The Heroines in Crisis
Arian Liberin was draped over Rotten Bendision's shoulder, forcibly dragged along. Even after emerging from the artificial dungeon, she remained undiscovered by others. Rotten Bendision had used some artifact to completely block everyone's line of sight. If she could have raised her voice, she might have alerted those around her, but unable to speak, she could do nothing more than be carried away. Thanks to that, he passed through crowds of people without being noticed and managed to leave the academy grounds entirely.
The place Rotten Bendision headed to after kidnapping her was in front of a massive rock deep within the mountains of Hero Island. Yet after taking a few steps before that rock, a passage leading underground revealed itself. 'Is this the altar?' It was clearly the sacrificial altar he had mentioned. After descending deep into the dark tunnel, what appeared before Arian Liberin was nothing more than a vast open clearing. In the center of that wide space stood only an altar constructed from stone.
"It will be over soon."
Rotten Bendision spoke as he laid Arian Liberin down neatly atop the altar. Once he offered her as a sacrifice, he too would choose death. Even if he survived, he would no longer belong among the villains. 'The debt for granting me revenge ends here.' Rotten Bendision thought to himself. Whether he would commit suicide or turn himself in and face execution by law, he did not know. But thanks to Aeternum Somnium, he had been able to exact his revenge. His enemies were not only Aijina, who had sacrificed his family for the greater good. Revenge against the villain group Yeokcheon, which had installed the mana bomb, had also become possible through the organization's assistance.
Among the villain groups with massive influence, Aeternum Somnium, Yeokcheon, and The End were often mentioned, yet relations between the three were far from amicable. In fact, they were more hostile toward one another than toward the heroes. Thanks to that, Rotten Bendision had been able to use Aeternum Somnium's power to kill every Yeokcheon member involved in planting the mana bomb at the time. All that remained was to offer Princess Arian Liberin, the last surviving bloodline of Aijina, as a sacrifice to Terenity, thereby severing Aijina's bloodline completely while repaying the favor he had received.
"Before that, I should tell you why you must die."
"?!"
Arian Liberin's head turned slightly to the side. As she lay facing sideways, a video materialized before her eyes.
"I'm sorry… I'm truly sorry."
Queen Laura, a beautiful woman with radiant golden hair, knelt on the ground without caring that her dress was getting dirty, weeping as she apologized to Rotten Bendision.
"I'm sorry… sob sob… Mother had no choice but to move the mana bomb to the center."
The large-scale terrorist plan using a mana bomb orchestrated by the villain group Yeokcheon. To prevent massive casualties from that terrorism, her mother Aijina had concentrated the explosion at the center, sacrificing only the people of the Bendision family to avert widespread destruction. Yet originally, the Bendision family should have been safe from the mana bomb's blast. By funneling explosions from various locations into one place, only the Bendision family had been caught in the blast.
"I'm sorry… I'm truly sorry."
As Rotten Bendision's childhood friend, Aijina also apologized to him, who stood there in a daze. However, with a vacant expression, he seemed unable to accept reality.
"This can't be… Next week was our wedding anniversary. Haha… Alice and I had even decided where to spend our anniversary together… Abel was… about to become a knight like me… Father, Mother… everyone…"
Rotten Bendision muttered with a vacant face. As a knight of the Liberin Kingdom, he had followed royal orders to track down and eliminate several villains belonging to Yeokcheon who were escaping. Yet while he was fighting the villains, his family had died—when they should never have had to. Sacrificed for the greater good. Thousands upon thousands of lives versus four lives. Rationally, one might understand that there had been no choice. But humans could not comprehend and move past such a thing. His family, who should never have died, had all perished. Sacrificed to save others, every member of his family had been lost.
"I didn't know your family would be at the center of the explosion… but it was something I did, knowing that someone would have to die. I'm sorry… This sin…"
At the horrific scene, Aijina spoke sorrowfully, continuing to apologize to Rotten Bendision, but her words did not reach him. Upon seeing his family's corpses, Rotten Bendision felt something inside him shatter—not merely break, but crumble into dust. All loyalty, all meaning in life, felt meaningless.
"Ugh, uwaaaah!"
And from that day onward, he resolved to seek revenge. But since the chances of succeeding against Aijina and the Le Stan ducal house were slim, he decided to use a villain organization. Not Yeokcheon. Considering the Yeokcheon members who had been heavily involved in causing his family's deaths, he could never join them, even under false pretenses. Thus, the organization he chose was Aeternum Somnium. And there, he encountered the great being known as Terenity.
[I shall grant you the power for revenge. And those who serve me shall assist you.]
