🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter – 03
“…Why am I still alive?”
Eleanor Hildet, rising from her seat, blinked blankly.
At her last moment, she had confronted a god, and the god’s light had pierced through her body.
She had thought her soul would be obliterated as divine punishment—so could there have been some mistake?
“…”
Eleanor glanced around.
The small room, more fitting for a servant than a Hildet, was unmistakably her own.
Standing, she nearly touched the ceiling, just as she remembered.
A worn desk held papers stained by years of handling.
“…August, 462, was it?”
It was a calendar she had drawn herself since she hadn’t received one in who knows how long.
Imperial year 462. The year Eleanor had turned seventeen.
Her body, though frail, was no longer tainted with the blood of monsters.
Had she truly returned to her seventeen-year-old self? The powerless seventeen-year-old?
Eleanor clenched her fists lightly and released them. Her voice echoed through the small room.
“The Black Blade.”
Her main weapon, the dagger that had slain the Demon Lord, materialized at her fingertips.
The blade, dark and faintly black, radiated a sinister aura.
Yet, to Eleanor, it felt weak—far from her peak power.
“Seems my strength has been sealed.”
Still, it wasn’t bad. Her weapon remained.
And since it was August of 462, even this dull Black Blade would be of some use.
“Healing Practitioner Entry Exam.”
Eleanor glared at the calendar with her jet-black eyes.
‘Entry exam! Last chance, so do your best!’ she had written.
“Indeed, it was the last chance.”
She smirked bitterly, recalling her previous life.
She had completely failed the exam and officially disappeared from her family.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t entirely her fault. The guards her stepmother Jennifer had assigned had sabotaged her exam.
But she was never given a chance to explain.
The entry exam was a basic requirement, barely worth the attention of anyone in the Hildet family.
Yet Eleanor had been dragged along to take it until she was seventeen, and no one would listen to her excuses.
A year later, when even the formal greetings she should have received had vanished, she was offered as a sacrifice.
“…Ha.”
Eleanor let out a short sigh. She didn’t even want to imagine her life after falling into the demon realm.
But at least she had gained power from it, which could be considered a small mercy.
Eleanor hid the Black Blade and chuckled softly.
“This time, it’ll be different.”
Passing the entry exam for healing practitioners was now a trivial matter for her.
By passing it, she could start to undo the twisted path her life had taken.
This life, she would no longer allow herself to be powerless.
If the god had granted her another chance as some sort of lesson, then the god had misjudged.
Everyone who had betrayed her in her previous life would pay the price.
“I need to grow stronger.”
Eleanor steadied her breath and rose once more.
Her greatest weapon was the Black Blade imbued with demonic energy.
Yet her strength was sealed, barely even a fraction of her true power.
Her body, weakened by long-term abuse and neglect, would be unable to fight properly even if her strength returned.
To walk the path of revenge awaiting her, she would have to rebuild even the most basic of powers.
“Time to visit the training grounds.”
After one last glance around her room, Eleanor stepped outside.
Even though the eldest daughter of one of the four great houses had awakened, not a single servant had come to her.
There had never been a maid to attend her, so this was not surprising.
“….”
Eleanor scanned her surroundings with a cold gaze.
No servant she passed offered the proper respect.
A few bowed slightly, but that was all.
This was Eleanor Hildet’s position within her family.
“Miss, where are you going?”
As Eleanor descended from the third floor to the second, a guard blocked her path.
Eleanor glared at him coolly, then moved again—but the guard stopped her once more.
“I asked where you are going.”
“Do I have to report my every movement to you?”
“Madam Hildet instructed that your movements be monitored and you protected, as you are still frail.”
Eleanor couldn’t help but smirk.
Even her stepmother Jennifer, who had been troublesome inside the house, and her past powerless self, who had feared such orders, were laughable.
It was not protection, but surveillance.
“Move aside. I’ll report to my mother myself.”
“But…”
“What’s your name?”
Eleanor looked at the guard and suddenly recognized his face from her fragmented memories.
He had been one of the guards who had sabotaged her last entry exam.
“Why do you want my name…?”
“Never mind. Remember today’s insolence, Kal.”
Eleanor deliberately nudged the guard on the shoulder and continued down the stairs.
Kal looked bewildered but shook his head.
The Hildet matron had only wanted to ensure Eleanor’s safety without her being harmed, so his duty was effectively over once a threat had been implied.
