Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: It's Not Easy - 3
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As Hyunwoo stepped inside, Veronica glanced back briefly.
"It must be tough, so why don't you all just rest?"
"...I can do it."
"I... I can do it too..."
"Is that so? Then, Archduke Cecil. And you?"
"Well. I'm curious to see what kind of world the Sage beholds."
Everyone seemed determined not to give up, so Veronica smiled bitterly to herself.
*They're all just chasing something futile.*
But even so, she had no intention of stopping them.
If they wanted to, let them try.
After all, the only one who could truly enter his walls was her.
Turning her body, Veronica toyed lightly with her lips.
They were burning hot, embarrassed from where they'd touched his forehead moments ago.
But she didn't hate this warmth.
No, it even made her mind feel clearer.
"Then I'll go first."
Veronica stepped into the ripple where Hyunwoo had just entered.
As she walked into the empty darkness, she felt her surroundings change in an instant.
No.
It wasn't just her surroundings.
She herself had changed as well.
In this darkness, she wasn't Cardinal Veronica.
She was just Veronica, the country girl who had been nothing.
*-Mom... Dad...*
It was a ruined village. Countless grotesque demons had invaded, tearing into the people.
*-Aaaah!!*
Sharp thorns pierced the chest of a kind-faced middle-aged woman and a sturdy middle-aged man. They had thrown themselves in front of the thorns to protect their daughter. As they turned their heads,
Veronica felt her heart pounding wildly.
*-It's your fault... all because of you...*
*-If only you'd used your power a little sooner...*
Weeping blood tears, their bodies riddled with massive holes, the illusions of the two spat out their resentment, bursting with despair.
How could she forget.
Even now, closing her eyes brought back her parents' faces.
Those faces.
As they died in agony.
Bleeding profusely, they resented her.
It's my fault.
They died because of me.
If only I'd awakened my power a little sooner, Mom, Dad, and the villagers wouldn't have died.
Her chest tightened, her stomach churned, her head spun with pain from the accusations of her sometimes strict but loving mother and her always indulgent father.
I hate this.
Me.
*-Isn't that the chosen one?*
*-Hah. So what? She couldn't even protect her own parents.*
*-Maybe she sacrificed them to gain her holy power?*
When her immense holy power became known and she entered the church,
She overheard those who envied her whispering.
What good is great power if you can't use it in time and lose what's precious?
No.
That's not it.
I...
*-That bitch...*
*-Fucking orphan brat thinks she's special just 'cause she has a lot of holy power...*
Those who had entered the church before her but fallen behind poured their jealousy onto her as malice.
The more she trained as a child, the more people hated her.
Priests who felt threatened by her rapid growth and wanted to protect their positions desperately tried to tear her down.
That's not true.
I...
The memories she'd locked away in a sturdy box peeked out and began to attack her.
Mom. Dad. The villagers.
The nuns who envied her.
The priests who hated her.
The followers who resented her for not saving them.
The painful parts of Veronica's life emerged from the darkness.
It hurt.
It was frightening.
She never imagined facing the past would be this hard.
The girl Veronica hugged herself with both arms.
This darkness, where everyone hated her, was so cold.
She desperately craved even a speck of warmth.
*-Veronica.*
And then.
The one speck of warmth she'd longed for approached.
He was a tall man she had to look up to.
A man whose white robe left a strong impression.
Just his voice alone gave her peace. Staring blankly up at him, Veronica reached out her hand.
And the man, as always, smiled leisurely and offered his large hand.
Ah.
So you really are...
Veronica smiled up at the man who gripped her hand firmly.
Now she understood why her most painful past had dragged on so long.
Everything before meeting him had been this agonizing.
That's why she reached into her bosom.
In her hand was the scarf Hyunwoo had made for her himself.
In that instant, the pain vanished, and a ripple appeared.
Was it because with Hyunwoo by her side, she could think such trials were nothing?
Feeling the scarf's warmth, Veronica took the Sage's hand and stepped into the ripple.
She walked toward the end of this trial, and when they arrived, the Sage released her hand.
"...Thank you."
For protecting me.
For staying by my side.
"So I'll do the same."
Just like you protected me.
I'll protect you.
"Wait here."
Inside the ripple were four more ripples. As Hyunwoo had said, places where one could see the challenger's past?
Veronica headed toward the one with Hyunwoo's face.
When she entered, the sight made her doubt her own eyes.
"...Hyunwoo...?"
Veronica thought she knew well the relationship between Hyunwoo and the hero's party.
So she figured his greatest pain must have been the suffering he'd endured with them.
But what appeared before her eyes was different.
A dead land tainted by the demons' miasma.
The cursed wasteland at the eastern edge of the continent.
A single man walked through it.
The man in the familiar white robe looked quite fatigued. Yet he didn't stop.
Why?
He who'd insisted on staying with the hero's party no matter what—why was he here alone?
According to Veronica's investigations, the hero's party had never come here.
Yet Hyunwoo was here alone?
Only then did she realize.
The one time the Sage and hero's party had been apart for an extended period.
Something that happened then, which even her investigations couldn't uncover.
She'd asked Hyunwoo several times, but he'd just smiled and brushed it off.
Perhaps it was here that Hyunwoo had developed his Wall of the Heart.
That's why Veronica felt she had to witness it all.
"Agh..."
But she ended up closing her eyes at the first pain he suffered on this land.
No ordinary plants could survive in the cursed wasteland.
Right, ordinary plants.
So the thorn bushes blocking Hyunwoo's path were anything but ordinary.
Curse Thorn Tree.
A vicious plant that lured the local demons and sucked their blood.
It tricked them into entering its thorns, wounding them, then greedily absorbed the flowing blood.
