NOVEL NEXT Chapter 356
#356
The Cutest Super Cute Beautiful Girl
“Cough.”
Magic flows backward, and blood spills from my mouth.
Whoooosh.
A cold snowstorm wraps around my entire body.
My head is spinning.
Thud.
I collapse into the snow.
The winter night sky is cloudy and filled with a thick layer of clouds.
As expected in Gangwon-do, it’s snowing heavily.
It’s cold.
A chill floods over my body.
It’s the same cold I felt when I finished my guard duty around 2 AM in the military and returned to the barracks around 3, only to have the first snowfall happen, leading to a 4 AM early morning wake-up call, where I spent the night awake and went to gather in the training ground to clear snow with shovels.
Cold.
The side effect of magic reflux has made my magic harden, making it even worse.
Damn Messiah.
“Hey, kid!”
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung!”
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung!”
“Human!”
“…Are you okay?”
After the Messiah disappeared,
The heroines released from All Freeze approach me.
In my fading vision, I see Seira, Aris, Evangelin, Beatrice, and the Undertaker’s faces.
Seeing the faces of these five colorful beautiful girls, I simply closed my eyes.
They say if you sleep in the cold, your mouth will twist.
No way it’ll really twist, right?
I didn’t twist my mouth even when the tent’s internal temperature was below zero during winter training.
With that thought, my consciousness disappeared.
*
Thud.
Kim Deok-Sung’s head falls.
He has fainted.
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung! Are you okay? Mr. Kim Deok-Sung!”
Thud.
Aris taps his shoulder.
But the unconscious Kim Deok-Sung shows no response.
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung…”
Realizing there’s no reaction, Aris lowers her head.
Her shoulders tremble.
Aris bites her lip.
As the Student Council President, no, as a senior,
She should’ve protected the one she liked.
But she couldn’t.
Black hair, black eyes.
In front of an unknown enemy presumed to be the leader of the League called the Master, Aris felt powerless.
“If only… if only I were a bit stronger…”
Aris caresses the cold cheek of Kim Deok-Sung with her trembling hand.
If she were of the same EX rank.
Then maybe she wouldn’t have been powerless against a simple gesture from him and could have fought back?
She doesn’t know, but at least she might have been able to help.
But she couldn’t.
It was embarrassing enough to claim she was a senior guiding him through her personal training.
‘Perhaps it was I who lacked the training.’
Ironically, if the enemy hadn’t shown mercy, everyone here would already have turned into cold corpses and would be lying in the snow.
Aris bit her lip.
February 15th.
She also heard the Messiah’s words announcing the date of the decisive battle.
It was a time that wasn’t too short nor too long, just a little over a month left.
During that time, she would keep training continuously.
Aris made that vow.
“…Next time, I will protect you.”
With trembling hands, Aris caressed Kim Deok-Sung’s face.
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung…”
Evangeline’s pink eyes wavered.
Her hands shook uncontrollably.
Evangeline actually knew.
Kim Deok-Sung felt in debt for putting his life on the line to fend off Ivan Antonov’s attack during the deserted island training.
But Evangeline didn’t think of it as a debt.
Protecting someone you like, or rather, protecting a comrade is a noble duty to uphold as a hero and the princess of the royal Stewart family.
So she wanted to tell him that there’s no need to think of it as a debt.
But it was too late.
In the end, it turned out that this time, he would be the one risking his life to protect her.
“…Girl, I’ve ended up owing Mr. Kim Deok-Sung again.”
After the engagement incident, she found herself in debt to him once more today.
If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have survived.
The League Master was that much of a monster.
Evangeline bit her lip.
“On the day of the final battle, I will fight alongside Mr. Kim Deok-Sung, won’t you, Trixie?”
Evangeline smiled and looked at Beatrice.
Flinch.
Beatrice shivered.
“W-well…”
Beatrice’s hands trembled.
Freedom.
She finally grasped something she had desired her whole life.
As promised, Kim Deok-Sung drew Diego Morales into a trap for her, fought alongside him, and dealt with him.
The archdeacon who had bound her was dead, and the Cult was now hers.
Beatrice, Trixie Smith was now a free person.
That was as far as Kim Deok-Sung’s promise went.
