A sigh parted from the rosy lips of the beautiful Scarlett Raylee Baldwin and everyone around her turned their head to see what had happened. Some of them were likely ready to fall to their knees in order to tend to her every itch and ache if she asked for it.

Her black hair fell as lovely as ever, as she walked over to the priority seats reserves for the Imperial Family and the high members of the church. Princess Isobel saw her friend approaching and got up to greet her.

"Is something the matter, Lady Scarlett?" she asked, as they stood side by side.

"I thought I was the one who could tell what others were feeling."

"You make it so easy for me," the blonde responded and furrowed her brow, "that's why it worries me even more."

With a sad smile, Scarlett shook her head gently. "No need to worry, Princess Isobel."

"You're my only friend, you know that." There weren't many she could have called friends in her social circle after all, and out of those, only Scarlett could be called that.

"And you won't lose me, Princess." After all, it was Scarlett, who could visit the Aurora Empire whenever she felt like it. "But let's not talk about that now."

"You're right." Isobel felt bad, knowing the other was feeling troubled, yet implying her own misery to care about instead. "I'm sorry."

"I didn't say you needed to feel bad about anything."

"No, you didn't," the Imperial Princess responded in an almost meek tone and cleared her throat, "right, I wanted to ask if you knew where my brother is hiding. He was sure he would attend this ball with you."

It made the Saintess laugh heartily. "Of course he would."

She remembered how he had never really seen her, when they were young. Isobel had been friends with Scarlett for many years, but now that she was the Saintess, he suddenly "saw" her.

It wasn't that she hadn't liked him. He had a high pride, but he was also an idealist. It might not have agreed with everyone's palate, but he had his heart in the right place.

While training, he was so focused on gaining strength and political backing, he had no eyes for anything else. Lady Rowena van Varnhagen was supposed to give him more power, with her bloodline not well liked, yet coveted all the same.

Scarlett felt as if there might have been too much of a fallout between them, especially knowing how he had talked about her later on, when she didn't see any of that ill will in the young lady. None of that dark, twisted villainy he had accused her of.

It made her think of him as someone very shallow, and she remembered how he had never cared about her, even when she was as close to him as a sister. It took away that shining veneer of being adored by the Crown Prince of Arlen in her eyes and made her reconsider what she wanted for herself. Sometimes, it was the smallest details that made the biggest difference.

As she realized that she hadn't given an answer to the actual question, Scarlett's cheeks turned a soft reddish hue and she shook her head again.

"He told me he would be in the woods with the Grand Duke and the other soldiers," she said and looked around, "but I'm also wondering where Illic has run off to."

"What?" the Princess suddenly forgot all about her brother as her eyes widened, "that little creep never leaves your side, I thought?"

"He said he had to… urgently leave for the forest. But he hasn't returned in more than ten minutes." With a crooked smile, the Saintess had to laugh again. "You know you need to watch your words more, Princess."

Maybe it was that behavior that made the Lady of Varnhagen seem like someone she already knew from far away.

"In that case, we should give him a moment- Oh." Slightly puzzled, Isobel looked up. "There, he's coming back already. See?"

The Grand Duke was in the Gloria Forest, but not only him and a few soldiers, but the Crown Prince of Arlen was there as well. He gave up on his appearance at the ball in exchange for "making sure that safety measures were taken properly" on short notice.

He didn't want to admit it, as he angrily walked through the forest, slapping away branches in his way and cutting into half dead bushes. In front of his eyes lay a forest that should have been completely erased. The rot had taken so much life, but now it looked so much like before it was almost uncanny.

All of that because of one lady. She was the epitome of what he would describe a Saint as and that was exactly what she was. To him, she was light, though he hadn't seen it before. In fact, when Arabella had claimed that Rowena was physically assaulting her, he had only half believed it, until he saw it happen.

And yet he had already been looking for a way to lose their marriage agreement in one way or another. It was a godsend, though he hadn't thought much about the implications or if he should have looked into it more deeply.

She was a bad person, right? Then why did he constantly feel as if he had wronged her anyway? It made him wonder if he was truly cut out to be the next Emperor. But if not him, who would be?

His mind produced the picture of someone who made his blood boil. "No way," he said curtly and gritted his teeth.

