Black Robe: Gender Swap, I Have a Small Panel

Deep beneath Harmony Castle, the cold, damp air was thick with the pungent smell of rusted metal and decaying corpses. The dim, yellowish light from the wall lamps cast dappled, fragmented shadows, making Quinn's room feel even more oppressive and cramped.

This is a forgotten corner of the world. Decades of isolation have permeated every inch of the walls with a deathly silence. Only the faint sound of electricity from the corner echoes intermittently in the empty room.

"Fuck, this...this can't be! How did you get here? How are you still alive...?"

The soldier boy froze on the spot, his body trembling violently. His eyes, which had always been filled with arrogance, were now completely filled with overwhelming astonishment.

He stared at Quinn, who had been attacked from a distance by Morgan and reduced to a head with his body already turned into a plant. His face was filled with unbearable shock. His Adam's apple bobbed, but he could no longer utter a complete sentence.

In his deeply ingrained belief, Quinn should have died long ago in the inhumane secret experiment of the first V by Walter.

At the very least, that's what Vought's superiors told him back then. They said his brother's experiment failed and he died on the spot, that all the glory would be inherited by him, and that he was the chosen one who deserved the title of "Soldier Boy".

But now, Quinn stood right before him, alive and well, in such a broken, tormented state, living in a symbiotic relationship with plants…

The soldier boy was shocked, but then felt an overwhelming sense of guilt, like a cold tide that instantly overwhelmed him, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

The other person lived their life in such pain and despair, while I naively believed the words of those above me. Now that they're dead, can I accept all their glory with a clear conscience?

The thought filled him with guilt.

It was a sin that he had owed for decades and had no right to atone for, weighing heavily on his heart, making even this fearless super soldier unable to look the other person in the eye.

……

The girl standing next to the boy soldier had a more complex and bittersweet feeling.

Perhaps due to the differences between parallel universes, Quinn truly died in her own world. She witnessed Quinn's complete demise in the experiment firsthand, watching helplessly as life slowly dissipated and the cycle of life and death came to an end.

Even so, when that familiar yet broken face came into view, my heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, and a dense, aching pain instantly spread to every part of my body.

Quinn's existence is like a long sword stored by time, mercilessly slicing through the disguise she had deliberately sealed for decades, and stabbing her deepest, most unbearable, and most painful scars.

Her identity as a "soldier boy," which she was always so proud of, and all the accolades, medals, and the admiration and adoration she possessed, were all just a carefully orchestrated deception by Walter from beginning to end.

The glory of fighting bloody battles in World War II, the heroic deeds of fearless charges, and the merits sung by the world, never belonged to her, not even a fraction of them.

All of that was earned by the man before us, who had been imprisoned underground for decades and suffered endless torment, with his life on the line.

She used to be a cowardly rich girl, too cowardly to even participate in ordinary street fights, let alone go to the battlefield to fight the enemy. She lived her whole life in the shadow of her brother, feeling inferior and timid.

Yet, this seemingly useless individual, after injecting Compound V, easily stole Quinn's life, becoming a household name and a superhero in his name.

How absurd, how ironic.

The soldier girl's eyes were slightly red, her fingers clenched tightly, her knuckles turning white. She didn't dare to meet Quinn's sharp eyes, which were filled with anger and hatred.

She stole everything from him, and this living brother has been living a miserable existence in the dark underground for decades.

Yet he himself enjoys glory and adulation that do not belong to him under the sun, and this guilt can never be washed away.

After a long silence, she lowered her head, trembling, her voice choked with sobs, filled with deep guilt and self-reproach, and softly said, "I'm so sorry, brother..."

She stepped forward slowly and carefully lifted Quinn's vegetative head, her movements as gentle as if she were touching a rare treasure, her eyes filled with sincere apology.

When she was a boy, throughout her long growing years, Quinn was always her unattainable idol, the person she wanted to become with all her might.

That glory of a war hero was a light she, once a coward, longed for but could never reach.

So when Walter approached her and offered to let her take Quinn's place and become a national idol, she agreed without hesitation.

She craved that radiance, craved the feeling of being admired, even though that radiance didn't belong to her.

Quinn, who was being held in the palm of someone's hand, had a clear look of confusion in his cloudy eyes.

Damn it, who is this woman?

He clearly only had a cowardly younger brother in his memory, and never a younger sister. When did his father get a daughter?

Why is this strange woman calling me "brother"?

Quinn's already vegetative brain was completely unable to process this sudden information. He only briefly lingered his gaze on the soldier girl before abruptly turning his head back, his bloodshot eyes once again fixed on the soldier boy beside him.

She really looks exactly the same as before, without the slightest sign of aging!

I, a hero, have become so pathetic, while you, a scoundrel, have stolen my honor and remain as glorious as ever...

Soldier boy, you deserve to die!

Overwhelming hatred instantly engulfed his remaining consciousness. Even with his body destroyed and only his head remaining, he never gave up on revenge.

The plant-like texture on the surface of the skull writhed rapidly, and countless tiny, highly toxic spores proliferated wildly, shooting towards the soldier boy like fine raindrops.

This was his last act of resistance, an outlet for his decades of resentment.

The spore slammed into the transparent energy barrier erected by Morgan in front of the soldier boy. Without even causing a ripple, it was instantly disintegrated and dissolved by the power of the barrier, rendering all attacks futile.

But the burning rage in Quinn's eyes pierced through the thin barrier and went straight into the soldier boy's heart.

He had no mouth and could not utter a curse, but his eyes were more piercing than the sharpest blade in the world.

It was like a blinding lamp, blatantly illuminating the cowardice, selfishness, and wretchedness hidden beneath the soldier boy's glory, constantly reminding him:

You don't deserve all of this. You'll always be that coward who takes shortcuts and lives by stealing other people's lives.

Stared at so intently, the soldier boy didn't even have the courage to argue. He could only lower his head in embarrassment, avoiding the gaze that made him feel so ashamed...