To the Love Born in the Lowest Place

While Hildegard was inwardly growing more curious about Duke Lartman, Liv seemed content to simply see his face. She had a completely innocent smile on her face.

As Liv stared intently at Duke Lartman’s face, he awkwardly avoided her gaze and then spoke with a look of realization.

“…But since it’s a matter involving His Majesty’s well-being, I can’t ignore it. I think it would be best for me to attend the banquet after all.”

“What if you get hurt again?”

Liv worriedly said, clasping her hands together. At that, Duke Lartman answered, now openly flustered.

“In any case, I should go today.”

The moment Duke Lartman tried to get up from his seat while saying that, Liv clenched her fists and shouted.

“Then I’ll go too!”

“…Yes?”

“I can’t not go if you’re going, Your Grace. I’m going too.”

Liv’s eyes, speaking with emphasis, were filled with strong determination as if she were going to a battlefield.

“Uh, sister…”

Hildegard called out to Liv in confusion, but she already seemed unlikely to listen. Hildegard knew well that Liv would never back down when it came to Duke Lartman.

“Sister, are you really going to the banquet…?”

“Yes, and if the Duke is in danger again…”

At that moment, Liv’s eyes sparkled with an unfathomable light.

“There’s no choice but to sacrifice my life.”

“What?”

“I’ll save him.”

“Don’t do that.”

The first to respond to those words was Duke Lartman. He was looking at Liv with a resolute face.

“Do you think I would want that?”

“But I don’t want you to die, Your Grace…”

“But Liv, even if I’m brought back to life through your death, I won’t be happy.”

“Still, being able to save you is more important to me.”

“Haa…”

Duke Lartman, sighing while looking at Liv, had a face that guessed he couldn’t pull Liv away. However, what was strange was that, unlike before, there was no disgust on his face.

‘So he came back with me after all.’

Having reached that conclusion, Hildegard decided to go to the banquet with Liv. Liv didn’t seem like she would bend her will, so Hildegard had to follow her and protect her.

Protecting Liv was the mission God had given Hildegard.

Finally, after Duke Lartman left, Hildegard let out a sigh of relief. The unfolding situation was far too complicated.

After catching her breath a bit, Hildegard thought that she should gradually learn more about Liv from now on. 

Liv’s usual lethargic appearance and short responses were all because she was enduring the gods. Perhaps there were more stories about Liv that even she didn’t know.

“Sister.”

“Hmm?”

And this was what Hildegard was most curious about right now.

“Why do you love Duke Lartman?”

Liv had clung to Duke Lartman from the moment she first saw him. Just like the protagonist of a fairy tale who fell in love at first sight. 

At that time, Liv was still a ‘Saintess’, and anyone who saw her would have thought her mission was to love Duke Lartman. Despite the forces belittling her for her unsaintly behavior, Liv didn’t bend her love.

Liv followed Duke Lartman around to the point of being close to obsession, and each time, Duke Lartman coldly rejected her, but to no avail.

Perhaps there was a reason for Liv’s such behavior. Hildegard thought that Liv’s actions, which she had never dared to understand, might actually be carried out according to the ‘noble will of the gods’.

However, Liv gave an all too simple answer.

“Is there a reason for love?”

“What?”

“I love him because I love him, that’s all.”

As she said that, Liv blushed shyly on both cheeks.

“I love the Duke so much. When I see him, my heart just pounds…”

Liv said, placing her hand near her heart.

“I love him so much that I want to rip out my heart and give it to him…”

The moment she heard that bizarre remark, the context of which an ordinary person couldn’t possibly grasp, Hildegard realized.

When asked since when she had endured the gods, Liv answered, ‘Always’. Liv had lived enduring the love of the gods for a very long time. The gods must have had a great influence on Liv.

Someone who had learned love from the gods couldn’t possibly love normally.

Liv’s love was close to divine love.

* * *

The next day, Hildegard and Liv prepared to go to the banquet again.

“The brazen fake Saintess is here.”

“My, how shameless, to be able to hold her head high and walk around.”

“Why isn’t she telling Duke Lartman that she loves him today?”

“She must have finally grasped her place. No, I hope that’s the case.”

