Stigma Effect

Proofreader: kuroneko_chan

Mogris Castle became a huge cemetery. Yuriel recognized it with a surprisingly clean mind.

It was still snowing heavily in the garden where there were only the dead.

Yuriel turned her gaze away from the bumpy snow pile. It was so quiet that the sound of falling snow was heard in her ears.

Large footprints were sparsely stamped on the edge of the snow-covered area that people could not see.

It’s a monster’s footprint.

The footprints did not completely disappear as if they had just passed. Yuriel followed the trail and moved as if possessed.

Her feet were soaked in the snow because she was wearing thin slippers that she only used in the bedroom, but strangely, she didn’t feel the cold.

She didn’t feel any pain at all when she stepped on a shard of glass in the laboratory a while ago. Yuriel, who was walking in the monster’s footsteps, looked into the soles of her feet, saw the unscathed skin, and blinked.

There was nothing left, as if all cold sensations, pain, and human traces had been cut away.

Following the monster’s footsteps, Yuriel entered the forest and reached a point where there were countless traces. The monsters’ footprints were engraved on the ground.

There were too many trails to follow.

She didn’t know where to go to get to where she wanted to go.

Yuriel followed only one trace. From every moment she remembered, Yuriel followed only one path.

Following Raphlet was all Yuriel wanted.

She felt like she had lost it all now. Vague and despondent.

Among the countless footprints leading to the forest, one of them seemed to have been Raphlet’s. She wanted to find a way, but her body didn’t move.

She followed Raphlet all her life. As if it was all her own.

“Lord Raphlet….”

The late morning sun was slowly emerging from behind. As bright as Raphlet’s pupils, golden sunlight passed through the trees and poured down behind Yuriel.

Was Raphlet also lying under the snow grave in the garden?

“Then what about me?”

What happened to me?

If her memory was not a dream, Yuriel was surely stabbed in the chest.

Standing and breathing….

Yuriel, who was continuing her thoughts, stopped breathing.

It’s so cold but no breath comes out. She felt a dull sensation as if she had taken a powerful paralytic drug.

“Ah….”

Yuriel, checking her own physical condition, noticed the only sensation that was not dull.

The child is moving.

The last words she remembered came to mind.

‘Yuriel, I want it to be like you.’

The memory of how Raphlet comforted her by telling a lie that he had never said before.

She remembered him whispering softly with a distorted face, and Yuriel sat down.

The hem of her skirt was wet with snow.

Yuriel hugged her stomach and burst into tears. It was like being submerged in water. Even her own crying was awkward as if it wasn’t her.

“Lord, Lord Raph, let….”

A voice mingled with weeping was pathetic.

Even if Raphlet had fallen under the grave, Yuriel had to live.

‘Get some sleep. Then everything will be fine.’

Raphlet asked Yuriel to get some sleep and wake up. He also asked her to have his child.

It felt like she had a dream like this before.

Yuriel thought as she looked at the tears falling on the back of her hand and onto the ground.

Yuriel, whose stomach was full as she was now, was defenseless as if she was being chased by someone, and her feet without shoes turned bright red as if they were frostbitten.

She was wandering through the forest with her tingling feet moving quickly.

After that, Raphlet appeared and covered Yuriel’s mouth. Around that time the voices of several people began to be heard in the forest.

Contrary to her dream, Yuriel, who raised her head while recalling the dream, was still faced with a quiet forest.

Only the sound of the wind blew past her ears.

There was no sound of birds chirping at dawn.

There was no way Raphlet could threaten her, so at the time she thought she was just having a nightmare.

“If it was a precognitive dream, it would have been nice….”

Even if Raphlet threatened her, it would have been better for him to be here.

“Yuriel.”

As Yuriel shook her head and muttered in despair, a low voice called out to her.

“What are you doing?”

Yuriel’s head moved quickly. Yuriel swung her neck and froze when she saw the man approaching her.

Raphlet was standing in front of Yuriel with his forehead slightly furrowed.

Raphlet’s face could not be seen properly because of the direct light.

His lips seemed to curve softly, but not precisely.

Yuriel rubbed her tear-clouded eyes with the back of her hand and grabbed the hem of the trousers right in front of her.

She wanted to check his face properly, but she couldn’t get up.

Raphlet bowed down as if he knew what Yuriel meant.

She couldn’t think of anything as she looked at him as she slumped on the ground.

What does that matter now whether he sits on the ground or not?

“How are you alive? Yesterday…. No, what about me? How am I alive?”

Yuriel, who grabbed Raphlet’s cheek with both hands, who was sitting on the ground with her, asked without hesitation.

“You had a child.”

“What’s wrong with the child?”

“I am a monster, my child is also a monster.”

“What does that have to do with my wounds….”

Yuriel, who was listening to Raphlet, realized something and opened her mouth slightly.

Monster core. The monster core that even the child had gave an effect on her body.

