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It was challenging to learn how to attack an opponent using Eredia’s ability but once I realized it, it wasn’t too difficult to deal with Hella.
Whack, whack–!
I made a bunch of small spheres with my aura and chucked them violently at Hella who had become a bug.
Chin, stomach, chin–!
“Guhh, kuakk!”
As I threw jabs at her, recalling the boxing match I had once seen in my past life, Hella, who had become sluggish as her body grew, couldn’t seem to come to her senses.
Whack!
‘Seems like she’s reaching her limit of borrowing Charlotte’s body.’
Hella could no longer maintain the body of a bug and returned to Charlotte’s form with her power reduced.
I approached her, who had fallen, in huge strides.
“Kyaa! Kyaak!”
Hella, who had been repeatedly beaten by the clumps of aura I had made, screamed in pain and fled.
‘Too slow.’
Being a saint, she would have been stuck in a temple and only prayed without ever holding a sword in her lifetime, so it was natural for her body to be slow.
I narrowed the distance between us while continuously throwing lumps of aura at her but even though I’ve used my ability nonstop, it wasn’t too strenuous.
“What kind of i-idiotic thing are you doing!”
When I finally reached Hella, I grabbed her head lying down in exhaustion and she looked at me defiantly.
‘It’s a familiar reaction.’
The coy, girlish eyes didn’t look like Hella who had threatened to trample Dietrich and I earlier.
“Hella?”
‘Did she already hide?’
“P-Please let go
of my head, Anissa.”
Gone was the dignified voice of Hella, replaced by the delicate voice of Charlotte.
I opened my eyes wide and shook my hand that was holding her head to and fro.
“Ack! It-It hurts!”
“Are you back to being Charlotte?”
“That’s right. So please, my head–”
Just because she returned to Charlotte didn’t mean the situation had changed.
“Even if you’ve come back as Charlotte, it doesn’t mean you’re not my enemy.”
Hella, Vassago, and Charlotte were like one team.
“H-How could you say that
.”
Charlotte’s face contorted in shame at my words.
“What are you trying to say? It’s true that Charl is my enemy. What else do you want me to call you?”
The tears in her eyes, trembling with shock, were as pure as lilies, but though I liked beauty very much, I could no longer let her off the hook just because she was the ‘female protagonist’.
‘Well, Charlotte must have been taken advantage of.’
I was now certain that she had something like a good child complex.
A complex so large that she was obsessed with her own goodness which in turn defined all other people who were against her to be evil.
‘Is it because she’s Hella’s saint?’
Hella wore a God’s mask and made Charlotte her servant, so there was no way she wouldn’t have been taken advantage of.
“I didn’t even dream that Hella was a demon. You know that, too.”
She frowned as if her head which I still had in my grasp was aching, but I never removed my ability which bound her.
“And so?”
“.....I did this for Dietrich. I wanted to help him.”
Even now that Hella’s true identity was revealed, her aura was still milky-white to the point that it felt contrived.
I sighed heavily and asked her, who was weeping weakly.
“Why do you want to save him?”
“What do you mean
.it’s natural.”
“What is natural?”
“He’s my destiny, I will save him–”
“But Charlotte.”
I bent my knees, cutting off her words which I was so weary of. The color of her blue eyes, which had been staring at me, slowly returned to brown.
“You. Don’t even like Dietrich that much.”
".........!"
Surprised, Charlotte shook her head from side to side.
“No, that’s not true. About him, I–!”
“You thought he was so full of himself.”
"............."
“Didn’t you think of him as rude, arrogant and thought he ignored women because he was looking down on them?”
Maybe I hit the nail on the head with my words since Charlotte became startled and shut her mouth.
I wanted to be the one to save Dietrich because I loved him. But her reason was completely unknown.
‘Why would she want to save someone she doesn’t even like?’
As if reading my mind, Charlotte began to slowly speak.
“.....I told you that it’s my mission, Anissa.”
“What’s so special about having a mission?”
“It’s everything to me. Because I am Vallandia’s saintess.”
Charlotte’s body slowly began to lose strength as she continued.
‘I need to find Hella at this chance.’
I listened to her while supporting her drooping body.
