Rebellion Rising from the Depths: Mocked by the Hero Who Impregnated My Childhood Friend Before My Very Eyes. - Chapter 2: Blessed Betrayal.

Blessed Betrayal.

“—For someone so incompetent.”

Those words carved themselves deeper into the recesses of Noah’s chest than the pain in his wrist.

His twisted arm groaned. His joints, still reeling from the backlash of the pain he’d taken on for others, shrieked at the slightest application of pressure. As he looked up from his knees, Leon stared down at him. His eyes were filled with the same smug composure he wore when gazing upon a crowd from atop a stage.

It was as if he weren’t looking at a person, but a stray dog barking in the gutter.

“Please stop, Leon-sama.”

Lydie spoke. Yet, in her tone, there wasn’t a single shred of concern for Noah. There was a lightness to it, as if she were simply asking someone not to scuff her new shoes.

“He looks like he’s in pain.”

“Is that so?”

Leon chuckled, twisting the wrist just a fraction more.

For a moment, Noah’s vision exploded into white.

He bit back a cry. He refused to let another pathetic sound escape in front of this man. But Leon seemed to see right through even that shallow sense of pride. After letting him savor the pain for a while, Leon released his grip as if he’d lost interest.

Noah’s hands hit the floor with the momentum. The polished stone was cold, and a wave of nausea washed over him.

“Stand up.”

Leon’s voice rained down.

“It’s hard to talk when you’re crawling like that.”

Talk.

The word felt incredibly distant. Noah couldn’t even tell anymore if the emotion inside him was anger or despair. There was only a heavy, black mass sitting in the center of his chest. With every breath, that mass scraped against the inside of his ribs.

Noah pushed off the floor with his right hand and somehow managed to stand. Forcing his trembling knees to obey, he looked at the two of them.

Lydie was by Leon’s side. She accepted the man’s hand around her waist without a hint of resistance. In fact, the way she leaned into him was natural. There was no disgust, no confusion, not even a trace of guilt. She simply stood there as the woman who had been chosen.

This isn’t the Lydie I know.

The moment he thought that, a whisper echoed in the depths of his heart: No, that’s not right.

This was who she was from the beginning.

He was just the only one who hadn’t known.

“…What do you intend by this?”

When he finally managed the words, Leon shrugged.

“By what?”

“Calling me here… to show me this… this thing.”

“Because I wanted to show you, obviously.”

It was Lydie who answered.

She was smiling thinly. But the shape of that smile was far sharper than the one Noah remembered. In the past, if the corners of her mouth turned up even slightly, the corners of her eyes would immediately follow. Now, only her mouth smiled; her eyes remained cold.

“I thought I should end things properly so you wouldn’t have any strange misunderstandings from now on.”

“Misunderstandings…?”

A raspy voice escaped Noah’s throat.

“We simply don’t match anymore.”

Her tone was as matter-of-fact as if she were stating an obvious truth.

“You’ll stay like that forever. Covered in wounds, exhausted, recognized by no one, just walking behind Leon-sama. I’m tired of that kind of life.”

“I…”

“What?”

“I… for your sake—”

He started to speak, then stopped.

I fought for your sake. I earned for your sake. I endured for your sake. I survived for your sake.

Noah knew better than anyone how hollow it was to voice those things now. Carrying heavy luggage, taking off his own coat to cover her on cold days, trying to give her the best things possible while scraping together money for his father’s medicine—all of it was stuff he had built up on his own. Even if she had wanted those things, she was under no obligation to return the sentiment.

Yes, his head understood that.

And yet.

“I… about you… I truly…”

Lydie let out a short sigh.

It was the sigh of someone who was exasperated, someone who was fed up.

“How many times do I have to tell you I know?”

With those words, the final embers of hope in his chest were trampled out.

Lydie moved a few steps toward the window and looked down at the night view of the capital. Beyond the glass, fireworks were going up. Bursts of red, blue, and gold blossomed in the night sky, and the distant cheers of the festival could be heard. A night to praise the Hero’s return. A night where everyone was giddy, celebrating the future.

By that window, Lydie spoke.

“I was always afraid.”

