The Wall Crumbles
Of course, Bella hadn't simply taken it. She'd infected Demitera with the plague more than once. But Elena was always at Demitera's side, ready with Complete Recovery.
Every time Demitera caught the infection, Elena rewrote reality with her illusion magic, rewriting the plague out of existence as if it had never touched her.
"Hnnngh… hnnn…!"
After enduring the relentless torment of her clitoris for so long, Bella's body convulsed and she wet herself. It was a pathetic sight.
Watching Bella's disgrace, I turned to Demitera.
"When is she going to break?"
"Still a ways off. Bella is suffering, but she hasn't said a word. If you would permit a more intense form of torture… I could break her much faster."
"Absolutely not. If that body ends up scarred, we're in serious trouble."
"Lady Elena is here, is she not?"
She had a point. With Elena's Illusion Butterfly Art, even scars could be erased without a trace.
"Her mind might not come through intact. I want Bella whole — body and mind both."
I rested a hand on Bella's head and stroked her platinum hair the way one might pet a dog. I am your master. The message was blatant. Of course it didn't land. Bella was staring up at me with pure murder in both eyes.
I left Bella to Demitera and stepped back. Off to one side of the forest, Yuria stood staring blankly into the distance. The usual Yuria never zoned out like that, so my curiosity was piqued.
"Yuria, what are you thinking about?"
"I felt as though someone was watching us from somewhere. …Perhaps it was my imagination."
Yuria tilted her head, uncertain. I hadn't sensed a thing. I turned and asked Elnoa and Elena as well.
"Did either of you feel anything?"
"No. Nothing at all."
"Same here."
Their answers matched. Had Yuria imagined it? I shook my head. Anyone else, maybe — but not Yuria. I knew exactly how monstrous her senses were. If she had felt something… then something had actually been there.
…I've got a pretty good idea. The ancient relic said to be in Beliac Village…. Berika must have used it.
In the original story, the relic was called the Earth Jewel. She'd used it to pinpoint our location.
"The enemy might be coming. We should prepare."
I glanced at Yuria. She was still standing there in a daze. She'd been off since earlier. It didn't look like deep thought so much as the sense that she was looking at something else entirely. After a moment's hesitation, I decided to leave her alone. This was Yuria, after all. There had to be a reason.
"……."
Yuria had felt the gaze. A gaze watching her from far away. Berika had looked upon Yuria through the Earth Jewel. The gaze vanished almost at once. Yuria had no idea it was Berika using an ancient relic to observe her. She only knew that someone had seen her.
And that was enough to stir something in her. The power of the Earth Jewel — an ancient relic of particularly high caliber even among its kind — had reached her as a stimulus. For anyone else it would have meant nothing. But for a woman gifted with every sense, physical and spiritual alike, it arrived as a profound jolt, a tiny spark of inspiration.
The nape of her neck prickled. A faint breeze seemed to circle near her throat.
…….
Yuria didn't understand the inspiration. Even when something felt like something, putting it into words was nearly impossible.
A 0.01% spark of insight.
An inspiration no one else would even have registered — and Yuria's unconscious had caught it.
…A crack.
A crack had opened. In the power of the ancient relic that had erased her memories and suppressed her body's abilities, a fissure had formed.
Yuria stared blankly into empty air. Starting with Seong Yujin, no one disturbed her. That quiet gave her the space to look inward at her leisure.
"……."
A wall stood before her.
This wall was the barrier sealing away her memories. Beyond it sat a television.
At first she hadn't even registered the TV on the other side. The wall had been too thick. She hadn't known anything was there at all. The stronger Yuria became, the thinner the wall grew. This wall was the trial of the ancient relic.
When she reached the peak of Expert rank, intermittent sounds had begun to leak through. But the noise was thick with static and too faint to make out. Now, though, a crack had opened in the wall.
Yuria stepped close and pressed her eye to the gap. She could see the television beyond.
Kssshhhk.
Static flooded the screen, then an image began to play. From that tiny crack, fractures spiderwebbed across the wall.
The footage on the screen was her own memory.
Her first memory.
The memory of fleeing the Helbrit ducal house, cradled in the arms of her mother, Nel Lince. Once they had escaped, Nel never flaunted her power. She wandered from place to place looking as wretched as a beggar, all to throw off the Helbrit family's relentless pursuit.
"……."
Yuria absorbed the memories in a daze. The recollections that had been forcibly torn from her began to fill her from within, piece by piece. With every recovered fragment, the wall before her cracked further, crumbling from the edges. The gap that had been smaller than a pinky finger steadily widened.
Years passed, and the Helbrit pursuit finally weakened. Nel and Yuria settled in Artel Village. It was a settlement of the weak, and among them Nel and Yuria lived by posing as the weakest of all — lepers. But the Helbrit family's hunt had never truly ended.
In the end, they were found.
Their poor, wretched, but peaceful life came to an end. Her mother — her only family — Nel Lince was killed.
