Chapter 150

The swords clashed with a clear, ringing sound. The only things scattered around were frozen or charred black corpses. Duke Glacia Winterheart of the North, wielding a magic sword, and Kay of the Black Round Table, deflecting her attacks with a rapier.

At first glance, it seemed like an even fight, but Kay of the Black Round Table was clearly holding the upper hand.

“Hey, little lady. I don’t really want to kill you, so why don’t you just go back? I don’t even like killing in the first place…”

“Shut up. Aren’t you after Lord Werner’s life?”

“Let me be clear. I don’t care what happens to that guy. But my friend really wants to kill him no matter what.”

“Your friend…?”

“Ah, you wouldn’t understand… Losers stick together, you know? It’s a loser’s duty to help their loser friend achieve what they want, right?”

Glacia, with her breathtakingly beautiful features, radiant golden hair, and skin-tight black tights, couldn’t understand why someone like Kay was in the Black Round Table. A woman’s beauty is a weapon. With such beauty, she could have lived comfortably without joining the Black Round Table.

“Why are you with an organization like the Black Round Table? With your beauty and skills… you could have lived as you pleased in the light.”

“Hah…? The light…”

Kay sneered at Glacia’s words, then slightly tore the tights wrapped around her arm with the tip of her rapier. A crackling current surged, emitting a blindingly bright light. Her body was coursing with electricity thousands, tens of thousands of times stronger than a normal person’s.

“Do you think I could live in the light with a body like this? A body even my parents abandoned… Do you think I could live under the light?”

“But there are many people in the world who would accept you without discrimination.”

Glacia thought of her parents, Camelian Peony, the slightly annoying Airi, and Werner, who had looked her in the eyes and affirmed her for the first time.

“There are people in the world who live harder and more difficult lives than you, yet still live uprightly.”

“…Hah…”

“There are more people in the world who would embrace your flaws rather than attack them. I can say this because I was born as a half-vampire, half-human.”

Born as neither vampire nor human, she knew the struggles of having an unusual body. She had despaired and closed her heart since childhood. But because Werner had affirmed her, she had been able to walk this far. She had learned that there were many humans and vampires who accepted her.

Glacia, though she pretended otherwise, was the most emotionally vulnerable among the women connected to Werner. That’s why she reached out her hand.

“Shut up!!!”

But it was Kay who rejected that hand. Even though she could walk into the light, she refused that path. Kay shouted with a voice filled with anger.

“What, there are people who live harder lives than me and still stand tall…? I can’t do that! No matter how painful their lives were, does that make my pain disappear? Those bastards were just lucky enough not to have their hearts broken! They just had someone to care for them so their hearts wouldn’t break!”

Her voice was filled with pain, anger, and hatred.

“What, there are more people in the world who would embrace flaws rather than attack them? I couldn’t do that! That’s just something lucky bastards get to meet! You might have met them! Truly unfortunate people starve and still don’t get bread! Even if every bone in their body breaks, no one nurses them!”

She tore off the tights she was wearing. If not for the undergarments she wore beneath, she would have been naked. The scars and surgical marks covering her body told the story of how she had lived.

“What, you can say that because you’re a half-breed? Stop spouting that bullshit! You’re a noble! Have you ever been dragged to a brothel by the hands of parents who sold you for money?! Have you ever killed someone because of a constitution you never wanted and been dragged to prison?! Have you ever been raped by guards?! Have you… ever been dragged to the execution block like a dog…? I don’t want to hear moral lessons from lucky bastards like you!”

Glacia couldn’t say anything. She had faced discriminatory glances, but she had always received her parents’ love. She didn’t know the pain of someone born into darkness.

“I just don’t like killing. It’s not that I can’t. If you just abandon that Werner guy and run away, I’ll let you live…”

“Unfortunately, I can’t do that.”

Werner, whom she had longed for since childhood, was now by her side. She had waited with tears when he left, so it was unthinkable for her to leave him now.

“Ah, is that so? Then I’ll just fry you enough so you don’t die.”

And in an instant, Glacia couldn’t even comprehend what had happened. All that remained after that moment was a slashed side and a painful electric current surging through her body.

“Hah, you dodged in that instant and avoided a fatal wound. Truly admirable.”

Kay, emitting electricity from her entire body, praised Glacia with a regretful voice.

“Hey, don’t you get the difference in our strength now? I really don’t like killing people, you know? If I kill someone, I have nightmares that night, so I really hate killing.”

Of course, this was a contradiction, as half of the bandit corpses scattered around were those who had died from her attacks. Glacia used her magic sword as a cane to stand up.

“I can’t do that.”

“Ah, you’re so stubborn. Is that why you’re not drawing the sword at your waist?”

Glacia swallowed dryly. The sword at her waist, emitting a cold aura, was a gift from Werner. Just by the aura it emitted and the hilt, it was clear it was a famous sword… but for some reason, she couldn’t draw it. The scabbard, as if frozen, wouldn’t allow the sword to be drawn.

“By the way, there’s a big contradiction in your words.”

“Contradiction? Sorry, I don’t understand difficult words…”

“You said you joined the Black Round Table because you were in pain, right? That you were born with a cursed body, that no one saved you, that you tasted all the misfortunes of the world.”

“…What about it?”

“But isn’t the Tower Lord of Earth, who holds the title of Tristan, different? He lived as a bandit but met a master who led him to the path of a sorcerer, was granted magical talent instead of a curse, and was followed by all sorts of wealth and honor. So why… did he join the Black Round Table? Why do you call him your friend?”

It was a massive contradiction. Even though he was someone who could be said to have been born with the greatest luck in the world, she couldn’t understand why he hated himself.

But contrary to Glacia’s thoughts, Kay remained silent. That silence was filled with countless emotions. But among those countless emotions, one emotion clearly revealed its color.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Killing intent.

“You don’t know how cruel the world was to him, how brutal the laws of this world were to him… Since you’ve spouted such nonsense, you’ll die here.”

Kay usually only felt anger when insulted, but when it came to her friends, she didn’t hesitate to kill. She was famous in the Black Round Table for not killing innocents, but she had participated in killing Werner because of what happened to Felinoir.

But now that someone had insulted her other friend, Tristan, it was only natural that the suppressed killing intent and anger would explode.

“You know how to get angry for others. But why don’t you use that heart for others?”

Glacia recalled what had happened in the Holstead territory. She clearly remembered how someone who had lost everything to the Black Round Table had thrown away their life for revenge.

Knowing how sad Werner had been upon hearing of Count Holstead’s death, she too was angry. She didn’t want to see Werner sad.

“I’m not soft enough to get angry for people who don’t understand the absurdity of the world.”

“Let me correct you. That’s just called being selfish.”

Glacia gripped the hilt of the cold-emitting sword.

It was a vague expectation that since it was a gift from Werner, it would be drawn if she swung it for him.

And with a clear, ringing sound, the sword began to slide out.

And in that very short moment, her consciousness was sucked somewhere.