## Chapter 253 – Malice (16)
Even in what seemed like a hopeless situation, Veronica thought she had a chance.
While Rowe had been retired from the front lines, enjoying a secluded life in District 2, she had experienced countless battles. The difference in experience was not something to be ignored.
She knew it in her head.
She was the one who could attempt a preemptive strike against Rowe, who was standing defenseless without any preparation.
But her feet wouldn’t move easily. The hand holding her weapon was already trembling.
Unlike Reina or Ryu, whom she could simply call acquaintances, Rowe was like a parent to her.
She knew what it meant to point a weapon at her. Veronica wasn’t evil enough to commit patricide so casually and brazenly bask in the sunlight.
Rowe didn’t care about the turmoil raging in Veronica’s heart. She approached Veronica slowly and spoke nonchalantly.
“Why are you trembling so much? If you’ve picked up a weapon, show some action to match…”
There was no turning back anyway.
Rowe must have seen everything, Veronica injuring Ryu, which was why she had appeared here.
Veronica smiled bitterly and looked at Rowe with a changed gaze.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never shown you my skills, have I?”
She had to go all out from the start to have any chance of winning.
But was it possible?
Fear stimulated her imagination, and that inflated imagination swallowed her confidence. Now that she had risen to the position of Demon Lord, she could only realize once again how small she was in front of her.
“Yes, show me.”
As she gestured, the earth began to split to the left and right as if the sea were parting. Veronica was momentarily taken aback by the overwhelming power of the earth, roaring like a raging wave and engulfing her, but she quickly regained her composure and swung her hammer.
With a bang, Veronica, who had taken on the raging earth with her bare body, seemed to be pushed back greatly, but soon the earth, which had returned to its original form according to Veronica’s will, became calm as if nothing had happened.
Veronica didn’t wipe the sweat flowing down her forehead and tried her best not to show how difficult it was.
“You’re not thinking of ending me with just this, are you?”
Veronica knew that Rowe wasn’t going all out. If she was serious, Veronica would already be lying dead on the ground, a cold corpse, from the moment the battle began. It was good news for her.
Rowe gestured again at Veronica’s cute provocation and opened her mouth.
“Let’s continue.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than the ground cracked, and an exchange that made the air scream continued for a while. Lava flowed like a river from the cracks in the ground, burning the surroundings.
Veronica was not used to the harsh environment of District 4, which had helped her continue her life until now, strangling her. She wasn’t used to it, but if she didn’t want to lose her life, she had to do it.
Kicking away the earth that was coming to crush her body and repeatedly blocking the flowing lava by building walls, Veronica continued her one-sided war of attrition.
Ryu, who had regained consciousness, was watching the fight, and soon a question arose. Ryu knew Rowe’s power well. The scene of her subduing Acer and Charlotte in an instant when she came to District 7 in the past to take him away was still vivid in his mind.
Moreover, the power she was showing now was at a very cute level compared to the fraction of power she had shown in District 2. If she had the will, Veronica would have been a gruesome sight, like minced meat, burning like waste in that lava.
Contrary to expectations that she wouldn’t stand a chance, Veronica fought surprisingly well with abilities that could be seen as a weaker version of Rowe.
Of course, it was already a situation where the outcome was so tilted that it couldn’t be called a match. Unlike Veronica, who was sweating profusely, Rowe looked as if she could be believed to have just come out of the shower.
Eventually, Veronica realized that she couldn’t reach her even if she used all the power she could, and her face was filled with defeat. As Veronica’s hand drooped and she lost her will to fight, Rowe opened her mouth again.
“Is that all?”
As Rowe slightly lowered her hand from above, Veronica couldn’t withstand the force of gravity pressing down on her body and was pushed into the ground.
In the pressure that didn’t even allow her to scream, Rowe came right up to her. Veronica was preparing to accept the end, but Rowe quietly asked in a kind voice different from before.
“Are you sobering up now…?”
Veronica spat out blood and then opened her mouth with difficulty.
“I sobered up a long time ago.”
“I see, it seems so.”
