-Silvea-
I got myself in trouble again, I thought that I might be able to sneak into the castle and help some of the hostages escape.
I found a group of people who had been tied up with magic, so I freed them and offered to escort them out of the castle, hoping that the queen of darkness would not find us.
"Ah! I found you!"
Why do I always end up running into her? Is she doing this on purpose?
"She's here! What do we do now!?"
"Is... is she going to kill us?"
Everyone seems to be fearing for their lives, but will she really kill us?
There's something that has been bugging me for some time. She's already had the chance to kill me several times now, and yet she let me get away every single time. Could it be that she is not as brutal as I thought? The princess seemed to be convinced that she was not really evil... maybe there's a chance that I could reason with her.
To tell the truth, up until now I've always been too afraid to have a talk with her. But, for some strange reason, she seems a lot less scary this time, and she's already trapped us anyway so there's nothing to lose...
"Please! Could you at least let these people leave? They are just innocent civilians, they won't get in your way."
"Eh? What makes you think that you can tell me what to do?"
"No, I'm just asking you to show some compassion..."
"Compassion? I gave them the chance to be of use to me as hostages and they ran away as soon as they got the chance. Why should I show 'compassion' to these worms? I should kill at least a couple to teach them a lesson."
"What!? But the princess said..."
"Hahaha! Yes, it was really easy to bring that princess to my side, she was emotionally weak after having to escape from her own mother."
So she was really just deceiving her?
"But... you let me live every time we've met until now..."
"You're simply too weak to be a threat me, and watching you cower in fear each time was just too much fun."
It can't be...
"Die!"
There was a soldier among the group of people I had with me, and it looks like he's decided to take the chance to stab her with a sword while she was distracted.
'Wind slash'
"UAGH!!!"
She just cut off his arm! The soldier falls to the ground while screaming in pain as she approaches him. Why did she use wind magic instead of darkness? She must not be taking this seriously at all...
"I see, so you decided to volunteer yourself to be the first one to die."
No! I cannot just stand here and do nothing, even if I know that it's useless I need to try to stop her.
"Ah!"
"What!?"
She's bleeding... I swung my sword at her and it actually cut her... how is this possible?
"This can't be... how did you do this?"
"I don't know..."
"Could you be... I should retreat for now."
'Smokescreen'
When the smoke screen dissipates, the queen of darkness is no longer here. What in the world was that!?
"Did you see that!?"
"She injured her! She made her run away!"
Wait, what are these people saying?
"No, there's no way I could fight her."
"There was some shining mark on her forehead!"
"She's like a hero from a legend!"
What shiny mark? What are they talking about?
"No! No! Can't you see that this doesn't make any sense?"
First of all, there's no way that I could ever be a match for the queen of darkness, she also didn't use any dark magic at all and the way she was acting was completely different from how she usually is.
But nobody is listening to me, they keep praising me and saying that I'm just trying to be humble, the way they are acting feels crazy.
This is just wrong...
-Cureva-
After getting out of sight I go back to the appearance I've been using most of the time recently. When I impersonate an already existing person it is only a matter of time until people realize that something is wrong, so in order to use a fake identity for a long time the best method is to create one from scratch.
To make the scene more believable I let Silvea injure me for real, I should use one of my special potions to quickly get rid of the wound or the bleeding might give me away. Well, the people who watched how she drove away the queen of darkness will now start to believe that she's some kind of chosen hero, I even made a meaningless mark appear on her forehead to make it look like she was using some hidden power, that happens a lot in heroic stories after all.
Well, for now, I need to get back to her with my usual identity, to make it look like I was really worried for her I'll use some smoke to make myself cry a little and I'll run to hug her.
"Silvea! I heard that you encountered the queen of darkness again! Are you alright!? Did she do anything to you!?"
"Ah! No, I'm fine! I'm sorry for making you worry Paula."
"I should not have left you alone, I'm sorry."
"I'm the one who ran off on her own. But Paula! You need to help me! Everybody is saying that I'm the one who made the queen of darkness run away!"
Of course they are, a kind and brave heroine receiving an unexpected power and defeating the evil villain is exactly the type of story that people want to believe, and since the real queen of darkness just escaped at the same time there's nothing to contradict it.
