After walking down a long corridor, Yue had come face-to-face with her copy, sealed within the ice tree at the center of the room. She had then begun fighting with her copy, and quickly realized her copy’s abilities were perfectly matched with hers. That truth had been shoved into her face multiple times, after all.
On top of that, though, she was also forced to relive her old memories. It was like the dream world she’d been shown in Haltina’s labyrinth, but instead of an ideal world, she was being shown her worst nightmare.
Aside from the very last thing her uncle had said, everything in Yue’s memory had been accurate. That had been her past, the past she hadn’t thought back to even once since meeting Hajime. For the past three hundred years, those memories had been locked away deep in her heart.
And now they were being forcibly dragged to the surface.
She’s probably using spirit magic to make me relive my memories... I thought I was guarding against that, but it seems not.
Yue and her copy were perfectly matched in terms of power. But because Yue kept on being unbalanced by her memories she was losing the initiative.
Furthermore, there was something else she’d realized after confronting herself. She was strong. Unbelievably so. To the point where it was just unfair for her enemies.
“You piss me off...” Yue muttered.
“Don’t forget that I’m you...” Yue’s copy giggled to herself.
God, how annoying... However, that was indeed how Yue had spoken before being sealed. Over the course of centuries, though, she’d come to realize that the faux-polite style of speech used by royalty was utterly ridiculous. And so, she’d dropped it entirely. It helped that she hadn’t talked for ages until she met Hajime, too. But her transformation was precisely why she hated her copy, who was acting exactly like the old her. Annoyed, Yue summoned twelve lightning dragons.
“There’s no one you can trust in this world.”
Anything Yue could do, her copy could do as well. It countered Yue’s dragons with twelve of its own, all while goading her.
“The uncle you trusted so much, even Ubaldo and the others, they betrayed us. What more proof do you need that no one can be trusted?”
“......” Yue went silent as she was shown another flashback.
“You fought and fought and fought for your country, but in the end...”
Yue had gone off to the battlefield the day she’d turned twelve. Since then she’d witnessed the deaths of thousands, and killed far more with her own two hands. Naturally, that had made her hated by many.
It wouldn’t have been surprising if she’d broken under the mental trauma of so much hate and death. Or if she’d buckled under the pressure and expectation placed on her by her countrymen. However, her love for her country had given her the strength to pull through. The knowledge that she was protecting people close to her. And yet— Yue’s memories swallowed her. By the time she returned to her senses, it was too late. She was in another vision.
This time she was in the throne room. A crimson carpet ran down the middle of the room, bisecting it evenly. Standing in the center of the room was Aletia, clad in a similarly crimson dress. She’d been crowned queen at the tender age of seventeen, and three years had passed since then.
Normally, her father, King Lambert, would have reigned for another thirty years. The early shift in sovereigns hadn’t occurred because Aletia had usurped her father. It had just been necessary.
Aletia’s overwhelming achievements and her tireless defense of Avatarl had made her respected by her countrymen and feared by her enemies. Most enemy states had given up attacking after suffering staggering casualties. Their kings and lords had all been forced to accept that Aletia was far above them.
Though her appearance hadn’t changed at all since she’d turned twelve, her beauty had taken on a mature allure over the years. It was in part due to the fact that her appearance hadn’t changed that everyone found her so divine. In fact, some people had actually started a cult to worship her.
At one point, the leaders of the humans’ religion had asked to meet with her so that they could appoint her as their new god. That had, of course, been completely unprecedented and ended with the world accepting that Aletia was some manner of divine being. The queen of Avatarl was someone who was loved and worshiped by everyone across the world.
King Lambert had decided not to fight the tide of his daughter’s rising popularity and had gladly abdicated the throne to her. Not long after, princes and lords from every nation had come to ask for her hand in marriage. Every nation knew that if it was able to form an alliance with Avatarl, they’d be safe from the chaotic wars that plagued the land. In fact, even the frequency of those wars had begun to drop thanks to Aletia’s presence. Or so it seemed at the time, at least.
“Will you let us take care of it then, Your Majesty?”
“Yes, you may.”
“Understood. By your leave, then.”
“Ah, Uncle!”
Aletia had finished seeing the foreign messenger who had come to visit and was in the middle of a meeting with her uncle, Dienleed. He’d been expressionless throughout, and now that he’d concluded his business he turned to leave. Not wanting him to go just yet, Aletia called out to him.
“What is it?”
“I was just thinking, maybe we could eat dinner together. We haven’t spent much time together in a while, and I could use your advice.”
“Is that an order?”
“Huh? No, of course not...”
“Then my apologies, but I must decline. There are many matters that require my attention.”
“I see...”
“Good day to you,” Dienleed said as he hurried out of the throne room as if loathe to spend even another second in there.
Aletia watched her uncle leave the room with a crestfallen expression. Not once did he turn around. There was a dull thud as the doors shut behind him, leaving Aletia all alone in the throne room.
“......”
How long had it been since her uncle had started acting distant toward her? When he’d quit as her tutor? When he’d last eaten dinner with her on her birthday a year ago? Or when she’d been crowned queen? Aletia distinctly remembered the bitter expression he’d worn during her coronation ceremony.