“I couldn’t fulfill my mission, and it was discovered that the God that I’ve devoted all my life to serve turned out to be a demon, then what is the meaning of my life?”
I shrugged at Charlotte’s vain question.
“Does your life have to be meaningful?”
Was it not enough to live just because you were born?
Whether it's Hermann or Dietrich, why did they have to follow an already established path?
‘It’s time for her to secretly come out.’
I began to focus on Hella’s aura which began to reveal itself as soon as Charlotte began to lose her physical strength.
‘You were here!’
Although her ability was different from other demons, she was still part of the race that lived under the shadows and was hiding under Charlotte’s shadow.
“Charlotte, hold your breath for a second.”
Thanks to Charlotte, who stiffened up and didn’t move, I was able to snatch Hella who was moving with trembling wings, trying to avoid my hand.
When I grabbed and lifted the body of Hella, which was as thin as a moth’s wing, she screamed and struggled.
“Let go! Let go! Let go!”
“......Is that Hella?”
With a pale face, Charlotte stared at Hella who had turned into a disgusting and ugly bug.
“Yes. Though I didn’t know a demon’s body could be this small.”
“What are you going to do with her?”
“I can’t completely annihilate her anyway so I was thinking of sealing her.”
Asmodeus and Baal couldn’t be completely annihilated, so Hella would be the same. They were an existence that didn’t belong to this world in the first place.
‘Aren’t they similar to me in a way?’
Charlotte carefully asked me who was contemplating.
“.....Can’t you return her to me?”
“What did you say?”
Charlotte held out her hand even as she trembled at my cold response.
“Please. This time, I really won’t come near you anymore.”
“If you plan that then why do you need Hella?”
“If I didn’t have her then I’m really nothing, Anissa.”
I let out a small sigh at Charlotte’s tearful words. Only her body seemed to have grown and she left her mind back to her childhood days.
“I’m telling you, it’ll be alright.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m telling you that it’s fine for you to live as just Charlotte, not a saint or not a nothing, but as Charlotte.”
I calmly finished speaking and clenched my fist to crush Hella in my hand. Well, I tried.
“N-No!”
If only Charlotte hadn’t stopped me with all her might despite her exhausted body.
‘You still can’t get back to your senses until the end, huh.’
I looked down at her clinging to me and clicked my tongue.
“Let go.”
“Please, please – Anissa, help me just once.”
“Charlotte!”
When I called her out to soothe her, she shook her head violently like she wouldn’t listen to me.
“I was wrong. I’m sorry. But please don’t take Hella from me
.”
“Hella doesn’t love you. She’s only using you. Why don’t you understand that?”
My irritation towards her slowly rose because she was being annoying, but I couldn’t fully become angry at her since she was like a child who had lost her way.
“I know! But without her, how can I return to Vallandia?”
I became speechless at her words.
‘She’s worrying about returning to the temple right now?’
“I’ve been living my life revered as the saint chosen by Hella. How am I supposed to live my life from now on?!”
She raised her voice uncharacteristically like she was blaming me. I sighed and opened my mouth.
“I’m telling you, there’s no need for you to worry about that. Because–”
“Because there’s no such thing as a future in your life.”
Those cold, conclusive words weren’t what I meant.
The owner of the voice who interrupted my words, grabbed Charlotte’s neck, who was clinging to me, and dragged her off of me.
The power was so rough that Charlotte fluttered and fell backwards like a paper doll.
“There’s no such thing as a future in your life, so there’s no need for you to worry about such a useless thing, Charlotte Vallandia.”
The person who growled and muttered such fierce words was none other than Veronica.
“S-Sister?”
“You’re the reason why my sister suffered through a lot and was treated like a beggar and yet you dare to talk about your future in front of her?”
Kyaak, Kyaaah.
The familiar shriek of Charlotte echoed.
“Where did this crazy bitch sell her real conscience?!”
Veronica beat Charlotte with a loud voice and even kicked her when she fell.
It was only when I saw her rolling on the ground while coughing that I clapped my hands, finding Veronica cool and liking it.
“I should just whack you! You have no future so don’t even worry about living.”
“.....Ugh, uhhh.”
“Even if I go to hell, I plan to bring black clouds and lay them down in your path. Understand?!!”
“Hek, ughhhhh.”