The Past of Vernia
I stared at my reflection in the mirror and immediately thought, Fuck, I want to kill myself.
From the outside, I looked exactly like a nineteen-year-old girl. No matter how you sliced it, that was the only way to describe it.
“So, miss, you wanted to see me today?”
The head of the Miners’ Union… looked like a damn bear that had gotten its head smashed in with a hammer. The only real difference between him and an actual bear was the flabby gut spilling over his belt. No matter how I looked at him, he didn’t have the body of someone who did physical labor. And on top of that, the heavy stench of alcohol wafting off him in the middle of the day…
This bastard just came straight from drinking. And not cheap booze either—high-class wine that regular workers couldn’t even dream of touching.
“I am Vernia Alton, younger sister of the Imperial Court Mage Werner Alton. I came today because there is something I wish to discuss with the members of the Miners’ Union.”
“Ah, I am Kyoshu Yang, chairman of this proud Mining Union.”
From the chairman down to every last idiot beneath him, they were all staring at me with eyes full of raw lust. To be honest, it made me feel fucking disgusting.
I’m a dude, you fucking homos.
Why the hell was I doing all this? Putting on makeup, drinking that skeleton-altering potion to turn my body into the shape it had when I was fifteen, gulping down that mint-chocolate-tasting voice-changing potion, and even wearing this baggy robe? It was all for one reason: to protect the women I had brought with me.
Why the hell are you connecting dressing up like this with protecting women?
That shitty story goes back just a little while earlier.
“So how exactly are you planning to make contact with that union chairman? If Master just goes there, he definitely won’t meet with you.”
“Even if you say you’re a mage dispatched from the Imperial Palace, they’ll just dodge the meeting with excuses like ‘I have a prior engagement’ or ‘I’m not available.’ The way those trash bastards move is painfully obvious.”
Then what should I do… How should I fuck over those pieces of shit?
Should I just wipe them all out?
I could slaughter every last one of them so they couldn’t even open their mouths again. A few spells and they’d drop dead on their own anyway.
“Should I just crush them with force?”
“If you do that, Master’s reputation will hit rock bottom.”
“I don’t really care.”
“I care, so stop suggesting methods like that.”
“Can’t I just bury a few bodies and spend a couple days in jail before coming out?”
“Please stop thinking things will resolve as easily as last time.”
But there wasn’t any particularly sharp idea. If the only answer I could see was total annihilation, then I simply had to possess the courage to carry it out. I believed that was the true strength of humanity.
During World War II on Earth, when they couldn’t see any other answer to the war, they dropped fat men and little boys. Just like that person who had the courage to turn the enemy’s land back to the Stone Age, I too possessed the courage to wipe out the bastards from the Miners’ Union.
“Then how about this method?”
Glacia carefully presented a plan to me. As expected of Glacia—my Zhuge Liang, my strategist. She would definitely come up with something useful.
“Considering the story about Count Holsted and the rumors spreading throughout the territory, I believe the union chairman is quite the lecher.”
“I already know that much. But that has absolutely nothing to do with—”
“Isn’t the honey trap a commonly used tactic?”
It was true that a horny bastard like him would probably fall for a honey trap. Still, the real question was where to find a beauty to use for it.
“Even so, we don’t have anyone suitable for that operation. It’s not like we can just pick someone because they’re pretty. We need reliability and other abilities as well…”
“Don’t we have an abundance of beauties right here? I have some confidence in my appearance, Lady Lorsch is a beauty, and Lady Airi is… well, a beauty too.”
Lorsch seemed quite pleased with the plan.
“Luring them out with looks and extracting information… Not a bad idea. Should I do it, Werner?”
But Airi mulled over Glacia’s words for a moment before speaking with a face full of dissatisfaction.
“Wait a second, why did you hesitate only when you mentioned me? You wanna die? What’s wrong with me?”
“If I had to say… your personality…”
In other words, the suggestion was to throw one of Lorsch, Glacia, or Airi into a den full of horny monkeys. It would certainly make things easier. But I politely declined that answer.
