The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits - Chapter 195



EP9. ■■

Grandis’ face hardened. Seeing that, her mother laughed even harder.

“…What does that mean?”

Grandis’s voice was calm as she asked, but it was shaking a little.

“What do you mean? Don’t you know your father’s personality? Seeing as he leaves you alone in a place like this, I think you know that he is the kind of person who would do something like that.”

Grandis looked at her mother and said.

“…Yes. I know that the Winter Lord has a cruel nature.”

“I see you call him the Winter Lord. I don’t know, but he must have raised you himself… Is it his innate disposition, or is it his fault? Either way, it’s a shame.”

“Okay, just answer the questions. Are you my mother?”

“Yes… The Winter Lord wanted to give birth to a strong child. He took me, the strongest person he had ever met, as the mother. While I had you, I wished for you to disappear every day, but now that we’ve met like this… It’s not so bad to see you born healthy.”

Grandis bit her lip slightly when she heard that. Even though she had never seen her mother before, it was shocking to her that she had wished for her death while in the womb.

Regardless, the woman continued talking.

“Well, that’s how you were born. I heard you showed incredible talent as a newborn baby… I don’t know, you were brought here a few days after I gave birth to you. And then you were sealed. By your father.”

Grandis stared at the woman. The woman stared at Grandis with narrowed eyes.

“Aren’t you curious as to why?”

“I’m curious, but nothing will change even if I show that I’m impatient.”

“Ha, ha, ha… You look like me, but your personality is exactly like your father. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. As I said before, the reason your father kept me alive was to make you kill me. It seems like he wanted to make a point by making you kill me with your own hands when you were fully ripe as the successor to the Winter Lord.”

“…Is that so.”

Grandis spoke in a calm voice. The woman tilted her head slightly and said, “Hmm.”

“Hey, won’t you kill me?”

Grandis looked at the woman.

“I’m just… tired. I’ve heard that I’m a monarch, but I don’t want to be a clown who gets captured like this and gets killed by you in front of everyone, and be the butt of everyone’s show. If I’m going to die by your hand anyway, I’d rather die now, right?”

Grandis opened the iron bars and then approached the woman.

“Oh, wait a minute.”

The woman who said that tried to move her tied arms, but realized she couldn’t move them.

“Would you like to touch my face with your hands?”

Grandis looked at the woman blankly.

“I just wanted to feel the warmth of the child I gave birth to one last time.”

Grandis cupped her mother’s cheek with her hand. It was cold.

“…It’s warm. Yeah.”

“Is this it?”

The woman did not answer Grandis’ question. She did not even ask what the end would be. She already knew everything.

So, Grandis’ mother just smiled once at the end.

A black blade. Blood gushing out. The girl had her mother’s blood on her head, just like when she was first born.

She stared at the sight for a moment, then turned and started toward the exit.

…

After that incident, the Winter Lord did not reprimand Grandis for killing his mother. Instead, he simply said, ‘It is a pity that the fruit was not ripe yet.’

Since then, Grandis has learned many things and become stronger. It was as if everything was already in her hands from the beginning. She seemed to lack nothing.

However, there was no smile from Grandis. No one in the territory had ever seen Grandis smile. At least not until that day.

As time passed, on Grandis’s 150th birthday, Grandis killed his father. He killed the Winter Lord who was sitting on the throne and took out his heart. It was still beating.

And then, she smiled brightly. No, she burst out laughing.

“Aha… Ah, ahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

She opened her mouth, laughing so hard that tears welled up in her eyes.

“Father, do you see? I am whole now. Just as you wished.”

She truly thought so. Power, knowledge, now even status. She had it all. Everything she had ever wanted was at her fingertips, she recalled.

After the coronation ceremony was held in blood, Grandis began to act as the new Winter Lord. All those who laughed at the young monarch were easily decapitated by the power that surpassed even the previous Winter Lords. Soon, the demons began to talk about her as the next inferior to the Lord of Destruction, who would later become the Demon King.

She didn’t listen to such talk. Instead, she only cared for her vassals and occasionally smiled gently. She just spent her free time in her perfect paradise.

However, sometimes she felt a longing for something. She didn’t know why. But she could have anything she set her mind to. Power, knowledge, wealth, land, and even, though she had never been interested in it, perhaps even a man.

What was the origin of this longing? She did not know, and when the Demon Lord, who had become the Destruction Lord, came to her, she accepted his offer. Following the longing that arose somewhere in her heart.

…

Grandis laid Ainzel down on the bed. Then, she sat down on the chair next to the bed.

After coming into contact with the Holy Sword, Ainzel lost consciousness for some mysterious reason.

She stared quietly at Ainzel’s face.

Then she placed her hand on Ainzel’s cheek.

… was cold.

The cold temperature seemed to remind me of memories from over a hundred years ago.

No, it’s not just his face that’s cold.

The space itself that I was in was cold. My hands and feet felt like they were going to freeze, and the warm light from the lamp was like the frosty moonlight.

When was it that I felt this way? When did I feel lonely, like there was no one by my side?

A memory from a very distant past.

It’s so cold that my hands and feet feel like they’re going to fall off. There’s only darkness, and no one’s voice can be heard. All I can hear is my own heartbeat and… the cries of animals.

I thought she had just let it go. I thought she had just let it go as one of those dull memories. However, it still remained in her subconscious and was tormenting her.

“Ainzel.”

She tried calling Ainzel’s name softly. In fact, she had done the same thing in the past. While locked in the dungeon and walking alone, she kept repeating her name in her head to keep herself awake.

She thought she had everything. But now, in this situation, after losing everything she had, and even that had collapsed, she had nothing left. She realized that only now.

Her hands were trembling. Was it really something to be so agitated about?

Grandis was actually not sure in her heart. She wondered if she could follow the feelings she had in the past. But now that she was in this situation, she thought she knew.

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I felt so lonely just because he wasn’t there. It hurt. The world seemed dark.

Now I know that that’s all I have left.

Could this be the feeling she had in the past? She asked herself that question.

The question that couldn’t be resolved even when facing him or kissing him was answered in an instant.

Yes. Just assuming that he might not wake up like this makes my heart ache and my eyes go black, but if it doesn’t, it’s even stranger.

Only now, she told herself, could she confidently say that she loved him.

“Why are you suddenly doing this?”

Grandis hugged Ainzel. Grandis hugged Ainzel so tightly that she felt like she was going to crumble, and began to cry.

“wake up….”

If he doesn’t wake up like this, she will have lost everything.

She, the girl who thought she had everything, the girl who was left alone in her heart, only then realized what she truly longed for.

“I don’t want to be alone.”

She could feel his breath. His body was not dead yet. That alone gave her a small sense of relief.

“Stay by my side.”

It was the first confession she had ever made to him.