“Who are you?” she asked, mustering as much intimidation as she could.

This woman—this ethereal beauty was…the bitchy Avaron.

I’d already seen this form of hers before, but I couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised. After all, she hadn’t assumed this form much before.

So, I ignored her question and approached her.

“So, you went away just to do this? I remember you telling me that this form is useless.”

“Hah,” she chuckled. “It was useless. But in this life, I found a particularly good use for it.”

“Which is?”

In response, she walked right up to me. Glaring down at me, she grabbed my neck.

“Kurghhh! What are you doing?!”

She continued choking me; her hands nearly crushing my throat.

“Answer me! Who are you?” She gazed upon me with crazed eyes. “Are you Nova Leinfall, or Nova the greatest Swordsmaster?”

WHAT THE FUCK WAS SHE DOING?!

“What kind of question is that?! Release me, now!” I was surprised at my own ability to form that coherent of a sentence despite, you know.

“Answer me!”

“P-Please!” My eyes unwittingly teared up. “T-This isn’t like you, Nira!”

Her grip loosened a bit upon hearing my words, but she was still choking me. As I was just about to pass out, she let go of me.

I fell down to the ground; confused about what had just happened. Between my coughs and gasps for air, I could feel her hand on my back, soothing me a bit.

“Forget it, you’ll know what I’m talking about later,” I could hear her scoff.

After calming down, I gazed up at that immaculate face of hers. It would look even better with a fist planted in her nose. In fact, I was going to make her look better.

I punched her in the face by mustering as much strength as I could. However, she didn’t even flinch.

Not caring about this one bit, I continued my assault; this time at her chest.

“You little shit! You dare do that to your Master?”

Avaron just shrugged my pounding off. Literally.

“Aaaah, so annoying. I did it just to confirm a few things. Happy?”

“You only stopped when I said your name! Is that what you want, huh, for me to call you ‘Athenira’?!”

“...Not really.”

“Then I’m going to call you ‘Nira’ from now on just to spite you!”

“Fine by me.”

Taken aback by her unusual calmness, I stammered, “W-Well, I don’t care what the fuck you wanted! You almost choked me until I passed out! And I’m not into choke-play!”

“Are you sure? I could’ve sworn I saw the Mage girl chok—”

“Shut up!”

As I was about to deliver another hefty punch, she turned herself into a sword. I could feel my bones shake as my fist came into contact with her cold metal blade.

“Fuck! Are you really trying to murder your Master?”

{Hehe.}

This bitch of a sword! The first thing she did upon returning was choke me until I nearly passed out. Now, she was hiding in her sword form, not even having enough guts to take my fists like a ma— um, Archangel!

“Goddammit! FUCK YOU!”

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The incident was over.

Unlike what I’d expected, Hannah gave all the credits of curing the disease to me. As such, I wasn’t that surprised when I heard the villagers’ shouts.

-”Thank you!”

-”Let’s cheer for the Saint of Healing!”

-”Haha, Saint of Healing! I wish you good luck.”

I stood on the edge of my wagon which was heading out of the village, waving back at the villagers with a neutral expression. God dammit, I just wanted to shut their mouths up right now.

{Kahaha! Saint of Healing? Are you done snatching the Saintess’ title?}

‘Shut up! I don’t want to be called that!’

About people calling me Saintess Emelia’s old title…it was fine. She wasn’t the type of person to fuss over something like that. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d thanked me for helping the Common people in her stead.

The problem was the expectations that this title would place onto me. I could only cure this disease thanks to my past life’s experiences. If a new deadly disease popped up, I wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.

‘Well, what are the chances of that happening?’

{...Don’t jinx yourself.}

‘Noted.’

As I saw the village receding into the distance, I heaved an exhaustive sigh and stepped back into the carriage. As soon as I did so, I could feel someone wrapping a coat around me.

“Mistress, are you cold?”

“Violette…” I stared at the blonde girl before me. “...I told you to call me by my name.”

“B-But Head maid Ria said that…”

“I see…”

I decided to have a word with Ria later.

That aside, I was pleasantly surprised when Violette asked to be my personal maid out of her own volition. Thankfully, Ria accepted her without any trouble.

{I think the Head maid pities you. You had no maids dedicated to you in a mansion as big as that.}

‘I do!’

{Is that so? Name one, then.}

‘Ria—’

{She’s your Mom’s personal servant.}

‘N—’ but then, I thought about it for a little bit. ‘Okay, she is. I forgot about that.’

