Yandere Begins

Riding in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a moving wagon for ten hours in an ordinary person's body wore her body and mind down to the bone.

The wind was cold and her backside ached. Kiera shifted her position on the seat again and again. When she lifted her head, wondering how much farther they had to go, a small city — the mid-route stop — was finally visible in the distance. They were nearly at the first place she could rest since setting out.

She was headed for the Basilite Kingdom. With the hood of her robe pulled low and a cloth covering her nose and mouth, there was no telling whether she was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a man or a woman.

Only a few weeks ago, she had lost the Hero's Power. While she lay drowning in despair, Lucy's old hypothesis had come back to her. She had laughed it off for years, but now she could see the girl had been right all along. And so she was on her way to find Maru.

But the road had been anything but kind. Somewhere along the way, the world had branded her the Hero of Desertion, and everywhere she went, posters bore her face. They carried detailed descriptions of her appearance, plastered over with every obscenity the writer could imagine.

She had a fair idea of who was behind the rumors. The House of Toledo, furious over the failed expedition — it could only be their doing.

It had happened a few weeks ago, the moment she lost her power. When ten days passed and it still hadn't returned, her new companions had begun to show their irritation first.

"For fuck's sake, what is this supposed to be? Losing her powers the second we arrive on the eastern continent? Seriously?"

"So we just drag this out forever, do we."

"Um... when exactly will we be able to go hunt the demon?"

Jerica the mage, Deanberg the paladin, and Inani the priestess — all three of them united, needling her about it day after day. From them, there was not a trace of the patience and camaraderie that her old companions Natalie, Lucy, and Yoris had once shown her.

"Damn it all. If it doesn't come back by tomorrow, we're leaving. We've got to earn a living — what even is this?"

When the next day came, they left without a moment's hesitation. The three of them had traveled together from the start, so they all walked out together as well.

Once the Hero's party had disbanded, it was Duke Toledo's turn to come down on her. Though they had reached the eastern continent, twelve days had passed with nothing accomplished, while every day threw away lodging and provisions for three hundred people. His anger was more than considerable.

"This happened once before, and now it happens again? I can bear it no longer. If our situation is unchanged one week from now, I will declare the expedition over and return home. And I shall demand reparations from Hero Kiera — three times the full cost of this expedition!"

A week later, the Hero's Power had still not returned. The only thing that had grown was Kiera's black hair.

Duke Toledo declared the expedition canceled. Yosef, still nursing his infatuation with her, blurted out a proposal out of nowhere in a clumsy attempt to smooth things over.

"Swear your vows before my father right now! If you become my wife, the lawsuit will be as if it never happened!"

But the Duke was thoroughly enraged, and he roared at his own son.

"Yosef! Come here this instant, or I will name your younger brother heir to the house in your stead!"

Faced with that threat, Yosef wavered back and forth, torn this way and that, before finally turning his back on her.

"The heir to this house is me, Father. I will follow your commands to the letter."

To head off the lawsuit that was sure to follow, Kiera had no choice but to hand over her entire life's savings to Duke Toledo. Her sword, her armor, her artifacts, her gold coins — she gave up everything.

"These come to barely two-thirds of what the expedition cost. But as my final act of mercy, I shall let it rest at that. Farewell."

Judging by the look of satisfaction on his face, the sum had clearly far exceeded what he had actually spent. But she could feel the silent pressure bearing down on her, and there was no room to argue. Without the Hero's Power, she was utterly powerless before authority.

And so, stripped to her last coin, she was cast out. She had thought that would be the end of her ties to the House of Toledo. But whether out of wounded family pride or something else, they had loosed people across the land to spread the story everywhere. They wanted it known beyond all doubt that the expedition had failed because of Hero Kiera — not because of the House of Toledo's own blunder.

The rumors grew more exaggerated and more bloated with every telling, until Kiera had curdled into the most wicked woman the world knew. She had never even fought the war, much less fled a battlefield — yet somehow she now wore the infamous title of Hero of Desertion as well.

"Thanks for your patience on the long road, everyone."

Before she knew it, the wagon had rolled into the city. The passengers climbed down with weary faces.

"The wagon to the Basilite Kingdom leaves at noon tomorrow! Anyone going, be here on time!"

Kiera approached the wagon driver, huddled into herself as small as she could make, and asked in a trembling voice.

"H-how many days to the Basilite Kingdom?"

"Fifteen, give or take? Say, that's a woman's voice if I ever heard one. No wonder your figure looked like a woman's."

The driver flashed a yellow-toothed grin. Kiera dropped her head and fled the spot like a rabbit running from a snare.

After that she wandered the small city with no particular destination — and sure enough, posters mocking her hung here too. She was pulling her hood down hard and trying to slip past when one particular poster caught her eye by chance. As if bewitched, she drifted toward it.

