The Light She Cannot Grasp

Lovene did not look up. She took out another loaf of bread, wrapped it in paper, and handed it to an elderly man leaning on a cane.

“It is quite alright. Since it was my suggestion, it is only right that I do it myself.”

After Marcus returned to the territory, he had drastically overhauled many of its economic plans. At the same time, with the end of the anomaly, the territory's trade was gradually returning to prosperity.

Many of the poor in the slums had found work, and those who remained were mostly the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. Thus, Lovene had suggested to Marcus that they distribute some free food to them daily to ease their living hardships.

Marcus had agreed.

So now, she was distributing the free bread to these impoverished residents.

Of course, easing the living hardships of these poor people was actually the least important reason she was doing this. Her true purpose was to continue perfecting her image as the Saintess and strengthen her presence, thereby cultivating more believers.

Furthermore, she had to give up almost nothing of her own in the process.

After all, the bread belonged to the territory; she was merely performing the task of distributing it.

After the elderly man left, a woman approached her, leading a young boy who was standing on his tiptoes. His head barely reached the edge of the counter, and his eyes were slightly squinted against the morning light.

“You are still growing, little one. You should eat a bit more.”

She bent down to take out two loaves of bread, one of which was slightly larger than usual. Wrapping them in clean paper, she handed them to the woman.

The woman beside the little boy took the bread, looking down at the slight grease stains seeping through the paper, her voice trembling slightly:

“Thank you... thank you...”

With that, she bowed deeply to Lovene before leading the little boy away. Next in line was a painfully thin youth.

Gazing at the bread on the counter, he swallowed involuntarily and whispered,

“I... I also have a sister.”

Without a moment's hesitation, Lovene took out two more loaves, wrapped them in paper, and placed them in his hands.

“Then I shall give you two portions. One is for your sister.”

She did not question the truth of his words in the slightest. This made the youth freeze for a moment, his eyes turning inexplicably red as a sudden wave of emotion welled up in him.

He solemnly accepted the two loaves of bread, bowed to Lovene, and then hurried away, as if he could not wait to hand the bread to his sister and chase away her hunger.

The queue continued to move forward.

A man wearing an old coat stepped forward. As he took his bread, his gaze lingered briefly on her face before shifting away.

“I also have a sister.”

Lovene kept her head lowered. She placed a single loaf of bread on the counter, wrapped it in paper, pushed it toward him, and said softly,

“Liar. Here, your bread.”

The man's hand froze in midair, a mixture of astonishment and guilt washing over his face. “...Lady Saintess, how did you know I was lying?”

Lovene was already preparing the next loaf of bread, not looking up.

“I treated so many patients before, so naturally, I remember them. You only have an elderly mother and no sister. Besides, your mother has already come to collect food earlier.”

As if to spare the man from too much embarrassment, her voice was much softer than usual, audible almost only to the two of them. Unfortunately, a warm breeze blew past, carrying her voice outward.

Upon learning that the man had lied just to get more free food, many people in the queue cast disdainful looks at him, causing his face to flush red.

However, he did not care too much, as his skin was somewhat thicker than the average person's.

“I did not expect you to remember even that, Lady Saintess...”

From the waiting crowd nearby, someone chimed in:

“Heh, the Lady Saintess is the reincarnation of the Goddess. How could she not know?”

“Exactly. Lying in front of the Lady Saintess? I think you're looking for a beating.”

“These loaves are all strictly accounted for—one portion per person. If you take an extra share, what about everyone else?”

“Yeah! Off with you! Don't disrupt the Lady Saintess from handing out the bread.”

The man offered a sheepish grin and prepared to turn and leave with his bread, but just then, Lovene called out to him.

“Wait.”

The man stopped and turned back in confusion.

Lovene reached to the inner side of the counter, picked up a paper-wrapped loaf that was slightly smaller than the others, and offered it to him.

“If you are truly that hungry, you may have this one. But only this one, alright?”

The man stared down at the bread. After a brief pause, he accepted it.

“Thank you!”

With these thoughts in mind, he walked past the crowd with his head held high. Unwrapping the paper around the bread, he was about to take a bite to taste it when he overheard the crowd's quiet discussion:

“The one kept over there... wasn't that the Lady Saintess's own lunch?”

“It was indeed her lunch. That is why she said there was only one.”

“She gave away her own lunch? Then what will she eat at noon? There was already not enough bread to go around here.”

“Should we give her some of our bread?”

“With the Lady Saintess's temperament, there is no way she would accept our bread. She will likely end up going hungry. There is so much bread left to distribute; it will take until the afternoon to finish. She won't have time to go and eat lunch anyway...”

The man came to a halt at the edge of the square. Looking down at the bread in his hands—the bread that was originally meant to be Lovene's lunch—his cheeks burned hotter and hotter, and he found himself unable to meet anyone else's gaze.

The morning light fell upon his shoulders, illuminating the fine dust of flour on the bread's surface with a faint glow. He stood there clutching it for a long time, but in the end, he did not bring it to his mouth.

He tucked it back into his shirt.

There would always be someone who needed this food more than he did.

The morning light crept forward another notch along the stone pavers of the square, spilling over the edge of the distribution counter and bathing Lovene in a dreamlike golden hue. She was like light itself, dispersing the darkness within the territory and warming the hearts of humanity.

Standing beside her, Mia watched her busy figure, gradually becoming utterly spellbound.

In her eyes, Lovene at this moment resembled an oil painting, possessing a beauty that felt somewhat unreal. Especially under the radiance of the morning sun, the very certainty of her existence seemed to be delicately peeled away by the light, shedding layer after layer until only a thinning silhouette remained.

She was too perfect—so perfect that she seemed like a goddess out of legend.

Suddenly, a wave of unease washed over Mia.

An unspeakable distance existed between a goddess and mortals. Mia could not shake the feeling that Lovene would disappear, dissolving under the sunlight like morning mist, carried away by the wind to a place she could never follow, leaving her to exist only in everyone's memories.

In the end, they would face a parting, just as they had before.

If not for her ability to reverse time, they might have already been separated by life and death.

Lovene was light—the light she could never grasp.

After distributing the bread, Lovene and Mia returned to the lord's manor. Along the way, Mia remained silent, speaking very little.

That night, she startled awake from a dream.