The Girl's Past (Complete)
Emilla did not stop. She kept reading through Yeon Bennet's records without pause.
Even afterward, she could only watch in breathless silence as the girl's solitary, desperate life unfolded beyond the pages.
As time passed, Emilla's expression grew steadily more rigid, and her hands began to tremble faintly.
The records showed the events after Yeon entered the Academy.
The incident that had brought Contamination into the Academy.
The very incident in which Emilla herself, along with everyone else at the Academy, had firmly believed Yeon Bennet to be the culprit.
Because her past conduct, her reputation, and all the circumstantial evidence of the time had pointed straight at her...
Amazingly, the real culprit was someone else entirely.
A frail, timid student who had nearly committed a terrible act without even knowing it, caught in the curse of Contamination worshippers.
Without anyone knowing, Yeon had saved that student, lifted the curse, and erased every trace of what she had done.
At the same time, she willingly took every one of that student's sins upon herself.
Acting as if she herself were the culprit.
The image of the girl quietly accepting all the blame, the finger-pointing, and even the risk of punishment that should have fallen on the other student.
The next pages held records even harder to believe.
Just before vacation began, mana monitoring stations across Tera detected dangerous, ominous flows of mana near the front lines.
It was an unsettling sign, yet no one could predict exactly what it meant or what threat it would lead to.
Even the Grand Elder had merely ordered heightened vigilance.
But Yeon Bennet was different.
As if she had seen the future itself, she foresaw the true nature of that energy and the terrible crisis it would bring to the front lines before anyone else.
And she did not hesitate.
Without even informing her master, Dorothy, she headed alone toward that dangerous front line, in secret from the entire world.
The records captured Yeon's desperate figure fighting alone against countless surging monsters.
Using her own body as bait to lure them, unafraid of injury, she employed the authority of the Evil God to halt their advance.
Even Emilla, watching the records, found it hard to believe where such strength and courage could come from in that small body.
As a result, thanks to Yeon's invisible sacrifice, the front lines overcame a major crisis.
It was a heroic act that saved the lives of countless soldiers and civilians.
But no one knew of her sacrifice.
An unrecorded battle. An unknown hero.
Instead, what awaited her upon her return to the Academy was only cold, suspicious gazes.
All that remained for her was the misunderstanding and reprimand that she had "wandered near the front lines for no reason and engaged in dangerous behavior."
Emilla turned the next page with trembling hands.
This record was of a more recent event—right after vacation ended, when the girl was returning to the Academy.
According to the records, the girl had been released after completing her formal imprisonment at Bastille Prison.
And she was on her way back to the Academy with Bella Staren, who had been temporarily assigned as an instructor there.
It should have been an ordinary, quiet journey.
But along the way they encountered an unexpected threat.
A large swarm of monsters that had appeared from somewhere was heading toward a peaceful nearby village.
Residents who had not yet managed to evacuate still remained in the village.
In that situation, the girl in the records did not hesitate.
Together with Bella Staren, she willingly became bait to lure those countless monsters away for the sake of the innocent villagers.
A life-or-death struggle ensued.
The records vividly captured the horrific scenes of her being torn, ripped, and trampled by the monsters.
But she did not stop.
Instead she turned that pain into power and fought even more desperately.
And at last, through that process, she experienced death several times, barely surviving by the magic power the Grand Elder had left her, and repelled the monsters.
As a result the village was safe, yet deep wounds were once again carved into her soul, and she had completely exhausted the remaining uses of the resurrection magic.
And so she continued to fight, to sacrifice, and to protect the world without a name.
In places no one acknowledged, quietly, in her own way.
To that girl... what the world gave back was...
The records unflinchingly documented everything Yeon had to endure after returning to the Academy.
Being unfairly picked on by an Academy professor and caned across the calves in front of everyone.
Even as blood seeped out and her skin split open, the girl simply endured it in silence.
Surrounded by her peers, receiving every kind of hateful and contemptuous look.
"Trash." "Filthy whore." "Walking Contamination."
Words too vile to utter were poured upon her.
Even the sight of her being deliberately shoved, kicked, and doused with water by other students in the hallway—assaulted.
And...
The last thing recorded was herself: Emilla Gale.
Yeon Bennet, whom she had encountered in front of the Headmistress's office.
Blinded by anxiety over the Grand Elder's absence and her deep-rooted hatred for the girl, how cruelly she had slapped that cheek.
Not stopping there—her own ugly self spewing insults so severe they could barely be spoken toward the girl.
Even, at the end, unable to contain her rage, attacking her with mana-infused force.
