222: The Battle Maiden is at the Crossroads of Marriage (38)
Jill couldn’t tell the right from the left, or up from down. She didn’t even know if she was standing or floating.
She was just walking in circles, scene after scene greeting her like a painting. None of them were her memories.
Earlier, Jill had witnessed the Dragon Empress being impaled by the Dragon Emperor. No doubt, she was the Dragon Empress from 300 years ago.
A slender figure had conjured a barrier in the Rakia Mountains. A spear perforated her from the front, while a sword pierced her from behind.
Perhaps, she was the first Dragon Empress.
“Hold on. In order to seal away the Goddess, didn’t the first Dragon Empress used the Heavenly Sword on herself—”
—Halfway through, Jill realized that it was just a fable. ‘The first Dragon Empress took her own life.’ Rave had never said such a thing. Not even once.
In reality, the Heavenly Sword ended the lives of the first Dragon Empress along with the Goddess.
“Your Majesty, hurry! Defeat the Goddess while I can still suppress her!”
“…Understood. Thank you.”
A voice echoed directly in her mind, as if affirming it. Jill immediately covered both of her ears, to no avail.
She heard everything.
Towards the first Dragon Empress, who used her own body to shield the Dragon Emperor, and even commanded him to kill her—
“—I better find another one soon.”
As thought she were nothing than a broken tool that could easily be replaced.
—Poor thing.—
Even Jill could feel the pain, and a gentle voice rang within her chest.
—Poor her. She loved that man, but he looked at her with that kind of gaze.—
Her eyes suddenly opened—it was the Goddess’ voice.
As her life flashed before her eyes, the first Dragon Empress also realized the same thing.
The man who had taken her life was crying.
—Aah, how pitiful. We’re all the same. We loved the same man and were betrayed. —
At the very end, she realized that her husband hadn’t even tried to save her.
—I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you.—
Such was the deep love of the Goddess.
The tears of the Dragon Empresses spilled foward like a broken dam.
[Curse you.]
[Why couldn’t you understand my love?]
[The Dragon Emperor only saw my love as a means to save himself.]
[Curse you.]
[So you’re just going to move on to the next one as if nothing happened?]
[Curse you.]
[You and the Dragon Emperor will pay for this!]
[You’ll pay for our love—remember our pain!]
—Unforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivableunforgivable—
—The Dragon Emperor of Rave, no matter what form you take, I refuse to forgive you!—
From within the darkness, a black hand grabbed her ankle. It was reminiscent of the Goddess who couldn’t return from the spear.
“Aah,” Jill gritted her teeth.
Is that how the Dragon Empresses met their demise?
Both of her hands were grabbed, and then her arms, her waist. They were trying to take Jill—
—No, perhaps they were trying to save her.
Save her from the fate of being reduced to the shield of the Dragon Emperor.
Their desperation came across to her. Painful. Excruciating. Devastating. So much so that tears began to well up in her eyes. She could no longer tell whose pain it was.
“Poor us.”
Suddenly, she heard a voice. Before she knew it, the flashback had ended.
Before her was the silhouette of a human. A girl stood alone in the darkness facing Jill. Her face was too blurry for her to make out. As the fables went, she wore a garland.
The girl wielded a shining golden spear. The tip of her spear shone like a ray of light amidst the darkness.
In order to penetrate the Dragon Emperor’s logic. In order to save the love of the Dragon Empresses.
“I told you. One day, you’ll also choose to abandon the Dragon Emperor.”
“I, was…”
“No one can blame you for it. The burden is too much to bear. …It’s all right. You don’t need to struggle anymore. Entrust me with the rest—with all the sorrows of the Dragon Empresses.”
The girl promised with the gentle smile akin to a goddess. Her compassion made one want to cling to her for dear life.
“I shall take responsibility for everything he has done.”
Wouldn’t it be easier if she just gave in?
But that’s just arrogance.
Clenching her fist, Jill laughed and shouted her old warning.
“I told you to stay away from my husband!”
With all her strength, she pried off the hands that reached out to save her. The black hands evaporated as they were scorched by magical power.
However, another series of hands immediately reached out for Jill once again. She couldn’t tell from which direction they were coming. Nevertheless, she dodged everything that was visible and burned those that attempted to hold her in place.
[Why won’t you understand that the Dragon Emperor is playing you for a fool?]
[I just want to save you!]
The revenant thoughts weren’t hers. Jill screamed, trying to shake them off.
“Wake up, Dragon Empresses! You have misunderstood, the Goddess is—”
“The Goddess of Kratos lent us her power because she sincerely wishes to help the Dragon Empresses.”
Calmly, as if in anticipating her, the girl answered.
Jill clicked her tongue.
“Perhaps! But this a mistake, we’ve misunderstood. …All of us are mistaken!”
Jill kicked the ground—or perhaps the floor. Whatever it was, she had stable footing.
“Dragon Empress from 300 years ago! You saw it, didn’t you!? He was crying! The Dragon Emperor cried as he killed you!”
