The next morning in the Monre’s house.
“I greet the Head of the Monre family.”
Rigel Oranim placed his hand on his chest and bowed formally before Rogers Monre. The people around him began to clap their hands and cheered.
“Oh my! Just like a true gentleman.” – Rogers laughed.
He gently patted the young boy’s head.
“Good job, Rigel.”
The young boy blushed happily. He had been practicing etiquette for a month to do it naturally, as Rigel wanted to prove to the people of Monre household that he was mature and could deal with things of his own. However, the eight-year-old boy was still a kid, no matter how hard he tried to pretend to be an adult, Rigel still wanted to receive compliments from his loved family, though they did not share the same blood.
The boy then gave a speech to express his deep appreciation to the people who had helped him unconditionally for years.
“I am greatly indebted to you. You have provided me shelter and food, raised me and even helped me to find my family. Thank you so much for all these years. Without your generosity and kindness, this Rigel Oranim cannot make it today. I will do everything to repay you back, and I love you all!”
The ending was Rigel embracing his family, his short arms trying to wrap all three adults’ hips.
“My goodness. So cute!”
“You’ve grown up, Rigel.”
“Let me hug you too!”
The members of the Monre family happily welcomed the boy’s affection. Behind them stood a young priestess, she also smiled at the merry sight. Eithne felt an immense sense of pride in her young kin, as the speech today was Rigel overcoming his timidity to express his feelings by words.
‘Getting rid of his bashful side will benefit him greatly in the future.’
The priestess lightly nodded her head in satisfaction. Rigel’s practice of etiquette had also improved greatly, by the time when the Solinue ducal family came, he should have learnt all the necessary things to deal with aristocrats. Nobody could make his lacking manner as a joke like how it had happened in the plot anymore.
Rigel released Rogers’s legs from his embrace and turned to the priestess.
“I have something for you too. Wait here Eithne.”
The boy lightly tapped her hand and ran to the back of the house.
Something for her? What could it be? Eithne was curious.
After a minute, Rigel returned. He carried a flower basket and skipped to the priestess like a happy little lamb. The basket was overflowed with freshly picked daisy flowers, and between the dainty petals, a glass candy jar peeked out with a pink ribbon on its lid.
The little kid lifted the flower basket as high as possible, since he was too short while the priestess was too tall.
“Please accept this as a token of my gratitude!”
Rigel spoke softly as he was a bit nervous if Eithne liked this casual gift. Obviously, Eithne could not let him down.
“Thank you so much, Rigel.”
Eithne smiled when she hugged the flower basket. The priestess might look like an unapproachable person, but she never turned down any present made from sincerity.
“I… I’m happy that you like it!”
Rigel said. His cheeks flushed with excitement, melting the hearts of the adults around him.
The priestess looked at Rigel waving goodbye to leave for his cow-herding work. The young boy hummed and even danced on his way. Rigel was kind and obedient like a dream child of every parent. Additionally, he was even hard-working to make his own income from a young age.
Eithne let out a deep breath. She did not deserve this little angel.
‘Damn my selfish soul!’
At first, she did not come here because she worried about the male lead, instead, it was her intention of running away from the temple using her kin as an excuse. Now that she had been avoiding the temple’s eyes for a month, they were telling her to go back.
Hesata called Eithne yesterday to inform that the High Priest was looking for her, indicating it was time she returned under the temple’s surveillance. Truthfully, the High Priest had been far too lenient with Eithne Noceur. She and Hesata caused a lot of trouble, but he never applied any harsh punishment on them. Last time, Eithne showed suspicious power and destroyed many properties of the temple, yet Demir Noceur still let her run free outside for a whole month.
However, he was not a saint.
The High Priest had been famous for his strict and cold personality for decades. His reputation as a cruel General was established even before Eithne Noceur was born, and after Demir Noceur retired, he acquired another title of the War temple’s dictator. In the memory of the original priestess, there were times she had witnessed some people go missing mysteriously. Rumors said they had the guts to go against the moral principles of the High Priest.
Eithne definitely did not want to be the next person.
Therefore, she sometimes wondered if the High Priest was silently collecting enough evidence to give her a death sentence. He must have something up his sleeves, maybe he would reveal it this time when she came back.
“I don’t want to go back at all… “ – The priestess was depressed.
She felt insecure and nervous like a criminal turning themselves in.
“I ought to make a will…” – She mumbled.
__
In the old house of Nesta Oranim, Eithne waited for Rigel to come back from work until the evening.
This morning the priestess had gone downtown to buy souvenirs for Hesata and gifts for the Monre family since she prepared to leave. However, there was nothing in the small town of the South border that the rich Capital did not have, so Eithne had yet to choose something for Hesata. Maybe she should buy a fresh Southern delicacy on the day she went back to the temple.
