I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 59.

‘Why don’t you get up and sit down, it’s weird that you keep doing that.’

‘Yes.’

Sierra stood up at the crown prince’s command and sat down on the couch. Her toes tingled as she rose.

He and she stood in awkward silence, neither of them making eye contact, their heads turned away.

It was only when the air was thick with tension that he spoke.

‘I see. You said you were here to hear the rest of the story, right?’

‘Yes. I’ve been calling on the gods in the temple, but all they tell me is to stay alive, and I keep feeling like the divine power in the temple is getting weaker and weaker, and something’s not right.’

‘Then tell me what you know before you tell me about yourself.’

‘So-’

Sierra told me that the forces that want me dead include High Priest Diego and the grey-haired maid and that they’re likely to be large.

She also told me about what Mei had told her, and how something strange seemed to be happening in the Divine Realm.

The crown prince, who had been listening, nodded.

‘Perhaps there is some truth to what I’m about to say. What I do know, I found out when you died and the world ended.’

Sierra nodded nervously. The crown prince’s next words were shocking.

‘That’s when the black god said, ‘Viata chose her to be a saint and put her through all sorts of trials, hoping she would rise above the odds and become a proper saint.

‘…….’

‘And that was when you were born the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Elgraton and were treated as less than human.’

‘That’s what it took to become a saint……? More than half my life?’

Are you locked in an attic crawling with bugs and cobwebs, without food or water?

A ghostly existence where you could crawl out of the house and no one would find you and you didn’t even know you were gone?

That was it, a mere trial from the gods?

Sierra’s expression hardened.

‘I said it was no wonder you were so crooked. Viata didn’t realize that different humans can withstand different weights of adversity, and you were younger than you looked.’

Sierra shuddered, clenching her fists so hard her knuckles turned white. Seeing her reaction, the crown prince hesitated, then spoke.

‘She said she was meant to be a normal youngest daughter in a normal family, to be pampered, married off, live an uneventful life, and then die.’

‘So you made me, who could have lived like that, to be born to the Earl of Elgraton to make me a saint.’

The Crown Prince closed his eyes at Sierra’s reaction, a growl that would have chewed him up and swallowed him whole if the gods were present.

He could hear the god’s voice in his head, lamenting.

‘Excessive greed always brings wrath. It’s bad enough that you put the weight of the world on that child’s shoulders, and the others have noticed.

‘There are those who know you are responsible for keeping the world in balance.’

‘Half-man-half-horse?’

‘Yes. There were groups of half-man-half-demon who lived among the people, in the palace, in the temples, in the crowds.’

‘And they would incite, ‘Let’s kill the holy woman who destroyed the country.’’

‘The temple and the crowd did not conspire to commit treason. It was all the work of the anti-humanoids. To kill you and lead the world to destruction.’

It was bigger than I had imagined. The very existence of the world was at stake.

The demigods’ goal was to destroy the world from the ground up, and Sierra was the one to be killed.

‘There’s probably a half-demon who’s been working against you since you first traveled to the temple, someone who encouraged you to go further.’

‘…….’

There were too many to think about.

The priests who had prevented Sierra from fitting in, who had fuelled her inferiority complex as a bastard saint, who had taught her to release her negative emotions by breaking things.

‘There were so many enemies in the temple?’

I couldn’t believe it, but in retrospect, the unpleasant aura I felt from them was the same one I felt from High Priest Diego.

They’d all disappeared from the temple at some point, so I’d erased them from my memory, but by half a man and a mile.

‘Even now, they’re probably thinking of ways to kill you.’

‘I’m sure they’re riding them right now. They killed them once, they came back to life, they poisoned them, they tried to kill them, they dodged them, they tried to ambush them, they got caught.’

‘So you’ll have to be more careful in the future, but for now, the palace is safer than the temple. For the time being, you and your people should stay in the palace.’

Sierra looked at the crown prince in surprise.

‘Thank you for your consideration.’

‘When you die, this world will end anyway, so I might as well keep you in sight and keep an eye on you.’

The crown prince turned his head away, avoiding Sierra’s gaze.

‘You don’t even want to make eye contact, do you? I’d be pretty sick of it if I were you.

Sierra spent the next few days discussing the details of the Mad Saint with the Prince, comparing and contrasting the stories she couldn’t remember.

In the meantime, it was pitch black outside, and the smell of the night had settled in.

Don’t Love Me]

Sierra, who had lost track of time and focused on the conversation, turned her head to the cold, wet smell of rain drifting in through the open window.

‘It’s raining.’

Gone was the sunny weather earlier in the day, and the fickle sky was pouring down a thick, pounding rain.

