Everything Was Just a Game
"If it wasn't a coincidence… then someone must have planned it?"
"That's right. That burn on your face happened on that very day. It was all to craft a natural story—someone who, consumed by rage after losing his entire family, would seek out a villain organization and join them for revenge…"
Yes. That was all it amounted to.
"Think back. Before you met Ijina, hadn't your face already been burned?"
"That… ghh!"
When Ijina had concentrated the explosion at the center, he had rushed to the scene to confirm his family's corpses. There, he had come into contact with the lingering traces of Terenity's magic power.
[Well done.]
And he had heard that voice.
"What was that voice you heard back then?"
The moment the final blow landed, Rotten Bendision let out a scream.
"Aaaagh! Stop spouting nonsense! Just kill me! Stop mocking me and kill me already!"
Facing the screaming Rotten Bendision, I forcibly drew out the Terenity magic power residing in his body and spoke.
"Rotten Bendision. You can't do this. You must receive proper judgment."
I dispelled the corruption that had tainted his mind with Terenity's magic power, and his expression turned confused. Even if he had returned to his own will, he had still chosen the path of creating innocent victims under the guise of revenge. His sins could not be forgiven. It was simply that Arian Liberin would now judge the true Rotten Bendision, not a puppet.
"I've already cut off the external supply, so all that's left is to remove what's remaining."
I extracted every last trace of Terenity's magic power from him.
"This is…"
As the Terenity magic power vanished so easily, Rotten's face twisted in bewilderment upon regaining his senses. He was feeling a profound sense of dissonance.
"Wanting revenge isn't inherently wrong. But you aimed it at the wrong target, and you crossed the line through your own choices. Do you finally understand what you've done?"
He had merely been a stepping stone in the process of bringing Arian Liberin to my side. For that purpose, he simply had to die here as the perpetrator. After all, his actions had already crossed the line of what could be forgiven.
"This is data secured by the Yucheon Group. Take a look."
I retrieved a video storage orb from my dimensional space and activated it. In truth, it was a recording I had extracted from past memories and stored in video form, but attributing it to the Yucheon Group would lend it greater credibility.
"I'm sorry… No, I'm sorry… That's all I can say…"
A beautiful blonde woman who still looked to be in her twenties despite being middle-aged wept as she apologized. Her name was Ijina. She was the wife of the Duke of Restan and the biological mother of Queen Laura Le Stan.
Right now, she was apologizing over and over with a dazed expression.
"Hah… haha…"
The moment Ijina saw Rotten standing dazedly at the scene where he had lost his entire family, her heart felt as though it were being torn apart. Even though she had fallen in love with the current Duke of Restan by chance and married him, the fact that she and Rotten Bendision had been childhood friends did not disappear. Naturally, Rotten's parents, his wife Alice, and his son Abel were all acquainted with her. In fact, Rotten's parents had known her since she was a child.
Yet they had died by her own hands. As a result, Rotten Bendision—her childhood friend—stood there looking completely broken. The horrific burns covering his body, wherever he had gotten them from, were likely injuries sustained when he rushed to the scene after belatedly learning of the explosion, only to be caught in the blast while worrying about his family.
"Ugh!"
Ijina felt nausea rising as she recalled the fact. To save hundreds, thousands—perhaps even tens of thousands of people—she had hurriedly concentrated the mana bomb's massive explosion toward the center. It had happened in such an instant that she had no time to do anything else. Still, she had never imagined that members of the Bendision family would be at the center. She had been too frantic to even recall the location of their mansion in advance.
"Uweeegh!"
In the end, Ijina vomited everything onto the floor and shed endless tears. Even as she apologized, Rotten Bendision simply vanished with a vacant expression.
"Sob… hngh!"
After that day, Ijina remained shut in her room for several days, unable to come to her senses. The shock of having killed people she had known since childhood—people who had been kind to her—with her own hands. And the sight of Rotten, who had lost his entire family because of her and fallen into despair, left her unable to regain her composure for days. Though she had acted as a mana awakener of the Liberin Kingdom to stop the terror and save people, she could not simply overlook the victims sacrificed due to her mistake.
'Rotten…'
Ijina, who had been neglecting meals to the point that the people of the Restan ducal house grew worried, began searching for Rotten. She was so devastated that she was even prepared to offer her own life if he wished for it. But when she tried to find him, he had already disappeared. And not long after… he appeared as a villain. To annihilate the Restan ducal house.
Rotten Bendision had lost his mind at the scene where he had lost everything. He could not remember what had happened. He remembered nothing of Ijina's apology or Queen Laura Le Stan's belated apology at the scene. No—their apologies had been meaningless to begin with. What was someone who had lost his entire family supposed to do? His parents, who had been kind to him since childhood, his beloved wife Alice, and his son Abel, who had only just reached adulthood—all of them were dead. There was no longer any hope left for him, who had lost everything.