“…Of what?”

“Ending my life in those slums.”

Without turning around, she continued.

“It’s cold in the winter, it stinks in the summer, and if you get sick, you can’t buy medicine without money. Even if someone looks down on you, even if it’s frustrating, you don’t have the power to talk back. You’re looked down on just for being a woman, and things are taken from you just because you’re weak. I’d had enough of that.”

Her voice was quiet. She wasn’t crying, nor was she trembling. These were her true feelings, repeated and refined within herself over a long time.

“That’s why I wanted to be on the side of the strong. I wanted to go somewhere where no one could look down on me. I wanted to wear beautiful clothes, live in a proper room, and live without worrying about cold or hunger.”

“And that’s… Leon?”

“Yes.”

This time, Lydie nodded clearly.

“Leon-sama gave me those things.”

Leon’s lips curved with satisfaction. It was as if Lydie’s words had reaffirmed his own value.

Noah clenched his teeth. His jaw creaked.

“…I could have, eventually—”

“Eventually?”

Lydie finally turned around, a faint sneer playing on her face.

“Eventually what? You wanted me to wait, thinking you’d become a hero? How is a man who comes back covered in wounds and just smiles and says ‘I’m fine’ every time supposed to take me to a place like that?”

“I didn’t have to… become a hero…”

“Then what were you going to become?”

He was at a loss for words.

He had thought about what he would do after leaving the subjugation party. He would find a smaller job, something that let him stay by his father’s side, save up bit by bit, and eventually live in a decent house with Lydie…

But that was a projection of the future that was far too slow, far too weak.

Lydie shrugged as if seeing right through him.

“Listen, Noah. You can’t survive on kindness alone. A woman can’t entrust her future to a man who just smiles while getting hurt.”

Those words weren’t just a rejection.

They were a declaration that discarded everything Noah had used to support himself as worthless.

Leon picked up a bottle of wine from the table. He poured the amber liquid into two glasses with an air of total composure. He seemed to be enjoying the sound of Noah’s life falling apart as if it were some elegant evening entertainment.

“Now, don’t be so hard on him.”

Leon handed one of the glasses to Lydie and tilted the other back himself.

“He did have some use.”

“…Use?”

“Raising her to this point.”

As he spoke, he hooked a finger under Lydie’s chin. Far from being embarrassed, she lowered her eyes proudly.

Something began to boil in the pit of Noah’s stomach.

“At first, it was just a whim, but she was more obedient than I expected. A woman who knows she’s weak is easy to handle. She understands the value of a strong man.”

“Don’t mess with me…”

“Who’s messing with who?”

Leon’s voice dropped.

“Who did you think you were, Noah?”

Noah couldn’t answer the question.

“A handyman who stands behind me on the battlefield, carries luggage, and takes on a bit of others’ discomfort. Your sword is slow, your mana is scarce, your face is plain, and you have no lineage. Why did you think a man like that could reach for the same things I do?”

Noah’s fingers trembled.

Takes on a bit of others’ discomfort.

He wanted to scream at Leon not to say it so lightly. Not to dismiss those high fevers, the vomiting of blood, and the nightly curse pains that felt like his marrow was being seared as “a bit.” But Leon knew, and he was saying it on purpose—as if to say that Noah’s suffering deserved no more recognition than that.

“Even so…”

His voice shook.

“Even so, I supported you.”

In that moment, Leon’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.

It was a tiny change, but Noah didn’t miss it. For a split second, something resembling irritation flickered there.

But immediately, the Hero’s smile returned.

“Supported me?”

“Yes. The wounds and curses you were supposed to take, I—”

“Shut up.”

A cold resonance cut through the air, different from his previous easygoing tone.

Noah’s mouth snapped shut.

Leon set his glass back on the table and took a step toward Noah. The pressure increased just by the closing distance. This was the physique of the hero Noah had followed countless times on the battlefield. But now, it didn’t feel like a shield protecting him, but a wall meant only to crush him.

“Don’t get it twisted, Noah.”

The voice calling his name was seeped in a terrifying coldness.

