Inheritance Feud

Chapter 72

Chapter 72

The questions that started to overflow in one go as though spouting out made the wreckage that lost its light change into gooey magma.

(Who’s fault is it? Why am I here? Who am I? What am I here to do? What is this feeling?)

The fragments that remained all turned to magma.

Magma that became a warped, deformed, grotesque shape, as though wriggling, as though twisting around, as though it was churning.

And then the reformed heart had only one genuine emotion.

「Ah, I… want to break them.」

Just as she recognized the words she unconsciously let out, the frozen emotion came gushing forth.

It was hate.

Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Just hate.

I hate Lucia, I hate Keril, I hate the one who was her father, I hate the village chief, I hate the villagers.

I hate the slave trader who made a laughingstock of mother and me, I hate the slaves who sneered at us when we were ridiculed by the slave trader.

I’d like to t*****e, I’d like to injure, I won’t forgive them, I’d like to break it, I’d like to twist, I’d like to gouge, I’d like to snatch away, I’d like to pulverise, I’d like to crush, I’d like to smash, I’d like to s***h, I’d like to make them choke, I’d like to burn, I’d like to skin, I would like to stab, I’d like to tear, I’d like to kill, I’d like to kill, I’d like to kill, I’d like to kill, KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL!!

The inside of her heart was simply filled to the brim with just that.

After that, she stopped listening to a single thing the slave trader said.

Each time she showed a rebellious attitude, she was punished through various means, but still the fever that burned inside her wouldn’t forgive them.

Even if she was tortured and punished to the point where she could no longer move, even if she was on the brink of death, that fever was the only thing that wouldn’t disappear.

Arriving at the royal capital, her glaring hostility did not wane despite pain being transmitted through the slave crest.

Before long, the days of simply being chained to the wall without sufficient food, clothing, or bathing started. The days where she just deludes herself, fantasizing about achieving revenge with the utmost cruelty in her fantasies. She stopped being given even a single meal a day, as though they thought it was not needed if she was going to be disposed of when those days soon came to a close.

She might die like this. No, she was sure to die.

The fever that did not disappear even when she was on the brink of being able to sense death writhed inside her body.

No matter how tenacious a beastman, if they did not have the minimal amount of food at least, they wouldn’t last long. Already her consciousness grew hazy, and she could feel nothing but the heat inside her feverish body.

「Yeah, as I thought, you have beautiful eyes.」

Amid that, a voice resonated within her still-burning dim consciousness.

Before her eyes was an unfamiliar person; no ability to think rationally remained, and she could only conclude that he was the same as the several nobles who had turned up when they first arrived in the capital.

Without the strength to rage like she did back then, she could only intimidate him by glaring at him with bare hostility.

But even so, she felt a hint of something familiar in the man’s pupils that drew her in for some reason.

「Do…n’t touch… Hu…man.」

Her mouth, which was bereft of moisture, moved and forced out some words.

「Gu… aaaAAAaaaaah!!」

Then, pain ran throughout her body, causing her already hazy vision to flicker even more.

It felt like an old wound was being forcibly gouged out. A scream was squeezed out as though it was wrung out from that part of her body.

Just when she thought the waves of pain had lessened, an unknown bottle of liquid was thrust into her mouth.

「Nng… Ghhhhh!!」

The liquid she was forced to swallow without her having the strength to resist or spit out allowed her emaciated body to recover from its languid state.

Her magic always felt insufficient due to not having decent meals or rest, but now it even managed to recover to about half.

「With this, you’ll be able to talk for a little while.」

The girl couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind the man’s words. Generally speaking, with her cognitive ability restored, she understood that what she was made to drink were HP and MP potions.

Neither of them were things to give to a slave girl. In general, although it wasn’t beyond one’s grasp, they were something that could be considered to have quite a high price.

「What…」

To the girl, this was enough to make her wary of some trap, thus, she received a shock when she heard the words that came next.

「Who do you want to kill?」

The shock was similar to the one from when her mother died, when she was prompted by the slave trader’s words, and realized that her heart had reconstructed itself.

「You, who do you want to take revenge on?」

That man―that young boy seemed no different from herself when she peered into his eyes; the girl understood why she felt a sense of familiarity and was drawn to those pupils.

What was there was something similar to the fever that she had seen burning inside her for a long time.

The familiarity was natural. As for why, it was because of the eyes that were the same as hers.

That was why the girl spoke spontaneously.

「The girl who was my friend and… the boy who was my childhood friend and… dad and… the village chief and… the slave trader and the slaves.」

「Do you only want to kill them?」

She realized it was a mocking tone of voice, and yet she sensed the signs of him wanting her to speak.

However, such a thing was trivial to the girl.

