Chapter 4: The Saint’s Mask

“Under the contract, the Nightwish Palace is yours to manage. The Chosen I select will come and challenge you, and your task is to help train those children.”

“Don’t worry. Once a Chosen who can defeat you has been raised, I’ll return your freedom.”

……

“A Chosen was raised, sure. But do you know what you just did? You broke the system I spent so long setting up. Since that’s the case, you become the system. A single Chosen isn’t enough. I need many. Keep cultivating them for me.”

“With your mental strength, the Chosen you raise will surely be of better quality.”

“Cooperate quietly, Arzeus. Don’t forget. Your only remaining kin is in my hands.”

……

“You’re saying your kin were killed off as monsters? There’s no helping that. Your existence is alien, something that defies all reason. How could I have kept you?”

“A contract? Was there such a thing? Even if there was, your consciousness is now bound by my power. What can you do?”

“Be good, Arzeus. It took everything to bind you. How could I ever let you go?”

****

Goddesses, or gods, as some call them, have never once been a benevolent sort.

Something in her recollection stirred. Luoxue murmured to herself in cold detachment. That inner voice even carried a thread of contempt and pity, which was rare for her.

Before her stood a young woman with long blue hair, in a black-and-white maid’s uniform. Her bearing was gentle, refined, and dignified.

Teresa.

The Human Alliance had appointed her as the Saint’s personal maid and knowledge tutor, to care for Luoxue’s daily life and teach her the world’s common knowledge: language, history, the system of power, and so on. She was the important figure helping the Saint adapt to human society and take in human culture.

At that moment, a thin pale-blue textbook in her hand, Teresa spoke in soft, unhurried tones about the greatness of the gods.

“The Holy Snow Lotus is the priceless treasure our great gods have granted us. Without the strength it gives us, we could never have resisted those dreadful alien races.”

“And to thank the gods for their blessing, the day the Holy Snow Lotus descended, the tenth of October every year, is our Alliance’s renowned Rebirth Day.”

“Your Holiness, have you remembered?”

The white-haired young woman on the chair gave a tiny nod, so subtle it was almost invisible. Her voice came soft and obedient, carrying just the right shade of innocence.

“Mm, I’ve remembered.”

“Also, on Rebirth Day I need to publicly deliver the benediction… that is, what Teresa just explained. The radiance of the Lord…”

With that, the white-haired girl even softly repeated the blessing Teresa had taught her. Her words came slow, her tone naive, as if she truly were a pure young maiden born not long ago, curious and ignorant of everything.

Seeing the Saint recite the blessing almost word for word, Teresa’s face shone with a smile of relief and heartfelt tenderness.

“Your Holiness is truly clever. You learn so quickly.”

She gently smoothed Luoxue’s white hair, as if handling a fragile porcelain doll.

After all, when the Saint Luoxue had been born from the Holy Snow Lotus two years ago, she had understood nothing. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t walk, and barely showed even the most basic emotions. Yet now, barely over a year later, Luoxue had mastered two or three languages and was absorbing every other kind of knowledge just as fast.

“Every time I see you this well-behaved, this sensible, I feel that… everything is worth it.”

Teresa’s face was full of relief and quiet accomplishment.

To this maid and teacher, Luoxue was perfection.

Sacred, beautiful, gentle, kind, pure to the point of having no blemish at all. She was salvation granted to humanity by the gods, someone worth giving one’s life to protect.

Being chosen to teach and care for such an existence, Teresa counted herself beyond lucky.

After her younger sister died, she had once lost any will to live.

But now?

She had a new purpose.

****

Luoxue tilted her head slightly, still wearing that harmless, innocent look.

Her voice was low, with just the right shade of concern.

“Teacher Teresa… yesterday bad people came into the base, and a lot of people were hurt, weren’t they? Are they… all right now? Does it hurt very much?”

At those words, Teresa’s heart flooded with warmth. She only pitied this kindest of Saints all the more.

She smiled gently and soothed her. “Your Holiness needn’t worry. Everyone is fine. The Alliance’s best doctors have all been sent out, and the wounded guards are receiving treatment. They’ll recover soon.”

Of course, that was a lie.

But to keep the Saint from sorrow, Teresa chose to hide the news that dozens of guards and three maids had died. She was afraid this pure, kind Saint would grieve if she learned the truth.

Luoxue gave a soft “Mm,” as if she had truly set her mind at ease.

But in the next breath, as if something else had occurred to her, she lowered her voice, with a troubled air that made one’s heart ache.

“Then… the man who came here yesterday, Mr. Veteba… after he died, what will happen to his homeland, the Imperial Spirit Desert? Will it… become miserable too?”

Hearing this, the gentle smile on Teresa’s face froze.

Seeing the pity Luoxue’s expression held for an alien race, a fury rose in Teresa’s chest that she could not hold back.

Those aliens slaughtered humans, destroyed cities, and shattered the peace they had once enjoyed.

Veteba had even broken into the base, intending to harm the Saint!

A beast like that, a demon like that, and the Saint was still worrying about his homeland?

Teresa took a deep breath, then spoke gravely. Her voice carried open displeasure and coldness.

“Your Holiness need not grieve for those alien beasts.”

“That bastard Veteba came to kill you yesterday. He deserved to die!”

“A wicked place like the Imperial Spirit Desert, where those aliens lurk, isn’t worth your sympathy.”