Eithne looked at the clock on the wall.
“Huh… Normally he would have come home at this time?”
Rigel had done this job for a year and the Monre family ensured it was safe enough for a kid, so Eithne did not suspect anything. However, one more hour passed and Rigel was nowhere to be seen. The priestess furrowed her eyebrows. She decided to go check at the Monre house to see if he was there.
“I thought he had already come home?”
Rogers Monre did not see the little boy either. Eithne suddenly felt worried.
“I will go to the grass field to look for him.” – She said.
“Wait I will go too.” – Rogers grabbed his jacket and followed behind the priestess.
The man also found it odd that Rigel did not come home on time. The little boy had been a good kid who never played outside when it was this late.
They went to the wide grass field where cattle were usually herded. Only the cows remained munching on grass, while the young boy was absent from his job. Eithne and Rogers called his name several times but there was no answer. After a few minutes, the owner of the cows also came looking for Rigel since he did not see his cows going back.
“So Rigel didn’t come to you either…” – Rogers talked to the cows’ owner.
Eithne strayed far from the herd of cattle, thinking Rigel might hang around the forest nearby. She was hoping to find some footprints in the mud but to no avail, there was no trace of him as if the boy disappeared into thin air.
“Rigel!” – She shouted one more time.
Suddenly, a faint odor reached her nose. It was very weak, almost scentless, but the sense of an elite priestess was strong enough to feel it.
Blood.
“Fuck!” – Eithne blurted. Bad omen!
She tracked down the smell to a tall bush of grass. A broken wine bottle was found in the middle of the bush. On the pointy shards of glass, traces of dry blood were unmistakable.
Rogers noticed Eithne's abrupt movement so he came to look inside the bush. Seeing the mess made the man deeply frowned, he cautiously picked up the half-broken bottom of the wine bottle to find the brand.
“This… looks like some thugs’ wine…”
However, Eithne could not stay calm to hear Rogers’s next sentence. Blood… Blood at the place Rigel was working and he went missing!
She quickly rushed into the forest. Her instinct was telling that Rigel was probably hurt.
“Goddamn it!”
‘Rigel… please hold it on until I come…’
It was confirmed that Rigel did not return to the village from the afternoon.
“Rigel! Rigel!”
The Monre family and several villagers lit up their torch and went into the forest to look for the missing boy. Their cry of his name echoed back and forth in endless crowns of forest trees, but only the screech of wild animals answered them.
Every passing second sank the people’s hearts into a downcast feeling, but the night seemed to be everlasting.
Eithne was running aimlessly. She had gone deep into the woods before the villagers for almost half an hour, but she had yet to discover anything.
It was all her fault! She was too careless with a child!
If anything were to happen to him…
Her hands were trembling in fear of dreadful scenarios. The priestess’s mind was even more chaotic than when she was facing the High Priest. Eithne did not notice that her sanity was wearing away the longer she wandered in the forest.
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“Rigel!” – She cried. Her voice was strained and despairing.
The night kept quiet to her anguish. Eithne was advantageous when she moved in the dark, however, the dark’s silence scared her. Her hands gripped each other trying to ease her soul, but she was tormented by the night’s gloomy silence for too long.
She knew it clearly. It was the same for her past life.
No matter how hard she screamed, the dark would not reply.
Eithne slowed down her steps and took a deep breath.
Instantly, her golden eyes turned dim. They became hollow, similar to the eyes of the creatures roaming in total darkness all their life.
‘I have been desperate enough to use this stupid power…’
The mysterious power that had almost killed Hesata was summoned again.
The priestess could feel the cold flow of desperation escaping her heart like millions of ice needles threaded its way through her flesh. There was no barrier to stop Eithne’s power this time, so it gushed through the trees like an invisible flood. Branches and leaves shook and screamed their rustling violently in the flow of the insidious matter, they had no choice but to succumb in the vehemence of darkness.
The pitch-black matter quickly filled every nook and corner that it could find. It mixed in the night and quickly muted every object within its touch. The forest’s spirits shrieked in agony as they were being drown in the silent corruption. Wild animals and the villagers suddenly lost their senses, even the flame on the torches was extinguished strangely. Nobody could see or hear anything, even if they tried shouting and stomping on the ground.
At that moment, the gravelly soil whispered all kinds of noises into Eithne’s mind. Consequently, her head throbbed painfully.
‘What… what happened?!’
Thud! Thud!
‘I can’t hear anything!!’
‘Screechh!’
‘…’ ‘Ouch!’
‘I can’t see!’
‘…’
Quickly, she recognized a familiar voice. It was as thin as a spider silk floating in the air.
