To the Love Born in the Lowest Place

“Pardon?”

Hildegard, unable to understand Liv’s words, asked again, but Liv firmly closed her lips as if she didn’t want to speak and didn’t answer further. In the end, Hildegard didn’t pry either. It was nothing new for her to not understand Liv’s words. To Hildegard, Liv was merely a foolish older sister she had to look after, and she had no obligation to fully comprehend Liv’s words.

Instead, Hildegard tried to bring Liv back to her own seat. It was because people were looking at Liv with ridiculous eyes. It would be better to take Liv near the wall and quietly subdue her by telling her some new gossip from high society.

But at that very moment, a strange sound disrupted the bustling atmosphere of the banquet hall. In fact, everyone could identify the nature of the sound, but it was indeed a ‘strange sound’ in the sense that it came from a place where it shouldn’t exist.

Bang!

It was a gunshot.

“Aaah!”

“Ahhh! What’s that?”

With the gunshot, the chandelier on the ceiling fell to the floor, splashing fragments all around, ending its life in a spectacular and terrifying manner. People fled in confusion toward the walls, screaming. Hildegard tensed up and tightened her grip on Liv’s hand.

‘What on earth is going on?’

Weapons were supposed to be prohibited from being brought into the banquet hall, so why was there suddenly a gunshot?! Moreover, the Emperor himself was present at today’s banquet!

On behalf of Liv, who seemed unperturbed even in this situation, Hildegard quickly surveyed the surroundings. She soon found the source of the gunshot.

In the middle of the banquet hall, in front of the chandelier that had shattered and fallen to the floor, a man was standing as if announcing that he was the culprit behind the gunshot.

The brown leather jacket and the navy gabardine pants had a light and lively feel that didn’t match this banquet hall, but what he actually held in his hand was a pistol, which wasn’t yet widely distributed and thought to be a rare sight. His face wasn’t visible as he wore a gray wool hat, and they couldn’t even guess his age.

His outfit was plain enough to overlook if encountered on a street frequented by commoners, but now, as he stood holding a gun and exuding a terrifying aura even from behind, he was the focus of everyone’s attention.

No, rather than his attire, the reason people stared at him was probably something else. There was only one thing that came to mind when a man with a gun appeared in a banquet hall attended by the Emperor.

It was an attempt to assassinate the Emperor!

“Protect His Majesty!”

Hildegard wasn’t the only one who grasped the situation. The knights surrounding the Emperor acted faster than anyone else.

The armed intruder straightened his arm as if he had practiced beforehand to accurately shoot the Emperor, and amidst the knights trying to stop him by any means.

The one who confronted the intruder head-on was none other than Duke Lartman.

Duke Lartman was the Emperor’s closest confidant and had been conversing with the Emperor just a moment ago. The Duke, also renowned for his excellent swordsmanship, had pushed past the knights and ran toward the intruder first.

He swiftly drew his sword from his waist, but.

Bang!

Everything happened in an instant.

Duke Lartman succeeded in swinging his sword and bringing the intruder down to the floor. However, even in a fallen state, the intruder also stretched out his arm and shot at Duke Lartman. The floor where they had collapsed began to soak with blood.

All the nobles in the ballroom were confused by the sudden event. Some fled through the open doors in droves, while others approached the scene upon realizing the intruder had been suppressed. 

Although it was unclear exactly what was happening, one thing was certain: both Duke Lartman and the intruder were on the verge of death.

“Your Grace…!”

It was then that Liv rushed out before Hildegard could stop her.

Liv ran frantically, not caring if her dress was stepped on, and crouched down in front of Duke Lartman. The knights controlling the surroundings saw Saintess Hildegard following behind Liv and made way for them.

“Y-Your Grace… Are you alright…?”

“Sister, move aside!”

Hildegard hurriedly grabbed Liv. Anyone could see that Duke Lartman was about to die.

‘If I use divine power…’

However, after assessing Duke Lartman’s condition, Hildegard had to bite her lip hard.

Her divine power couldn’t heal such a severe, fatal wound. In other words, there seemed to be no hope no matter how one looked at it.

“Your Grace… No…”

Liv’s tears fell onto the floor, drip by drip. As she trembled pitifully, shedding transparent tears, Duke Lartman, who had collapsed on the floor, squirmed.

“Miss Hamelsvoort…?”

