When My Enemies Began to Regret

“Carl? What’s all this? Isn’t this money?”

“I will cover Sister-in-law’s living expenses from now on.”

“Why you?”

At some point, Carl began taking care of his sister-in-law while avoiding the eyes of his family.

“There’s a story my brother always told when he was alive.”

“…!”

“He said his dream was to make Sister-in-law happy.”

Killieon referred good deeds as ‘good behavior that don’t expect anything in return’. So this wouldn’t be a good deed. Still, Carl took his money despite knowing it.

“If something goes wrong with Sister-in-law, I don’t have the courage to see him later.”

“Carl…”

As he helped his sister-in-law in a difficult situation, the weight that had been weighing on his heart became lighter. However, his guilt grew like a snowball after that day.

He realized that violence was wrong and tried to stop it, but when he stopped all the fighting, he experienced withdrawal symptoms. The people of Andras repeatedly married people with similar tendencies and felt a strong temperamental urge to violence. And it wasn’t easy to go against one’s natural temperament. So, he had no choice but to set some standards and tolerate evil deeds as much as he could, but this alone wasn’t enough.

“…”

Carl felt ashamed of himself every morning. He said he wouldn’t live like Andras but continued to commit violence. Now, he was only causing harm to the world, and he wondered if he could live like this.

Fortunately, there was a means to reduce his guilt toward Haniel, but it was only temporary by helping her.  No matter how obsessively he helped his sister-in-law, whenever he turned around, his feelings became heavy again. Like a madman, he looked for another way to atone for his sister-in-law.

One day, Carl learned that the holy relic of ‘eternal life’ was real. As soon as Carl read Europa’s description in the family’s old book, his mind felt bright.

“Sister-in-law will be very happy if I give this to her!”

Perhaps this is the surest way to guarantee her future life. Haniel had been in poor health for a long time and longed for a long life. She couldn’t have asked for a better gift.

If he offered her a valuable item like that, he could atone for all the sins Andras’s family committed against her.

At the same time, Carl thought.

Then, he would have set positive goals as well. All that remained now was to obtain that holy relic.

As a boy, Carl felt at a loss. He was so worried about the future that he didn’t feel much when his former fiancée suddenly slapped him.

“Or, I wish I could get something similar.”

He had been driven to a dark staircase while thinking about it. And…

“What are you doing?”

“Ah, I was turning my necklace.”

One day, a person came to the boy.

“But what brings you here?”

The girl with dull, black hair listened to his question and answered softly.

“I’m looking for a dog, Carl Andras.”

* * *

Carl finished his long recollection and explained everything that was left to Fanora next to him. As Fanora listened to his story, her expression changed from moment to moment, and at the end, she looked as angry as she did at the beginning.

“How can you dig up your own family’s grave? You’re not even a grave robber!”

“Right…”

“No, even a grave robber would be better! They at least filled up the grave with the ground again!”

“I decided not to think of them as family anymore.”

Fanora was in shock. The nobles’ affairs were in such disarray that there was no way to fix their morals.

“Anyway, my intention to offer Europa to my sister-in-law is purely for my own satisfaction.”

“…”

“If I save her life… If I take responsibility for her future like this instead of my brother, I feel like it’s worth being born.”

Carl frowned and then smiled with a helpless expression on his face.

“This is a very selfish thought, right? It’s not even what she wanted.”

Fanora immediately denied what he said. “A really selfish person doesn’t even try to look kind.”

“…”

As she listened to his explanation, the poison left in her body had gone considerably. It seemed the poison was gone faster than she thought.

“I don’t have to say anything more now. I understand you want to have Europa.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“I also understood why Ganimede was in your hands.” Fanora continued in a passive posture, embracing her arm. “In the end, you decided not to return it to the marchioness, right?”

“To be precise, I decided to keep it until those people knelt in front of my brother’s grave and apologized.”

“Ah…”

“As you can see, nothing like that happened this year either.”

Carl took a golden necklace out of his arms. This is what Ganimede looked like; Fanora felt strange when she saw that necklace.

“Carl, but I don’t feel this is a holy relic.”

As soon as she saw Io’s jewel resembling a peacock’s tail feathers, she felt it was a holy relic. But Ganimede just looked like an ordinary necklace.

“That’s because my brother plated it separately. He changed the relic into a different shape to avoid getting caught.”

“That’s why it’s thick.”

“But if you touch it like this…”

. He held out the necklace in his hand. As soon as the necklace touched her fingertips, Fanora was overcome by an unfamiliar sensation. The stone wall in the distance comes close as if she can hold it, and her eyes feel more perspective than usual…

“This is Ganimede…”

It was real. That was certain it was a relic imbued with the power of God.

“It’s my family heirloom and my brother’s keepsake. Even if it’s Lady Fanora, it would be difficult to lend it to you.”

