Regina Rena – To the Unforgiven

“That idiot…!”

Rena, who felt the intangible power, shouted without realizing it.

Rena hurriedly removed her whip in the air and grabbed the bag at her feet.

“Ugh!”

A little scream echoed inside the bag. It was Uni’s voice hidden in the solid bag.

Rena backed away with Uni in the bag, at the same time she shouted to the knights too.

“Get away from there!”

Immediately after Rena shouted, the pillars and outer walls of the palace, which had been hit by the slash, collapsed with a roar.

Boom! Thud! Columns fell and the ceiling poured down. Fortunately, most of them were pushed back and didn’t hit the knights, but instead, the fragments bounced instead.

Rena managed to dodge some stone flying toward her head, and Uni screamed continuously as stone knocked on the surface of the bag.

When the slash swept the palace, everything collapsed as if an earthquake had occurred.

“Uh…”

Angie blinked in surprise at Rubid’s brutality.

When he glanced to the side, he noticed that Rubid seemed to be at a loss. Perhaps he didn’t intend to do this.

However, the prince soon became confident with his characteristic shamelessness and brazenness, and only the rest of the people were astonished and witnessed the mess.

“Ugh…”

“Blood, blood…”

The knights hit by the fragments grabbed their bodies and groaned.

“Find out if anyone is under the rubble and transport the wounded!”

Rena left the instructions to Eden and turned around. Then she shot Rubid who was standing at the entrance to the palace.

It’s already the second time she’s seen that reckless slash. Once when he was nervous at the ballroom, and now again.

He ran wild with a lot of energy and eventually made this death.

Rena was angry because her knights had become a wreck, and walked to Rubid. But before Rena could even take a few steps, someone shouted.

“The dead are coming again!”

Rena stopped her steps and looked behind her.

Fissures roared loudly, and Those Who Carried the Ashes poured out once more. Even more than before.

‘What is this?’

Rena hurriedly swung her whip at the soaring dead.

‘ I must’ve already killed everything the North lured in…’

Rena, who was killing the dead, suddenly recalled what The King of Many Hearts had said to her when they met at the Tomb a few days ago.

― The fanatic and the war maniac are also looking for you.

[T/N: Chapter 47]

“No way…”

An uncomfortable hypothesis crept into Rena’s mind.

As the perverted king said, if the fanatic and the war maniac were aware of the location of the rift that the North exposed while luring the dead, there was no way they would ignore it.

This is a great opportunity for them who are only looking for opportunities to appear on the land.

Rena, whose thoughts went all the way there, gritted her teeth. Then, leaving the dead to Rubid for a while, she opened the bag with Uni inside.

“Are you done now?”

Uni asked with an expression of someone having motion sickness, and then freaked out when she saw the dead over Rena’s shoulder.

“Uni, Mr. Lynn will be here soon.”

“Mr. Lynn?”

“Yes, by now he should be almost here.”

Rena sent a message to Lynn when she noticed something strange from the Marquis earlier.

It takes twenty to thirty minutes from the Doom Palace to the palace by the lake. So Lynn should be arriving soon.

“I don’t think you should be in the bag anymore. Go outside the palace and meet Mr. Lynn.”

The dead come endlessly. Rena was unable to fight while protecting her bag in the midst of this.

It would be a big deal if Uni got hit by the falling debris or fireball of the dead while hiding in the bag, so Rena decided to let Uni out.

“W-What about you, my lady?”

“I’ll finish cleaning this place.”

Rena said so and pushed Uni on the back.

Uni hesitated, but realized that she could not fight, so she ran hard to the entrance of the palace.

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That was the last appearance of Rena that Uni remembered.

After that, Uni met Lynn outside Doom Palace. There were some dangerous things along the way, but fortunately, she didn’t get hurt.

Uni explained the situation to Lynn and returned to Doom Palace with him.

However, all the dead disappeared as the fight was over, and somehow her lady was not seen.

“Mister, where did my lady go?”

So Uni hurriedly asked the Southern Knight who was catching his breath by the ruins.

However, the knight with ashes all over his body could only stutter with his eyes unfocused.

Impatient Uni was about to shout again, but a knight in relatively good shape approached him.

“Sir Rena’s maid.”

