Chương 20: Mira Rosenkreuz

As long as Mira could remember, she had always been bullied by her siblings for being born different. She wasn't as fast or as strong as them, nor was she capable of using mana like they were. Unlike her siblings, she had never even met her father, and for some reason she couldn't understand, he didn't like her and always avoided meeting her. She was like an outcast in her own home, a place that should have been her sanctuary.

She remembered one time when she was five years old, when she had been standing in the hallway of their mansion, overlooking the garden where her mother was playing with her elder sister. She wanted to join them, so she approached with her small, weak legs, and when she was close enough to her mother, she looked down at the grass.

"M... Mother, I wanna play too." She didn't receive a response, and when she looked up at her mother, lifting her small, chubby face, what she saw couldn't even be properly described. She couldn't see her mother's facial expression, as everything was shadowed except for her large, terrifying eyes and the blood that came from her lower lip as she bit it hard. At that time, Mira felt such overwhelming fear that she wet herself, and as her knees weakened, she fell into her own urine.

She started crying hard, but she wasn't comforted, nor did her mother pick her up for consolation. Her elder sister started crying as she looked at Mira, and her mother picked her up and slowly left the garden, but Mira was still able to hear what she whispered.

"Why were you even born?" At that time, she couldn't understand why her mother had said such things or what they even meant, but as she grew up, she learned that she had been born with a curse: the inability to use mana. She was a Rosenkreuz, a name that held such great power and prestige, but she would never be worthy enough to carry it, and she would be nothing more than a curse upon their household.

As she grew up, she tried to train, but nothing ever worked, as she simply couldn't do anything related to mana, which filled her with nothing more than even greater misery. She had accepted the fate that she would amount to nothing, as she was so tired of being bullied by her siblings, ignored by her parents, and tormented by the constant whispers of their servants. She wasn't supposed to be born into this family. Even commoners were more talented than her. She was cursed. She was godless. She was a bad omen.

She had heard all kinds of things from people, and each one of them only reinforced the idea that she was worthless. At the age of ten, for the first time in her life, her father came to see her. She was so happy, so grateful, and so overwhelmed with emotions that she could hardly believe her father had finally come to meet her. He was a good-looking man around the age of fifty, and he had such a warm smile when he approached her in her room.

Mira was a little scared, fearing that the same thing that had happened with her mother would happen again. But then he put both of his hands on her back and hugged her gently.

"Oh, dear child, forgive your father, who had failed to see your genius." The warmth that came from him was so strong that tears began to form in her eyes. She started weeping.

"Why did you ignore me...? Hick."

"Why, Father...? Hick."

"What did I ever do to deserve this...? Hick."

"I was so lonely... Hick." And she cried her heart out. After she was done crying, her father let her go, then cupped her face in his hands, and when she looked up at him, expecting to see his face, she found it just like her mother's, covered in shadow, so she couldn't see any of its features. Other than the smile that was stretched to an extreme and his white teeth.

"Oh, my dear child, you have no idea how I'm going to care for you. Do not worry, because from now on, we aren't going to be separated for even a second." She didn't understand what her father was saying, but she just wanted to feel that warmth again, so she simply nodded. At that time, she had no idea that what was to come would be anything warm, but only cold, painful, and extremely torturous.

For the next three years, she was kept in a small chamber, locked away by her sweet father, who cut her, bled her, and did all kinds of unimaginable, horrific things to her. She was just a child, and there was a limit to what she could take, as her mind wanted to break, wanting her to just let it all go. But she was like a starved beast that was hungry for warmth, and she neither gave in nor let her mind break, because she believed with all her heart that her father loved her, even if that love came with pain.

She had learned that her father was trying to acquire something he called the Hollow Gift, an ability that only those cursed with the inability to use mana could obtain. Not all of them were able to awaken the Hollow Gift, but those who did were extremely special, and they could even be called geniuses. And her father, who was willing to go to any length to acquire it, wanted her Hollow Gift. Mira had no idea how it worked, but after spending a year in her father's prison, she had begun to understand it.

She could feel the Hollow Gift within her, understand its nature, and even use it to break free from the prison. But she didn't. She simply couldn't bring herself to leave. She was too afraid of letting her father succeed, yet at the same time, she was afraid of failing him. So she remained quiet and allowed everything to happen to her. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. But after a while, her father stopped coming altogether.

Mira couldn't understand why the father who had once promised never to leave her side for more than an hour had suddenly failed to return for two whole days. She grew worried, and using her aura, she finally broke free from the prison after so long. She opened the chamber gate with brute force and stepped outside. But when she emerged, she saw that her home had been reduced to ruins, with dead bodies scattered everywhere. Her people. Her servants. Her siblings. They were all dead.

Mira walked through the destruction, her steps growing slower as she tried to comprehend what had happened. Then, beneath a massive stone block, she saw a body. Her heart trembled. It was her mother, trapped beneath the weight of the fallen stone. Even then, Mira couldn't see the features of her mother's face. She heard a noise in the distance, and without thinking about anything else, she began walking toward it, now desperate to find her father.

When she finally reached the source of the sound, she saw her father lying on the ground, struggling to get up, while a man dressed in a cloak stood over him.

