Seraphina had long since lost track of how long she’d been walking.
The holy light boots on her feet were already battered. Every step she took on the gravel sent a piercing pain through her soles.
But she couldn’t feel it—or rather, the physical pain was nothing compared to the half that remained in her heart.
She moved like a soulless puppet, half-dragged along by Ailiya.
Ailiya glanced back at her, her brow furrowed into a tight knot.
Just one day and one night, and the lofty, holy Maiden of Light—the one so pure that people dared not look directly at her—had turned into this?
Her hair was a mess, like a chicken’s nest. Her face was covered in dust and dried tear streaks. The once-pristine white ceremonial robe was now stained with blood and mud, hanging off her thin shoulders like a tattered rag.
Ailiya’s heart inexplicably lurched, as if something soft had been violently twisted.
She couldn’t help but curse under her breath.
What the hell was all this?
“Alright, stop walking.”
Ailiya suddenly halted, grabbed Seraphina by the wrist, and forcefully pressed her down onto a rock that blocked the wind.
“Sit.”
Seraphina obediently sat down, her gaze hollow as she stared at the ground—looking at something, yet nothing at all.
Ailiya crouched in front of her, hands resting on her knees. For the first time, those crimson eyes held no irritability, only a weariness that came from seeing through the world, and…
A reluctance to be harsh.
“Let’s stop searching.”
Ailiya let out a heavy breath, her voice hoarse.
“If we keep looking, with your frail body, you’ll end up dead in this wilderness before we even find her.”
She paused.
“Right now, I think the biggest suspect is that so-called Temple Master of yours.”
Seraphina murmured, her voice devoid of anger, only a hollow emptiness.
“The knights at the Border Fortress… he commanded the magic beasts to kill them all.”
“Those villagers, the old man who gave me water, those brave knights—they all died because of his plan…”
Her fingers curled inward, nails digging into her palms until blood beaded up.
She looked up at Ailiya.
“And I called him ‘Teacher’ for over a decade.”
There were no tears in her eyes, only a burned-out void.
“Tell me… how could he bring himself to do that?”
Ailiya didn’t answer. She just pressed her hand on Seraphina’s shoulder and gave a firm squeeze.
Those words pierced like a needle through Seraphina’s stupor.
She jerked her head up, lips trembling as if she wanted to argue, to defend the teacher she had believed in for nineteen years.
But when the words reached her lips, not a single one came out.
She didn’t deny it.
Ailiya was right.
Too right.
A sound like something being crushed—so faint it was barely audible—escaped from Seraphina’s throat.
“I kept wondering why reinforcements never came, why every time I communicated, he told me to wait.”
Her voice began to shake.
“There were never any reinforcements. He never intended to let me return alive.”
She closed her eyes, as if enduring a pain deeper and heavier than any wound.
“The lives of those people at the border… in my teacher’s eyes, they were just… pawns.”
Seraphina’s gaze grew distant as memories rewound uncontrollably.
The communications over the past nine days—the Temple Master’s tone, seemingly caring yet always diverting the topic at crucial moments—and…
And the words he had once spoken.
“That curse!”
“The Curse of the Love God!”
Seraphina muttered to herself, her voice as light as the wind.
“Teacher said that kind of curse builds power from emotions.”
“He told me to care more for Yisela, saying it was to guide her toward goodness…”
“But what if…”
“What if his goal was to collect those emotions?”
The more she thought, the colder she felt.
That kind teacher, that man who had taught her the truth of the holy light.
What if everything had been an elaborate trap he designed?
What if Yisela’s suffering, the massacre at the border, and even her own near-transformation into a puppet were all paving the way for his hidden agenda?
Seraphina shuddered violently, her face turning deathly pale in an instant.
“He killed so many people.”
She spoke suddenly, her voice hoarse, as if it didn’t belong to her.
“For a plan, he didn’t even bat an eye.”
Ailiya was silent for a moment.
“What do you plan to do now?”
Seraphina shook her head, her lips moving slightly.
“I don’t know.”
Her voice was as light as a falling leaf.
“But I don’t want to call him Teacher anymore.”
“Whether it’s him or not, this isn’t something you and I can solve just like that.”
Ailiya cut off her self-torment, stood up, and her tone turned brisk and decisive again.
“I’ll call for backup.”
“I’ll contact my old comrades, and those mercenary groups that can’t stand the Holy Light Temple’s ways.”
“You stay here and rest. Don’t go anywhere.”
She stared into Seraphina’s eyes, her voice more serious than ever before.
“Listen carefully. Don’t go back to find that Temple Master!”
“If you go back now, you’ll be walking right into the tiger’s mouth!”
Seraphina looked at Ailiya’s unyielding gaze.
Those crimson pupils, which used to shine only in battle, now held a steadiness that made her feel at ease.
She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but in the end, only a hoarse word came out:
“Thank you.”
Those two words were light, yet they drained all her strength.
Ailiya froze for a moment, then scratched her head awkwardly, the tips of her ears turning a little red.
She hated sentimental scenes like this the most.
“What’s there to thank? You’re making me embarrassed.”
She reached out, grabbed Seraphina’s icy hand, and pulled her up from the ground.
“Come on, don’t sit here waiting to die.”
“What are you…”
Seraphina was tugged along, confused.
“Eat!”
Ailiya didn’t look back, her tone domineering yet laced with a tenderness that brooked no refusal.
“Look at you, dazed like this. I’m afraid if I leave you here alone, you’ll curl up in a corner and stay still until the end of time.”
“You need something hot in your stomach, get your strength back.”
“Don’t worry. Now that I, Ailiya, have stepped in, I will definitely rescue that little girl.”
She paused, slowed her steps, and glanced sideways at Seraphina.
“As for your teacher… once we find that girl, I’ll go with you to get the truth out of him.”
“If your heart softens and you can’t bring yourself to do it, I’ll cut him down for you.”
Seraphina was stunned for a moment, then the corner of her mouth curled into the faintest, almost invisible arc.
“…Okay.”
Ailiya pulled her along, walking steadfastly toward the faint lights visible beyond the valley.
“Once her power recovers, I’m going to defeat her with my own hands!”
“You’ll be there to witness it for me.”
“Anyone who dares to touch her!”
Ailiya turned back and bared her teeth at Seraphina in a fierce yet grinning expression.
“I’ll show them my special move!”
The night wind was still cold, but the hand that Ailiya held tightly in hers slowly began to warm up.
Seraphina looked at the broad back of the red-haired figure in front of her, and her tears gradually dried.
Yisela.