Chapter 100: The Lord is With Us (21)
Chapter 100: The Lord is With Us (21)
Elsie was small. She had been that way since the day she was born.
Though the Lainella family was a house of magic, they were famous for their imposing physiques. Out of seven siblings, Elsie was the only one born with a diminutive stature.
Even including her only younger brother, Lupin, who also had a slender build, there were only two of them. In an ordinary family, she might have received more love for her fragility, but the Lainella family was anything but ordinary.
The world of high nobility is cold.
They were people who calculated even family bonds based on political utility. There were no exceptions in the competition for succession, and they were trained from childhood to make intrigue and slander a part of their daily lives.
There was no sympathy to be spared for a human born weak. Elsie was ignored as a matter of course, and she grew up being subjected to physical abuse.
It felt unfair. Though she was not even ten years old, the exceptionally bright Elsie knew the truth: being born weak was not her sin.
If a sin had to be assigned, it belonged to her parents. Yet, even her parents did not protect her. Instead, they went as far as to condone the bullying directed at her.
As long as no lines were crossed, the sorting of hierarchy among siblings was considered a natural phenomenon. In the world of high nobility, it was common sense. Elsie found it profoundly sorrowful.
Every time her older brothers and sisters brushed past her, bumping her shoulder; every time they mocked her as a "shorty"; every time she took a stray blow, Elsie ground her teeth.
She cried a lot, too. Elsie’s inner self was just as soft as her outer shell. She was a fearful, tiny child, but a certain venom—the realization that she couldn't live being trampled on forever—forced her to stand up.
She would remember this.
The Lainella family was a prestigious magic house. On the long road of seeking truth, innate physical ability was nothing more than a trivial condition.
True talent lay only in the mind and mana. The cunning Elsie knew well that a small frame and weak muscles meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
And so, she buried herself in the library.
Not even the subtle interference of her siblings could stop her spite. It took several years for those looks of contempt and meddling to turn into jealousy and awe.
Elsie entered the Academy. Even there, amidst the gathered talents of the entire continent, she began to stand out.
The meritocracy of the Academy was no different from that of the Lainella family.
Soon, her treatment within the family improved beyond recognition. After entering the Academy, she even gained a following of sycophants.
Once Elsie gained power, there was only one thing left to do.
Revenge. A rightful blood debt for the resentment carved into her heart.
Elsie returned every bit of the contempt and sorrow she had received. No, she gave back even more. She never wanted to be looked down upon again.
Yet, she harbored a subtle fear.
What if her victims were biding their time, just as she had done as a child?
What if they became stronger later and came back to take revenge on her?
Because she was both a victim and a perpetrator, she knew it wasn't impossible. Thus, Elsie, who was actually just a fearful and timid girl, channeled that fear into even greater aggression.
She would crush them so completely that they could never dream of resisting again.
It was ironic. Elsie’s cruelty was rooted in anxiety. The terror of potentially returning to her childhood state turned her into even more of a devil.
The only exception to that chain of violence was her younger brother, Lupin.
He was the brother who had been ignored alongside her since they were young, the one who followed her faithfully, always calling her "Sister."
Elsie cherished Lupin especially. Since the days when they suffered all sorts of sorrow, Elsie had viewed Lupin as someone she needed to protect. That was why she had set out with heavy steps that day.
It was because of the news that a mere lower noble had dared to lay a hand on her brother.
He was a man who looked like a young lord. As expected of the Swordsmanship Department, he was quite tall, and his visible muscles were firm without being overly bulky.
With impressive black hair and golden eyes, he greeted Elsie with a lukewarm attitude. Even in that situation, he had the gall to ask her to let the junior he was with go.
It wasn't bad. Elsie liked people who were strong like him. An unbreakable strength—it was something Elsie didn't possess, which made her admire it all the more.
That was also why she enjoyed breaking people who were that strong.
Because only then could she see the truth: that they were merely acting tough, and that anyone would inevitably become a weak human in the face of excessive violence.
She sought the comfort of knowing she wasn't the only weakling, and she had obtained it until now. She expected that day to be no different.
Until the man picked up his axe.
