“Wait, just a second…! Stop…! Florene, I want to go too…! Please let me come along!”
The voice of a small girl, Florene Dolos, who suddenly popped up from somewhere, echoed toward the Hunting Party that was about to set off.
Her earnest expression and pleading tone were enough to evoke sympathy, but perhaps the emotion all the Squad Members felt was confusion rather than pity.
The participants for the Hunting Party had already been decided in advance, so it was understandable that they would be taken aback by her sudden request to join on the day of departure.
And surely, among the Squad Members, the most flustered one was Diakonos, Florene’s father, whose mumbling could be heard softly in the background.
“Florene, what on earth are you thinking, suddenly asking to join the Hunting Party?”
As he watched his daughter causing trouble right in front of him, he seemed to be frowning in distress.
Regardless, Diakonos’s strict voice clearly indicated he was about to scold his daughter, who had caused a problem.
However, whether she didn’t notice or was just pretending, Florene waved her hands and shouted toward Diakonos.
“Dad…! Take me with you! I want to go too…!”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you can’t. Don’t be unreasonable.”
“Why! I said take me with you!”
“…Huff, everyone. I apologize for the delay. Could someone please take Florene back home? I’m begging you.”
Despite Diakonos’s firm refusal, Florene stubbornly persisted in wanting to go with them.
With a sigh, Diakonos apologized to the surrounding Squad Members and requested the Dolos family members who had come to see them off to take Florene back.
At that moment, two burly men grabbed Florene’s arms and tried to pull her away, but,
“Ugh… Miss, please…!”
“Ugh… this isn’t right…!”
Even as the two men struggled with all their might, Florene remained as immovable as a stake in the ground.
It might look funny that two strong men couldn’t do anything about a small girl, but it was actually normal that they couldn’t manage her by strength alone.
Florene, despite her delicate appearance, was a girl with tremendous strength, as she was said to have inherited the blood of the Dolos family most profoundly.
Anyway, it seemed that Diakonos could sense he couldn’t force Florene to go back and spoke to her once more.
“…Florene, what cannot be done, cannot be done.”
“Why do you keep saying I can’t…! Why wasn’t I chosen for the Hunting Party…!”
Florene asked the reason behind his rejection.
Diakonos replied as if it were obvious.
“…We’re going to the Witch’s stronghold. It’s a dangerous place where anything could happen. I can’t take you, who is still just a child, there.”
That was why Diakonos had to say that to Florene.
No matter how much she wanted to join the Hunting Party, the selection for it never considered young students in the first place, since they were heading to a dangerous place.
But Florene wouldn’t let it go and shouted.
“But Scarlet and Sylvia are going! They’re the same age as me…!”
“Those two…”
Diakonos momentarily found himself at a loss for words due to Florene’s counterargument.
As she said, the two were indeed her classmates.
However, since both were key members of the Hunting Party, Diakonos quickly responded.
“Those two are strong, so it’s fine.”
“Florene is strong too! Plus, saying it’s dangerous doesn’t make sense…! Everyone going from Dolos to the Hunting Party, including you, Dad, is weaker than me! That’s way more dangerous…!”
That argument was enough to leave Diakonos speechless.
In reality, Florene was strong.
Even now, as the two men from Dolos struggled to pull her down, she didn’t budge an inch.
And as she added, it was true that she was stronger than the five, including Diakonos, participating in this Hunting Party from Dolos.
But the reason Dolos was included in the Hunting Party was not simply for that reason.
“…You’re right, Florene. We are strong, and that’s not the reason we are included in this Hunting Party. It’s true that danger is a factor. However, how can we avoid going? Dolos is a sinner. We can’t just stand by and watch the wrongs Dolos has committed.”
Diakonos and the people of Dolos had solemn expressions.
They were aware.
Even though they had the blessings of gifted bodies, they didn’t have as much combat experience or strength as other heroes, and they believed that participating in this Hunting Party might be dangerous.
Yet, even so, Dolos had pushed to be included in the Hunting Party.
Though they might not be able to finish things off with their own power, they thought they couldn’t just stand back and do nothing.
They believed that shedding blood in this Hunting Party, even at their own expense, was the minimum act of atonement and repentance they could offer.
That was the mindset with which Dolos approached this Hunting Party, and thus, it was all the more reason Diakonos didn’t want to include Florene.
Yet, in response to Diakonos’s answer, Florene shouted loudly.
“Then that means I have to go…!”
And she added,
“If it’s about atonement, then…”
Tears welling in her eyes, she sobbed.
“Florene has caused the most trouble…”
Her voice was filled with nothing but guilt.
Just after freeing herself from the control of the Witch of Lust, the Dolos family had no choice but to suffer from guilt for a while.
All of Dolos felt that way, but if there was one person who suffered the most guilt, it had to be Florene.
That wasn’t surprising, as her situation was different from that of the others in Dolos.
The rest of Dolos had been manipulated by the Witch of Lust to believe that being controlled was a happy thing.
But Florene was fundamentally different.
While others were mere slaves, Florene was an avatar.
From the time she was born until quite recently, Florene had lived her life as the avatar of the Witch of Lust.
Florene loved beautiful things.
She felt happy when she wore pretty clothes and adorned herself beautifully, and she wanted others to feel that happiness too, so she started a clothing and cosmetics business.
But whether that was truly her pure thought, Florene could no longer tell.
The Witch of Lust also loved beautiful things.
She sought to make humans that fit her standards of beauty into her dolls.
Thus, Florene had been told to find those who met that standard and encourage them to be friends.
It was a sort of selection process.
A selection to choose the humans who would receive her favor when humanity eventually fell into the hands of the Witch of Lust.
That utterly detestable act, Florene had called good until now.
Thus, Florene could no longer trust her own values.
She could no longer tell if her love for beauty was a pure thought of her own or something influenced by the values of the Witch of Lust.
Consequently, Florene could no longer love herself as she did before.
“Florene is the worst person…”
Florene referred to herself as “Florene,” rather than “I,” distancing herself from the concept of ‘self.’
This was an unconscious manifestation to differentiate her from the consciousness of the Witch of Lust that occupied and controlled her body.
However, for Florene, who had often acted as ‘I’ since birth due to her resonance with the Witch of Lust, ‘I’ was practically the same as ‘Florene.’
Even if she had been controlled, her actions were effectively her own, and distancing herself from that made Florene inevitably agonize.
When her body was being controlled, she would have preferred for her consciousness and memories to vanish entirely.
Those vivid memories of pushing her precious friends into danger, putting them in life-threatening situations, and selecting them to be sacrificed to the Witch still haunted her.
Florene could not forgive herself.
But at the same time, Florene wanted to forgive herself.
And when she thought about it, there was only one lifeline in front of her that could make that possible.
“I want to be a good girl… so please let me go with you. Please…”
“…Florene.”
That meant eliminating ‘I.’
Erasing ‘I’ from the world and reclaiming the pure ‘Florene.’
Of course, she had never articulated this, so no one would know Florene’s intention.
Still, perhaps because her desperate feelings had been conveyed, her father Diakonos softened and could no longer refuse her as sternly as before.
However, valuing rules and order, Diakonos found it difficult to agree to allow her into the Hunting Party so easily.
“Um…!”
If someone else hadn’t brought up the request before him,
“Could you take Florene with you to the Hunting Party…?”
“Please. If possible, can we join too?”
With blonde and blue hair, two troublemakers had joined the mix.
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