When they arrived at the banquet hall, the now-familiar voices of people could be heard. The voices criticizing her as the ‘Fake Saintess’ were all too familiar to Liv, and despite people spewing out crazed words as if criticizing her were a game, she maintained a dull expression.

On the other hand, Hildegard was observing people with an anxious gaze in contrast. She fidgeted and spouted meaningless words to divert Liv’s attention, and then, as if realizing she could no longer pretend not to know, she furtively glanced at Liv and asked.

“Sister, are you okay?”

“About what?”

“I was wondering if you might be feeling bad…”

“What is there to feel bad about?”

Liv answered in a voice that genuinely couldn’t understand. She had no reason to be angry or sad at them. Wasn’t it natural for humans to be angry at the fake Saintess? Just as one doesn’t get angry at the changing of seasons or animals growing, the same went for her.

“Then, is the Supreme God… okay with it?”

“Why the Supreme God?”

“I thought he might be displeased with people whispering about you…”

“Ah.”

Liv, realizing what Hildegard was worried about, smiled and grinned.

“Of course he’s enraged, but it’s something that happens all the time.”

“What?”

“I told you. I’m enduring the love of the gods.”

Child, if you wish, I shall have them buried deep underground, living their entire lives drinking only a sip of water.

‘There’s no need for that. Really.’

Liv had always endured the wrath of the gods in this way. Liv thought that perhaps this was her mission in life. To protect humans from the gods.

In fact, Liv wasn’t unaffected by these whispers from the beginning either. She had just gotten used to it now, but at first, she too had felt wronged and angry at times. 

However, she had never asked the gods to punish the humans. She didn’t want the world to be destroyed and all humans to fall into the abyss because of her.

Hildegard nodded her head while looking at Liv with fearful eyes, unsure whether to believe her or not.

Having finished their conversation, they pretended to enjoy the banquet while waiting for the assassin who would soon appear. Whenever someone picked a fight with Liv as always, Hildegard protected Liv more actively than usual, and when there were noble ladies who spoke to Hildegard, she didn’t go with them, using Liv as an excuse. They pretended to be ordinary noble ladies who knew nothing and waited for the time.

They waited.

And waited some more.

And when a long time had passed and the great bell announced the hour, and it was finally time for the banquet to end, Liv realized something was wrong.

“Hildegard, shouldn’t he have appeared long ago?”

“Yes, sister. He definitely appeared not long after the banquet started…”

The assassin didn’t show up. Instead of panicking that what she knew had gone wrong, Liv calmly drew a conclusion as if nothing in the world surprised her.

The future had changed.

“The same thing that happened before didn’t occur today…! How did this happen…?”

Meanwhile, Hildegard was flustered by the fact that what she had seen with her own eyes had disappeared without a trace. Liv glanced at Duke Lartman, who was far away. Unlike Hildegard, he had a calm expression on his face, so Liv pulled Hildegard’s hand and approached the Duke to talk to him about the situation.

“Your Grace, doesn’t something seem strange?”

“It seems so, Liv. I was sure we hadn’t intervened in any part, but the future has changed. We’ll have to think about whether there was a factor we unknowingly interfered with.”

“Sister Liv, does the future change even if you don’t do anything when time goes back?”

“Hmm…”

Liv fell silent for a moment. Since she couldn’t remember the future before time had turned back, there was no suitable point of comparison.

When Liv didn’t answer, Hildegard began to desperately speculate about the situation.

“As Duke Lartman said, something must have changed without us knowing, something…”

At that moment, something flashed through Liv’s mind.

She had thought that only Hildegard and Duke Lartman remembered what had happened in the future when they returned to the past. They acted differently from the past, but had no impact on the Emperor’s assassination attempt.

But what if they weren’t the only ones who had returned to the past?

What if the assassin who tried to kill the Emperor had also gone back in time? Then it could explain why the future was different from before.

‘That intruder also received divine punishment. He remembered the future. The future in which he failed to kill the Emperor.’

In that case, it became impossible to know when the assassin would appear again. Things had become difficult.

With this, there were now three people who remembered what happened when the current Emperor was assassinated and had returned to the past. At the same time, it meant that the number of people who knew Liv’s true identity had increased by three.

It seemed that waves were about to hit Liv’s life, which she had thought she would live as the lowest being in high society for the rest of her life.