Chapter 93: A Fake Smile
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 93: A Fake Smile
What am I doing here?
This question plagued her relentlessly, surfacing from her subconscious like a persistent ache.
Mirei simply couldn’t shake it.
She was in a room made of pure white marble.
It wasn’t particularly large, nor was it small. It was roughly the same size as the room she’d had in the party house back in Lukart.
Yet, she couldn’t wrap her head around why she was in this space, surrounded by such sleek, sterile whiteness.
“Why am I here?”
Unable to believe her reality, she asked the question aloud.
Until not long ago, Mirei had been the leader of the world’s first Hero-rank adventurer party.
She should have been out there, challenging the Lukart Dungeon, achieving greatness as an adventurer following in the footsteps of the heroes who fought in the Final War.
She saw herself as she used to be: leading from the front with a steadfast command.
Diane, scouting for signs of the enemy to neutralize threats.
Resin, sweeping the front lines with overwhelming firepower.
Krima, healing the party members during the heat of battle.
And…
And…
Ugly Alto, who did nothing but chores.
That was what she had thought.
A mere laborer who threw potions, set up camp, and cooked.
Sure, he’d been helpful in combat at just the right moments occasionally, but looking at the big picture, he had seemed like nothing more than a stray fragment.
If there was anything special about him, it was only that he was one of the original founding members who had started the party with Mirei.
“What are you doing?! Don’t go out front, it’s dangerous!”
Back when they couldn’t even enter dungeons because they didn’t have three party members, monsters were overflowing around Lukart.
She remembered grabbing Alto and screaming at him when he tried to rush out for a simple subjugation quest with nothing but a small dagger.
“I’m the tank and the commander! If a supporter jumps into battle recklessly, the formation falls apart!”
“But there’s only two of us right now.”
“Exactly! So obviously, I fight, and you support me.”
At that time, Alto’s eyes had looked deeply moved.
“It’s simple. You can do that, right?”
“Yeah. I’ll always support you from behind.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Their first subjugation quest had ended with them sharing mischievous grins.
It was a success.
She had been filled with hope and confidence for the future.
Recalling those days, she almost felt the same smile forming on her lips.
But she couldn’t let it.
Mirei had abandoned Alto.
She had told him to trust her and follow her lead, but at some point after the party began to gain real momentum, she started treating him with neglect.
As the quest difficulty rose and they delved deeper into the dungeons, a perception took root: that Alto, the supporter, was just freeloading off them.
On top of that, he was ugly. Was there any reason to treat someone like that with care?
Even before she was an adventurer, Mirei—who wasn’t even twenty yet—was a woman.
She was curious about handsome men; she burned with a desire for romance and deep physical intimacy.
And since she had a hot-tempered personality, she thought an intellectual man would be a good match.
That was why she had fallen for Claude the moment he approached her.
She had easily noticed he was trying to seduce her.
But the thrill that seduction brought was something else entirely.
Claude was one of the most handsome men in Lukart, known for his intellect. If a man like that asked any woman to come to his bedroom, she would consider it an honor.
The fact that such a big shot was intentionally approaching her to test the waters gave Mirei the intoxicating feeling that her own status had risen that much higher.
So, she cheated.
With Alto, the man in her party, right there, she openly flaunted her dates and her entries into lodging houses for all of Lukart to see.
See?
I’m a woman of this much class.
She showed off the status she had built and the handsome man it had attracted.
Even the Adventurer Guild Branch Manager at the time praised Mirei’s party, and everyone envied them, so there was nothing to stop her.
Her nose went higher in the air, and her actions became bolder.
She had even gone as far as inviting Claude into the party house.
By a cruel twist of fate, that was the very day Alto resigned from the party and left Lukart.
That was the beginning of the Mirei Party’s downfall.
The attitude of the Branch Manager and the people of Lukart changed instantly.
The very people who had joined in isolating and mocking Alto turned on them in a heartbeat.
She had suffered through it without knowing why, but now she knew.
That damn Branch Manager and the Carriage Station Manager had known Alto’s true identity and had schemed against them to make sure they didn’t get caught in the crossfire.
Grit.
She knew now.
Her romance with Claude wasn’t even a fling; she was just treated as a pretty-looking wallet.
The moment the Mirei Party’s standing crumbled, Claude threw her away like a worn-out shoe.
Even before their status collapsed, the amount of money he squeezed out of her had been steadily increasing.
It seemed the same was true for the two bitches who were sleeping with Gerend.
That’s why they both came up with that retarded plan to squeeze a loan out of Alto at the same time.
In hindsight, it was a good thing she’d been beaten to the punch.
Krima, who had succeeded in getting the loan, had the debt transferred to her own name and was now suffering under a murderous interest rate.
Not that it mattered anymore.
Since she’d been captured by the Lukart adventurers, she’d be lucky if Yarismal didn’t skin her alive.
Serves you right, Krima.
She giggled for a moment, but then her mind went blank again.
No matter how many times she looked back at the past or tried to empathize with the situation of those around her, she couldn’t escape it.
In the end, it all came down to one thing.
“Alto…”
The first question that came to mind when she called that name:
Why did he hide his identity?
If only he hadn’t hidden who he was, she might not have known about the others, but she—at least she—would never have abandoned him.
She would never have cheated.
I mean, obviously!
He was Alto Bertrand!
The ideal partner she had always dreamed of.
The strongest living warrior, known as the “Bloodhound,” the mad hunting dog of the battlefield.
The powerhouse of the Bertrand Unit who vied for the top spot alongside Janks Dakuren.