With how much she’d been sticking around me lately, I actually forgot that she was supposed to be Mom’s maid.

Okay, enough about Ria. Now, the problem was Violette.

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“Why did you decide to serve me?”

“Y-You cured my disease. B-Besides, it’s an honor to serve the Saint of Healing…”

‘That damn title again!’

Closing my eyes to calm myself down, I said,

“Only that?”

“W-Well,” she twirled her hair in nervousness. “I-I also want to meet my brother again. It’s been so long…”

“Should’ve said so from the beginning.”

Then, I stood up and slowly approached her.

Thinking that I was going to do something bad like fire her right away for not having the purest of intentions, Violette clammed her eyes shut. She only opened them again to express her surprise when I patted her shoulder gently.

“Don’t worry, I’m…very close with your brother.”

“R-Really?” She looked at me in disbelief.

“Yes,” I gave her a dry laugh. “Very. Close enough that he sneaked into my room at night—”

By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. Violette was already staring at me with her mouth agape.

I sighed, knowing that saying anything more would just fuel the misunderstanding. So, I grabbed her chin and pushed her mouth closed, not wanting my new maid to hurt her jaws on her first day.

Ignoring her very concerning blush, I made my way to the front of the wagon, where Ria and her sister were sitting.

Peeking my head over Hannah’s shoulder, I asked,

“Remind me why you are here again.”

“To pledge myself to your Mom, obviously,” she replied nonchalantly.

“And you expect her to accept it just like that?”

“Hey, I’m her Head maid’s sister. Besides, no sane person would refuse my service.”

“Hmmm…”

Well, she had a point. Apparently, she was the best Alchemist on this continent or whatever, but I didn’t see what the fuss was all about.

Maybe my standards were set unrealistically high because of Zheng Shi, the Alchemist of the Hero’s party, but that didn’t matter right now.

So, without much more thought, I curled myself on Ria’s lap—just like how a cat would on its owner’s lap—and enjoyed the pats she was giving me until we got home.

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After a few hours, we were finally back at the mansion.

As soon as the wagon stopped, Hannah and Ria rushed into the mansion to apparently meet Mom, leaving me and Violette alone.

“What do we do with the wagon, mistress?”

“...Someone will take care of it. Now, let’s go.”

I strode confidently through the gates of the mansion, keeping my chin up high even among the towering guards.

However, I stopped in my tracks upon seeing a familiar blonde figure in the corner of my eyes.

“Edw—”

Before I could utter his name, I felt something crashing into my back, knocking the air out of my lungs.

With a threatening glare, I turned around, only to see Violette on the ground, massaging her forehead in pain.

“Owww… I-I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay,” I sighed. “It’s my fault for stopping so suddenly.”

Then, I extended my hand out to help her get up, which Violette accepted without any thought.

However, her crashing into me had caused quite a commotion. So, it was natural that Edward looked in our direction.

“V-Violette?!”

Violette snapped her head toward her stupefied brother.

“B-Brother?”

Before they could dash into each other’s embrace like all the “romance novels” Ihwa used to make me read, I pulled Violette by the waist and pressed her body close to mine.

Both siblings stopped in their tracks and stiffened their bodies, but for vastly different reasons.

‘According to Violette, her father was an Otherworlder.’

Until he died, anyways.

So, with an evil grin, I made a peace sign at Edward.

He immediately panicked and shot me a glare. It looked like his father told him what the sign meant. However, I wasn’t going to stop there.

“Violette, copy my hand.”

“O-Okay.”

She extended her hand out and made a peace sign. Seeing this, I grabbed her arm and aligned it so that the sign would just barely cover Violette’s face from Edward’s perspective.

‘Perfect.’

If looks could kill, then I’d be battling Demon king in Hell right now, and Edward would have been on trial for killing a Noble. Seriously, he looked at me as if I stole his lover or something.

‘Heh, would you look at that, jealous of a five-year-old, aren’t you?’

Laughing wickedly on the inside, I entered the mansion and gave Violette permission to catch up with her brother.

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I entered my room to sleep through the day. However…

“You’re here.”

…someone was blocking the entrance.

“H-Hi, Mom.”

I gulped. This was bad. From her perspective, I chose sleep over spending time with her after a long excursion. B-But— okay, fine, I admit that it was precisely what happened.

Mom nodded and opened the door to my room. Then, she beckoned me inside.

“Nova Leinfall, come inside this room right now. Don’t make me wait, young lady.”