It was Sir Eden who spoke.

“Sir Rena went over to the Tomb.”

“The Tomb?”

When Uni was surprised, Eden silently nodded.

“If she fights here, she thinks she might miss some of the dead, so she’d rather fight in there…”

At the unexpected news, Uni as well as Lynn, who had been listening to him from afar, were at a loss for words.

“Then the lady…”

“I’d say she must be facing The King of Burning and Scorching at this point.”

“I-Is she alone?”

“No, she’s not.”

“Really?”

Uni looked at Eden, thinking about whether the knights had gone with her or not.

However, Eden’s answer was worse than Uni’s thought.

“Prince Rubid of the North followed.”

Lynn, who was already listening with a confused mind, suddenly felt dizzy.

Unbeknownst to him, the second expedition had already begun.

***

When the news that Hiems Gracia had become a king of the dead reached the Empire, people’s reactions were divided into two types.

One was the denial that it couldn’t be, and the other was the conviction that it was understandable.

Hiems Gracia served God more faithfully than anyone else. At the same time he killed a lot of people.

He killed hundreds of women as witches, burned them at the stake, and slaughtered tens of thousands of pagans across the border.

All of this was done in the name of God, so people thought he would definitely go to heaven or fall into hell when he died.

Opinions were divided, but fortunately it was soon settled by Nihil’s testimony.

The emperor, who met him directly at the Tomb, said in her biography:

Hiems Gracia is a hypocrite that is second to none in the world, both on the outside and on the inside, like two sides of a coin.

The emperor’s biography about him began like this:

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I finally succeeded in tying The King of Burning and Scorching with a spear.

My great grandfather suffered from a pierce wound, but he still had a gentle expression on his face. Seeing that face like a burning angel made me a little curious.

— Great grandfather, there is something I want to ask you before I take your heart.

— Tell me, my little granddaughter.

Hiems Gracia said in a friendly voice.

So I asked honestly.

— My great grandfather followed the will of God during his lifetime. But why are you suffering here instead of going to a better place?

— What kind of answer do you want?

— I want the truth. But the truth I want is not about God, but about my great grandfather.

Saying so, I asked him what I had been curious about for a long time.

— Is it really God’s will that you exterminated the pagans? Or was it because you needed their fertile land?

— A servant of God does not covet land or wealth.

— Then, was God’s will to burn women to death? Or was it to appease the people’s hearts that were horrified by the epidemic?

— I just did what I believed.

— Then, is it okay to regard your great grandfather’s situation now as God’s will?

— Granddaughter, my little granddaughter.

At my question, The King of Burning and Scorching smiled with bloody lips. Then, with his chest pierced and nailed to the wall, he thrust his neck forward and whispered to me.

— I will tell you the truth. In fact, I never once believed in God. And looking at you and me now, it seems that there is no such thing. Don’t you think so?

The truth that was almost buried forever spewed out of the corpse’s mouth.

I asked with contempt.

— But why did you pretend to believe and confuse others?

— That’s how people will follow me. Is that not the only way your great grandfather, grandfather, father, and even you bequeathed the crown?

— Just because of that?

— What is more important than that, and what will compensate for the fleetingness when humans who are rich in the times eventually die and disappear? When you rule, the fact that I was once a king will be engraved on the world. You will be exalted because of me, and I will be remembered because of you. Parents and children are one body by nature, and you and I are the same.

— It seems now that I understand why my great grandfather led such a life.

I nodded, cut through his body and pulled out his heart.

Indeed, his heart seemed familiar to me.

***

Rena, who crossed the rift and entered the Tomb, honestly admired.

‘I was wondering what they were doing…’

In front of Rena’s eyes, a well-maintained road was spread out.

A solid marble road was laid on the black ground that was muddy like a swamp, and a bridge was built on a steep valley or steep cliff to turn around.

Thanks to this, the scene of hell with a red sky felt a little familiar.

‘I can’t believe they’re thinking of making a path in the Tomb.’

The rugged terrain of the Tomb was an environment in which the army could not use its strength.

So, the powerful army, the pride of the North, was not well known in the Tomb, but they changed even this unfavorable environment by using a huge force.

