Volume 6 Chapter 24 The Girl Who Wants To Sleep In Memories
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
People reveal their true nature at the moment of death.
Death evokes fear, and fear easily strips away the plaster. It sheds the skin of a sheep to reveal the form of a wolf, and from beneath the mask, fangs leap forth. That is what it means to be human.
While possessing beastly instincts, humans are very good at pretending to be primates. They are base, lowly, and wretched beings.
Yet, true nature is not always a terrifying thing. After all, people also reach out their hands. When a hand is offered in times of true distress, the joy it brings is an irreplaceable happiness.
Human nature is often very sad. But, conversely, it is also an opportunity to trust.
”Hey, you. Fight me,” she challenged, her voice sharp and unwavering.
This was about two years ago, in the Kingdom of Stras. She had come to meet a certain girl, having received a divine revelation from Goddess Teekua about her existence—the one meant to be the hero.
A small part of the transforming Stras Village was enclosed by stone walls. A crowd reminiscent of a bazaar bustled with life. As she entered the market, thriving like a festival, there she was—a girl with golden hair, buried among the displayed pottery.
She lay lazily sprawled among the goods, looking bored. Occupying a corner of the market alone, she gazed up at the sky with a sulky expression.
No customers approached her.
It was a pitiable sight. Perhaps someone should have shown sympathy and bought one of the goods. However, no one dared approach her, likely due to her own disposition. Whether she was in a bad mood or unconsciously intimidating those around her with her magical power, passersby merely frowned and kept their distance.
Her magical power was strong—unthinkable for someone so small.
The ferocious aura she emitted kept people away, and the atmosphere she radiated was that of a wild beast.
A descendant of a clan with dragon blood. Originally the true chosen one meant to become a hero.
Later, according to the saint, one of the five selected individuals.
She had no surname. Her name was Tiet.
A girl who was cute, cool, strong, and she’s best friend.
Meeting her was difficult.
When she noticed her, she sprang up and suddenly ran toward her. Standing right in front of her, she pointed a finger and challenged, “Fight me.”
Their gazes locked for about three seconds.
From recognition to hostility—it happened in the blink of an eye.
At first, being approached by such a diminutive girl made her feel as if she were being playfully engaged by a child, but that feeling vanished instantly.
If she let her guard down, she felt as though her throat might be crushed—her presence and the killing intent directed at her were overwhelmingly intense.
She accepted her challenge with a mock battle.
Tiet’s power was incredible. Her fighting style resembled that of a wild child wielding raw superpowers. The land on the outskirts of the village was utterly devastated.
Although it was a mock battle, the ferocity of her attacks left her speechless—it felt as if she was going all out to destroy her.
She was the true chosen one meant to save the world as a hero. Like her, she possessed divine power, stronger than any opponent she had faced until then.
However, despite her immense strength, Tiet was only thirteen at the time. She had no strategy to defeat someone older than her—someone like her.
She defeated her by pressing her sword against her knee as she knelt.
When she looked at the sword tip aimed at her, surprise flickered across her face—and then a smile.
The brutal persona was gone.
She showed no regret and threw down her sword in surrender.
”Why do you look so happy about losing?” she asked, baffled.
With a genuinely joyful expression fitting her age, she beamed at her.
Somehow, it made her feel cheerful, too.
”I want to be friends with you,” she said softly.
Her goal was to make her companion. Of course, she had come here by the will of Teekua’s divine prophecy, but she genuinely wanted to be friends with her.
When she extended her hand, Tiet shyly reached out and took it.
That was the moment she met her first companion.
In her second life, her first friend. Aside from family and Klock, she might have been the first person she had ever touched hands with.
She thought she became close with Tiet relatively quickly.
By nature, she seemed quiet, but when she spoke to her, she was bright, a bit rough around the edges, and carried a warm aura.
According to stories she heard from the inn near Tiet’s house and a shopkeeper at the general store where she worked, after losing her family, she had become quite rough. She stopped talking to anyone and grew more rebellious each day. The first time they saw her smile at her, they were shocked.
She, who was overwhelmingly strong, probably needed the support of her family.
As a human, a primate, she was so exceptional that she was always alone. When her family—her protectors—were gone, and she was thrown into a world with no one by her side, her loneliness deepened. She cried without shedding tears.
That was Tiet. Her aggressive attitude was a sort of SOS.
Though, when she challenged her to a duel, it seemed more like she just wanted to pick a fight with someone strong.
Despite defeating her, her presence had an impact on her.