He had promised her liberation and acted upon it, but said nothing about the price to pay.
‘What should I…’
Beatrice’s cheeks trembled.
She had seen it today.
For the first time, a monster against whom her psychometry did not work.
The sight of the League Master declaring Kim Deok-Sung as his adversary.
The thought of fighting that monster frightened her.
Its strength had already entered the realm of the absurd and unreasonable.
Yet still.
“That’s right, isn’t it, Trixie? Mr. Kim Deok-Sung fought for your freedom and liberation. From the past to this very moment.”
Evangeline’s words echoed in her ears.
At the sound of her words, Beatrice quivered.
From the past to this moment, he had fought for her freedom and liberation.
The meaning behind that was singular.
“Contractor, have you perhaps realized her true name…?”
The fact that she already knew she was the Saintess.
No, it was odd not to know since Diego Morales had declared openly that he came to take her.
The time had come.
Just as Beatrice squeezed her eyes shut.
Evangeline grasped her cold hand tightly.
“Even if Trixie’s true name is Beatrice and her identity is the Saintess of the Cult, it doesn’t matter to me. Trixie is still a precious friend to me.”
Evangeline spoke in a gentle voice.
“A precious friend…”
Beatrice murmured in a low voice.
The sincerity of Evangeline’s heart she read through her psychometry was just as those words suggested.
“Everyone thinks so, right?”
Evangeline looked around at everyone as she spoke.
Trixie Smith is Beatrice, the Saintess of the Cult.
Everyone here already knew that fact thanks to Diego’s words, but just as Evangeline said, nobody cared.
“I don’t mind. The Trixie Smith I experienced was never a bad person.”
Aris spoke in a calm yet slightly soft voice.
With a slightly soft voice, she spoke.
“Hmm. It doesn’t matter what Smith’s identity is. I already had a hunch that that rascal Diego was using that little girl Beatrice.”
Next, Seira chimed in.
Knowing her past entanglement with Diego, she was aware that Diego was the real power behind the Cult, and that Beatrice was merely a tool for him.
“I don’t really… care about that…”
Finally, Wilhelmina, crouched down, doodled in the snow with a twig, speaking in a small voice.
Tears welled up in Beatrice’s eyes.
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks.
The Cult of Truth.
Though she was just a puppet, she had held an important position in this villain organization.
So, she thought she would be rejected by everyone.
She thought even her only friend might abandon her.
But that wasn’t the case.
Evangelin, along with others, accepted her as she was.
And the one who made that possible was…
“Mr. Kim Deok-Sung, you will help the girl, right? Lady Beatrice?”
Evangelin’s voice echoed in her ears.
The one who had granted her liberation and freedom was none other than Kim Deok-Sung.
‘…I owe a debt to a human now…’
Thump.
Beatrice’s heart raced.
She owed a debt.
A debt she could never repay, even if she devoted her whole life — or her very existence to it.
What Kim Deok-Sung gifted her was not just simple freedom.
He also gifted her the precious daily life along with friends like Evangelin.
So, it was her duty to repay that debt.
In the world that the enemy’s leader, Messiah, would create, there would be no precious daily life or friends.
So she must fight back.
Even to protect the freedom he bestowed upon her.
She nodded at Evangelin’s words.
“If the contractor wishes it… then as the Red Lotus Saint, I too shall join the fray to repay my debt to humanity. The enemy’s leader will surely quiver in fear at my participation. Hahaha.”
Beatrice laughed, wrapping one hand around her eyepatch.
“Oh, right. That human over there. Kim Deok-Sung told me to give you this. Here, I bestow it upon you.”
Beatrice pulled out a glowing golden gem from her pocket and handed it to the Undertaker.
The Undertaker’s golden eyes widened.
She recognized it from a photograph.
This was…
“Damian’s Soul Gem…”
The soul gem containing the spirit of her precious younger brother, Damian.
Kim Deok-Sung kept his promise.
Wilhelmina trembled as she carefully accepted the soul gem.
“……”
Wilhelmina’s gaze turned toward the fallen Kim Deok-Sung.
“I…”
From the beginning, this was a transaction.
In exchange for receiving Damian’s Soul Gem, the deal was to betray the League and cooperate with him to fight the enemy.