‘Seriously, the Northerners…’

Recognizing the power of the North, Rena ran on the road they had paved.

It was then. Those Who Carried the Ashes flew from the sky. They flew straight to Rena, and started spinning around like searching a distance out of reach of the whip.

‘Are you really after me?’

Rena eventually admitted to the perverted king’s words that the fanatic was after her. Then she looked at those unfamiliar enemies for a moment.

Hiems Gracia, who was burned at the stake saying it was God’s will, and the fanatics who threw torches together under his power and agitation.

They judged others by claiming to be messengers of God during their lifetime, and they turned many lives into ashes, and eventually they were stagnated in the Tomb under their karma.

Knowing the circumstances, Rena didn’t like them very much. But that doesn’t mean she’s ever fought with them to death.

When Rena was in the midst of the Tomb, there was Regina next to her, and Regina and Hiems were implicitly distancing themselves.

So, this was the first time that Rena also had a direct contact with Hiems.

‘I have no personal grudges, but…’

It’s a mountain I have to climb anyway.

Rena glared at the dead, preparing to attack.

However, the dead did not rush in like before, but kept a distance and gained momentum.

Still, the red sky began to fill with flames, and when it became impossible to gather any more, the dead began to collide with each other.

The dead exploded in the air with a popping sound. Rena, who looked at it curiously, soon realized their intention.

The burning fragments of the dead rained down like arrows, threatening Rena.

‘Oh, my.’

When the fire rain fell from the sky, Rena covered her eyes with her cloak. Then she grabbed the reins and steered her horse away from the falling fireballs.

‘What are you going to do with such tricks?’

As Rena knew about the kings of the dead, they knew about Rena.

So they would know that trick was useless aside from annoying Rena.

So, Rena wandered through the fireballs, contemplating what kind of intentions Hiems Gracia had hidden.

It was then. The dead, who were floating high in the sky, were suddenly cut to pieces and fell to pieces.

Rena looked back reflexively at the familiar power.

She saw a prince on a white horse running towards her. It was Rubid Plenus Gracia.

Rubid, who was chasing after her, killed the dead with a slash, and Rena, who saw him, sighed inwardly.

‘There’s the annoying guy.’

I don’t want any help, so I hope you don’t disturb me.

Rena thought so and drove her horse as fast as she could. Rubid followed after her like a tail, and in the end, the two of them ran side by side.

Rena glanced at Rubid, who was next to her. Rubid also stared at Rena for a moment and then drove the horse more competitively.

The two quickly crossed the road built by the North. The road led them steadily to one place.

It was the castle that Rena and Lynn found after 15 days. But the road made by the North took them all the way in just a few hours.

In front of Rena and Rubid, the castle of The King of Burning and Scorching, Hiems Gracia, revealed its brutal majesty.

Rubid found the castle and urged his horse again. So Rena hastily stopped in front of him.

“Wait a minute, Mr. Rubid.”

“What is it? Get out of the way.”

“It is dangerous to go down blindly. Since the two of us are here…”

“Hey.”

When Rena tried to propose cooperation, Rubid cut off the words with a heavy voice. Then he chewed bitterly.

“Don’t meddle and get lost.”

Rena’s eyes widened at the rude remark.

Rena looked at Rubid with a surprised expression on her face, and then she smiled at him in astonishment.

“I wasn’t worried about you, I was afraid you might get in the way, you spoiled bastard.”

“What…!”

“That’s better. You have a lot of complaints about me, right?”

Rena said so and got off her horse. Then she looked up at Rubid and added.

“Actually, so am I.”

Rubid Plenus. The bastard who nicely ruined Rena’s social debut. A waste who puts a handkerchief in a woman’s chest. A kid who shows off his strength without knowing the situation. A young gentleman who is arrogant without limits.

She hated everything about him, but the last thing she hated the most.

In fact, she hadn’t expressed it until now, but Rena hated that Rubid was being taken care of by the Marquis.

But fortunately, they were alone now in the middle of the Tomb.

Rena said, thinking it was a good opportunity.

“Bring it on. If you win, I’ll get lost. But if you lose…”

Rena thought vaguely at the end of her speech, and soon added with a big smile.

“From then on, you will call me Big Sister Rena, young Rubid.”