Linea (4)

-Have you heard? I heard Lady Linea completely butchered an assassin who came after her!

-Just heard about it? I actually saw it happen. It was so chilling… The shock was even greater because I’d always thought she was cute. I guess you can’t hide beastkin blood after all?

The day after the assassin came.

What was directed at Linea wasn’t sympathy or comfort, but suspicion.

-Is she really the Lady’s child? Think about it, isn’t it strange for a beastkin to be born through atavism?

-Shh! There was already a big commotion in the family about that issue before, so that can’t be it. They’ve gone through verification processes multiple times already.

-Then maybe she’s possessed by an evil spirit?

-That I’m not sure about.

On the surface, everyone worried about Linea. They were careful with every word, treating the topic of the assassin with utmost caution.

House Spirin, filled with excellent doctors. Surely there must have been psychotherapists among them.

A diagnosis had been made to approach Linea, who had been attacked, with the greatest care, and everyone in the mansion acted accordingly.

But perhaps in rebellion against that…

“…”

In places where Linea wasn’t present, the servants began expressing their unease about her.

What exactly had gone wrong? What had she done wrong to be called possessed by an evil spirit?

The young Linea couldn’t find the answer. Just confusion, wondering if she had done something bad.

That’s why Linea became a good child. She loved everyone in the family enough to push aside memories that amounted to lifelong trauma.

She remembered the chef who would secretly give her snacks.

She remembered the servants who diligently cleaned every day, worried about harming her health.

She remembered relatives and family teachers patting her head proudly whenever she studied hard.

Because she had so many such memories.

-How can she be so normal? After experiencing something like that.

-She’s definitely not an ordinary child. It’s really ominous, gives me the chills.

Their contradictory attitudes seemed to tear her heart apart.

They probably didn’t know. That because Linea was a beastkin, she could easily overhear their gossip.

But the reason she hadn’t shown it was simply because Linea, thinking the fault lay with her, remained silent.

Afraid that if people found out she had overheard their gossip, she didn’t know what kind of looks they would give her, afraid they might change and say harsh things to her face this time.

She crumbled slowly like that.

Her father working at the imperial court was busy. Her mother traveling around the world was hard to even see.

Siblings around her age gradually distanced themselves, intimidated by rumors about Linea.

The rest of her siblings were scattered across different regions, never showing their faces at the family home due to their own affairs.

‘I must be the bad one.’

Therefore, there was no one on her side in the mansion. That’s why she left home.

Though everyone treated her kindly on the surface, she knew they all felt uncomfortable around her.

Those who genuinely worried about her were extremely few.

And even to Linea’s eyes, they were unusually kind people.

People of such character that they could be friendly even with someone treated like a monster.

Then what was right? Which side was closer to the truth?

The weakness and evil in people made her sick.

There was no place for her in the family. Her mere presence made people uncomfortable.

Because she was a bad child.

Because she was possessed by an evil spirit.

Because her ability focused on killing humans and brutally tearing them apart.

“Someone like me…”

Around when she was born. There had been a great commotion within the family.

A beastkin child born through atavism between two humans. Who would easily believe such astronomical odds?

Her mother was suspected of infidelity multiple times and had to undergo several procedures to prove otherwise.

It wasn’t out of love for her husband but a method of protecting herself. As the procedures became more varied and precise, the emotional rift deepened.

As a result, they proved that Linea’s existence was a beastkin miraculously born through atavism. But by that point, their relationship had already reached an irreparable state.

A couple living in the same house but looking in different directions.

“Someone like me…!”

The child who created that result.

She had to face contempt from those around her from the moment she was born.

Though she worked hard to try to improve her parents’ relationship again, to gain recognition from family members.

Everything the young girl had built up collapsed with just one failure.

“I should never have been born!”

She was ominous.

Her very existence broke surrounding relationships and drove everyone into fear.

Thinking it would be fine if she hid it. That she could live by hiding her ability and the ferocity lodged within.

Though she ran away from home like that.

This was the result.

“Look.”

Because of the foolish choice of that foolish child, Linea Spirin, Mar was in mortal danger.

If she hadn’t rashly decided to meet Wallace Hope.

If she had been more suspicious.

If she hadn’t hidden her ability.

Would things have gotten this bad?

“Lost.”

Linea looked at the group that had come to find her. A person covered in wounds from head to toe, even breathing heavily.

Someone who must have risked their life breaking through the forest just to save someone like her.

“Lost, you know.”

He had warned sufficiently.

That’s why he said to wait quietly inside the Pantheon Temple.

The one who defied those words was herself.

All of this was her fault.

“In my eyes, I see red lines.”

So at the very least.

She had to tell him that all of this was her fault.

He would surely feel responsible.

Because what happened was because of her.

“Red lines that make it impossible to see people as people.”

Linea’s mindset, shaped by her environment, made her blame everything on herself.

The reason she unconsciously valued her own life so lightly was all.

Because of the gazes around her that had bound her since childhood.

“For me, people, the world, are no different from meat laid out in a slaughterhouse.”

Screech!

Linea scratched at nearby trees with the dagger whose blade had been worn down from killing Margaret.

Without even applying much force, just lightly as if writing letters.

But even that was enough to leave deep, inerasable scars on the trees.

