Chapter 28
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Revenge
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Bang.
Opening the door revealed a park on the rooftop of the department store.
Since most people were shopping downstairs, only a few were strolling around.
Blanche led me to a deserted corner.
Blanche, who had been silent until then, finally spoke.
You seem much more frail since I last saw you, Tristan. To think you'd wander around without even a single guard.
Or did you not expect me to come find you like this?
Blanche withdrew her hand from my coat.
Revealing the true nature of the blade she held.
Behold this. This is what you and the Ruelverta family made me into.
It was a beast's hand.
Her hand had become a furry beast's paw.
Moreover, sharp claws at the tips gleamed with a dangerous light.
I can never forgive you and your family for turning me into this
Blanche's nails extended in response to her rage.
Those claws were clearly aimed at me.
I sighed inwardly.
Honestly, I still wasn't confident I could beat her.
She was the true monster created by the Ruelverta family in the past.
To borrow Tristan's father Millium's words, Blanche was the one and only "success."
If the annihilation maids served as the family's shield by handling security, Blanche was the sword that assassinated any power threatening the family.
She was a weapon made solely for murder.
In the past, Blanche had diligently eliminated anyone obstructing the Ruelverta family on Millium's orders.
She was the Ruelverta family's loyal hound.
Orders were absolute to her.
She had never spared a single enemy to this day.
When Tristan succeeded Millium as family head, Blanche was already infamous as a killer.
She had killed too many people.
The Empire issued a wanted order and began pursuing her.
Once the Ruelverta family itself came under suspicion as the backer, the family's position grew increasingly precarious.
In the end, Tristan decided to cut off the tail.
It didn't take long to decide.
By then, there were scarcely any forces left that could threaten the Ruelverta family.
Her usefulness had already run dry.
Blanche was ultimately eliminated by Tristan's hand.
But as is typical in these stories, the original work's setting had her surviving.
This is about where it was. The spot your bullet pierced.
Blanche pulled down her clothes, exposing her shoulder.
Snow-white skin.
A faint scar remained there.
But I'm alive like this.
She was my karma.
Standing on the department store rooftop, Blanche spat out her fury.
I've been alive like this, waiting only for the day I could take revenge on you. All this time!
I know.
If you had gotten engaged to Lady Bella, you might have lived.
Since she was your benefactor.
That's right. I couldn't turn my benefactor into a destroyer of lives. But if it weren't for that, I wanted to tear you apart and kill you!
Blanche said in a voice thick with rage.
But I never expected you to break off the engagement yourself. Now I can kill you without issue! No, now for the lady's sake too, I will kill you. Tristan!
Her claws wrapped around my neck.
I felt the cold sensation against my throat.
Even so, my "Pride" didn't flinch, even in the face of mortal threat.
I kept my head held high, staring at her.
Blanche's hand tightened.
If you have any excuses, make them now, Tristan.
I don't.
Pardon?
It's all true.
Blanche's face twisted at my words.
You admit it? What you did to me?
Yes. I admit everything. I have no intention of denying what I and my family did now. It all happened, and your killing intent and hatred toward me are completely justified.
I continued slowly.
I don't seek your forgiveness. That would be the ugliest thing. But if you're going to kill me, I'll resist.
You'll resist me?
Yes.
Blanche sneered at my words.
Ha You, who can't even use magic due to the family's curse, say you'll resist a former assassin like me?
Yes. Your sins are my sins. Those who live by the sword die by the swordit's obvious. I expected your blade would turn on me someday.
The strength in Blanche's hand eased slightly.
At the same time, her mouth opened.
Then there's something I want to ask you.
I looked at her.
The sun was slowly setting behind her.
Back then, why did you aim for my shoulder instead of my head?
I noticed her eyes trembling.
Was it some cheap mercy? Or just a simple mistake?
You knew how to 'definitely' kill me. Yet you didn't. Why?
I could infer the faint hope in her gaze.
No, through her words, I understood a bit more.
About the character Tristan.
If it were the old me, back when I only knew the original Tristan I wouldn't have known.
I wouldn't have tried to understand.
That the guy had a human side.
That there were story elements even a lore nerd like me didn't know.
'He wasn't a villain from the start.'
Tristan's past, glimpsed in the world of trials.
There, I understood his rage.
I understood his despair.
Condition satisfied.
Locked memories of Tristan flow in!
I opened my mouth.
As the young Tristan who had just become family head.
I wanted you to live.
Pardon?
The Ruelverta family is laden with sins. I didn't want you bearing them in our stead.
Tristan had decided to eliminate Blanche himself.
The loyal hound who only followed orders.
At the very least, at the end he'd send her off with his own hand, he'd thought.
Even if it was a selfish choice.
At the time, it was the best he could do.
Thank you.
The words Tristan couldn't say in the end flowed from my mouth.
For staying alive.
Blanche fell silent.
She just stared at me.
But in her eyes, her aimless rage trembled.
That little girl died by your hand that day. Or, to borrow your words, she was just a tool, wasn't she.
Her gaze was icy.
And now now you say things like that, and you think I'll forgive you?
I recited exactly what Millium had said in the final moment of the trial.
You don't need to forgive me.
Understood. Even if you didn't say it, I wouldn't. I'll never forgive you
I sensed something off.
At some point, the temperature around us had clearly dropped.
Thick breaths of mist escaped.
As if abandoned in the depths of a bitter cold.
Changes came over Blanche's body too.
She was becoming something inhuman.
Signs of mutation manifested all over her body.
At some point, a beastkin with animal ears and a tail stood before me.
The noble blue tiger, known as a magical beast of extreme cold.
That fierce beast bared its fangs at me.
Don't expect mercy from me
A harsher chill than before assailed me.
As if the weather itself harbored killing intent toward me.
I drew my protective revolver from my pocket.
Millium's gunthe one with which Tristan had first killed his own blood kin.
This too was his karma.
I aimed it at her.
Frost formed white at the gun barrel's end.
Even so, Blanche showed no fear.
..
!.
....
Planning to shoot me again? This time, don't miss. Otherwise, you'll be the one who dies, Tristan.
A chill that seemed to freeze even my breath.
Her words were no bluff.
But my "Pride" remained calm even in that moment, speaking steadily.
Come at me. Kitty.