To the Love Born in the Lowest Place

How could the situation have become so tangled? No, in truth, this was a problem that wouldn’t have occurred if he had known her a bit better. And yet she was a woman he had once taken a liking to – now that he thought about it, there was so much he didn’t know about Liv.

In the past, he had thought Liv was strange for having standards different from others’. But looking back, that was only natural for her. Liv had been imprisoned in the worst prison, Abgrund, since her birth. If not for the gods who loved her, she might have truly gone insane.

It must have been difficult for her to learn language, to move her body like others, and above all, to interact with people. She must have found humans unfamiliar.

Yet at the same time, she must have liked humans…

“The Fake Saintess.”

Recalling that title attached to Liv, he could only feel more pity for her.

Liv was truly bearing the gods’ love alone for the sake of the entire world.

And yet people had arbitrarily called her a Saintess, only to then strip her of that position.

The very humans Liv had been so curious about – the first she encountered treated her with hatred and derision, shattering her expectations. How deeply wounded Liv must have felt as her hopes were crushed.

After remaining motionless for a while, overwhelmed, he finally went and sat beside Liv, who was fidgeting with her hands alone.

“Is there an order for adding? It doesn’t matter? Aha, so like this…”

It seemed Liv was learning arithmetic from the gods. She moved her fingers this way and that, then nodded as if realizing something. However, the vibrancy from before was still absent from her face.

“Then how do you subtract? You can’t subtract a larger number from a smaller one?”

His lips twitched, wanting to speak to her, but there was no point in directing unheard words at her now. If only the divine punishment would end and he could return to his own time, then he would treat her better than ever before… But there was no guarantee he could return, and for some reason, Emmett felt more concerned about Liv’s imprisonment here than the punishment he himself had to undergo.

At that moment, space trembled amidst a thunderous sound.

Are you listening?

“Yes, yes, I’m listening!”

Hurriedly answering the voice that reverberated in his mind, worried it might disappear, Emmett spoke quickly.

By inflicting divine punishment and bringing you here, we have expended all our power.

Time is merely a resource for us. Our past and future selves are one.

Employing the ‘pretext of divine punishment’ to bring you to this place beyond our reach consumed great power.

“Then can’t your power be used to rescue Miss Liv from here?”

That is now your task.

You must save our child.

“But in my current state, I can’t do anything!”

When Emmett cried out in an anxious voice, silence followed before the voice responded:

Soon, we will recover some of our power. Then we can give form to your body.

Once the divine punishment ends, you will return to your world to live your life.

After hearing those words from the gods, Emmett felt a glimmer of hope. This divine punishment too would eventually end, and he might be able to help Liv. If he returned to his original world and Liv was alive there, then he would treat her better than ever before. Now that he knew she had been imprisoned in Abgrund, he would teach her everything she didn’t know, one by one.

He pitied Liv, and felt a sense of responsibility as the only one aware of the truth about her past. If he returned, he would uncover why the Emperor had imprisoned Liv and dispel others’ misunderstandings about her.

With no one to converse with, he increasingly found himself muttering alone as time dragged on. While the hours ticked by, Emmett continued watching over Liv by her side, talking to himself.

“What does the sun look like?”

“It shines as brilliantly as Liv’s eyes.”

“Blood is red? Then can I hurt myself to see?”

“Please do not, Liv.”

The time waiting for his body to regain form felt unbearably long. He wished to appear before Liv as soon as possible, to converse with her directly, to comfort her in person.

After an innumerable number of sunbeams had shone on Liv and faded away, there came a day. It was daytime, but as if beckoning sleep, Liv lay down and closed her eyes.

Emmett looked down at Liv’s sleeping face. With her deep pink irises hidden, leaving only her pale complexion visible, she now resembled an inanimate sculpture more than a human. Worried if she still lived, Emmett found himself checking to see if she breathed.

At that moment, Liv abruptly sprang up from her spot, passing through Emmett’s body. As it was the first time she had phased through him like that, the strange sensation made Emmett glance down at his own body instinctively. Meanwhile, Liv stood upright as if unaffected.

‘Did she wake up from sleeping?’

Emmett watched Liv with a perplexed gaze. Her sudden rising seemed odd.

With half-lidded eyes, Liv began stumbling in one direction. As there was a wall in her path, she soon collided with it. Seemingly unable to feel pain, Liv placed her hand against the wall and began circling the underground prison, following its perimeter.

“Liv?”

Emmett called out her name, but of course, his voice couldn’t reach her.

Liv circled the narrow underground prison once, twice… ten times, always tracing the walls.

By the middle, even Emmett realized something was amiss. While Liv occasionally walked aimlessly around the cramped underground area out of boredom, repeatedly circling the walls seemed strange.

Liv continued circling, her right hand scraping against the jagged stone walls until it became wounded, yet she seemed unperturbed.

Emmett followed alongside Liv, carefully observing her. And finally, he realized something.

“Ah.”

Liv was asleep. So this was a kind of sleepwalking.

While Emmett lacked professional medical knowledge, he knew that people could experience sleepwalking during periods of psychological instability.

Conservative thinkers claimed it was a punishment from the gods, but Emmett didn’t believe such an antiquated superstition. Above all, there was no reason for the gods to punish Liv.

Emmett could only watch Liv with a pained gaze, unable to do anything else. How stifling must her imprisonment in Abgrund be to drive her to such behavior?

Simultaneously, fury towards the Emperor began to boil within him. He still didn’t fully understand Liv’s existence. But how could imprisoning an innocent child in this sunless prison possibly be justified?

Finally, when droplets of blood began falling from Liv’s wounded hand scraped by the walls, Emmett sank to the floor.

“Ahh…”

Yes, this was truly divine punishment. To witness the pitiful, agonizing past of someone he had callously mistreated was a more dreadful punishment than anything.

As Emmett began feeling remorseful, at last, Liv opened her eyes.

“Huh?”

Blinking in bewilderment as she surveyed her surroundings, she discovered her abraded hand and let out a scream.

“Ah, I’m hurt! They said this is an ‘injury’! I can see the red blood too!”

Liv began rambling, as if conversing with the gods.

“Red means the same as crimson? You say I need to stop the blood?”

Finally, once her conversation with the gods seemed to end, Liv closed her mouth and lay back down in her original spot where light streamed through the ceiling hole. Then, for some reason, she licked her palm.

“This is the bitter taste? I should have tried it sooner!”

Grumbling, she licked her palm before falling asleep with her hand still by her mouth.

As if to adjust Liv’s uncomfortable posture, Emmett realized there was nothing he could do.

Yes, he could do nothing.

Not converse with Liv, nor wake her from her abnormal sleepwalking behavior.

If he had known this would happen, he should have treated Liv better in the original timeline. He endlessly reflected on his foolish past – no, his future self.

“Liv…”

When she awoke, no light streamed through the hole anymore.

“Oh, clouds!”

Liv exclaimed, straining to see more of the outside through the tiny hole.

“Then it will rain now!”

Hearing those words, Emmett carefully surveyed beyond the hole. Thanks to his greater height compared to Liv, he could see the view outside more clearly. As Liv had said, the sky was filled with ominous dark clouds that seemed to herald an imminent downpour.