The moment she received the price, the transaction was complete.
Moreover, Wilhelmina was a villain, not a hero.
There was no way she could hang out with other heroes.
Having foolishly been used and tainted as a villain, she felt she had no right to be here with everyone.
So it would be right to leave.
But for some reason, Wilhelmina couldn’t take a step.
The image of him collapsing while facing the powerful enemy overlapped with the past figure of her brother, who had been a hero.
Even when he nagged her not to throw herself into danger, she remembered how he would argue that if not her, who would protect the world, as he dived into every conflict.
“……What… should I… do…”
As Wilhelmina seriously pondered,
“Sis!”
Seira hugged her tightly from behind.
Unlike her prime days, the now 15-year-old girl, who had returned with a similar petite stature to Wilhelmina, surprised her with a back hug.
Seira, back in her beautiful girl form, caught Wilhelmina off guard with a back hug.
“Ugh…!”
“…What are you worried about? You’re not planning to leave like this, right?”
Wilhelmina flinched at Seira’s words.
“I… I’m not… I’m not like my sister Seratang… I’m not an old lady like Seratang…”
Wilhelmina puffed up her cheeks.
From her perspective as someone who had always looked youthful, she really didn’t want to be associated with Seira in terms of age.
Let alone be called the sister of an old lady like Seira!
It was a sensitive topic for Wilhelmina, who was touchy about age.
“Please don’t go, big sister.”
“…”
At Seira’s words, Wilhelmina fell silent.
“I… can’t associate with villains…”
“The kid won’t care.”
Seira interrupted Wilhelmina’s words.
“And you owe a debt to the Master of the League, don’t you?”
Wilhelmina fell silent at Seira’s words.
She was right.
The Master of the League, Messiah, was her enemy.
There was a debt to repay.
“But…”
“So stay. The kid will want you around too. Above all, you becoming the Undertaker is partly my responsibility too…”
Seira trailed off.
Ten years ago.
If only she had learned the truth a little earlier that day.
Perhaps she could have stopped Wilhelmina from becoming the Undertaker.
But she couldn’t.
So she felt responsible too.
Seira sincerely believed that.
“So, can you take responsibility now? Big sister?”
Wilhelmina hesitated, falling silent for a moment as she contemplated Seira’s persuasion.
She had to get revenge on Messiah anyway.
On top of that, Kim Deok-Sung didn’t seem to care, and Seira said she would take responsibility.
Moreover.
Kim Deok-Sung wanted her.
Thump.
At those words, Wilhelmina’s heart started beating oddly.
Was it because she resembled her younger sister?
It was a different heartbeat compared to when she thought of her younger sister.
Exciting.
It felt a bit nice.
Wilhelmina wanted to explore the identity of this unfamiliar yet pleasant emotion a bit more.
Then…
“Really… I have no choice… You’re throwing a tantrum like a kid… Seratang…”
“Of course! I’m not an old lady, but the cutest and strongest girl president!”
Seira whispered into Wilhelmina’s ear with a laugh.
Wilhelmina gagged a bit at that.
“Ugh…”
This happened after the League retreated, in the snowy mountains of Gangwon-do.
*
Blue House Underground Bunker.
A secret security meeting chaired by the President.
The staff of the Blue House, key officials from each ministry, and cabinet members were participating in the secret meeting.
On the front monitor, Kim Deok-Sung and the heroines were shown collapsed in the mountains of Gangwon-do after the fight.
The President spoke upon seeing this.
“The situation has been resolved. What about Mr. Kim Deok-Sung’s safety?”
“No problems. Currently, a joint emergency rescue team including agent Han Seo-Jin has been dispatched.”
The Minister of Defense responded to the President’s words.
“Then let’s officially initiate Operation Harem Plan.”
“Understood.”
The Minister of Defense nodded at the President’s directive.
Seeing that, the President spoke in a low voice.
“Everything is for his harem.”
““““Everything is for his harem!””””
As the President took the lead, the Blue House staff and ministers echoed back.
Upon witnessing this, the President clenched his fist with a serious expression.
Harem Plan.
It was now time to make public the plan that the government and the National Assembly were secretly promoting.