Friede is Friet.
A truly unimaginable identity.
The shocking personal revelation made by Friede, grasping the holy sword, threw all the former party members present into inescapable confusion.
A girl whose only similarities to the hero Friet were her hair color, eye color, and the weapon she held.
There was a gap as vast as heaven and earth between her appearance before their eyes and the outward appearance of Friet in their memories.
Above all, hadn’t something that should be there disappeared and two things that shouldn’t be there appeared?
A being who had possessed a holy sword in a different sense than Nibelung had now become not the master of the holy sword, but its scabbard.
It was utterly unbelievable, impossible to believe.
Even for me, who had actually experienced such a thing.
* * *
“…Friet, you say? You?”
After a long, deathly silence, Imelia finally opened her mouth and asked in a dumbfounded voice.
“No, what the, fuck. What kind of bullshit is that. You’re saying this brat is that bastard? How?”
Irina swore, her face incredulous as she said it made no sense.
“That bastard was at least a somewhat decent-looking man, but this is clearly just a young girl no matter how you look at it?”
“I can’t believe it either, but that sword is… it’s definitely that sword, isn’t it?”
That’s right.
A perfectly normal man suddenly becoming a young girl. It was something impossible to believe by common sense, but…
“The holy sword of Rhine, Nibelung. The fact that she’s holding it means…”
Undeniable, clear evidence was emitting a brilliant amber light while grasped in Friede’s hand.
Nibelung.
The national treasure of the Kingdom of Rhine, allowed to be held only by the hero.
“…Is it really Friet?”
Irina muttered, swallowing hard.
Her reaction was closer to bewilderment at an incomprehensible phenomenon than feeling tension at the hero appearing as an enemy.
“I discarded that name.”
Friede answered. Saying she had discarded that name and taken a new name.
…In other words, confirming that she was indeed the being formerly called Friet.
“Hah, really, this is just, truly, ridiculous.”
Irina gaped like a carp and roughly scratched her head. Asking what on earth this situation was.
“…Alright, it’s truly unbelievable, but let’s say you are that Friet. Then what’s with that appearance?”
Then she pointed at Friede and asked.
“Did you decide to become female because you thought you couldn’t match Gunther as a male?”
Asking what on earth happened for her to end up in the form of a girl in her mid-teens.
“That’s right. What on earth happened for you to end up in such a form…?”
Imelia also nodded as if agreeing with her question and asked.
In fact, in terms of shock, Imelia had probably received an even greater shock than Irina.
Though she had completely fallen for Gunther now, the past Imelia had loved Friet… no, had been under the delusion that her feelings were love.
She probably didn’t have a shred of affection left for Friet after tasting Gunther, but while she had given up her feelings, her memories hadn’t disappeared, so the shock must have been great.
Me? You’re asking how I feel?
…Do you really need to ask to know?
I didn’t even have the presence of mind to open my mouth and ask anything. The shock I had received was incomparably greater and deeper than Irina’s and Imelia’s.
Isn’t it natural?
It might be a situation where a gender-swapped Kim Seung-woo was standing right in front of me. How could I not be shocked?
Whether from fear or amazement, my heart felt like it was freezing as cold as the Antarctic sea.
Really, what the hell is this?
Friet is Friede? Friede is Friet? Friet is Kim Seung-woo? Kim Seung-woo is Friede? What kind of insane nonsense is this?
Fuck, so, her clinging to me saying she liked me all this time, rubbing her cheek and body against me… was that, fuck, Kim Seung-woo targeting me?
Was she acting as an innocent girl to steal my heart the moment she got bored of coveting my body?
All her actions up until now.
And even this appearance of trying to protect me now?
Good heavens.
I realized. That when creepiness exceeds its limit, all the blood in your body rushes to your feet.
It was truly, truly horrifying.
Gunther coveting my body and talents, and Kim Seung-woo coveting my body and heart.
It’s not even a choice between mom or dad, this is like being forced to choose between burning at the stake or being quartered, a hellish dilemma.
No, it was an even worse situation. At least those have some choice. I had no choice at all now.