Aletia lapsed into thought. She’d spent more time with her uncle than with her actual parents. Though she’d never told anyone, her uncle felt more like a parent to her than her real parents. While her mother and father had spoiled her and given her anything she’d wanted, her uncle had actually scolded her at times and shown a genuine interest in raising her right.
Aletia thought back to the gentle smiles he’d used to give her. Now he didn’t smile at all. It felt as though they were separated by a wall of ice.
Did I do something to make him mad? Did I fail him somehow?
No matter how hard she tried to start a conversation with him, all he ever showed her was his back. Or some messenger or the other would show up to interrupt them. Worse, her mother, father, and even her advisors had been growing distant from her. As a result, she hadn’t had a proper conversation with him in years.
And it wasn’t just her uncle, either. Her subordinates, family, and even retainers refused to talk with her for any length of time. Her current solitude was an analogy for how isolated she’d become recently. A mixture of confusion and loneliness weighed down on her.
Her memories fast-forwarded a few years. The fragile peace that had settled upon Avatarl had begun to crack, and it was moments from shattering.
“Dear, sweet Aletia. This can’t go on any longer. As queen, please make the right decision.”
Aletia’s mother and father pleaded with her. Their voices were gentle, but their expressions were full of fear. They were urging her to exile her beloved uncle, the prime minister.
In truth, Dienleed and his subordinates were rarely in the palace these days anyway. Instead, Aletia found herself surrounded by retainers and advis
ors from the previous king’s era. Even Ubaldo had left her.
“He’s too ambitious for his own good. We fear he may be planning a coup. Your life is in danger!”
“He’s overstepped his authority far too many times. Your Majesty, it’s clear he lusts for power. And he’s already expanded his influence far too much. Please, you must do something.”
“Exactly, Your Majesty. I understand your feelings, but we must act.”
You understand my feelings!? As if! Aletia pushed down her anger and faced her retainers with the composed look of a queen.
I can’t do it. I can’t exile Uncle. Everyone around her agreed that her uncle was an ambitious, power-hungry, and dangerous man. But Aletia didn’t believe it for a second. Even if it was true that her uncle was after the throne, she’d gladly hand it over to him. All she wanted was the opportunity to talk to him. She wanted to hear his voice again so badly. It didn’t matter what he had to say, she just wanted to know how he truly felt.
In the end, however, she didn’t get that chance until the very end. The fateful day where she was betrayed.
On that day, Aletia had been meeting with a messenger of the church. To her surprise, they’d wanted to afford her the title of divine oracle, a title whose authority rivaled the pope’s. The gesture would be the first official overture of friendship between humans and the other races.
In the middle of such a joyous occasion, the doors to the audience chamber were suddenly blown open, and following the explosion was a hail of magical bullets. The messengers from the church were incinerated in an instant. Once the barrage was over, Ubaldo and his imperial guards stepped in, fully armed. Without hesitation, they began slaughtering Aletia’s attendants.
“U-Ubaldo! Stop this madness! That’s an order!” Aletia roared, realizing how ridiculous she must have sounded. She knew what their actions meant, but her heart refused to accept it, which was precisely why despite being the strongest vampire alive, she allowed herself to be stabbed in the heart.
“I’ll be relieving you of that throne.”
“U-Uncle? Why...”
Her uncle stared down at her, close enough to be hugging her. Despite that, she couldn’t make out his expression. However, she could tell that his hands were trembling. He pushed the blade deeper inside her chest, and Aletia’s screams filled the audience chamber. That was just how furious Dienleed had been. Just how much he’d hated Aletia. That knowledge pierced her deeper than any blade could, and her heart froze.
“Uncle please, just talk to me!”
Even so, Aletia desperately tried to engage him in conversation.
“But our dear uncle never said a word, now did he?”
“Ah!”
Suddenly, the pain in Yue’s chest felt far more real. Standing in front of her was not her uncle, but a grinning copy of herself. And stabbed through her chest was not a sword, but a spear of ice. The stage was the same as her traumatic past, and the only thing that had changed was the actors. The entire flashback Yue had witnessed had probably barely lasted a second in real life.
“You’re so damn persistent!” Yue cursed, a rarity for her, and created a spatial tear around her. That sent her copy flying, and her automatic regeneration pushed the spear out of her chest. The copy righted itself in midair, using gravity magic to stop itself from slamming against the wall.
Behind Yue, Ubaldo and his men were busy slaughtering her mother, father, and friends. Sneering, her copy hurled more verbal abuse.
“Everyone else doubted Dietleed, but we chose to believe in him.”
Yue ignored her copy’s words and fired off a Void Shatter. Space warped all around her, blurring both her copy and the vision around her. It looked as though she was staring at the world through a cracked mirror. However, the vision didn’t disappear. Furthermore, Yue’s copy used its own spatial magic to protect itself against Yue’s Void Shatter.
“You were betrayed! I was betrayed!”
The copy screamed, its voice equal parts mirth and sadness. It danced to the side and unleashed its next attack. Numerous bullets of wind rushed toward Yue. At the same time, a storm of bullets surrounded Aletia in the vision. But while Yue wordlessly countered the assault, Aletia screamed in pain as they tore through her. The barrage continued, both in the past and in the present.
