Chapter 1: The Stubborn Craftsmaiden

The train that had crossed the snowfields and the rotten plains puffed steam and slowly came to a stop at the platform. Workers in leather armor and masks washed the blood and bone fragments off the locomotive with hoses.

A demon beast with its fangs sawn off lowered its crimson head and carried off the cargo unloaded from the cars. A station worker in charge of mail handed a leather mailbag to a girl in a postman’s uniform.

At a general store by the pier, an hour after the train arrived, a few knocks sounded. The shop, which hung a closed sign, opened a crack.

“The sign outside says closed today.”

“If you have no business, leave. If you do, it’s the same.”

The girl who spoke sat on the counter, a milling knife in her hand carving a wooden object shaped like a butterfly.

She glanced up. Seeing that the entrant was a girl in a brown coat and a mask, she lowered her head again and picked up a thin blue crystal with tweezers.

“Oh, it’s you? Then what about the reply from Psol Academy?” the busy girl asked casually.

The girl made herself at home, took a letter from her leather bag, used the tools on the counter to slice it open, and skimmed it. Then she replied: “Same as always. They said they never received any enrollment information for that boy you mentioned.”

The girl’s hand trembled. She sighed softly, looking a bit helpless and tired.

“Then please keep sending this letter to them for me. I need their reply by next month… In case he went to that academy according to our promise.”

“That way, I can get news of him as fast as possible.”

The boy she spoke of was a young man who had left four years ago. Back then, she had made a pact with him. After he finished his studies at the academy, he would come back and marry her.

She was a transmigrator with one soul and two bodies, and the two bodies were at opposite ends of the world. One was in the Holy Kingdom, named Corollis. The other was in the Silver Redemption Kingdom, and that was this girl sitting on the counter, Fayrol Berain.

In normal circumstances, she called her consciousness “Lily.” Otherwise, the names Corollis and Fayrol made it impossible for her to feel like one person. And her male name from her past life was too jarring now.

She shouldn’t have developed romantic feelings for a man. In this life, her gender was different from her past life, and the male identity from before still stirred in her heart. When she first transmigrated, Lily had a psychological barrier toward men when it came to love.

But against all expectations, she was shaken by a boy on Fayrol’s side, and she even gave him her true heart. When she sent that boy onto the departing ship, Lily confessed her feelings and made a vow.

Lily was the one who confessed first. When she realized her feelings, she stood bravely before him and kissed his lips.

She remembered that even the sea, which had been crashing against the sailboat and the shore, fell silent.

But after the boy boarded the sailboat, that ghostly ship was lost in the abyss for years. When it returned, only a few survivors remained… and he was not among them.

Four years had passed since his departure.

Though the boy’s death was almost certain, Lily refused to accept the fact that he was gone.

She knew clearly that she was deceiving herself.

Back at the general store, after Fayrol finished speaking, the girl shook her head helplessly. In her memory, this behavior of hers had gone on for three years.

It repeated over and over, and it was strangely sad.

“Those old geezers at the academy might find your letters annoying. Three years of this, sending and receiving letters,” the girl said.

“Then keep putting three gold coins in the replies. You know I’m not short on money.”

“Under the influence of money, those complaints will disappear. No one dislikes it… or the friendship and potential of a genius craftsman.”

“Of course, they usually care more about the latter.”

Fayrol pushed out three gold coins and a reply letter that had been prepared long ago.

A reply written in anticipation of what was needed. In three years, she had written too many of these.

His disappearance had lasted four years. Only after receiving no reply in the first year and learning the bad news about the sailboat did she start sending inquiries to the academy.

“I just want to know about him. That’s all. Even if it’s the smallest sliver of a chance.”

While speaking, Fayrol finished setting the crystal and placed the wooden butterfly into a box.

“He’s been missing for four years. The sailboat he boarded sailed into the waters of the abyss. When it came back, only four or five people were alive out of hundreds.”

“Do you think he can still come back? Are you still deceiving yourself, Fayrol! He’s dead… You should understand! You should be clear about that!”

The postman girl, her anger rising, shouted at Fayrol unceremoniously. The girl before her was hailed as the bright new star of the craftsman world. Precisely because of that, she couldn’t bear to watch the girl cling with self-deception to someone already dead.