Thus he obtained power and, borrowing the strength of the Aeternum Somnium organization, succeeded in his revenge. Killing all the Yeokcheon members who had participated in the terrorism at the time was only the beginning. He had failed to kill the infant Arian Liberin back then. However, after showing Laura, the Queen, being gang-raped by organization members before Aijina's eyes, he personally twisted her neck and killed her. Afterward, he slaughtered everyone in the Le Stan ducal house. After making her feel the same pain of losing family, he killed her as well. Having become a villain and committed crimes, he became a disgrace to the Liberin Kingdom. If he had remained a knight, the Liberin Kingdom would have provided compensation for damages. But having lost everything, such compensation held no meaning for him. He went berserk and became a villain, and his existence was taboo and concealed within the Liberin Kingdom. Naturally, the Bendision family members, who had been victims, came to be known only as people who had lost their lives in a villain's terrorist attack.
'Ah.'
Watching the video, Arian Liberin sensed with over a 90% probability that everything he said was true. No, perhaps it was 100%. She had merely limited it to over 90% because accepting this cruel truth was too painful.
"Princess Arian, this is why you must die. Because you are the sole survivor who inherited Aijina's blood."
Rotten Bendision spoke calmly, yet his voice trembled. Was it because the final moment of his revenge had finally arrived? Then Rotten Bendision withdrew some of the mana that had been paralyzing Arian Liberin's body. Thanks to that, Arian Liberin was able to open her mouth.
"I'm sorry… It seems our family bears some responsibility for you becoming so broken."
Even while feeling a sense of responsibility toward him, who had been consumed by revenge and broken, Arian Liberin gritted her teeth and asked, "But… the gang rape of my mother crossed the line. Did you really have to go that far?"
Yet this had crossed the line. It was too cruel and vicious. Though she had no memory of her grandmother, who had passed away when she was just a baby, she was still her mother.
"I did not initiate it. I merely did not stop them from doing what they did."
Rotten Bendision claimed he had only been a bystander. He had not laid hands on Queen Laura himself, nor had he ordered the gang rape. He had not even touched her directly. He had merely watched the villains gang-rape her before killing her in front of Aijina's eyes. Yet being a bystander was tantamount to half-participating.
"But you must have felt satisfied watching my grandmother scream, didn't you?"
In the video, Aijina had begged Rotten Bendision, admitting her wrongdoing and pleading for him to save Queen Laura. But at that time, Rotten Bendision's response had been this: [I am no longer a knight of the Liberin Kingdom. There is no longer any reason to stop them or save her.]
Killing the Le Stan ducal house and Queen Laura before Aijina's eyes would not have been possible without Aeternum Somnium's help. Therefore, to enable his revenge, he had condoned what happened to Queen Laura. Although he claimed he had not laid a hand on her himself, condoning it was essentially the same as half-participating.
"Then why did you stop what almost happened to me?" Arian Liberin asked in a sharp voice. "Doesn't that mean it weighed on your conscience?"
At Arian Liberin's pointed remark, Rotten Bendision showed a momentarily confused expression. However, he soon nodded.
"Perhaps. I should have stopped the gang rape midway and thrown her charred remains, burned alive, at Aijina."
Rumble—
And when Rotten Bendision finished speaking, Arian Liberin felt a chilling terror. The horror was so intense that Rotten Bendision's deranged answer barely registered. It sounded as if some massive monster's laughter echoed in her ears. That laughter seemed like mockery. Mockery directed at both Rotten Bendision and herself, trapped in this situation.
'What is this?' Arian Liberin sensed that this altar was no ordinary place. She could feel an enormous malice. It was as if someone who had orchestrated all of this was sneering.
"What about the students, then? What sin did they commit to get caught up in this?"
Even while feeling that eerie sensation, Arian Liberin questioned Rotten Bendision sharply. Even if she herself was targeted for revenge because of her grandmother, what crime had the other students committed to be captured by the villains?
"That is…" Rotten Bendision, who had been about to say something with a confused face, suddenly went blank before coldly looking down at her again. At that abnormal appearance, Arian Liberin felt a sense of dissonance. This looked as if he had been subjected to mind control.
"It's a pointless story. Well then, Princess, I shall soon offer you to Terenity."
Just as Rotten was about to carry out something after saying that—
"Wait a moment."
A restraining voice rang out.
"You'd better stop being a puppet."
Arian Liberin knew the owner of this voice.
"Seo Moon-jin!"
It was Seo Moon-jin, the black-haired man, who had appeared.
"I've come to save you, Arian."
After saying that, Seo Moon-jin gave Arian Liberin a gentle smile, then pointed at Rotten Bendision and continued, "All of this is nothing but an orchestrated puppet show."