Chapter 866: 866: Sophie's Past

Sophie began telling us about her past.

「I came to this tower eight years ago.」

「You weren't born here?」

「Yeah, I was born in a different continent.」

Sophie came from a remote frontier village, but she was born with a Unique Skill, the Music God's Blessing.

Her parents were overjoyed to learn that. If she had a Unique Skill, she might be able to escape from the challenging life of the frontier village, and they could reap some of the benefits too.

Their wish was soon fulfilled when a well-known musician heard about Sophie and offered to take her in.

Her parents handed Sophie to him without hesitation. They were offered an expensive reward of course, but they also knew this musician was a noble and believed he would take good care of Sophie.

「But they were half right, and half wrong.」

「What do you mean?」

Certainly, the musician gave Sophie his parental love. However, his love was so distorted that anyone could tell at first glance.

The reason the musician sought Sophie in the first place was because she might be able to reach the peak of the musical world, something he had never been able to do himself. Such thinking was natural, since she held the Music God's Blessing at birth.

He put Sophie through an intense education course. Although the education was so severe that many would call it abusive, Sophie managed to overcome the ordeal.

In addition to her desire not to be abandoned by her new father, Sophie felt a small amount of love coming from him despite the almost-abusive upbringing.

「What he did was messed up, but I could sense the care in his voice when he scolded me......」

Sophie muttered as if she had been wishing for that to be the case.

「As a result, I learned many different instruments at a very young age.」

By the age of five, she had mastered ten instruments, easily making her a child prodigy.

「But that's when his education really took off.」

「...? Not just practicing instruments?」

「My foster father wanted more than just a performer. He wanted someone who could master all forms of music and impress even monsters and spirits with their power. In other words, a magic song performer.」

Sophie was then taken into dungeons to practice her magic songs. There, she gained levels while performing in front of vicious monsters.

While leveling up her skills as a magical musician, she also trained her mentality, gaining the ability to perform with a calm heart no matter her location.

The still young girl continued to complete her father's assignments despite being subjected to these terrifying experiences. By the time she was eight years old, she had already become an expert at her class.

At this rate of growth, it was only a matter of time before she surpassed her foster father. Everyone praised her for this fact, except one, the still unsatisfied foster father.

He imposed more and more severe challenges onto Sophie.

Her father had apparently become impatient because he knew his remaining time was limited. He wanted to hear Sophie's perfect performance before his last breath.

Maybe he did actually love Sophie, but his crazed passion for music must have been greater. As his death drew near, that passion turned into true insanity.

Why was Sophie's performance not perfect yet? Her skills? Her instruments? No, those were not the main issues. The problem lied with her heart.

Since she was still inexperienced as a human being, her songs lacked a certain depth. He believed that Sophie could not truly sing songs of love, despair, and war until she experienced them for herself.

Then, her foster father devoted her entire education to give Sophie a variety of experiences. He sent Sophie to school to teach her friendship and affection, before separating her from her friends to teach her the sorrows of parting.

To teach her the preciousness of peace, he sent her to war zones, to combat hospitals, and to observe executions first hand.

And the final part of his excessive education was a battle with extremely vicious monsters. Unlike the previous battles, this was no leveling exercise.

His true objective was to teach Sophie the concept of death against a herd of Threat Level C ogres.

He used magical tools to enclose Sophie in a magical barrier and surrounded her with warrior slaves. Moreover, he ensured that the slaves had time to converse with Sophie and befriend her.

With the slaves collapsing one by one in front of her eyes, Sophie desperately continued her performance to try and save them. But in the end, the monsters killed every last slave, leaving Sophie devastated.

「And my foster father was overjoyed to see that. He said it gave my performance more depth......」

『That's just crazy.』

(Nn.)

「And his madness did not end there.」

Her foster father said that Sophie still had not felt enough despair. That's why he took her into a village, then ordered his mercenaries to massacre the people there.

When Sophie begged him to stop, he simply scoffed loudly and told her to burn the scene into her eyes.

Even after Sophie tried to cover her ears, she could not help but continue hearing the cries of women and children. All the fault of Sophie's unusually good hearing.

They dragged a bloodied family in front of her, and beheaded the mother and father. Then, they impaled their infant on a spear. The scene was a living hell.

That's when he revealed the shocking truth. This was actually the village where Sophie was born and raised. The slain couple in front of her was her birth parents, and the dead baby was the little sister she had never met.

Her foster father laughed at Sophie's cries of disbelief. After seeing that, Sophie felt true hatred for the first time in her life.

Sophie lost control of herself as she played a song of curses and despair. In addition, the instrument her foster father had on him resonated with her emotions and awakened its true power.

Her song trapped her foster father and the mercenaries in a never-ending nightmare, utterly breaking their minds. Their physical bodies weakened over time, eventually leading to their deaths.

「Then I got sick of everything, so I wandered the world and ended up in this city. Here, they don't ask me about my past, and it doesn't matter what I've done. Besides, they needed my help.」

Sophie's ability to heal large numbers of people must have been very welcome.

「But...... Maybe I shouldn't have come here.」

「What are you saying?! Saintess-sama, many people have been saved because of you!」

「Is that really the case? I don't think so. After all, I only bring people misfortune......」

Sophie muttered to herself and turned her face downwards.