Her talent and abilities were obvious to everyone. She could easily head to a broader world. Yet she was bound to this quiet city by a dead man.

Her future should be far vaster than this!

“…”

“For the past four years, my reason has told me clearly that he won’t come back. But my heart keeps asking me to believe he might.”

“Nothing is impossible, right? Maybe he died. Maybe he’s still alive. Maybe… he’s still alive but can’t come to find me for some reason.”

Fayrol’s gaze went far away. Beyond the glass lay a blue ocean, directly facing the city’s harbor, where merchant ships could be seen coming and going.

In his past life, the girl who had made a pact with him abandoned him for someone else. In this life, she had confessed love and made a vow. She could not become the kind of person she despised.

That was her devotion. It was also her stubbornness.

“I can’t leave. Even if time turns my heart and body into bones, my bones will only sink into the waters of this sea.”

“I’m the ‘stubborn craftsmaiden,’ after all. Isn’t that what you call me?”

Fayrol smiled. But her face held a silver mask, so the smile could only be seen at the corners of her mouth, along with dry scars.

“You… *sigh*…”

Seeing this, the postman girl understood that persuasion was useless. She saw Fayrol as a friend and chose to respect her. But recently, Fayrol’s state had worried her deeply.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have watched the girl be like this for two years and only now said something.

Fortunately, Fayrol wasn’t angry. Having lived two lives, she wasn’t overly sensitive, and she knew the girl’s intentions were good, even if a bit presumptuous.

“Thank you for your kindness, Ilan… But this is about my own feelings. I have my own stubbornness, even if he’s been missing for four years.”

“But I still won’t forget him. I’ll remember him for a long, long time…”

Fayrol poured two cups of homemade wine. She pushed one to the girl in front of her. This body was nineteen, and the Holy Kingdom one was eighteen. Both were of drinking age.

Not to mention her mental age. She was past thirty in her past life, and when she transmigrated, both bodies were about twelve.

“The sea looks quite nice today. Sit for a while.”

Ilan didn’t quite understand what Fayrol was doing, but she still sat down across from her. Fayrol’s wine was rare outside. Ilan couldn’t buy it through normal means even if she wanted to.

To Lily, who had lived two lifetimes, Ilan was a child, naive and endearing. She had no hidden schemes, and being around her wasn’t unpleasant.

After he left, Fayrol’s social circle gradually closed off. The male suitors who coveted her wealth made her sick. The women who wanted to climb the ladder or had other motives did the same.

Someone like Ilan was one of the few people Fayrol could talk to.

Fayrol touched her mask. The girl was barely a meter sixty tall, but she always wore a silver mask to hide her face.

“You should know I have scars on my face… but you probably don’t know they were caused by my parents pouring molten silver over my face.”

“Ah! Why would they do that!” Ilan cried out in shock.

“Because silver is praised as the purest metal, the closest to dreams. And pain is an emotion that easily calls down miracles… My parents knew they would die. To save me, they melted all their silver coins with fire and poured it over my face.”

“I was thrown into a well. The miracle of silver and pain kept me alive in the water. Then he was the one who pulled me out of that cold well. When I woke up, the first thing I saw was his figure.”

“By that time, my face and shoulders had been disfigured beyond recognition by the silver.”

After saying that, Fayrol slowly removed her mask. Then she watched Ilan’s expression go from shock, to fear, to pity, until her eyes filled with sympathy.

It was the reaction she had expected.

“Maybe only a miracle can restore my face.”

“Even looking like that, he could still hold me, drive the cold away with his embrace, and clutch my hand tightly.”

Fayrol put the mask back on. She once again looked like a cute, ordinary girl.

“Even feelings like these, he was still willing to accept.”

“So I want to repay his love.”

“That’s all.”

She slid the three gold coins into the envelope, dripped sealing wax, stamped it with her seal, and handed it to Ilan.

“You still have work, right? Remember to give the letter to the academy. When you’re done, you can come over and get a bottle of wine. My treat.”

“As for the unsolicited advice and all that, this is the only time.”

“I’ll wait for him here. Maybe ten years, maybe a hundred years.”

“Maybe… forever…”

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