"Oh, Seol-hwa, you're here?"
Yun Seong-ho greeted her with the same warmth he had shown me in the living room.
But the response he received from Seol-hwa was...
1
"Get lost. I don't want to see your disgusting face."
Her reply was icy and cutting.
The woman ignored Yun Seong-ho with a terrifyingly low voice, turning her head to search for something. Behind her, a young woman who appeared to be a healing-type hero followed with a staff in hand.
"Looking for Se-a?"
"If you know, tell me quickly. Before I freeze that mouth of yours shut."
"Ah, what a pity."
Crack!
In an instant, the woman was before him. The frigid aura radiating from Lee Seol-hwa's body began to slowly freeze the floor of the house.
Information
Name: Lee Seol-hwa
Age: 22
Alignment: Good
Skills:
Icicle (S Rank)
The most powerful ice-based ability.
Mana Amplification (S Rank)
Greatly enhances the potency of magical attacks.
Stats:
Strength: A+
Defense: B
Magic Power: S
Stamina: A
Agility: A-
Luck: B+
"Incredible. She truly lives up to her reputation as a top-tier A-Rank Hero."
Lee Seol-hwa, who would later ascend to S-Rank, possessed truly formidable abilities.
"Wait... did she come looking for me?"
"Tell me now, where's Se-a?"
"...Turn around."
"Yun Seong-ho, that bastard?"
I had only stepped into the hallway to check the situation, and he immediately ratted me out.
"Se-a!"
But Lee Seol-hwa, as if ignoring my words, flew toward me in an instant.
Ah, being dragged out of here would be troublesome.
Besides trying to brush her off with vague excuses, I had no other way to deal with her. Using the Demonic Eye of Suggestion here might alert Yun Seong-ho.
"Why did you come here?"
"What do you mean? I came to take you—"
"...I don't want to. This is my home."
"......"
When I stared at her with a "Why are you here?" expression, Lee Seol-hwa's face seemed to freeze instantly. Instinctively, she glanced at Yun Seong-ho.
Bang!
"Release the hypnosis."
"Hmm... but I haven't done anything?"
Wait a minute... Lee Seol-hwa, who believes I'm being brainwashed by Yun Seong-ho, just launched an ice spear so close to Yun Seong-ho's cheek that it grazed him. A single drop of blood trickled from the graze, and the house began to grow so cold that Yun Seong-ho's breath steamed in the air.
Serves him right.
"Se-a, snap out of it! You're being deceived by him!"
Ugh... this is such a pain.
Lee Se-a keeps shaking my shoulder and telling me to "snap out of it," which is incredibly annoying.
Tap, tap, tap!
"Ms. Seol-hwa! What's gotten into you all of a sudden?!"
Meanwhile, the Healer we brought along seemed to realize something was wrong. He was panting heavily as he tried to restrain Lee Seol-hwa.
"Of course. From his perspective, we suddenly barged into a perfectly normal person's home and demanded he use a Purification Spell on someone."
"Perfect timing! Hurry and cast the Purification Spell on this child!"
"You know that's impossible! The Purification Spell is still in the experimental phase. We need the subject's consent, or if that's impossible, permission from their guardian..."
"I'm this child's guardian! Do it now!"
"Wait, that's not right, Seol-hwa."
Yun Seong-ho and his bodyguards suddenly appeared, blocking Lee Seol-hwa from casting the Purification Spell on me.
If I were alone, I could have escaped in an instant. But with me here, they wouldn't be able to overcome their numerical disadvantage.
Even if Yun Seong-ho is at the upper C-Rank level, most of the bodyguards are B-Rank or higher.
Breaking through in one go would be difficult. And escaping without me getting hurt right in front of them would be impossible.
"Se-a, it doesn't hurt, please...!"
As about five bodyguards firmly restrained Lee Seol-hwa, she looked at me with desperate eyes, pleading for me to accept the Purification Spell.
...This is a hindrance.
Lee Seol-hwa is a hero, a character who will later become a great help to the protagonist's group.
And such a being cannot be defiled.
Who would ever think of accepting a murderer as a companion in the protagonist's group?
I just want her to leave... Is there a way?
After slowly racking my brain, a good idea struck me.
"...You said that while pouring boiling water over my head."
"......!!"
This was it: Operation Trigger Lee Seol-hwa's Trauma—dig up every memory of her abuse and throw it back at her.
Please, just take this and leave me alone.
"What right do you have to call yourself my guardian?"
With each word, Lee Seol-hwa's body began to tremble.
