WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Mistaken as the Dungeon Boss Monster ◈
Chapter 64: Cecilia
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An orphan with no parents, no name, and nowhere to go.
The girl was one of countless orphans in the slums.
Like everyone else, she was a soulless child drifting through life, afraid of death.
The slums were the adults' underworld. For children, that meant a living hell.
Children were bought and sold as slaves, often becoming easy targets for someone's anger.
The five-year-old girl had endured the slums alone.
Not because she had any will to live, but because she begged to fill her starving stomach.
But who could look at the girl and see a living person?
She wasn't living. She was on the verge of death.
Children who ended up on the streets of the slums were often abused.
The girl, too, survived by running away after beggars beat her for no reason.
Once, an adult she trusted betrayed her and nearly sold her into slavery.
The only reason the girl had barely survived was because she had to be alone to survive.
Her wounds had festered, leaving her covered in scars.
Her entire body was blue with bruises, and one eye could barely open.
The more visible scars she gained, the more scars formed in her heart.
Some adults looked at the girl with pity.
They only pitied her, though. None of them tossed her a coin.
The girl's world was dark, as if cut off from sunlight.
Children got beaten here for no reason.
She was going to be beaten to death someday anyway.
Dying would probably be easier than living like this.
With clumsy hands, the girl reached into the pocket of a passing man.
Snap!
Before she could even pull her hand back out, someone grabbed her wrist.
All that awaited her now was being beaten to death.
The girl shut her eyes and hoped he would hurry up and kill her.
But what she felt next didn't hurt at all.
A warm hand gently rested on her head.
“What's your name?”
By chance, the sunlight formed a halo around the man.
The girl blinked twice before looking up at him again.
He wore a smile as warm as sunlight.
She had never seen anyone smile like that in these slums.
“Would you like to come with me?”
“....”
He was obviously planning to sell her into slavery.
Even knowing that, she had no choice but to follow him.
How could she refuse the large loaf of bread he held out to her?
Right then, her desire to fill her empty stomach came first.
Whether she was beaten to death by passersby or slave traders, it was all the same.
The girl rationalized it that way and nodded.
The man took the girl out of the slums and settled in the city.
At a luxurious inn, he fed her until she was full, washed her, and treated her wounds.
“Are you okay? How did you endure this for so long? It must have hurt terribly.”
His expression darkened as though he could feel her pain.
The girl felt a warmth from him that she couldn't bear.
At the same time, her chest ached whenever she thought that this happiness might all be a lie.
Tomorrow, she'd probably find herself being sold to a slave trader....
When night came, she spent the night in a comfortable bed.
One day passed, then two, then three.
Even after a week had passed, the man still fed her until she was full, washed her, and treated her wounds.
The man was always by her side, and only his warmth surrounded her.
Holding a small hope in her heart, the girl spoke.
“Mister. Why did you save me?”
She wanted to know so badly.
If he had simply felt sorry for her, tossing her a coin or giving her a piece of bread would have been enough.
“Because you asked me to save you.”
“...I did?”
“Yeah. With your eyes.”
The girl's eyes widened.
Back then, she had looked at him as though begging to be killed, but the man saw the world differently.
The girl had learned a little about him.
He was endlessly kind and gentle, someone who always thought of others.
“...Your name.”
“Hm?”
“Tell me your name.”
The girl still didn't know his name.
She hadn't particularly wanted to know.
But now she did.
“You're asking late. I've been waiting a long time too. How about Cecilia?”
“...?”
She had asked him to tell her his name.
Cecilia ended up receiving a name instead.
For some reason, that made her feel even happier.
Cecilia awkwardly climbed onto his lap.
Then she burrowed into his arms, feeling his warmth.
When she looked up at him, he stroked her head.
“What's your name, Mister?”
“Oh. That's what you meant. Just call me Dad.”
Cecilia shook her head.
“I don't like Dad. He hit me and threw me away.”
“...I see.”
“And you're young, Mister. You can't be Dad. Maybe big brother.”
“Thank you for thinking I look that young. Still, the age gap is probably too large for me to be your big brother. Call me Lucas.”
Cecilia slowly opened her heart, allowing him to tend to its wounds.
The man's name was Lucas.
He also introduced himself as a Hero of the Empire, which sounded so romantic.
Lucas. My Hero.
* * *
A month later, Lucas said he was leaving for the imperial capital to return to his duties as a Hero.
Naturally, Cecilia followed him there.
Whenever Lucas was home, Cecilia clung to him every moment of every second.
Whenever she saw his soft warmth and gentle smile, she wanted to burrow deeper into his arms.