This is something I've been observing for a long time. When I was a child I always found it weird how other people seem to view the world in a completely different way.
They enjoy food that they say is 'delicious', but to me, it all has the same bland taste. They talk about the beauty of nature, but to me, everything looks dull. They try to avoid being injured, saying that it's terrible to get hurt, but pain has never been something I particularly disliked. And, of course, they all want nonsense like love, friendship, or happiness, when it's obvious that all of those things are just made up.
But I finally understood everything when I met a certain man. People said that he was 'insane', he believed that the goddess of light had told him to kill monsters that had disguised themselves as humans, he thought that he was a chosen hero, and so he murdered many innocent people and was sentenced to death. Those delusions of his were apparently 'madness', however, nobody seemed to realize that he was not the only one like that.
Everybody I meet seems to have similar delusions, believing in nonsense like 'justice' or 'love', thinking that they can obtain happiness if they accomplish their dreams, constantly trying to give purpose and value to all the meaningless things in this meaningless world. Everybody is like that, this entire world is a world of madness, and I'm the only one sane, the only one who can see things as they truly are.
The scene of the brave hero defeating the evil queen of darkness fits perfectly into the delusions people have, and so, they will believe it even if nothing about it makes any sense. If that is not madness, I don't know what to call it.
"So you don't think that you could have hurt her?"
"Of course not! You know that she's way too strong for me to have a chance against her. She must have pretended to lose for some reason... Paula, you need to help me clear this misunderstanding."
Silvea is such a good girl, there's a lot of arrogant idiots who might have believed that they really were able to win against the queen of darkness. And most of those who would have been able to tell that something was wrong would have just stayed quiet and enjoy the praise and rewards. But Silvea is not like that, she would never accept praise for something she didn't do.
These past two years I have been acting perfectly as her friend, she now trusts me completely and depends on me to explain anything that she does not understand. I've also gotten to know her well, so I know how to make her stay quiet.
"Silvea, the entire city is in a panic right now, thinking that you are able to fight against the queen of darkness might help to make them feel safe."
"But I'm not..."
"Just wait until things are calmed down and then we'll explain everything. That is the best way to help all the innocent people who are feeling afraid."
"I see... if you say so."
'Helping innocent people' is the biggest delusion Silvea has. But by the time we try to clear the misunderstanding, it will be too late, the rumors will have already spread too far to be stopped. Don't worry Silvea, this is the first step for you to become the world-renowned hero you have always wanted to be.
Being sane can be rather freeing, knowing that everything in this world is pointless means that I don't have to fear anything or feel guilty about anything. But most people are not strong enough to accept reality, and so, they willingly remain snared in their madness. As the only sane person in the world, I cannot help but feel a bit lonely.
However, I know a method to make people see the truth. Madness makes people think that life is a game with happiness as the reward for winning, as long as they think that they can win, they will never be able to escape from their delusions. Only when they lose everything, when they fall into absolute despair, can they see the world the same way I do.
Right now, there are three people who I'm looking forward to seeing lose all hope.
First is my oldest sister, the witch of darkness. She believes that she's smarter and more powerful than anyone and that she's destined to rule the world. And she's deluded enough to think that the world will be a better place under her rule. I cannot wait to see how she will react when she's defeated and all of her delusions of grandeur are completely shattered.
Second is Silvea. I will make her become a great hero, just as she wants, everyone will praise and support her. But she will not realize that her heroic deeds will only cause innocent people to suffer. I wonder what expression her cute face will make when she finally learns the truth.
And last but not least is Luna, the 'queen of darkness'. She believes that she'll be able to make people see her true self and that she'll be loved. But the madness of the world has already decided that she's the villain, it doesn't matter how much she tries to be nice to everybody, she will only receive fear and hatred in return. I wonder if she will end up despising this world as much as I do...
Of course, I'm not just going to let everyone else remain insane, I want everyone to see the world as I do, and that prophecy might help me with that. All of my sisters are only focused on the part about the queen of darkness's rise to power, they have not realized that the most interesting part is at the end...
I need to make sure that everyone loses the game and falls into despair. That is my duty as the only sane person in this world.
Thanks for the chapter.