“I’ll tell you. The Imperial Spirit Desert… was wiped out completely last night by the forces of the Divine Prison, torn out by the roots. It will never threaten anyone again.”

By the end, Teresa’s tone even carried a trace of satisfaction.

The Seven Great Dark Abysses were the seven strongest alien races that the Human Alliance, the Global Accord, currently faced. Their combined strength far outstripped all other alien races, and within their territory, fearsome beings of the Sacred Ruins Realm stood guard.

The Divine Prison was one of those powers.

Though she had no idea why an S-rank force like the Divine Prison had suddenly moved against an A-rank domain, she was quite happy to watch dogs bite dogs.

Either way, it benefited humanity.

Yet just as those satisfied words left her mouth, Teresa noticed that Luoxue was curling up slightly, her shoulders trembling as if frightened by the severity of Teresa’s tone.

In that instant, her satisfaction vanished, replaced by panic and self-reproach.

“I… I’m sorry, Your Holiness… I… I didn’t mean to speak so loudly… I… I was just so worried about you…”

Teresa apologized in a fluster.

Inside, she wished she could slap herself. How could she lose her temper at such a gentle, kind-hearted Saint? Unforgivable! What was she even doing!

Luoxue gently shook her head. Her voice stayed soft.

“I’m fine, Teacher Teresa. Don’t blame yourself. I was merely… a little startled.”

Teresa looked at the Saint, so obedient that it broke her heart, and felt even more guilty. She hurriedly tried to change the subject to calm the frightened girl.

“Your Holiness, will you… wait here for a moment?”

“I’ll go fetch your favorite pastries, the kind Sir Zhang Xuanze once meant to bring you… I’ll go now and be right back!”

With those few words, Teresa turned anxiously and hurried out of the room.

“Wait for me to come back! Then I’ll tell you a story!”

The door clicked shut.

Click.

A faint sound of a lock sliding into place.

Inside the room, only the white-haired maiden remained, sitting still where she was.

A moment later, the atmosphere in the room began to warp, soundlessly. The air grew colder at a speed visible to the eye. The clear, gentle light seemed to be veiled by gray shadow. The white flowers in the corner of the room, which had been blooming quietly, folded their petals at an unnatural pace and curled inward, as if cowering from something.

The clean fragrance of snow lotus in the air was gradually replaced by a thread of breath, faint but bitingly cold.

Luoxue kept her original posture, motionless.

But the little white teddy bear in her arms, that pure, soft toy that had held no sign of life, moved at that moment. Abruptly, eerily.

No energy rippled. No outside force touched it.

The bear’s black button eyes slowly turned toward the table. Its two short plush arms lifted and, quietly and mechanically, gathered up the scattered textbooks and pens on the tabletop, setting them in neat order. After tidying the books, the bear looked up and “gazed” at Luoxue.

The whole process made no sound. There was only a silence that crawled along the skin.

Then Luoxue’s lips curved.

Not the warm, sweet smile Teresa had seen.

It was a faint, strange curve, filled with pleasure and cruelty.

“The Imperial Spirit Desert… was wiped out, was it.”

A hollow murmur rose in the empty room.

No kindness remained. No innocence. Only a joy that made one’s blood run cold, and a cold mockery.

“Heh…”

At Veteba’s death and the fall of the Imperial Spirit Desert, she felt not a trace of pity, only boundless satisfaction.

A Chosen One the goddess had toiled to cultivate, personally blessed. A candidate for inheritance on whom the goddess had pinned her hopes, meant to carry on her will.

The power he had worked so hard to build.

The homeland he had fought with everything to protect.

All reduced to ash in a single night, torn out by the roots. This ending was perfect. Delightful.

It was exactly what Luoxue wanted.

To cut down, one by one, the Chosen Ones the goddess had picked, those with the right to inherit her authority.

If the goddess saw all this… how would she react?

And, she had to say, the Divine Prison?

The Chosen One there… was her, wasn’t it.

Even if she had been forced into it by the goddess back then, she was a Chosen Luoxue had spent so long cultivating. Her efficiency and ability were far greater, indeed.

“Handy, that one…” Luoxue murmured. Her tone could not hide a twisted, almost sick pleasure.

“But I have to thank you, Mr. Veteba.”

The words fell.

Luoxue’s slender fingertip curled slightly.

A faint golden light, touched by divinity, flowed slowly from her palm. Within the light, a pearl the size of a pigeon’s egg, its surface wrapped in countless silver runes, hung suspended in midair.

Inside the pearl, something like starlight drifted slowly, giving off a presence belonging only to the goddess’s chosen, blessed by her.

It was the core of Veteba’s body, the Star Soul.

A token that could only be possessed by one whom the goddess acknowledged, one qualified to inherit her divine power.

Luoxue lifted her hand and closed it gently around the Star Soul.

A cold touch traveled through her palm, along with the faint remnant will of the goddess that still lurked inside it.

‘Thanks to you, I’ve finally obtained a complete Star Soul.’

Luoxue pressed the Star Soul to her cheek and nuzzled it softly, her movement tender. But the look on her face was mad, unsettling.

‘This way… I can choose my own Chosen One.’

Rest easy, Goddess.

I will do my very best… to choose, for you… a successor you will dislike the most.

And turn everything you have worked so hard to build… into nothing.

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