It felt as though the wounds in her heart were healing and the emptiness inside her was being filled.
“Lucas. I wish you'd stay home all the time.”
Even the time they spent together now felt too short.
She wished they could be together every day, but Lucas spent half of each day outside.
These days, even when she acted spoiled in his arms, he often gave an awkward smile and pushed her away.
“Looks like Cecilia needs me.”
“Yeah. Forever.”
“But Cecilia, I'm a Hero of the Empire. There are more people who need me than just you.”
“I hate the Empire. Be Cecilia's Hero.”
“Haha....”
Cecilia vaguely understood what a Hero was.
They were great people who protected the Empire, but she didn't care about that at all.
Cecilia only felt jealous.
What was the Empire that it could take away my Hero?
Lucas was Cecilia's Hero alone.
* * *
Three years passed, and Cecilia turned eight.
Recently, the time she spent with Lucas had decreased even further.
“Ria, you're here.”
Ria was Lucas's nickname for her.
Cecilia loved hearing him call her that, but she pouted when she saw what he was doing.
Whenever he had time, Lucas devoted himself to sword training outside the house.
Even now, he had come out alone at dawn to swing his sword.
Cecilia walked up to Lucas and held out her hand.
“Not sword. Ria's hand.”
“Hand?”
“Hold Ria's hand.”
Whenever she did that, Lucas smiled awkwardly but still took Cecilia's hand.
It was sticky with sweat, full of calluses, and rather rough.
It felt so completely like Lucas's hand that she grew even more attached to it.
“You know, Lucas.”
“Hm?”
“I want to marry Lucas. Lucas is Ria's Hero.”
Lucas took it the way fathers often did when their daughters said, “I'll marry Dad when I grow up!”
Cecilia vaguely noticed that, but she meant it sincerely.
Her feelings might change once she grew up....
* * *
Five years passed, and Cecilia turned ten.
“Do you want to try using a sword too, Ria?”
When Cecilia showed her jealousy and told him to stop training with his sword, Lucas made that suggestion.
Cecilia bluntly shook her head, then asked just in case.
“If Ria does it, will Lucas like Ria?”
“Of course. It would be admirable.”
“Then I'll do it. Give me the shiny one.”
“This... won't do. No, it isn't that I'm forbidding you. You probably won't be able to use it.”
“Hmph. Lucas is mean.”
The sword in Lucas's hand was more dazzling and beautiful than sunlight.
That sword belonged to Lucas alone.
Cecilia took another sword he handed her.
She clumsily followed his instructions and traced the sword forms. Soon after, Lucas let out a sincere exclamation.
“Oh. Ria has talent.”
“Really?”
“Of course. You really did learn by watching over my shoulder.”
“Ria's short. She can't see over Lucas's shoulder.”
“Haha....”
After that, Cecilia trained in swordsmanship with Lucas as well.
It wasn't that sword training itself was fun. She only followed along because she liked watching Lucas train.
“The more I teach you, the better you get. If you work hard, Ria might become a Hero too.”
“A Hero?”
“Yeah. When you grow up, will you become a Hero of the Empire too?”
“I like Heroes. But I hate the Empire. Ria will become Lucas's Hero alone.”
“So you'll be a Hero either way. If Ria really becomes a Hero, that would be fate. We'd both be Heroes.”
“Fate? Ria is Lucas's fate?”
“Of course. If Ria becomes a Hero like me.”
A fated partner....
Lucas was Ria's Hero.
Ria would be Lucas's Hero too.
We are fated.
* * *
Ten years passed, and Cecilia turned fifteen.
Her feelings for Lucas had not changed in all that time.
Cecilia began taking care of herself as a woman.
She tried to show off a feminine charm in her own way, but Lucas still saw her as a daughter.
No.
He no longer saw her as a daughter. Now, he saw her as a disciple.
“Ria, you're here.”
“Good morning, Master.”
Cecilia formally became Lucas's disciple.
She had an exceptional talent for swordsmanship, and even the imperial family had marked her as the next Hero.
But that was only in name.
Cecilia believed things were different if one looked at them properly.
A man and a woman lived alone together in one house.
They had not held a wedding, but Cecilia thought she and her master were no different from a married couple.
As always, the two stood side by side and swung their swords.
After training for quite some time, Cecilia became conscious of her sweat-soaked scent.
When she released the hilt, she naturally saw the calluses covering her palm.
Ugly, hideous hands that could never be called a woman's hands.
Cecilia had kept training because she liked watching Lucas hone his swordsmanship.
In truth, she wanted to hold her master's hand, not a sword hilt.
“Can I stop here for today?”