Raphlet looked at Yuriel’s face and waited until she came to her senses, facing a story that was more unrealistic than her dream.

Yuriel, who found out why she was alive, asked a question.

“Is anyone alive?”

“No.”

Raphlet said in a quiet voice. Upon hearing the answer that came out without hesitation, Yuriel was stunned.

“Lord Raphlet.”

“No one is alive. Yuriel.”

All the knights were dead, so there was no way Albraka could stand still.

The knights will come back to Mogris. After looking for traces and discovering that Raphlet had harmed the knights….

Yuriel looked at Raphlet anxiously.

“I’ll say I did everything, so Lord Raphlet should run away… ”

Still, he would be fine as long as he was alive. Yuriel thought so and spoke the words to make Raphlet run away.

Yuriel’s words were devoured by the others’ voices before they could even be finished.

“Commander Raphlet. We’ve finished cleaning up.”

The knight who stabbed Yuriel appeared behind Raphlet with a calm face and spoke.

“Yes. Now go back.”

She couldn’t figure out how things went.

“Huh? How did this happen… .”

Yuriel muttered while looking at the knight and Raphlet’s faces alternately.

“No one is alive.”

“What?”

“Let’s get up and go back. Mogris, the Imperial Capital will all be yours. Rest assured that no one will harm you and the child.”

Raphlet said with an expression and tone that looked light as if a load had been lifted off his shoulders.

Yuriel held his large hand as he reached out to hold her and raised her body.

While holding his hand and walking side by side, she realized that Raphlet did not speak formal words to himself, which he did even in front of the knights, and that he was naturally polite to his subordinates.

＊＊＊

The train to the Imperial Capital, where the Knights of Albraka was located, was unusually full.

It is a train from the Grand Duke Mogris’ residence to the Imperial Capital. The knights in Albraka Knights uniform were boarding onto the train leaving the terminal.

Yuriel sat next to Raphlet and observed the knights busily moving their luggage.

“Miss Yuriel. Is there anything you need?”

Unlike Raphlet and Yuriel, who sat quietly, a busy knight noticed Yuriel’s eyes and asked.

Yuriel smiled and shook her head.

“No. Nothing.”

“Call me anytime if you need anything.”

He responded with curved eyes, following Yuriel’s laughter.

None of the knights who received the core transplant died.

She was able to understand Raphlet’s words that no one is alive.

They were revived as monsters, not humans. Monsters who obey Raphlet’s orders.

All the people in the train were monsters.

Raphlet covered her full belly with a blanket.

“We can take a break, so tell me if you’re tired.”

“Since I died and came back to life, I haven’t had a hard time at all.”

Yuriel answered playfully, resting her head on Raphlet’s shoulder, who covered her with a blanket.

As Yuriel leaned comfortably and was going to close her eyes, she saw Baraha sitting on the opposite seat.

Baraha looked at the busily moving knights and smirked briefly.

“Who would have predicted that the monsters would enter the Imperial Palace on a train made for everyone’s convenience….”

Unlike the others, when Baraha died, the memories and intelligence seemed to remain vividly when he was resurrected as a monster.

He was in a state similar to Yuriel, and he had the reason to not obey Raphlet’s orders unconditionally.

Even though Baraha knew, he cooperated with Raphlet’s plan as if it was natural.

It was embarrassing to even call it a grand plan.

Raphlet will return to the Imperial Capital and take over the Knights of Albraka.

The Knights, created to oppose the monsters, will be transformed into a nest to protect Yuriel and the child.

She came to love monsters more than people, so it didn’t matter what happened to the people of the Imperial Capital.

Yuriel buried her face in Raphlet’s shoulder and mumbled.

“You kept your promise to come and pick me up.”

She was a little out of breath because of joy.

The moment Yuriel took a long breath, a loud whistle rang out.

Soon, the train full of monsters began to move.

Even the Mogris castle was filled with only monsters that Raphlet had left behind. Yuriel leaned comfortably on Raphlet and closed her eyes.

END

hello, effe here! we have reached the end of Stigma Effect~!

i know there is a lot of unanswered questions, listing them here so you don’t have to:

-who is baraha before? why does shudmuel’s hypnosis ‘awakens’ his ability to prophesize? what made him ‘special’

-he wasn’t affected at the end and doesn’t feel the need to obey raphlet like yuriel, so are they both the saint??

-does helio know the child who gave him that weird book is baraha?

-why does he still keep the book and why does he present it as the book of prophecy??? (irl if someone were to hand you a weird book, you’ll just throw it away)

-what will happen to helio?? he allowed raphlet to go find yuriel so at least he’s good? it’s a waste for him to become a ‘zombie’

aaaaaaaa, i’ve been waiting if the author ever made an after story but none atm, i hope the manhwa gave some closure somehow.

anyways, thank you for reading and loving Stigma Effect! please thank the previous translator and team and kuroneko_chan our current proofreader!