"I will ask you just this once. Who did you give the curse scroll to?" Mira watched them exchange words, and after a moment, her father turned toward her. He extended his hand. He wanted her help. But before she could even move, the cloaked man swung his weapon and severed her father's head from his body in a single strike. He was dead.

"No..." Mira stared at him in disbelief.

"This is a dream." She slapped her own face, hoping to wake up.

"This is a dream... Father can't leave me alone. He promised me that we would be together for a long time. He can't leave me like this." The cloaked man turned his attention toward her. Mira began digging her fingernails into her arms, scratching and tearing at her skin as she shook her head.

"No... No... No..." She continued scratching herself, her voice becoming increasingly frantic.

"Why is this happening? Why? Why? Why?!" Then something inside her body changed. She felt something rushing through her, and her arm suddenly twisted into an unnatural shape. The left side of her face warped, and her eye transformed into a reptilian shape. Her stomach burst open, and tentacles emerged from within her body.

"I will kill you!" Her voice trembled with rage.

"I will kill you! I will kill you for taking my father away from me!" She lunged at the man. And that was the last thing she remembered before losing consciousness.

Inside her mind, she fell into an endless darkness. Where did everything go so wrong? Was I really cursed by the goddess? Only then could she explain what had happened to her life. But now that she is dead, perhaps she could finally have peace. Are you going to give up on life this easily? Mira heard a voice in the darkness. It was the same voice as the cloaked man's. Then she felt his presence beside her, standing calmly within the endless void.

"Why are you here?"

"I took out the demon ••••, but it will take years for everything to return to normal." Mira felt intense pain as the man continued speaking, but she couldn't hear most of what he said.

"Child, you haven't even lived your life, so why are you so willing to die?" Mira didn't understand what the man was talking about.

"You killed my family! You killed every single person I cared about! You killed my father, my mother, and my siblings, and now you want me to live? Live for what? What do I have to live for?!" The man responded differently than she expected.

"You poor child, who was wronged by the world... I wish I could have done something for you. But I was too late. I can't change what has already happened, but I can at least take your pain away from you." Then, a brilliant light appeared beside her. The man embraced her tightly, and once again, Mira felt warmth. But this warmth was unlike anything she had ever experienced from her father. It was overwhelming. It was so intense that she struggled to breathe. Then she felt it.

The pain she had endured during the years of her father's torture. Slowly, that pain began to separate from her body, drifting toward the man. And his warmth moved into her. One by one, the pain began leaving her body, and tears started falling from her eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Let go of me..." But the man didn't let her go. Another wave of pain left her body, and she felt warmth spreading through her once again.

"Please... let go of me..."

"It's all right, child. You were so brave all this time. You were wonderful. You have been strong your entire life, and it's all right now. You can let go. Just leave everything to me." The one or two tears that had initially fallen from her eyes turned into a constant stream, falling like rain.

"Hick... I was so scared."

"I know."

"It was so painful."

"I know."

"I wanted someone to help me. I wanted someone to take me away from there. It was so painful. I wanted to die. I was so hurt..." Then the man gently began patting her head.

"You don't need to tell me anything. I will feel every single thing that you felt, and I will carry it within my body. I won't forget any of it."

"So just let it go." Slowly, Mira's mind, which she didn't even realize had been broken long ago, began to heal.

"There were many wonderful things in your life that you saw and experienced. You just need to recall them and cherish them." Then, all of a sudden, the darkness began to recede. Mira found herself standing in a room where a woman was lying on a bed, holding a baby in her arms. The woman had two beautiful eyes and a smile so warm that Mira couldn't help but feel envious of the child she held.

"Look, John. She is such a beautiful child." She handed the baby to the man beside her. He had black hair, black eyes, a handsome face, and a neatly trimmed beard. A warm smile rested on his face, and tears were streaming from his eyes.

"Oh, Char... I'm so grateful to you. You have given us another blessing." He wiped the tears from his eyes, looking at the child with overwhelming happiness.

"Have you thought of a name?" the woman asked. John nodded, looking into the baby's beautiful eyes, which seemed as boundless as the ocean.

"Yes, I have." He smiled.

"Her name will be Mira. Our boundless ocean." The moment Mira heard her name, her legs gave way. She fell to her knees and began weeping as hard as she possibly could. The man stood there, watching her, and waited patiently until she was finished. After a long while, Mira finally began to calm down.

"It's time for me to go," the man said. He looked at her with a gentle smile.

"It's sad to see how things turned out, but the world is vast, and there are many beautiful things in it that you haven't seen yet. What happened cannot be changed, but the pain of the past can be eased by the good things you experience in the future." Mira looked at the man.

"Who are you, sir?" The man slowly moved his cloak aside. And when Mira saw his face, she was enchanted. She had never seen anyone so beautiful. For the first time, she could hear his real voice. Then the surroundings began to fade, and behind the man, the silhouette of a mighty dragon appeared.

"I know it won't be the same as receiving warmth from me, but remember this, child: dying is easy, but living in this cruel and cursed world takes courage." He smiled gently.

"So be courageous, child."

Mira remembers the man who had been like a god to her. The man who had told her to live. And when Cecilia said she would kill her, Mira felt no fear. Instead, she felt an overwhelming will to live. She stood up. Elder Edmund and Charlotte moved away, noticing that both of them were still capable of fighting. Mira clenched her fists.

"No..." She took a step forward.

"I won't die."