Kiera's eyes went wide, and she read the words again and again. She simply could not believe them.

Crown Prince Maru... of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Ra Iskandaria Empire?

The Ra Iskandaria Empire was her homeland too. She had, of course, heard that the empire had a crown prince. But that prince was Maru...?

Her hands began to shake. She read it a dozen times and still couldn't believe it, so she tore the paper from the wall and held it up close. At the top of the sheet, a half-length portrait had been sketched: a man and a woman gazing tenderly at one another.

She studied the man's side intently. Black hair. Eyes without a double fold. The sharp nose and the shape of that mouth she had seen every single day for years.

"I-it's him. There's no mistake."

Anyone could see it was Maru. There was no way she could fail to recognize him — he had once been her boyfriend. She could have picked him out from a drawing of nothing but his eyes.

"I never knew. I never knew at all."

Trying to calm her pounding heart, she pressed a hand over her chest. She could feel it hammering, beat after beat.

"Ah... ah, ahh... ahhk..."

Her breathing quickened and grew loud. Her pupils lost focus and swam wildly. She clutched the hood covering her head with both hands.

She thought back to what she had always considered the most miserable stretch of her life. Where? Where was it? Where were the clues that should have told me he was the crown prince?

Memories of her time with Maru kept surging up in her mind. Anything that didn't fit, she erased, and immediately another memory surfaced — erased that too, recalled another, erased again. Her head spun into a tangled mess of contradictions.

"Why... ahh, ahh, ahhh..."

Fury that he had deceived her. Jealousy of the princess who would marry him. The piercing regret that she should never have left him. Despair at the wretched reality she now stood in. It all crashed over her at once.

"Why did you hide it...!"

There was no suppressing the turmoil in her heart. At last, she screamed.

"Kyaaaagh! Why did you do this to me! Why didn't you tell me the truth! Why! Why!"

She stamped her feet and wailed at the top of her lungs. Passersby froze in shock and turned to stare at her all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at once. Someone's eyes went round, and a finger shot out.

"Th-the Hero of Desertion! It's Kiera!"

Kiera's mind snapped awake. In the throes of her convulsion, her hood and mask had come loose. The moment people spotted the black hair showing beneath it, they recognized her in an instant and closed in around her.

"Abandoning the demons to run away? You wicked woman!"

"You're no Hero! Go out there and die!"

"And the nerve on her, showing her face in broad daylight."

"We have to chase her out before word spreads she was here! If it gets out this city put her up for the night, the whole world will curse us for it."

"What are you so proud of, walking around with your face hanging out in the middle of the day?"

Someone hurled a stone at her, and the rest of the crowd followed suit — in a blink, dozens of hands were flinging gravel at her. Most of the stones dropped short, but a few found her face. Blood ran from her split eye and lip.

Kiera screamed in pain. Even so, the crowd did not stop.

"Get out of our city, now!"

"Filthy bitch!"

She shielded her face with her arms and tried to run, but the crowd would not part for her. Trapped, she took stone after stone.

Weeping, she begged inside, desperately, over and over. Give me strength. Please, give me my strength. Let me sweep every one of these bastards away. Maru...!

At some point, spite flared up in her. With her bloodied face she glared at the crowd with venom.

"I'm the one who protected you all this time! Show some gratitude, you ingrates!"

"Shut your mouth!"

"You all deserved to be eaten by the demons! What a waste, protecting the lot of you!"

The more she raged, the more it only fed their fury.

"You shameless hag! I won't let this go! You just watch!"

A young man, drunk on rage and unable to hold himself back, suddenly spurred his horse forward and ran her down where she stood at the roadside. Kiera's body was flung into the air, sailed a great distance, and hit the ground tumbling.

For a long while she lay face-down, without the slightest movement.

"Is she dead...?"

"Th-that was too far, even so...!"

"You absolute lunatic! Who told you to run her down with a horse?"

The crowd was just beginning to scatter in alarm when laughter suddenly rang out from Kiera.

"Kkuk. Hahahaha."

Twisting her limbs, she hauled herself up off the ground, unsteady but unbothered. When people saw her face, their mouths all fell open in horror. The wounds and the blood were gone without a trace — and her hair had turned a dazzling silver.

The moment they understood her power had returned, they trembled in terror.

"It seems Maru granted my wish. I can feel his unwavering love. Haahh..."

Her eyes, radiant with bliss as she thought of him, had taken the shape of two hearts.

And not long after —

The small city in the kingdom neighboring the Basilite Kingdom vanished without a trace.

No one ever learned the cause. Only a rumor circulated in the aftermath: that moments before the city disappeared, a massive pillar of light had descended from the sky and swallowed it whole, witnessed from far away.