“You had so much faith in him. You believed in the bonds you had nurtured!”
Aletia flew across the room, directly between Yue and her copy. Though she kept receiving fatal wounds, her automatic regeneration saved her each time. However, her regeneration couldn’t repair her shattered heart. Confused, wounded, and unwilling to accept reality, Aletia didn’t even try to fight back. She slumped to the ground, the light gone from her eyes. She no longer had the will to go on.
What happens after was something Yue remembered well. She didn’t need to see the scenes to recall those memories.
After she was defeated, Yue had been shackled. Her grief had caused her to lose consciousness, and when she’d awoken she’d been trapped in the abyss. From there, 300 years had passed. In that pitch-black prison, in the depths of despair, Yue had nurtured her hate. Continually.
“People betray others for their own benefit. That is an undeniable fact.”
The copy pointed to the figure of Aletia crawling pathetically across the ground. Take a good look. Accept reality.
“The man you love, your best friend, those you care for, all of them will betray you eventually.”
Hajime Nagumo, Shea, and all the others would inevitably betray Yue like her uncle had. That was the fear hidden deep within Yue’s heart. That things like trust or bonds were all a sham. However—
“...Goodbye, dark past!”
A huge shockwave rippled across the vision. Golden mana swirled around Yue, spreading across the room. Yue then looked down at her past self crawling across the ground and stomped on her. The vision blurred, like a television getting a bad signal. It then faded away, placing Yue back in the room with the ice tree and ice mirrors.
She’d well and truly destroyed the vision this time.
“I suppose you won’t budge after all. Then again, I guessed as much when I realized I was getting weaker.”
The copy seemed somewhat resigned. This particular trial was a test to see whether or not challengers could overcome their own negative emotions and past traumas. The more someone denied their true feelings, the stronger their copy became. On the flip side, if they were able to accept their own weakness, their copy weakened. That was the basis of this trial. However, not once since the beginning of this trial had Yue’s copy grown stronger. Meaning that not only had seeing her betrayal all over again failed to faze Yue, she hadn’t doubted Hajime’s love or Shea’s friendship in the slightest.
“Hmph, of course! Everyone loves a mascot character like me!”
Yue proclaimed as she puffed out her chest proudly.
A painfully awkward silence followed her declaration. Yue looked away a little when she realized her copy wasn’t going to even dignify that with a response. Sighing, the copy continued as if nothing had happened.
“Still, I weakened quite slowly, which is proof that you’re still a little afraid of being betrayed.”
The copy tried to wriggle its way into whatever small doubts Yue still had left. But while its scornful words rang true, Yue wasn’t swayed.
“...So what? That betrayal is an important part of my life.”
“What did you say?”
The copy shot Yue a confused look.
“After all, if I hadn’t been betrayed, if I hadn’t been sealed away in the abyss, I—”
—would never have met Hajime. Yue still remembered how much her uncle’s betrayal had hurt. How much grief it had caused her. She’d despaired. She’d given in to hatred. She’d even resigned herself to her fate. Her imprisonment had been so agonizing that she’d wished for death. But so what?
“If it’s only thanks to that betrayal that I was able to meet him, then even
if I could do the past over, I would make the same choice every time. I’d go through that hell again. Even if I could turn back time and return to that day, I’d still do everything the same way.”
Hajime had once said that to Yue. He’d been betrayed by his classmates, sent to the bottom of the abyss, and forced to suffer time and time again. But even so, he said he’d be willing to do it all over again in order to meet Yue. Yue giggled to herself as she thought back to that moment.
Her love for Hajime was so strong that she would be willing to accept him even if he betrayed her. Of course, she didn’t doubt Hajime. But it wasn’t trust that built the foundation of their relationship. Rather, it was an overwhelming love. Love strong enough to accept anything Hajime might do and to ensure he never escaped her grasp. Her will stemmed not from trust, but from desire.
In a way, Yue’s love for Hajime was quite twisted. Under normal circumstances, a love like that might eventually lead to ruin. But her partner was abnormal enough to accept Yue’s overbearing love.
Yue’s copy found itself incapable of denying her declaration. After all, it was a trial fabricated by the labyrinth, meaning it knew the true feelings of Yue’s beloved, who had just overcome his own trial.
Hajime’s love for Yue was an unhealthy dependence. And Yue’s love for Hajime was too overbearing to be wholesome. They really were two peas in a pod. Sighing in exasperation, the copy looked up at the icy ceiling.
These two are well and truly insane. God, I just want to scream right now.
Both Hajime and Yue had been betrayed, and it had been at the lowest points of their respective lives that they’d met each other. A pure romance like the ones in fairy tales didn’t suit the two of them in the slightest, which was why the copy knew it couldn’t rattle Yue anymore by bringing up her betrayal or questioning her trust.
The match had been decided. Yue had overcome her trial. And like her beloved, she’d done it in a way the labyrinth hadn’t planned for. She hadn’t overcome the darkness in her heart, simply acknowledged its existence.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 10 Page 2
