Seraphina’s gaze drifted downward. On the table sat an elegant white porcelain tea set, a half-pot of steaming hot tea with wisps of vapor rising gently, and beside it a small plate of what looked like utterly delectable little cakes.
This was a bright room. To the left stood a large window, sunlight pouring in through the glass.
Several lush green plants hung near the window, their leaves dancing a cheerful waltz in the faint breeze.
Wasn’t it… winter?
Seraphina’s mind went blank. Her last memories were of the snowfield, the biting cold, and utter despair.
This sudden warmth, this tranquility, and the beautiful young woman before her—no, a woman with the gentle aura of a mother—all felt profoundly unreal.
Had she been… saved by humans?
The realization instinctively put her on guard. She tried to move, only to trigger a violent fit of coughing and sharp pain in her chest.
At the sound, the young woman immediately looked up from her book. Her crimson eyes shifted to Seraphina, the calm in them replaced by concern.
She closed the book, set it gently on the checkered tablecloth, then leaned closer, her voice soft.
“You’re awake? Don’t move around. Your injuries are severe. Don’t worry—you’re safe here.”
Her voice carried the same reassuring strength as her eyes.
The girl lying in bed simply stared, stunned. If Movira was the domineering big-sister type, then this woman… was the maternal type.
The woman turned to pour Seraphina a cup of hot water, muttering under her breath, “I never would have thought Saint Eustacia would save a demon girl…”
“Who?! Cough, cough… Who did you just say?!”
The snowy sky was torn apart by terrifying pressure.
The gray, snow-falling canopy that had blanketed the heavens was, without warning… set ablaze!
Flames burned inexplicably in the sky, their light eerie and oppressive!
Beneath this bizarre firmament hovered Movira’s figure, hundreds of meters above the ground. Her black hair whipped wildly without wind, surrounded by near-tangible magical fluctuations that made souls tremble.
She paid no mind to the devastation her presence had wrought upon the area. She merely swept her gaze—eyes turned pure ink black, without a trace of white—across the entire landscape, again and again.
Rocks, snow layers, even the faintest lingering traces of magic in the air—everything was roughly probed by this domineering force.
Once… twice… She expanded the search radius, even resorting to forbidden power.
Yet there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Aside from the long-cold corpses torn apart by beasts, Seraphina’s life aura had vanished from this snowfield as if erased completely—gone without a trace.
As though she had never existed here at all.
This utter “absence” frightened Movira more than the worst possible news.
…
…
Her hovering altitude dipped slightly. A trace of… bewilderment mingled with the raging fury of one whose reverse scale had been touched.
Slowly, she turned her gaze toward Lina below, who was straining against the overwhelming pressure on the ground.
Her figure vanished in an instant. The next second, she stood directly before Lina. No magic had been used, yet the tangible anger radiating from her was more suffocating than any spell.
“Tell me—was it you? Did you tip off the human forces, or perhaps… the Fangs of Terror, to ambush Seraphina?!”
The moment Movira closed in, Lina’s breath and heartbeat nearly stopped. Even so, she refused to be intimidated.
The failure of the search, and the fleeting glimpse of panic in Movira’s eyes, acted like a powerful stimulant, igniting emotions Lina had bottled up for months.
She jerked her head up, eyes instantly red.
“Me?! Movira, do you even hear what you’re saying?!”
Calling Movira by name outright shocked the cavalry behind her into dropping to their knees, as if that might shield them from the Demon King’s impending wrath.
“Seraphina gave me my life. I couldn’t repay her fast enough—why would I ever harm her?! If I wanted her dead, she’d have died long ago! No need for all this trouble!”
Movira hadn’t expected Lina to talk back like this. In her memory, only Seraphina had ever dared.
“Let me tell you something, Movira! You’re nothing but a foolish idiot! Seraphina said she didn’t want you following her, and you actually didn’t?! How can you be so stupid?!”
“Silence!” Lina’s words struck like a needle, piercing Movira’s psychological defenses with pinpoint accuracy.
This had happened because of Movira’s own negligence. She… hadn’t followed, hadn’t given Seraphina anything that could save her life.
“Fine, I get it—you were scared Seraphina would fight with you again. But so what? At least she’d be safe and sound! Feelings can be rebuilt if lost, but if the person is gone—”
Movira’s terrifying pressure bore down on Lina once more, making every organ in her body feel crushed under immense weight.
But Lina had thrown caution to the wind. Tears mixed with sweat slid down her face as she pressed forward with a blood-weeping accusation.
“In Asma, after that huge fight, you immediately changed your attitude—became completely compliant, indulging her every whim, even letting her come alone to a dangerous place like this! You thought that was respecting her? Tolerating her?”
Lina’s voice rose sharply, laced with biting sarcasm. All restraint gone—with Seraphina missing, her own heart was plummeting into an abyss of death.
“That’s not it at all! Because aside from obedience and confinement, what other way do you even know to treat her?! You’re afraid!!”
“If the bond between you can’t withstand even one real, soul-deep argument—if it requires this timid, constant yielding, this false peace to maintain it—then maybe it’s better to just end it cleanly!”
Lina’s words struck like ice spikes, hammering into Movira’s heart one after another.
The fury on Movira’s face gradually faded. She opened her mouth to retort, only to find her usual methods utterly powerless against accusations grounded in truth.
She was speechless, throat clogged as if by something solid.
Yet Lina’s onslaught showed no sign of stopping. It was as if she intended to unleash every grievance she’d suppressed over the past months.
“The moment you saw her angry, you panicked—thinking only of how to coax her, how to make her show that obedient, even slightly shy expression again! And that satisfied you? Made you think everything was back on ‘track’?! Wake up!!”
Each of Lina’s words gleamed like a guillotine blade over the empty plain.
Movira offered no further rebuttal. She merely gave a cold huff, ending this argument that had contributed nothing to finding Seraphina.
Once out of everyone’s sight, she could no longer maintain her composed facade. Even holding her aloof posture became excruciatingly difficult.
Without question, Seraphina was her weakness. All her strength, when it came to anything involving Seraphina, turned to nothing.
“What… am I supposed to do?”