Going to Get Beaten Up
Going to Get Beaten Up
Late dawn.
I took the car the emperor had secretly sent and moved to the Imperial Palace.
At an hour when everyone should normally have been asleep, the emperor and empress surprisingly came out to greet me the moment I stepped out of the car.
"Thank you for answering the call at this late hour, Saint."
"It is only natural when Your Majesty summons. What is the matter?"
"It is a shameful thing to say....... Even after hearing that you had healed countless paupers and nobles, I could not fully bring myself to trust you. I became certain only after meeting you face-to-face at the banquet. Please forgive my distrust."
After saying that, the emperor maintained a long silence before finally opening his mouth with difficulty.
"Have you heard about my daughter?"
Princess Almene.
I had heard.
I had heard the name, but I knew nothing else.
That was because she was a mysterious princess who never appeared at official functions and whose face had never once appeared in any newspaper.
"Is Her Highness ill?"
".......Let us go inside first."
I followed the imperial couple deeper into the Imperial Palace.
A princess, huh.
What was the reason for taking me to a princess who had not shown her face even once until now?
The moment I stepped into a room while thinking that.
I stopped dead as if struck by lightning.
That woman lying quietly in a corner of the room.
Wasn't she the woman I had seen bleeding and collapsed in my dream?
Unlike with Erpa, I never imagined I would get a clue this quickly!
The cheat key!
The hell-skip cheat key was calling to me!!
"My daughter. Almene. First. Would you take a look at my daughter?"
"Can you heal her?"
At the earnest voices of the imperial couple, I nodded for now.
"I will give it a try."
I cautiously approached the princess and placed my hand on her forehead.
The princess, whose face I had never seen before, had a peculiar appearance.
Something similar to a Magic Circle was engraved over her left eye, and perhaps because of it, she could not open only her left eye and kept it closed.
Furthermore, she looked terribly gaunt for some reason.
She had the face of someone who seemed to have caught a severe flu.
I observed her face for a moment, then activated my skill.
[A healthy body with no abnormalities!]
[Immediate Body Modification is possible!]
[Flat, large, huge, ultra-large: which would you like to modify them into?]
Ah! What kind of bullshit description was that! Get lost!
Anyway, there was nothing wrong with her body?
Physically, she was perfectly normal.
I checked again several times, wondering if there was something I had missed, but nothing changed.
Strange.
She wasn't physically ill......
Why was she groaning and ailing like a weak invalid?
"Her Highness has no physical ailments. Since there is no illness, I cannot treat her either."
I said that honestly.
It was true.
If there was a source of pain or disease in the skill, it would be displayed in pitch black.
But she truly had none of that.
Since she wasn't sick, healing was impossible.
It was the first time I had seen a case like this.
Was it a psychological problem?
"As expected....... It means healing is impossible."
The emperor lowered his head with a somber expression.
The empress also wore a look of despair.
The princess smiled faintly at the sight.
"It's alright. Father. I can endure it."
Even at her forced smile, the emperor and empress's expressions didn't change.
On the contrary, their faces grew even more despairing and miserable.
"Rest now. Almene."
The emperor said that and gestured as if asking me to follow him outside for a moment.
I obediently withdrew from the room.
The moment the door closed after we left the room, the empress could not hold back and began shedding tears.
"My wife."
"Almene is dying! If even the Saint cannot heal her, what are we to do......."
It was a cry of sheer wretchedness.
The emperor could say nothing and simply held his wife tightly.
I stood silently behind them, watching the entire scene.
After a long while, when the empress had calmed down, the emperor finally turned his gaze to me.
"I believe I must give you an explanation, but it seems the story will be somewhat long. Will you hear it?"
"I will listen. No matter how long it takes."
Even to die struck by a curse, I had to grasp the exact circumstances.
The emperor and empress moved with me to another location.
After arriving at a vast reception room, the imperial couple seemed to take a moment to collect themselves.
And then, after a long pause.
