Chapter 106
Chapter 106
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: The Valkyrie's Confession
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I felt nauseous.
I figured out the reason for this disgustingly sickening feeling when Viola's questioning began.
"Why did you do it, you son of a bitch?"
"Why are you trying to kill us?"
In the end, Viola and I had the same question burning inside us.
We wanted to know why she had betrayed us.
But what came back wasn't an answer to our question—it was just her one-sided ramblings.
"Why won't scum like you ever answer a direct question?"
Kim Il-su had done the same. And now Belveim too.
They ignored the questions and spewed pointless nonsense.
As if insisting their actions were justified.
Suhyuk found it so repulsive he couldn't hold back any longer.
"If you're gonna betray us like a dog, the least you could do is answer that much, right?"
Viola was met with enthusiastic cheers from her supportive viewers. A few donation messages popped up too, but now wasn't the time to care about that.
Belveim looked shocked.
Not because of Suhyuk's words, but due to the lingering tingle in her hand.
"You..."
An expression of disbelief.
"How...?"
Suhyuk could guess what she was asking.
Viola had been pretty surprised by the power Suhyuk wielded at first too.
But he had no obligation to answer.
Pzzt-.
Instead of words, Suhyuk wrapped lightning around his sword tip.
Actions spoke louder than words anyway.
"Not telling."
Flash-!
Boom-!
Another surge of yellow lightning crashed into Belveim. Coming straight at her this time, she swung her sword to block it.
Clang-!
The clash of blades shook the mansion. His boosted stamina and the output from the Heart of Lightning unleashed tremendous power.
Belveim staggered back after blocking the lightning.
Her vision blurred momentarily from the blinding flash. As she turned her head to locate her opponent...
'Where the hell...'
That's when she sensed Suhyuk's position.
Pop-.
Very faintly.
A presence from above her head.
'Above?'
Her narrowed eyes looked up. There, high on the slanted ceiling of the tilting mansion.
How had he gotten up there so fast?
The wielder of thunder's power had appeared. Her mind hadn't even processed it yet.
Zzzzz-!
A spear began forming in Suhyuk's hand, hanging upside down from the ceiling.
An ominous aura flowed from the spear as it slowly took shape from the tip.
'Block it? Or dodge?'
Two options.
Meet it head-on or evade the thrown spear.
Her decision was swift.
Grip-.
Belveim tightened her hold on her sword and prepared her skill.
Betrayer or not, she was still a Valkyrie. She may have abandoned her pride, but not her self-respect.
But then.
"Guess I've completely forgotten about you, huh?"
Stab-.
A sharp, burning sensation from her back to her stomach.
Belveim saw the sword piercing through her body.
"Belveim."
Viola's voice, cold with rage.
No matter the wounds, a tiger was still a tiger. Forgetting about her presence was Belveim's biggest mistake.
"Ah..."
At Viola's appearance, Belveim realized the truth.
She could never have won this fight from the start.
Boom-!
Slap-.
Viola's hand struck Belveim's cheek.
Belveim's eyes fluttered open hazily. She'd lost consciousness. A hole gaped in her stomach, her body was electrocuted and charred black, yet she still clung to life.
'A Valkyrie is a Valkyrie, huh.'
Suhyuk had figured she wouldn't die easily, but regaining consciousness this quickly was unexpected.
Then again.
Valkyries weren't Asgard's core forces for nothing. Dying from this would be disappointing.
"Now talk. Why did you do this?"
Viola was desperate for answers, but...
"Why... did you show up now of all times..."
Belveim spoke nonsense again.
Her gaze shifted not to Viola, but to Suhyuk standing beside her.
"If only you'd come a hundred years earlier..."
"A hundred years? What happened a hundred years ago?"
Belveim let out a hollow laugh at Viola's question.
Blood still bubbled from the sword wound. Her lightning-scorched body was critically charred.
Without immediate treatment, she'd die. Even with it, survival wasn't guaranteed.
Maybe that's why.
"I learned... the truth."
Belveim, who seemed like she wouldn't talk easily, opened up as if relieved.
"We've been abandoned."
"Abandoned?"
"Why do you think the God of Thunder, who sent us here, hasn't contacted us all this time?"
