The Possessor Mistook the Genre for 20 Years

24 – The Third Villainess

The life of an utterly ordinary girl.

If one were to summarize Yuna’s life in a single sentence before she became a hero, it would be this.

Yuna was born into a family that was neither poor nor wealthy.

She couldn’t eat whatever she wanted, but at least she didn’t have to skip meals.

Considering that most commoners were impoverished serfs, she was relatively well-off among them.

After all, her family even owned a small shop, albeit a modest one.

Yuna’s parents were positive people in every aspect.

Even when faced with hard and exhausting tasks, they tried to smile.

As a result, Yuna also grew up bright and positive.

Even when she fell, she got up cheerfully, and even when things didn’t go well, she persevered.

These traits made her seem a bit more mature than her peers.

Children, after all, usually had trouble controlling their emotions.

Yuna was happy.

She could live smiling with her parents and younger sister.

But the world wasn’t filled with so much laughter.

After all, commoners didn’t have much leisure.

How often could those who lived day to day without enough to eat find reasons to laugh?

Perhaps only when they happened to find a coin on the road by chance, like a rare bean sprouting in a drought.

Seeing such scenes, young Yuna had a dream.

She wanted to make many people in the world laugh.

It was just the vague hope of a little child.

An absurd wish.

But even for Yuna, there were days when the smile would vanish from her face.

Her father passed away.

He lay in bed, unmoving.

The face that always smiled was now pale and stiff.

The cause was an illness.

An unknown, incurable disease.

No matter how many times they sought the priest for treatment, it only improved slightly at the time, but ultimately, they couldn’t prevent the worsening of the illness.

To be honest, it didn’t feel real.

I knew well enough that the condition wasn’t good, but I didn’t expect that you would pass away overnight, especially since you were smiling and hugging me just yesterday.

I couldn’t bring myself to smile that day.

And it was from that day.

That darkness began to cast over my mother’s face.

Having lost her lifelong companion, the path ahead must have been lonely and desolate.

But my mother tried to smile.

As if she was determined to carry on my late father’s will.

Yuna felt a bit sorry for her mother.

It seemed like she was enduring the hardship for the sake of her and her younger sister.

So she made a decision.

To make her mother and younger sister genuinely smile.

“Look! I caught a huge fish by the river today!”

Yuna smiled even bigger on purpose, and pretended to be even brighter.

Whenever there was something joyful, she tried to share it with her family, and somehow managed to solve difficult things on her own.

Yuna’s heart was gradually being pushed to its limits.

The negative emotions that she couldn’t express were slowly eating away at her from the inside.

But it was okay.

As long as her family could smile, she could endure it.

Yes, for the sake of her family.

Then one day.

As if the gods had heard Yuna’s childhood wish, they granted her the power to make many people smile.

She became a hero.

An ordinary girl was chosen to be a hero.

It was truly a mysterious power.

Even though she had never wielded a sword before, her movements flowed naturally.

All sorts of information flowed into her mind as well.

But there was a problem.

Surely, as a hero, she was supposed to defeat the Demon King and bring peace to the world.

To fulfill that duty, she had to leave her family and embark on an adventure.

Naturally, she hesitated.

After all, Yuna lived to make her family smile.

But in the end, there was only one choice.

If the resurrected Demon King led the world to ruin, her family wouldn’t be able to smile either.

To protect her family’s smiles, it was necessary to defeat the Demon King.

“I’ll be back. Mom, Yuria.”

“Be careful out there.”

“Sis, be safe.”

Yuna reluctantly left her family behind and set out on her adventure.

But once this was over, she would receive a lot of money, and her family might be able to smile a little more.

They could go to a big house with a garden and live happily.

Ah, it would be nice to have a fountain too.

She tried to think as positively as possible.

It was her only refuge.

The journey to defeat the Demon King was, of course, not easy.

Together with Franz, Justia, and Hera, they faced countless life-threatening situations.

Especially when they faced the Four Heavenly Kings, death was really close.

But she always tried not to lose her smile.

Even when her arm was cut off, when her leg was crushed, when her stomach was torn open and blood poured out, she smiled and said it was okay.

