A few minutes before Leo fell...

The sheer number of Traum soldiers overwhelmed Irene's party. They could take on a few, but hundreds were too much with their ability. Injuries after injuries piled up on Dale and Tris bodies. She was too powerless to prevent it.

Suddenly, a magic circle appeared near her. It glowed bright and a group of strangers fell from it.

She was surprised to see an acquaintance, Knight commander of Heiligh kingdom, Meld Loggins among them.

A ray of hope lit up inside her. She ran through the Traum soldiers, intending to plead for help.

Being ambushed by skeletons, the strangers started chanting magic.

A girl with a ponytail sliced their heads using her sword.

A handsome guy donned in glorious armor used holy magic like it was nothing.

A girl in priest robes casted advanced healing spells without break.

They were all surprised to see a woman here.

The young man with the holy sword stepped forward. "Tell me what happ—" his eyes opened wide when he saw someone fighting the behemoth.

Everyone stared at the guy engulfed in black aura fighting a behemoth alone, no, rather it looked like he was fighting in half-dead state. His appearance reminded them of demons from manga.

They saw his sword covered in an enormous gray aura attacking the behemoth.

One strike shook the floor and killed the unkillable behemoth.

Meld eyes widened in shock, he couldn't believe it. It was the first time someone killed a behemoth. Even the strongest hero perished facing the behemoth.

He couldn't help but ask, "Just who is he?"

"Meld-san, please help!"

He turned back to see an acquaintance.

Near the bridge, one certain black-haired girl stood in daze, countless emotions flashing in her brown eyes seemingly locked at the figure who killed the behemoth.

She snapped out of her trance and ran toward Leo, but the bridge started falling. She could only stare at him walking with the support of a sword and trying to reach out to her, yet she couldn't grab it.

"LEO!!!" she screamed.

The girl in priest robes grabbed her shoulders to prevent her, or she might have fallen with him.

Irene stared at the bridge falling apart before running forward with shaky steps, her body exhausted with the overuse of magic.

"Leo!"

Her legs gave out when she saw him falling down the bridge. The ponytail girl grabbed her from behind.

"What was this all about?" was the question in everyone's mind.

The handsome guy in armor tried to support Irene but the deathly glare by the woman stopped him.

"Don't touch me."

He scratched his head awkwardly. "What happened here?"

She hugged her knees and silently sobbed, her heart breaking sobs stopped anyone from approaching her.

"Leave her alone!" Meld yelled.

"Eriri, snap out of it," said a little girl with twin-tails.

Eri just sat there with blank eyes, ignoring everything around here. The girl in priest robes hugged her, she sobbed loudly in her embrace.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The ponytail girl looked at the bridge that was no longer there. "Was that Leo-san?" she whispered and put the right arm of blue-haired girl over her shoulder and started to climb back up.

***

A few days later…

Irene sat in a room, her eyes looking at the black-haired girl, Eri Nakamura who was carried here after she fell asleep in Kaori's embrace after the incident.

'Why did I have to do that just for a glanz crystal? Please stay safe and come back...'

She brought her hands in front of her chest to pray.

***

Irene Verglas, an orphan from her birth. Her parents left her at the gate of an Orphanage. When she was 5, she began to see weird aura around the people around her. She slowly analyzed this and found out the colorful aura appeared to be emotions of people. She made it her goal to train this ability.

Later, a man called Leo Bawavis adopted her from the orphanage. He was searching for talented people to train them in outstanding adventurer, the girl's talent in ice magic astounded even him.

Still, she never called him anything other than Uncle. She saw his true nature, his aura was dangerous. But she still called him lovingly just for the act. She had no one to rely on beside him.

It became her habit to always use her ability on the people she met. Slowly, she became disgusted by all the adults around her.

One day, something happened to her ability, it evolved. She tried it again on her Uncle and saw a grey ball in her Uncle's chest. After some experimentation, she came to a conclusion, the ball-like thing was what people called Soul.

Her loathing toward adults only increased over time. People with disgusting aura, hiding behind an amicable smile, this was her definition of adults.

She started acting cold to everyone when she saw their souls, showing emotions was a weakness in her eyes. Her treatment of others was based on their aura toward herself.

She especially loved children, after looking at shades of gray her entire childhood, their pure white souls fascinated her, while her night time consisted of staring at the moon and stars.

Time passed by, she grew up into a beautiful girl, her uncle started to force her for blind dates with influential nobles. She couldn't deny it. No matter how he was, she owed him too much and even though he had high ambitions, he cared for her from his heart.

So she agreed under the condition that she will only agree to date if she likes them. Who knew she might end up meeting someone in a chance.

But that was just her wishful thinking, she ended up crippling the first noble child she met. Their aura toward her disgusted her, sickly red full of lust trying to devour her.

Even her childhood friend who she met after a long time had the same aura. So she skewered him with her Ice spears. With her magic talent and beauty, every man she came across looked at her this way. Even if they don't show it on their face, their aura gave them away.

But one day she met two men who didn't look at her with the same eyes. When she asked about it, they replied that they were not 'normal' men. After some thought, sh4 created a party with them for adventure quests.

Life was the same for her, crippling a man every few weeks, doing quests to earn money for her future.

One day, she took a quest to collect medicinal plants from outside the Heiligh Kingdom, things were going well until a Mutated Ogre ambushed them.

Her party couldn't fight against it. The Ogre was toying with them with a smirk on its face.

Her magic couldn't even penetrate its arms, she felt powerless and nearly lost all her hope.

'Are we really going to die here? I still haven't met the one I want to marry... I wanted a kid of my own... I—'

Her thoughts stopped when a young man appeared out of nowhere and kicked Ogre's head.

She activated her ability unconsciously, but what she saw stunned her.

A ball of pure white wrapped by eerie black chains. The chains looked as if trying to devour the ball of light but it could do nothing. The brightness of light overpowered the darkness. There was no other way to describe it.

'How can this be? It is... Impossible.'

She checked again and again, but the results were one and same.

'I'll check it myself.'

She was once again shocked when the young man went berserk and crushed the head of Ogre like a beast.

But his soul still shined, unaffected by darkness around it.

'Why? How can someone still be so kind with so much darkness? Is he really a human? Is my ability not working correctly?'

She started talking to him when he came to them. She even tried to tease him, but he didn't look at her with lust.

'Only Apostles wear this kind of clothes,' she thought about a group of people entering the labyrinth.

His aura nearly became pitch black of hatred when he brought up his parents then it returned to normal.

She tried to seduce him in the Adventurer Guild, his aura was lustful but it only lasted for several seconds.

'Is he also like them?'

She really liked talking to him. His words were always sincere. He only lied about his identity, which she thought was feasible since he is from another world. His eyes were quite pure when he looked at her.

'Is he a saint?'

She eventually ended up staring at his face every time they met. A warm and fluffy feeling rose inside her every time she looked at him.

'What is this feeling? Is this what people call love? Am I in love?'

Before she could confirm it, her own mistake ended everything.

She nearly teared up remembering all of this.

"Even if she wants to kill me, I'll agree. I…"