The End of My Revenge
The blade sank deep, exactly as intended. The first thing I felt was, absurdly enough, relief.
Ah. I’ve finally finished my revenge.
“Haa…”
A heavy sigh slipped from my lips.
They say revenge is hollow.
Whoever said that and I must belong to entirely different species.
My heart grew light in an instant, as if I’d finally completed a long-delayed assignment, or as if a sinner had paid their due.
“Ugh…”
What broke through my quiet thoughts was the groan of a single wretched man writhing on the floor, dying.
I had driven the dagger precisely beneath the ribs, slicing through both heart and artery at once. His remaining time was now measured in minutes.
Even if he spent those precious final moments repenting for every sin he’d committed, it was doubtful whether the gates of heaven would open for him.
It seemed the man had decided to waste even his last breath.
The wrinkled face of someone who had once ruled like a king twisted toward me.
“He… Helena. Why would you…!”
Benedict Wickers.
Head of the Wickers Count family, the colossal underworld organization that dominated the northern part of the Eastern Continent’s Crollin Kingdom. The boss who had manipulated the entire kingdom at his whim.
Yet the middle-aged man now drowning in his own blood possessed none of that former glory.
He was nothing more than a lump of meat about to tumble straight into hell, lying at the feet of the Wickers assassin and intelligence division leader—me.
“Benedict Wickers.”
I spoke his name as I slowly dropped to one knee.
Then I pulled out the necklace I had kept hidden beneath my clothes and slowly rubbed the blue gem.
Saaaa—
A low sound like wind blowing passed by, and I felt the artifact’s magic altering my appearance.
The dark red hair turned pitch black.
The plain brown eyes became the color of vivid rubies.
The pale features that had once reminded people of Benedict Wickers’ dead daughter shifted into something reminiscent of my mother in her youth.
Horror began to spread across Benedict’s face as he stared helplessly up at me.
“Y-you… you’re… Morton…?”
Even after all these years, he recognized me instantly. It must have been because of the jet-black hair and blood-red eyes I had inherited from my father—the unmistakable traits of the Morton family.
“Took you long enough to figure it out, huh?”
“You… you were definitely… dead. H-how…?”
“No. I survived that day. I crawled my way up here and completed my revenge. All thanks to you, Benedict Wickers.”
Thank you.
I whispered the words into the man’s ear.
“I abandoned my surname, but I deliberately kept my real first name—Helena. And yet you never once suspected a thing.”
Benedict Wickers was a pathetically dull man, especially considering the power he had once clutched so tightly. An complacent incompetent who never dreamed that the blade of my revenge had been creeping closer and closer to his own throat.
“Kk… krrk…”
Whether because the bleeding had finally reached its limit, a red foam of blood bubbled at the corners of Benedict’s mouth.
“This is revenge for the Morton family you used and slaughtered thirteen years ago.”
My father had trusted the man before me—Benedict Wickers.
And because of that foolish decision, not only my father but my mother and even my little brother Lucas were brutally murdered.
Right before my eyes, while I hid in the secret workshop my father had concealed beneath the floor.
“Run! You have to live!”
“Mom! Father!”
“Hurry. Take this and run. Go, Helena!”
Thirteen long years had passed since that day when I was ten.
The screams that had tormented me every single night were finally fading, drowned out by the sound of Benedict Wickers dying.
“Kk… hack…”
I wish he’d just die already.
I spoke to the pathetic man who still clung desperately to life, gasping for breath.
“Hurry up and disappear into hell.”
“…Kkgh.”
With those words, the light of life finally vanished from Benedict Wickers’ eyes.
I stared silently at what was now nothing more than a corpse for a moment before rising to my feet.
“Now it’s my turn to die.”
Of course, I didn’t mean it literally.
But if I wanted to escape the Wickers safely, I had to fake my own death.
I had no intention of spending the rest of my life being hunted as the traitor who killed the boss.
The Wickers were infamous for being vicious in that regard.
I pulled a round object from my pocket.
It was another type of artifact, similar to my necklace. A mana bomb that would explode after a set time once a tiny amount of mana was infused.
“It’s a prototype. It better not be a dud.”
It was an invention from some nameless workshop that hadn’t been officially released yet. I had gone through great trouble to obtain it through the black market.