No, in fact, she was just scared.

If the smile disappeared from her face, she felt like she would collapse,

Like she would give up everything and hide in fear.

The smile was just a mask to hide herself.

She couldn’t even remember the last time she genuinely smiled out of joy.

Then one day, Franz, the magician, said,

“Hey, aren’t you overdoing it?”

“Huh? Why do you say that?”

“Just, when I look at you, it seems like you’re pretending to be okay. Well, if you’re having a hard time, just let it out. We’ve been together for a long time, even if we’re not family.”

It hit the mark.

Literally, she was pretending to be okay.

But would anything change if she confessed?

No, it would only darken the mood of the party.

So she had to smile.

For herself, and for the party.

“No, I’m really smiling because I’m okay. Thanks for caring.”

“…Is that so.”

In the end, Yuna decided to hide her true feelings, and as a result, she had to endure Franz’s cold gaze.

She felt terribly sorry for ignoring his kindness, but she had no choice.

She felt she couldn’t endure it otherwise.

Time flowed on.

The hero party fought through the demon army and finally reached the Demon King’s castle.

And they successfully defeated the Demon King.

There were moments of crisis, but they managed to overcome them.

Lying on the ground as if collapsing, she looked up at the sky, which was clear without a single cloud.

‘We’re going back now.’

The thought of seeing her mother and Yuria again made her chuckle.

It had been so long since she genuinely laughed that she couldn’t remember the last time.

Now they could move to a big house, right?

Yuria must have grown a lot.

Ah, but she shouldn’t be taller than me.

The happiness she had forgotten in her pain was slowly finding its place.

Yuna, the hero of the Demon King’s defeat, didn’t even attend the festival celebrating her achievement and went straight home.

Expecting to surprise her mother and sister.

But when she arrived, no one was there.

The warm presence of her family had vanished, and cold air greeted her.

“Mom? Yuria?”

All the things her family used were still there.

Only, they were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Yuna’s eyes wandered, unable to find a place to rest.

The heart that had been full of anticipation crumbled to pieces.

A shadow fell over the face that was always full of laughter.

Then, Yuna saw the letter.

The letter was on the table, as if asking to be read.

Yuna hastily grabbed the letter and began to read.

And then, she gritted her teeth and tore it to shreds.

Duke Ishtar.

He had kidnapped her mother and younger sister.

Aiming for the power of the hero.

Filled with rage, Yuna headed straight for Duke Ishtar.

She showed no mercy to those who blocked her path.

Though she couldn’t bring herself to kill them, being soft-hearted.

Finally, standing before Duke Ishtar, Yuna held her sword to his neck.

“Give me back my mother and sister.”

“The letter should say that if you listen to me, I’ll let them go, right?”

“Such nonsense…!”

Yuna, filled with anger, raised her sword high, but Duke Ishtar remained unfazed.

“Kill me. Then your mother and sister will die too.”

In the end, Yuna had no choice.

Her hand, holding the sword, slowly fell.

“If you were going to do this, you should have listened from the start. You’re just a kid driven by emotions.”

Yuna’s hand trembled with rising anger.

Hundreds of ways to painfully kill him flashed through her mind.

But she couldn’t do anything.

She had to save her mother and sister.

She wanted to see their smiling faces again.

“Leave. An uninvited guest is a nuisance.”

Yuna slowly walked away.

Cursing herself for being unable to do anything.

In the end, she regretted leaving to defeat the Demon King.

And so, the present.

Yuna stayed in the house where she had lived with her family, now in a state of ruin.

The gold coins she received as a reward for defeating the Demon King were scattered on the floor.

Despite having so much money, the fact that there was no family to share the joy with made her heart feel like it was being torn apart.

Then, suddenly, a letter arrived for Yuna.

The sender was Duke Ishtar.

The content was simple.

Attend the social gathering.

It seemed he wanted to show off that he was important enough to invite a hero.

Yuna chewed and swallowed the letter.

Thinking that one day she would grind him to pieces.

There was no longer any trace of a smile on Yuna’s face.