‘Help… me…’
Deep in the wilderness, there were two men and a big sack on the ground. They were hastily digging a hole to bury the sack, but the men suddenly lost their vision. Luckily, their fright did not last long. After a few seconds, they regained their sight.
“Just what happened? I couldn’t see anything.”
One man shivered with anxiety. He picked up the oil lamp and looked at the surroundings. The other man stood up from the ground. He had tripped over his foot and fell down when his eyes could not see.
“Let finish this quickly to get out of this hellish place.”
That man picked up the shovel to continue digging despite cold sweats running crazily on his back. It seemed that the fear increased his productivity.
The second man holding the lamp swallowed his dry saliva. He looked at the big sack next to him. It was his first time doing such a filthy job.
In the sack there was a person that they were trying to bury alive.
“Gulp…”
The man tried not to look at the sack. He was about to pick up his shovel, when he heard the sound of breaking dried branches.
Crack… crack crack!
“Who’s there?”
The man hurriedly held up the lamp as if it was the talisman to repel the evils. The other man also stopped digging and alertly looked around.
‘If it was a wild animal, then their eyes should reflect the light’ – The person holding the lamp thought.
The feeble light coming from his lamp lit up a small area in front of the man. He carefully walked toward the bushes to inspect the source of sound. When the human’s light touched the shadows of surrounding trees, they twisted deviously and retreated backward.
“AGH!”
The man dropped the lamp and plopped down the ground. The flame was flickering on the tiny bits of remaining oil, but it was enough for them to see a tall figure standing silently.
It was in the shape of a woman, but her eyes reflected no light like a dead corpse.
She then disappeared.
“What…”
Crash!
In an eyeblink, a steel-like grip crushed one head as if a human's skull was made of foam.
Slash! Slash!
Invisible blades flew past the other man to detach his limbs. The man had not gotten a chance to speak, but the shadows of the trees already dragged him deep down into the dark hole under their roots. The ground then closed the hole as though there was nothing abnormal.
Eithne tore the sack on the ground to reveal the bloodstained body of Rigel trying to breathe. The priestess hugged him and ran toward the direction of the villagers in the forest.
“HELP! HE…LP!”
Her weep was dry and gruff like an animal growling in the middle of nowhere.
The shadows of the trees swirled violently in the failing light of the oil lamp left behind, then they chased after her weary footsteps…
__
Rigel was lying silently on the bed, all bandaged up.
The doctors said he was hit on his head severely, probably by a sharp object. There were injuries all over his body and one of his legs was broken. Most importantly, Rigel lost too much blood.
He might not make it through tonight.
The priestess sat tiredly next to his bed, supporting her forehand on the palm of her hand. She had a splitting headache right now. Voices were coming from the ground beneath her feet, pouring constantly into her ears.
‘Let me go!’
‘CLANG!’
‘…’
‘Ha! That wench thought if she could find the heir back, then we can’t take the duke position.’
‘Who… are you?’
‘You are too noisy.’
‘Thump! Thump!’
‘…’
‘Bury this brat somewhere secretly. Then you will receive the remaining payment.’
‘…Scritch … scratch…’
In the confusing mixture of sounds, Eithne heard the familiar voice of the child whom she cherished and some despicable noises tagging along. Based on those scattered audio recordings, the priestess could somewhat speculate the cause of Rigel’s abduction.
The duke that they mentioned must be the Solinue Duke. Those kidnappers had probably followed the order of someone who schemed to take over the Duke position by killing the true heir of the Solinue family. Furthermore, the fact that they transported Rigel leaving no footprints behind suggested the enemy had experts carry out their crime. If the broken wine bottle was not found earlier, then they would never have known Rigel was in danger.
Eithne looked at the thick bandage on Rigel’s head. The shattering sound of glass that she heard was likely the broken wine bottle in the grass bush.
“I don’t want to believe this…” – She gritted her teeth.
Those bastards might have smacked Rigel’s head with that bottle to knock him unconscious.
But how on earth did they find out about Rigel? The comic clearly stated that the male lead lived peacefully until he met the Solinue family. Eithne could not understand. Was that because of her? Because the priestess acted differently from the plot so Rigel’s fate twisted accordingly?
“What bullshit…”
Eithne clenched her hands. This could be the reason Nesta Oranim had hidden her son after her husband died. Fighting for power was too brutal for a child, so Rigel’s mother gave up all the wealth and power of a duchess to run away and lived in obscurity. Even so, it did not guarantee those bastards would let Rigel alone.
Outside the window, there were shouting of an angry mob. A thug was being beaten up by the veteran Rogers Monre, who ignored all the begging for mercy. They had just found out the person who sold off Rigel to the kidnappers, he was the owner of that wine bottle. No wonder nobody saw any stranger approaching the village, since the culprit was one of the villagers himself.
