Tacchia Pheloi.
The first na that ca to mind the day she broke free from the coffin in which she was imprisoned.
-Thump!
With that, the first thing she saw as she rose was the flowers laid in abundance on the laid-down coffin.
As if conducting a funeral to commorate soone’s death…
A funeral, but for whom?
-Ding-dong, ding-dong.
While feeling puzzled, she heard the sound of a bell coming from beyond the dark forest.
No sooner had she realized soone was beyond, she felt her feet moving towards that place.
She did not know why; she just felt she had to move there.
She could only feel that the power embedded in that sound was leading her.
-Ding-dong, ding-dong.
At the end of such a vague instinctual drawing, she ca face to face with a woman standing in front of nurous bodies in front of the temple of a fallen kingdom.
The woman, dressed like a shaman, was using the bell in her hand to guide the movents of the dead.
Her appearance looked as if she were a saint leading a religious order…
“You are…?”
Why did such a saint-like figure drop the bell used to console the dead from her hands in horror upon seeing her?
Why did she hurriedly move her decaying body towards her, with rotten blood flowing from her eyes?
“…Annabel Britannia. Do you rember that na?”
Despite feeling puzzled, she showed no reaction to her words because nothing about her emotions or na stirred anything in her.
The dead live for their lingering attachnts, and without such prominent attachnts, they beco empty beings driven only by the instinct to survive or by the magic of a magician.
“…I see. Even after death, I cannot beco your mother, after all.”
However, starting with the word ‘mother’ that followed, she felt sothing stirring within her.
Mother. A word that concerned her more than the first na she had thought of.
“No, perhaps it’s for the best. I cannot send you back to the battlefield, now that we have reunited like this.”
Was it because of the feelings directed at the person before her?
Because her lingering attachnts were tied to her mother, and the person before her was an entity she could call a mother?
“…Welco back to your holand, Annabel.”
Although she seed to want such a relationship, for so reason, she felt nothing, even as she was embraced by her.
Her skin was cold, and the touch stroking her cheek was full of unfamiliarity.
Nevertheless, she began to awaken gradually, and at so point, she found herself accepting her existence.
Because she felt a vague sense of deja vu from her, albeit faintly and gradually.
Yes, there must have been a ti when they encountered each other in their previous lives.
Gradually, mories surface of her past self, roaming as a rcenary on the battlefield.
In the process, after killing every enemy encountered and surviving, drenched in blood, she realized how filthy and cruel this world was each ti she survived.
It would be the sa for her, having survived in such a place; she, too, was a repulsive and dirty being.
The reason she responded to the call of the royal family was because she thought it might be a chance to cleanse even a little of that filth.
She thought that by carrying out honorable tasks under their command, even soone as dirty as herself could live like a human being.
‘…Annabel, do you rember that na?’
And then, an unexpected encounter ensued.
While paying respects in the presence of the country’s leader, she heard a strange na from the person before her.
Annabel Britannia. A na she had never heard in that life and could not imagine being related to.
‘Your hair and eyes… All of your appearance could only be born from Britannia’s lineage.’
It was evident from her appearance that the royal lineage was extraordinary.
Upon seeing her appearance, the queen wanted to place her hopes in her identity.
‘The servant who had fled with you during the coup on the day of His Majesty’s succession ceremony was found dead by the riverbank. Since the cradle that held you then had disappeared, we had given up…’
‘Your Majesty. With all due respect, I am but a re rcenary.’
Of course, she had known for a long ti that she was an adopted daughter.
She had a premonition that her birth mother was alive sowhere.
It was just a bit surprising that they were the king and queen of a country.
‘Regardless of my birth, please let serve as a rcenary hired by you in this place… and allow to focus solely on playing the role of a hero in public.’
But what does lineage matter?
She had already stained her hands.
Having beco a slaughterer unfit for a wise king and a compassionate queen, she couldn’t possibly live comfortably and lavishly as their child.