She was overjoyed to find someone stronger than herself, and after the duel, she bombarded her with questions, talking nonstop. When she mentioned being a hero, she lit up as if she had struck gold.
It was quite a lot—how affectionate she was. She was told to come to her place instead of renting an inn, and on the very day they met, they slept in the same bed at her house.
She wondered—Tiet might seem rough and barbaric, but wasn’t she a very cute girl?
To her, she was a close friend. A girl as adorable as a younger sister.
And reliable—a party member, Zol.
She took pride in the fact that the first member of the Brave Knight was Tiet. However, they didn’t form the party right away; before that, they teamed up just once for a joint operation.
It was a battle against the Evil Dragon on Mount Foburne, towering west of Stras.
In the Kingdom of Stras, a rampaging dragon had made its lair near human settlements.
It was the toughest battle of her life—the strongest enemy she’d ever faced.
Because the true identity of that dragon was Tiet’s grandfather, awakened as the Evil Dragon.
The secret to Tiet’s strength lay in the divine power bestowed upon her because she was originally meant to be a hero. Although the role of the hero changed to her due to various circumstances, the power given to her remained hidden, and she was born as an ordinary person.
In effect, she was another hero. One could say she was the true hero. But beyond that, she held other secrets, other special qualities.
Tiet was the youngest child of a family with dragon blood.
The power of the dragon resided within her. In other words, she harbored both divine and dragon powers in her small body.
Being born into such a lineage meant that dragon blood coursed through her family’s veins. Yet, not everyone bearing that blood could live peacefully.
Many years before she traveled to Stras, her grandfather was said to have been consumed by blood, transforming into a dragon. She never quite understood the phenomenon; Tiet never explained further.
At that time, the country, unaware of the full circumstances, immediately dispatched an extermination team upon the dragon’s appearance.
But the monster was so powerful they could do nothing against it—an unprecedented event in history.
It was ferocious, unstoppable.
The king of Stras at the time judged it impossible to defeat and forbade anyone from entering the mountain, sealing it off.
As long as the mountain remained untouched, damage to the kingdom was minimal.
And if they stayed silent, no one would suspect Tiet’s connection.
”She said she wanted to ease her grandfather’s suffering,” Tiet confided quietly.
Her grandfather was said to be someone who loved to sleep, and it was pitiful that he had been rampaging for so long.
Even though he had long lost his human form and mind, Tiet still wished to treat him as family.
She was strong. But she was too young.
Even with Tiet’s power, she couldn’t defeat the old man.
Before meeting her, she had ventured into the mountains several times but always fled back.
No matter how strong she was, wrapped in the dragon’s flames, she would burn to ashes.
To defeat the Evil Dragon, more power and wisdom than Tiet’s were necessary.
”Anna. Please, lend me your strength,” she begged, gripping her hand.
Had she ever been so glad to be relied on?
She asked her to fight alongside her.
It was a plea from a friend, and she wanted to meet her expectations, no matter what.
Together, they headed toward Mount Foburne to face the giant dragon.
To put it simply, they defeated the old man—after a grueling battle.
She was only fifteen in this life, and Tiet was thirteen.
Their tactics were crude, mostly relying on decent coordination and brute force.
They fought for nearly half a day, battered and bruised, before they triumphed.
Honestly, it was a miracle they survived.
When the battle ended, they could barely stand; her knees trembled from fear or exhaustion—she couldn’t tell which.
That battle left a deep mark on her.
It was the greatest fight of her life.
During it, she came close to dying two or three times.
Back then, she was inexperienced, hardly fit to be called a hero, with no real combat experience against monsters like dragons.
Even so, she survived—not because of any heroic talent, but because Tiet kept extending her hand to her, disregarding danger.
Despite facing a terrifying beast, in moments where one wrong step meant death, she saved her repeatedly.
There was someone who would help her. That thought uplifted her.
Tiet was the only friend she had in the world.
She alone would always be there for her.
After the battle, Tiet cried. She sobbed uncontrollably.
Even in death, the old man hadn’t reverted to human form, yet before his corpse, she wept.
She couldn’t do anything for her.
She didn’t have the courage to hold her, only watching silently from behind.
It had been a dazzlingly brilliant collaboration, but afterward, she seemed drained of energy and despondent.
She felt ashamed for being elated after Tiet saved her.
Tiet had seemed like a little sister, but now she was rapidly becoming a stranger.
For her, the battle marked a decisive break from her family, yet she couldn’t understand her feelings.