It was a terrifying surprise attack. In the brief moment she was distracted, screams and blood erupted behind her, and before she knew it, the man was lunging at her.
Even so, he was too late. Elsie was no novice; she instantly layered a shield over her body.
She thought it was over. She assumed he had a hidden trick up his sleeve, but she grew overconfident, thinking he couldn't possibly defeat her.
So, when she was slammed down along with her shield, Elsie couldn't even process what was happening.
Every time the axe blade flashed, her shield was shattered haphazardly. Fragments of mana scattered like shards of glass. Beneath it all, Elsie could do nothing but scream.
It didn't take long for the shield to break completely.
When she came to her senses, all she could see was the raised axe. For the first time in a long while, Elsie remembered what terror felt like.
The sorrow she had to endure as a weakling in her childhood.
It had flipped and was coming back to her. Like cotton soaking up thick moisture, Elsie’s mind gradually regressed to those days when she was young and timid.
She was scared. So, Elsie apologized.
She said she was sorry, that she admitted defeat.
She could endure any amount of humiliation. She would just remember it and pay it back later. She had done it many times before.
At least, that was what she thought until the man spoke.
"Senior Elsie, what did you just say?"
With ragged breath, the man who had carved through the crowd with his blade approached. His golden eyes were chillingly cold. Elsie froze solid under that unwavering gaze.
He was serious. It was the look of someone intending to inflict raw violence.
It was the very thing Elsie feared most. Someone she had dismissed as weak returning the violence exactly as she had practiced it.
Elsie had seen countless people ruined by pain and violence. The moment she imagined herself in that position, the shell of cruelty she had painstakingly pieced together shattered.
She was terrified. Moreover, the man intended to kill her. There would be no chance for revenge.
Elsie Lainella’s life was on the verge of ending right then and there.
Without leaving anything behind.
Elsie pleaded. She begged for her life, saying she was sorry. Yet, there was no flicker of hesitation in the man's eyes.
At the final moment, when the man’s axe blade drove down.
Elsie squeezed her eyes shut. Tears streamed down her face. That was the essence of the girl named Elsie.
A coward. Weak. The words she had used to berate herself countless times as a child surfaced once more.
She didn't want to die.
She shouldn't have acted so tough. She should have been a bit more honest, and she shouldn't have picked a fight so recklessly.
It was then that the sound of a sharp blade striking down echoed.
Elsie’s trembling eyes turned to the side. The axe blade was buried right next to her. Elsie almost wet herself on the spot.
She looked up at the man with a tearful face. The man still had an expressionless gaze.
"……There won't be a next time."
That was the moment Elsie collapsed.
After that day, the contempt and criticism toward Elsie were revived. Just like in her childhood.
Elsie responded desperately. She sought out every person who dared to insult her and crushed them, inflicting even more brutal violence to prove her fearsomeness.
Yet, the voices mocking her always followed like a shadow.
She was scared. She didn't want to go back to being that child.
The threat to her life she felt that day became jumbled with her childhood nightmares. A memory of fear that covered her mind and heart like sticky mud.
Ian Percus—she was afraid of him. So very afraid.
So when he came looking for her again, Elsie felt like running away in tears. She didn't want to follow him. But the fear that had grown bloated during her sleepless nights had robbed her of her will to resist.
Seeing the hand axe again made her heart race. Her trembling legs gave out, forcing her to sink to the ground. In front of that hand axe, Elsie had to return to being the frail girl of her youth.
However, there was one thing different from back then.
It was the hand stroking Elsie’s head. A warmth, a sense of comfort and security she had never received as a child.
Every time she saw the hand axe, Elsie returned to being that weak girl. And from that stroking hand, she received a comfort stronger than ever before.
It felt good. It was an emotion she thought she would never experience.
After she gained power, people in the world only tried to use her. Or they looked at her with eyes filled with fear and hostility.
Come to think of it, the life Elsie had dreamed of wasn't like this.
She simply hadn't wanted to be ignored. She didn't know how things had turned out this way.
It was around that time she started following the man named Ian Percus.
It was humiliating and difficult. Though she gritted her teeth for the final battle against her rival, Delphine, the venom had drained out of her after sitting on her throne for so long.