It was then that the crown prince spoke up, his tone gravelly.

‘Go to bed.’

‘What?’

Sierra raised her voice, unable to react naturally to the crown prince’s words.

The crown prince saw her embarrassment and spoke casually. As if there was nothing selfless about it.

‘It’s late at night, and it’s dangerous. There may be an attack. I’ll make arrangements with the temple, and you should go to sleep.’

‘Why bother when I can just have His Majesty’s chauffeur teleport me there like last time…….?’

‘Are you suggesting that I use my manpower? That’s very impudent.’

The crown prince said, his eyes glaring in disbelief. Sierra quickly tucked her tail and raised her white flag.

‘No, it’s not like that.’

She wondered if this was something to be angry about.

Sierra deftly avoided the crown prince’s gaze.

‘Never mind, let’s finish this over a glass of wine. Fruit for dessert, I suppose.’

‘Yes. Then let’s continue.’

I tested the silver needle for poison and drank the wine to quench my thirst.

The alcohol helped me relax.

But the awkwardness couldn’t be erased, and as Sierra’s lips searched for something to talk about, the subject of Iros came naturally to her.

‘I think Pink has found out who she is.’

‘Of course.’

I wasn’t embarrassed that the crown prince was so accepting of Iros’s identity.

‘It must be very unsettling for her to think she’s human all her life and then suddenly realize she might be half-human.’

‘Still, I doubt Lord Iros would join a half-human-half-horse group. He’s not the kind of man who would betray you.’

‘…I know that.’

‘Tell me later, when we’re all back at the palace. You can’t keep it from me forever.’

Sierra nodded.

She’d recognized Iros the moment she’d first seen him in the alley; he was different.

Later, as I watched him heal and burn with holy power, I read the texts and realized he was a half-human half-horse.

I lied to protect him because the temple says that half-humans are to be killed.

You’re a divine misfit. It’s not strange. It’s very rare, but there are such people.

‘I don’t know why half-humans were sold to slavers and made their way into the Empire, but you should tell me.’

‘Because it would be good for Lord Iros.’

Sierra nodded grimly, her face reddening.

Across from her, the crown prince was getting a little drunk, too, his face flushed.

Whenever they ran out of things to say, they took out a new bottle of wine and gradually began to blow on the bottle instead of the glass.

‘Oh, you’re dizzy. Are you drunk?

My head was spinning and my vision was fuzzy. For someone who prided herself on her eloquence, she shouldn’t get drunk easily, but she was strangely disorientated.

‘Ugh. Your Highness the Crown Prince, you are quite handsome.’

He laughed out loud as he said this.

Seeing Sierra like that, the crown prince casually quenched his thirst with wine and said.

‘I know because you once drunkenly undressed me and said, ‘Your pectoral muscles are even prettier.

‘Hiccup. I don’t remember that.’

‘Well, show me, then. I think my body is perfect, too.’

Despite the crown prince’s abruptness, Sierra, like a person who has lost her senses, did not notice what was wrong.

Tomorrow morning, when she woke up and thought about it, she’d probably call him crazy, but anything would be fine.

The crown prince’s eyes flashed from golden to amber as he stared at Sierra.

‘You know what?’

‘What? Hmph.’

‘I was better than Lord Iros in the flesh.’

‘My pinkie must be in much better shape. She works out every day. Ding! I saw her muscles today, too. …….’

Sierra giggled, explaining how, in his drunken stupor, Iros had ripped his shirt off this morning to make himself feel better.

At that, the crown prince’s eyebrows wiggled.

‘So the buttons shot off in all directions, and one of them got stuck in my hair and-’

‘Look.’

‘What? Hiccup. What do you want me to look at?’

The crown prince rose to his feet and perched obliquely on the table, where wine bottles rolled about, looking down at her seductively.

Sierra stared up at him, dumbfounded. He undid the buttons on his shirt, one by one, with slow, deliberate movements.

When the last button snapped undone and the shirt fell open to the side like a curtain, he smiled lazily.

‘I got some exercise after the regression.’

‘…Why?’

‘I can’t stop thinking about it.’

‘That?’

The crown prince smirked at Sierra’s dazed question, then sipped his wine with cold eyes.

‘I can’t stop thinking about you, along with Lord Iros, sitting in my bed with me.’

Sierra’s jaw dropped. But his mouth continued to speak like a broken blade.

He said the words that hurt so badly to himself, and he said them so calmly.

‘If I had been better, if I hadn’t been like this, if you hadn’t been if you hadn’t sought out Lord Iros.’

‘What…….’

‘Because the thought haunts me.’

At his confession, Sierra felt like her drink had been broken.