The hero who faced and defeated Vulcanus of Mad Laughter single-handedly.
The very reason she had become an adventurer was because she admired him.
She had heard he was obsessed with killing demons, so she came to Lukart and became an adventurer, hoping she might run into him.
Why?
Because he was cool.
To Mirei, whose family had been wiped out by demons, Alto’s heroic tales made her heart race.
She had formed the party with the hope that she might meet him someday.
And yet, the man she admired had been by her side from the very beginning, and she hadn’t even realized it.
Because they were so short on funds, she had been moved by his kindness and started the party using his subsidy as seed money.
She never dreamed that it had been a home for him and her from the start.
And that dream was now something she couldn’t even dare to have anymore.
“Is there any chance it’s not him?”
She tried a meaningless denial.
But hadn’t she seen him going wild at the border?
She had seen him engaged in fierce combat, casually wielding two massive daggers—one of the few known details of his appearance.
Even while being suppressed by Yarismal and the Lukart adventurers, she had watched him, entranced.
Strong.
And cool.
As those two words grew larger in her mind, so did the shock of what she had done.
“It might not be him.”
She tried an impossible denial.
“Why didn’t he just tell me from the start?!”
She even tried to shift the blame onto him.
But even with Mirei’s shameless personality, it was clear that she was the one in the wrong.
“Haa, haa…!”
Hyperventilation set in, and she felt like she was suffocating.
To calm her spinning head, she began thumping it against the marble wall.
Clack.
“What are you doing?”
At that moment, Resin opened the door and walked in.
Seeing the look of pathetic pity in Resin’s eyes, Mirei finally found a target for her anger.
“What am I doing? You leave me locked in this white room for half a day and then ask what I’m doing?”
“Isn’t it nice? The whiteness.”
“Wh-what?”
Resin gently stroked the white marble.
That composure was irritating, and at the same time, it seemed abnormal.
“It’s a color befitting a new beginning.”
“Are you going to keep talking nonsense?”
“Nonsense? You’re the one who needs to get your head straight.”
Arching an eyebrow, Resin wore a look of contempt and poked Mirei in the chest with her finger.
“We have to start our love for Lord Alto anew, don’t we?”
“What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’?! What do you mean!”
Resin’s face contorted, and she grabbed Mirei by the collar.
Mirei was tall, so she wasn’t lifted off the ground, but the atmosphere turned incredibly hostile.
“This is the moment we take the first step toward welcoming Lord Alto, after escaping the sin of failing to recognize a true hero and a true man. We have to become pure white again and cultivate this heart solely for Lord Alto—we don’t even have enough time for that, so stop acting like an idiot!”
“How can we ever be pure again?!”
In her stupidity, Mirei dragged out the very facts she had been trying to ignore just to win an argument with Resin.
Mirei felt a headache coming on.
“Everyone in Lukart knows we did Alto dirty, and the Adventurer Guild knows too! How can we go back to the beginning?!”
“Shut up! The starting line might be way back, but a start is a start!”
“Does that make the fact that I dated Claude disappear?”
“You didn’t date him!!!!!!”
Heat began to radiate from Resin’s body. Fire magic was her specialty.
“It was just a fling! Do you know what happened to that piece of shit? I heard his balls got crushed along with Gerend’s and he was taken to the royal palace as a male prostitute. Ha! To think I enjoyed myself with a guy like that just because he had a decent face. It has to be Lord Alto. I’ll kneel before him, beg for forgiveness, and do everything I possibly can for him to show how sorry I am.”
“Get a grip, Resin. A fling? Does hiding it like that bring back your virginity or mine? Does it erase the fact that we fucked other guys while we had a man in our party? You think Alto will just forgive us?!”
“It’s Lord Alto! Use his title! You’re the one who needs to get a grip, you filthy slut!”
“What did you just say?!”
“Because of you, I got swept up in the mood and ended up betraying Lord Alto. You’re just a whore who unbuttoned her clothes and spread her legs for some greasy, sweet-talking bastard. I brought you to the Magic Tower because we were comrades, but how dare you…!”
“Oh, like you weren’t clinging to him, calling him ‘Lord Claude’!”
“I never did that!!!!”
Mirei sensed the blue-hot mana burning in Resin’s hand, which was now right in front of her face.
If Resin had touched Mirei’s face like that, it would have left an indelible burn.
“…Ha.”
Resin dispersed the mana and laughed.
“Our situation isn’t great, right? So both of us are just a bit sensitive and things got heated, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“Good! Problem solved. Whatever the case, you and I both love Lord Alto, don’t we?”
Resin’s whisper became suggestive, as if she were talking to a child.
“Lord Alto… was originally our party’s man. Naturally, we have to bring him back to our embrace.”
“How?”
“I have a plan. Well, I’m thinking of one. First, we have to settle things here at the Magic Tower. They give you about a year’s grace period to prove your worth. While I’m doing that, I’ll figure out a way to convey my love to Lord Alto, okay? You can understand that, right? Until then, stay in this room and return to pure white.”
“…Fine.”
Mirei stared at her for a moment before reluctantly agreeing.
Then, she wiped her face with her hands, recalling the rebuttal she had just thrown at Resin.
Even as she said it, she knew the situation was hopeless.
But since Resin was a mage, she might find a way, so until then…
She’d let her live.
Mirei looked at Resin.
Resin had been watching Mirei the whole time.
Their eyes met.
Grin.
They gave each other warm smiles, but as women, they both knew.
That those were nothing but hypocritical smiles.