“No matter what you think you did, I’m the one who stood in front and cut down the enemy. It’s my name that the people remember. Only the name of the victor remains. No one cares about the process.”

“…!”

“And you have no way of proving it, anyway.”

Leon let out a short laugh.

“If you’re so frustrated, try shouting it in the plaza tomorrow. Say, ‘I’m the one who supported the Hero’s achievements.’ Who would believe you?”

He couldn’t talk back.

There was no way anyone would believe him. Who would doubt the word of the hero who saved the kingdom over the claims of such a shabby man? Even if it were the truth, the truth aligns itself with the side of the powerful. Noah had been made to realize that reality more in the city than on the battlefield.

Taking the silence as affirmation, Lydie stepped closer.

“So, just give up already.”

She was close. The scent he had known since childhood had been overwritten by something else.

“Don’t make a scene. Don’t hold a grudge. As an old friend, I want you to celebrate with us properly.”

He couldn’t understand what he had been told for a moment.

“…Celebrate?”

“That’s right.”

She was serious.

“Because this is the best way for things to end, isn’t it? It would be a problem if you did something strange out of lingering attachment. I don’t want any trouble, either. So, just bless us here and let that be the end of it.”

Noah stared at her face.

It really was the same face. The same features that had laughed, sulked, gotten angry, and cried in the soot-stained slums. So how could she become so distant?

“If…”

Noah managed to force his voice out.

“If I said I’d celebrate…”

Lydie’s expression brightened slightly. It was a look that bordered on relief.

“Oh, so you’re quick to understand. I can rest easy if you do that. Leon-sama is kind, after all.”

Leon snorted.

“Depending on your behavior, I might even give a little charity to your foster father.”

With those words, Noah’s entire body froze.

“To Dad…?”

“He’s sick, isn’t he? I heard he needs expensive medicine.”

How do you know? Before he could even think it, the answer was there. He’d looked into it. This man understood everything about Noah and his surroundings, all while looking down on him from the start.

Leon continued.

“It’s only natural for a hero to show the generosity of considering an old acquaintance of his fiancée. Provided you’re an obedient dog, that is.”

An obedient dog.

Noah clenched his fists. His nails dug into his palms.

Lydie spoke in a soft voice.

“You care about your father, don’t you? Then don’t be stubborn here. Please, Noah. For once, be useful to me at the end.”

For once.

He had lived his life for her sake until now. But in her mind, that didn’t even count. Noah felt dizzy at the way she was still demanding something from him.

“What… do I have to do?”

His voice didn’t sound like his own.

Lydie let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s simple. Say right now that you bless us. And if anyone asks, say you were just pestering me for a long time and that we weren’t lovers. That way, there won’t be any strange rumors, right?”

Noah chewed on her words for a while.

We weren’t lovers. Pestering her.

In other words, she wasn’t satisfied with just cutting him off; she wanted him to exit the story as a pathetic side character.

“I don’t want to say bad things about you either, Noah,” Lydie continued.

“But I have a position to consider. If I’m to be the Hero’s fiancée, it would be a problem if there were unsightly stories in my past. If you just stay quiet, that’ll be enough.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Leon took a leather pouch from a drawer and tossed it. It landed at Noah’s feet with a heavy thud.

The mouth of the bag opened slightly, and the dull glint of gold coins showed inside.

“It’s a reward. Pick it up.”

Noah’s gaze fell to the floor.

Gold coins.

It might be an amount that could buy his father’s medicine many times over. It could be food to last through the winter. He could even repair the house. That reality flashed through his mind for an instant.

Immediately after, something in the depths of his chest shattered with a loud crack.

“…Don’t mess with me.”

“What?”

“Don’t mess with me!”

Before he knew it, he was screaming.

His voice was loud enough to make the window glass vibrate. He didn’t think he was capable of making a sound like that.

Lydie’s shoulders shook. But the look on her face wasn’t fear; it was an annoyed irritation.

“Noah, lower your voice.”

“Don’t think you can silence my feelings, my father, and my mother’s ring with money!”

At those last words, Lydie’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“Don’t make me repeat myself about the ring. This is mine now.”

“No!”

Noah took a step forward.

