—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Gasp!! Huff! Phew…!”
As if a bright light suddenly appeared in the dark, Arwen’s consciousness was illuminated.
She got up from her spot as if having a seizure and scanned her surroundings.
The corpse of Luthers Edan, who had been looking at her with resentful eyes, was nowhere to be seen.
“…Ugh, ugh….”
Dizzy. Nauseating. Disgusting.
She felt like vomiting more even though she had already thrown up everything.
Arwen exhaled roughly.
It was an illusion.
But even though she knew that fact, she couldn’t easily escape the shock.
The Luthers she knew wouldn’t have ended his life this way.
Before being called the Empire’s Watchman and the Lion of Defense, the nickname of Commander Luthers Edan of the Graveyard was ‘The Avenger’.
He eliminated his enemies without regard for the means or methods.
Because it wasn’t only the Titans that were his enemies.
And he ended his life in a place like this?
Why didn’t he take revenge?
If he was truly innocent, the Luthers she knew would have surely come to punish Arwen.
She had pushed him, who had only been faithful to his duty, into the abyss and stripped him of his honor.
The Luthers she knew was not someone who would ever let a blow slide.
But… but what if he really ended his life here?
Drip, drip.
Then suddenly, drops of blood began to fall and wet the floor in front of Arwen’s eyes.
Something was swaying above her.
Arwen tightly closed her eyes and shook her head vigorously.
“…No, that can’t be.”
This was an hallucination.
It was a manifestation of guilt over the act of burying her superior with her own hands.
Didn’t she fail to find any traces from above in the first place?
Surely, the Luthers she knew would be living well, forging his own path….
But even though she thought that way with her head, her heart couldn’t accept it.
-You stupid bitch.
-Look at you, drowned in inferiority and unable to do anything. You were blinded by power and position and didn’t even know what was important.
-Did you ever try to approach and embrace him first? Did you even try to understand? You’re a hypocrite. A dirty dog licking the President’s ass.
Countless Arwen’s in her mind were pointing fingers at her.
Overwhelmed by the guilt that seemed to choke her neck, Arwen fled the room.
-Running away again?
-You’ve always been like that.
-Who was really looking out for you? You or that man?
-Traitor. Trash. Die. This is where you should kill yourself.
-Don’t you understand why Lea said those things? No one likes you. Who would like such a twisted and greedy woman?
“Shut up!! Shut up!!!”
Arwen let out a scream-like cry.
She banged on the button of the elevator she had ridden.
But for some reason, it didn’t work.
“Why, why… why are you doing this… where the hell is this place, and why are you doing this to me!”
Am I trapped like this?
Arwen slumped down in front of the elevator.
She couldn’t raise her head.
It felt like those nightmarish figures would appear.
“Sob, sob….”
Tears flowed down Arwen’s cheeks.
Tears mixed with fear, dread, and regret.
Now she had no choice but to admit it.
She just didn’t like Luthers Edan.
The commander position he had obtained without regard for the means or methods.
Luthers was definitely a strong and seasoned soldier, but he was not a righteous person.
One might ask who can define what ‘justice’ is, but at least even a young child can know that a person who drives his subordinates to their deaths and calmly commits illegal acts is not justice.
But on the contrary, Arwen was also far from justice.
What she harbored towards Luthers was malice and jealousy.
It was the darkness of her foolish, dull, and trash-like self who thought why was such a person was sitting in that position and giving orders to her.
In fact, the reason Arwen came to have such feelings was not because of the stress of war where life could be lost at the slightest mistake, nor the pressure that weighed on her as her rank rose, nor the nostalgia for her lost everyday life.
Arwen was a war orphan.
The war with the Titans had already passed well over 25 years.
It was natural since the young revolutionary President Mikhail Bismarck was now over sixty.
The deficiency stemming from that.
That was what made Arwen miserable.
She didn’t learn what she should have learned when she should have.
She didn’t know how to be embraced by someone.
As almost the only older sister and big sister in the orphanage, she took care of everything.
The twisted and narrow-minded thought that only her ideas were right was deeply rooted in her reason.
It was the abyss stemming from that.
Unlike the time she couldn’t remember, this time she didn’t receive the intense sunlight that finally reached the end of that deep sea, piercing through the thick seawater.
Arwen’s heart could only take on a deeper and darker color.
But finally, the veil of that abyss was lifted.
Arwen had found the dirty and smelly deficiency herself.
No matter how much she disparaged him, the fact that Luthers Edan was one of the war heroes who saved the Empire—and furthermore, humanity—remained unchanged.
Didn’t she also unconsciously admire him?
He fought against the 20-day Titan offensive with just one fortress and literally grinded up a force equivalent to 2 corps in scale.
It was an unbelievable achievement.
A strategy that couldn’t come out without predicting the entire future.
Luthers was a military god who had descended to the present world and a prophet who saw through the battlefield as if looking at his own palm.
How could she harbor an inferiority complex towards someone who had achieved such overwhelming achievements?
It was an absurd thing to say.
The moment she faced reality.
Arwen’s mind sank into that abyss with a gurgle.
Smelly.
Dirty.
Dark.
Cold.
Just rotting without any change.
“Ah… ugh, uuuugh!?”
The sigh that had unconsciously flowed out of her mouth turned into retching.
Disgusting.
It was so disgusting that she couldn’t bear it.
