The wheels of destiny

Chapter 1

Mikaella Verdanova, better known as "The Great Paladin" or also as "The Saint of Ice" for her magical affinity to that element, racked up incredible achievements and titles throughout her journeys alongside the team of heroes.

Even after finishing several hard battles, she managed to recover much of the territories that humanity had lost due to constant enemy invasions.

Finally, after killing the last demon king that was tormenting the world, she decided to return to his homeland. The Eastern Empire.

Despite all her triumphs, she couldn't say she was satisfied.

While traveling across the continent, she had a number of mixed feelings that she learned to deal with. Some with more intensity than others, but all of them were sensations that I had never experienced before starting to travel the world.

In her home, the religion of the Andrael church that discriminated against races for being "inferior" to humans was a fundamental part of her upbringing since she was a child; This made it easy for him to ingrain various prejudices about the races, which came into conflict the more she met other non-human individuals during the course of his journey.

The fun and joy that she got accompanied by the idle chats that she regularly had with his friends; the pleasure of trying new and exquisite food every time they arrived in a new territory; the wonderful natural views and the pleasant thermal baths in which they relaxed after hard battles; that feeling of worthlessness that plagued her after losing for the first time while fighting demon queen Luzbella and the feeling of shame that followed months after having to be rescued by Ren.

But none of his feelings had been as intense as the hatred and desire to kill the man before him.

"Come on~. Do it, kill me."

The man who was laughing in front of her with a small psychotic smile was called Alexander and he was actually the current head of the Verdanova family, Mikaella's younger brother; or rather, his current enemy.

After fifteen years without a family leader following the early death of Duke Viktor; Alexander, becoming the heir to the house despite his lack of talent as a knight, used his position to pressure and crush those who opposed him and his regime.

Bribery, drug trafficking, human trafficking, slavery; Alexander's misdeeds continued almost endlessly, increasingly tarnishing the reputation of Mikaella and the rest of the Verdanova family.

But, as if that wasn't enough for her to want to kill the bastard with her bare hands; the trigger was, that at the end of the death of the last demon king, Satan; A book was found among his belongings where it was discovered that Alexander had betrayed humanity by collaborating and delivering top secret military information to demonic leaders in exchange for a large number of gold pieces.

While Mikaella lost hundreds or even thousands of her men to the demons' constant and eerily precise ambushes, Alexander reveled in tons of money without the slightest hint of remorse.

The more she thought about it, the angrier Mikaella got.

"I should congratulate you, my sister~. Your achievements bring so much splendor~ to the family."

Alexander gave empty praise while raising his arms high, instead of dramatizing; he did it in a really exaggerated way.

"Stop all this useless talk."

Mikaella wasn't in the mood to take the shit Alexander was spouting. She felt that if Alexander continued to babble any longer, she would kill him right then and there. But she couldn't do that, she needed answers from him.

"Oh, you're too mean sis. I'm just doing my part as the current head of the family, you don't know how much I worried when you were on the front lines, it's such a relief that you came back safely"

Alexander put his arm over his face to make it look like he was sorry, but obviously it was really just a simple act.

"How much did you care about me? Don't make me laugh! You bastard son of a bitch! Tell me, why did you do it?!"

Alexander lowered his arm, putting aside the performance and instead, a dagger-sharp gaze took its place.

"Do what?"

Alexander spoke cynically.

"Don't play the idiot, weren't you satisfied with all your misdeeds? You even dared to collaborate with the demons. Because of you, because of all your damn greed, my men lost their lives uselessly."

Although Mikaella was crying, she stood her ground in front of Alexander, she didn't want to show weakness before someone like him.

She remembered her childhood memories that she shared with him and also remembered each one of the soldiers that accompanied her for so long on her travels, their longings and their stories that they shared day after day, and the horrible deaths that shortened their destinies.

Seeing her cry, and to tease her some more, Alexander let out even more attacks in the form of words.

"For nothing? You're wrong, it was for gold. And it wasn't greed;...it was more...perhaps pride?"

Alexander let out a light laugh as he finished speaking.

Mikaella, hearing this, clenched her teeth tightly. She grasped the hilt of his sword hanging from his waist and slowly unsheathed the blade.

But she stopped for a moment and tried to ask in a calm voice...

"Because you did?"

Alexander, who had already completely distorted his expression, laughed and replied…

"Obviously I did it for u, for all of you; to bring this miserable family and this dirty world back to where they should belong, in the deepest shit."

Mikaella, who had given the right to assume the position of head of the house to her younger brother Alexander, despite the fact that he was not the most talented, skillful or capable of the family. Day by day, she regretted her decision to abandon her rightful position as heir to the family in order to prioritize her training and gain real experience traveling the continent.

If she had exercised her right as rightful heir in the past, she could have prevented him from having power and prevented her from continuing her evil plans in the future.

But thinking and lamenting about all that was completely useless, what happened had already happened and what had already been done could not be changed. No matter how much she cried, nothing would change. He even knew that Alexander's death would not bring back the lives of those who died for him.

But what Alexander's death would do was ease some of the turbulent feeling in her heart right now.

After making that decision, She finished unsheathing his sword and without hesitation raised it.

Alexander remained surprisingly calm with his usual repulsive smile; it seemed that he already knew that his end had come.

Mikaella didn't hesitate and lowered her weapon, her magnificent swordsmanship accompanied by great speed, but Alexander's immediate death would only be too much mercy for someone like him. So Mikaella had intentionally aimed at Alexander's right leg.

Alexander fell to the ground unable to stand up. After blinking, his right leg had already been blown away; but despite having a wound as big as that, not a single drop of blood flowed from his wound.

This was because Mikaella had already frozen the wound by casting very high level magic while the sword cut the leg at the same time.

As said, quick death would be too merciful for him.

"Worthy of you, your talent and control of magic is as high as rumors say."

Alexander endured the intense pain he felt and refrained from letting out a single groan.

And though he was drowning in pain he had never experienced before and gasping for breath; for the first time in his entire life, he flattered her with all the honesty in his heart.

He was really surprised that she had such magical control to simultaneously cast a high level spell just as she cut his leg with the sword.

He laughed and muttered to himself, "Ice Saint..."

Mikaella, paying no attention to Alexander's sincere praise, continued her satisfying torture of him.

She grabbed Alexander's arm tightly and raised his sword again. This time, his target was actually one of the fingers on his brother's left hand.