The Monster Lady and the Holy Knight - Chapter 113

It was the kind of fear that felt like stepping into quicksand, knowing it would pull you under.

Leon stared at those vivid red eyes as if captivated, then finally averted his gaze with a trembling body. A large hand pulled her into a tight embrace, pressing her face against his chest. The pressure brought an uncanny sense of stability. A low voice fell over her head as she panted.

“I get it, so loosen your grip. Your wound will reopen.”

“Leon, I…”

“I know. It’s okay. There’s nothing here now.”

“……”

The surroundings were silent. Veronica listened to the heartbeat of the man who held her completely. Thump, thump, thump. The strength in her hand clutching his clothes slowly faded as her mind turned blank.

She had been terrified. So terrified she thought she would die. She had thought she would never see him again.

How had Leon made it here? She had no time to think about such things. Her barely conscious mind was being consumed entirely by the rising fear.

The grotesqueness of something inhuman, the bizarre dread she couldn’t even explain herself. ‘It’ knew Leon. ‘It’ had been searching for him. Like a repulsive insect, the hallucination slithered through her mind.

“I see. Once he’s dead, you’ll be a loyal family member. Wait here.”

“I met the ‘First.'”

Even as she suddenly spoke, Leon showed no surprise. Perhaps because of the sword that had been embedded in him, he had already sensed the presence of an enemy. But that was all. He did not know ‘it.’ He had never met the ‘it’ that had become human. He did not know those eyes, that voice, that expression. A non-human human. A human that could never truly be one. Longing, goodwill, jealousy.

“You can never kill it.”

Veronica declared with certainty. He would never be able to cut down a monster that wore her face. Leon remained silent for a long time. Only when Veronica, unable to endure the silence any longer, tried to lift her head did he finally speak.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Leon.”

“Do you remember when I said I wouldn’t go anywhere?”

Her chaotic thoughts came to an abrupt halt. Veronica pressed her lips together tightly and met his gaze. How could she forget? That peaceful night had been the driving force that had carried her this far.

“You said you would stay by my side until all of this was over.”

“……”

“Keep that promise. Don’t think of anything else, just stay with me.”

“But that was…”

Her voice trailed off. After a brief pause, she murmured with a choked voice.

“It was a lie. I lied. Just like you did.”

She squeezed the lie out of her, as if vomiting out her insides. That the words “it was a lie” themselves were a lie—what kind of twisted wordplay was this?

But she did not even have the mental capacity to find it amusing. All she felt was fear. As if Bahamut would appear at any moment and tear his heart apart. Veronica knew that if she disappeared, ‘it’ would track her down. She had to send him away before ‘it’ realized he had come.

“Did you really believe it? That I would stay beside someone who used and abandoned me until the day I die?”

She forced out the cold words. Even as she saw the deep pain in his eyes, she did not stop.

“I once liked you, so I relied on you for a long time. But not to the point of giving you my last moments. Other living humans are far more important to me. Just as they are to you.”

Then why, why was your face filled with such sorrow? Why did you look like a tree with its roots severed, crumbling without a shred of hope?

The Leon she knew was not someone who would break over love alone. He was a man whose faith was stronger than that. In the end, he was the son of God who would choose humanity over her. And yet, Veronica felt both bewildered and uneasy as she looked at the silent man. She wished he would argue back, wished he would wield a blade to stab her in return.

His quiet acceptance showed more clearly than words ever could what she had become to him. It was like a bucket of cold water shocking her awake. Logic such as “for the sake of humanity” would not be enough to send Leon away. He did not fear the end of humanity. Only…

Veronica wrenched herself out of his embrace. Startled by her sudden movement, Leon furrowed his brow, but Veronica clenched her teeth and steadied herself against the pile of bones.

“So go. It’s fine if you go. From the beginning, you brought me to Kart to kill Bahamut. Everything has gone exactly as you wanted. If I sacrifice myself, no one else will die, and it will all be over. Things can go back to peace.”

She leaned back while sitting and spewed words she didn’t even mean. She glanced back briefly before moving closer to the fallen Hennessis.

The truth was, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to leave with him. Had she not turned away from death to flee in the first place?