That’s why she decided to part ways with her.
Honestly, she couldn’t face her anymore.
She felt too guilty to ask her to come with her now.
It was unfortunate, but there was nothing she could do.
Someday, if another opportunity arose, she would return.
Just as she was about to leave the country with that thought, she chased after her.
”Take me with you. We are companions, after all—” she said, breathless.
This time, it was her turn to cry, but unlike her, Tiet embraced her without hesitation.
She realized then that she and Tiet had different kinds of inner strength.
She must be the true hero.
Even now, that memory is etched in her mind without fading.
This is the memory of the first party member, her best friend and most trustworthy companion.
No matter what predicament they face, she knows they will support each other.
Having touched her true feelings, she can say that with her head held high.
People show their true nature at the brink of death.
* * *
Clack. The sound of the door closing echoed softly.
Klock—the only person who ever spoke to me about love.
”You don’t know Sylvia. You don’t know the fate of Cianie. If you had known, what would you have done? Would you have reached out like her?”
”I want to know your true feelings. If the love you shared with me was not a lie, I want you to prove it.”
He hesitated. “I thought so. If your words are true, then if we could recreate that day once more—”
”Would you have jumped into the flames for me? Or would you have died alongside me—”
That was the reason she had invited Klock there. While he was asleep, she wanted to show him the past through a dream—to let him witness her death and observe his reaction.
Klock felt as if a cold breeze had drifted through the closed window. Of course, it was only his imagination—a gentle chill blowing from deep within his heart.
”Huh, heh. Well, um, I probably worried a lot, didn’t I…?” he replied, his voice trembling slightly before steadying.
She glanced at him and then, for some reason, looked satisfied.
Was she out of her mind? The thought crossed Klock’s mind but remained unspoken. Ignoring her strange rhythm as she suddenly began boasting about her friends, he kept his true feelings locked away. Some things in this world were better left untouched. Showing someone their own death was not normal. There was nothing he could say to someone who acted as if only a mentally unstable person would.
Even when she began explaining how she met that guy, Klock didn’t care. Well… although some details were shocking, he decided it was fine for now.
More than that—
”—More than that, you—” Klock said, furrowing his brow deeply.
The woman who met Klock’s gaze head-on—the Mysterious Swordsman—looked back without flinching.
”Yes. My name in my previous life was Cianie Hartmann. I was born into the Hartmann family but was adopted by the Croce family and raised under the Theocracy’s sand. I changed both my gender and name and was engaged to Klock, the eldest son of Livorno, as Sylvia Croce. I am your lover, Cianie, and your fiancée, Sylvia,” she declared.
Once again, she revealed her true identity.
For a moment, it felt as if her consciousness might slip away. Leaning her elbows on the table and resting her head in her hands, she sighed deeply.
Was this some kind of joke?
Cianie? That Cianie? The one among the nobility who was especially avoided—the selfish, tomboyish, spoiled child who killed men with nothing but stress? The super troublesome landmine girl everyone wished would stay asleep in memories? Cianie?
Though Klock had been involved with many women, he had never known another named Cianie.
He looked up at the ceiling as if giving up on everything, offering his neck to fate.
He gazed into the air and let out a faint, dry laugh.
Cianie was the name of his first love, the first girlfriend he had ever dated. The day before leaving his family home in Livorno, he had resolved to abandon her, and as a final act, had carelessly left her behind after a reckless encounter, treating her like a childhood friend.
Notes:
• Goddess Teekua – The deity who saved Sylvia after her death and granted her rebirth as a hero.
• Tiet – A companion and friend of Anna. A holy knight from the royal capital. She wears light armor and carries a shield adorned with a dragon holding a sword, indicating her affiliation with the National Military Police. She is concerned about Anna’s well-being and tries to support her emotionally.
• Zol – An adventurer and drinking buddy of Klock. He appears with Heysl to intervene in the confrontation between Klock and Sylvia.
• Anna – The legendary Hero, chosen to defeat the Demon Lord. Her past life is Sylvia Croce. She is described as a heavenly being with overwhelming skill and a merciless attitude.
• Sylvia – The hero who accuses Klock of abandoning her in her past life. She was reborn as Anna after dying in a fire and holds a grudge against Klock.
• Cianie – A noble girl with a fluffy white and light blue dress, indicating her high status. She has a hesitant and flustered personality but is kind and courteous. Her relationship with Klock begins as an accidental encounter and develops into a romantic interest. She has a fiancé but expresses feelings for Klock, complicating their relationship.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply