“Lips are off-limits.”
The silly maiden’s question was swiftly rejected by Gabriella. This was their twenty-seventh meeting.
“Why?”
“What do you think?”
Gabriella looked at her with an expression that said you hopeless child and sighed.
Still, she leaned her head on Isabella’s shoulder.
“Where did we leave off last time? You said you felt like you had just been born, about to welcome that first ray of dawn, only to be abandoned and left to drift into this world?”
“Mhm.”
Isabella recalled those unbearable memories once more, but this time her face didn’t collapse into despair.
“I don’t know where I came from, but my emotions don’t lie. I remember… I know everything. I still have those impressions.”
“We Heavenly Oracle Envoys all call you the [Evil God].”
“Indeed… perhaps I really am evil… because I’m a defective product.”
This time Isabella spoke lightly.
A silver flower Gabriella had given her was tucked in her hair, and she swung her legs back and forth.
Below the cliff was a bottomless abyss, yet the two maidens sitting side by side felt no fear at all.
“Unless I can obtain the complete [Authority],” Gabriella said with a smile, “only then can you gain your complete Authority and safely leave this place. Right?”
“It will take nine years… During this period I cannot overuse the power of the incomplete Authority. I must rest and recover.”
Isabella explained slowly.
“I only recently learned there is still hope.”
Then Isabella turned her head away, not wanting Gabriella to see her expression.
Her lips moved as she whispered softly:
“Thank you.”
Yet Gabriella showed no sign of annoyance. Instead, she smiled gently.
“Sure. Then I’ll stay with you until the day you leave. With me here, no one can hurt you anyway.”
“Uuu…”
That day, Isabella didn’t give her an answer.
For a long time afterward she never answered that question.
They continued to meet as usual—four hours together before parting every single day.
Isabella would often wait for the sun to begin setting, because that meant Gabriella would arrive soon.
Later on, Gabriella stopped making that strange request to “injure herself.”
She simply came to meet and chat normally, sharing all the strange and interesting things she encountered among the Heavenly Oracle Envoys.
All Heavenly Oracle Envoys had a [Mission].
However, Gabriella was very confused. She didn’t know where this so-called [Mission] came from.
Her mother had taught her that everything must be proven with her own hands, yet this “justice” had no clear origin or purpose.
That was also why she never raised a hand against Isabella.
She did everything in her power to protect this black abyss, knowing that even more secrets were hidden here.
This kind of daily life continued for who knows how long…
Until one day.
When the sun was about to set, Gabriella finally appeared on the beautiful stone platform, then collapsed to her knees in exhaustion.
Isabella immediately rushed over, wrapped her in shadow, and carried her to the safest hidden chamber in the deepest, sunless part of the abyss.
She held Gabriella in her arms, looking at her shattered expression.
“Why… I… we, the Heavenly Oracle Envoys… aren’t we supposed to uphold justice…? How could this… we…”
Gabriella wasn’t physically injured.
But she had clearly seen—or realized—something she could not accept.
Isabella understood.
“Gabriella? Gabriella…?”
When Isabella asked, Gabriella hesitated and closed her mouth.
She said nothing, just like a few minutes earlier.
A hazy fog had clouded her once-clear eyes. Isabella didn’t know what she had witnessed.
But she was very worried.
She didn’t know what Gabriella had encountered, but that expression—on the verge of breaking down—said everything.
So Isabella pulled her into her embrace, and then…
“Mmm…?!”
The still-struggling Gabriella felt the moist touch on her lips and immediately became much calmer.
Then she suddenly felt her body go soft.
The chaos in her mind cleared considerably, as if a gentle breeze had blown away the dark clouds in her heart, revealing a clear sky.
“Ah…”
Suddenly it felt as if her entire brain had been emptied.
She knew everything and remembered everything, yet her thoughts had become much simpler.
When Isabella released her, the pain in her head was gone.
Dark whispers flooded into her mind, urging her to obey commands—the commands of the Cross-Star Master.
“Master.” Two black cross-shaped stars appeared in Gabriella’s pupils.
Like a puppet whose soul had been hollowed out, she spoke somewhat stiffly.
Yet for some reason it felt so good.
She liked this feeling so much.
“You can come find me for help anytime, Gabriella.”
“Mhm.”
Gabriella’s eyes snapped open.
When she woke up, she found herself lying in bed.
But it wasn’t the bed in the inner palace. It was somewhere unfamiliar.
An expensive wooden bed, soft bedding, a chandelier giving off gentle warmth.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains onto her face. It was already afternoon.
“Daughter, you’re awake?”
Gabriella’s tail twitched subconsciously.
She turned her head and poked out from under the blanket, seeing a familiar face.
It was Mother Olivia.
She hadn’t turned into a demon.
Instead she was still disguised as a normal Heavenly Oracle Envoy, showing no signs of shadow corruption.
What felt strange to Gabriella, however, was that Olivia was wearing the exact same maid uniform as the ones in the Demon King’s Castle inner palace.
Wait… Isn’t this a human nation? Aren’t we in human territory? Mom~?
Only then did Gabriella begin recalling what had happened earlier.
She had a strange feeling of coming home.
That morning she and the Evil God had put on a show at the castle. The humans thought they had won.
In reality it had all been an act between her, Evil God-sama, and Mother Olivia.
The goal was to deal with Celestial God Creis.
Gabriella had originally been pretending to sleep, but the memories from the past had flooded back, causing her to genuinely fall unconscious!
Just as Gabriella wanted to ask what had happened in the past few hours, Olivia nodded respectfully with a serious expression.
“Gabriella, thank you for your hard work in this battle. Is your body alright?”
“Mom, what are you acting all formal for?!”
“Did that Evil God do anything to you? How is your body recovering?!”
Looking at Olivia’s calm yet slightly worried eyes, Gabriella instantly understood.
Silver light flashed across her body as she instantly switched from demon form back to her Holy Body.
All demonic features disappeared in an instant. She shrank back under the blanket like a maiden resting and recovering.
At that moment the door opened.
The person who walked in was a maid with blue hair.
In the maiden’s deep blue pupils were the exact same cross-star patterns as those in Gabriella’s eyes.
“You are—”