As Yuria tried to flee, a savior appeared. No — she hadn't thought of him as a savior at first. A bargainer. She contracted with him the way one might strike a deal with a devil, all for the sake of revenge.
…Master.
Yujin kept his end of the bargain. In exchange for everything she had, he taught her everything. Yuria lived under him with her thirst for vengeance burning hot. Even when he toyed with her body, she didn't care. For revenge, she would do anything.
Crack.
Part of the wall shattered. On the screen, a young Yujin was holding a young Yuria in his arms. Both of them were naked, lying in bed.
Yujin's voice reached her. No — she remembered it. Good girl, Yuria. Nothing more than ordinary praise.
Master's touch…
Yuria's body gave a small, involuntary shudder. The sensations of that time were flooding back. Back then, Yuria had fallen asleep in Yujin's arms roughly every other night. She barely slept at all in those days. She ground her teeth over revenge and trained even while others rested. Calling her to his bed had been Yujin's way of giving her rest.
She had nestled into his arms. Sleep never came easily. Nel's death kept replaying behind her eyes. And so, in those sleepless hours, she found herself thinking about Yujin. His touch. His scent. His warmth. All of it comforted her. She shed tears into his chest where no one could see. Even she didn't know why she cried. The tears simply came.
From then on, thoughts of Yujin grew naturally, steadily. At some point she began thinking of him instead of the dead Nel. Her desire for revenge had never vanished. But then she recognized her own feelings. By the time she noticed, those feelings had already become part of her — too deeply rooted to discard. After wrestling with it, Yuria decided to keep those feelings as a maid. Doing anything more with Yujin was out of the question. He was far too extraordinary a man for that.
She was held by him for the first time. She offered him her virginity. A body that had been trained for him finally repaid him in full. In that moment, Yuria admitted it. In her life, Yujin had become more important than revenge.
Time flowed on and on.
Crack. Crrrack!
The wall was breaking. What remained of it barely reached her knees. She could step over it whenever she wished. But Yuria kept watching the television screen.
Yujin had kept his promise.
Yuria had completed her revenge against the Helbrit ducal house.
She had been happy.
Not because the Helbrit family had fallen. She was happy because the contract with Yujin was finished, and she could finally offer him even the last remaining piece of her heart.
Clatter. Thud.
Even the last of the wall crumbled away. On the television, the memories kept flowing. Footage of her held in Yujin's arms. Footage of whispered love. Footage of dates with him. Every one of them was a treasured memory.
The wall was gone. Not a pebble, not a speck of dust remained.
Yuria felt power surging through her body. That power lifted her to still greater heights. But it fell just short of the realm she had truly desired. One more step. No — half a step more would have been perfect.
Feeling that faint regret, Yuria looked at the television. The screen no longer showed the past. It was showing the present.
Berika, elder of Beliac Village, and the demon contractor Veint Hutris were attacking, commanding hundreds of plague-ridden corpses.
Elnoa, Elena, and Yujin were locked in combat. Lightning flashed. A high-ranking fire spirit set the forest ablaze. Demitera stood guard over the restrained Bella.
The situation was grim. Berika was far too strong. And Zegner, the Aura Master under Veint's direct control, was the real ambush. Zegner hadn't died. That was precisely the problem — he was unleashing an Aura Master's full power without restraint.
Yuria could see Elena weighing whether to break past her limits. Yujin refused to leave Yuria's side. He was protecting her with everything he had.
Yuria closed her eyes. It was time to return to reality. She had indulged enough luxury while her memories were gone. Now she would go back to the way things were meant to be. And this time, she would become his wife for real — not a counterfeit.
Yuria opened her eyes. She saw a familiar back.
"Ah, damn it. Should I just nuke the whole place?!"
Yuria smiled faintly at his irritated grumbling.
"Master."
"…Huh? Yuria?"
Yujin turned. For a moment he looked startled — something about her presence had changed. Then he broke into a broad grin.
"You passed the trial and got all your memories back, didn't you?"
"Yes, Master. Thank you for waiting for me."
"Kinda feels like a waste all of a sudden. You can call me husband, you know."
"…Master is more comfortable for me. And as for that… later."
Yuria smiled softly. She stepped out in front of Yujin. The smile that had touched her lips was already gone.
Yuria raised her hand. Pitch-black shadows surged upward and swallowed hundreds of plague corpses whole.
"……."
Silence fell over everything.
A soundless shock rippled through the living. Yuria swept her hand again. The swallowed plague corpses erupted back out — but they were no longer intact. Every last one had been shredded into fine pieces and compressed.
Yuria's gaze turned to the three who had escaped the shadows. Veint. Berika. Zegner. They stared at her the way one stares at an incomprehensible monster. Yuria, of course, felt nothing. However they looked at her was of no interest whatsoever.
"Master. What shall we do with them?"
She asked Yujin as casually as if she were handling a simple errand.
Yujin surveyed the surroundings once and grinned.
"Zegner. Kill that damn elf bastard. Subdue the rest. Cut off their arms and legs."
And so it was done.