Veronica, who was smiling helplessly, suddenly contorted her face.
She slammed the ground roughly and spat out resentment mixed with blood and saliva from deep in her throat.
“Why!”
The sound of her fingernails scraping the ground was heard, and blood dripped between them. Rowe was the person she liked the most, but at the same time, she was the person who had given her the greatest sense of loss.
Having already experienced the pain of loss once, she instinctively avoided forming deep relationships with people.
But loneliness was also a deadly poison called solitude. Veronica instinctively wanted the warmth of people. In the meantime, Ryu’s presence, who had appeared directly in District 4, was enough to attract her attention. Of course, it wasn’t attention in a good way.
The relationship that started with a rough greeting when she went to District 7 could not have been good from the beginning. But even if it was a negative thought, she kept thinking about him and became concerned about him.
Of course, the decisive thing was sleeping with him.
A momentary mistake, there were no rational feelings. She could be sure of that. But she vaguely remembered. Being held in his arms and hearing him say he loved her, and that faint feeling of him endlessly wanting her body.
Even if it was a false feeling that would disappear if she wanted, that false and short time allowed her to feel like she was the most loved person in the world. The moment she received love she had never experienced before, she no longer looked at Ryu with only negative eyes.
The problem was what came next. When she saw Rowe and Ryu sharing love, she felt that there was no room for her to intervene.
In a way, it was natural. Because she worked in a blast furnace, the soot was never erased from her face, and her hands, which were always swinging a hammer, were full of calluses and didn’t look like a woman’s hands. What man would like a woman with bulging muscles on her body from carrying heavy iron every day? She knew it well herself. No man would ever want such an ugly woman.
If she were a man, she would go to Rowe, who had an attractive appearance and body. When she realized that the memory of that day was an illusion that would never come again, she couldn’t bear it any longer.
“Why did you suddenly come and torment me! Why do you make me expect things from people again!”
Rowe was silent for a moment and looked at her. Veronica crouched on the ground and poured out her accumulated emotions to her.
“Do I have to keep watching people leave me in this place?! Do you even know how the people who are left behind feel!?”
The moment Rowe was about to part her lips, Veronica continued to speak without a break.
“Anyway, you thought I wasn’t helpful, right? I only have one thing I can do, but what value is there in me, who can’t even make this one thing properly, who can’t even make a necklace properly!”
Veronica took out the messed-up accessories from her arms and threw them on the ground. Each one had an uneven, bumpy shape, and anyone could tell at a glance that they were failures. She had been continuing to fulfill Rowe’s requests even after leaving the workshop.
Reina, who had regained consciousness and approached nearby, looked at the necklace and spoke.
“What is all this?”
“Because I didn’t want to show it. The sight of me failing in the workshop… It was hard to bear because it made the surrounding atmosphere gloomy. I have to show you only good things.”
Veronica rarely talked about her inner feelings, so Reina didn’t know exactly what her condition was. Reina frowned as if in pain and barely opened her mouth.
“When have we ever cared about that? None of us have ever had negative thoughts about the Demon Lord’s failure.”
Rowe closed her eyes and seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before speaking.
“My greed has made things difficult for you.”
“No… It’s not difficult… I just don’t like showing this side of myself. I always have to show a strong side, otherwise the people who trust and follow me will feel uneasy.”
“The uneasy thing is the Demon Lord’s current appearance, and it’s not like our trust in the Demon Lord is so shallow that we feel uneasy because you can’t do your job.”
“I’ll give you a vacation for a while, so go to a quiet place somewhere.”
Veronica opened her eyes wide at Rowe’s sudden suggestion and opened her mouth.
“A vacation all of a sudden?”
Already, a huge rift leading to another space had been created next to Rowe. As Rowe gestured, Veronica and Ryu’s bodies floated into the air at the same time and headed into the rift against their will. Rowe said to the flustered Veronica as if giving her a final piece of advice.
“Yes… and you don’t have to come back until you realize something in there.”
With those words, the two were banished to an external space that didn’t belong anywhere.
