A day and a half had passed, and Renee still hadn't returned.
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Vera stared blankly at the ceiling, breathing as if he were about to pass out.
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'…Gone?'
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Did she leave? He suddenly had such a thought.
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Such an idea had entered his dazed mind.
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Wasn't that how it was supposed to be? It had been almost half a month. It was about time she grew tired of it. Despite her weak state, she had been caring for him, even after being unable to properly eat even one meal a day.
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Vera momentarily laughed at the thought that crossed his mind, but quickly felt suffocated by the chest pain that followed with every breath.
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Now he felt it for sure. The remaining embers of his life were fading away.
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At last, this miserable life was about to come to an end.
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Once again, a smile appeared on Vera's lips.
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The damn beggar at the bottom of the slums, the slum’s butcher, the 'Empire’s Savage Hound', and the cancer of the continent, would finally perish.
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The sinner, who would be at the bottom of hell, was dying alone in a corner of this filthy slum.
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Wasn't it the greatest of all the good news, something to celebrate for the entire continent?
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Vera, who had been laughing for a long time at those thoughts, felt his laughter stop at a certain point.
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It didn't happen because he wanted it to.
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It was because there was a person who came to his mind.
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An ugly woman with burn scars covering every inch of her skin, covered in filth. She came to his mind.
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He remembered a woman who made his stomach churn with every word she said.
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A woman who seemed to be the embodiment of the word nobility, a woman who made him feel 'regret' for the first time, came to his mind, the very same woman who showed kindness even to an evil being such as himself.
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Even at this very moment, he was belittling her, but Vera knew.
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That, even if he only knew her for a short period of time, the woman he had seen wasn't a person who would ever give up on him.
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She probably didn't run away. If she was going to run away, she would have run away long ago because she couldn’t stand hunger.
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Vera knew better than anyone how painful the hunger was.
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So, he also knew how difficult it was to fight hunger during those 15 days.
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He couldn’t believe that a woman who had endured such hardships would have run away now for that reason.
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'…She must have died.'
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She was a woman who didn't listen to even a word of warning, so she must have died after being skewered by a scavenger. The corpse lying somewhere in the slum.
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Vera, who was looking at the ceiling with hazy eyes, clenched his teeth as he thought of Renee’s corpse lying in muddy water, and an emotion surged over him.
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It was an unknown emotion.
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It was a feeling he had never felt in his life.
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He knew countless similar emotions, but he just couldn't think of a word to describe this feeling.
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It resembled regret, and it resembled compassion at the same time. It took the form of guilt, but it could not be called as such.
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It seemed as though it could be expressed as fear, but rather than such an overwhelming feeling, it felt more like a smaller ember that spread faintly.
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It was a feeling of gratitude, with some guilt mixed in.
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Vera felt his body tremble at this emotion that made his innards churn.
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It was such a complex feeling. It was a feeling that gripped his belly and made him feel more stuffy than the chest pain that had tormented him so far.
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In an effort to move, Vera twisted his whole body even though he was paralyzed.
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“Heh heh...!”
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As he moved his fingertips, the pain spread throughout his body. Then, as he moved his arm, he could feel the blood seeping from within.
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However, he couldn't stop.
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Because of this dizzy feeling that made him want to throw up, he couldn't afford to worry about the pain in his body.
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He raised his upper body.
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“Cough...!”
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Blood gushed out of his mouth.
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His body collapsed, producing a 'thump' sound.
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Simultaneously, Vera raised his head up and looked at the half-open door of the shack.
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Arms stretched out. He touched the ground with his arms and began to crawl while quivering.
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He crawled, looking so miserable that he couldn't even bear to see himself.
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Leaving the door, going through muddy water, he crawled for a long time, not even knowing where he was going.
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The blood that had been gushing out of his mouth flowed back up and came out through his nostrils.
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Every time he stretched out his arms, he felt a crushing pain all over his body.
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Nevertheless, he still couldn't stop.
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It was because of this strange suffocation that tightened his stomach.
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Vera crawled aimlessly as if he were a madman, and found a figure lying in a corner of the slum, covered with muddy water.
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Vera knew at once who that person was.
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It was Renee.
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Her burn-scarred skin, muddy water-stained white hair, and the lightless blue pupils exposed under her half-closed eyelids were all telling him.
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The entire area was drenched in a dark and gloomy shade.
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It had a color that evoked death. It shared the same color as those who perished in the slum. It was a grim color that always emerged when the clotted blood and muddy water mixed.
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Seeing those colors spread around her, Vera stopped.
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He had been crawling for a long time, and when he finally stopped, he was a complete mess.
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He had been tormented by a strange emotion for some time, and now another emotion had been added.
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This time, an emotion that came to mind was one that Vera was certain of.
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It was a feeling that dominated his entire childhood, so he couldn't be ignorant of it.
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Despair.
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That was the emotion that came to mind.
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He didn't know why he had such feelings.
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He could only instinctively realize that the emotion that came to mind had taken the form of despair.
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Vera, whose face was covered in blood and filth, looked at Renee's corpse for a long time, then slowly crawled in her direction.
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He crawled the distance, barely reaching.
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Vera barely managed to crawl to Renee, burning through the last embers of his life, and looked at her with the expression of a man about to die.
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Somehow, even though she must have died so painfully, she had a peaceful face.
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“…You look ugly.”
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They were words mixed with gasps.
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Having said that, Vera looked at her face for a moment and continued.
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“What did I say? I told you that you would die.”
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He tried to smile, but he didn't even have the strength to raise the corners of his lips.
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His eyelids were heavy. He couldn't breathe.
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Vera felt that the end was really coming and looked at Renee's face.
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She was truly a selfish woman.
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You made me break my vow to bear all of my sins and die miserably alone, and now you're sleeping while making such a peaceful face.
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I still don't know the identity of this heartbreaking feeling, but you fell asleep without teaching it to me.
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His whole body had lost its strength. That thought weighed down like cotton soaked in water.
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Vera looked at Renee with his half-closed eyes, and unintentionally, his lips moved then uttered these words.
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“…Did you know?”
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Talking to a corpse was a truly ridiculous thing to do, but Vera didn't stop speaking, even as he was thinking that.
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“I have a really great talent. With this talent, a good for nothing beggar was able to become the most evil being on the continent.”
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Vera finally reached out and grabbed her hand, which was submerged in the muddy water, using all the strength that had remained in his body up to that point.
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There was a tattoo in the shape of eight curves intertwined to form a circle under Vera's sleeves and forearms.
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“Stigma, you say. I have one as well.”
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Vera said so and giggled. This was because it was funny that he was divulging secrets he had never told anyone in his life.
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“The God of Oath. That is my stigma. With this stigma, I can confer weight on my words.”
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I don't know why. Just one day, a stigma suddenly appeared on my forearm.
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Because the stigma was a miracle known to have been bestowed by the Gods on their most cherished servant, Vera wondered why the stigma appeared on him.
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It was a natural thought. He didn't believe in God, nor did he want to represent God's will.
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So, Vera used this stigma simply for his own greed.
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“…If I make an oath and pay the price for it, I get that much power.”
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With this talent, with this miracle, half of the continent was in his grasp.