Liangcai looked at Morgana’s eyes, which instantly brimmed with tears.
That look of utter heartbreak, as if she’d been abandoned by the whole world, was even more convincing than Dexilensi, the best actress in the Court of Purity.
Hardening her heart, Liangcai tried to pull her arm free from those hands—bound with silver ribbons but still as flexible as an octopus’s tentacles.
“The script’s just like this. We’ve exchanged our information, now we’re even.”
Liang Lai tried to keep her tone steady, aiming to sound like an emotionless task machine, but inside she felt a pang of guilt.
Was her Saintess’s compassion about to explode again?
“Let go, I need to go back.” “Even? How could we possibly be even!”
Morgana not only refused to let go, she hugged even tighter, wrapping her bound wrists around Liangcai’s arm, her voice raw with real tears and urgency.
“You promised me! You said it yourself! You said, ‘Nana, if one day I change so much I’m no longer myself, or I forget you, you must come find me, show me this, then take me away!’ You said it with your own mouth! You even gave me a piece of candy, and even though that candy was so hard it nearly broke my teeth, I still kept it!”
Liang Lai’s movements froze.
Candy?
Those details… so specific, so mundane, nothing like a carefully fabricated lie.
They sounded more like a memory that had been forgotten.
“When… when did I…?”
Liang Lai’s voice was a bit dry and hoarse.
“See? See, you really don’t remember anything at all… wu~”
Morgana’s tears finally fell in big, heavy drops, washing clean streaks through the dust on her face.
“That crumpled little note stuffed in your Diary! The one with the system of the Rust Frontier written on it! And some other introductions to this side, all written by me! You asked me to! You said you wanted to get to know the ‘outside world’ ahead of time, and made me hide it at the very back of your Diary, because it was a secret only we knew!”
She hiccupped, speaking at a rapid pace, pouring out all her pent-up grievances at once.
“You said, when you were ready, you’d come find me and we’d leave this damn place together! I waited and waited, but all I got was news that you’d become the Saintess. I thought you’d lied to me! Later, I found out you’d really forgotten—forgotten who you were, even! Maybe, maybe you aren’t even the you I knew anymore! It was so hard for me to find a chance to sneak in, to wait for you in this godforsaken place, do you know how hard it’s been for me?!”
“Wuwuwuwu!”
She burst into loud, honest sobs, no longer the dry, fake howling from before, but the real heartbreak of a child who had suffered far too much. Her shoulders shook, and she looked utterly pitiful.
Liang Lai was completely stunned.
A note in the Diary… the system of the Rust Frontier…
The original self had asked a Witch to write those? To learn about the “outside world”? And even promised to take her away?
It was all so overwhelming, so contrary to what she’d always believed.
She’d thought the original owner was simply a suddenly awakened Saintess, but these clues pointed to a completely different possibility…
A girl curious about the outside, secretly planning to leave? Or perhaps she, too, wanted to change the Divine Court.
If what Morgana said was true… then the original’s “amnesia,” and her clarity about possibly being taken over by a soul from another world, was no accident at all.
How did she know so much? What had happened? How could she so decisively abandon her own memories and soul?
Right now, she knew nothing. The little Witch in front of her seemed to know nothing, either.
Looking at the sobbing, thoroughly unguarded Morgana, Liang Lai’s Saintess’s heart finally exploded.
This crying was far too real, far too infectious.
The pain of being betrayed and forgotten wasn’t something one could simply act out.
She sighed, stretched out her other free hand, and drew Morgana into her arms, patting her on the back.
“Don’t cry….” Her tone softened a lot.
“Crying won’t solve anything… Fine, it was my fault just now, I’m sorry, okay…?”
“Then, what are you going to do?” Morgana lifted her tear-streaked face, sniffling.
“Are you still going to leave me behind? I’ve told you so much, told you all our secrets… wu wu wu…”
Liang Lai looked at her face, wet with tears, then at the silver ribbon still tied to her wrist. An absurd decision slowly took shape.
Take her back? The risk was enormous.
But leave her here? Not only would this crybaby probably keep clinging to her, but the secrets she knew about the original owner—and her own identity as a Witch—would be a huge loose end. Kept under her own nose, it might actually be safer… at least she could keep an eye on her, and maybe tease out more information.
“All right, stop crying.” Liang Lai compromised.
“I’ll take you back, child.”
Morgana’s sobs halted instantly. She snapped her head up, eyes wide and round, tears still clinging to her lashes.
“R-really?”
“Mm.”
Liang Lai nodded and began untying the ribbon on Morgana’s wrists.
“But there are conditions. First, you must absolutely obey my arrangements. Without my permission, you can’t leave the Court of Purity, you can’t use any Witch abilities, and absolutely no one can discover your identity. Second, outside, you are my… hmm, I picked you up at the edge of the Dustfolk District, a homeless orphan. Because, well, you look a little silly, I was afraid you wouldn’t survive, so I took you in. Understand?”
“Got it, got it! I totally understand!” Morgana instantly broke into a smile through her tears, nodding like a pecking chick.
“I’m super obedient! Tell me to go east and I won’t even think of going west! I can cook too, though maybe I’ll blow up the kitchen… but I can learn!”
Liang Lai: “…”
Already starting to regret it—what now?
But, this kid seemed like a good child…
…As long as she was a good child, she’d like her~ She just hoped… she wouldn’t let her down.
Liang Lai gently ruffled her hair, and as Morgana blinked in a daze, she untied the ribbon.
Morgana rotated her wrists a bit, her smile as bright as a sunflower—there was not a trace left of the earlier heartbreak.
Liang Lai seriously suspected she’d been tricked by this Witch’s brilliant acting again, but she’d said it already, so she could only grit her teeth and take things as they came.
“We have two problems right now.” Liang Lai held up two fingers.
“First, if I bring you home, I have to have a legitimate reason. The reason I’ll give to the Divine Court is that I want to adopt you—you’ll be my child from now on.”
Morgana’s eyebrows rose slowly, and before Liang Lai could finish, she shouted:
“Mom!”
“Pfft—cough cough!”
Liang Lai nearly choked on her own saliva. That was way too loud and sudden.
“No, no, how old are you? Maybe just call me ‘Sis’…”
“I’m 17~” Morgana blinked her big, pretty eyes.
“Uh…”
Liang Lai recalled the other children she’d adopted—they were about the same age, so this one calling her “Mom” wasn’t exactly wrong.
“Fine, you can call me Mom. I’ll do my part as a mom—wait, that’s not the point.”
Liang Lai sighed.
After meeting this child, she hadn’t really gotten into the role of “Mother”—she still felt more like a friend.
“What I’m saying is, you’ll need an identity. When we report to the Divine Court, they’ll draw your blood… I don’t know if a Witch’s blood is any different from a normal human’s. If they find out…”
“Our blood isn’t any different from a human’s.” Morgana cut her off, “But it is different from a Bloodthirster’s, or someone who gives blood—after all, Bloodthirsters drink blood, right? We Witches eat and live like normal people, so if our blood is a bit different, that’s normal~”
“You sure?” Liangcai looked at her suspiciously.
Morgana nodded hard.
“Of course I’m sure! Let me put it this way—folks from the Rust Frontier know way more than you people in the Divine Court.”
“Hmm…”
Liang Lai nodded thoughtfully.
For now, she could only trust this child—there were no other options.
She had to bring Morgana back.
Not just because Morgana knew things they didn’t, but even more because her Saintess’s compassion was bursting at the seams!
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