Kays Translations

Chapter 43: Lauren's Thoughts

Lauren was sitting alone on the cold floor.

The room was vast, with no windows or doors.

The ceiling was so high that it seemed purposeless, and in the dimly lit room, it was hard to see.

Countless unknown tools were scattered around the room, their purpose unknown.

Despite the lack of lighting, visibility was maintained thanks to one of those tools.

The only thing Lauren recognized was an artifact she had once possessed herself: the "White Specter's Eye."

The White Specter, an Eastern-style wielding of a white blade.

That's what is needed to form a contract with them.

And compared to those artifacts, the most peculiar thing in the room was a giant water tank in the center.

A large black armor floated in the tank.

Occasionally, it moved significantly.

Each time the armor moved, the shadow of the armor started to move on its own, traversing the walls as if escaping to the outside.

The intervals between movements were getting shorter with each passing moment.

"Ugh."

Lauren buried her face in her legs, on the verge of tears.

Being alone made her feel incredibly anxious.

She wondered when she had come to understand that she was the daughter of the former Lord Clark.

Her earliest memory dates back to when she was four years old.

She was taken by Yu to visit a villager's house.

While Yu was engaged in conversation with the master of the house, Lauren was led by a woman to a separate room.

It was supposed to be a visit where she would be given sweets, but instead, her cheek was suddenly slapped, and she was showered with undeserved insults.

Yu quickly came to her rescue, but she only remembered how frightening it was.

However, that was not an isolated incident.

Since that day, whenever Yu left the house for a few days, the townspeople would always blame and berate Lauren.

Yu always tried to convince the townspeople each time, but it never stopped.

As such things happened repeatedly, she was inevitably forced to recognize that she was the daughter of the former lord.

Yu didn't want to talk about why the former lord and she, his daughter, were so hated.

She understood the reason clearly when she and the children of the territory went to be appraised by the Orleans family's men to obtain their respective Styles.

"Indeed, it's the same for you. A Grade 5 Hundred Eyes Magic Core and a Grade 5 Singing Mouth Magic Core," they said.

She should have been appraised once when she was three years old, but she didn't remember anything about it.

The other child of the same age also had two magic cores.

The child's parents spoke.

"This child's brother was killed by your father. This child was lucky."

Curses. That's what they said.

She learned that it was done to have multiple magic cores in the hands of the subjects of the territory.

She understood it at the same time.

My father, too...

She was a disposable existence to her own parents.

She survived merely by chance.

She wasn't born out of love.

And yet, just by living, she was despised and blamed by those around her.

Why am I even alive?

That's how she felt.

On one particular day, a young boy came to the temporary government office.

A boy named Lucius, which means "small light." He was the opposite of Lauren, who was given the name Laurencia, meaning "victory of laurel."

The boy tried to be helpful to everyone.

He must have been loved and raised well.

Honestly, she felt uncomfortable.

She thought that someone like him couldn't possibly understand her feelings.

About two weeks later, Lucius suddenly came into the room.

"Lauren, are you afraid of heights?"

"No, I think I'm fine."

"Then let's go look at the sky now."

"Huh?"

She didn't understand the meaning behind it.

Half forcibly, she was taken up into the sky, carried away by a powerful Style.

Why is he trying to scare me!?

Lauren was puzzled and annoyed by Lucius' actions.

But when she heard the explanation, it seemed that it wasn't meant to be harassment.

"Father's Style can also fly in the sky on a hippogriff. Until the time comes when we can contract with a dragon as our Style, whenever we feel down or think it's over, whenever we feel stuck, he always took me to the sky."

Lucius was trying to encourage her.

Honestly, she thought that someone like him could never imagine her feelings.

More than showing her the sky, she was grateful for his heartfelt support.

Everyone always kept their distance from her, blamed her, and there was hardly any encouragement.

But at the same time, she felt anxious.

If I become close to him, I'll just become a burden.

Even Yu, who killed her own father and is respected within the territory, is not well-regarded for raising Lauren.

But if she continues to live in this territory, her presence will not be beneficial to Lucius.

With determination, Lauren revealed her true background.

The response she received from Lucius was something she had never heard before.

"There must have been a reason for the former lord... Maybe..."

He did not deny her father, who is hated by all the people in the territory.

Lucius was not directly involved.

His opinion might change if he were in the same situation as her with his own flesh and blood.

But still.

Even so, she felt relieved.

She had always thought that the blood flowing through her was something ugly, but it seemed like he accepted it, and that feeling overwhelmed her, causing tears to flow.

The setting sun and Lucius' face overlapped, making it too bright to see.

A new life was about to begin.