Viola was speechless.
It was a question she'd harbored for centuries too.
Five hundred years had passed.
Even for gods with lifespans of a thousand or ten thousand years, five centuries was an eternity.
Viola and Belveim had devoted most of their Valkyrie lives to this mission.
Yet.
"He never intended to retrieve us. He just wanted us buried here with it."
"How do you know that?"
"How?"
For a moment, Belveim's dying eyes blazed with fury.
"Because I went and asked him myself a hundred years ago."
The scenery shifted. This was the second time in this trial alone.
Nothing new about it.
The exact same landscape from the first cutscene. The only difference: Viola and Elaine, the two Valkyries, were absent.
Belveim knelt on the ground.
Before her stood the man from before, now with a beard.
"How long must we wait?"
Belveim's voice sounded even more exhausted than her dying one now.
Four hundred long years.
She had lived for one mission alone during that time.
Waiting for the moment this man would descend from Asgard and claim the throne.
But.
"I'm not going."
The moment she'd longed for was a mirage that would never come.
"I'm sorry."
"What... do you mean?"
"Exactly what you heard. Your mission is to hide and guard the throne—not wait for me."
Belveim shot up from her knees.
"You're saying you won't take the throne?"
"Yes."
"Your Majesty—"
She started to say something but clamped her mouth shut.
Realizing it would be overstepping.
But she couldn't back down.
Not after four hundred years.
"...You must inherit the thunder."
Her final plea.
"I already possess half of it."
"Only half?"
"I'll forge what's missing through training. So I won't shame my father."
A utterly stubborn response.
Belveim's words weren't out of worry for him or the throne's safety.
It was about recompense for her own effort and time.
"We..."
Grit-.
Blood trickled from her bitten lip.
"Have we been abandoned by Asgard?"
Rage, emptiness, betrayal swirled within Belveim.
The noble warrior was crumbling before him, yet his reaction remained unchanged.
And soon.
To her question of abandonment, the man replied.
"I'm sorry, my Valkyrie."
The cutscene ended.
As she finished her tale, Belveim's face, pale from blood loss, was turning blue.
"He didn't even remember my name."
Centuries of loyalty for one request from him. Yet he couldn't recall her name.
That was Belveim's answer to their question.
A warrior whose name was forgotten was as good as abandoned.
"So... you betrayed Asgard? And tried to kill us all?"
"I didn't think that far. We're all abandoned the same."
"Then?"
"I thought this."
Belveim's voice grew weaker.
"If I lose the throne... maybe I can just live as a human..."
"You should have just said so!"
"I did say it."
Belveim's gaze turned to Elaine's corpse.
"To her."
"You did?"
"Yeah. She called it the shame of a warrior."
With a self-mocking tone, Belveim looked up at Suhyuk.
"Yeah... rather..."
Her eyes slowly dimmed.
Even surviving this long to speak was a miracle.
"Have you... end it..."
"If that's really what you want, answer just this."
The reason for betrayal mattered, but Suhyuk needed this answer more.
"How did you send so many demons from Muspelheim?"
If Belveim was the one who'd investigated Muspelheim's demons, she held that truth.
Her words might be key to reclaiming the Thunder Throne later.
But.
"So many...!"
Thud-.
As her words continued, a long spear pierced her chest.
Bigo's sudden outburst.
Suhyuk and Viola's eyes snapped to him.
"Bigo-!"
Thump-!
Unlike the startled Viola, Suhyuk quickly kicked Bigo in the chest.
He checked Belveim just in case, but with her heart pierced on top of everything, she was gone.
Sure enough.
The trial clear message rang out, confirming Belveim's death.
Suhyuk turned to glare at Bigo.
Bigo staggered from the kick, flying limply. Suhyuk checked his eyes first.
'Pupils dilated.'
Empty like a dead dog's.
Bigo was clearly not normal.
Eyes like that appeared when self-consciousness was overridden by another's control.
'Something's in this mansion.'
Someone who wanted Belveim dead, silencing her at all costs.
'Muspelheim.'
The demons were intervening in the trial for real now.
And sure enough.
The system prompted Suhyuk.
Flee now?
Or press on and complete Asgard's mission.