“That was my mother’s—she entrusted it to me! It’s not something for you to use like this!”

“Like this?”

Lydie’s lips curved maliciously.

“Then how should it have been used? Should I have let it rot in a dusty wooden box along with the feelings you could never voice?”

“…!”

“Listen, Noah. Do you really think you’re a kind man?”

There was nothing but contempt in her eyes now.

“You’re wrong. You’re just weak. You were too afraid of rejection to say anything, yet in your heart, you thought of me as yours. You were going to protect me? You were going to support me? Don’t make me laugh. I’ve never once thought I was saved by you.”

His throat felt like it was being crushed.

He couldn’t breathe properly.

Leon was watching Noah with an amused expression.

“There, that’s enough, isn’t it?”

The Hero spoke with a bored tone.

“If you understand, then disappear. Tonight is a day of celebration. Don’t ruin my mood any further.”

And as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he pulled Lydie close by her shoulder.

She didn’t resist.

In fact, she looked away from Noah and leaned into Leon. That gesture hurt more than anything. It was as if she were showing that the arms of the chosen man were where she belonged.

“…Give it back.”

Noah growled.

The two of them pretended not to hear.

“Give it back!”

This time he said it clearly, staring at Lydie’s left hand.

The blue stone swayed.

His mother’s smile flashed through his mind. The day she had placed the ring in his palm with her thin hand. Her voice saying, “Give it to someone precious.” That wasn’t meant to be on the finger of a woman like this, in a place like this.

Noah’s vision blurred with heat.

“Give it back!”

It was an impulse.

Before he knew it, his body was moving. He only meant to grab Lydie’s wrist and pull the ring off. Truly, that was all. He wanted to take back his mother’s keepsake. That was all it was, but Lydie let out a high-pitched scream.

“No!”

Instantly, a tremendous impact came from the side.

Leon’s elbow smashed into Noah’s cheekbone. His vision bounced, and his body tumbled to the floor. The taste of blood spread in his mouth. Before he could get up, the sound of heavy footsteps flooded in from the hallway.

The door burst open.

Four armed soldiers.

It was too fast. It was as if they had been waiting right outside from the start.

“Please step back, Leon-sama!”

“Restrain this man!”

Two of them twisted his arms behind his back. Pressure was applied to the wrist that had been hurt earlier, and Noah clenched his teeth. His shoulder was pressed to the floor, and his cheek scraped against the stone. The smell of iron and dust entered his nose.

“Wait… no, I…”

“You saw it, didn’t it?”

Leon’s voice rained down. The irritation from before was gone, replaced by the clear, heroic tone he used for the public.

“This man became deranged and raised a hand against my fiancée.”

Fiancée.

The word was driven into his heart like a stake.

The soldiers’ movements became even rougher. A knee was pressed into his back, and his breath caught.

“Let go…! No, the ring… I just want it back—”

“Did you hear that?”

Leon gave a pointedly low laugh.

“An excuse for theft this time? How pathetic.”

“Theft…?”

Noah looked up involuntarily.

Lydie was trembling in Leon’s arms. No, she was pretending to tremble. He knew immediately that the scream from before and the tears now were all an act. She placed a hand to her cheek and spoke in a faint voice.

“I’m sorry, Noah… for it to come to this…”

Behind those words, he felt he could hear a completely different meaning.

—I’m sorry. But I made sure it would turn out this way.

One of the soldiers looked at the glasses on the table and the leather pouch on the floor, frowning with suspicion. Leon pointed without hesitation.

“He forced his way into my room, tried to steal money and valuables, and committed violence against Lydie. This is a clear act of treason against the Hero’s house. Restrain him strictly.”

“Yes, sir!”

Iron shackles were snapped onto his wrists. A cold sound rang out.

Noah finally understood.

The summons, the conversation, the gold coins—it had all been a set-up from the beginning. Lydie hadn’t called Noah just to say goodbye. She called him here to make him angry, to make him lose his composure, and to frame him as a criminal in front of the soldiers.

That fact brought on a deep dizziness even before the anger.

“Why…?”

At the question that escaped him, Lydie lowered her eyes.

It was Leon who answered.

