Chapter 87

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Episode 19 - Principles of a purpose [4]

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Luminus drove her sword into the Dark Knight’s chest, slowly sinking the blade deeper as the man’s body twisted across the blood-covered floor.

The villain let out a horrifying scream.

A sharp, broken, desperate sound.

But that still did not make Luminus stop.

The images of the dead children they had found a few hours earlier remained carved into her mind with sickening clarity.

The small bodies abandoned among the filth of the Black Market. The dried blood. The empty stares. Some of them were still clinging to one another even after death.

That scene still clung to her thoughts like a curse.

She gritted her teeth as a suffocating mixture of rage, helplessness, and hatred burned inside her chest.

"Arghhh...!!! S-Stop... j-just fucking kill me already, bitch..."

The Dark Knight coughed up blood as he spoke.

His body had already been completely destroyed.

Deep cuts tore through his flesh, exposing bone beneath.

Pieces of ripped skin hung from his body, and several mutilated limbs were scattered around him.

Blood covered the ground, forming a massive dark puddle beneath him.

"Cough...!!! Cough...!!! K-kill me... you damned bitch..."

Yet even in the middle of that inhuman torture, the villain continued smiling.

It was a twisted, sick smile.

There was fear in his eyes. Desperation as well.

But at the same time... ecstasy.

As if the pain excited him.

As if dying was fun.

Luminus remained motionless when she realized that.

Her sword was still piercing the man’s body, but she stopped moving it.

She said nothing for several seconds.

The silence felt far heavier than any scream.

"Seriously... all of you disgust me."

Her voice came out low and trembling.

Not from fear.

But because he was holding himself back.

He had witnessed countless scenes. People brutally murdered. Families destroyed. Cities reduced to nothing but corpses.

But this was different.

Children.

Only children.

And the worst part was imagining how much they had suffered before dying.

The thought that monsters like him could simply die quickly after doing something like this made him sick.

It wasn’t enough.

It never was.

Luminus’s breathing began to grow unstable.

His emotions had finally overflowed.

He clenched his jaw so hard that he felt pain.

And the very next second...

He kicked the villain’s head with all his strength.

A wet, grotesque sound echoed through the place.

The head was sent flying violently along with part of the spine, torn away solely by the brutal physical force of the impact.

Blood exploded everywhere.

But even after dying...

The villain’s smile was still there.

Luminus watched the head roll across the floor and felt an unpleasant chill run down his spine.

’...Lately, I’ve been losing control too much.’

He closed his eyes for a moment as he took a deep breath.

’I’ve suppressed all of this for far too long.’

Everything had probably started that day.

Years ago.

The day the Church of the Black Dawn appeared.

An organization that had only recently been formed at the time, made up of infamous criminals and villains who had begun gathering under the same name.

That day, they arrived at her family’s territory.

And within just a few hours...

Everything disappeared.

The people who had been peacefully laughing at sunset ended up as corpses before nightfall.

Her parents.

Her siblings.

The servants who had taken care of her since childhood.

All of them.

Every single one of them died.

The entire mansion ended up covered in blood and screams.

Some of the surviving children were taken to the basement by the villains.

Luminus was one of them.

And ever since then...

Those days had never left her memory.

They were endless nights.

Nights filled with pain, fear, and despair.

The villains constantly came down to the basement.

Sometimes they chose someone.

Sometimes they only laughed while watching the children tremble.

And then...

One person disappeared.

Then another.

And another.

Every morning, fewer remained.

"Damn it..."

Luminus’s voice came out broken.

Her face was covered in fresh blood, yet she could still feel a cold sweat running across her skin.

Her teeth ground against each other as she gripped the sword so tightly that her hands began to tremble slightly.

Even if she wanted to forget it...

She couldn’t.

She never had been able to.

Whenever those memories returned, it felt like living through everything all over again.

The same fear.

The same helplessness.

The same suffocating sensation.

Luminus slowly lowered her gaze toward the villain’s corpse.

Then she let go of the sword.

The weapon fell to the ground with a metallic sound as she sat down among the destroyed remains of the Black Market.

Her eyes became empty and distant.

Naturally, the memories continued to bloom inside her mind, but she desperately tried to reject them.

Because remembering too much was agonizing.

Mentally exhausting.

And above all...

Too real.

Every sensation returned with unbearable clarity.

That was why her sword techniques had ended up becoming distorted in that way.

