“Someone! Drag her out for me! Useless trash thrown out by the Hero Party has no value. Let her go out and fend for herself!”
There was no trace of emotion in Lady You’ai’s voice as she spoke to her own daughter. She commanded the servants to throw the fake Samimi, together with her belongings, straight to the roadside.
But Crose watched this cold and heartless scene unfold in the Fei household and didn’t for a moment feel it was her own fault.
This was simply the origin of the Fei family’s poisonously cold tradition. To be born as one of the Fei meant not necessarily glory, but also a fate full of unspeakable pain.
That was the Fei family—failures end up like this, and there’s nothing to pity.
A failed daughter of the Fei family, this was her fate. Crose herself counted as half a Fei, perhaps even worse as an illegitimate child. Otherwise, why else would she work so hard to climb up? It was only to avoid ending up like Samimi.
Samimi was just one among tens of thousands of failures. If every failure had the skills to resist, the Kingdom would have fallen long ago. It’s precisely because of this that they fail.
“Zha-lili~ hualala—hualala~”
Rain began to pour from the sky. The fake Samimi writhed on the ground like a struggling worm, the pain so intense she couldn’t even cry. She had lost everything, and would no longer be the daughter of Lady You’ai.
“Samimi, don’t blame me—if you must, blame this world for being cruel.”
But Crose didn’t regret her actions, nor did she feel guilty. She had someone to surpass, and as long as she could shake them off, it was none of her concern.
Each scene, constructed by the Empress’s will, did not weaken Crose’s heart, but only made her resolve harder and her mind more ruthless.
She could not become a loser like Samimi, abandoned by all. She feared dragging others down with her to destruction—so long as she survived, that was enough.
Better that I betray the world, than the world betray me.
But the trial of illusions was not over yet.
The scene changed, and Crose and the fake Samimi appeared again in the grand assembly hall of the Royal City.
“Expelled from the Hero Party! You no longer have the qualifications to be the Holy Maiden’s disciple!”
“You’ve disappointed the Holy Maiden! You’ve shamed the Church!”
The fake Samimi was pinned to the ground by a group of Holy Knights, who forced the Sinner’s Blindfold onto her face. The magical script etched on the mask, as hard as burning iron, completely sealed Samimi’s eyes, leaving her forever in darkness.
“Shuo wu zha wu shang zha!”
Smoke rose from Samimi’s chest. She screamed and convulsed, writhing on the ground in agony.
“You must forever bear the mark of the sinner! You will be a slave of the Church for the rest of your life!”
“Prepare to die for the salvation of the faith!”
“It’s time for you to die!”
The Holy Knights then drove the fake Samimi out of the grand Church like she was garbage, stripping her of all sacred privileges, not even giving her any money, and directly throwing her out of the Royal City.
Reduced to a shadow of a person, the fake Samimi could only struggle to survive in the wilds of Laichou. No one would help her, and she lived, sleepwalking through a life of silence.
This time, things felt a bit too cruel—even Crose found herself slightly breathless as she watched.
But she was different from Fabiana and Bemore, those girls who still had some conscience. The two of them could never have imagined that just being expelled from the party could lead to such a terrible chain reaction.
Yet Crose could see it clearly. The five of them being kicked out of the Hero Party was essentially a declaration of complete failure.
In truth, Fabiana and Bemore were a little better off. Even if they were no longer heroes, they could still return home and inherit the family business. But the other three illegitimate girls could only live off the Hero Party, and their only chance at becoming national idols depended on that.
But Samimi, she really had nothing to offer. Even her own family and the Church couldn’t stand her—how irritating must she have been normally?
She brought this on herself!
Absolutely nothing to do with me!
Even so, Crose could not allow her own mentality to collapse. She pressed on with firm resolve, never looking back as she walked the path of a wicked spirit.
The scene shifted a fourth time, but now there was no Samimi.
Crose realized she was standing at the edge of a crumbling city wall in an abandoned barracks.
“Eh!”
Just as she was lost in thought, she heard a thunderous roar.
She saw a Steelback Dragon rampaging through the barracks, sending her teammates flying one by one.
This memory was exactly as Crose recalled, without a hint of fabrication.
In the end, the Hero Party was knocked down by the Steelback Dragon’s huge claws, defeated and scattered like a pack of stray dogs.
Inside, she felt nothing at all. Truly, justice and righteousness meant nothing.
The scene shifted once more, and Crose found herself again transported—this time to the edge of a forest.
This time, she was totally confused. Where was this place? She had no memory of it at all.
In the depths of the vast forest, there was a small glow of firelight. In her free-floating state, Crose immediately floated over to see—a small campfire.
Beside it, Samimi was sitting in silence with four Kingdom Knights, all of them expressionless, as if waiting for something.
Just as Crose was wondering, the earth began to tremble. From far off came a familiar roar.
“Steelback Dragon? Why is it here?” Crose exclaimed.
But even more shocking came next. The fake Samimi issued a few commands, and the four Kingdom Knights all instantly prepared for an ambush.
As soon as the Steelback Dragon plunged into the forest, the four Kingdom Knights attacked from all directions, their coordinated assault piercing the dragon’s chest and eyes in a single strike.
A radiant glow emanated from the four Kingdom Knights—the fake Samimi’s support spells had directly enhanced them, even turning their mass-produced steel swords into weapons that could pierce dragon scales.
What happened next was clear: the local Kingdom Knights drove away the Steelback Dragon, and the battered, bleeding beast was then finished off by the Hero Party.
“Even…”
For some reason, Crose stood frozen for a long while, her emotions stirred, though she didn’t know why her heart was tinged with grief.
Just now, seeing the fake Samimi so cruelly treated by her own party hadn’t moved her at all. So why did she now feel sympathy? Was she feeling sorry for the Steelback Dragon instead?
“Clang! Clang!”
Suddenly, from the plains outside, came the clashing sound of swords and blades.
Crose had an ominous feeling, but the space around her kept pushing her forward. After seeing so much, she had to witness the final scene.
On the grassland, aside from the corpse of the Steelback Dragon, there were countless others strewn about.
The only ones left standing were Samimi and those four blood-soaked, red-eyed local Kingdom Knights.
They were covered in wounds, their armor dyed crimson, their swords nicked and bent.
The corpses on the ground were the remains of the so-called Kingdom Light Cavalry, all wiped out.
Even the four members of the Hero Party lay dead in the wilderness, their corpses wretched, showing no sign of resistance.