## Chapter 244 – Malice (8)
“You must become a great tree.”
It was a saying she’d heard so often, it was practically ingrained in her ears.
Before young Veronica could even understand what it meant, she learned only how to nod in response.
She grew up with the words to become a great tree etched deeply in her heart.
She became increasingly skilled at handling the hammer, suffering burns from the intense heat countless times. When Veronica crafted her first farming tool and received a thank you from someone, her path became clear.
She had a talent.
Her parents were overjoyed, doting on Veronica and saying she would accomplish great things in the future.
She felt their love, but still didn’t understand what they meant when they told her to become a tree as if it were a habit.
“You may only be doing errands now, but someday someone will recognize our worth.”
When? The word almost escaped her lips. But she swallowed it down. She had to endure this much to take root firmly like a great tree.
But the results of her patience weren’t always sweet.
They died in vain.
It was the year Veronica turned nine.
They had placed a large order to hunt monsters, and they were heading to the village with smiles on their faces, proudly carrying the armor and weapons they had boasted about, only to be attacked by humans. Those humans had deliberately placed the order to hunt down the demonkin. Even then, did you silently endure, telling yourselves to become a great tree?
The answer disappeared into the labyrinth.
Now, there was no one to give her answers, no one to tell her to become a tree.
Veronica hammered the steel alone.
For the guests who would never come.
For the praise she could no longer hear.
For the family who could no longer stroke her hair.
Blisters on her hands, skin peeling from her palms, blood and pus flowing, were all commonplace. Surpassing the physical pain was the loneliness of being left alone and the wounds in her heart.
If I live like this and die, can I become a tree? If becoming a tree means dying and becoming fertilizer… then I can finally fulfill your wishes.
From the start, it was impossible for her, an ordinary beastkin, neither from a renowned race nor a family with a long history, to become a great tree.
It was a rainy day.
Looking at the gloomy gray sky, she made a decision.
‘Let’s end this now.’
She was tired of being alone. Once this last hammer strike was done, she would throw herself into the flames where it all began and end her life, she thought. Veronica had that thought even before she became a proper adult.
What was the reason?
It could only be described as fate that Rowen, who had lost his beloved friend and paid attention to nothing else, happened to stop by that day. He was simply taking a walk to clear his head.
Veronica only turned her head to look at Rowen, who was standing blankly at the door. He was the first guest she had had since losing her parents, but she felt nothing. Veronica didn’t even glance at Rowen as she hammered the steel.
“You’re lucky. I’ll give you everything for free today. It’s my last day.”
Since they would rot away if she died today anyway, it would be easier to give them to someone who needed them. These items would be hoping for that too.
Rowen glanced at the items a few times, then muttered softly and looked straight at Veronica.
“Everything is well-maintained.”
The moment Veronica inadvertently looked at Rowen, she received an impression that stirred her heart for the first time. She had never seen such eyes before.
They were eerie, as if piercing through everything, yet at the same time, she felt a sense of tenderness. Rowen stepped into the smithy and slowly opened his mouth.
“Poor child. How can you have eyes that have lost everything in the world?”
Her mouth wouldn’t open.
“Come here.”
Hearing those words, Veronica approached Rowen as if possessed, and naturally, she was embraced in his arms. He was clearly a suspicious person who had suddenly appeared. His hair was long enough to reach his ankles, and his eyes held a bottomless emptiness. But she missed the warmth of another person. Not the heat produced by the flames, but the warmth of skin.
The embrace of another person, the first since her parents’ death, smelled of a gentle fragrance.
Without realizing it, Veronica burst into tears on the spot.
It was the first time she had cried in someone’s arms.
Veronica poured out all the sorrow she had felt. Rowen stroked Veronica’s head without saying a word as she vented her frustrations. Only after she had relieved all the childishness she couldn’t even express to her own mother was she finally able to calm down.
Veronica sat on a shabby chair in the yard and opened her mouth.
“I don’t have the confidence to live anymore.”
Why did you say those words back then? Was it just pity for a child who had been left alone in the world?
“I will give you a reason to live.”
Veronica sighed deeply and asked Rowen.
“Do you know what it means to become a tree? I have to become a tree no matter what. That’s my parents’ last wish for me.”
Rowen didn’t give an answer. He simply supported her wishes.
