Born as the Hidden Daughter of a Villainess and the Male Lead

<Episode 57>

 

The hero who saved the world faced death.

“…….”

The hero who saved the world erased his blood relatives, who had committed an indelible crime, from this world, dragged them to hell, and left without leaving a trace.

I was silent for a while, feeling filled with despair as I looked at the empty space where she had disappeared into ashes.

I felt like I finally understood.

Why my grandfather avoided talking about Meinhardt so much.

Why you got so angry when I mentioned the name Kandel?

I wonder what the grandfather must have been feeling as he covered his face with exhaustion, showing such intense hatred.

“……”

After Judith disappeared into ashes, Meinhardt looked up at the place where she had disappeared with an expression that seemed as if he might as well burst into tears.

That sight was so pathetic.

Judith closed her eyes after completely destroying the summoning ritual that had already reached its completion stage.

So, having finally regained my freedom, I staggered to my feet.

“……..”

After a while I hesitantly walked towards the boy.

Woosh!

“!”

Someone strongly grabbed my arm and stopped me.

I gasped in surprise and looked back.

“Didn’t I clearly tell you not to get involved?”

A familiar voice spoke softly in a tone of anger and anxiety.

“Ah….”

I let out an exclamation and raised my head.

The real Meinhardt was looking down at me, holding my wrist.

“……Meinhardt?”

I looked up at him, unable to close my mouth.

He looked down at me with his lips tightly shut and eyes filled with inexplicable emotions.

Suddenly, I remembered the child who had been left alone, and I looked ahead again.

However, the little boy who had been standing there just moments ago had disappeared without a trace.

The sun had set outside the world, which may have been an illusion or a scene from the past.

The scarlet light of the sunset came through the circular window on the ceiling, coloring this empty, lonely ruin left behind by everyone else, in golden light.

“…Meinhardt.”

I don’t know if the scene I just saw was a reality that existed in the past, or if it was an illusion presented by the unknown invitation to deceive me.

But….

I quietly chanted his name.

Meinhardt did not answer, but put more pressure on the hand holding my arm.

Rustling–

At that moment, I felt a presence that could not have been felt in the space where only he and I were alive.

What?

I inadvertently turned my head and saw a sight that I should not have seen.

“……What?”

Due to Judith’s power, the Kandel family’s blood relatives were reduced to ashes.

Of course, I saw it clearly with my own eyes.

“Hey, Meinhardt!”

The ashes that had fallen all over the place were coming back to life, regaining their original appearance and staggering towards us.

They looked the same as when they were alive, but the most important thing was…

The moment I made eye contact with the empty, dead eyes that had lost their vitality, I felt a surge of nausea

“Hmph!”

At that moment, a pair of strong arms lifted my body and held me tightly.

This was what Meinhardt did as he stared in silence at the sight I pointed to.

Suddenly lifted up, I opened my eyes and looked up at his still expressionless face.

Krack–

“This….”

Golden lightning slowly bloomed at Meinhardt’s feet and spread out in a wide circle.

Tak, tak, tak!

The corpses that were coming toward us were burned by the lightning and returned to the black ashes they had been before.

Had he set up a barrier around us to prevent them from getting near?

I felt a strange excitement as I watched the corpses, which had lost their lives before but still mimicked their movements, being reduced to ashes by dense golden lightning.

Meinhardt was also able to maintain a permanent summon status.

The sight of him freely controlling his powers without uttering a single word of the spirit’s name aroused my admiration.

“……Useless.”

“!”

As I stared at him with my heart pounding, the straight mouth that had been inadvertently closed twitched and he muttered softly.

I was startled by those words and looked at his expression.

Of course, those words weren’t directed at me.

“Oh my god….”

But at hese were the corpses that had been burned by the lightning that Meinhardt had surrounded us with and could no longer approach.

The parts that had been reduced to ashes were gathered back together and they continued to walk tenaciously. As time passed, the speed of their recovery was gradually becoming faster than the speed of them being burned by lightning.

“How…”

I was immersed in fear, unconsciously holding on to the hem of Meinhardt’s clothes.

Shake-!

At that moment, the ground the dead bodies were standing on began to shatter and collapse.

“?!”

What was this again!

Crash, bang!

The nauseating corpses disappeared as the ground collapsed and they fell into the endless dark abyss revealed.

Wasn’t that fortunate?

The problem was that the ground under Meinhardt, who was standing holding me, was also collapsing under his feet!

It was clear that if it continued like this, we would meet the same end as the corpses, so I felt like I couldn’t face the fall with my eyes wide open.

I closed my eyes tightly and waited in fear for what was to come.