It was a desire she had repeated in her delusions many times and, before long, had been etched not in her reasoning, but in her instincts.

「It’s no good to just kill them, it’s no good unless I torment, t*****e, make them scream, slowly deprive them of sleep, then break, break, break them to exhaustion. To simply kill them, that’s too much of a waste.」

Saying that, the girl smiled for the first time since becoming a slave.

The boy before her also smiled at the words that gushed out from the depths of her heart.

15 - and His Accomplice are Laughing

15 - and His Accomplice are Laughing

15 – and His Accomplice are Laughing

「Just killing them is no good. Make them scream from suffering and torment, and when all they want to do is lie down and close their eyes—break, break, and break them some more, push them to the brink until they become completely useless. However, to simply kill them, wouldn’t that be too good a fate for them?」

Tempted by the words of the girl who was laughing as though she was broken somewhere, the corners of my mouth edged upwards.

「Now then, what I have prepared before you are two separate paths that you may choose from. The first path ends with just me and you in a Master and Slave relationship. If you choose this path, after serving the purpose for which I am buying you, I will give you the power to live alone as well as some money, and I will free you from being a slave. If you are skillful enough, you might even be able to find a way to be happy with what remains of your life as well.」

「…………」

「That well-worn lump of emotions, maybe you might become able to crush those painful memories and become able to bury it all deep in your chest and then seal it away. If you can come to do that, then there might be a future in which you might once again find laughter.」

It sounded like a ridiculous tripe.

It was a future neither I nor she wished for.

Still, I continued to say the words clearly and concisely.

I merely told her of one of the possible future outcomes.

What will happen to our future selves, I do not know.

Though the possibilities are good for revenge, one day, you might even be able to live without thinking about it.

It is for this reason that we were having this discussion.

From here on, I will talk about the other choice available because I could say with certainty that this choice will crush the other.

「Or there’s the other path, which concerns us being comr-… all-…」

Comrade? Ally?

Regardless of the word, it stops before fully forming.

「Hah… I guess it would be different… with me.」

What came out there was an unconscious monologue.

A Partner? An Ally? What I am looking for is neither one of those things.

Such flimsy bonds; in no way are they adequate words to call this relationship.

I need a name to reflect the optimism of the relationship in which we will be bound by.

Therefore, I am sure of the appropriate name for our contract.

It is a name that a person who lives in the clean and just world would absolutely refuse to adopt.

The name of the person who accomplishes the sin of revenge is no doubt the most fitting.

「You and I are the same. Both of us obsessed with vengeance, so how would you like to become my “accomplice” and enjoy our revenge together?」

Saying this, I held my hand out in the air and the construction of the Heart Sword began.

Black lights flew together until the form of a sword took shape, a double-edged sword about 50 centimeters in length.

The edge of the blade got covered in blood, but also tied around it was something like flickering black flames along the whole length of the sword.

When peering into the gloom of the bottomless darkness surrounding the sword, there is only the feel of misfortune, yet it coexists with a divine judgment that can freeze you down to your very spine.

The only suitable purpose for it in battle is to change its form to that of a Long Sword, but for the necessary usage of it here, it needs to remain in this form.

This is the first manifestation of the 【Holy Sword of Vengeance】, and gripping the hilt, I cut away the chains shackling the girl’s hands and then thrust the sword into the floor before the girl.

「If you choose the former, then just turn your back now. If you choose the latter, though, then you must take hold of this sword. However, you must be resolute in this decision! If you take hold of this sword, you will never be able to turn back. You can never again return to that clean world; instead, you will become forever bound to carry out revenge or die trying, no other avenues will remain.」

「…………」

「Let this sword change the burning anger in the depths of your soul into undying flames of vengeance. Whatever happens, until you exact complete vengeance, you will never be able to stop seeking it out. After that, those you seek vengeance on, I shall as well, for we share our enmity. And as such, the targets of our revenge will increase. It shall come to be that those you hate, I too shall hate. And vice versa. Ah, afterwards, if things go well, you may also learn a peculiar skill that might synergize with you, if I remember correctly.」

「… Will you betray me?」

There, in all respects were eyes of the deepest, darkest gloom.

Ah, I understand that look.

I understand why she needs more than a shoddy verbal promise.

「If this contract is made, it will be impossible to harm each other. This isn’t something as fragile as a verbal bond: if you die, I die. If I die, you die.」

The girl’s eyes twitched in reaction.

As well as not betraying, the constraints of not being able to betray the counterpart are there.

Spare me from being betrayed twice.

Also, I am sorry that you became someone who was betrayed in the same way.

If not for this sword’s ability, I would never have proposed this plan.

After I finished talking, my hand parted from the sword handle.

「Of course, there is also the path which allows you to take revenge by yourself. The number of