When Eleanor reached the first-floor entrance, a sharp voice cut through the air.
“What are you doing here, failure?”
“…Zechiel, my brother.”
Turning, she saw Zechiel Hildet glaring at her.
The eldest son, three years her senior, inheriting the Hildet family’s healing talent and destined to be the next head.
Zechiel displayed an intense, almost naked, disdain for Eleanor.
Perhaps because he had always been recognized by the family, or because that recognition had been won at the expense of Eleanor.
Eleanor smiled faintly.
“Wasting time here when you should be preparing for tomorrow’s exam?”
Zechiel bared his teeth in anger.
In the empire, there were four great houses: the Rotger for swordsmanship, Kube for martial arts, Meray for magic, and Hildet for healing.
Their heirs inherited exceptional abilities, and the houses strengthened the empire.
Eleanor Hildet, however, had no talent. Despite her family name, she had no healing abilities and was always treated as a sinner.
In her past life, she would have bowed and apologized. She had been a weak failure, and Zechiel a brilliant heir.
But now, he looked only like a childish, unawakened apprentice to her.
“Then why are you wasting time here, brother?”
“What?”
“If my walking around is slacking off, then wouldn’t you also be slacking off by being here?”
“What did you just say?”
Eleanor had once been the type to cry and flee up to the third floor, yet now she spoke with this biting sarcasm, revealing Zechiel’s temper.
“You, who have not even passed the entry exam and defile the Hildet name! Do you think you can compare yourself to me, an advanced healing practitioner?”
“Ah, you earned the title of youngest advanced healer, right? Quite impressive.”
“You…!”
“I was just commenting on your achievements, brother. Did you take offense?”
Zechiel clenched his teeth, forcing a smile to contain his anger.
“Ha. Seems you believe you are some kind of god’s proxy. That explains your arrogance.”
Eleanor narrowed her brow slightly. Zechiel hadn’t even seen her face, only speaking his mind.
“But let’s see if you can still act so boldly when you fail the exam and are not a divine proxy.”
He turned his back sharply.
Yet Eleanor’s mind lingered on one phrase he had said.
“Divine proxy.”
One member of the Hildet family, chosen by a divine oracle, to wield healing powers.
It had nothing to do with her. In her past life, Trisha Hildet had heard the god’s voice.
But a strange memory surfaced.
「My child. Why do you wander the path of demons? Why did my proxy slay all my creations?」
「Who are you?」
「Child… have you now lost the ability to hear the divine voice? Do you see only demons before your eyes?」
“…I remember that conversation.”
Just before her divine punishment, the god had asked her why the proxy acted as it did.
Could she really be a divine proxy?
But in her past life, she had never heard the god’s voice.
Trisha Hildet had not been the god’s proxy.
“How is this possible?”
Eleanor realized she needed to investigate the divine proxy matter separately from reclaiming her position by passing the healing exam.
…but that could wait.
She soon arrived at the training grounds, her footsteps light.
Alone in the silent training hall, she began basic physical training.
In the demon realm, she had moved constantly to survive; in this new life, she would need to move to survive again.
Her delicate appearance was overlaid with desperate energy.
A commotion arose in the Hildet mansion, originating in the kitchen.
Servants sometimes quarreled, but today was different.
The source of the commotion was the Hildet eldest daughter herself—Eleanor Hildet.
“Can’t you hear me?”
Her voice was quiet but cold, piercing the startled maid with her gaze.
“B-but…”
“I asked for more meat, but apparently, you didn’t hear me.”
A small ceramic bowl of salad sat on the table in front of Eleanor. The arrangement was pretty, but the portion was insufficient.
Yet Lora, the maid, could not easily follow her orders.
Many reasons: Eleanor had rarely been at the table herself, rarely given orders, and had never refused the matron’s set menu before.
No Hildet maid had ever respected Eleanor or even acknowledged her presence.
Yet instinctively, Lora realized she must obey.
“This is the third time I’ve asked—when will your ears finally work?”
“I-I’ll bring more right away.”
Before Lora could move, the head maid Ann stepped in.
“You stay where you are.”
“Y-yes, head maid…”
Eleanor glanced at Ann.
Ann had entered the Hildet household with the matron herself and clung closely, eventually earning her position as head maid.
A typical opportunist, she had always pleased the matron to get ahead.
Ann placed her hands on her hips, staring at Eleanor.
“Miss, do not act so brazenly.”