The aftermath of an ability that could hurt others far too easily.

The red lines she saw were guides for killing and destroying people.

“I must be a monster.”

Linea spoke with self-deprecation.

Tears fell in drops between the forced smile she wore.

This was her own form of atonement.

A confession for having deceived until now.

“So let’s stop here.”

No matter how much she struggled, her essence wouldn’t change.

She was a being that ruined her surroundings.

Like someone possessed by an evil spirit. A child of innate evil who gradually broke down her surroundings from the moment she was born.

“I’ve lost my purpose for traveling now. It’s right to stop.”

She had hoped she could be accepted by the world. She wandered searching for a way to eliminate her ability.

Because she wanted to be human. Because she wanted to live together like that.

But look.

This was the result of that greed.

Now her eyes could only see the current nightmare. Everything she had worked to save and change seemed completely erased from her mind.

That it was all just deception.

That since her existence was like that, all feelings must have been false.

Linea’s negative thoughts drove her to the edge of a cliff.

“Linea.”

“…”

Lost, who had been listening to Linea’s self-deprecation, called her name with a more serious expression than ever before.

Feeling needless guilt at that sight, Linea couldn’t look at Lost and lowered her head.

“Raise your head. Look at me.”

A resolute voice reaching her ears.

“Look at us.”

At the voice of a shepherd driving away darkness and bringing light, Linea raised her head like a lost lamb.

“You are neither a monster nor possessed by an evil spirit.”

What existed there was a proud smile.

“Because monsters aren’t just at that level. Right, Titan?”

“Hmm, I think it’s laughable to refer to Linea with that word.”

“Right?”

As if making a joke.

As if her confession meant nothing.

Lost and Titan exchanged jokes. But their expressions were more serious than ever before.

Perhaps because of that? Linea could only freeze like a mute who had eaten honey, unable to say anything. She couldn’t turn away or deny it.

“Watch carefully, Linea.”

With those words, Lost took out the knife he carried for convenience.

Then rolling up his sleeve, he placed the knife against his skin.

“What are you…!”

Though Linea cried out in shock realizing what Lost was about to do, Lost didn’t stop.

Slice!

A wound carved into white skin. Lost slowly, meticulously, began harming one of his arms as if drawing a picture.

After staining his arm with shallow wounds, Lost handed the knife he was holding to Titan.

“Titan, how is it?”

“Hmm?”

“How does this look?”

Though Titan was puzzled by Lost’s sudden self-harm, he soon grinned as if understanding the intention and answered.

“I see ‘red lines’ in my eyes too. Does that make me a monster now?”

“Well, you were already a monster.”

“Hehehe!”

Clear red lines gradually becoming visible from shallow wounds.

Looking at those bloodstains, Titan laughed as if finding it absurd.

Then taking the knife, Titan carved elegant red lines into his own forearm just like Lost had.

“How does it look to you?”

“Ah! I see them too. Clear red lines. Does that make me a monster too?”

“How laughable.”

Titan shrugged and chided that there was still far to go.

“Look.”

Lost approached Linea and gently caressed her cheek.

The blood flowing from his arm drew a small line on Linea’s cheek.

“You see lines too. What you see is just things like this. With just that much, someone who would think of you as a monster… There’s no one like that among our companions.”

That’s nothing at all.

Lost’s assessment of Linea’s otherness that everyone had constantly clicked their tongues at.

At that unexpected answer, Linea could only endlessly shed tears, not knowing how to respond.

The anxiety, distrust, regret, lies she had held until now.

She let them flow away with her tears.

It’s not special. It’s not strange. It’s ‘just’ that much.

Those were the words she had wanted to hear.

At the solution to a problem she herself hadn’t understood, Linea grabbed Lost’s hand touching her cheek.

“Lost.”

“Yes.”

“I see lines.”

“I know.”

“I see very red lines.”

She saw lines. Lines redder than any she had seen before.

“But, it’s okay now.”

The lines that had appeared as if engraved until now began stretching out like threads at this moment.

“Though it’s surely strange…”

Those lines were very thin.

But they seem clearer and stronger than any other lines.

Those lines that seemed impossible to break with her own strength extended from her heart.

Connecting her fingers with Lost’s fingers, then wrapping around the man before her eyes as if embracing him gently.

“I don’t hate them anymore.”

A strange feeling she had never felt before, a heart-pounding she had never experienced.

It was overflowing from her heart toward Lost.

‘I see.’

The deep red lines visible only to her eyes. Those lines were surely lines for inflicting fatal wounds on others.

Then the red lines extending from Linea’s heart must be the same.

‘I’ve fallen for this person to the point where I can no longer…’

At this moment.

Her true heart, her purpose in life, what she must absolutely protect.

And where the red lines (Línea) that seemed impossible for her to break herself were pointing.

‘I’ve fallen in love.’

Had become the man caressing her cheek before her eyes.

Translator Note: Okay, so apparently, the correct name for Linea is Línea. And in Spanish (at least from Google), it means “line”. So, for the next chapter onward, I’ll be changing from Linea to Línea. I really apologize in advance since I’m 100% sure that I’ll make many mistakes on Línea’s name like using Linea instead of Línea. Of course, I’ll give my hardest to spot the “í” in Línea’s name