“I decline.”
They all looked at me with faces that said they couldn’t understand.
“I’m fine with it, Master! Above all, if it’s about being a beauty, it’s obviously me! So I’ll go and completely— I’ll go and get all the information!”
“Don’t underestimate them. You think I’d lose to trash like that?”
“Nothing Master is worried about will happen. I have confidence in my combat ability as well…”
I didn’t want to put the people around me in danger. Both as Werner and as myself, I treasured the people around me more than my own life. Even if it was a selfish mindset—that I’d rather show others my own wounds than watch someone precious get hurt—it didn’t matter.
I could never entrust these women to the filthy hands of such trash.
“Lady Glacia, as long as there is even the slightest possibility, I absolutely cannot allow it. I cannot bear to watch you endure their lewd gazes and respond to their sexual harassment with a smile.”
Then I turned to Lorsch.
“Lorsch, you are my friend. Where is the bastard who would send his friend into such a dangerous place? Even if the mission fails and my head gets cut off, I cannot do that. If you really insist on going, you’ll have to fight me first.”
Didn’t some ninja once say it? Those who value rules or missions are trash, but those who don’t value their comrades are even worse trash. I had no desire to become something worse than trash.
And finally, I spoke to Airi.
“Airi, you are my disciple. I have a duty to protect you, and I have never forgotten that duty for even a single moment. Even if you end up in danger because of your own mistake, I will risk my life to save you first. Yet you want to jump into such a deadly trap with your own two feet? Are you messing with me right now?”
After I refuted them point by point, they seemed to give up on using that plan.
“So, let’s just discard the honey trap idea…”
But something was strange. All three women were staring directly at my face.
Fuck, what the hell are you—
“It’s not like there’s absolutely no way…”
Lorsch pulled several bottles of potion out of her bag.
“I was moved by your determination to throw yourself directly into the enemy camp, Master Werner.”
“Master… please follow me for a moment.”
I was dragged away just like that and forced into cross-dressing. I even had to drink those disgusting-tasting potions to adjust my skeleton and voice.
“Wow, Master, you’re even prettier than us?”
“Airi, I’d appreciate it if you shut up before I kill you.”
When I looked in the mirror, I really was pretty. Which made it even more fucking awful. The sheer disgust of this reality made a sigh escape me involuntarily.
“This fucking bullshit…”
“So, the younger sister of the Imperial Court Mage has come all the way here… may I ask what brings you?”
“Ah, I heard there have been strange incidents at the mine recently. I came in person to investigate…”
Without even offering me a seat, the so-called chairman plopped down right next to me.
“This is quite serious, isn’t it? Would you like us to help with the investigation?”
“No… I only came to ask for information related to the incident. I must decline such offers of help.”
“Hahaha, you’re being rather cold.”
I wanted to smash his face in with a hard rock.
“Don’t be so stiff. Why don’t you have a drink?”
The bastard offered me wine. When I sniffed it… Fuck, this son of a bitch spiked it. And with something pretty strong too. At this point, he was confirmed as a piece of shit.
I pretended to drink and secretly poured it onto the floor.
“Now then… shall we talk?”
“Yes. First, regarding the recent matter of Count Holsted’s younger sister—”
“Ah, that bitch? We arranged a marriage to improve relations between laborers and nobles, but she went and died before even the first night… Tsk. Nobles only know how to live in luxury. They’ve never done anything to help the world—”
Before the son of a bitch could finish speaking, I smashed his face in.
“Listen, I tried to be patient, but this fucking bastard really…”
Because I used mana, my transformation came undone.
“Who the hell are you? Where did that woman go and why is there a man—”
“That was what I looked like when I was fifteen, you homo.”
Information? What a joke. These bastards didn’t even deserve the oxygen they were breathing. To deal with pieces of shit like this, a beauty wasn’t needed at all.
All that was required was a demon—one who would reap the lives of trash.
I was the demon Werner. The one who takes the lives of garbage.