‘O-Oh no…’

{W-What? D-Did she find out about your identity?}

‘N-No; it’s worse than that.’

{W-What is it?}

Even Nira was shaking in fear at the pressure that Mom exuded.

I was an orphan in my past life, so I didn’t really understand Ihwa’s joke about her Mom calling her by her full name whenever she was really mad about something.

But now…yeah, I could understand.

Did I want to? No.

But whining right now wasn’t going to solve anything, so I obediently followed her into the room.

“Sit,” Mom said as she patted the bed.

I obeyed and shakily sat down.

Then, Mom crouched down to meet my eye level and—

“AHHHH!”

—slapped me. Hard.

I looked at her with teary eyes; baffled.

It stung so damn much! But, strangely, my cheek didn’t hurt that much. Despite her slap definitely making me cheek red from the impact, the gnawing pain that was in my heart was greater.

As I was about to involuntarily burst into tears, she embraced me tightly.

“O-Oh God, little one, I-I’m sorry!”

I was still in a daze, but Mom continued to sob while whispering apologies into my ear.

“I-I’m sorry. Y-You almost died, a-and yet, the first thing I did was slap you.”

‘S-She knew?’

Then, she distanced herself a bit; her left hand still behind my back; and caressed my cheek with her right one.

It definitely made the pain in my cheek a bit worse, but it alleviated the pain in my heart tremendously at the same time.

“I-I won’t make any excuses,” she muttered and shut her eyes tightly. “I-I’m a failure of a mother. I—”

“Mom!” I shouted. I couldn’t bear to see her like this anymore! “Don’t say that! It’s my fault!”

“Little one, it’s not—”

“N-No, listen to me! I-It’s okay to be mad; I’m the one who went to the village without your approval. I’m the one who almost got myself killed. Please…don’t blame yourself!”

I didn’t care about not sounding like a kid right now. The only thing on my mind was to make sure that Mom was fine.

Mom teared up even more as she heard that. She hugged me; cried, sniffled, and wailed while burying her face in my shoulder. Then, after an hour, she literally cried herself to sleep.

I let her stay on my body like that for a few minutes; and it would’ve stayed this way for the whole day if it wasn’t for Ria entering my room with a gentle smile.

“I’ll take care of her from here. Rest well, young miss.”

“...You’d better take care of her well.”

“Of course.” She chuckled.

Now left alone in the room, I changed into my nightwear and slept.

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Night.

Once again, I was woken up by a shuffling sound in my room. But unlike before, the assailant didn’t care to hide himself.

He strode confidently to my bed; his orange eyes seemingly glowed in the dark.

I didn’t summon Nira this time since I could tell who the person was, and I could also tell that I couldn’t win against him—not that he was here to harm me…probably.

And, I didn’t want to give away Nira’s existence to him of all people.

He stopped right at the edge of my bed; his eyes tracing my every movement as I rubbed my eyes and sat up on the bed.

“Saint of Healing,” he said. “They should’ve called you Saint of Rags.”

With the sweetest voice I could conjure, I said,

“Daddy?”

The man snapped his fingers. Simultaneously, all candles inside my room were lit up, showing me that the man was indeed Herald.

He observed me with his cunning orange eyes and sighed.

“While you were playing Saint and ‘saving’ the peasants, one of your sisters has awakened her Aura; and she’s only 10.”

I stared back at him blankly. What a weird thing to say to your daughter. But…yes, I could manifest Aura right now. However, I decided not to. I didn’t need his recognition. The only thing I needed from him was the fear in his eyes when I inevitably pressed a blade to his throat and made him pay for all the suffering he’d inflicted on Mom.

However, that proved to be a mistake, as I accidentally let my bloodlust seep out. But unlike last time, he powered through the fear and grabbed me roughly by the neck.

I panicked. My tail swayed around wildly, and my hands immediately moved to pry his thick and calloused hands off. However, it was all futile.

I saw stars in my eyes, and I could feel my consciousness slowly slipping. As I was about to pass out, he brought my furry ears closer to his mouth and whispered,

“Disaster can befall you any time without warning. You get one last chance to redeem yourself by awakening to Fire affinity in the ceremony. I’ll delay it to until five years from now just for you, so don’t disappoint me.”

Then, he tightened his grip even tighter, making me feel like my throat was going to be crushed. Before I could let out a yip of pain, he continued.

“Remember, I’m the one who decides your life and death.”

Then, my world turned dark.