Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

Javert's Iron and Justice (11)

"Leysha... Big Sis?"

The ruins she had arrived at.

Waiting there was not a haggard woman.

It was a bizarre figure in a pitch-black dress, dripping tears of blood.

"Aah... You came at just the right time, didn't you? You finally fell for the bait."

"How many years did I spend undercover just to catch one little brat...?"

"I was stuck in this shitty slum for three whole years."

"Still, fuck. I reached my goal, so I guess I should call that lucky?"

But the air around her was nothing like the Leysha Javert had known.

The woman leaked crimson-black dark mana, scattering murderous intent through the entire room.

"Big Sis Leysha? What, what is this...?"

"I came today for treatment..."

"What? Leysha? Treatment? Pfft... You can still say that after seeing this?"

"You stupid brat. You were fooled from start to finish."

"Do you know how much trouble I went through for this little act...?"

She did not want to believe it.

But the woman's eyes were cold enough to jolt the girl awake.

"I came here to kill you."

The one standing there was not the widow from the slums.

She was only a murderer who had waited a very long time.

A thin, bloody sneer slipped out.

'Mocker of Forms, Killian.'

That was the true identity of the woman who had been called Leysha.

She was a Cultist executive, a monster counted among the ten most dangerous.

"Haa... Do you even know how many of our members your daddy has been killing?"

"The damage has been awful in all sorts of ways, so our pride is hurt and we lose face, you know?"

"Still, I approached you partly for revenge."

"I'll kidnap you like this and show you hell, literally."

Chilling words.

Javert hurriedly searched for her escort knight. But...

"Sir Rubin...?"

"I apologize, young lady."

"They said they would pay me far too much money."

For some reason, the man stood beside Killian, not her.

It was a sight she could not understand.

Her escort knight had accepted a huge sum.

Everything she had trusted shattered in an instant.

Killian laughed at the girl and lightly snapped her fingers.

"Oh my... Isn't it a little early to be surprised?"

"I haven't even properly warned you about what I'm going to do to you yet."

Rumble.

The Cultist members hiding nearby burst out.

Perhaps they intended to kidnap her as she was, because they began drawing a teleportation circle while wrapping themselves in dark mana.

"It'll be so much fun once we return to the Branch."

"Should we peel off that skin first?"

"Pull out your nails one by one, sear you with fire, stitch up your guts..."

"I'll record every single step of that whole process and send it to that shitty old man."

Fear fell over her.

Javert felt as if her throat were being strangled.

"I really am so curious what kind of face he'll make!"

"Don't worry. I won't kill you."

"Even if you beg me to kill you, I'll keep you alive."

"Filleting you piece by piece and serving it to you as your meal sounds good too!"

The price of trust was heavy.

The goodwill the girl had carried returned as deception and mockery.

As tears flowed blankly down her face, the old woman's warning brushed past her ears.

"Do not get too close to the people of the slums."

"It is fine to show them kindness, but I mean you must not trust them."

So this was why.

Mother had been worried about this kind of situation.

I didn't even know that, and I broke the principle on my own.

'Why did I...'

Her vision blurred into a mess.

That was when the girl was just about to be kidnapped by the Cultists.

"Stop right there!"

Kraaang!

All at once, a flash of light burst through the ruins and rushed in.

Javert could only snap her head up.

Because the voice that reached her ears was familiar.

In front of the place she stared at stood an old woman well advanced in years.

"Mother...?"

Serian, dressed in priestly robes.

She was pointing a blazing pure white light at the Cultist members.

The old woman radiated pressure and blocked Killian's path as if protecting Javert.

"How dare wicked things like you try to target my daughter...!"

"Are you not afraid of divine punishment?"

"No one can harm my child."

"If you wish to do so, you will have to send me to the ossuary first!"

Serian had realized the situation late, then followed the traces and come running here.

The old woman spread her divine energy at full force to protect her daughter.

Javert's mother was strong.

She was not Valter's equal, but she had been a capable figure in the Church.

But with age and declining skill, facing a Cultist executive was impossible.

"Ah, fuck, how annoying..."

A fierce battle went on for almost thirty minutes.

The ordinary members and Rubin had already burned away in divine energy.

The old woman bought as much time as possible against Killian.

In the end, though, she could only be pushed back by overwhelming power.

"You wasted my time."

Thwack!

The fist that flew in with vicious force finally pierced through Serian's stomach.

"Tsk... The pursuit team will be storming in soon too."

"Should I stop here for today and run?"

"Well, it wasn't the daughter, but I did kill the wife... so I guess it wasn't a total failure."

The old woman collapsed across the floor.

After that, Killian turned away and vanished as if she was done.

Javert remained there alone, holding the dying Serian.

"Javert."

The girl wailed.

She desperately squeezed out divine energy, but it was nowhere near enough.

Serian had barely remained conscious. It was not an injury anyone could do anything about.

"Do not cry."

The old woman's breath was fading.

Even then, Serian's eyes were fixed only on Javert.

