filthy minions of the Demon King!
Like the ending of a story with a predetermined conclusion, the sight of my parents rushing at the Dullahans, saying the words I knew, was too agonizing to watch.
But, at that moment.
“…I shall try to change your past, even a little. Even if this is all Bellamora’s Illusionary Dream.”
A platinum-haired woman was there, batting away the Dullahans’ hands with her hammer.
Winking at my parents with one eye closed, her name was…
“Isn’t that what your girlfriend should do? I was taught that to get permission to date, one must make a good impression on the future in-laws.”
- I will carry all your painful past with me. Even if it’s fake, right now I am your lover, Astal.
The Saint whose inner thoughts I could hear, Victoria Everhart.