~Chapter 108~
I don’t know how I recognized her.
I just saw it—it was Charlotte.
Even though she had become a beast as tall as a three-story building, I could still tell.
“When did you become like this?”
When did you lose your way?
Kiaaak!
“Shut up! I said shut up!”
Her voice sounded no different from other beasts, yet I could distinguish it. It was strange.
Maybe because she had once been human.
Charlotte lifted her long leg and tried to stomp on me.
I had fought countless beasts already, so dodging this attack was easy.
Boom!
Her foot smashed into the building behind me, collapsing it completely.
The power was overwhelming, though expected.
As the building crumbled with a loud crash and a cloud of dust, people from farther away came running.
“W-what is that?”
“How can a monster be that big…?”
“Run away!”
The people surrounded me, drawing their weapons. But I stopped them and stepped forward.
“It’s okay.”
“…What?”
“That’s Charlotte.”
The knight nearest to me twisted his head, confused.
Others nearby wore the same puzzled expressions.
“I don’t understand…”
“Charlotte? You mean the former Rohiltern lady, that wicked woman?”
“Her character was terrible enough to compare with a beast, but…”
How could a human become a beast?
Some of them even eyed me with suspicion.
I knew. It was an easy situation for misunderstandings.
Camilla and others had already noticed my health wasn’t good.
But still—
“That is Charlotte.”
I was certain.
Out of all the countless beasts, she was the only one that directed pure killing intent toward me.
Kiiiiiik!
“You wicked girl. Should I tell everyone what you did to me? How I ended up like this?”
I only looked up at her. Maybe it was my gaze that stirred her, because Charlotte screamed louder.
“You stole everything from me! The Count’s house, the wealth, and now even my honor?!”
“Well, shouldn’t I correct that mistake?”
I curled my lips into a mocking smile.
“I didn’t steal the Count’s house—I took it back. None of what you enjoyed was ever truly yours. Your real family name should have been Mihleun, not Rohiltern.”
Kiiiiiik!
Charlotte let out an incomprehensible cry.
But I already understood the meaning behind it, so I didn’t bother asking.
The knights around us frowned, but they waited patiently.
It must have looked like a strange form of conversation.
“Do you think I wanted to be born this way? Do you know how I felt when I learned a lowly slave trader was my real father? I wanted to rip every drop of blood out of my body!”
“Of course, that wasn’t your fault.”
But—
“You had chances. You had opportunities to stop.”
Regardless of Abigail’s sins, Charlotte herself had committed countless wrongs.
She had stolen fame by claiming a painter’s work as her own.
She had dealt in human trafficking through slave traders.
She had killed the very people she bought, venting her frustrations on them.
“But you didn’t stop. You only thought of using what you had. Even after losing everything and coming to the capital, you were the same. You could have apologized when you saw me. Instead, you tried to use me again, didn’t you?”
“Don’t act superior! Apologies? That’s something only the winner can say! Tell me—if I had apologized, would you really have accepted it?”
“Of course not.”
I looked down at the ground for a moment, measuring the time.
Then I lifted my head with a crooked smile.
“One secret I’ll tell you.”
“What nonsense are you spouting now…?”
“You think your life collapsed because of me. But even without me, you would have destroyed yourself.”
It wasn’t a lie. I had seen her execution at Armians’ hands before I returned.
“In other words, there was never a future where you won.”
“Die! I should have killed you long ago!”
Charlotte leapt, swinging her long leg.
Her huge body shook the ground with thunderous weight.
But the moment she landed in front of me—
Boooom!
Like an explosion, the magic circle I had prepared activated.
The others, who hadn’t expected her sudden jump, raised their weapons in alarm, then recoiled in shock.
“With this, you’ll learn one more lesson.”
Charlotte staggered and looked up.
Dozens of long spears of magic, like falling rain, turned their points toward her.
“Never fall for a magician’s trick to buy time.”
And then—
The storm poured down.
Charlotte was unusually large and strong, even among beasts.
A little magic wouldn’t bring her down like the others.
But even a tough body couldn’t withstand overwhelming power.
The storm of magic spears broke her legs, tore off her arms.
She grew new limbs in desperation and tried to strike the ground where Bella stood, but those too were shattered by more spears.
Bella kept creating new spears, raining them down relentlessly.
Many hit Charlotte directly, while others destroyed the surroundings pointlessly.
Even after all that, Charlotte was still alive, barely holding on.
Normally, anyone would despair by now.
But Bella stood as calm as ever.
‘What kind of magic is this…?’
Bella’s power hadn’t lessened at all.
‘Is she even human?’
Charlotte extended her claws slowly, watching Bella.
They both took a moment to breathe.
Bella gathered magic in her hand—a sphere that shaped itself into lightning.
The background flow of magic around her shrank, then swelled again.
‘I see it!’
Charlotte realized why Bella’s power hadn’t decreased.
It wasn’t infinite.
Bella was converting the time she had lived—her very life—into magic power.
Crackle!
Kiiiiiik!
The cost of glimpsing the abyss was immense.
Charlotte looked at her shattered arm turning to smoke.
Her legs had already been broken long ago, unable to regenerate.
She clawed at the ground, trying desperately to crawl away, to survive.
But when she lifted her head, Bella stood before her.
Around Bella, magic surged and swelled into a new form.
She couldn’t even guess what spell it would become.
She didn’t need to guess—if it hit, she would die instantly.
“E-even if you kill me, you won’t feel relieved!”
Bella suddenly froze.
“You don’t even remember who I am anymore!”
Bella’s relentless power came at a price—her memories.
Charlotte didn’t know what was lost, but she could tell much had already been erased.
Bella had used far too much power.
“…You’re right.”
Bella admitted it.
The killing intent that had once lingered in her eyes was long gone.
