SWNOVELXO Chapter 28
**The Story of Belia**
It was said that she was chased out of her home.
At that time, the children who had beaten her up left her behind, ultimately revealing how they had helped her.
She had to face the scornful gazes of her parents.
Merely helping a gray girl was enough for the world to brand someone like that.
“I’m sorry….”
“What do you have to be sorry for? It’s okay.”
And even in this situation, that girl would smile at her.
For the first time, she felt a sense of guilt and kept muttering apologies, but the girl told her it was okay.
“U-um….”
“Ugh! You don’t have to apologize! Helping you was my choice, and it’s neither your fault nor mine. Ah….”
Despite the pain as her lips split open again while forcing a smile, she said that.
“Well then! Since we’re living together now, how about we introduce ourselves?”
“Introduce ourselves…?”
She didn’t know what that meant.
“It means we tell each other our names and greet each other!”
“…, Ah.”
Even though the girl kindly explained, she had nothing to say.
Having been abandoned long ago, she had no name.
Her mother had left without even giving her something as small as that.
With her head down, she felt somewhat gloomy.
However, she wasn’t the kind to drown in such gloom.
“Well, if you don’t have a name, I can give you one!”
“Um…?”
She continued talking with a cheerful smile.
“Hmm, how about the name Belia?”
“….”
Even in this situation, she was someone who could give names and act playfully.
“Wow, is it not good?”
“No, it’s nice….”
So she nodded her head vigorously.
The first name given to her.
Belia.
She liked it so much that she nodded energetically.
And it seemed the girl was pleased with her reaction as well, smiling again.
“I’m Ain! I look forward to getting along with you!”
“…, Yeah. Ain.”
She was a shining person.
Someone she couldn’t possibly relate to at all.
She thought she was beautiful, a stark contrast to her own gray, dull, and contemptible self.
And so, they began to live together.
While it was said they were happy to be living together, the scenery around them reflected nothing but hardship and sadness.
There was none of the warm, delicious food that normal life provided.
The salve that had once healed their wounds was now down to the last bit, and the clean bandages had become as dirty as their unwashed bodies.
The world was cruel.
Just for helping a gray girl, people sought to kill someone.
Parents suddenly turned against her and cast her out, while rumors spread everywhere, plastering large notices around.
Children still came to throw stones and giggled in the alley where they lived.
Now that there were two targets to throw at, they threw even more stones and left.
Their injuries increased.
It was painful and itchy, and when she tried to scratch, the girl who also had wounds would stop her, but the pain and itch became unbearable.
Now they were rummaging through garbage again to find food.
Though it had been a long time, she grimaced when putting it in her mouth, but she was grateful just to be able to eat.
However.
“Ugh, ugh….”
The girl, who had surely never had this experience, couldn’t do it.
She tried to be brave.
Even during hard times, she smiled.
And although she was with me, it was a harsh life for an ordinary girl.
Unable to bear the disgust, she threw up, and though she ate whatever she could, her body hurt and she threw up again.
“It’s okay…. I’m okay….”
Lying on the moldy board, she still smiled.
She was such a foolishly kind person.
When was it?
There was a day when the girl, whining she couldn’t wash, snuck into a restroom in the square.
Under the cover of night, when no one was passing by, they crept out of the alley, holding hands tightly.
They had no soap, toothpaste, or toothbrush.
“Ahaha! The water is warm, Belia!”
“….”
With just warm water, she smiled.
She turned on the faucet hard to wash away the grime that had built up.
“Oh, it feels good… How about you, Belia? Isn’t it nice?”
“…, Yeah.”
They splashed water on each other for a long time, soaking their ragged clothes in water and scrubbing them diligently.
However, they still couldn’t erase their filthy appearances.
They may have become a little whiter, but there was still grime on their faces.
Regardless of how much they rinsed, their clothes remained dubious to call garments.
They had been torn and frayed for years, so merely soaking and squeezing them didn’t change anything.
My first bath, and the long-awaited bath for her, ended like that.
…
Actually, it didn’t end there.
We shivered naked, having no towels.
With no spare clothes, they squeezed out the washed items and waited for them to dry.
If you asked if it felt good, I wasn’t sure I could still answer that truthfully.
Yet she smiled at me.
“Uh…? Belia, did you just smile?!”
“….”
The fact that I raised the corners of my mouth for the first time remained as fact.