“I can’t give you the answer right away. That’s an answer you can find out when you grow up. But if there’s one thing I can tell you, it’s that even the greatest tree can’t take root alone. I will support you, so focus on living for now.”
From that day on, Rowen visited Veronica often. They fixed the old smithy together, and he even brought information about what items were currently needed. As a result, the number of customers visiting the smithy increased. The war with the outer spirits had ended, so there were hardly any people looking for weapons or armor, but it was still a satisfying life.
She never dreamed that just having a reliable adult by her side would bring such stability to her life.
Quite some time passed, and Rowen leisurely puffed on his pipe beside her and spoke to Veronica.
“You’ve improved a lot.”
Veronica shrugged her shoulders and replied.
“This much is basic now.”
She didn’t express it affectionately, but she thought of him as a mother.
Just as the wounds in Veronica’s heart began to heal, farewells often come suddenly.
Rowen’s back as he prepared to leave for District 2 as always was now familiar. As she approached to say her usual greeting, what came out of her mouth was not the usual greeting.
“I won’t be coming here anymore.”
Veronica was momentarily flustered, but soon smiled and replied.
“Your jokes are too harsh.”
There was no following answer. Veronica desperately ignored the black anxiety that was spreading throughout her body. She placed her trembling hand on Rowen’s shoulder and said in a voice denying reality.
“…You’re lying, right?”
Rowen’s silence represented that his intentions were unchanged. Veronica bit her lip tightly and raised her voice.
“Why!?”
The emotion of denying reality soon became an opportunity to look back on whether there had been any mistakes on her part during the time she had spent with him. No matter how much she thought about it, she had done nothing wrong to Rowen. In that situation, all Veronica could do was appeal to his emotions.
“Did I do something wrong? Please… please don’t abandon me. Please don’t leave me alone.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I’ll do better! I said that I was able to get this far because I was good, but that’s not true! I was able to get this far thanks to you, Rowen! I, I’ll do the laundry and cook, and make tea from now on. I won’t ask you for help with anything! So please, just stay by my side!”
Rowen didn’t make eye contact with her. He only opened his mouth briefly with his head bowed.
“I can’t leave a child who wants to become a great tree in this small smithy. Broaden your world. When we first met, I said I would give you a reason to live… do you remember? This is the last gift I can give you.”
At the same time, the surrounding scenery changed.
The intense heat instantly enveloped her body, and the bright sky was stained with a murky gray.
Veronica bit her lip tightly and clenched her fists. This wasn’t the kind of space she wanted. She just needed someone to be by her side.
“Weren’t you going to be the meaning of my life, Rowen? Weren’t we going to find the answer together!?”
Rowen avoided Veronica’s eyes and replied.
“I’m not the kind of person who can do that. And… I don’t think I have anything more to say to a child who has started walking her own path.”
With those words, he disappeared. A farewell so futile that it made the time they had spent together feel meaningless.
Just like when she parted ways with her parents, Veronica didn’t cry this time either.
However, the emotions she was feeling now were quite different from then.
‘If you abandon me, I will become someone you can’t ignore and come find you again.’
Of course, it wasn’t an easy path.
She didn’t know where they had heard the rumors, but several artisans came to the underground, which wasn’t even named District 4 yet.
Where people gather, it means someone is needed to lead them, and the Demon King originally refers to the most powerful one.
Veronica, thrown into the underground, fought and fought again, continuing to fight until no one else stood in her way.
She continued to fight without resting for a single day, and before she knew it, everyone was beneath her feet, and people were calling her Mount Tai and revering her.
She not only had the blessings of the bellows and anvil.
Even after rising to the position of Demon King, the fighting never ended. Rather, as the number of people following her increased, there were even more things to protect, making her even more desperate than before. The more she fought against the outer spirits, the more deeply rooted her strength became, and eventually, it bore fruit.
Bestowal.
A trait that allows one to engrave their will onto all things.
In a way, it was an ability that was manifested because she had followed in Rowen’s footsteps, looking at his back.
●
After finishing her story, Veronica boasted to Ryu.
“Now do you understand? Unlike you, I’ve been watching Rowen since a long time ago.”
“So, you’re saying you became the Demon King because you could proudly look at Rowen if you became the Demon King?”
“That’s right, your head is finally working.”
It was ominous.
A Demon King who had come this far looking only at Rowen, she thought that she might be the strangest person among the Demon Kings Ryu had ever seen.