“……?”

However, rather than the air clawing at my body fiercely, a soft breeze passed by, enveloping me.

Why does it feel like I am floating lightly in the air?

“This….”

….I am flying?

As I looked at the light breeze blowing through my hair and Meinhardt floating in the air, in the same place as before, I realized why we were staying in the air and not falling.

“Don’t worry, you won’t fall.”

He spoke in a soft voice as if to comfort me.

Among Meinhardt’s attributes was the wind.

Realising the new information, I looked back at the endless bottomless pit.

By the way, why did the floor suddenly collapse?

Boom, bang-

“Oh, what is this again…”

Then a huge vibration began to be heard.

…..How many times was this?

I looked up at the precariously shaking ceiling with a tired heart.

There was something I definitely realized through this incident.¹That you are rash, maybe and too weak to face the consequences(⁠^⁠^⁠)

From now on, never be curious about objects with unknown senders that keep coming back even if you burn them.²Why are you so specific😭

Even if I am accompanied by the Spirit King, I should remember this point.

Aren’t we in a terrible predicament with no end in sight because of it?

“……What?”

However…This vibration was something different.

It felt like someone’s gait.

“Miss Edith.”

When I was thinking about that, Meinhardt suddenly called me.

I reflexively lowered my raised head and looked straight ahead.

“Uh……?”

And then, facing this person who may have appeared at any moment, I muttered his name in a daze.

“……Oried?”

I couldn’t believe it.

With the way we broke up, how…

Oried was standing in the air like Meinhardt, staring at me quietly.

Uh, how did he get here?

But if Oried really came to visit me…

I looked up at him with a bright smile.

I think there is finally hope.

However.

[…..]

The moment I discovered the ferocious eyes staring at me without making a single movement, I had no choice but to retract my previous thoughts.

“Meinhardt. Why did Oried…”

With goosebumps growing on the back of my neck, I grabbed Meinhardt’s collar and asked in a trembling voice.

“Why are his eyes like that……?”

Obviously, that appearance was exactly the same as the spirit king who blessed me that I remember.

I couldn’t help but ask that question when I saw the dark energy that permeated his golden eyes, which used to be strict and cool, and blurred its original light. Hid eyes were full of heterogeneous emotions toward me.

 

***

 

[What in this world…]

Not long after Edith disappeared.

Oried, who was left alone in the room filled with silence, stared intently at the invitation that devoured Edith then became still as if nothing had happened, and muttered softly.

[There is no earth that I cannot dare to step on.]

Even if it was built on an illusion.

Oried slowly stretched out his hand and imbued it with his power.

But the invitation pushed away his power, as if laughing at Oried.

[…….]

Oried brushed away the hair that had fallen over his forehead and cut off the growing hair.

Inevitably, a memory from the past surfaced in my mind.

[Oried, if your ‘other side’ does not exist, to me you are nothing more than a parasite, no different from the other lives in this universe.]

The figure buried in the shadows muttered mockingly at him.

A humiliating memory of the way he was being treated by Arkane.

[…….]

A low-spirited laugh seemed to hover around like an auditory hallucination.

Oried, who suffered from anger and helplessness, eventually made a choice.

A way to unlock the seal engraved deep within his roots.

[Keep this in mind.]

At that moment, another memory surged and grabbed hold of him.

[This seal is a prohibition that must never be broken.]

Was this the color of the eternally frozen ice cap that never melts even though it lies under the sun?

He had white hair with a soft glow fluttering in the air under a solemn nod.

The clear silver eyes in his hollow, sharp eyes gazed at him with an intense intelligence that penetrated everything.

[Never forget at any moment that it will not be your ‘other side’ that will drive away the shadow.]

Even though I was fully aware of what kind of temperament he had, a voice with a coldness that made me stick my tongue gave a stern warning.

[…….]

The realm governed by the power of the one who dared to warn the Spirit King of the Earth was the king of wisdom.

His true name was Lore.

Among those who pride themselves on being wise men who have penetrated the truth of the world, there will never be anyone born who can surpass him.

A being that even all spirit kings trust without considering superiority in power.

It was Lore, the Spirit King of Wisdom.

Oried, who was thinking back on the advice he personally gave him, chuckled.

[How can I hold my self back when the child I blessed is being taken away right before my eyes?]

Not even Lore’s advice could stop him.

The reason for all these choices was solely for the sake of the little life he blessed with all his heart.

Oried made up his mind and quietly closed his eyes.

All his spirit power gathered together and the old gold engraving on him was released.

When he opened his eyes again, his eyes were a brilliant gold, but the shadows left behind by the ominous night were flickering within them.