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Chapter 68
The Reason That Villainess Wielded a Sword
“I’ll take care of all the monsters myself.”
Isis stiffened at Erin’s words. What she said was reckless to the extreme.
He looked at Helix with eyes that seemed to scold him for being of no use. Helix, in turn, looked at Isis with a face that seemed somewhat wronged.
“We can’t just leave them like this.”
“No. You can’t.”
“I know it’s a reckless choice. But if we leave this horde of monsters as they are?”
“…….”
“You said they were people from the West, right?”
“Yes. They were the ones who disappeared from the West.”
“What if those who have become monsters… are controlled by someone else and end up killing the people they once loved? Even in death, they’ll suffer.”
Erin wanted to fulfill their wish to meet the end as knights. She was determined to make that happen.
Isis was a practical person. To sustain the lives he was responsible for, he had to calculate and choose what was most efficient.
Right now, fleeing was the rational choice. Their energy was already severely depleted, not just physically but mentally as well.
Therefore, what Erin intended to do was utterly reckless and foolish from a logical standpoint.
She might die. But conversely, if Erin abandoned them here and escaped, survival was very possible. There was no need to risk herself like this.
“Isis, you don’t know me.”
When Isis didn’t respond, Erin said this and lifted her head.
She was right. Isis didn’t know her. Perhaps no one in this world truly knew her.
“I am stronger than you think. Strong enough to save all of them.”
The moment he looked Erin in the eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to say it was impossible.
Erin swung her sword with full force, while Helix assisted her from beside.
The monsters moved with a disciplined precision, reminiscent of knights.
It was clear how much they had honed their swordsmanship to become knights.
Yes, they were once knights.
Chwang!
Their lives should never have ended like this. In the future, the emperor would deceive their deaths.
They had sought to protect someone, and they had been someone’s child, someone’s lover, or someone’s family in the West.
Erin couldn’t just stand by while they were used to kill others from the West.
She only wished that they could rest peacefully, free from deceit, in death.
So Erin moved. Releasing mana with all her strength, her presence shifted.
The mana traveled along her sword, forming an aura that only a Sword Master could create.
The sword emitted a dazzling white light, almost seeming alive.
“This is not where we’re meant to die.”
“If I were to die, it would have been on the battlefield.”
Small wounds appeared on her arms, legs, face, and neck. Erin was covered in injuries in an instant.
At that moment, a long gash appeared on her arm, big enough that blood even splattered on Helix’s face beside her.
But Erin did not stop.
Helix swung his sword while glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
Long ago, he had seen Duke Asily’s sword. He had witnessed the duke swinging a sword before thousands of monsters.
And he had realized what overwhelming strength beyond human limits truly was.
Erin had been right. Neither he nor Isis knew how strong she was.
The monsters’ movements retained traces of knightly training—they moved as if wielding swords.
Typically, knights used different sword styles when facing monsters versus practicing duels.
A killing stroke necessary for survival differed greatly from a respectful, sparring duel.
And now, Erin was facing the monsters as if she were dueling.
Helix muttered without realizing it.
“This is inefficient.”
Yet, his eyes burned with intensity. He had understood what Erin was doing.
She was comforting the knights’ souls. The sight was more noble than anything Helix had ever witnessed.
As he cut down the monsters before him, he recalled what the former saint had told him:
“It may seem frustrating, but that is because the child is kind-hearted.”
His heart began racing. Suddenly, Helix realized that Erin was the person he had been searching for his entire life.
The master he was destined to serve.
“Ridiculous.”
Charlotte had recognized what Erin was doing.
Having studied monsters firsthand in this lab, she knew better than anyone what was happening here.
The diaries given to the test subjects had also come from her.
Charlotte sometimes read those diaries, observing how desperate humans behaved.
It wasn’t exactly out of concern for them. Rather, she found it amusing to watch them seek solace through writing.
“They die, and that’s that. Why does it need some grand meaning…?”
Fear of death would make anyone spout nonsense.
Dying while protecting someone doesn’t make it any less unjust? No such humans existed.
Anyone can say flattering things. That was why she despised knights.
Erin’s current actions were so absurd that Charlotte laughed bitterly.
Recreating their wish to die as knights, as if to comfort their souls—what a pointless endeavor. The monsters had long lost reason.
“It’s all over anyway. They’re all doomed…”
Was she pitying them just because they were knights?
“Stupid to the very end.”
Charlotte disliked Erin. Every time their eyes met, she felt a faint but undeniable sense of disgust.
She could not understand those pure eyes, the ones that had never bent even under Corelia’s torment.
Charlotte’s hands moved faster.
But as time passed, the composed expression on her face began to reveal tension.
Erin was quickly defeating the monsters.
This should have been impossible.
How could Erin Lysis possibly handle the monsters she had created so easily?
Erin was truly monstrous. But that was the strange part.
Charlotte had seen many Sword Masters, and even among them, differences in skill were evident.
And she could say with certainty: only someone like Duke Asily could possibly handle a horde of monsters in the orphanage.
Charlotte looked at her trembling hands.
“Damn it, to ruin my masterpiece like this… I’ll kill her.”
Muttering to herself, she rose, gathering the research results beside her into her arms.
Failing this task would invoke Corelia’s wrath beyond imagination.
“I am different from a weakling like Raymond. Unlike him…”
At that moment, Charlotte noticed Isis. He was inside the iron gate, praying while waiting for Erin and Helix.
‘Yes, it’s not completely impossible.’
Charlotte instinctively knew: Erin would not let her escape. She would probably instinctively search for the one controlling the monsters.
If she truly were a Sword Master, her sharp senses would have already detected them.
It was better for Charlotte to act before Erin defeated all the monsters.
Besides, there was a reason Erin had lured them there.
‘Through the secret passage, Erin Lysis won’t notice.’
Her room and the basement were connected by a secret passage—the last chance to hold hostages without Erin noticing.
Lost in thought, Charlotte swallowed the mana stone in her hand.
While Helix and Erin faced the monsters outside the basement, Isis returned inside.
He knew staying outside would only be a hindrance. After finishing his prayers, he began collecting the evidence of the experiments.
Perhaps he wouldn’t have been able to do this if they needed to flee immediately, but now there was hope. He had to secure evidence to ensure the events here weren’t buried.
In his line of sight, a vial caught Isis’ attention.