Just as she thought that, when both Lucius and Yu were absent, a knight suddenly entered the house.

A female knight and a knight with burn scars all over his body.

They grabbed her and forcibly threw her into a carriage.

Without a word, the carriage started moving.

"Please, let me go back home."

With handcuffs and leg irons, she desperately cried out from inside the carriage.

Ignoring Lauren's words, the female knight sitting opposite her started a conversation.

"You're the daughter of Clark, right? It seems your lineage has the power to subdue a certain monster."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just a legend. The legend says that the one who could subdue the monster that was rampaging in Mount Kuron, along with a dragon, became the lord of this land."

"I've never heard of that."

"It's not certain if it's true or not. But that's not important. What's important is that there are people who believe in it."

"Who believes in it?"

The female knight didn't answer.

Instead, she brought up a different topic.

"...The armored monster. It will appear again."

"Huh?"

"You might be able to subdue it. What will you do?"

"I can't do something like that. Please... let me go back home."

"That's right. Because of you, many people will die again."

"Because of me...?"

"Your father killed many of the people in the territory. As his child, you'll sacrifice many of the people for your own sake. Just like father, like daughter."

"That's not true!"

"What's not true?"

"I... I'm different from him!"

"What makes you different?"

"I... I'm not like him!"

"Then show it through your actions. Otherwise, you'll truly become a murderer."

It felt like she couldn't breathe.

She had been called a murderer's child for a long time.

The people of the territory always blamed and berated Lauren.

The sin she was born with.

No matter how much she wanted to run away, it wouldn't let go of her.

It's suffocating.

At that moment, something dark crawled up from her feet and bound her body, making it difficult to breathe.

She was suffocating.

"We've arrived."

As her body trembled violently, the man with burn scars who was driving the carriage stopped it.

After getting off, Lauren found herself standing next to a massive blue building.

"Bluesen, are you really going to wait here? It's full of replicas of him, you know?"

The female knight, still holding onto Lauren, glanced at the mausoleum.

"That brat, is he really going to come here, and what will happen when he arrives?"

Lauren had an intuition that the conversation was about Lucius.

"That child will eventually become a hero of this country. I want to know if he'll end up like me, broken, or if he'll be the one to crawl out from beneath."

"I see. It's romantic of you to want to find out if he's the kind who won't lose what he lost. Even though he might not come. So what will you do if he's the one who breaks?"

"Of course, I'll kill him. Naturally, I'll use the Imperial equipment."

"Suit yourself. But Bluesen, you'll end up dead too."

Bluesen closed his eyelids for a moment.

"...Unlike the others in the order of knights, this is my hometown."

"I see. And so?"

"I didn't think I could die in my hometown. I will boast about it to my comrades who died before me in the afterlife."

Bluesen smiled faintly.

"Well, fine. Thank you for everything. Goodbye."

The female knight seemed to lose interest and forcefully pulled Lauren along.

Before she knew it, she was confined inside the blue building.

"Someone... please let me out."

The white specter named Shuji, a fox-like creature, whom Lauren had contracted with, was not a powerful being.

She tried banging the walls with the small sword she managed to manifest, but the blade only scratched the surface and eventually broke.

"Please... help me."

She said it, but Lauren had already given up.

There couldn't possibly be anyone who would save her, the one despised by everyone.

Muttering to herself, the sound of something tearing apart echoed in the room.

The sound was something visible.

Cracks appeared in the water tank inside the room.

The cracks spread, causing the liquid inside to burst out forcefully.

In an instant, the floor was flooded, and she hurriedly pressed herself against the wall, trying to escape the unknown liquid.

As the cracks spread throughout the water tank, the glass shattered and scattered.

Something was standing inside as the liquid inside almost completely disappeared.

It was a jet-black armor.

It emitted an incredibly powerful magical energy.

A density of magical power she had never felt before.

It was so intense that she couldn't breathe.

Still, she shouted with all her might.

If she didn't speak up now, what was the point of having a mouth?

"Someone! Please, let me out! Please!"

Whether it noticed her voice or not, the black armor approached Lauren step by step.

With each step, the sound of iron striking the hard floor echoed.

The black armor approached behind Lauren, who was banging on the wall.

The black armor reached out its hand casually.

"I don't want to die! I want to live...! Lucius!"

As she screamed, the wall next to Lauren, which was close to her, suddenly turned bright red, and the liquid on the floor began to evaporate.

The temperature of the entire room rose, and the heat caused the collapsed liquid on the floor to evaporate.

The heat increased further, and the wall collapsed immediately.

Behind the collapsed wall stood a boy named Lucius, known as the Light.

Lucius had a relieved expression on his face.

"Thank goodness, I made it in time."

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