To Kailolo...
The days spent with Grandpa Hunter had been the happiest and warmest time of her life.
But the days under the care of the “Lich King Arthas” were like an absolute dream!
Since being saved by Arthas that night, Kailolo had escaped her previously harsh life.
She no longer had to wander the streets every day.
She had been adopted by Arthas and became a little apprentice maid.
After washing herself clean and putting on the neat, beautiful maid outfit, Kailolo almost didn't recognize herself.
The girl in the mirror was a far cry from the filthy tomboy she used to be.
She was actually... a little cute.
‘I wonder if Lord Arthas will like me looking like this.’
When this thought popped up, Kailolo's face flushed red with embarrassment.
She didn't even know why such a strange thought had crossed her mind.
Unfortunately, when she saw Arthas, he merely instructed her on her duties as a maid and went straight to his study.
He didn't hesitate for even a second.
This couldn't help but leave Kailolo a little disappointed.
But she quickly adjusted her mindset and focused on doing her job well.
Every morning, Kailolo had to wake up early to make the day's bread and broth alongside the other children Arthas had taken in.
Once everything was ready, they would open the courtyard gates, let in the poor souls who had been waiting outside, and distribute the fresh broth and bread to them.
Sometimes, following Lord Arthas's orders, they would also distribute clean clothes and a few precious copper coins.
If someone fell ill, Kailolo would go and fetch Lord Arthas from his study, where he was always reading.
He would then cast miraculous healing magic on those people.
It was only then that Kailolo realized Lord Arthas was actually a noble mage.
However, she found it strange. Why did a mage wear armor?
This completely baffled Kailolo, but she didn't ask.
She figured it was probably just a little quirk of Lord Arthas.
What puzzled Kailolo even more was that her master, this mage, did all of this just so the refugees would pray to a statue when they came to receive their food every day.
It was a faceless statue, enshrined right in the center of the main hall.
Arthas called her: “The Goddess of Redemption!”
At first, Kailolo found it very odd that the statue had no face.
But when she plucked up the courage to ask Lord Arthas—who looked cold but was actually very kind and good-hearted—he answered, “Gods have no fixed form. Their appearance is always the most beautiful image in each person's heart.”
“If you wonder what God looks like, you only need to ask your own heart. It will tell you exactly what God's appearance is.”
The young Kailolo was completely confused at the time, and it took her a long while to barely grasp the meaning of those words.
Then, it suddenly clicked.
Afterward, when she prayed to the statue alongside the refugees, she would silently replace the statue's face in her mind with her deceased mother, Grandpa Hunter, and what she imagined Lord Arthas looked like.
To Kailolo, these were the most beautiful people in her eyes.
...
During these dream-like, wonderful days, Kailolo had a smile on her face every single day.
She wished so dearly that these beautiful days could last forever.
Sometimes before going to sleep, she would pinch herself, terrified that all of this was just a dream.
Sometimes, huddled under her blanket, Kailolo would even secretly think about how she would definitely repay Lord Arthas's kindness when she grew up.
Whenever she thought of this, the girl's face would turn red with embarrassment.
Then, the next day, whenever she saw Arthas, she would unconsciously avert her eyes, not daring to look him in the face.
Even though she didn't even know what the man named Arthas looked like beneath that cold armor.
...
But unfortunately, beautiful things are always fleeting.
On that day, the thing Kailolo dreaded the most...
happened anyway.
In the early morning, while she and the other children were up early making bread, the front gates were violently smashed open from the outside.
A group of men claiming to be the Church's knight order barged in, radiating murderous intent.
They knocked over the flour bins, smashed the statue, and drove away the refugees waiting outside the courtyard.
After searching the entire residence and failing to find their target, they vented their fury on Kailolo and the other children.
The knights, radiating the aura of holy light, pulled out ropes used to punish heretics. On charges of illegally establishing a cult and spreading heretical beliefs, they brutally arrested Kailolo and the others.
They tied ropes around the children's necks and paraded them through the streets like livestock for public display.
As she was dragged through the streets, Kailolo felt deeply confused.
She didn't understand why these older brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, hated her so much.
She didn't understand why these people looked at her with such disgust and loathing.
It was a horrible feeling.