A black hand seized her hand, hindering her movement. Following that, another hand caught her ankle, causing her to fall over.
Regardless, she refused to give up and tried to appeal to them.
“The first Dragon Empress! You must’ve heard how his voice faltered!?”
[Shut up.]
A voice rang directly in her head.
[Shut up, shut up, I won’t be fooled again!]
[He hurt me. He didn’t even bat an eye when I was dying!]
“What if he simply couldn’t withstand the sight of his wife dying!? What if he didn’t like being left behind!?”
The hand gripping her ankle loosened in confusion, Jill got up and screamed.
“—Tell you what, all of the Dragon Emperors you’ve shown me so far are assholes! It’s a shame that you married them! But I can’t say anything either! I readily offered myself to be a decoy, but he didn’t believe me and rushed to my defense! Right now, we’re in the middle of a fight and I’m saving my punch for him!”
[Then, you too—]
“—Yes, that’s right!! You should’ve beaten up your Dragon Emperors as well!! Used your own two hands!! Let them know what was coming for them!! Only then would they have truly understood your pain!”
Instead of assuming that their pain was one and the same, overlooking the differences, easily conforming, and casually pushing their own battles onto others.
“My Majesty and your Dragon Emperors are different! Let me ask you, did any of your Dragon Emperors wear an apron!?”
All of the hands froze.
…As expected, no Dragon Emperor in history had ever worn an apron before. Somewhat taken aback, Jill placed her hands on the ground and slowly got up.
“Try to remember. Aren’t you all forgetting something?”
“And what is that?”
The one who asked was the girl wearing the flower crown standing on the other side of the darkness.
“The heroic figure of yourself who successfully protected the Dragon Emperor from the Goddess.”
That was something that Jill had yet to accomplish.
“All of the Dragon Emperors who were with you seemed happy. As the current Dragon Princess, I want to offer my respect. I strive to be like all of you.”
The Dragon Empresses were moving back and forth between the girl with the garland and Jill. She could feel their confusion and fear over what they had become.
It was easy to laugh at their current, pitiful forms. But that would have also been wrong—Jill stared at them with dignity.
“So, please let me go to His Majesty’s side.”
“The power of the Dragon Princess has already been absorbed by the Goddess. Even if you leave this barrier, you will no longer have the Sacred Relic of the Dragon Princess. You also no longer have the ring. You are the Dragon Princess no more.”
So it would appear. I’m no longer the Dragon Princess.
[—We are no longer the Dragon Empresses…]
Jill thought she heard the chilling voices of the Dragon Empresses intermingled together.
Jill laughed it off.
“How foolish. Does having a sacred relic and a ring make someone a Dragon Empress? No, we became Dragon Empresses because we wanted to protect the Dragon Emperor and wished for his happiness.”
—Surely, it was the same for the Dragon Empresses of the past.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t hate him so much.
After all, love and hate were two sides of the same coin.
“Even if the Dragon Emperor doesn’t acknowledge you as the Dragon Princess?”
“No one else can be His Majesty’s Dragon Princess other than me. I won’t let them. Aren’t you all the same?”
The black hands no longer anywhere to be seen. They had hidden themselves, only occasionally writhing in the darkness.
But she was sure they were listening.
“I want to protect and make him happy. Wasn’t it the same for all of you?”
Silence.
Jill could feel gazes of affirmation, empathy, and pity. Perhaps, they saw their former selves in her.
“Please lift the barrier. I don’t have time. I have to stop His Majesty.”
The barrier was meant to transfer the power of the Dragon Princess that was in Jill to the Goddess, just as the Dragon Empresses of the past had wished.
In that case, the ones who governed that domain was the Dragon Empresses.
[You’ll, go, even without power…?]
She nodded.
[Even if it means that, you might end up like us?]
“Yes, even if it means that I might end up like you.”
[…We are, different from you… We were saved by the Goddess…]
“In regard to that, I have one piece of advice. That girl over there, whom you regard as your benefactor, is no good either. She was the cause of my death.”
Suddenly, the girl with the garland laughed.
“When did you find out?”
“When you told me to abandon His Majesty. I’d never forget my enemy. I don’t know why you’re here, though.”
“The Sacred Relic of the Dragon Princess is connected to the Goddess. Ever since the first Dragon Empress was pierced by the Heavenly Sword, I’ve shared the regrets and love of the Dragon Empresses, which were shattered by reason. At present, the power of the Dragon Empress is no different from the power of the Goddess.”
Jill had roughly guessed that, so it came to has as no surprise.
“—In other words, the Sacred Relic of the Dragon Princess and its powers belong to the Goddess. All the more reason to leave it behind, then! His Majesty hates the Goddess, after all. Okay, enough chit-chat. Let me go, Dragon Empresses.”
[…Will you join the battle?]
Jill couldn’t help but laugh at the hesitant question.
“That’s right. I’ll be sure to win—for you guys, too.”
A section of the darkness suddenly melted away like snow.
—They let me go.
***T/N: JILLL SLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY
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