"Nineteen years ago. My wife and I gave birth to twin daughters who were Soul-linked Twins."
The emperor began to speak in a mournful tone.
***
There is a concept called Soul-linked Twins.
It refers to the rare cases among twins who are born with their souls connected.
The emperor's twin daughters.
Almene and Iomene were such cases born as Soul-linked Twins.
All sensations.
Thoughts.
Memories.
Sharing even emotions, Soul-linked Twins were cases classified in the empire as a single personality albeit with two bodies.
Since Soul-linked Twins were rare to be born and were occasionally considered a great auspicious event when they were, there was a tremendous festive atmosphere in the Imperial Palace when the two were born.
But before they could even celebrate properly.
Joy was buried under even greater sorrow and despair.
"Wings...... Wings from Iomene's back!......."
Pitch-black wings, as if cut from a fragment of the darkest night, began to sprout from her back.
The shocked couple immediately summoned priests and mages to determine the identity of the wings growing on Iomene's back, and as a result, they were delivered a shocking answer.
"She was born with a Fragment of the Evil God."
"A Fragment of the Evil God! How on earth did this happen!"
"It seems someone cast a curse on Her Majesty over a very long period."
Mass chaos erupted.
The birth of the twin princesses was thus quietly buried.
Instead, a bloody search and interrogation ensued within the Imperial Palace, again and again.
Who on earth?
Who had cast the curse?
They thoroughly investigated the maids and butlers who attended the empress, her relatives, and even cases who had met her just once, but the priests, mages, and intelligence bureau could not uncover who had cast the curse.
In the end, time passed fruitlessly, and finally, three years after the twin princesses were born.
A severe curse began to pour out from the wings growing on Iomene's back.
It began with the maid caring for Iomene collapsing under the curse.
They barely managed to lift the curses on the maid's soul through all sorts of Divine Magic and miracles, but she ultimately did not live long due to the aftereffects and died.
"It is no ordinary curse. After destroying the soul, the curse occupies the empty space where the soul vanished. Once that happens, it is the end. The victim will wander as a being that can neither live nor die."
"That is not the end. This curse is contagious. It could spread to nearby individuals in an instant."
"An army of undead could appear in the heart of the capital. Your Majesty!"
"Princess Iomene must be...... disposed of."
Disposed of.
Naturally, there was no explanation of exactly how she was to be disposed of, but the emperor understood without needing to hear it.
Iomene had to be killed.
To avoid the creation of an undead legion in the capital.
But.......
"If one of the Soul-linked Twins is killed. What becomes of the other?"
At those words, no one could answer the emperor.
Two bodies.
But one soul.
If one died, the other followed.
Telling him to kill Iomene was essentially no different from telling him to kill the perfectly healthy Almene as well.
The emperor agonized.
He agonized and agonized again.
And as a result.
The emperor made the choice not to kill his daughter.
"Tell me the method to remove the Fragment of the Evil God."
No one could answer, except for one.
Only the White Order, who had faced countless demonic beasts and the demons and monsters slumbering in the darkness, knew the answer.
"Long ago. There remains a record of a hero chosen by Dulanear removing a Fragment of the Evil God."
"Speak. How is it removed?"
"Confine the child possessing the Fragment of the Evil God in solitary confinement. Isolate her completely so she cannot meet anyone. And periodically fire powerful Divine Magic at her body to weaken the connection between her soul and the Fragment of the Evil God. Once they are completely separated, extract and remove the Fragment of the Evil God."
"How long does it take?"
"It is a process that takes at least ten years. If she endures this entire process, there is a high probability she can recover. However..... each time Divine Magic is fired at her body, the Fragment of the Evil God will resist, causing great physical pain."
The emperor's face crumpled.
"Then does that not mean Iomene must suffer each time Divine Magic is cast?"
"That is correct."
"......Then is it not practically no different from torture?"
The High Priest bowed his head at those words.
"We will take various measures to reduce the pain as much as possible....... but we cannot completely eliminate the pain. Your Majesty."