“Because it’s more convenient this way.”

The Hero’s voice was surprisingly flat.

“It would be a problem to have a lingering man hanging around my fiancée. Even more so if it’s a filthy incompetent like you. I was going to give you a little charity if you disappeared quietly, but… you chose this result yourself. If you must resent someone, resent your own lack of foresight.”

“Leon-sama, that’s…”

Lydie touched his sleeve as if to scold him in appearance only.

But she had no intention of stopping it. She had no reason to stop it.

She was already completely on that side.

Noah somehow managed to look at her while being held down by the soldiers.

“Lydie…”

His voice calling her name trembled pathetically.

Lydie looked at him for a single instant. In her eyes, there seemed to be a tiny fragment of hesitation. But it vanished in the next moment, replaced only by a cold resolve.

“Don’t call me that anymore.”

Her voice was quiet.

“There’s no future with you.”

That was the final blow.

Somewhere in his chest, something snapped completely.

A soldier pressed Noah’s head down. The throbbing pain in his cheekbone, the coldness of the iron tightening around his wrists, and the taste of blood rising in the back of his throat. But far more painful than all of those was that single sentence from Lydie.

There’s no future with you.

The promise they’d made with their pinkies as children, the sunsets they’d laughed through, the winters they’d shared hunger—all of it was discarded with that one sentence.

The Hero slowly turned away.

“Take him away. I’ll speak to the proper authorities tomorrow morning.”

Proper authorities.

He knew where that was without even thinking. The Hero’s word would become law. No matter what Noah screamed, no one would listen.

The soldiers forced Noah to his feet. His restrained arms were pulled behind his back, and his shoulders shrieked. As he was being dragged toward the door, Noah looked back one last time.

Lydie stood next to Leon, her left hand clenched in front of her chest.

The blue-stoned ring shone quietly in the light of the candelabra.

His mother’s keepsake.

The only treasure Noah had ever hoped to give.

With it still on her finger, she didn’t try to look back at him.

The door closed.

The music of the banquet drifted in from afar.

Laughter, applause, the sound of fireworks bursting. The night praising the Hero’s return continued without a single change. It was as if Noah’s breaking meant nothing to the world.

As he was dragged down the stone corridor, Noah just kept playing those words over and over in his mind.

There’s no future with you.

Then what was my life up until now?

Who did I endure the pain for?

Who did I smile for, even while covered in wounds?

The questions didn’t become answers; they only sat like sludge in the depths of his chest. Something hot welled up in his throat. Whether it was frustration, anger, or a lingering attachment he still couldn’t discard, he didn’t know.

But one thing had become clear.

The two people in that room would never go back to the way they were.

No matter how much Noah wished, no matter how much he suffered, they would never go back.

One of the soldiers gave him a rough shove in the back.

“Walk, criminal.”

Criminal.

Noah almost laughed at the name. He shouldn’t have been able to laugh, but his mouth twitched. Who was the one with the crime? Who was the one who stole? Who was the one who trampled?

But even if he voiced those questions, the answer wouldn’t change.

Right now, in this castle, the Hero was right.

The one who was wrong was the incompetent one—himself.

On the way down, he saw the open atrium of the hall. Under the magnificent lights, dressed-up nobles raised their cups. In the center was a giant flag of Leon. A glowing heroic tale. And nowhere in it was there a place for Noah.

As he was being led away, Noah suddenly remembered his father’s face back at home.

The face that had smiled and sent him off, saying, “Go on.”

Perhaps even now, he was waiting for him to come home.

The moment he thought that, the pain in his chest took on a different sharpness. He might not be able to go back. That premonition ran down his spine like cold water.

“…Dad.”

A voice so small no one could hear it escaped him.

The soldiers dragged Noah into the passage to the basement without concern. The light of the festival grew more distant with every step, replaced by the chill of damp stone walls and the thick smell of mold.

Until the final moment he was swallowed by that darkness, only the blue-stoned ring was burned into Noah’s mind.

Stolen.

His feelings, his keepsake, his place to belong.

And surely, he would have even more things stolen from him from now on.

Only that conviction was strangely vivid.