Then there was a day when I was in excruciating pain.
It felt like I might really die.
My whole body felt as if it were on fire.
With pain radiating from my limbs, there were days when I could barely think.
“Bel…, Ah! I have to stay… conscious!”
I could hear a voice urgently calling me from beside me, but I didn’t have the energy to reply.
The gray girl didn’t know what was happening.
She simply thought that whatever was coming had finally arrived, and that since she had lived well until now without pain, she could die like this.
So she attempted to say goodbye in advance.
“I… if I die….”
“You won’t die…! I won’t let you die…!”
I could hear her sobs.
“Don’t just be here… you must run away….”
“I won’t run away… Don’t die, Belia….”
The girl holding me close appeared blurred in my vision.
Indeed.
She shone brightly.
Even the tears that dripped from her eyes sparkled brilliantly as they fell.
Yet sadly, the gray girl did not die.
She awoke with a refreshing feeling, feeling fuller than before.
“Ah…, Ah.”
So I tried to call to the girl who cried for me.
“Ain.”
Because the warmth that embraced me was no longer by my side, I called her name.
“Ain, I’m awake…?”
However.
“…, Ain?”
The figure of the one who should have welcomed me with a bright smile was nowhere to be seen.
“Ain.”
To put it precisely, her body lay sprawled a short distance away, not breathing.
“…, Ain.”
I could see the already dried bloodstains.
“….”
New wounds and bruises were marked all over her body.
“Ain….”
Her empty gaze was directed exactly at the board where we had fallen asleep together.
In her arms lay a rather large piece of bread, soaked in blood.
That had surely been something she brought for me.
But it had not been delivered.
It hadn’t reached me and had simply fallen away.
In the midst of suffering, I spoke of my death, but in reality, it was Ain, the girl who had helped me, who faced death.
“….”
All the accumulated memories, that bittersweet joy crumbled.
Grayness swept through.
Tears of blood flowed from the woman’s eyes, and uncontrolled emotions began to overflow.
Thus,
The first spell and wish uttered from the gray girl’s talent.
It was a simple wish that this world would perish.
And.
There are no memories after that.
A massive explosion.
Beast-like howls.
Piles of corpses.
Burning palace.
The severed necks of children.
A madwoman.
The gray witch.
A small box.
Death.
Only these things remain recorded to define the gray woman as an evil being.
Not a single word of their simple, sad story was left behind.
********
When was it?
It was certainly a day when we were traveling by carriage.
One night when we were resting with some chance acquaintances we met.
“…, The gray witch?”
“Yes, I heard the saint personally dealt with her. As someone studying grayness, I would like to hear her opinion on it.”
“….”
I paused for a moment at the question of a wandering researcher, one of those chances encounters.
Do you remember the gray girl from the alley when you saved me during your training in the empire?
In time, she ultimately became a disaster.
With madness in her eyes, and tears that flowed endlessly.
In a scrappy, unkempt appearance, holding a small box close.
I can’t ever forget the way she cursed the empire as she faced us.
Recalling memories of those past days, bitter feelings slowly rise to the surface.
“Ah, if you’re choosing your words because you think she was a cruel and wicked person, you can be blunt….”
“…, she was a pitiful person.”
“Yeah…?”
Yes, she was a pitiful person.
Even after having to kill her, I felt uneasy.
Seeing what she clutched in her arms until the end, the small box inside.
The hero and I investigated her actions and came to know.
She was undeniably a pitiful person.
Someone whose accumulated perceptions from hundreds of years pushed her to death.
So.
“At least, please do not hate the gray girl as much as you do.”
“….”
“They were definitely people too.”
I believe.
The gray girl…, the gray woman was clearly someone just like us.
There must have also been a way she could have been happy.
However.
Perceptions piled up for hundreds of years are another curse that can turn even the most ordinary people into villains.
It ignites the unfortunate event of witch hunts once more.
Sadly, grayness leads to such conclusions.
So I thought.
By speaking this way, by expressing my feelings.
Someone.
At least I hope that this researcher before my eyes won’t remember the gray woman only negatively.
I hope that the story of grayness won’t simply be rejected anymore.
And that my words may become the starting point for that.
That’s what I thought.
How do you think?
How could she, the gray girl, end with a happy story?
Sadly, I still do not know.
So I can only feel ashamed of the name saint.