Emilla could no longer continue reading the records.
Something hot rose to her throat, and her vision blurred.
She realized how cruelly her own actions had been layered atop the pain and sacrifice Yeon had endured.
She now understood, bone-deep, how foolish and cruel she had been—and how lonely and grueling a fight the child named Yeon Bennet had been waging.
Regret and guilt washed over her like a wave, consuming her.
The "villainess" she had despised was, in truth, a hero enduring a sacrifice more noble than anyone else's.
And yet she... had inflicted unhealable wounds on that child.
"Ugh..."
Emilla suddenly could not hold back the rising nausea and covered her mouth.
Her stomach twisted; her head felt as if it would split.
What... what have I done?
She had learned the entire truth.
Yeon Bennet. She was no villainess.
She was a hero who, amid the world's misunderstandings and scorn, had fought alone against a terrible fate and quietly protected the world.
A child who gained power from pain through her bizarre ability, used that power to avert crises without anyone knowing, and even took on others' sins, sacrificing herself.
What had she done to such a child?
Caught in her narrow perspective and deep-rooted prejudice, she had never tried to see the girl's truth.
She had merely looked at the brand of "villainess" and despised and hated her.
Regret surged like a wave.
Why hadn't she realized sooner? Why hadn't she read the pain and sorrow hidden in her eyes?
Why had she refused the Grand Elder's orders and clung only to her own foolish judgment?
What she had done to the Grand Elder's disciple—no, before that, to a suffering girl—was an unforgivable sin.
Considering the weight of the loneliness and pain she had endured, the wounds Emilla had inflicted were far too cruel and cowardly.
Emilla dropped thick tears onto the closed records.
She who had lived nearly a hundred years and remained unmoved by most things could not control her emotions now.
Her body trembled finely in deep self-reproach.
What should she do now?
Should she go find Yeon Bennet and beg for forgiveness?
But did she even have the right to dare such a thing?
Thinking of the sins she had committed, she could not even muster the courage to stand before her again.
As Emilla suffered in self-reproach for a long while, a memory suddenly flashed through her mind like lightning.
The events that had just occurred in the principal's office. And the being that had appeared there.
...The Raphaellasia family!
Her mind snapped clear.
While she had been floundering in Yeon Bennet's past, the real-world threat had drawn right up to their doorstep.
And Duke Raizel of the Raphaellasia family had come all the way to the Academy himself, targeting her.
"This can't be...!"
Emilla cried out without realizing it.
Her heart felt as if it were freezing cold.
A child who had quietly fought and sacrificed for the world even amid misunderstanding and scorn.
She who had endured all that pain for everyone—ending up as a mere experimental subject for some ducal house, pitifully consumed?
A story like this...
How could such an absurd ending be allowed!
Emilla clenched her fists tightly.
Regret and guilt now began to burn as anger and resolve.
The way to atone for the sins she had committed was not enough simply by helping her.
She had to protect her from everything that threatened her—especially from the greedy clutches of the Raphaellasia family.
"I have to stop it... even now!"
Emilla staggered to her feet.
There was no time.
Duke Raizel might already have taken Yeon away.
She had to stop it.
Even if the opponent was an eighth-level duke.
"Even if I stake everything I have...!"
Emilla hesitated no longer.
She burst out through the Headmistress's office door.
To protect the Grand Elder's disciple—and that small hero who had been supporting Tera without even knowing it herself.
In Emilla's eyes shone a will and determination stronger than anything before.
"No, I said I'm not sending her!!!"
The principal shouted irritably.
He rubbed his brow as if exhausted and glared at Emilla.
"...What?"
Emilla asked back with a blank expression at the principal's unexpected words.
Not sending her?
Hadn't he, until just a moment ago, treated Yeon Bennet like a bothersome burden and tried to hand her over to the families?
The principal let out a deep sigh and grumbled.
"Just what is that useless girl that everyone's making such a fuss... Earlier it was the Saintess candidate, before that Professor Bella, and now even you...? Why is everyone so set on protecting that girl..."
"What? What do you mean..."
The Saintess candidate? Professor Bella? They had stood up for Yeon as well?
The principal gave Emilla no further chance to speak and nodded to the vice-principal standing beside him.
The vice-principal, as if he had been waiting for it, grabbed Emilla's arm and forcibly pushed her out of the principal's office.
"Wait a moment!"
Bang!
Emilla's cry was buried under the heavy sound of the door closing.
She could do nothing but stare with a hollow expression at the firmly shut door of the principal's office.