“Why? Are you feeling sick? Are you okay?”
“I'm fine. I just want to rest.”
Cecilia looked at her master while recalling the nightmares she had been having lately.
Her anxiety kept growing.
What if he disappeared while fulfilling his duties as a Hero?
“Master.”
Cecilia clutched the hem of her clothes.
After hesitating, she gathered her courage and spoke.
“Can't you quit being a Hero?”
“...What are you talking about?”
“Exactly what I said. I'm worried about you. I'm so anxious. I feel like you're going to die like this.”
Cecilia drew in a breath and revealed the feelings she had kept bottled up until now.
“Please. Quit being a Hero. Build a house in the mountains you like and live with me. Just the two of us, peacefully. I want to live like that with you. Can't you do that too?”
“Ria.”
“Of course, I'm happy now too. I love being with you, Master. But sometimes, no, every day, I'm so anxious. Please, Master. Can't we just... live peacefully like everyone else?”
“Then who will protect that peace?”
Cecilia pressed her lips tightly together.
Over the ten years they had spent together, she had come to know him with her whole being.
She could tell what he was thinking just by looking into his eyes.
“If you won't quit being a Hero, I'm leaving.”
“Ria...? Why all of a sudden?”
“I'm serious. I'm not lying.”
It was like a child's tantrum. Even if that was what it took, she wanted to break her master's stubbornness.
Without saying another word, Cecilia showed him through her actions.
She packed her belongings, slung a backpack over her shoulder, and came out to stare straight at him.
“Master. I'm not joking.”
“....”
“I want to live with you for a long time. Is that such a greedy wish? At least promise me. Promise you'll quit being a Hero. That's enough for me.”
Silence hung between them.
Overcome with emotion, Cecilia bit her lower lip.
“I'm leaving.”
With those final words, Cecilia turned her back on him.
With every step she took, the distance between them grew.
Deep down, Cecilia prayed that he would stop her.
But even after she left the house, she did not hear his voice.
Cecilia blankly stared back at the house.
Then, acting contrary to her true feelings out of spite, she left.
The young Cecilia had been consumed by rebelliousness.
“...Don't regret it.”
She said that, but she intended to return four days later.
If she disappeared for that long, Master would surely become worried.
* * *
Four days passed, but Cecilia no longer had anywhere to return to.
She couldn't believe it. She hadn't even heard about a raid on the Tenfold Abyss.
Yet people were saying that he had died in the Tenfold Abyss.
“....”
The man who had become her entire life was gone forever.
Only too late did Cecilia realize that as well.
Cecilia had suspected it deep down.
If he continued being a Hero like this, he might die.
Even knowing that, instead of staying by his side, she had acted spitefully.
If only I had forced him to stay.
If only I hadn't left and had remained by his side.
As the days passed, Cecilia's body and mind wore away, and her spirit became exhausted.
No matter how desperately she wanted to see him, she couldn't die like this.
Only by dying could she be worthy of facing him again.
Yes, revenge.
Let's kill everything in the Tenfold Abyss that got Master killed.
That was how she forced her broken body back up, erased her grief, and buried herself in revenge.
Relying on revenge, Cecilia rebuilt her shattered mind.
The imperial family supported her decision in every way.
At the Imperial Palace, Cecilia devoted herself to training day after day.
She didn't think her wounds would heal even if she succeeded in getting revenge.
If her heart still felt empty after destroying the Tenfold Abyss...
Cecilia decided she would die without regrets.
They said that when a Hero died, they became a star in the night sky.
Whenever she looked at the night sky, Lucas's face came back to her, along with the tender feelings she had felt back then.
If I die too, perhaps I'll become a bright star in the night sky and reunite with him.
* * *
Ten years with him.
Ten years without him.
Throughout the years she lived after losing her master, Cecilia remembered only the past.
She lived those ten years by superimposing them on the ten years she had spent with Lucas.
And now.
The chance to take the first step toward revenge had arrived.
Faith’s Tomb, the Rank 7 Abyssal Palace.
If she conquered the Abyssal Palaces in order, she would eventually be able to destroy the Tenfold Abyss.
With that thought, Cecilia entered the fifth floor of Faith’s Tomb and found herself puzzled.
Dullahan, Insect, Vampire.
She couldn't believe such weak creatures were children of the Abyss.
Boom!
Even the Witch standing attentively beside the boss was weak.
Cecilia shifted her gaze.
The Death Knight in her sight still hadn't moved at all.
“Why do you keep standing there?”
It was the Abyssal Palace boss.
The monster of the New Seven Palaces of the Abyss, feared by the Empire and called its despair, who had easily killed two Heroes.