‘But that doesn’t matter anymore…’
Eithne looked at the pale young boy on his deathbed, she took his small hand into her left palm. As the night wore on, the priestess could feel the warmth of the child dwindling away.
‘If anyone is to blame, it’s me.’
She was helpless. She had mistaken, thinking herself was powerful enough to protect a child. What was the point of killing all offenders if Rigel was not here anymore?
‘I’m being pathetic again…’
Tears rolled down her eyes. Eithne placed her forehead onto the child’s hand. The priestess wished that she could bear the pain in Rigel’s stead. She had never asked anything from the gods, but right now, only miracles of gods could save him.
“Please…”
‘I will grant your wish.’
All of a sudden, a disembodied voice echoed in Eithne’s mind. Everything around her disappeared into dust.
“!!!”
Eithne was dazed by the scene. After an eyeblink, she saw herself standing in a foreign ruin.
“What…”
What just happened? Where was she?
Her hands and legs were smaller than usual. Eithne could see her vague reflection on the broken block of white marble beside her place. It showed a very young girl with eyes opening wide in shock. She also had blonde hair and golden eyes.
It looked like Eithne Noceur when she was a kid!
However, the ruin was not included in her childhood memory. Had the original priestess been to this place before?
A huge statue standing at the center of the ruin quickly caught Eithne’s attention. The statue which depicted a god was divinely white and appeared untouched, unlike the damaged surroundings, but Eithne had not seen this deity elsewhere. She stretched her neck to look up at his face, then she noticed an eerie hole penetrating his head.
The god’s existence suddenly became creepy.
The girl gulped. She sensed chilliness running down her spine.
Without warning, the statue moved its hand. It reached out toward Eithne.
“!!!”
‘I will grant your wish.’
The mysterious voice repeated in her mind again. The language it spoke was unfamiliar, yet understandable. An earthquake struck the ground beneath Eithne’s feet. The young girl struggled to stand, but before she got a chance to speak, the ruin and the great god all turned to dust.
‘Shit!’ – The only thought in her mind before she had a blackout.
Eithne opened her eyes. She was back in the patient room and saw Rigel lying on his bed again, as if the ruin and the unknown god were just a vivid dream.
However, Eithne recognized it was not a nonsense dream. Rigel ,who was dying, regained his life force at spectacular speed. His face became pinkish like a healthy boy who was just sleeping.
Did… did the god really accept her wish?
The priestess’s jubilant mood lasted until she noticed pain on her left arm, which the left hand was holding Rigel’s hand. The wounds on the child’s body could be clearly seen moving to Eithne’s left arm like living creatures migrating to a better land.
“I must be crazy…” – The priestess murmured.
After a few seconds, her flesh burst under the pressure of heavy injuries.
Red blood dribbled from both sides of her left arm, but the corners of her mouth twitched up with delight. Soon, the bizarre phenomenon stopped. Eithne lightly moved her limb away from Rigel.
“It was not that bad. Ha!”
The price she paid was too cheap for saving an almost dead person. She only got a few injuries on her arm, while Rigel successfully avoided his death.
But then again, Eithne knew that it was just the tip of an iceberg.
The unknown god did not look like a benevolent deity. If he gave her what she wanted, it was highly likely that Eithne must do something bigger for him in return. She just had yet to know what it would be.
‘Just a few drops of blood to change the fate, that is way too cheap.’
The priestess whispered to herself, then she smiled bitterly.
“Oh Great God of War, it seems that your servant needs a raise to pay her debt...”
A few strands of callow sunlight pierced through the night. Early dawn came and ignited the tiny bits of hope in the hearts of people. Rogers opened the door to the patient room. He had dark circles around his eyes as the result of a sleepless night. The man was ready for the worst scenario that might happen.
Eithne Noceur stood up from her chair. The priestess walked unsteadily towards Rogers and tapped on his shoulder, then she left for her room. The veteran could smell the heavy stench of blood from her, but he assumed it was Rigel’s blood.
Roger’s heart ached from thinking that the cheerful boy whom he raised left this world too pitifully. He was angry at himself too for neglecting the boy’s safety. The man thought beating the thug yesterday was not enough, he must find out the culprit behind and kill all of them, even if he had to be locked in jail because of that.
At that moment, Rogers saw Rigel moving his hand. The boy gave a big yawn after he had woken up from a deep sleep.
“Uhm…”
“Ri…Rigel!”
The man shouting in happiness could be heard from the next room. Eithne collapsed on her bed. It had been a long time since she had a good sleep.
Good morning everyone.