“…”

“Please tell me if there is anything that requires the power of a holy relic in the future. I will use it instead.”

If she tells him she needs help, will he use the holy relic right away?

Fanora shook her head while listening to him calmly. Of course, when she was just starting her revenge, she thought she needed Ganimede more than Io, but things were different now.

“That’s okay. After all, it’s a holy relic. Isn’t that cutting off your life in return?”

“!”

Carl reacted as if surprised by his words, then nodded his head.

He didn’t want to seek revenge, cutting the lifespan of his hated person. It was an attempt to be happy, but it only made you feel uneasy in the end.

“That, Lady Fanora.”

“Yes.”

But then. Carl rolled his eyes around to see if he had something to say and carefully spoke. “Speaking of holy relics… I have something to ask you.”

“I’m listening.”

“Lady Fanora, is it right that you have Io…?”

“You just saw it.”

If the moment of using a holy relic was discovered, what would be the point of hiding it further? In the end, Fanora revealed that she was the owner of Io. But when she told her secret, Carl’s expression became more ambiguous.

“You mean the real Io?”

Carl slurred his words and tilted his head. He went on to ask questions with a curious face. His eyes were pure without malice.

“Then, Lady Fanora, why have you been so passive until now when you have Io?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Honestly, it’s a bit awkward for me to say this since I’m opposing extreme revenge.”

The red-haired young man cleared his throat and continued. “I think you told me this before. You said it would be okay to be detained at the end as long as you deal with all your enemies, right?”

“Yes, but why?”

“Then you can take revenge at once at a gathering of nobles, like a royal ball. Just in a day.”

She was wondering what to answer. Fanora gently closed her eyes and explained. She had thought about this approach once before, but that plan was impossible even with Io.

“Io makes you stronger, but there is no difference in the strength of your body.”

“!”

“And there are always knights at the royal ball. If I run wild and get hit with an arrow, I will die…”

“You’re going to die?” Carl opened his eyes wide at the sentence she brought up and asked back.

It was an unfamiliar reaction.

“Lady Fanora, Io is a holy relic that controls power.”

The reason for his surprise soon became clear. He covered his mouth and spoke to her in a quiet voice. “Io handles not only the power it exerts but also the power applied from outside. So, originally, a spear cannot even penetrate your body.”

“?!”

“That’s why Io was the holy relic that could overturn the war. Because killing the owner of Io is impossible through a normal fight.”

Fanora was stunned to hear this. Io was actually a holy relic that protected its owner’s body. She was dazed for a few seconds, then raised her left hand a moment later. “That can’t be! Just now, I couldn’t even withstand the power of the holy relic which ruined it like this.”

Her left hand was full of scars from punching with her bare hands.

Carl stared at her swollen hand. “Your hand got like this just because of the fight we had a little while ago?”

“Yes!”

“…Then you’re not able to use even 10% of Io’s power.”

Fanora was half angry and half speechless by his words.

What on earth went wrong? As soon as she held the holy relic in her hand, the instructions for using it came to her mind, so she had never thought she was using it incorrectly. But in reality, she couldn’t even use half of the holy relic’s power?  

“Why? Is it the difference in talent?”

“…”

“Io is an effective relic that must be used by someone with outstanding martial arts skills like you? Or… is it because I’m in poor health?”

Or is it because of her lowly blood?

Fanora’s lips become dry for no reason. But it was the same for Carl.

“That’s.”

“Tell me now. Don’t you know the reason at this point?”

Carl looked troubled for a moment. It was an attitude that did not seem to want to tell the reason, but he reluctantly opened his mouth because she urged him one after another.

“How should I say this… Perhaps the reason Lady Fanora can’t use Io’s power properly is because…”

Carl, who blurted out the end of his speech as if he were in a very difficult situation, covered his mouth and spoke in a very small voice. “People who don’t believe in God cannot borrow the power of holy relics.”

The reason that came out of his mouth was a problem that Fanora had never imagined. “Didn’t believe in God?”

“Yes. The degree to which one can handle holy relics varies depending on one’s religious faith. For example, Lady Fanora, when you held Ganimede earlier, how far do you think you could go by using it once?”

“If I max it out, I’ll probably go up to the stone wall there…”

“I can move from here to Jalier’s territory in one use. There’s usually a difference like this.”

“…”

“If Io can’t protect your body, that means Lady Fanora has only little faith…”

Carl rolled his eyes with an ambiguous expression. As he was the son of a healthy Andras, the poison had completely gone, but he broke into a cold sweat later.

“I didn’t expect you to have this kind of side, but it’s very unexpected…”

“…”

Even though he looked like this, he seemed to have been a bit shocked to learn Fanora’s faith since he reads theological books faithfully. On the other hand, Fanora, who learned the reason, returned to a calm expression.

“Now I understand. Who in the world would want to share their power with someone who doesn’t believe in them?” she spoke in a half-giving-up manner.