If You Leave Home? Well You Suffer Like A Dog (2)

The rampaging Violentia ultimately tore down more than half of the Amor temple.

Because the Amor temple was quite large, the half-ruined buildings and structures left a scene as if a bombing had occurred.

Moreover, the Amor goddess statue—worst for the Amor faction and the best spectacle for the Serpens side—stood amid it.

Her precise control of divine power shone even in the act of ‘reinterpreting’ the statue.

She had succeeded in driving a thick stone pillar between the statue’s two legs without damaging the original figure.

A vicious desecration.

If the Heavenly God faction calls the demon god a madwoman, the demon god faction, in turn, calls the Heavenly God faction a filthy b––.

Although she was a goddess of love, the intent was largely to belittle the way she had gained power.

In any case, the ruined temple buildings and the five intact—hence more humiliating—Amor goddess statues remained.

If the Amor goddess or the priests of the Holy Realm Alliance had seen this, they would have clutched their necks and fainted.

Regardless, Violentia wiped the sweat from her brow with a pleasantly fresh smile.

At that moment, a voice came from the communication crystal that had been silent until then.

―We succeeded.

“…Really?”

―Yes. As you said, the video crystal was not played, and there is an unexpected gain. The items have been left at the teahouse to your right from where you are.

“Got it!”

There was no further communication, and she had no time to worry about it.

Violentia ran as if flying into the teahouse and grabbed the proprietor by the collar, demanding the item they had just left.

Her demeanor was so fierce that although the owner should have asked a name to hand it over, he trembled and handed over a wooden box.

Snatching the box, Violentia opened it slightly and carefully checked inside.

Inside were some documents of unknown purpose and a single red video storage crystal.

She even used magic and rushed home in a frenzy.

Even after entering the house she unusually used a lock spell on the door, sealed it tightly, and set up a small ward around the area as she checked her surroundings thoroughly.

Only then did Violentia clutch the red video storage crystal with trembling hands. She took a deep breath and slowly injected mana into the crystal.

Scenes rose into the air through the crystal. As the footage progressed, Violentia exuded murderous intent from every pore.

“…Th-This!!”

The video began with her own figure after emerging from the dungeon—continuing through scenes she truly wished to forget.

The hardships and ordeals on the path to Exorsus were captured in full.

Rustle―

Perhaps unable to contain the rising fury.

Violentia could not watch the footage to the end and, without realizing it, ground the red crystal into powder.

When she came to after a while, only the red powdery remains were left in her hand.

What made her even more uneasy was whether this video crystal was the only one.

“There’s no way! If it’s that sneaky, rotten bitch!”

Stomping and furious, Violentia suddenly seemed to remember something; she rummaged through her robe pocket and pulled out a communication crystal.

She injected mana into the communication crystal with a face drained pale, but there was no response.

Only then did she recall that it was a short-range communication crystal designed to prevent eavesdropping.

Having lost somewhere to rely on, Violentia began to grow increasingly anxious.

She shuddered at the thought: might her shameful footage spread not only to Exorsus but across the entire Battlefield of the Gods continent?

The mere thought made her shudder all over.

Around the Amor temple, in an alley blocked on one side, Hazel, Lee Hyo-ju, Naruan, and Arun—the Rebound legion members—gathered waiting for Kim Han.

A chilling aura rose and made their chests drop, but it faded away and grew calm soon after.

The three people’s gazes were focused on Hazel.

It was she who had identified the spatial design that proved Kim Han was safe and informed the party.

Hazel wanted to run to where he was at once, but she couldn’t.

Kim Han had ordered them to wait at the designated spot no matter what until he returned.

“When will the captain come?”

“Who knows. He told us to wait for now, so let’s wait a little longer.”

Naruan crouched back down on the ground at Lee Hyo-ju’s answer.

While Naruan, sitting with a ‘plop,’ played with the dirt on the ground for a while, and before Hazel could fully grasp it, Kim Han appeared before the group with Mae Young-ryeong draped over his shoulder.

“Oh?! Captain!”

“Mr. Kim Han!”

“Kim Han.”

“Partner!”

Kim Han gave a small smile to the welcoming group and asked about the progress of the task.

“Mae Young-ryeong is safe as she looks. More importantly, did Violentia get away okay?”

“Yes. They found the items and left too.”

“Good work. Let’s go for now.”

All the way while moving, the party stole glances at Mae Young-ryeong draped over Kim Han’s shoulder, curious, but no one dared speak—even the tactless Naruan.

Kim Han’s face and mood looked that serious.

In that uncomfortable silence, they boarded a carriage that used a magic stone for transport rather than the special horses prepared at the magic tower and returned home faster than when they had come here.

