Liang Lai glanced down at the child cradled in her arms.
If she didn’t treat her soon, the child would likely die right there in her embrace.
“Step aside.”
Her voice was cold as ice. She raised her hand and shoved the person in front of her hard, but the person didn’t budge an inch.
“Third Saintess, you’re making things difficult for us…” The Fat Priest’s face showed clear hesitation.
Liang Lai looked again at the child in her arms.
“Don’t you know? I’m going to adopt her and raise her as one of the Papal Successors. I’d already taken a liking to this child a few days ago, but I just couldn’t make it here until now. I was about to come today to adopt her when I saw you bullying her…”
Liang Lai lied with complete seriousness.
“Or… are you deliberately trying to oppose me, deliberately trying to go against the Church? You’re unhappy with the Church’s task to us barren women of selecting candidates, aren’t you?”
After she said this, the three Green Robed Sacerdotes paled. A tall thin man behind the Fat Priest quickly tugged at his sleeve and whispered a few words. Immediately, the three of them forced smiles and stepped aside to let her pass.
“Third Saintess, that’s not what we meant at all—we just didn’t know at first… Now that you’ve explained, we understand. Please, go ahead, please go ahead…”
Their obsequious manner gave Liang Lai a fleeting sense of disbelief, as if she really was about to become a local queen in this other world.
She didn’t dare linger here, afraid the three priests might change their minds and keep dragging her into more arguments, delaying her treatment of the child. So once she slipped out of their sight, Liang Lai ran as fast as she could, completely ignoring the Saintess image.
On the way, Liang Lai felt a dull ache in her teeth. She gently stroked the child’s face; the child responded with a faint sound but never opened her eyes to look at Liang Lai—her consciousness was clearly dim.
“How am I going to explain this to the other three at home…?”
Just thinking about Dolosa’s jealous expression made Liang Lai uneasy.
Actually, Asterys and Delucia were fine—both well-behaved children who didn’t seem prone to jealousy. But Dolosa… perhaps because she lacked a sense of security, she was always worrying about something. That must be the pain of the eldest daughter. Liang Lai understood—after all, from the videos she had watched, older kids often had to compromise and make sacrifices.
“Well, I won’t be that kind of parent, so little Dolosa should be able to relax gradually.”
Saying that sounded like self-reassurance, but Liang Lai’s worries had indeed eased somewhat.
As soon as she returned to the Court of Purity, Dolosa, Asterys, and Delucia came out to meet her. They seemed to have been waiting in the living room for a long time. But their smiles froze and vanished the moment they saw the child in Liang Lai’s arms.
“Liang Lai, who is that you’re holding…?” Dolosa’s eyes widened.
At that moment, Liang Lai didn’t dare look Dolosa in the eye. She hurried inside, calling for the nuns and explaining to Dolosa:
“This child was almost beaten to death. If I don’t save her, she’ll bleed out and die by the roadside.”
Dolosa fell silent for a moment. Only after Liang Lai handed the child to the nuns did she speak again: “So, Liang Lai, are you going to adopt her too?”
The corridor fell silent.
Asterys and Delucia held their breath, quietly watching Liang Lai. Though neither was the overly possessive, yandere type, they still didn’t want too many others to share Liang Lai’s attention.
Though it was difficult, Liang Lai nodded.
“Yes,” her voice very low, “if I don’t adopt her, she’ll die outside. Even if I save her and send her away again, she won’t live long… She’s too young and must return to her parents. Her parents… seem to have been abusing her all along.”
The words hung in the air, and silence fell again in the corridor.
Dolosa pressed her lips together, quietly watching Liang Lai. After a long while, she finally couldn’t hold back.
“But, can you save everyone? There are so many suffering people in the world—can you save them all?”
As soon as she spoke, she immediately regretted it.
She knew that question would strike a heavy blow at Liang Lai, like a punch to the chest. She anxiously watched her expression, preparing to apologize right away, to say she only spoke out of emotion and didn’t mean to.
Yet Liang Lai’s face didn’t change at all. She only sighed softly.
“I know I can’t save everyone, but I want to do well with what’s right in front of me—the things I see and experience. You can’t say that because you can’t save everyone, you do nothing. You can’t just watch people die and struggle. That’s just a cruel excuse for your own helplessness.”
She gently ruffled Dolosa’s hair, her purple eyes full of affection for the child.
“If I let someone die right before my eyes, I just couldn’t bear that. Though I can’t save everyone, I can save the suffering right in front of me—that’s enough.”
“Sometimes I might still fail to save someone in front of me, but at least I tried. Then I won’t blame myself or regret it later~”
Liang Lai pulled out the Human Skin she had bought for Dolosa from her pocket.
“Little Dolosa, some things you’ll understand when you grow up~ You probably won’t understand these now, but that’s okay—we’ll take it step by step… Here, this is the Human Skin I got you. Try putting it on, then you can sneak through the Examination more easily~”
Dolosa stared blankly at Liang Lai.
She truly couldn’t understand. She couldn’t understand Liang Lai’s great kindness and for a moment, she even hesitated to face her.
“I understand.”
She took the Human Skin and turned away, rushing off.
“Hey?!”
Liang Lai reached out to pull her back but missed, her hand sliding over Dolosa’s clothes as she watched the child run away.
“Sigh.”
She sighed heavily.
“I knew it would be like this.”
But there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t give up other children’s lives just because Dolosa was uncomfortable in her heart.
At that moment, Asterys and Delucia each grabbed one of her hands, their faces blooming with sweet smiles.
“It’s okay, Mom, we understand you~” Asterys pressed Liang Lai’s hand tightly against her smooth cheek.
“Yes, Mom, we support you too~” Delucia chimed in. “After all… Mom is our Salvation!”
Liang Lai always found those two a little strange, but before she could think further, a voice came from inside the room.
“Third Saintess, she’s awake.”
It was a nun’s voice.