He still felt ashamed of not even making third place and losing to a literal bastard like Cassius. There wasn't really a question of whether Cedric would become the next Emperor, but technically, his brother was still a political rival to him.

A sudden scream shook him up and made him run as fast as he could, recognizing the voice it had come from.

The knife had cut into Illic so fast and without any warning, Scarlett couldn't do anything to prevent it. There was no ill-will, no scorn or any other feeling that would be associated with killing intent. The noble girl had no expression on her face, no aura or feel to her, she just stood there until her legs gave in and she fell to the ground unconscious, just like the servant in front of the Saintess had.

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'What happened?' Her hands trembled as she tried to figure it out. "How could this…?"

Rowena had come back right at that moment, looking at the Saintess who's eyes wouldn't focus and her heart was beating too slow, as if it wanted to stop. She ran over, as the mountains behind them started to shake like Rowena's knees.

She hadn't yet gotten over the shock of whatever her head had just made her belief. But at that moment, none of that mattered, because they had finally reached the climax of the first third of the novel, when the Hunting Festival was overrun by Visitors breaking through a small crack in the blessed ground like a flood.

It took a few more seconds for screeching and scratching noises to reach their ears and then another tremor made the crowd falter. The nobles looked toward the mountain in nothing but terror, as a shadow as tall as a mountain stood up and hovered above them like a looming demon.

"Father…?" She had just been right by his side, but now he was gone and as she saw the giant wolf, she could tell what this was.

"Don't worry, this is his territory," a voice interrupted the white noise loud in Rowena's head.

Sir Yaakov had followed after the Duke's traces, while Sir Sean had the mission to protect the young lady and the young master. Alan hadn't allowed him to protect him however. He would fend for himself and not become a liability this time – if he had to, he was going to reveal his Numbered that very day.

Thankfully, Lucan had brought his sword, which he could brandish as Sir Sean had collected the three maids of the house to take them altogether to the evacuation zone.

"Follow this way and get off the mountain, a servant will have already gone and called for reinforcements." They had a lot of soldiers there, but someone needed to pick up the fleeing, panicking nobles.

"Don't worry!" an aging nobleman yelled, "We have the Saintess here with us. No shield is greater, is there?" His voice was full of hope and that sound cut deeply into Rowena's heart.

Others chimed in, creating a chant of hopeful souls, feeling relieved, yet sounded frightened nonetheless; desperate, wanting Scarlett to nod along with their words, which she didn't.

While crashed like thunder were drowning out most of their voices by now, the faces could not be masked. They wouldn't even move away out of fear to leave their Holy Lady's side. With the Vicar next to her now, it wasn't going to get dangerous for any of them.

'It should have been that way in the novel,' Rowena remembered in horror. 'But it's different.'

There were Visitors coming closer to their encampment, which should have already been doused in Uriel's Mana field, but it didn't happen; nothing at all happened and they came closer, burning the ground beneath their feet, making earlier the blessings obsolete.

Sean, who held onto his mistress, trying to explain to her what they were going to do now, could see that she wasn't listening to any of the things he had said. "My Lady, you need to evacuate with the others!" he loudly screamed.

This wasn't even the worst attack he had witnessed himself, but calming down such a mass of people wasn't easy. There was nothing he could do if they remained there, but the Saintess didn't seem to lighten up the situation by helping out either.

Cedric had arrived by now, tending to her, but she didn't seem to be able to move, so what could they do? Sean had to help with the fight!

A guard of the Imperial Family had already dragged Isobel away, but Scarlett couldn't move. She wanted to use her power to heal Illic; she wanted to save everyone on the festival grounds. But her head wouldn't clear up and her eyes became tear-filled.

She had never lost anyone close to her, despite all the harshness she had already seen and her head couldn't fathom the feeling she was now exposed to. A sudden gust of wind hit her face, as someone ran up to her at a high speed, grabbing her shoulders and shaking them.

Cedric wanted to push her away from Scarlett. "What in Aurora's name are you trying to do?" At the same time, a huge flame pillar arose from the center of the grounds.

"Grandfather," said the one who had held onto the Saintess, "please, don't overdo it."