I nudged Benedict Wickers’ body with the tip of my foot, then turned away.
“If I just plant this properly on my way out…”
But I had to stop before I could even take two steps.
A large man with red hair and cold, mechanical grey eyes—the same coloring I had worn while living as Helena of the Wickers—stood in the doorway of the office.
“…Edward.”
Edward Wickers. Benedict Wickers’ son and heir.
The man I had used to carry out my revenge.
“Why are you here right now…”
He wasn’t supposed to be here.
He was supposed to be away from the estate for several days, inspecting external businesses.
I had made sure of it.
So why?
“Helena.”
Edward’s cold, inorganic grey eyes scanned over my body.
“That blood…”
I clenched my teeth hard.
No one knew better than I how the sight of a close friend drenched in her own father’s blood would look.
“Come here.”
I had expected him to rush at me to kill me immediately, but instead Edward held out his hand.
Just as always, utterly convinced that I would come to him the moment he called.
But those days were over now.
I didn’t move.
Instead, I transferred the mana bomb to my left hand behind my back.
“If you won’t come, then I will.”
Step. Step.
As if he could wait no longer, he began walking quickly toward me.
I drew the sword at my waist.
Edward, never once taking those obsessive eyes off me, drew his own blade without hesitation.
Whoosh!
Edward’s heavy sword came flying.
I didn’t dodge.
Clang!
A harsh metallic ring erupted as the two blades collided, scattering sparks.
“Helena.”
Grrrk—!
Amid the spine-chilling screech of blades scraping against each other, Edward commanded,
“Drop your sword.”
“Would you drop yours if you were me?”
I snorted and shoved Edward back with all my strength.
Even in this state, the fact that he still yielded to me out of habit made a hollow laugh escape.
Those icy grey eyes immediately locked onto the corner of my mouth.
Just as I expected.
I took that opening to roll the mana-infused bomb backward.
For the briefest instant, Edward’s gaze followed it.
A gap.
Swish—!
I thrust the sword he had given me at him with blinding speed.
“You think you have time to look away?”
“Helena, you…!”
Edward ground his teeth and swung his sword to block.
Taking advantage of his disrupted stance, I quickly glanced outside the office.
Fortunately, no other organization members were visible yet.
That was when Edward’s hand reached out to grab my shoulder.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I quickly twisted my body backward and tried to stab a vital point again, but failed.
His sword was already pressing down heavily on mine.
“Behave and listen to me.”
Edward growled low.
In the end, this was my only option.
I instead lunged into his embrace and flicked my wrist lightly.
The dagger hidden in my sleeve slid familiarly into my palm.
Thud!
The sharp blade sank into Edward’s side.
It wasn’t a fatal wound, but the bleeding and pain would be significant.
For an ordinary person, it was the kind of spot where being stabbed would cause them to lose consciousness or have their reason paralyzed by agony.
But the moment I tried to release the dagger’s hilt to pull my body back—
Clack.
Edward’s hand seized my wrist.
“Don’t go.”
The monstrous grip made my entire arm go numb.
“If you leave like this, the Wickers will hunt you down. You know exactly what that means.”
“I do.”
My voice came out as rough as his breathing.
“But I can’t die here, can I?”
Die as the traitor who murdered the boss, or be chased for the rest of my life.
There was nothing to debate.
I twisted the dagger once more and drove it deeper into his abdomen.
“Ugh!”
The moment Edward’s body staggered, I shoved him hard and sprinted toward the door.
At that instant, a burning sensation spread across my shoulder blade.
“You vicious bastard.”
Even then, Edward had swung his sword at me.
But I couldn’t stop running.
I continued racing toward the office entrance and glanced back.
Through the black hair flying in the air—cut along with my shoulder—Edward knelt on one knee, his grey eyes gleaming darkly as he glared at me.
“Go ahead and run.”
He said,
“I’ll find you, Helena. You’ll come back to the Wickers eventually. And when that happens…”
Kwaaang—!
The mana bomb detonated.
Using the shockwave, I rolled my body and successfully escaped the office.
“What the hell? What happened?!”
“It’s coming from the office!”
Shouts from Wickers members scattered throughout the mansion came rushing toward me.
The estate’s security would naturally grow lax now.
I slipped into the darkness, heading for the escape route I had prepared for so long.