Title: Mercy for Merce

Summary: Why should the sins of the mother be paid by the daughter?

I stared at the impoverished form of my former half-sister. Well, more accurately, Zola's spawn since we weren't actually related. Looking back on it now, it was pretty damn obvious. They looked far too much like that elf butler. And with Kyle's confirmation that inter species reproduction was possible, there was very little doubt.

But I digress. She looked like shit right now. Part of me wanted to rub it in, given how shitty she had been to my family, but even I would have felt bad about picking on a vagrant. Didn't mean I needed to help her or interact with her at all.

I moved to continue on my way to the docks to prepare for my stay in Alzer.

"Leon?" Mercy asked in a weak voice.

"What do you want, Merce?" I said gruffly.

"Are you really going to leave me like this?"

"Wouldn't you?"

"Yes, but you aren't me."

I raised my eyebrow at that.

"You're barking up the wrong tree."

Merce chuckled.

"Am I? You may have a foul mouth, but you are a big old softie on the inside. After all, you were called the Fiendish Knight for your mercy, were you not?"

"That moniker is outdated. Fanoss ensured that," I said bitterly.

"Nope. If it were outdated, you wouldn't be as bitter about it as you are," Merce said in wry amusement.

"If you expecting me to help you out, prodding on my trauma is not a good way to go about it," I said with a scowl.

"Apologies."

"... So, what's happened to the rest of the family?"

"Hoh? It's fine for you to prod my trauma?"

"I'm a hypocrite. Deal with it."

"... Mom cut me off and took Rutart with her."

"Huh, I would have expected Zola to have taken you along considering her views on men."

"Perhaps if we were still nobles. However, we lost our titles when she refused to let Rutart fight. He should've fought and died as was his duty. I don't get why she stopped him from going," Merce spat out.

"Bitter much?"

"Wouldn't you if you were cast aside for your sibling? My life has gone down the drain thanks to Rutart's cowardice and now I've been abandoned for the favored child."

"Meh, lived with that my whole life. Stopped bothering me a long time ago."

"Really? I was always under the assumption that Father showered your lot with love."

"Oh, he certainly did, but I'm very much the least favorite child."

"Bah, stupid man as always. Never appreciated the value of the people in his life."

"Like your mother," I said with an unamused look. As accurate as she was in regards to my situation, she was shit talking my dad.

"And you don't think she would have treated Father better had he not decided to get hitched with some commoner? A marriage after he was already married? A marriage that produced bastard after bastard? A marriage he clearly favored?"

"Are you really going to go into infidelity when the whole reason your in this situation is due to your mother's infidelity? Dad would have taken you in if you were related to him."

"More proof that Father never cared for us."

"You've only yourself to blame. You made it abundantly clear you wanted to have nothing to do with us. Even if we didn't do the whole sins of the parents thing, you treated us as scum."

"Heh, you say that as if it were so easy."

"Hoh?"

"Zola has never been a gracious woman. You think she would take kindly to her children playing with the bastards?"

"So what? You saying you were coerced?"

"Coerced. Guided. Disciplined. Use whatever word you want. At the end of the day, there would never have been a world in which it would've been okay for us to be a family."

"... Why did she hit you?"

"... I wanted to see you when you were born."

"Really? You expect to guilt trip me by trying to make our relationship seem special?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong. It wasn't out of any particular fondness. I was definitely too young for that. It's just that I was at that age when I was curious how babies were made. But Mom's anger left a lasting impression."

"... I see."

"There were a few other moments, but that one was what stuck with me."

I was being played, wasn't I? Yet, looking at Merce, I couldn't help but feel pity for the girl. She likely did go through some punishment, but she still wasn't exactly the pitiable heroine. She was the spoiled noble girl common for her previous rank. She had a reprehensible personality.

However, she was raised to have been that way.

Shouldn't she have a fair shake, or at least a chance to be rehabilitated?

Worst comes to worst, I could always ditch her ass in Alzer.

"Merce, do not treat Yumeria like that. I am far more fond of her than I am of you," I groused when I heard Merce making demands of Yumeria in a rather displeased tone.

"But she's so damn clumsy! She's tripped and dirtied the laundry she just cleaned up," Merce unwisely argued.