"Where do you think your brother got his talent from?" the Marquis almost murmured, concentrating with all he had to keep up the wave of fire he had conjured up for the first time in a very long time. "But I may be getting too old for this."

"Scarlett," Rowena said, turning her attention away from her Grandfather, "you will die, Scarlett."

Blinking, Scarlett looked into the pearly silver eyes that fixated her. "What…?"

"You need to get your act together, or your Mana will run out and you will die." It's the inherent ability of the contractor of Uriel to use their Mana and spread it.

That mainly worked during a Gamble, but it would also work under normal circumstances, just like Rowena could use her Chains at any given moment. But she wouldn't have the Mana pool of a Numbered to draw from.

Unconsciously, her Mana had leaked into the ground and into the unconscious Illic, but without a true destination, it just seeped out of the Saintess and spread around her with no purpose. Sean had ran as she set off, fighting off Visitors.

At Rowena's words, some nobles started to run, feeling lost and deceived, as no protection was granted to them. Pandemonium broke loose. And as Rowena sat down, taking her hands and putting them over Scarlett's, she directed the Mana in the air with her own, collecting it, driving it together. "I will help you," she said, "we will heal him. He won't die."

With her own animosity set aside, the heart that had faltered was feeling lighter. As if awoken from a bad dream with a slap, tears were flowing out of the Saintess' eyes.

"Thank you," she said, "I'm sorry."

"Be sorry later," Rowena said, as she was looked at with the eyes of a hawk, not knowing what the Vicar was doing there, instead of helping the crowd.

Screams went louder, then the moonlight suddenly diminished. "Ladies and Gentlemen," a familiar voice said, "how about a show to lighten up the evening? May I introduce ourselves, as the show master of the evening."

Every one of the people who had been there when the attack on Lodden happened would know exactly who he was.

"They call me The Hanged Man," he said, flashing a tarot card as if it was his personal ID, "and we are ARCANE. It's nice to meet you, don't you think so as well?"

'Great, more eighth-grade-syndrome.' She looked down, seeing the badly hurt Illic on the ground, while Leviathan's contractor was yet again hanging around in the air, 'damn.'

But as she felt his body getting better, there was something else she felt. "Mana," she said, 'so he really can use it. I knew there was something off.'

Since he wasn't the water man, she couldn't waste time on that now though. As she helped someone pick up Illic, taking to the evacuation herself, she saw vines growing out of the ground from every angle, trying to catch the flying terrorist.

Like a protective dome, though this time there were no masses of water to shield anyone from, those vines grew more and more. Alan had to take the place of his grandfather in protecting the crowd, as the old man didn't have enough life in him to waste it on this effort.

When they were running away, Rowena's heart was beating way too fast, looking back at her brother and her grandfather who had remained at the sight.

"Will Sir Sean and Sir Yaakov be alright?" Charlotte asked while running and huffing.

"What about Logan?" Ava threw in as well.

Norina couldn't say a word, her lips were pressed shut until a loud crash snapped her out of her concentrated mask, leaving her flying into the dark forest, as something hit her hard enough to break her ribs.

"Norina!" Rowena called out, running after her, not even knowing what had happened.

It was chaotic, Charlotte and Ava stopped, and Lucan, who had been close by, followed after his friend.

With his sword drawn, he ran after them, deeper and deeper into the woods, away from the soldiers and fleeing nobles, until he saw a man, holding onto the maid who had the wind knocked out of her and had lost consciousness. There was something eerie about him, as he stood there with a mask on his face and the head of a jester on.

With a flick of his wrist, Lucan was sent flying, just like Norina before. No, that wasn't his doing, but it was like Rowena's mind couldn't catch up with reality. She rubbed her eyes and felt as if she had stared too long into the sun.

"Oops, so~rry," he said and his voice sounded like nails scratching on a blackboard as his eyes scanned the blond maid, sitting with her back against a tree trunk, "I didn't mean to damage this. We still need that."

"That?" Rowena repeated, anger welling up inside of her, burning through her chest. She hadn't felt it the entire time, but now, as she stood there, looking at Lucan, then back at Norina who was now thrown over the Jester's shoulder, whom she had learned to care for and to respect and who cared for and respected her in return, it all came back to her.

"I wish to take a Gamble." The words came to her as easy as that as well.