If You Wanted to Kill Me, You Should've Pierced My Heart
Seoya didn't die.
'I'm... breathing right now.'
The cold air brushing her skin, the hard frozen ground pressing against her knees, the warm blood trickling down her body, the sharp ache from her arms twisted and bound behind her back. Seoya was still alive.
'Why did you abandon me?'
Of course, there was no answer. And she probably never would know why. Seoya had been exiled from her world forever, with no way to return.
She recalled the last faces etched in her mind—the people who had banished her.
She felt multiple hands roughly yanking her body. How much time had passed? Six months? A year? Ten years? Blindfolded and deafened, unable to see or hear anything, Seoya had been trapped in that void for what felt like an eternity.
'Are they going to kill me?'
Her arms were twisted behind her and bound so tightly she couldn't loosen the restraints. Her hands were wrapped in unbreakable cloth, rendering even her fingers immobile. Her eyes were covered with a blindfold, her ears plugged. Her legs were shackled in a kneeling position, preventing any shift in posture. Realizing she couldn't stand, her captors decided to drag her across the floor.
'Gunpowder smell. Thirteen presences.'
Could she break free and escape? 'Impossible. No chance of survival.'
With her fingers useless from the restraints, escape was out of the question. Sure, Seoya could rip steel apart with raw strength, but any sudden move here would mean a bullet straight to her heart. No matter her superhuman regeneration, a shot to the heart would kill her. No doubt about it.
So, Seoya gave up.
'Dying like this... it's fine.'
Her life had been short, but far from meaningless. She'd been loved by good people, received so much from them. That was enough.
A rusty creak echoed as an iron door swung open, and her dragging captors finally stopped. Inside the room, besides the thirteen who'd brought her, three more presences registered.
'One's definitely the headquarters chief. The other two... the ones who'll kill me.'
A familiar scent wafted over. '...Fire?'
Seoya could pick out anyone she'd met from a crowd of hundreds by smell alone. And she knew someone who specialized in fire magic.
'Why is Taesa oppa here?'
Someone approached her confused form and removed her earplugs. After so long in silence, the sudden rush of sound left her ears ringing. Seoya shook her head to clear the disorientation.
"Seoya."
Ah.
A voice cold and unyielding as steel. Seoya dazedly lifted her head toward the sound.
'Ibin unni.'
The woman who'd raised her for nine years at headquarters. Her family, her mentor, her everything.
Taesa and Ibin. They'd always been on Seoya's side throughout her short life. So why were they standing with the headquarters chief?
"Mmph! Mmph!"
She wanted to scream their names, but the gag muffled her cries.
"Listen carefully, Seoya."
Ibin's voice, always icy and emotionless, sounded even colder today.
"Over the 30 days you were imprisoned, we debated what to do with you and reached the best decision."
Just a month? It felt so much longer... just a month?'
"Sometimes those with excessive mana die triggering a mana explosion. You're the strongest in this world with overwhelming power. If we killed you and it caused an explosion, the entire world might vanish."
'Please... if you're going to cage me like this, just...'
Seoya's breathing grew ragged. She wanted to flee this place.
"But keeping soldiers on constant watch is a waste of manpower. Slip up even once, and you might break free. Leaving you like this is inefficient and far too dangerous."
'How can you say that to me?'
As her stunned mind cleared, thanks to Taesa and Ibin's presence, realization hit.
'They betrayed me.'
Taesa and Ibin had betrayed her completely.
"So, we've decided to exile you to another world."
She'd trusted them, and they'd betrayed her.
"As you know, we have a device that can open coordinates to other worlds at random. We'll send you to a randomly set one."
It was a death sentence. What were the odds of landing somewhere with gravity? Even on a planet, what were the chances it could sustain human life? And if humans lived there, matching their appearance, intelligence, and civilization? A total execution.
Typing sounds, mechanical hums, unfamiliar noises filled the air.
Ibin spoke. "Coordinates set randomly. Ready to send."
The silent headquarters chief finally spoke. "Hmm... what if she lands in a world where humans can survive?"
"The probability is near zero, and there's no way back from another world. It's fine."
"Eh, still doesn't sit right..."
A metallic shing rang close by.
'A sword.'
"Taesa."
"Yes?"
"Stab her."
"Her?!"
She couldn't see, but she felt it—the chief handing Taesa a sword.
"What? Can't do it?"
"...N-no, of course not, haha. Just worried about a mana explosion..."
"Stab deep in the gut, avoiding head and heart. Even if she lands in a human world, she'll bleed out. We need to ensure she's dead."
"...As expected of the chief! Such foresight! Absolutely right!"
Seoya remembered every sensation vividly. Taesa's footsteps approaching. The vibration as his sword rose high. The piercing agony as it plunged into her gut.
After that, semiconsciousness. Gagged, she couldn't scream. As pain clouded her mind, she felt herself plummeting somewhere.
"Pioneer Seoya, for leading rebellion against the world and shirking your duties, you are hereby exiled to another world."
The cruel death sentence rang out, and writhing in agony, Seoya realized: an alien world. And she was still alive.
In short, Seoya had been the strongest in that world. But those wary of her power framed her, her trusted allies betrayed her, exiling her to die alone in an unknown realm.
That's what she thought, at least.
'Ah.'
But Seoya didn't die.
Out of countless worlds and planets, she'd landed on one where humans could survive.
'Air. Snow on the ground. Water must exist too.'
No presences nearby, but that didn't matter. The bone-chilling cold making her shiver. Maybe a planet blanketed in ice and snow—but that was fine too. Free the restraints, and she could wield her mana freely. Soldiers with guns had prevented it before, but her strength could snap iron chains.
The key fact: Seoya wouldn't die.
Even blindfolded, gagged, bound head to toe, barely movable. Even with a massive sword in her gut, blood loss fogging her mind.
'Too much. Way too much.'
It stung for Seoya, who loved people deeply, believed everyone harbored love, and fretted over helping humanity. But facts were facts.
She'd been betrayed.
'Not just anyone—Ibin unni, how could you?'
She'd believed Ibin would always be on her side, come hell or high water. Yet Ibin betrayed her, upending her world.
Seoya recalled Ibin's cold voice pronouncing her death. And Taesa—hot-tempered but always cheerful—hesitating as he drove the sword into her.
"Seoya, never harm another person."
"People must always be honest. Never break a promise."
She mulled over Ibin's constant words to her—words Ibin herself had broken.
Why? For what reason?
Seoya wasn't one for such complexities. But one thing was certain: she hadn't died, and she wouldn't.
Crack—
Flexing her arms snapped the wrist restraints instantly. She tore off the other bindings, gag, and all, grinding her teeth.
Only the massive sword in her gut remained.
The chief had assumed blood loss would finish her, overlooking something crucial.
'You think I'd die from this?'
No matter the wound, Seoya's life hinged on her heart. As long as it beat, she lived.
'Idiots. Can't do anything without me.'
They'd relied on the world's strongest—her—too much. Even killing one person proved beyond them.
Seoya yanked out the sword. Agony buckled her like a marionette with cut strings, collapsing her to the snow.
Through fading consciousness, she thought:
'You fools. If you wanted to kill me completely, you should've pierced my heart.'