If such a thing were allowed, that place would soon fall into ruin. She believed that thought was correct at the ti.
‘…Annabel, this is not a request from a monarch, but from your mother, who gave birth to you.’
Despite her firm insistence, it seed there was still a lingering regret, as the queen made one last earnest request to her before going to war.
‘Please, after this battle ends, could we once again bond as mother and daughter?’
‘…Your Majesty.’
‘I know it’s an unreasonable request. But… still, I don’t want to give up on you. You are the only proof that he and I were connected.’
She hoped to rekindle the connection that was already considered severed.
From such a fervent plea, the love she had was felt.
That there existed soone in this world who waited for her return, even though she was rely a murderer.
That perhaps, even soone as tainted as herself might deserve to be loved.
-Thump, thump.
As the presence of such a mother beca more pronounced, vitality slowly erged in her dead body, making her self-awareness clearer.
Over a very long ti, slowly, but still under her protection, she continued to consider herself as her daughter.
Even if that direction might have been wrong, the true love felt from her killed the discomfort, gradually giving shape to the vague regrets she had.
“…I will serve you. Mother.”
The hopeful expectation that erged when she faced the oath made in the end.
Despite the lifelessness in her face, it was clear she still dread of a connection with her.
“Does that an you wish to bond with as my daughter?”
“……”
“…Annabel.”
“I will simply beco a sword for my mother.”
But she could not possibly respond to her expectations.
Her barely awakened self was born from the weak connection she and her had in past mories, along with an obsession with the word “mother.”
Since she awakened herself by focusing solely on that one aspect, if she doesn’t erase all other discomforts, she might lose herself again.
“…Regardless of your regrets, is that what you’re saying?”
“My heart doesn’t matter.”
Even if her regrets were misguided.
If she doesn’t believe so, she’ll lose the reason for her awakening.
“What matters is that you awakened , and if you claim to be my mother, then I will simply follow you.”
Thus, she hoped to find the aning of her awakening.
By maintaining even this false belief, she hoped to find out why she was drawn to the word “mother.”
“Even if my purpose is to kill all those who were once alive like us, would you still say that?”
“Yes, if that is your wish…”
And then, faced with her true purpose in the end.
The mont she heard of her absurd plan for the destruction of humanity, she felt a stronger attraction towards her.
Although not clear, the word “destruction of humanity” might also be related to her own regrets.
‘Everything is for my mother, to accomplish the destruction of humanity with my own hands.’
Thus, defining her regrets, she had awakened the identity of the Red Knight of War and defended her front.
Though she might not accept the na Annabel Britannia, she claid, and kept claiming, to be Gwen Hwibar’s daughter… hoping that the day would co when she could fully grasp her identity.
-Thump, thump.
And then, at the end of it all, this mont had arrived.
Seeing it burn its surroundings, overpowering another of her lord’s followers, she felt an elation like never before.
“I have… found…”
Not just because it was a dragon.
Because the overwhelming power and presence that appeared before her at this mont led to all that she was, beyond just déjà vu.
“Finally, I have found it…”
An emotion that could also be defined as ecstasy.
Swept up in it, she ignored even the annoying enemy that blocked her path and rushed towards it.
She led the army not to defeat it, but to confront it directly and understand the discomfort she felt.
-Kwaaaaaaa!
Even as her body and mind were consud in flas, she felt her existence, which was ant to turn this land into a grave, drawing closer to her.
A will that doesn’t crumble, even as her whole body turns to ashes.
It was only after recognizing such steadfast regrets that she realized.
This being was the source of her regrets, and to et her, she had deceived even herself to prolong this second life.
‘Mother, my mother…’
Tashian Pheloi.
Why had she forgotten that na until the mont she faced her?
Even though she was the one she had desperately cried out for, alone on the battlefield.
She was the one she had acknowledged as her mother, and, therefore, the one she hated the most.
‘Why have you appeared here? Why now, have you co here…?’
Even if she had given up on such a relationship at the end of that life, such an ending was not important to her.
