FVN Chapter 177: The Day the Divine Spear Fell
Chapter 177: The Day the Divine Spear Fell
chapter 177: the day the divine spear fell
「seduce that man and bear his child.」
upon hearing those words, mary was utterly horrified.
she couldn’t believe what she had just heard, questioning her own ears.
but sigrid’s eyes revealed nothing but sincerity.
how could sigrid give her such an order?
mary and sigrid shared the same love.
arthur gramalte.
they both adored him, both whispered words of love to him.
for sigrid to issue such an order to her was something mary could not possibly accept.
「lady sigrid, no matter what i can’t!」
「mary.」
sigrid’s voice cut sharply through her protest, making mary flinch.
when mary looked up at sigrid, there wasn’t a shred of emotion in her cold eyes.
「surely you don’t think you’re the same person now as you were before?」
those words pierced deeply into mary’s heart, tearing it apart.
yet sigrid showed no signs of stopping.
「the mary of the past may have been worthy of arthur’s love. i would have been willing to accept that. but the mary of today, do you think you’re still deserving of that?」
mary’s eyes quivered uncontrollably.
because she, too, knew all too well that she was no longer worthy.
「l-lady sigrid, but still, arthur is all i have! please, i beg you, revoke this command, just this once! i’ll do anything else you ask.」
「ha.」
sigrid let out a hollow laugh, her expression one of disbelief.
then, she slowly ran her fingers through her hair and crossed her arms, looking down at mary.
「mary, there’s nothing else you can do anymore.」
even with her innate talents and memories from a past regression, mary was now in a position where she was likely to end up taking remedial exams after the midterm evaluations.
she had fallen so far.
to anyone who saw her, mary was now nothing more than a worthless shell of a person.
「but even someone like you still has one final tool—a woman’s weapon.」
bearing a child.
if she succeeded in that, it would become a powerful means to bind kraush.
「and this isn’t just my idea. arthur feels the same way. he personally ordered that cursed wretch to be brought into our fold, no matter what.」
「a-arthur? arthur personally gave me such an order? that... that can’t be.」
「are you still denying reality? this is arthur’s final chance for you as well.」
a faint, unsettling smile crept across sigrid’s face.
「by any means necessary—that’s who arthur is, isn’t he? if we don’t support his decisions, who else will?」
mary opened her mouth, but no words came out, as if her voice had been stolen.
she simply sat there, lips trembling, unable to refute.
「now, i’ve even prepared a gift for you.」
sigrid handed something to the dazed mary.
「this is a product called ‘allure’s fragrance.’ just releasing it in the room will make the target feel irresistibly drawn to you.」
mary, still in a daze, took the item sigrid handed her.
「once you use this, that cursed one will lose control and come to you. and in that moment...」
sigrid’s finger lightly touched mary’s stomach, emphasizing her intent.
「make sure to seal the deal.」
with that, sigrid stood and smiled brightly, as if she hadn’t just issued such a chilling command.
「well then, i leave it to you, mary diana.」
sigrid, who had taken to calling mary by her full name lately, left the room without another word.
it wasn’t until much later, after night had fallen, that mary came to her senses.
almost as if in a trance, she left her dormitory room.
the final command.
arthur’s request.
her current, hopeless state.
the only weapon she still had as a woman.
the allure’s fragrance.
countless thoughts swirled chaotically in her mind as she wandered, eventually finding herself in front of kraush’s room.
and now.
behind her, allure’s fragrance was filling the room.
kraush’s nose twitched ever so slightly.
the sweet scent, which had at some point started to fill the room, tickled his nose.
‘this.’
as soon as kraush caught a whiff of the scent, he realized what mary had been thinking.
she must have used the medicine darlene had mentioned last time while he stepped out to get tea.
a sigh escaped kraush’s lips in disbelief.
he had expected her to try something foolish.
but to think she would go this far, using mary for such a disgraceful act—it hadn’t even crossed his mind.