She had deceived herself that she was different on the outside no matter what feelings she harbored inside.
Maybe she knew the end of it.
It might have been a kind of fate that she had followed Luthers and arrived at 38 Neudink.
Revenge on the hypocrite and traitor.
Arwen, who had been blankly scanning her surroundings as if out of her mind, noticed a green rope abandoned in a corner.
It seemed to have been used to tie together the materials piled next to it and then left as is.
“….”
Arwen reached out her hand towards the rope.
And as if possessed, she tied it into a circle, tied a knot, pulled a chair, and tied the other end to a device that looked like a sprinkler.
She didn’t want to think about anything anymore.
What good would it do for such a person to live in the world?
She climbed on the chair and put her neck into the circular knot.
Tears fell.
The rough and chilly texture of the rope gripped her neck.
As if to drag her to death.
The one left at 38 Neudink right now wasn’t the honorable Imperial Army general and head of the Inspection Department, Arwen Orka.
It was only the wretched war orphan who had betrayed and slandered her superior with ingratitude and hadn’t even tried to understand him.
That fact was so miserable.
Once she acknowledged it, there was no going back.
She had already been covered in filth all over her body, and the rotten smell had begun to vibrate from her soul, so what could she turn back?
Arwen kicked the chair.
Splash! Thud!!
“Heh, heuk… ack, hack… ack…!! Kkeu, eu…!! Euk keh, euk…!!”
Arwen’s feet flailed in the air.
The pain of being strangled brought out a hoarse voice, and her eyes rolled back.
“Euk… kek, keh, eu, heu….”
Wait.
Wait.
What? I’m scared. I’m scared, I don’t want to die.
Even though she struggled desperately to get out of the rope, even if belatedly, Arwen’s consciousness slowly faded away.
The strength drained from her whole body.
Her vision turned black.
It was an abyss.
An abyss in the name of death and atonement.
Ah.
She was going to meet this kind of end anyway.
At that moment, the moments Arwen had lived flashed before her eyes.
Wasn’t it called a life review?
There were no truly happy memories anyway.
Now that all those memories had been tainted by her ugly inner self, how could the memories adorning the end of a depraved woman have any meaning?
It must have been that way.
It should have been.
-I love you.
-Look only at me for the rest of your life.
-Of course, Arwen. No matter where you are, I will definitely find you.
-Even if you let go of this hand?
-Yes, even if the world ends.
A warm warmth enveloped Arwen.
As her dark vision brightened, she and a man were walking, looking at each other on a hill where white hydrangeas were in full bloom.
What is this?
Arwen stood blankly in that memory that unfolded like a slow-motion movie.
There was no way she couldn’t remember the man.
Black hair, blue eyes, a sharp nose, rough fingers contrasting with pale skin.
He was Luthers Edan.
She couldn’t understand.
Why were she and Luthers walking like that, looking at each other with such loving expressions?
Weren’t they like lovers in love this way?
But that question didn’t last long.
Arwen, who had been moving forward with Luthers, suddenly let go of his hand and gradually became transparent, disappearing from sight.
Luthers, who had been smiling happily, looked around in confusion at the sudden disappearance of his lover.
At that moment.
The gazes of Arwen and Luthers met.
“Arwen!! No!!”
Startled, Luthers rushed towards her and reached out his hand.
As if he would save her right away.
The moment his large hand embraced her body.
Splash!!
Arwen’s consciousness returned.
“Hack, cough cough! Heh, heck!! Ack! Ugh! Uuugh!! Cough! Cough!!!”
Arwen, covered in tears, saliva, and all sorts of bodily fluids, raised her head.
The rope tied to the ceiling was broken.
Because it had been left for a long time, the inside had completely rotted.
“Cough! Cough!! Heck, hack!! Bleeeh!!”
What?
What. This memory. What the hell is it?
Why with him… him…?
It was confusing.
A hallucination? An illusion? If not, a desire harbored in the heart?
No.
That was… a memory of recovery engraved deep in the soul.
“…Arwen Orka.”
Suddenly, another version of herself was standing in front of her.
The hole pierced in her side had turned black and necrotic.
It was poisoned.
Blood flowing from her mouth dripped onto the floor.
“You must not die here.”
Turning her head to the voice heard from the side, a headless woman was standing there.
Only the blood-stained nameplate ‘Arwen Orka’ revealed the identity of the terrible corpse.
“The duty we couldn’t fulfill.”
“The original sin of us who always left first.”
“Putting another burden on the shoulders of the one we love, giving him pain.”
“And in the end, betraying him.”
“The final responsibility towards the one who loved and cherished the ugly human being who tried to run away again without settling anything more than anyone else.”
Countless Arwen Orkas were looking at her.
Only a few were intact.
“This time, we must bring it to an end.”
A dangling index finger poked her heart.
Arwen looked beyond her numerous selves at the brightly shining old computer.
Woong!
The computer glowed with a red light.
Arwen instinctively realized that the computer was connected to the ‘Graveyard’s Akasha’.
“Not for humanity.”
“Dedicate your life for your lover, our lover, and my lover.”
Today’s atonement was over with this.
Arwen Orka had died and been reborn anew.
Now it was time to face all the fragments of that past.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The rope tied to the ceiling was broken.
Oh man 😢 I truly wanted her d— here. At least she would have lived honorably in next regression