I was a trophy. If Kim Seung-woo won, I’d become Kim Seung-woo’s, and if Kim Seung-woo lost, I’d become Gunther’s trophy.
It was a horrible feeling.
The emotion that honestly made me feel like I might fall for her a little when she came out to save me had cooled as cold as a corpse in an instant.
So I just closed my eyes.
Closing my eyes and somehow trying to gather my strength and energy, to either crawl away and escape from this place or, if that wasn’t possible, to stab my heart and commit suicide.
…Though the chances of success weren’t very high.
* * *[ Friede ]* * *
Friede, unable to even imagine what Hilde was thinking right now.
“I was originally a woman. The time when I was ‘Friet’ was rather when it wasn’t my body. The reason I changed like that… I’m not sure myself.”
She refuted Irina’s mockery with a hardened face and pointed the tip of Nibelung towards her former comrades.
In the past, she had tried to understand their circumstances instead of harboring resentment and feelings of betrayal, thinking they had sufficient reason to leave… but not anymore.
From the moment she saw them smiling while holding arrows and a mace between the legs of Brunhilde, who had collapsed covered in wounds, just moments ago.
‘I can’t forgive them.’
Clear killing intent dwelled in Friede’s golden pupils.
The comradeship that had remained like a faint mark on a corner of a window, the self-reproach mixed with consideration that it was all because of her own lack of skill, all of it evaporated in anger and disappeared like dust.
To the current Friede, the two women before her eyes were no longer former comrades but simply villains who needed to be torn apart and killed.
Nevertheless, there was only one reason why she didn’t immediately rush in and swing Nibelung:
‘…I can’t leave this place. The moment I distance myself from Brunhilde, Irina will persistently target only Brunhilde.’
It was to protect Hilde, who had collapsed without the strength to resist.
If Hilde had been in a state where she could move properly, Friede would have unhesitatingly rushed at the enemy and sliced them to pieces, but the current Hilde was clearly in a situation where she couldn’t even move a finger.
If Friede herself moved away from Hilde to target the two of them, Irina would immediately concentrate her attacks on Hilde to create an opening for Friede.
Creating a situation where, even with the power of the holy sword, Friede couldn’t protect Hilde without sustaining injuries.
That’s why Friede, suppressing the killing intent trying to burst forth, warned them to withdraw instead of swinging her sword at Imelia and Irina.
Unfortunately for Friede, the two women were in a state where they hadn’t properly heard that warning due to the shock, but.
“You were originally like that…? No, wait a minute. Then, that clumsy, idiotic behavior, was that because it wasn’t your original body?”
Irina asked, her eyebrows wriggling like snakes.
It was more like a muttering to herself rather than demanding an answer from Friede.
As if decades of experience weren’t entirely in vain, Irina was able to immediately understand the reason why Friet had been weak as soon as she heard that Friede had been born with a girl’s body from the start.
“Those dog-like times, that wasted effort, was all because of such a reason? You knew and kept your mouth shut? Really, you ephemeral insect. This isn’t just a joke.”
So Irina became angry. She thought that Friet from the hero party days had deceived her.
How could someone wearing the hat of a hero be so pathetically weak?
She misunderstood that the person in question clearly knew the reason but kept their mouth tightly shut, pretending not to know anything to the party members including herself.
“I never joked. Not then, not now.”
Of course, the only one who had the right to be angry about this was Brunhilde, who had acted as Friet’s teacher, not Irina who hadn’t even properly helped.
“…It’s shocking. To think the reason there was no response no matter how much affection I showed was because you were a woman like me.”
Imelia just let out a hollow laugh while clutching her necklace. Thinking back on it now, she wondered what on earth kind of foolishness she had been doing all this time.
How could her advances have worked properly when she had been coming on to another woman as if trying to seduce a man?
“…You showed affection?”
Of course, this too was a misunderstanding.
Friede hadn’t rejected Imelia’s feelings because she was a woman, but because she hadn’t properly understood that it was an expression of affection in the first place.
Though her body was that of a man, her mind was that of a girl through and through.
To the Friede of that time, Imelia’s affectionate advances were nothing more than the kind of playfulness often seen between girls of the same age.