If asked whether she wanted to live, she could answer countless times. Yes, she wanted to live. She wanted to live. More desperately than anyone else in this world, enough to drive her insane. She wanted to take the hand he offered and run away with him. If only she could. If only her hands weren’t this wounded—she would have reached for him again and again.

Maybe that was why she had been pierced by the sword.

The man, with his gaze lowered, watched her trembling on the ground for a long time. Then, he quietly opened his mouth.

“I never wanted that. At least, not after I met you.”

A broad, calloused hand reached out, as if to embrace her again. Veronica squeezed her eyes shut and pulled her body away.

“Are you going to force me to go with you again?”

For a fleeting moment, his movement halted in midair. Leon’s eyes darkened, as if extinguished. It was the sin of his past.

When they first met, he had dragged her along on his journey against her will. He had pulled her into the wheel of fate where she was meant to die. Even if that meeting was now the greatest blessing of his life, she had to treat it as the most dreadful event of hers. She had to wound him to send him away.

Veronica clenched her hand into a fist as she looked at his now-expressionless face. Damp blood oozed from between her fingers. Her heart pounded violently, like a person raising a hammer to shatter a carefully crafted sculpture.

“I heard somewhere that the best way to take revenge on the god who saved you is to commit suicide. To abandon what he has given you. To be completely free.”

“……”

“You saved me that day, and in return for that salvation, you shackled my feet. Now I am paying the appropriate price. With this, there is nothing left between us. Nothing at all.”

He did not move, frozen like a beast trapped in ice. Veronica took in the rough, dry air and picked up Hennessis, now stained with its master’s blood.

With her bones twisted and her hands trembling, she raised the sword. She thought she might never be able to hold something delicate or write again. A hollow laugh escaped her lips. What did it matter whether she could use her hands or not when she was going to die anyway?

“What are you doing?”

At last, a sharp question escaped the lips of the man watching her. Instead of answering, Veronica brought the trembling blade to her own throat. Because the sword was long, it was not the tip but the blade itself that pressed against the side of her neck. The cold steel sent a chilling sensation through her skin.

“Exactly what you see.”

“Put it down.”

“Get up and leave first.”

At last, his stiff, expressionless face was marked by emotion. Suppressed rage—no, something far more desperate and crushing.

He reached out, and at nearly the same moment, Hennessis clattered noisily as it rolled over the pile of bones. Before she could resist, he seized her wrist and muttered darkly.

“Nothing left, you say?”

She had never seen such an expression on him before.

“Then ask me for help. It’s simple. You just have to receive salvation here once again.”

A face that was not human. A face like an abandoned, battered beast. The twisted man tilted his head, revealing himself fully. Veronica held her breath at the sight of his broken, exposed face, so close to hers.

“Say you don’t want to die. Please.”

“……”

“Tell me to go with you. Forget about those other humans, abandon everything, and just live with me.”

Her wrist, caught in his grip, did not hurt; instead, it was trembling. It was not her who was shaking—it was him. Seeing her trying to die had terrified him.

“Should I kneel and beg? Crawl on the ground and apologize for eternity? What do you want? What do I have to do…”

“……”

“To save you?”

A suffocating despair filled the air. The man holding onto her looked unbearably powerless.

She could hardly believe that she had once thought this man was cruel. That he was like a beast drawn to warmth, only to mercilessly devour it. That staying by his side would only bring pain. That he could never be pitied. But in the end, when all the flames had burned out, what remained was nothing but ashes.

“Why… are you crying?”

Veronica, dazed, asked with a trembling voice. She raised her free hand and brushed against his beautiful yet wretched face. There was a fresh trace of dried blood at the corner of his right eye. As she reached to touch it, he leaned his forehead against her shoulder, burying his face. At the same time, the wrist he had refused to let go of finally fell to the ground along with him.

“Don’t try to die, not even as a threat. I won’t ask you to leave with me. I won’t even ask you to stay by my side. Just live.”

She didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to acknowledge that the tears he shed for her were the ones that had extinguished his fire.

“It’s my fault. I should have just passed by that day. I should have left after saving you. But I— I let you into my heart so carelessly.”

The sun was setting. The twilight pooled over the white bones, as if it were a sea of blood.

“It hurts. I’m completely shattered, yet it won’t end. Damn it.”

The man’s anguished voice melted into the darkness. Beneath his dry laughter, his exposed shoulders were soaked.

It was night. A night that would not end.