“If you’re going to kill me, just kill me already, you worms! Bwaaahhhhh!”
Elyliyah sat in a heap on the ground. She was a sobbing mess.
“I already told you—we’re not going to kill you. Calm down already,” said Homura, as if she was comforting a small child, but Elyliyah wouldn’t listen.
“Geez, how can this little brat be so loud? Maybe we should just give her what she wants and kill her already,” growled Psycho, growing increasingly irritated.
“Maybe if you didn’t say things like that, she wouldn’t be crying so much!”
The fighting was now truly over, and quiet had returned to the town…with the exception of the wails coming from the central plaza, of course.
Torreque, Ares, and Rhiann had all been seriously hurt. But they had already been healed and were now helping to clear the rubble around town.
Elyliyah’s upper body had been covered with serious burns after Homura’s punch, particularly her face. She had just barely managed to survive. At first, Homura had freaked out, convinced she had put a little too much shine on her punch and killed the girl, but thankfully, Elyliyah’s self-buffing magic was tenacious, and the worst-case scenario had just barely been avoided.
“Elyliyah, are you okay?!”
“Be quiet! You have no idea how I feel!”
Healed and conscious again, Elyliyah understood the situation she was in and was currently bawling her eyes out, convinced that she was going to be executed as a criminal of the highest order. Even her father, who had come rushing to their side, was unable to get through to her.
“Elyliyah, relax. We’re really not going to kill you.”
“So then what are you going to do…?! Oh, I know, you’re going to humiliate me in front of everyone!”
“We’re not going to do anything of the sort.”
“You’re lying. I don’t believe you…”
With enough gentle reassurance from Homura, Elyliyah eventually recovered her composure…until Homura immediately dashed that composure to pieces.
“We’re going to subject you to something much worse than that!”
“Waaahhhhhhh!!”
“Now who’s scaring her?!”
“I can’t help it. She just looks so cute when she cries…”
“You need help…”
Homura felt a sleazy tingle of excitement at the sight of the spoiled girl crying her eyes out. Whereas Psycho felt a sleazy tingle of horror at the sight of Homura in tingles.
“Honestly, we really aren’t going to hurt you, Elyliyah.”
“Then what are you going to do…? What’s going to happen to me…?”
Homura crouched down next to Elyliyah and made eye contact.
“Can I ask you something first?”
“What…?”
“Elyliyah, do you think that no one really sees you unless you make them afraid?”
Elyliyah nodded softly. “I’m not a normal girl, so I understand. People never saw me as Elyliyah and always as the rich girl…but when those kidnappers took me, when I was about to kill them, I wasn’t some rich girl to them. They were afraid of me, of Elyliyah… It was the first time I ever felt like I was really here. That was when I knew I had to make people afraid…”
“I’m sorry, Ely, I didn’t know… I failed you as a parent. I thought so long as I gave you a life of convenience, that would be enough. You never complained as a child, so I just assumed you had no worries. All this is my fault…”
“Don’t say that now…”
Upon hearing Elyliyah’s confession, the governor seemed ashamed that he had never noticed what was bothering his daughter.
“That’s only one reason your personality became violent,” said Homura, casting her eyes toward the choker. Its stones were now crushed. “The other was that choker. Where and when did you get your hands on that?”
“I got that… It was before coming to this town, so maybe about a year ago? I was taking a walk outside town, looking for some bandits or something who I could beat up without getting into trouble, when I happened to come across a merchant who was being attacked, so I saved them. The merchant said it was a reward… They mentioned how pretty it was, and how it suited me, as they placed it around my neck.”
“Some other parts of that story were a little concerning as well…but let’s ignore that for now.”
It sounded like Elyliyah had already been pretty violent even before the curse came into play.
“Whenever I wore the choker, I felt so good inside and full of power. I thought it was protecting me, like a good luck charm. But…”
“Right,” said Homura. “It was actually cursed.”
Elyliyah cast her eyes toward the ground.
“Hey, brat face, was this merchant a woman by any chance?” Psycho asked.
“Yes, a very pretty woman.”
“The person who gave the curseblood to that shark lady was also a woman, apparently. There’s a chance the gemstones on that choker you were wearing had curseblood mixed in with them.”
“But the merchant was just a normal person,” Elyliyah said.
“Maybe she was a monster in disguise. Or maybe she was a person working with the Dark Lord. Anything is possible.”
“No way…”
The Dark Lord’s forces were much larger, more fiendish, and more cunning than they had imagined.
After hearing everything, Homura knew what to do.
“I’ve made up my mind. Elyliyah…”
Elyliyah braced herself, waiting to hear her fate.
“…you will be put in charge of protecting this town.”
Elyliyah’s brain seemed to stall for a moment, failing to understand what Homura had said.
“Is that…all?”
“Yes, that’s all.”
“How is that ‘something much worse’?”
Elyliyah didn’t seem to understand, so Homura explained as gently as possible.
“Elyliyah, even if that cursed item was partially to blame, the fact of the matter is that you hurt a lot of people.”
The way she punished the prisoners and tortured those demons. The massacre at the fishing village, and the resultant attack on Aurerich. Even if a cursed item was to blame, Elyliyah’s personality was—or more accurately, had already become—sadistic to begin with. The damage wasn’t fully the curse’s fault.
But she could still start over and make things right. At least, that was what Homura believed, now that she understood why Elyliyah had behaved the way that she had.
“The people you’ve hurt probably hold a grudge against you. They will talk about you behind your back. Your punishment will be to dedicate yourself to this town while carrying the weight of what you’ve done on your shoulders. A fate that will be much more difficult to bear than death.”
Living with the weight of one’s sins could be difficult indeed. Most people’s instincts were to run from the things they’d done wrong in order to protect themselves. In that sense, at least, being forced to face up to the things you’ve done could sometimes be the greatest punishment of all.
“But if you do that, Elyliyah, the people of this town will come to see the real you in time.”
Elyliyah’s eyes went wide, as if a whole new world was opening up before her. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I doubt things will be easy for you at first, though.”
“Why are you being so kind to me…? I did something wrong. That’s why you punched me, isn’t it? Even without the cursed item, I hurt a lot of people.”
“Because we’re similar. I once lost my way, too, because of the people around me.”
Elyliyah had fixated on making others afraid of her as a way of asserting her own existence.
“So that’s that, but do you think you can make it happen?” Homura asked.
Torreque was now listening to their conversation as well, having already finished directing the initial cleanup.
“I think so,” Torreque replied. “I’ll do my best to persuade everyone.”
“And I’ll speak with the Alliance,” added the governor.
“Besides, I’ve got this arm now, too, so I guess I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
Psycho, the one responsible for the arm, stared up at the sky and whistled as innocent as could be.
“In any case, you’ll need to be on your best behavior moving forward and put in an effort to impress people.”
“I don’t think I can…,” said Elyliyah, already giving up before she even started. But encouragement came from an unexpected source.