Battle Divorce! - Chapter 3
<MISSION 1. Become Maxim von Waldeck’s wife at least in name!>
This absurd mission began the day she decided to retire.
* * *
At dawn, in the dim light of a small chapel, Daisy knelt with her hands clasped in prayer.
“Lord, I am your child and I am a sinner, but… from now on, I promise never to kill again. I’ll live a good life, I swear.”
Her prayers were mostly confessions about her past and vows to change.
…Daisy hadn’t always been ‘Daisy’.
[CODE NAME: EASY]
She was once the ace assassin for the revolutionary secret organization ‘Clean’.
Her main job? Taking out royalist bastards.
She had no memories of her parents. Raised as an orphan and trained as an agent from infancy, she didn’t even have a real name.
Because she could kill targets so ‘easily’, the organization called her ‘Easy’. Whenever she went on missions, she’d use whatever fake name fit the job. It all seemed normal to her, and she never complained.
[Daisy]
“…Daisy.”
She paused her prayer, absentmindedly tracing the engraving on the cross, and recalled the day she first became Daisy.
Back when she was still Easy—no, in her previous mission—she’d gone by Barbara Austin.
She had one fatal weakness, that she was impossibly soft-hearted toward babies and animals.
“Waaah!”
Thanks to a royalist double agent, several of her comrades were slaughtered, making her the next target.
Right after finishing the job, Easy heard a baby crying from inside the house and instantly panicked.
The target she’d just killed had been the infant’s only guardian.
If she left now, the baby would cry itself to exhaustion and probably starve to death.
“What do I do…”
With no choice, she picked up the child, but as she was leaving, one of the target’s henchmen slashed her side with a knife.
She’d let her guard down, but she still took out the last attacker easily enough. The wound was minor, but the real problem was the poison on the blade.
She tried to get the baby to an orphanage, but collapsed at the entrance.
“Are you awake?”
Strangely enough, her first thought on waking was relief. After killing so many people so easily, she found herself almost amused by how grateful she felt to be alive.
She opened her eyes to find a kind, concerned face gazing down at her. It was a middle-aged woman in a nun’s habit.
“My name is Sister Sophia. What’s your name, Miss?”
A name. She didn’t have one. What should she say?
As she struggled for an answer, she happened to notice a vase of daisies on the nightstand.
“…Daisy.”
It was just the first word that popped into her head, chosen in a daze because she needed something to say.
“My name is Daisy.”
Thanks to Sister Sophia—her savior—’Easy’ was reborn as ‘Daisy’.
In the small mountain village, the nunnery cared for orphans with nowhere else to go. Daisy spent a year there, helping with chores and teaching the children.
It was a simple, peaceful life. One she’d never known before.
“What are you praying about so intently?”
Lost in thought, Daisy flinched at the sound of her name. It was Sister Sophia.
“Oh, Sister, I just… couldn’t sleep. Praying helps me drift off sometimes.”
“It does, doesn’t it? That’s why I came too.”
Sister Sophia sat close beside her, echoing Daisy’s thoughts.
“Sister… Do you think someone like me could ever go to heaven?”
It was the same question Daisy had asked for a year. And each time, Sister Sophia would offer the same reassuring answer.
“Of course. Anyone can be saved.”
“Really? No matter what I’ve done in the past, I can be forgiven?”
Seeing that Daisy still worried, Sister Sophia smiled gently, the corners of her eyes creasing with warmth.
“Don’t worry. What matters is who you are now, not what you were.”
Is that really true? Even after all the lives Ishe has taken, could she really be forgiven? She repented and prayed every day, but the doubt never fully left her.
Every target was someone’s beloved family. Once she realized that, she wanted nothing more than to erase her entire past.
She couldn’t be sure of forgiveness, but at least she could promise herself.
That she will never take another life.
“Sister, there’s someone here to see Miss Daisy.”
Just then, another nun entered, announcing that Daisy had a visitor.
‘At this hour? But there’s no one who would come to see me. Who could it be?’
Daisy’s eyes widened.
“They said… it’s Miss Daisy’s father.”
She turned to see a roguish-looking middle-aged man leaning against the chapel entrance, waving at her with a cheerful grin.
“It’s been a while, my daughter.”
Count Therese, head of the revolutionary organization ‘Clean.’ Former boss to Easy, and to Daisy, a visitor she’d rather not see.