Why was such a creature doing nothing but watching while its subordinates died?
The only thing it had done was follow her movements with its eyes.
What scheme could it possibly be hiding?
Cecilia shook away any further thoughts and launched a slash.
It didn't even resist, standing still and allowing a direct hit.
Cecilia's confusion lasted only a moment.
Crack!
That was when she felt something in her chest.
“Ugh!”
The sudden overload made Cecilia stagger. At the same time, she squeezed her eyes shut.
The Luna of the Moonlight Sword supported her mental strength, so the backlash ended there.
Master, the guillotine execution, the village of Witches.
Memories rushed through her in an instant, beginning to fit together like a puzzle.
“...What is this? What's happening?”
She felt as though her mind were descending into chaos.
Even so, the memories stubbornly returned to their proper places.
Soon, Cecilia's eyes widened beyond their limit.
Reflexively, she looked down at her chest.
The Ruby Crystal had disappeared without a trace.
Her thoughts raced.
The Ruby Crystal had been destroyed, and she had regained her memories.
Master had been executed for protecting the Witches.
In her rage, she had raised her sword against the Empire.
The memory of being subdued, then having her memories artificially altered using the Ruby Crystal.
“Ah....”
Her gaze naturally fell upon the Death Knight.
The Death Knight was lying there, deep wounds carved into its body.
That memory hadn't been altered.
It truly was the Abyssal Palace boss.
But it was far too strange that the Abyssal Palace boss had not resisted even once, all the way to the point of death.
The light of the Holy Sword in its hand shone especially brightly, even as it was dying.
Until now, that radiance had reminded her of Master and filled her with killing intent.
“...Why?”
A question rose within her once more.
Why did that creature keep looking at her?
Whether she was close or far away, wherever she moved, its gaze followed only her as if entranced.
At first, she had thought it was simply being wary of her.
If it had truly been wary, why had it allowed her attack to land when she came close?
No. Before that, why had her Ruby Crystal been destroyed?
Could the timing, when she had stood before the Death Knight, really have been a coincidence?
All at once, she remembered Master's final words before his execution.
Master had died after cursing humanity without hesitation.
And those who bore deep hatred for humanity were bound to rise again as undead.
“...No way.”
The Holy Sword's radiance shone as brilliantly as it had in her memories.
At the edge of her vision, she saw the Witch embedded in the wall.
The Witch the Death Knight had kept by its side all this time.
A human Witch, not a monster, inside a dungeon.
Why would it keep a human it should hate just as much in its dungeon?
...The Death Knight's gaze had obsessively followed only her.
The only reason she could think of was that it wanted to learn more about her.
‘To find out who I am?’
The Abyssal Palace boss hadn't attacked her. It hadn't even resisted.
Instead of resisting, it had destroyed Cecilia's Ruby Crystal.
In that life-or-death situation, it had targeted the Ruby Crystal over anything else.
The twisted puzzle pieces came together.
Her frozen heart began to stir again.
Too weak to resist, Cecilia collapsed to the ground.
Instinctively, she dragged herself across the floor toward it.
“Ah....”
Cecilia moved trembling fingertips as she looked at the Death Knight, whose eyes were gradually losing their light.
“No.... No, no, no.... M-Me, why...? Why did I...?”
Emotions welled up at the sensation of touching it.
She had let him die once, and now she had killed him with her own hands.
Just like before, she only understood after committing an act without knowing anything.
This Death Knight was her master.
“...Cecilia.”
“Y-Yes! I-It’s me! Ahh.... Why, why did I attack you, Master....?”
“It's....”
A short voice escaped Master's lips.
He couldn't continue, but Cecilia felt as though she knew what he wanted to say.
That he was okay, even as he was dying.
That he was asking if she was okay because he saw her crying.
That was exactly what he would say.
In an instant, Cecilia's vision went dark.
Her body tilted with it, and searing pain flared in her shoulder. A bolt of black mana had pierced through it.
Cecilia opened her eyes and looked at Charlotte, blood flowing from her head.
As Charlotte prepared to cast again, Cecilia ran toward her.
Just before Charlotte could widen the distance, Cecilia dropped to her knees in front of her.
“I-I'm sorry. I'll apologize for everything. So please.... Master, please.... Please, please save him.... You're a necromancer, aren't you? You can save Master, my master, can't you?”
“...What are you talking about?”
“My master, he's going to die like that. I-It's fine if you kill me right now. So please, just Master.... Save him....”
Charlotte stared at Cecilia with wide eyes.
Cecilia's fingertips were pointing at the boss.
Footnotes:
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