For the strongest regret of that life was the love for her, intertwined with hatred.
The knot of emotions nurtured over the longest ti couldn’t be buried by so trivial calling or ideals that blossod at the end of that life.
‘Ah, that’s right. Even then, you sought the destruction of humanity.’
And even before eting her, she was gradually building herself.
Even if it started twisted and misguided, the completed form still bore a resemblance and foundation to the regrets felt towards her.
‘A mother who desires the destruction of humanity, and one obsessed with such a mother.’
The mont she realized that this process was not much different from what she had felt in the past.
That realization breathed life into her hand holding the sword, compelling her to take on a singular calling.
-Whooosh.
With such determination, she swung her sword countless tis toward the ground.
Ash spread as she prodded the vulnerable part of the powerless body that lay on the floor.
Though weakened and vulnerable, she could only accept the attacks, yet her innate energy still did not permit her death.
She transcended even death, enduring the pain to maintain her existence if she had no will to die.
-Swoosh, splat!
The ash that spread in all directions turned into droplets of blood, and just by receiving that blood, she felt her thirst diminish.
Her heart swelled, and vitality returned to her once-severed breath, compelling her to repeat her current actions.
“Where have you been? Mom, I…”
Was the sobbing at the end sorrow or passion?
“How much I have searched for you! How much I have looked for you!”
No, it couldn’t be defined rely by that.
How could the feelings experienced over ti, always rembering her and projecting all that happened onto her existence, be defined by just a few words?
“…I just wanted to be with you.”
But that wish was always constant.
Love, hatred, ideals, and regrets—all of these could only be achieved by being with her in the first place.
There might be other things to worry about, but such things are deed unimportant now.
“I just wanted to be with you… Why did you leave , killing humans where I was not?”
The reason she, a dead being, awakened was entirely due to her regrets.
Things unrelated to that regret were buried upon facing the source of her regrets, eager only to stir her emotions.
“Yes, you… hated humans…”
And that dium, combined with what had been accumulated, eventually led to a single answer.
If she, who lived for her mother, ca to know that her mother desired the destruction of humanity, then pursuing that too could be considered the purpose of prolonging this second life.
“You wanted to destroy humanity, didn’t you? Whatever the reason, you wanted to destroy them, right?”
Yes, that was precisely the path she had reached.
At this mont, the dead being longing for her mother thought of a new na that defined herself, not as Tacchia Philoi or Annabel Britannia.
“ too. Humans are a race that has nothing good about living anyway…”
The Red Knight of War.
A being who had closely encountered the nature of humanity and thus awakened to both hatred and understanding towards them.
“Even if there’s reconciliation, it’s only temporary. If there’s no enemy threatening them, they’ll just tear each other apart… Those are the beings who, even now, desperately want to live, repeating such cycles endlessly in this world!”
The power spreading in response to that will started to interfere with all things, gradually constructing its form.
Not just pure mana, but beings that could be called spirits, drawn to her existence.
“If there truly is a reason for their existence, let us accommodate that. Let’s find a way where your wish and their reason for existence can coexist.”
Those existing everywhere in this world were overwheld by her presence, but they started to construct sothing that did not exist here in response to that mory.
Before facing the dragon that would burn humanity, it was the foundation of this world she had seen even before that.
An era of chaos, where enemies and allies standing equal to her and all others begin to unfold from her as the starting point.
“…So, let’s go to war.”
“Let’s wage war together forever!! Hahaha!! Ahahahahahaha!!!”
The purpose was solely war, and war again.
Even the dead die and kill each other forever, leaving behind a mont in this world that in itself symbolizes humanity.
-Kyaaaaa!
The mont the sorrow of the dead that burst out at the end resonated throughout this land, the human race ahead of them unconsciously realized.
What was born before them at this mont was an unprecedented catastrophe.
The basis was not natural disasters such as plague and famine, nor even phenona that were malicious or deviant from common sense.
It roots itself in the malice and madness inherent in humanity.
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