The Saint Sword had already vanished… and the cold touch of the Iron Ring on her shoulder had returned once more.
But Lian didn’t care about that right now.
What she cared about most was Senia, who had been by her side just moments ago, and the figure she had glimpsed on the shore before entering the Mist.
“Senia, where are you? Milin, Iyue—”
After escaping the Illusion Realm, she found herself standing on a sandy beach at the center of Mirror Lake’s island.
Beneath her feet were soft fine sand and pristine white waves… and behind her stood the World Tree, its canopy blotting out the sky.
Lian ran along the beach, calling out the names of her companions and her daughter… She soon spotted a familiar figure on the sand ahead of her.
The girl had hair as red as blazing flames.
She knelt on the beach, her expression vacant as she stared at the still, unruffled surface of Mirror Lake.
The lake breeze sweeping past her gently stirred her long hair, and the ebb and flow of the water had already reached her knees beneath her skirt… Yet she showed no reaction at all, merely gazing forward with hollow eyes.
“…Milin!”
Lian hurried over… but unsure of her daughter’s condition, she only dared to gently pat her shoulder and call her name in a soft voice.
“What’s wrong?”
Even as Lian waved her hand in front of her, Milin’s gaze didn’t change at all.
She seemed to be looking at the lake… but up close, it was clear her eyes had no focus at all.
Seeing her like this, so unlike herself, Lian’s heart burned with anxiety.
She gently shook Milin’s shoulders, trying to call her back to consciousness—
“Ah… Sister Lian?”
“Milin! You scared me to death!”
Seeing Milin’s eyes regain their clarity, Lian swept her into an embrace with delighted relief.
“Mmm… I can’t breathe…”
She was holding her so tightly… it wasn’t until her daughter, whose head was buried against her chest, began to struggle slightly that she realized her own loss of composure and hastily let go.
“Sister Lian, are you all right? Where is this? I remember jumping into the lake to chase after you…”
She had been fully prepared for her daughter to rage at her… but Milin just looked around with a bewildered expression, as if she hadn’t yet woken from a dream.
“What about that Red Mist…? I remember when I went into the water, it should still have been late at night…”
“You jumped into the lake? Don’t you know that Mist was corroded by the Curse?”
“I saw you sailing in on a boat, so I didn’t have time to think…”
“You silly girl! Not to mention the danger of that Barrier… Sefi must have taught you about it. Could you not tell how powerful a Curse that was? And you jumped into the lake with your bare body, making direct contact with that Curse…!”
Lian had intended to scold her harshly… but when she thought about how Milin had done it all because she was worried about her, every thought turned into concern for her condition instead.
“Do you feel unwell anywhere? In your heart or your body… tell me everything!”
She hurriedly began checking her daughter over.
Because from what she knew, certain malignant Curses could damage their victims from both physical and spiritual directions simultaneously.
On past Journeys, she had seen terrible Curses that first drove people mad, then dissolved the afflicted into a pool of Blood.
“I’m fine… I just feel like I had a very long dream.”
Milin shook her head to indicate she was all right… After confirming her daughter had no obvious physical injuries, Lian helped her stand up slowly.
“By the way, where’s Sister Iyue? And Natalia… I thought I saw them sailing in on a small boat behind us…”
“Natalia… who is that?”
Lian had never met Nephtalia, nor had she ever heard Milin call her by that name… so she couldn’t help but ask with some confusion.
“She’s Sister Iyue’s sister… her biological sister. I’ve always called her that.”
“I see. Then we need to go find them quickly. And Senia, who was with me in the Illusion Realm… Her Majesty the Queen is also missing.”
“I heard that Barrier pulls anyone who enters it into an Illusion Realm… The dream I had must have been that. But why can’t I remember anything about the dream at all?”
Milin tapped her own head groggily. The girl who was always so full of energy now seemed somewhat listless and dejected.
“They’ve probably been washed up onto the beach like we were. Why don’t you rest here for a while, and I’ll go look for them nearby.”
“No need… I’m fine. Let’s go find them together.”
…
…
Lian led Milin further up the beach, and sure enough, they found Iyue and Nephtalia near a low cliff.
“Iyue… how is the child?”
The two briefly exchanged the information they each had gathered and their experiences in the Illusion Realm.
Iyue seemed mostly unharmed, but the child who looked so much like her… her sister was still unconscious.
“…I don’t know. I’ve already tried using Healing Magic, but it had no effect.”
“Could it be the effect of that Curse? Even though it seems to have vanished along with the Barrier, those illusions we encountered at the end…”
Looking at Iyue’s haggard and gloomy expression, Lian hesitated to speak.
From their earlier exchange of information, she had learned that Iyue had faced the same ordeal as her at the end of the Illusion Realm—forced to confront those evil phantasms that surged forth with endless malice, seeming infinite in number.
According to Iyue’s description, what she had faced was the repeated death of her parents and her younger sister… Lian knew such illusions couldn’t defeat her, but they were more than enough to put that awful expression on her face.
“I don’t know… but Nefi didn’t vanish into thin air like those Knights who reportedly entered the Barrier. And she’s still alive… she just can’t wake up.”
“Iyue…?”
Lian had never seen Iyue wear such an expression—that was a barely restrained, almost maddening anger and hatred directed at a specific target.
Based on her description… the person who had enraged and embittered her to this extent should be the Nelf Family Head, the culprit behind their family’s Tragedy.
Could she be connected to this incident?
Lian even began to entertain such thoughts. She suspected this was the work of those Demon King’s Remnants—if Feiyin was one of them, then her own survival and the escape of the two Demon Race members should have already completely exposed the Hero’s return.
I was rescued by Iyue, so the two Demon Race girls’ Plan to capture me and take me to the Demon Realm was thwarted… They then devised this Plan with the Demon King’s Remnants lurking in the Sea of Trees, attempting to trap me inside the Mist Barrier with that Curse and kill me—
No… the fact that I was confined in the Palace by Senia was known to only a very few people.
And even if they knew I was in the Palace, how could they be certain that I would charge into the Mist on my own after it was corrupted?
That Curse was clearly aimed at Senia’s movements.
But then again… I remember when I fought those two Demon Race girls, they still seemed to think of me as the “Hero’s Illegitimate Daughter”…
Various details surfaced in Lian’s mind, connecting… yet they never formed a complete loop.
But she felt as though she had already grasped the loose thread of the puzzle—if she just found the right direction and pulled hard enough, she could break through this bewildering situation.
“Iyue, tell me more about that Family Head—”
“Lian… are you down there?”
Just as she was about to ask Iyue for more details, a voice called out from the low cliff above.
She looked up and saw Senia standing up there, waving in their direction, with that solemn-faced female Knight attending at her side.
“Senia and Lady Waletidina… you’re both safe too!”
Lian shouted with joyful surprise.