Kailolo felt her heart ache terribly.
Just like... when she was wandering the streets.
Her only consolation was that Lord Arthas had probably not been caught.
Afterward, they were thrown into the Church's dungeons to be interrogated.
The high-and-mighty clergy wanted to know where Arthas had gone.
But how could the children, led by Kailolo, possibly know?
They only worked hard every day to repay Lord Arthas's kindness.
They were just... a bunch of poor souls.
Yet, the high-and-mighty clergy were convinced they were heretics.
After questioning yielded no results, and even interrogation magic failed to extract any useful information,
these madmen tied the children, the oldest of whom was barely eleven or twelve, to stakes.
And they piled firewood all around them!
That night, the starlight was obscured by dark clouds.
The ground below was equally dark and crowded.
It was a dense sea of people, interspersed with piercing beams of firelight.
Holding their torches high, these believers of the gods screamed slogans to execute the heretics, seemingly not caring at all that those tied to the stakes were just a group of children!!
Staring at the ignorant crowd and facing their impending deaths,
many of the children tied to the stakes could no longer bear the terror in their hearts and burst into tears.
They felt so indignant. They had barely enjoyed a few good days, so why...
But there was one child who didn't cry, and instead did her best to comfort the others.
That was... Kailolo.
Though she was also terrified, she forced herself not to cry, trying her best to soothe the other children.
She said, “Don't be afraid. Don't forget, Lord Arthas is a noble mage.”
“He will definitely come to save us!”
When she said this, even Kailolo didn't believe it in her heart.
She was no longer a naive child.
She understood how the world worked.
No matter how strong Lord Arthas was, could he fight against an entire Church?
He couldn't.
Besides, even if he could, he probably wouldn't make an enemy of the Church for the sake of useless children like them.
Even if...
he called himself the “Lich King.”
This was the answer in Kailolo's heart.
She only hoped that Lord Arthas would run as soon as he heard the news.
Run far away.
And not get caught by these “bad guys”!
As for being burned at the stake as a cultist because of him,
Kailolo didn't blame him in the slightest.
In her mind, if not for Lord Arthas, she would have died long ago on that freezing Midwinter Festival.
Her life was given to her by Arthas.
Now, she was merely returning it to him.
To have met such a merciful mage before she died, Kailolo felt...
she was very fortunate.
...
That day, the wind was howling.
After the cathedral's bishop finished reciting the endless list of crimes of Kailolo and the other children in front of the entire city's population,
the paladins mercilessly used their torches to light the wood piled beneath the stakes.
The faces beneath their helmets showed absolutely no emotion.
There was only absolute loyalty and faith toward their god.
With a sudden, roaring gust of wind,
the flames instantly surged high into the air!
It was as if even the heavens wanted to burn these wretched heretics as quickly as possible.
The children could only wail amidst the flames.
Their tears streamed down their cheeks,
but they couldn't slow the fire down in the slightest.
The scorching heat, combined with the choking smoke, made them cough uncontrollably.
At that moment, whether because of the smoke or because she could no longer resist her inner terror of death,
Kailolo's vision grew blurry as tears welled in her eyes.
She finally cried.
But before her tears could slide down her cheeks, a piercing roar echoed across the entire execution ground.
Immediately following it was a bone-chilling cold.
It was a strange, black gale.
The blazing flames were instantly snuffed out by the necrotic aura laced within the gale.
When Kailolo raised her head in utter disbelief and looked toward the source of the sound,
she saw the dark clouds that had blanketed the sky violently torn apart.
Revealing a massive full moon.
Bathed in the moonlight, a wyvern composed of pale white bones, carrying eerie blue flames, descended from the heavens like a meteor!
On its back, Arthas held the chainsword named Frostmourne high. Amidst the low rumble of magical engine roars, he let out a whisper that sounded as if it came from the Abyss:
“Hypocritical Holy Light, wail to your heart's content in your final moments! For you are about to be utterly destroyed by me!”
On that day, Kailolo finally understood why Arthas, despite being a noble mage, chose to wear airtight armor instead of a magnificent mage robe.
On that day, the Church's forces in Laila were completely annihilated by the “Lich King” single-handedly.
On that day, Kailolo felt...
she had received redemption...
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