"It is not your fault."

A kind voice.

Dark red blood sprayed out between her shallow coughs.

"Cough..."

Broken stems jutted from the old woman and spilled everywhere.

Her elegant leaves had been hacked apart, and the roots that had been the foundation of her aged life had been torn up.

It was terrible.

"Javert... our beloved daughter."

She smiled even at the end of her life.

A powerless, wrinkled hand rested briefly on the girl's cheek.

"It is not your fault."

"You were only unlucky..."

Had she wanted this moment not to remain as a wound?

The mother did not blame the girl even at the very end.

Like cherry blossoms never resenting the May that knocked them down.

"Everything will be all right."

Words that were not all right at all.

That life wrapped around the girl until the moment its heart stopped.

It was wet, warm, and yet gradually cooling into coldness.

The old woman's red lightly stained the girl's cheek.

"Everything will be all right..."

After that.

Serian passed away.

"Mom... Please, open your eyes."

"I was wrong. I won't ever do it again..."

"Ugh, please... No, you can't leave...!"

The girl cried out before the withered flower.

Javert was rescued by the pursuit team that followed belatedly.

But there was no way to bring back one who had already died.

[The Star That Shone Most Quietly.]

[Serian Droit Rests Here.]

The old woman's life was laid in a coffin.

A long funeral followed, and rain clouds came down as if the world was mourning her.

Flowers were placed cluster by cluster.

Javert stood there, dazed.

Standing in place, she watched the entire cycle of life and death.

'It's all because of me...'

It was her fault.

Because of her, everything had fallen apart.

'Mother.'

The person she had loved most had died.

She had killed the person who had taken her in and widened her world.

It had been no one else.

It was the result of her own choices and stubbornness alone.

Javert did not even have the right to cry.

So she sobbed while holding her breath.

"Serian, Serian..."

The girl was not the only one whose life had collapsed.

For the first time, Javert saw the tears of the father who had only ever seemed great.

"Aah... Serian."

The old woman's portrait stood in the study.

Before it, Valter only cried for several days and nights.

He buried his face in his wrinkled palms and called only for his wife in an aged voice.

"......"

Javert could only stand frozen.

Unable to say anything, she could only watch her father.

"Javert..."

Cruel guilt.

Valter staggered closer and pulled Javert into a tight hug.

"This is why we told you not to break principles."

"Because otherwise, everything falls apart..."

Principles.

The reason principles always had to be followed.

"That is the correct path."

Javert could never forget that moment.

She had committed a sin that would never be forgiven.

She had ruined both her mother's life and her father's life.

'Principles must be followed. In every situation.'

And so the girl's entire view of life was twisted into a mess.

Javert became a machine that had lost its emotions.

Had she wanted revenge for her mother?

Or had it been an extension of the punishment she gave herself?

After finishing as a trainee priest, the girl immediately became an inquisitor-investigator.

"Investigator Javert."

That was when she was only fifteen years old.

For four years, Javert lived in mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

She acted like a machine made to slaughter Cultists.

The girl's fame grew, and now her enemies trembled at the mere sound of her footsteps.

"Javert... let us stop now."

Then, one day heavy with the stench of blood.

Valter suddenly stopped her.

"I should have looked after you."

"It seems I was far too late."

"I will not ask you to forgive this father of yours."

"But I cannot leave you in a hellish place like this any longer."

The old man had aged a little more, and had a few more wrinkles.

Moisture gathered and trembled around his eyes.

That day, Valter suspended Javert from her position.

After that, the old man announced his retirement and took the seat of headmaster at Grandia Academy.

"From now on, work here."

"I know it will be difficult, but I dearly hope this place will help you heal..."

Javert became an academy professor.

She had no particular complaint.

The girl had long since let go of herself.

All she needed to do was act according to the orders handed down and the principles set in place.

"Professor Javert."

Time flowed on.

The girl became a woman, and her blood-soaked adolescence came to an end.

Then, as much time as she had spent working as an investigator passed while she worked as a faculty member.

"My beloved daughter."

"Even without Mom, you have to stay strong, cough..."

The years did not wear Javert down. She still lived only inside her nightmares.

She was twenty-three.

It was her fourth year holding a teaching post.

One day, as she repeated each day mechanically.

"Greetings, everyone."

"My name is Viktor, and I will be meeting you all as the top student of this class."

Javert met a boy.

And a crack formed in the colorless world that had only repeated.

***

The underground prison, where not a single point of light entered.

The pitch-black ceiling and cool iron bars wavered before her eyes.

"......"

The red-haired woman was blankly recalling every moment.

Her blood-colored vision, and all the things she regretted.

Her eyelids weakly closed again.

The eyes that had always been mechanical had shattered to pieces.

"......Mother."

Her pale red lips suddenly moved.

A word calling someone.

"Javert, my daughter."

A watery line flowed down her cheek.

The woman was trapped in that moment.

A life like hell.

That was how cruel the world of a person bound by principles could be.

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