So how could she have noticed Imelia’s romantic feelings?
Of course, even if she had noticed, she wouldn’t have accepted them.
The Friede of that time had been living under the pressure of a sense of responsibility to become stronger somehow, befitting a hero, and in the midst of that, she had no room to turn her eyes to emotions like love.
Moreover, even then, Friede’s preference was for Brunhilde, not Imelia. It should be said that Imelia never had a chance from the start.
“Anyway, after deceiving us like that, you were secretly enjoying playing adventurer here with that Brunhilde bitch?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore… but, how should I put it, it’s a bit unpleasant.”
In any case, Irina and Imelia, having finally shaken off their bewilderment, revealed overt hostility as they gripped their bow and necklace instead of withdrawing obediently.
‘That pathetically weak bug. Even if you’ve regained your original body, how strong could you have become?’
‘Even Brunhilde couldn’t defeat us who have become stronger, so someone like ‘that’ Friet…’
They judged that she wouldn’t be a threat even if she had drawn the holy sword. It was a conviction brought about by fixed ideas.
The memories of when Friet was called an incompetent hero remained intact in their minds, so they thought they would win if they actually fought.
“Haah…”
Seeing the two ready to fight, Friede raised her head with a deep sigh, then swung Nibelung sharply to cut through the air.
At that moment, an amber light burst forth.
The light gathered on Nibelung’s blade became a crescent-shaped slash extending towards the two women.
Crack!
The ground touched by the light slash cracked open with a thunderous roar, and the light bullets and arrows reflexively shot by Imelia and Irina were split in half and disappeared.
“What is this now!”
“Kyah…!”
Irina, her complexion changed, shoved Imelia away and leaped onto a tree, barely avoiding the light slash.
The misdirected slash mercilessly cut through the trees behind her, slicing them in half. It was like a scene of a wave with blades sweeping through a sand castle.
The light slash that only dissipated after cutting down more than ten trees like tofu.
Irina and Imelia looked at the scene of destruction created by Friede’s single strike with cold sweat, then turned their heads to look at Friede again.
Their expressions, which had been full of confidence and hostility, were gone, replaced by pale complexions colored with tension and bewilderment.
“I won’t warn you three times. Withdraw.”
The moment the second warning flew.
Irina, with a face contorted like a demon, ground her molars and immediately grabbed Imelia’s waist, leaping onto a tree.
Then, kicking off trees as she ran, she disappeared in an instant.
Perhaps certain there was no chance of victory in their somewhat depleted state after fighting Brunhilde? It was a flight so quick it deserved applause.
Friede glared in the direction they had fled for a while, then turned her head with a sigh of relief.
She had no intention of chasing them. She couldn’t leave the incapacitated Brunhilde alone here.
“Um… are you alright? No, are you okay? Brun… Hilde.”
So when Friede, who had let them go and turned her head, spoke words of concern full of worry to Brunhilde who still couldn’t control her body,
“Ha…”
Brunhilde… no, Hilde looked at Friede with a tired face, let out a faint sigh, and answered.
“Your mother. You Korean bastard.”
…Most fortunately, Friede couldn’t understand those words. It was pronunciation and language she had never heard before in her life.
“What…? Kore-am…?”
So Friede blinked and asked back. With a question of utter innocence, asking what on earth that meant.
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Hilde, who had been staring intently at Friede’s face, let out a sigh of relief as she completely relaxed her whole body.
The fact that Friede didn’t show even a hint of shock at that curse was the most fortunate thing for the current Hilde.
The possibility that Hilde had finally come up with after desperately pondering during the argument between Friede and the two women.
To check the possibility that the Friede before her eyes might not be Kim Seung-woo but the original hero himself, Hilde had, after much deliberation, uttered a curse that Kim Seung-woo would inevitably react to.
“…Thank you for saving me, Friede.”
Therefore, Hilde was finally able to express her gratitude to Friede with a gentle smile.
Seeing that she didn’t even blink an eyebrow after hearing sudden Korean swearing and being called a Korean man, it seemed safe to say for certain that the girl before her eyes was not Kim Seung-woo.