Chapter 72: Is There Salvation Even for the Murderous Girl? (5)

Chapter 72: Is There Salvation Even for the Murderous Girl? (5)

Chapter 72: Is There Salvation Even for the Murderous Girl? (5)

“...Lucy Valierre.”

Suddenly, the captain of the Black Fangs appears before her, calling out her name, though she had never told him.

But when she thought about it, it wasn’t particularly strange.

That man had always been like that.

From the moment they first met, he saw through everything.

—You have no right to blame me.

—Did you think I wouldn’t know the things you’ve done?

Only today had Lucy come to learn about the hideous side of the Holy Church. Their monstrous practice of collaborating with the Empire, gathering children to harvest divine power from them.

That man had known all along. That’s why he had shown her such disdain when they first met—because she was a knight of the Empire.

‘If only he had told me about the dark side of the Holy Church back then... No, that’s far too selfish of me.’

Of course, it made sense.

This was only the second time Lucy had faced the Black Fangs directly.

When they crossed paths in the Black Market, neither Lucy nor that man had known each other.

To the captain, Lucy was nothing more than a knight of the Empire he was seeing for the first time.

Why would he trust her with such secrets?

The information he possessed could shake the Holy Church to its core if it were leaked.

And yet, was he supposed to reveal all of this to a stranger, an Empire knight, no less?

What if that knight reported it to her superiors?

If the Holy Church sensed the leak, they could destroy the evidence and suppress the truth entirely.

To waste such a crucial opportunity to topple the Holy Church for the sake of advising an Imperial knight? It would have been absurd.

In fact, if he had revealed the truth to her back then, that would’ve been even stranger.

‘So those words back then...’

Lucy finally understood the meaning behind what the captain had said in the Black Market.

—Whether you’re truly ignorant or just pretending, it doesn’t concern us.

—I will simply fulfill my mission.

Whether Lucy, as the Empire’s pawn, had her hands in this despicable business or not, it didn’t matter.

The Black Fangs would do what needed to be done.

They would bring down the Holy Church in the name of the Black Fangs.

Had Lucy not committed these acts, the Black Fangs would have dismantled the Holy Church in their own way.

After all, the video they had released had already shattered the public’s faith in the Holy Church.

What if, at the right moment, they had exposed the secret?

What if the horrific facilities, where children were sacrificed for divine power, were revealed to the world?

The Holy Church could never have survived.

As the captain of the Black Fangs had declared, the name of the Holy Church would have been erased from history.

“What are you doing right now?”

The man before her asks.

His voice is sharp, cutting.

Lucy could tell.

The man standing in front of her was genuinely furious.

And it was no wonder.

The massacre Lucy had just committed would inevitably be blamed on the Black Fangs.

It was clear that the Black Fangs had intended to bring down the Holy Church by exposing their secrets, not through a massacre.

But now that this had happened, the Black Fangs would inevitably be blamed for the slaughter.

Of course, with the atrocities committed by the Holy Church, public opinion might lean favorably towards them to some extent.

But this wasn’t about public opinion.

I quickly started putting the pieces together.

Even if she wasn’t talking, I could still figure out what might’ve happened here.

Let’s start with the most important part.

Why had the cathedral ended up like this?

Who was the one responsible for all of this? If I could figure that out, then maybe I could understand the situation a bit better...

‘...Wait a minute.’

Isn’t it highly likely that Lucy’s the culprit?

There’s no one else who could have done this, right?

I don’t see any other suspects.

It’s also strange that she’s the only one alive in this massacre.

And more importantly, in spoiler posts, Lucy was described as a horrific murderer.

If the named villain of this story, Lucy, had caused all of this, then the situation would make sense.

...But for some reason, something didn’t feel right.

It didn’t feel like this was it. Instead, I had a gut feeling that I was missing something.

And just as I was caught up in my thoughts, Lucy suddenly reached for the sword I had thrown on the ground. Panicking, I quickly grabbed her arm to stop her.

Instinctively, harsh words escaped my mouth.

Anything less would’ve been strange.

From my experience before reincarnation, I knew one thing for sure—I could never stand by and watch someone take their own life right in front of me.

But Lucy looked at me and spoke.

“Let go of me.”

She asked me to release her arm.

To let her die.

...It was at that moment that I finally realized the truth behind all of this. It would have been stranger not to.

The last time I met Lucy, I had seen her behaving far too normally to be the murderer everyone described her as. That’s when I had formed a few hypotheses.

One of them being... ‘multiple personalities.’

If I applied that theory to this situation, everything made sense.

Why Lucy had done something like this.

Why she was wracked with guilt after killing all these people.

She was taking responsibility for something her other personality had done. And that’s why she was trying to end her own life now.

In this moment, there was only one thing I needed to say.

I approached her slowly.

“You’re just running away.”

It was true.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine the weight of her guilt.

Even if it wasn’t her conscious intention, people had died because of her actions.

The crushing burden of that guilt must have been unimaginable.

But even so, death was never the answer. That was something I could never accept.

“You’re just trying to avoid facing your sins because they’re too heavy.”

No matter how terrible the crime.

No matter how impossible it seemed to live with the burden.

I couldn’t let her make that choice.

And so I declared.

“Don’t run from your sins, Lucy Valierre.”

Don’t use death as an escape.

[ Join Patreon to support the translation and to read up to 5 chapters ahead of the release of "I Accidentally Created a Villainous Organization" and 4 chapters ahead of the release of "I Became a Childhood Friend With the Villainous /Jade43 ]