I could feel the group’s curiosity, but my head was too muddled to say anything; even I, the person involved, found it hard to fully understand what had happened.

All I had done was confirm the message, ‘Suppression complete,’ and just catch my breath. I still hadn’t decided whether to take this ominous bundle of bad luck with me or not.

The surroundings were so calm it made the earlier chaos seem unreal, and only Mae Young-ryeong’s breathing could be heard intermittently.

Thanks perhaps to the two restorative juices, the top-grade potion, and the ‘Sanitas potion’, Mae Young-ryeong’s face had regained some color—a rosy flush unlike when I first saw her.

Rustle.

“Huh?”

“Hmmm……”

In the silence, the small sound and the pained groan were loud.

Turning my head without lifting my butt from the floor, I met Mae Young-ryeong’s gaze; she had opened her eyes and was staring at me.

“…Ma-ster…?”

“…What the hell?”

Is she still half asleep? Why’s she babbling nonsense right after waking up…?

What the—her eyes aren’t hazy?

“Are you coming to your senses?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“Damn it, this is fucked. Truly Genesis! What are you going to do!!”

“…I’m sorry.”

Mae Young-ryeong’s voice was full of contrition and apology—no, guilt—almost as if, should I demand it, she’d remove her own head from her neck.

What? What was she sorry for? For causing this mess? Or for disobeying me and going out?

“What for?”

“Yes…?”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“Because my condition is like this, and I greeted my master lying down… I’m sorry.”

Shock and horror.

Yes, that’s how I’ll put it.

Damn those gods—what do they think of people? A woman who was perfectly fine suddenly turned into such a wreck.

“Phew… Fine, rest for now. No, before that—can you control that thing of yours?”

“…If you explain in detail what you’re referring to… I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying ‘sorry’! I mean emitting that thick black fog and absorbing other people’s luck.”

“Ah! If you’re talking about Witch of Doom, I can now control it perfectly.”

“Really? Then what about memories?”

“Yes? Do you mean my memory?”

“Yes. How much do you remember?”

“From my childhood up to now.”

Mae Young-ryeong, who had seemed severely lacking in something, grew clearer and more articulate over time—perhaps because her stamina was recovering, or her mind clearing.

“What were you like as a child? Was your childhood happy?”

“No. But because of that, I met my master, so I don’t think it was bad.”

“…Not bad?”

From what I’d heard about Genesis, it was hardly a situation a woman would call ‘not bad.’

Yet this woman—Mae Young-ryeong in front of me—said exactly that: that it wasn’t bad.

She had changed.

No, had she not changed?

Is this Mae Young-ryeong’s original personality?

Or is it a mix of her original personality and the one Genesis imposed?

It’s confusing. If Genesis were before me, I might have grabbed her by the collar and shook her without hesitation.

Even if a representative is nothing but a handful standing in for a god, a slave who must risk their life for the gods’ honor, isn’t this too much?

To change someone’s personality as if swapping a CPU, without regard for their will… it’s obscene.

Only then did I begin to understand why my irritation had melted away like snow when I saw Mae Young-ryeong’s pitiable state and why an unexpected pity had welled up.

Beings toyed with by the gods.

Creatures worse than pawns on a chessboard.

A contract like a drug offered to those who had lived lives so miserable they could hardly be called living.

Through Mae Young-ryeong, who had collapsed alone in the Amor archbishop’s chamber with no one to care for her, perhaps I saw reflections of myself and my comrades who had suffered in past lives.

“Enough. Focus on recovering for now. Do not use Witch of Doom on anyone for the time being, except for what you’re currently absorbing. Especially, do not use it on legion members.”

“Understood.”

“Alright. Sleep for now. Clean. Sleep.”

“…Yes, sor…”

I lifted the deeply sleeping Mae Young-ryeong in both hands.

Only ten days. In ten days she seemed to have lost nearly half her weight, especially with the dark circles under her eyes.

Although I used cleanliness magic, she still looked like a crazed woman who had raved herself to exhaustion and finally slept.

She had had the nightmare three times firsthand, and it was terrifying.

If she had spent those ten days experiencing that nightmare every day, every moment, it was a wonder she had endured.

“…Damn.”

No amount of swearing made me feel better. My mouth tasted bitter and the air I inhaled felt coarse.

I knew this damned place was like this.

I knew well enough, but every time I learned it through direct experience, only a bitter aftertaste remained.

Maybe it’s because, over the past year, the legion members had bickered and bonded, and I had been drunk on the drug of hope—so happy compared to my past life—that I tended to think in an overly optimistic way.

I moved toward the place where the group waited, my mind pouring out unanswerable questions.

At last feeling it was over, I released a deep sigh from my core.