Fresh flowers were often placed around the edge of the stone pedestal of the Saintess's statue. Their stems were usually still wet with morning dew, as if they had just been picked from somewhere nearby.
The face of the statue was only a rough outline, not yet fully carved, but her general expression was already recognizable.
Whenever the citizens passed by, their gazes would linger there for a moment. Some would stop, bowing their heads in silent prayer, while others would reach out to touch the edge of the pedestal, feeling for the statue's warmth.
Over the past few days, the Saintess's name had become increasingly deified, eventually surpassing even the territory's lord to become the primary faith of the people.
On the day of the Saintess's funeral, the road leading from the lord's manor to the cemetery was completely blocked by people who had come to pay their respects.
Standing on both sides of the street, they held freshly picked wild flowers in their hands. They stood in silence, their eyes fixed on the wooden coffin draped in a white holy shroud, none of them speaking a word.
The dense crowd stretched all the way from the gates of the lord's manor to the intersection leading to the coast, forming a silent boundary as they waited quietly for the Saintess to be laid to rest.
Mia did not attend the Saintess's funeral.
She had locked herself in her room at the end of the side corridor of the lord's manor. The door was slightly ajar, unlocked. She sat alone on the sofa, staring blankly out the window.
Immediately after the funeral, Clement and Marcus returned to the lord's manor.
Worried that Mia might do something reckless, they discussed it briefly before heading straight to her room. Pushing the door open, they stepped inside.
Mia heard the creaking of the door hinges, but she did not turn around.
She knew that the person coming in could not be Lovene.
Marcus saw right through her thoughts. He walked over to her side and comforted her, saying:
“Mia, don't be too sad. Your health is what matters most. If Lady Saintess were still here and saw you in so much pain, her heart would break for you.”
Since Mia cared about the Saintess, Lovene, more than anyone else, comforting her from this perspective was the most effective approach.
Hearing this, Clement, who was standing nearby, also spoke up:
“Yes, try to look on the bright side. My words might sound harsh, but for the Saintess, sacrificing her life for the territory is much better than sacrificing it for the Lord of the Morning Light.”
He paused, seemingly recalling something, and let out a bitter laugh. “And at least, in the days to come, she won't have to undergo the Blood-Bestowal Ceremony anymore.”
The Blood-Bestowal Ceremony?
Mia's heart skipped a beat.
Before a Church Saintess could offer her soul and flesh as a sacrifice to awaken the Lord of the Morning Light, she had to undergo numerous rituals to prove that her soul and flesh were the sweetest nourishment.
The Blood-Bestowal Ceremony was one of them.
The so-called blood-bestowal meant allowing the shadow of the Lord of the Morning Light to slice open the Church Saintess's skin and drink her blood in advance, thereby testing the quality of her blood.
If it was deemed substandard, the Church Saintess would die on the spot, and the Church of the Morning Light would immediately appoint the next Saintess. If it was deemed qualified, she would be allowed to live and continue growing.
She would continue until she matured into a perfect fruit, only to be plucked and consumed by the Lord of the Morning Light during the final awakening ritual.
So... because the Church Saintess, Lovene, had passed away, she no longer had to endure the agony of the Blood-Bestowal Ceremony...
These words carried a bittersweet sense of finding comfort in tragedy.
Mia ignored Clement. She sighed and said, “I am looking for... a way to save her.”
Clement and Marcus exchanged a glance, and Clement said:
“There's no point anymore. Even if you did find a way, so what? She has already sacrificed herself. Everything is already set in stone...”
What was done could not be undone; this was an immutable law of a thousand years.
He did not understand why Mia was so stubborn, insisting on finding a way to save Lovene. In his eyes, living well in the present was the only way to honor the Saintess's sacrifice.
However, he could not bring himself to say these words because Mia kept staring at him.
Those indifferent, blood-red eyes exerted an inexplicable pressure on him.
His lips twitched. After a moment of thought, Clement spread his hands and said:
“Fine, it's not like there's absolutely no way to save Lovene. As far as I know, that contamination source actually possesses some level of self-awareness. That was why the monster the Saintess transformed into tried to kill me earlier.”
“It wanted to eliminate the enemy that posed the greatest threat to it first. That is proof of its self-awareness.”
He would never forget how the monster had suddenly appeared before him, intent on shredding him to pieces. If Lovene had not used her last shred of willpower to restrain the monster, he would probably be dead by now.
It was precisely because of this that he felt living on was the best way to respect Lovene's memory.
Marcus raised an eyebrow and asked:
“What does having self-awareness matter? What does that prove?”
Clement rolled his eyes at him.
Marcus offered a sheepish grin in response.
He used to be a Heresy Inquisitor for the Church, so he should have known some of this, but he had been away from the role for so long that he had forgotten all of it.
Clement explained:
“A contamination source without self-awareness doesn't know how to seek benefits and avoid harm. They are like inanimate objects; no matter what you do to them, they won't react.”
“But a contamination source with self-awareness is different. They will do everything in their power to pursue what benefits them, and desperately run away from what harms them.”
Marcus's eyes lit up slightly.
“In other words, as long as we find what it fears, we can drive the contamination source out of the Saintess's body and purify the contamination?”
Clement nodded. “Exactly. But nobody knows what this contamination source fears. Besides... everything is already set in stone. There's no use thinking about it now.”
Something the contamination source feared?
Mia's heart skipped a beat. She felt as though she was on the verge of grasping something, but it remained just out of reach. It wasn't until she turned her head to look out the window and saw the warm sunlight bathing the entire territory that it clicked.
Sunlight...
She remembered how the contamination had boiled when exposed to direct sunlight upon Lovene's death. She recalled Lovene flipping through the territory annals in the study, questioning why the territory lacked sunlight.
“Sunlight! What the contamination source fears is sunlight!”
Mia cried out excitedly, her eyes shining bright as she found a glimmer of hope.
Clement frowned, murmuring after a brief moment of thought:
“It really could be sunlight. After all, we've been here for so many days and have barely seen the sun. But even if we know this, we still can't save the Saintess.”
“No, there has always been a way.”
“What do you mean?”
Before Clement could finish his sentence, Mia drew the longsword from her waist, pressed it against her neck, and slashed fiercely!
Blood sprayed onto Clement's face, painting his expression with shock and terror. Mia's vision spun wildly in the air, and she even caught a glimpse of her own headless body.
She had committed suicide.
But at that very moment, everything in the world began to rewind to its original position...
Rate on N.U.