Scholars said that approaching it induced a mental illness called 'self-harm syndrome,' making victims ignore the pain and keep going.
Recalling records she'd seen in the church, Veronica wanted to stop him.
But this was his past.
Unlike how he'd helped her, she couldn't help him here.
She could only watch helplessly.
Nothing more.
*Stop.*
*Stop.*
*Why are you going that way?*
Hyunwoo, who knew everything, couldn't be unaware of the Curse Thorn Tree.
Yet he casually stepped into the thorns.
*-Ssssk. Stab!*
Was it because fresh prey had come after so long?
The thorns, sharp as blades, greedily sliced into Hyunwoo's flesh.
As red blood dripped, staining his white robe, the thorns eagerly drank it up.
It must hurt.
It must be agonizing.
But Hyunwoo only grimaced slightly—no major change.
Instead, he coldly assessed his condition.
As if.
This was what he'd wanted.
"Got it."
What did that smile mean?
He could easily cure a mere mental illness like this.
Why didn't he?
Veronica soon understood why.
"Ah... Aaa... You..."
The church fought evil and praised the gods, but it also healed the suffering.
Naturally, mental illnesses were included, and since Veronica had treated them before, she knew what self-harm syndrome was.
Self-harm syndrome.
A disorder where one wounds their own body to relieve stress.
The reason Hyunwoo first contracted self-harm syndrome upon arriving here was...
"You... You!! Stop!! Stop it!!"
Veronica cried out desperately. The cursed wasteland inflicted severe mental pain just from walking it.
To cope with the mental agony from traversing this place, Hyunwoo resorted to self-harm.
"Why... Whyyyy..."
Veronica frantically grabbed at Hyunwoo, even knowing this was an illusion of his past.
He slipped through her hands futilely and headed deeper into the wasteland unperturbed.
Along the way, he encountered demons, strange springs, and ruins.
Veronica knew well they were horrific enough to induce mental illnesses.
And that meant the Sage knew too.
So why didn't he avoid them?
The answer came quickly.
On purpose.
Hyunwoo deliberately confronted them, contracting mental illnesses and curing them repeatedly.
"Ah... Aaa... You idiot..."
Veronica stared at him with a dazed expression.
He didn't stop.
The burden of fighting demons alone gave him mental illnesses.
He'd fight while deliberately injured, contracting more.
Even approaching the rotten cursed spring robbed him of his voice.
Yet he never stopped harming himself.
"Stop... Please stop... Just stop..."
If only she hadn't known.
If only she'd just held him.
Why did she want to see his past?
Why did she dig into his wounds?
Wracked with deep regret, despair, and pain, Veronica still couldn't look away.
One grows accustomed to self-harm.
Accustomed to surviving near-death agony.
Adapting to the stress.
Iron grows stronger with each strike, but humans can't.
Yet Hyunwoo drove himself mercilessly, as if it were truth.
And even then.
*-How pathetic...*
*-Hahaha! Idiot~! What are you gonna do like that?*
*-...Sorry... I'm sorry...*
Three beautiful women.
The ones who'd incurred a debt to him they could never repay tormented him even in the illusions born of his mental illnesses.
"Ah... Aa..."
*Stop it.*
*Come to my side instead.*
*I'll protect you.*
*So...*
"Aaa!! Not there!!"
How many mental illnesses had it been?
Veronica shuddered as she watched Hyunwoo, who'd contracted and cured so many it was too frightening to count, arrive at the temple.
She had no choice.
This was the temple of an outer god.
The temple of the evil god seeking to destroy this world.
A bizarre god whose mere sight drove humans mad—why on earth was Hyunwoo entering it?
Slowly, he placed something at the temple entrance.
The Divine Mark and holy relics she'd given him before.
Why leave behind the protective items that had guarded him through the pain?
*Take them! You need them!*
*They'll protect you from the madness, even a little!*
She screamed desperately, but Hyunwoo silently entered the temple.
Did he not know what this place was?
But that didn't seem right.
He navigated the path with eerie familiarity, easily reaching the most dangerous spot.
"Kughhh...!! Agh... Al, Almighty Ruler of Space, Cosmosi... Your..."
Upon seeing the massive statue depicting the outer god that ruled space at the temple's heart, Hyunwoo foamed at the mouth, vomited pain, yet began worshiping the outer god.
He had to stop.
Somehow, he had to be stopped.
He might truly go mad and become a lunatic.
But there was nothing she could do.
Overwhelmed by helpless frustration, Veronica could only sob faintly before steeling herself.
This was Hyunwoo's past.
So, he must have overcome it.
So, just watch.
After screaming in agony for what felt like ages, Hyunwoo finally muttered incomprehensible words and exited the temple—three days and nights after first crying out in madness.
As soon as he emerged, he collapsed to his knees, clutched the Divine Mark to his chest, trembled, and began praying. Veronica finally sighed in relief.
*So that's why.*
Why he'd left the Divine Mark and relics behind.
To dispel the madness from worshiping the outer god by worshiping the true gods.
Veronica shed tears of admiration for Hyunwoo's wisdom.
She couldn't describe how worried she'd been.
How much pain she'd felt.
So please, stop now.
But Hyunwoo didn't.
Even after curing the madness from worshiping that horrific outer god, he pressed on.
And when he finally ended that painful journey,
"Whew. All done."
He had become the current Sage.
Composed no matter what.
That's why Veronica sobbed.
Because she now knew the pain behind that composure.
That's why Veronica raged.
Because she knew she wasn't the only one watching him here.
Author's Note
Hello, it's Malmulmalmul.
Ugh... Got a notice that I have to get my vaccine next week. Hope it doesn't hurt...
It'll be fine, right? Sigh...
Please take care, everyone.
See you tomorrow! Bye~!