Looking at the hamper, I noticed it was full of women's clothes far too big for Marie but far too small for Yumeria's full figure.

"Have you been demanding Yumeria to do an extra load of laundry for just yourself?"

"Well you can't honestly expect my delicates to be mixed in with yours, and who knows what diseases Marie's has, what with her hedonistic lifestyle."

I snorted. Merce reprimanding another for being dicked? How laughable. Though she was right. Who knows what STDs her (Merce) panties had.

"Seeing as you find Yumeria's housekeeping unacceptable, you'll just have to pick up the slack."

"What?!" Merce said with an incensed look.

"Yumeria, give her the Jenna course."

"Yes, Master."

"Hold on a second!"

"Oh, relax, Merce. I'll be paying you at the same rate as Yumeria. Besides, if you plan to get married, having these domestic skills will be necessary for you since you aren't a noble anymore."

Merce just slumped as I slapped her with reality again.

"Speaking of getting married, you'll want to spend more time on the language here. There's a fairly good chance that you'll find a better husband here than back at Holfort. The letters I've been receiving from Livia and Angie have been fairly concerning."

"Joy. I fear for the girls back home when literal rapists and slave collars are preferable."

"You've been listening on my conversations?"

"Not much else to do considering I've been locked up in this house."

"You're free to explore the city with Yumeria or Kyle, you know?"

"None of us speak the language!"

"Even more incentive to learn the language."

"Into a world of literal theologically binding rape?!"

"... Okay fair. Then go out with the prince or his friends."

"The ones who literally got tricked by the rapist into a deity bound oath?!"

"How silly of me. Why did I ever think I could rely on those idiots?"

No, seriously. Did I hit my head?

"Little brother, you really need to stop taking those pills. They're not helping you get better sleep," Merce said with tired eyes.

"Sorry for waking you," I said with a gasp.

"... Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, no."

"... Haa, budge over."

"Hmm?"

"Is this not what older siblings do?"

"... Merce, I'm an adult, not a child."

"Could've fooled me," she said as she pushed me over and made room for herself.

It was the most peaceful sleep I got since my nightmares started.

"Nuh-uh. Nuh-uh," I groaned out in horror as I found my face in Merce's tits when I woke up.

"How are you the Sacred Priestess?! You don't even speak the language!" I screamed when Merce revealed her newly acquired seal.

"Do you think I'll be given a noble title as a Sacred Priestess?"

"Merce, Alzer's tradition dictates that the Sacred Guardian and Priestess hook up!" I yelled angrily as I pointed at my Sacred Guardian Seal.

"Ack, get it off! Get it off!"

Yumeria walked in, stared, and then kindly asked the Sacred Sapling to remove the crest from Merce.

AN

1) Honestly just a weird idea. Came about because or how close mercy and Merce are written.

2) One could think of this as a potential prequel to my Full Reset (11). After all of this time, an explanation for the Merce pairing.

Review Response

Dimensionador: I already wrote this plot. Reborn as the Villainess (38).

Ominous442: Phonetically would be Re-ria, which then turns into Lelia. However, sometimes translations will alter names further in order to fit better (ie Rion - Lion - Leon).

Alexandar: 7ish at the start. As for continuations, I do not know myself since these fics are not planned ahead of time.

Pembaca Sampah: No. It wouldn't work for this fic as is. Carla will eventually get her own fic.

Monkey D. Conan: You often write a lot of decent concepts. You really should try your hand at writing something.

Yolo27th: Tinfoil hat moment, but a reason why Leila is a fairly decent translation could be because Leila means black. Pairing with Noelle, the dynamic works since Noelle means Christmas and white Christmas is a phrase. Thus, black and white. In addition to that, color context also applies such as black sheep. Plus, Lelia means talk or fair speech, which she is most certainly not. Though, to be fair, it is fairly apt in an ironic sort of way.

Frosty Wolf: Jake's mother is dead in the previous chapter both for the sake of the plot and because we know nothing about her. For the education time, 9-2 is actually roughly how long a grade schooler would be in school learning. Obviously, a joke for an adult like Leon, but a relatively reasonable complaint for a child. Mylene's treatment of Jake is more because he's deliberately being a menace. Any dislike she regarding Roland like behavior is because Jake is choosing to be like Roland.