Episode 243
"M, Master..."
Lulu, who had been wearing a soulless expression, weakly falls to her knees on the ground.
"Master..."
In her field of vision, the building that had collapsed miserably came into view.
"Ah, aaah..."
Lulu, who had been watching that tragedy she didn't want to believe but could see so clearly, soon clenched the earth and spoke in a dazed voice.
"Waaaaah....."
Her master, who had saved her, who she had loved more than anyone else, was buried underground. Lulu couldn't admit or accept that fact, but reality was cruel.
"Th, the Saintess...!"
"Princess Klana hasn't come out yet...!"
"S, Serena-sama too...!"
Some survivors who had just woken up were muttering as they were being carried away, but it was a story that didn't matter to Lulu.
To her, her master was more important than anything else.
- Gasp... gasp...
She, who had been shedding tears with her head bowed, soon realized that she had been scratching her shoulder with her nails.
"...Ugh."
There, the mark of misfortune that still remained.
- Crack...!
Lulu, who grabbed that hateful mark with her nails, which might be the reason for all this tragedy, applied all her strength to her hand and scratched her shoulder before looking at the ground.
"........"
There, a perfectly fitting sharp piece of glass.
"N, not yet..."
Lulu, who had unconsciously reached her hand there, soon shook her head and stood up.
"I need to... find Master..."
There was a possibility, however slim, that her master was alive. If so, it was an urgent situation.
And though she didn't want to imagine it, if her master was dead. At least for the funeral, and to be buried in his grave, she had to find the body.
That was her duty as a pet.
"Everyone... follow me..."
Lulu, who was walking unsteadily toward the collapsed building while giving orders to the dolls, urgently began using her magic eye to scan the ground.
- Zap, zzzzt...
Because she had been overusing her magic eye since earlier, her eyes were overheating and sparking.
"Ugh...!"
But rather than being in pain from the pain that started because of that, Lulu was angry that the performance of her magic eye was rapidly declining.
- Crack... pop...
But giving up wasn't an option, so Lulu, who was capturing the life signals that caught her eye first and digging the ground with the dolls.
"H, here...? Is it here...?"
Rosewin, who had been blankly watching that scene, stumbled over and joined, her eyes widening.
"M, Master...!"
A person's leg was sticking out. The body shape reflected in her clouded magic eye was as slender as Master's. Moreover, it was definitely a living person.
"I, I'll get you out right now!!"
"Ugh, uuu... F, Frey... I, I was wrong..."
Thanks to that, Lulu who was filled with hope, and Rosewin who was in panic not knowing what to do, dug the surrounding ground with all their might.
"Cough, cough..."
"........"
After discovering the person revealed thanks to that, they froze at the same time.
"Mmm..."
What emerged from the pile of rubble was none other than Ruby.
- Squelch...!
"Khek."
Lulu, who was looking down at her with cold eyes, struck down the enemy of her master who dared to waste her time with a rock, buried her back in the rubble, and stood up.
"Master....."
After that, she left to find another life signal.
"F, Frey... I... was wrong..."
Leaving behind Rosewin who was blankly watching that situation and wetting the ground with bead-like tears.
.
"Ugh, uuu... heuk..."
Rosewin, who had been quietly shedding tears with her head bowed for a while, soon stood up unsteadily.
- Step, step...
Soon, she slowly looked around the ruins where the collapsed building debris was piled up.
"Ugh..."
The surroundings were too quiet. No faint screams could be heard, and there was no sign of the rubble moving.
There was just complete silence.
- Thud...!
Like that, Rosewin, who was looking around and whose legs gave out, slumped to the ground.
[Helper System]
> Hero's Identity
- The hero's identity is, as you know....... [Data Deleted]
For some reason, unlike before, she blankly stares at the hero's identity written as [Deleted].
"........"
Although it's like this now, what she saw earlier was definitely the letters 'Fre'.
The letter that didn't exist in Ruby's name, whom she had firmly believed was the hero until just a while ago, the letter that had been terrifying Rosewin since earlier.
The letter that was floating there originally was 'F'. And until then, she could somehow maintain her sanity.
Because she realized that Ruby wasn't the real hero, and that the person with the letter 'F' in their name was the real protagonist she should serve.
Of course, there were many people in the world with the letter 'F' in their name. So she thought it would be quite a troublesome task.
Moreover, when she was rescued by a certain girl and saw the message that she had arrived at the hero in the basement, and saw Perluce deploying barriers throughout the underground.
She thought she had found the person she should serve again.
But, she witnessed it at the very last moment.
A man emitting unknown power standing behind Perluce, and the letter 'Fre' floating on the system window.
The man behind was covering himself with magic she had never seen before, so she couldn't know his identity, but the letter 'Fre' was enough to terrify her.
Among the people she knew, the only person whose first letters were 'Fre' was Frey.
Of course, there were many people in the world with 'Fre' in their name, so concluding that Frey was the hero just from that would be a foolish thing to do.
And since Frey's behavior so far and the fact that he was the hero were quite contradictory, she wasn't convinced yet.
"Th, that video..."
The moment the video she saw on the system window came to mind, Rosewin had to change her thinking.
Contrary to the rumors spreading here and there, it was Ruby who attempted rape.
Frey was making a weak expression, pinned beneath her, tears welling up as he helplessly endured it.
Ruby pinned Frey's two arms to the ground and forcibly kissed him for several minutes, while Frey struggled and resisted.
The victim was Frey, and the perpetrator was Ruby.
And what was even stranger was that even after Ruby's rape ended in failure, Frey didn't say anything and just endured it.
Even after being hit hard in the stomach to the point where saliva dripped from his mouth by Verer, even after being slapped, even when being strangled.