“Yes, Your Grace. It’s me…”

As Liv was interfering, Hildegard couldn’t contain her anger and finally shouted.

“Sister, what are you doing?! Please make way so the doctors can come!”

At that, Liv’s deep pink eyes gazed at Hildegard chillingly as if looking at something worthless. Anyone who saw it would be unable to think of her as the same person who had been whispering love just a moment ago, such was the coldness in her eyes.

“Can he live if a doctor comes?”

“That’s…”

“Even with your divine power, Hildegard, you can’t save him, right?”

Unable to answer the piercing question, Hildegard bit her lip. Meanwhile, Liv pulled out the dagger stuck in Duke Lartman’s waist.

“Your Grace…”

“Sister, what are you doing?”

Hildegard asked in a startled, raised voice, but Liv gripped the blade in her hand even more firmly. Despite holding a weapon in her hand, her face was as calm as someone holding a fan or a bouquet.

“Your Grace, everything will be alright… Although you’ll have to suffer a bit, it’s okay… If you go back, you won’t die.”

Liv whispered, holding the blade with a trembling arm as if the dagger was a bit heavy.

“A world without you is meaningless, Your Grace… Remember this…”

“What in the world… Put that down…!”

As Duke Lartman tried to stop her in a hoarse voice, Liv recited in a singsong voice.

“I will love you in any timeline, Your Grace.”

Who could believe the scene that followed?

Liv raised the blade high and plunged it into her own neck.

“Ugh, guh…”

By the time Hildegard wiped the blood that had splattered on her eyes, Liv had already collapsed on the floor, bleeding.

“Aaaah! Sister! Liv!”

“Ugh, what is this…”

Blood gushed from her neck like an explosion, and her body, collapsed on the floor, convulsed as if having a seizure before soon falling still. Even Duke Lartman, who had been preparing to face death, was taken aback. At that very moment when Hildegard was on the verge of fainting from the sudden situation.

Thud, thud, thud.

The world began to shake.

Boom! Bang!

The imperial palace began to crumble.

Rumble!

Thunder and lightning struck noisily.

Everything started to turn into ruins. And a voice was heard.

Who harmed my child?

“Ah… Aah…”

Realizing who the owner of that voice was, Hildegard fell prostrate on the floor.

The ‘Saintess’ Hildegard had heard that voice before.

“Supreme God…”

Does my child not exist in this world?

With those words, everything began to fall apart.

Beyond the walls of the imperial palace that were crumbling hollowly, Hildegard saw things she shouldn’t have seen.

“Aah…”

A forest burning with flames that seemed like they would never be extinguished, lightning striking down as if to shatter all the buildings, the ground cracking and splitting as if an earthquake had occurred, people screaming and running away only to eventually meet their deaths. And beyond that…

I don’t need a world where the child I love doesn’t exist.

The symbol of the religion their enemy country revered, which the Empire considered heretical, appeared in the sky.

Where is our child?

The figure of the god that scholars from the East believed in could be seen in the distance.

Who killed the child we love?

The sound of music used by pagans from across the sea during their rituals could be heard.

Hildegard’s doctrine began to shatter. Pushing aside the one true god she believed in, the voices of dozens, no, hundreds of gods began to be heard.

What is in this world?

Who killed my child?

Where is the little one?

Retrieve.

This world is unnecessary!

I don’t need a world where my beloved child doesn’t exist!

With those words, the world began to turn upside down.

There are things in this world that humans cannot dare to understand, but at the same time, there are also facts that humans inevitably realize through some revelation. This case was the latter.

In other words, the humans who witnessed this scene realized that those immense beings, which they couldn’t dare to describe with their own mouths, loved a single girl.

Only then did Hildegard realize the weight of what Liv had been enduring all this time. Yes, it was truly.

“H-How could she…”

The gods were enraged by Liv’s death.

Things like ‘Fake Saintess’ or ‘Real Saintess’ didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how she used the power of the gods.

Liv wasn’t someone who could be described with a mere word like ‘Saintess’.

“How did she handle all of that alone…”

Only then could Hildegard understand what Liv had been saying.

-I’m in the middle of enduring the love of the gods.

Things that ordinary humans could never bear. Liv Hamelsvoort had been enduring the love of the gods all by herself.

So Liv Hamelsvoort’s peculiar behavior up until now was…

There were things in this world that could never be understood through an outsider’s eyes.