I think Luna is more dense than Cureva thinks. Cureva'll probably bash her head in frustration before Luna even feels a hint of despair.
And it looks like both sides have witch companions.
Even Luna surely has limits, I just don't think she'll react the way Cureva is expecting her to if she does indeed break.
@scout821 Yeah, if Cureva cares about her own life at all breaking Luna is the last thing she should want to happen. Even if she doesn’t care about her own life, seeing Luna break would be a bad thing for her since it would almost certainly spell the end of any other plans Cureva had. When someone breaks mentally they could collapse in despair and break down, or snap and get extremely violent. If Luna went berserk I think everyone would be screwed. Even just going by raw stats and level Luna is quite a few leagues above everyone else, and once she starts adding her magical abilities and incredible spell arsenal she’s probably basically unstoppable. I don’t think anyone or anything we’ve seen so far could do more than temporarily slow Luna down or injure her somewhat-even Arana’s world relic sword probably wouldn’t be able to actually kill Luna, just badly injure her which she could fix in an instant with her flesh shaping. Even the witches with their tricks or gimmicks won’t stand a chance once Luna figures out their trick and comes up with a counter like she did with Ranna’s ability to turn into water and escape or counteracting having her magic items stolen and used against her-and that was with Luna trying to avoid hurting Ranna since Luna doesn’t like hurting people.
I get it. The Witch of Darkness doesn't realize that "Queen of Darkness" is an actual title referring to a very specific person, and thinks the prophecy is just listing a set of requirements the world spirit has some sort of need for.
She thinks that the prophecy by default is referring to herself, and that Arana just found some pet level 300 dark mage to try and steal her rightful place. And to be fair, she's probably half right, Arana wouldn't have known about the title either until Luna let her look at her status. Boy is she sure in for a shock.
If it was Irvan who Cureva tried to deceive, disguising herself as Luna, would he be able to notice that it is not Luna using her masochistic sense and draconic sense of smell?
Now that I've stopped to think about it, what is the level of Cureva?
Thanks for the chapter
If even Silvea noticed that something was strange then someone who actually knows Luna would have realized that it was not her.
Cureva's level should be the same as when she's Paula (since she cannot deceive an appraisal stone). I don't remember if I mentioned what her level was before, but it should be somewhere around 120 or 130 (but like Ranna and Arana, her real capacity for battle is more than what her level might suggest).
That person is a perfect example of the fact that crazy people don't realise they are crazy,and if you tell them they will think you're the one who's crazy. It's always more believable to think that the entire world is crazy rather than maybe, you're the one who is crazy.
So Cureva is basically a psychopath. I wonder whether she would turn into a "normal" person if her hat was taken (Luna needs to become better at using her power so she isn't handicapped when hostages are taken, that way she doesn't need to kill and can just take off her limbs and then hat; can heal limbs so doesn't matter if they are lost for a bit)? After all, witches act their opposite when it's taken (Arana goes from bold and mischievous ? to timid and depressed and Ranna from polite to rude). Also seems like big sis dark witch has aspirations to be a benevolent tyrant.
In any case, next stop is that demon lord as since they didn't get contract crystal from Queen they have to take care of Kalroth. Prophecy said so too. Good job for Silvea getting some screen time instead of scream ? time. Though guess Cureva doesn't know that Silvea likely is a hero as she isn't Arana, whose sole duty is to find and guide a hero if needed.
I wonder if witches are born like people and "awaken" as witches after their predecessor is gone or if it is more similar to demons and they are born that way? Guess that could be a spoiler?
After taking her hat I guess also planting a curse for good measure would be nice (though need to know if witches have certain tricks for that like ignoring level limit restrictions).
I see that you and I think in a similar way. I also commented on a similar capture method in the last chapter. But Forli said that Cureva could probably still escape and that it would be too violent for Luna. I'll quote you below for you to see:
Gin0001: If Luna had cut off Cureva's arms and legs, nailed her to the floor with a shadow throw, a binded, used 'flesh shaping' to stop her bleeding, the cursed one. And just in case, throw 'Mana corrosion' at the severed limbs and merge them into a flesh lump. Would Cureva still be able to escape in that state?
forli:Probably, I guess, but if she had had the leeway to do all of that, there's a lot of other methods she could have used to capture her
. Also, I think that would have been a bit too violent for Luna.