Every villain she encountered died beneath a sword art created solely to inflict suffering.

An art born from pain.

From hatred.

From the endless days of despair she had endured.

In fact, most villains could not even scream when she used that technique.

The pain was so monstrous...

That their bodies simply stopped reacting.

Luminus slowly brought a hand to her temples as an unbearable stab of pain pierced through her head.

Her memories kept trying to drag her back into the past.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Charlotte’s voice pulled Luminus out of her memories.

She raised her head and looked at Charlotte before shifting her gaze toward Adel.

Both of them had already returned. Luminus let out a small sigh as she picked up her sword and rose from the ground.

Although she couldn’t erase those memories easily.

She couldn’t remain trapped in the past for too long.

And, truthfully, she didn’t want to.

’Just... stop thinking about it. I have a goal, a dream, and...’

Then her thoughts stopped for a second.

She frowned and tried once again to think about what her purpose was supposed to be.

’My purpose... is... My dream is to see the blue sky, my goal is revenge, and my purpose is...’

Her expression changed several times as she tried to remember what she had decided for herself long ago.

But somehow, without even realizing it, she had forgotten it.

Her goal was growing stronger and stronger. It blinded her without her noticing, and every time she looked at the black sky, her dream resurfaced in her thoughts.

But her purpose... she couldn’t remember it. Or at least, she kept moving forward instinctively without truly knowing what it was.

Her eyes settled on the two people standing in front of her.

They had asked her about her purpose during their conversations.

She had clearly noticed it. She wasn’t stupid or naïve enough not to realize that both of them were trying to bring up the subject of purpose in one way or another.

But now that she thought about it... what exactly was her purpose?

’What am I supposed to accomplish after achieving my dream and my goal?’

***

Luminus silently observed Charlotte and me.

’From what I heard from a distance, she was torturing that guy.’

The villain’s body, missing its limbs and head, was a few meters away.

In any case, I ignored it, and after a few seconds, Luminus spoke.

"They asked me what my purpose was, right?"

"...!"

"...!"

Charlotte and I were surprised for a moment by Luminus’s question.

From what I had noticed, she avoided the topic whenever we took the chance to ask her about her purpose.

Honestly, I was certain she suspected something about the two of us.

But that was not what mattered.

’I just want to know whether she has a purpose or not.’

No matter what the answer was, either possibility would be enough to get through the prologue.

"Yes."

Charlotte replied, and then Luminus lowered her head slightly and said:

"Then tell me, what purpose do the two of you have?"

Her question was unexpected. Even so, maintaining her composure, Charlotte was the first to speak.

"My purpose may sound foolish, but to me, it has a special meaning."

Luminus asked:

"And what would that be?"

"To die naturally. Not to die because of someone else."

Luminus looked at Charlotte with slight surprise. Seeing that reaction, Charlotte simply smiled a little.

Meanwhile, I did know the meaning behind that purpose.

As a reincarnator, Charlotte had not actually died a natural death.

She died before graduating from college. The game never specified exactly how her death happened.

From my memories, all I knew was that Charlotte’s death in her past life was connected to some girl who was jealous of her.

I don’t know why or how it exactly happened, but Charlotte ended up murdered... or maybe she died some other way.

Either way, she had barely reached her twenties before losing her life because of someone else.

And when she was given a second chance, the problem was that she already knew how the world would end in the future.

Her goal was to survive.

And her purpose... was to die naturally.

Luminus said nothing, but after a few seconds, she looked at me.

"And you? What’s your purpose?"

"...."

At her question, I opened my mouth... but then closed it again.

Honestly... I had nothing.

I didn’t know who I was or what I would do after finding answers about myself.

I only had a goal, but no purpose or dream.

So I shook my head.

"I only have a goal, but I don’t have any purpose."

My words lingered in the air for a few seconds before Luminus nodded.

"We’re the same."

’So she doesn’t have a purpose either.’

That thought crossed my mind, and before I could say anything, Charlotte spoke.

"You don’t have any purpose."

Her comment was directed at both Luminus and me.

We both nodded.

"Yes, I don’t have any purpose because my goal is more important than anything else."

And then Luminus said:

"I... think I simply forgot it."

Charlotte stared at her without saying anything. Meanwhile, I finally confirmed the answer I needed to hear.

With that in mind, and already knowing what to say, I spoke.

"Then save the villains’ families."