"I endured when you dumped food waste on my face, saying it was 'fitting for trash like me.' I gritted my teeth through your beatings disguised as 'training.' Do you know why? Because you were the heir to the Yuseong Group, trusted by my father."
"..........Seol..."
"Of course, I expected you to become the guild leader of the Yuseong Guild, which the Yuseong Group was planning to establish. That's why I endured it—Father trusted you so implicitly. Even if someone like me, with my mediocre abilities, complained about the hardship, Father would have just told me to shut up."
"..."
"But from the moment you changed your surname, packed your bags, and ran away, you lost any right to criticize me."
"Th-that's..."
"What? Now that I've awakened my abilities and it looks like I'll inherit Yuseong, are you jealous?"
As if that single sentence had struck a decisive blow, Lee Seol-hwa's eyes began to tremble violently.
"Seol-hwa, what is all this..."
As expected, the person behind me knew nothing.
Alright, now's the time for the final blow.
I can't afford to get entangled with a hero like Lee Seol-hwa...
"Get out. Don't ever let me see your disgusting face again."
As I spoke, I shifted my body toward the railing, positioning myself precariously close to the edge—a slight movement would send me tumbling over.
"Young Lady! That's dangerous!"
Just then, the driver I had brainwashed chimed in, escalating the tension even further.
"Se-a! What are you doing there?!"
"Long time no see, Unnie. Remember when you pushed me off this exact spot to test my Natural Healing ability?"
In Yun Se-a's memories, Yun Seol-hwa was a truly twisted individual.
Lee Seol-hwa worked tirelessly to earn her father's approval, but every night, he would take Yun Se-a, not her, down to some underground place.
When she asked Yun Seong-ho what they were doing down there, he would only offer excuses like, "It's for Se-a's training." This made Lee Seol-hwa jealous.
The very idea of her father paying attention to such an inferior creature must have been repulsive to her.
Yun Seong-ho's brainwashing likely played a role too.
In any case, this seemed to be why she treated Yun Se-a so harshly.
While the saying goes, "Give an extra rice cake to the child you dislike," Yun Se-a was too greedy for her parents' attention, trust, and love to tolerate even that extra rice cake.
Having grown accustomed to isolating and subjugating rivals to gain her parents' approval, Yun Seol-hwa simply exploited the situation. Yun Seol-hwa was strong, while Yun Se-a was weak and easily manipulated.
Even when her hand was stabbed with a fork, when she was beaten relentlessly without a moment's respite, or when food waste was dumped on her.
And among all those torments, the one Yun Se-a suffered most from... was, of course, this. Being pushed off the railing.
In my memories, she seemed to enjoy watching my body twitch during the recovery process from a broken neck, saying it looked "so like me" and "pleasing to watch."
That's what she seemed to say, according to my memories.
As I leaned my back against the railing, a strange sensation of weightlessness began to creep over me.
"N-no, don't...!"
"Go back. This place is forbidden to outsiders. If you're the same sister who calmly pushed me off this railing and has returned to Yuseong... I won't object to you staying here. But if not... leave. Unless you want to see me fall again."
Fortunately, I didn't fall.
"Ugh... hah... ugh..."
"Seol-hwa, you're hyperventilating! Look at me and take slow, deep breaths...!"
Before I could react, Lee Seol-hwa had collapsed, convulsing from hyperventilation.
After that, I'm not sure what happened to her. I used telekinesis to float slightly upward and then flew toward Yun Seong-ho.
"Father, I'm sorry for making such a scene."
"Nonsense. Thanks to you, we handled that troublesome guest efficiently. We should consider ourselves fortunate."
This was the conversation Yun Seong-ho and I had over dinner. According to the bodyguard I had secretly brainwashed, Lee Seol-hwa immediately fainted and had to be carried out by the Healer who accompanied her. Even as she was being carried out the door, she kept muttering my name.
After tormenting her like that, did she really think Yun Se-a would just accept her apology now?
The game players and I might have seen Lee Seol-hwa as just an attractive A-Rank Hero, but how utterly disgusting Yun Se-a must have felt.
Her sister, who had tormented her to the point of near death, had fled the house and become a wildly successful Hero, while Yun Se-a remained trapped as a lab rat.
No matter the circumstances, the unspeakable things Lee Seol-hwa had done to Yun Se-a could never be erased.
If she had done those things to me instead, maybe...
I could never receive forgiveness from the vanished Yun Se-a. But what right did I have to accept Lee Seol-hwa's apology on behalf of Yun Se-a, who had suffered so much?
So, it's best to just focus on helping the protagonist grow.
The path I'm walking isn't one that suits you.