What do you think about him?
I think Luna would need to create new spells, curses and debuffs to be able to capture her, since Cureva probably prepared against measures against the existing ones.
What do you think of something like "Mana Leak" to be used simultaneously after "Mana Corrosion", to make the target leak all the mana it recovers before it can even be used?
But to ensure that something like "Leak Conversion", to convert all the mana that the target releases to mana from an attribute of the caster's choice and that attribute can be just the one whose target has the least affinity or none.
Do you think they could be effective?
spread too far to be stoped. -> stopped
the part about the queen of darkness rise to power -> darkness's
At least Silvea isn't so dumb as to not notice how differently 'Luna' was acting from before, and how she was using wind magic instead of dark magic, even if Cureva was able to string her along and get more rumors to spread
This whole prophecy bulls*** is just the witches like Cureva making sure it happens. I really, REALLY want Luna to blow Cureva away and kill her. Even if no one else in the stories dies, Cureva should, or Luna should make her wish she was dead with something like cursing her to immortality and being unable to do anything so she sits watching the world move on without her.
Great, Cureva is one of those psycho nihilist morons who want everything to die/become nothing because they're messed up in the head so everything has to suffer like they do. And she's a shapeshifter/illusionist enemy which I also hate-the paranoia/team suspicion and using illusions to frame the MC gets old really, *really* fast, as does them being able to escape when they shouldn't be able to because of 'plot'.
I absolutely *loathe* characters like Cureva or the Joker who think they're the only sane one or that everyone is secretly as f***** up as they are and it just takes a little push to make them go off the deep end. Far too often those characters are kept around when by all rights they should have been killed off-either by the hero/MC or by falling victim to their own plan and dying from it. I just hope Luna doesn't end up like Batman having some kind of psychological breakdown at the thought of someone dying because of them or that they could have saved them, even if they were trying to kill them not 3 seconds before. If Cureva gets herself into a situation where she'll be killed because of her own actions, I *really* hope Luna lets her die.
Cureva seems to be the perfect mix of quite a few tropes/traits that I absolutely despise, I eagerly look forward to her demise or at least ejection from the story.
Ouch. Well, if nothing else, Cureva is not going to show up in the story again for a while.
Also, the point of Cureva's character is to prove that she's completely wrong. She had to win here because this is her first appearance, but she's not going to get her way all the time.
@forli That's something at least. Let's get on to more comedy and fluff instead of Cureva's manipulations and evil
Thank goodness for that then, seeing villains like the Joker get away time and again even after they should have died irks me to no end. Especially if the reason they're still alive is because the hero was stupid and decided to save them from their own trap, even knowing that they won't change and saving them means they'll be able to kill more people in the future.
I figured Cureva's character/personality might have been for something like that, but I hope her "being proved wrong" involves her death or permanent dispowering and being unable to harm anyone else ever again. I know Luna is overly kind and forgiving, but I don't think even she's so naive as to let someone like Cureva go without any curse or insurance to keep it from happening again after she's been captured. If nothing else Arana will make sure Cureva is permanently dealt with
@forli Its how you said once, Luna is smart, she only lacks of common sense and actual experience, however its obvios that she's smart she wont be able to escape or fool her all the time.
She is the most insane one
I want ask this too. Is the one who made Paula's personality said is right when she says Arana wants to 'rule the world' ?
Sorry, I don't understand what you're trying to ask
@forli The crazy sister among the witch, you know the one who say she is the only sane one said than her older sister, witch of darkness, want rule the world, is that true or is that just in her head ? I was wrong when I said Arana for the witch of darkness.
@Stonelight Oh, yes, that's true. The witch of darkness is also the oldest, making her the leader, that's why Arana left.
Plot twists are meant to be surprises. You did a great job.
Thanks for the chapter.
I forget, who's Paula?
One of the other two knights who are always with Silvea.
I thought it would be cool if such a minor character turned out to be secretly important, but it seems like I went too far into making her 'minor'
Sorry, its just that i follow lots of stories, so characters tend to slip my mind....
@Mephi It's fine, that also happens to me all the time.
@forli
Secondary or not is not important, the main thing is how natural its appearance in the plot is.