The One Who Faces
When I opened my eyes again, I was in the infirmary.
“Ugh...”
I checked the IV needle stuck in my wrist, then looked around.
I wasn’t the only one lying there. The place was full of people. Judging by how many had been carried in with trauma injuries, they were clearly victims of the recent demonic beast invasion.
No one from the Wittelsbach family... they’re not here.
They must have thought I was dead. Falling five hundred meters alongside a demon—hard to believe anyone would walk away from that.
A nurse noticed I was awake and hurried over to check my condition. Fortunately, nothing seemed seriously wrong.
“Um...”
“Yes?”
I caught her just as she was about to leave.
“How... how did I end up here?”
I remembered facing Usa. After that, though, I’d blacked out. I had no idea how I’d been dragged all the way to this place.
“Ah... just a moment...”
She flipped through the papers in her hands, then told me what she knew.
“So... you know about the demon that appeared recently, right? You got caught up in the collapse it caused. Usa-nim barely managed to pull you out while you were dying...”
“Ah...”
“It’s basically a miracle. You fell nearly five hundred meters, and somehow... best to think of it as heaven itself granting you its protection.”
After she left, I stared at my right hand—the one that had been covered in blood. Amazingly, it was completely healed, not a single scar left. The rest of my body was the same.
Anyone else would never believe this was the same person who’d been on the brink of death only a day ago. But I knew the reason.
“Darwin.”
At my whisper, Darwin—who had been camouflaged as part of my body—subtly shifted color.
Just as I thought.
It had been parasitizing me, using the erosion ability it gained from devouring the demon’s flesh.
“How’s my body? On a scale of one to ten, how bad are the wounds?”
It hesitated for a moment, then used its body to write out letters.
-10...?
“...That bad? I feel fine, though.”
-...
Darwin gave no further answer. It clearly wasn’t intelligent enough for a proper conversation. Parrot-level smarts, maybe.
“Haa...”
Using Darwin the way I used Laplace was out of the question. Using Laplace the way I used Darwin wasn’t exactly standard either, but still.
Laplace specialized in knowledge; Darwin specialized in raw power. That made sense—Darwin had been created from the start to cover Laplace’s weaknesses.
“I need an electronic device...”
My phone was destroyed. To get Laplace’s help I needed something electronic, but I had no idea where to find one. Borrowing someone else’s phone wasn’t an option either.
“...Well, I’ve got to try something first.”
I pulled out the IV and stood up.
The demonic beast raid had left so many wounded that the entire hospital was overflowing. The indoor facilities alone couldn’t handle the numbers, so temporary medical tents and containers had been set up outside as well. Thanks to that, even walking around in bloodstained clothes barely drew any stares.
Where am I supposed to go?
Most of the assets I’d gathered were managed by Laplace. Until I got a device capable of running it, I couldn’t go anywhere even if I wanted to. I didn’t have my ID on me either.
Then, from far off, I felt a familiar presence.
“Patient! You mustn’t get up like that! You need to rest...!”
“Unhand me! I must return to Seoul at once...!”
“The situation is nearly over! Returning to the battlefield can wait until your condition stabilizes further...!”
A hero?
Curious about the commotion, I turned toward the noise—and there she was. A woman with black hair streaming behind her and crimson eyes.
“Yekaterina...?”
“Huh...?”
Just as I saw her, she saw me.
A brief silence. Then Yekaterina started walking straight toward me.
“You...! You’re still alive...!”
She reached me and took my hand.
“How... how did you survive...? That demon pierced your heart...!”
“Well... this probably isn’t the place to talk about it. Let’s find somewhere private.”
I shot the nurses a look. Realizing she wasn’t going to run off, they cleared out.
Once we were alone, Yekaterina’s first question was what had happened.
“How did you live...? You even refused what I offered you, yet you’re completely fine...”
“Well... I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘completely fine’...”
I began explaining to Yekaterina how I had managed to survive.
At that same moment, Yulia sat in the private hotel room the government had provided, face buried in her hands.
She had refused the meals the maids brought. With dead eyes fixed on empty air, she looked no different from a broken shell of a person.
“Seo-hyun... why...”
The image of her smiling brightly as she fell into the abyss kept flickering before Yulia’s eyes. Every time she reached out, Seo-hyun slipped further away, never quite within grasp.
“Hic...! Hic...!”
Everything was ash-gray. The music she once loved, the dolls, the games, the play—none of it registered anymore.
“Seo-hyun... please...! Come back...!”
She cried out desperately, but nothing changed. Realizing that only drove her deeper into despair.
“...”
The maids watched her with pitying eyes.
Unlike those who had faced the demon head-on, no one from the Wittelsbach family had died—except Seo-hyun. She had sacrificed her own body to save them all.
“Uuuuh, Unnie... Seo-hyun Unnie...”
“Don’t cry... if you cry, Seo-hyun will be even sadder... hic...!”
The maids themselves were drowning in grief over her death. Yet they still had to keep living—burying today’s sorrow as something that belonged to the past.
“Lady Yulia.”
“...”
“Please eat. You’ve already gone two days without food.”
The head maid knocked on the door, carrying a bowl of soft porridge that would be easy to swallow.
Yulia gave no answer.
Isabella waited a moment, sighed once, then kicked the door open.
Bang—!
“My lady.”
The lights inside were off. The blankets were soaked with countless tear stains from crying herself to sleep over and over. The room was a complete disaster; finding a single intact corner was nearly impossible.
Isabella glanced once at the wreckage, then walked over to Yulia, who sat in the corner staring blankly into space.
“My lady.”
“...”
“How long do you intend to stay like this?”
“...”
Yulia’s gaze never left the empty air.
In the next instant, Isabella slapped her across the cheek.
Smack—!
“Kyaah...!”
“Oh my! C-can she really do that?!”
The other maids were horrified. Even after decades of service in the mansion, none of them had ever imagined the head maid would strike the young lady she served.
“Ah...”
Still not fully processing what had happened, Yulia touched her reddened cheek with a dazed expression. Every brush of her fingers sent a sharp sting racing through her nerves.
“Have you come to your senses?”
“...”
“It’s not that I don’t understand your grief. I spent ten years with that child as well, and even now my heart feels as if it’s being torn apart. Do you know why I’m not locked away in a room like you, wallowing in pathetic despair?”
“...”
“Because there is work to be done. We have far too much work. If all we do is regret what has already passed, the day slips by in an instant. A lost day never returns—it only births another identical one.”
“Th-that’s... I mean...”
“A hero cannot save everyone. If that’s the kind of story you want, stay in this room and read the novels five-year-olds enjoy.”
“I-I...”
“Countless heroes grieve the deaths of others. But they never stop moving. If we drown in sorrow over those already gone, we become capable of nothing at all.”
“I... I don’t deserve to live...”
“The hero you so admired is not one who regrets—but one who faces.”
“...!”
Yulia’s eyes flew wide open.
Standing before her, Isabella looked down with cold, unyielding eyes and spoke.
“Did you wish to become a hero, my lady? Or did you simply want people to acknowledge you?”