Still, she thought it would be fine. Elsie was strong, and she was a genius.
She was wrong. Elsie was defeated again by a surprise attack. She had to helplessly watch her comrades, whom she had spent days with, being struck down before her eyes.
Once again, she felt like she was back in her miserable childhood. A girl who could do nothing but scream.
That was when the man stood up.
It was a miracle. He was covered in blood, a total wreck. It would have been normal for him to have been broken long ago. Yet, he did not fall.
Elsie could only fall silent at that mysterious will to fight. She watched as the man took down Fermin, Olmar, and Aisia one by one, and finally defeated Delphine.
He was strong.
Not just in martial power, but in spirit. It was a strength Elsie could never possess.
He was magnificent.
She admired him instinctively. If her previous submission had been purely out of fear, Elsie now fully accepted the result of her defeat. it was an admission of victory and an act of obedience.
Ian Percus was a being above Elsie Lainella.
From the moment that thought was engraved in her mind, Elsie tried desperately to earn his recognition.
Even when he made her do errands at the orphanage, she followed without a word of complaint. Sometimes she acted prickly on purpose because she missed his touch, but fundamentally, Elsie was quite obedient to Ian.
She was craving the love and recognition she had never received from her parents. She wanted Ian to validate her existence.
That was why she was even angrier. Elsie never forgave those who crossed her.
That was the way of life she had learned. Hadn't Ian broken her down in the same way?
She wanted him to acknowledge her. But Ian didn't take Elsie’s side, simply because the opponent was a child.
She had to go easy on them because they were a child?
Then what about her own childhood? Elsie felt a surge of emotion.
She felt like pounding her chest and pleading for him to see what that ignored and abused child had grown up to do.
She had to trample them. Only then could she avoid being the one trampled.
She was so angry she couldn't even see her surroundings. Thus, the sight she saw in the next moment was sharp silver claws reflecting the moonlight.
And the man jumping in between.
The sight of Ian falling, spilling blood.
Like flipping through a photo album, all those scenes carved into Elsie’s mind in disjointed fragments.
Before she knew it, Elsie was sobbing, holding onto the fallen Ian.
"A-Are you… hic, are you okay? Hey! Hey!"
The man barely managed to open his eyes. Then, he gave a faint smile. As if it were nothing.
"Call… the Saintess……."
The image of Ian she saw that night haunted Elsie for a very long time.
She thought of it when she lay down, and she thought of it when she closed her eyes.
Even when she ate, the smile of Ian lying in a pool of blood came to mind, and it was the same when she was just staring blankly.
Elsie had only one question.
Why?
Why did he throw his body to save her?
Wasn't she a wicked, selfish girl? An incarnation of violence who couldn't even tolerate a child—a "little villain."
Elsie also had feelings of goodwill toward Ian. He was someone she wanted recognition from, an object of admiration.
But being a coward by nature, she couldn't even imagine throwing her life away to save Ian if he were in danger.
She would probably just cry out of fear. So how could Ian do that?
She couldn't understand it at all. So when Elsie heard the news that Ian had woken up after two days, she moved as if possessed.
But why did her courage fail her when she stood before the door?
Her heart pounded for no reason, and she felt on edge. Her hands trembled slightly of their own accord.
Why am I like this? Elsie couldn't even understand the nature of this emotion.
It was then that the man's voice reached her.
"……Senior Elsie."
At that low voice, Elsie peeked her face in. There, golden eyes stared at her silently.
The atmosphere of laughing and chatting subsided as if it had all been a lie. Soon, there were only two people in the hospital room: Ian and Elsie.
The world was so different. For some, people worried about them in droves even if they just stayed still, but that wasn't the case for Elsie.
So Elsie had to ask in an even more timid voice.
"……Why did you save me?"
As soon as she said it, she thought, Oh no.
The words were far too abbreviated. The apology, the gratitude, and all the other various emotions were missing.
Even she thought her attitude was rude, so Elsie fretted. She hadn't been this way before, but today, she was incredibly conscious of how she appeared to Ian.
However, the man didn't seem to mind particularly.
Instead, he responded nonchalantly. As if it were nothing, immediately.
"Just because."
Elsie’s eyes went blank.