He just made a hollow expression as if he had some story and suffered violence, and was only mocked by people.
And from those people, she saw herself overlapped.
It was a fact she wouldn't have believed if she hadn't seen that video, a fact she still couldn't believe, but it was definitely the truth.
"I, I have to apologize..."
That's why, she stood up with a pale face.
"I need to at least... at least talk to him..."
The memory of treating him harshly until now came to mind anew.
Deliberately making ridiculous requests of him, and sneering at him as he always granted those requests,
Him constantly clinging to her, which was annoying but somehow pleasant so she just used him to fill her self-esteem,
At the same time, when she received gifts from that pathetic and promiscuous him, she felt like she was losing somehow so she threw them all away.
But, if such a person was the hero?
"This can't be..."
With unimaginable fear, Rosewin bowed her head and grabbed it.
"This can't be true..."
The reason she liked, admired, and respected the hero came to Rosewin's mind.
"The one who will save you is the hero."
"What?"
At the young age of 9, she was given a terminal diagnosis, and because of that, she was living in deep lethargy and depression. One day, an elder of the family gave her those words.
"The one who will extend your life is the hero. Remember that."
"......!!!"
"Even now, the hero is secretly helping you somewhere."
The one who would save her, who was given a terminal diagnosis that she wouldn't live past 20, the one who would save her life was the hero.
And the fact that she, weak and frail, could become the hero's closest aide was a position she had dreamed of, so naturally she became obsessed.
Because of that, she waited only for the hero to appear in the world, and only thought about serving her benefactor who had been secretly protecting her life for her whole life.
But what if the one who had been extending her life until now was actually Frey?
The annoying guy who had been visiting her since before she was given a terminal diagnosis, Frey who filled her self-esteem.
What if he was actually the hero she should serve?
"No way... N, no way..."
She began to desperately regret the days when she saw Frey only as a tool to fill her self-esteem.
The moments when she accepted the flowers he brought with a smile and then secretly threw them out the window, and when she saw Frey making a crying face when he saw that as she left, she giggled.
The moments when she recklessly vented her stress from hard work and the inferiority complex she subconsciously felt toward her weak self.
The fact that she had never treated him sincerely and warmly suddenly started piercing her chest like crazy.
If only she had treated him a little more gently. If only she had praised him occasionally. He wasn't actually that bad. Why did she treat him so harshly just because he didn't suit her taste?
Thinking such thoughts, Rosewin was regretting her twisted personality for almost the first time.
- You should have treated him well when he was there.
But that didn't mean Frey, buried in the ground, would come back, and the moment she realized that, Lulu's voice she had heard sometime started echoing in her mind.
"I, I have to find him..."
Thanks to that, she who fell into panic again, grabbed her trembling legs and stood up, trying to mutter that.
"It, it's not too late yet... First, meet him and explain the circumstances and apologize... huh?"
At that moment, she saw.
- Step, step...
Lulu returning with her head deeply bowed, together with numerous dolls.
"O, over there...!!!"
Forgetting that she had heard sneers from her not long ago, Rosewin urgently ran to her.
"D, did you find Frey?"
And then, she immediately asked that.
"......."
"F, just let me meet him. There's a serious misunderstanding right now... N, no, it's not that serious... Anyway, I think there's something I need to talk about? So..."
Rosewin, who was watching Lulu's cold expression, brought up the story in a calm voice.
"There isn't."
"Huh?"
At Lulu's answer that came soon after, she tilted her head.
"Y, you mean you couldn't find him?"
And after a while, she asked again.
"T, there's no way that cunning guy isn't here, right? This incident is his doing too, isn't it? I, I don't know what the purpose was... A, anyway..."
"No more life signals are detected."
".....Life signals?"
To her, Lulu answered in a cold voice.
"Among the things emitting life signals, Master was not there."
At those words, Rosewin froze stiff.
"Probably, according to imperial law, he'll be processed as missing. Master told me to do that... no, a certain noble said so."
"T, that means..."
"...When the missing status will change is just a matter of time."
Having finished speaking, Lulu shattered her thoughts of meeting Frey to confirm everything and quietly passed by her side.
"......."
After Lulu disappeared somewhere, Rosewin, who had been standing blankly for a while.
- Swish, swish...
As the repair progress of the system window increased, she felt the fear of slowly approaching the inescapable truth that would become certain when she would soon face everything.
And at the same time, vaguely realizing that it was already too late to correct everything.
She looked at the rubble scattered all around with an empty expression and then carefully scooped up the ground with her hand.
- Whoosh...!
But at that moment, the fierce winter wind blew and snatched the dust pieces in Rosewin's hand, and looking down at her now empty hand, she soon dropped her head weakly.
- Rattle, rattle...!
Right behind her, a carriage quickly exited the ruins.
.
Meanwhile at that time, the Western Continent.
"Ahhhhhh..."
In a pitch-black space, Cania, who had collapsed in the middle of a complex magic circle.
"Ugh, uuu..."
Twisting her whole body in unimaginable pain, she soon shed blood from her eyes and muttered.
"Y, young master... now... don't worry..."
The magic circle surrounding her was glowing black.
"I'll work harder... and next time... I'll be able to take all the pain... for you......"
Cania, who had succeeded in twisting the curse the demon god had placed on her after long research, transferring the massive pain Frey felt to herself.
"For the original sin I committed against you and your mother, the sin that tormented your soul more than anyone else, and for all the grace I received from you..."
Like that, she who was barely muttering her resolution to not lose consciousness, shedding cold sweat.
"...I'm happy that I can repay at least a part of it like this."
She whispered like that and eventually lost consciousness.
"I love you... young master."
Even after losing consciousness, she was still in pain,
But a softer smile than any other time was on her lips.