The emperor's hand trembled.
"Is there no other method besides that?"
"If a Saint or Saintess were to appear and perform a miracle, it might be possible. However, for 300 years, no Saint or Saintess has been permitted to the empire. The method I have described is the only method. Your Majesty."
"Gods of the Pantheon. Why on earth........"
The emperor informed the empress of this fact.
"We cannot do it!! It is practically torture!"
"......It is the only method."
"Soul-linked Twins are cases who share a single soul!! If Iomene suffers that much pain, then Almene! Won't Almene suffer alongside her as well!"
"They say the connection between the Soul-linked Twins can be severed using magic."
"We cannot do it!! We cannot!! They are the children I carried for ten months and bore in pain! They are my flesh and blood! How could I subject such a child to......."
"At this rate, the entire empire may be destroyed by the curse flowing out from the Fragment of the Evil God. Furthermore, if we let the Fragment of the Evil God parasitizing Iomene's soul grow, do you think Almene, who shares the same soul, will be safe?"
At those words, the empress began to wail.
".......To a 3-year-old baby....... How could we inflict such abuse......."
The emperor clenched his fist.
"We must do it. Somehow."
"You are the worst father!!"
The empress shouted, overcome with emotion, but the emperor answered while looking at the empress with sad eyes.
"Between the empire and the twins, I chose the twins. By principle, I should have killed Iomene. My wife. Please do not say such things again."
The empress could not answer any further.
The couple held each other and cried and cried for a long time.
They grieved at the fact that they now had to continuously subject their 3-year-old flesh and blood to agony.
But to save both of them, this was the only way.
On their third birthday.
Powerful magic was placed upon the body of the twin princess who had sprouted wings on her back.
The sisters Iomene and Almene, who underwent the procedure to sever the soul connection, were separated from each other.
Iomene, alone and lonely in a Detached Palace filled with all sorts of miracles and magic to block the curse's leakage.
Once a week, she had to writhe in excruciating pain that felt as if her body were being torn apart.
Almene grew up straight and proper in the light, as the emperor's daughter.
Just like that.
For 16 years.
The sisters lived apart.
***
The long story ended.
The empress was weeping, and the emperor wore a face that seemed only fitting for a person whose soul had been ruined.
"For 16 years. We viciously abused Iomene. No trash parents anywhere would have done what we did. We also forcibly prevented her from attempting suicide multiple times."
"What has become of the Fragment of the Evil God?"
"Its connection to Iomene's soul has weakened greatly. However, in return, Iomene's ego and mind have been irreversibly broken. To the point that it affects Almene, breaking through the magic that blocked the connection between their souls."
So that was why Princess Almene couldn't be healed.
Since she was suffering from a spiritual problem, not a physical one, that was only natural.
The emperor clasped my hands.
"Saint. I implore you not as the ruler of the empire, but as the father of these children. Save Iomene with your miracle. Iomene's mind is being destroyed even before the Fragment of the Evil God can be separated and detached from her soul. I believe that you, of all people, could remove the Fragment of the Evil God while simultaneously healing her ego. I beseech you......."
The emperor shed tears.
I had heard tales that the emperor of the empire was a stern, strong, iron-blooded ruler who wielded absolute military authority.
In fact, the emperor I had seen in the newspapers always wore a rigid face while issuing threats.
But the middle-aged man before my eyes merely looked incredibly depressed and anguished.
He had no majesty whatsoever.
In this situation.
It was truly a sorry thing to say, but inwardly I was cheering.
A curse!!
A curse so powerful that it could even destroy the world!!
The cheat key!
To have it delivered right to me like this without even needing to look for it!
If I extracted the Fragment of the Evil God from Her Highness's body and had it destroy my soul?
Her Highness would be saved, and I would go to Korea!
A good deal for everyone!
Wasn't this killing two birds with one stone!
"Leave it to me."
Wait for me, curse!
I'm on my way to get hit right now!!