‘just how far have you fallen?’
the spirit that had once radiated from shinchang was nowhere to be found.
the sight of mary now, desperately trying to seduce someone with such means, was utterly pitiful.
unable to hold back her sorrow, they began to fall, dripping one by one.
surely, she had made mistakes too.
that’s why she had repented time and again, working tirelessly to earn sigrid’s acknowledgment.
but sigrid had always been unfeeling, leaving no room for kindness.
just once would have sufficed.
‘mary, you’ve done well.’
she had yearned for those words.
but sigrid had always treated her as a mere tool, never once offering a kind word.
no matter her vow of lifelong loyalty, cracks continued to form in mary’s heart.
“mary.”
kraush called her name again.
mary, her face now a mess of tears, looked up.
the makeup she had applied with the singular focus of fulfilling sigrid’s final command was now smeared by her tears.
“you’re someone who can stand on her own.”
kraush’s next words shook mary to her core once more.
“what have you gained by following sigrid until now? power? rank? status? a lover? sigrid has never once tried to give you anything.”
it was true.
sigrid was an incredibly arrogant person.
her possessiveness was so intense that it often led to trouble.
the state of the skyborne generation she had gathered was evidence enough of that.
she, who wished to be loved by everyone in the world, had gathered only male followers around her.
that was sigrid’s reality.
and it was time for mary to confront that reality.
sigrid was undoubtedly exceptional.
her skills were beyond question, and her twisted desires, such as her possessiveness, were undoubtedly strong. but she wasn’t lacking in intelligence either.
however, she wasn’t someone destined to save the world.
she was a foolish woman who would recklessly devote herself to someone who loved her empire more than she did.
“how long are you going to just follow orders?”
“i, i...”
mary had lived her entire life as sigrid’s knight.
she was accustomed to taking orders, and because of that, she craved them.
she was not bright, and whenever she tried to think for herself, she often made mistakes.
“stand on your own now. the mary i’ve seen is someone who can stand alone.”
kraush’s next words shook mary once again.
kraush, who had defeated her with his own skill.
although it was true that mary hadn’t regained all the strength she once had as the divine spear, even with her best efforts to win, she was utterly defeated by kraush.
from the entrance exam onward, mary had only ever shown her weakest self in front of kraush.
even now, her slumped shoulders and inability to meet his eyes were proof of that.
perhaps that’s why.
subtly, in her heart, kraush had ascended to a position higher than her own.
originally, sigrid had occupied that position, so she hadn’t paid it much mind.
but now, with sigrid crumbling, kraush had stepped into that spot just beneath her.
mary had lived her entire life as someone beneath others.
to her, the words of someone above her always sounded like absolute, truthful advice.
kraush, someone far greater than herself, had told her she could stand on her own.
she had been acknowledged.
someone like her had been acknowledged.
“haaah.”
for some reason, her body kept tingling.
her body flushed red, and a hot breath escaped her lips.
since her regression, mary had lived in constant pursuit of validation.
yet, no one had ever fulfilled her desperate need for acknowledgment.
even arthur, whom she had loved so deeply, had failed to do so.
mary’s reddened eyes grew even more dazed.
the sweet fragrance that filled the room now seemed to emanate from kraush himself.
inside mary’s heart.
sigrid completely shattered, leaving her isolated in that very moment.
crack!
at last, one of mary’s remaining two dials began to splinter.
the broken dial crumbled into fragments and fell to the floor.
as the shattered pieces scattered, the final dial was revealed before kraush’s eyes.
[ make mary ‘submit ‘ ]
the moment kraush saw the dial, he slowly smiled.
mary would never know the reason behind the malice in his smile.
translators note:
honestly i feel bad for her. all she did was be a bit arrogant and follow sigrid’s orders, but ended up almost giving her body for something so stupid.
the author didn’t show us enough to make us hate her enough for what happened to her.