[You should take revenge.]
Revenge. Yes, there was revenge. He had to take revenge on Ijina, who had killed his parents—who had always treated him so kindly—his wife, and his son!
[How will you take revenge?]
Revenge? He would make her feel the same pain he felt by killing her daughter and husband, just as he had lost his wife and son.
[Isn't that too weak? The Bendision family has been wiped out. So you should wipe out the Restan ducal house as well, right?]
Yes. That was it. But his own power was insufficient.
[If it's not enough, you have to find a way.]
A way? Though reluctant, he would have to borrow the power of a villain organization. He could never turn to Yeokcheon. They were the villain group that had planted the mana bomb that killed his family. Yeokcheon, too, had to be destroyed.
Then which villain organization would be suitable?
[Aeternum Somnium.]
Aeternum Somnium? That place seemed appropriate. Pursuing eternal dreams, it was less extreme than Yeokcheon, which sought to defy order, or The End, the gathering of apocalyptic believers. Even so, it was ultimately just a villain group gathered for selfish gain, and because of that, there would be room to exploit them.
Approaching them with that thought, he was able to receive support from the Aeternum Somnium organization. At the same time, he received power for revenge from the great Terenity.
[Let's take revenge. We'll kill everyone in the Restan ducal house.]
The faces of his dead family kept rising in his mind. Their voices and faces would not fade, and he could not bear thinking about how much pain they must have felt when they died. That was why, with the help of Aeternum Somnium, he was able to seize the opportunity for revenge. First, he would kill all the Yeokcheon members who had participated in the mana bomb terror—that was the beginning.
"First, we need to lure Ijina out."
"Let's meet separately and talk for a moment."
"Once we've lured her out, we'll wipe out the rest of the Restan ducal house."
"Hehe~ Leave it to us."
He would kill everyone in the Restan ducal house. That way, he would show Ijina the same wound she had inflicted on him. Ijina took the bait he had thrown with surprising ease. After luring her out, the Restan ducal house collapsed pathetically under the surprise attack of the Aeternum Somnium organization.
"Rotten…"
"Yeah, Ijina. I've finally sorted out my feelings. Let's talk for a bit."
"I'm so glad. You were safe…"
Even as she looked relieved that he was safe, his heart had already gone cold. Today, he would kill the woman who had murdered his family.
"Yeah. You seem to be doing well too."
With that, he stabbed a dagger into Ijina's abdomen.
"Agh?!"
Ijina's eyes widened in shock. The dagger he had stabbed into her abdomen had the effect of sealing her powerful magic power. It was no ordinary weapon—it was a dagger infused with Terenity's magic power.
"Rotten…"
Even as blood flowed from her lips, she called his name. Forcing her to stay upright, I dragged her to the Restan ducal house. There, I showed her the scene of screams erupting inside. I had erected a barrier so the sounds would not spread outside, ensuring at least fifteen minutes without interference.
"How is it, Ijina?"
At my words, Ijina wept tears of blood at the scene of the massacre that had unfolded in the Restan ducal house. Since everyone in the Restan ducal house was dead, she would feel sorrow and agony. Moreover, since her daughter, Queen Laura, had been visiting and staying at the Restan ducal house for several days, he had targeted this opportunity to attack. Thanks to that, he could show Ijina the sight of Queen Laura being gang-raped by the villains.
"Aaaagh!"
"Rotten! Laura has nothing to do with this, right? Why?! I was wrong! It's all my fault! But please… save Laura!"
"I'm no longer a knight of the Liberin Kingdom. There's no longer any reason to stop them or save her."
With those words, Rotten felt a momentary dizziness. And he saw Ijina's expression as she looked at him twist in horror. What did that expression mean? Was it disbelief that he had fallen this far?
"Rotten! Please, just talk for a moment…"
[Kill her.]
Conversation was no longer necessary. Thinking that, I grabbed Ijina by the throat to silence her. Then, right in front of her, I twisted the neck of Queen Laura—who was in the middle of being violated—and ended her life. Engraving the sight of her own daughter dying into Ijina's eyes, I drove a knife into her throat. Believing that she, too, would feel the pain he had felt back then, he finally thought that his revenge had succeeded. Her pupils trembled in shock as her breath slowly faded. Thus, he succeeded in his revenge.
* * *
"And so, Rotten, you thought you had been taking revenge all this time. But you were wrong."
Seo Moon-jin stared at him with a cold expression, arms crossed.
"You were nothing more than a mass murderer who slaughtered innocent people. Just a puppet dancing on strings."