I Am Your Father
The words struck Canna like a bolt of lightning.
I am your father.
I am your father….
A deafening roar split her ears.
“You are my daughter.”
He approached slowly.
“Canna.”
She couldn’t move until he was close enough to touch. With a face drained of all color, she looked up at him.
“I’ve wanted to meet you.”
His black eyes, glistening with moisture, were so identical to her own.
It didn’t feel real.
“Holy Spirit.”
Even the voice slipping from her throat didn’t sound like her own.
“What exactly are you saying right now?”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
The Holy Spirit wiped away his tears and smiled sadly.
“Of course you wouldn’t know anything. All this time, you must have believed Alexandro Addis was your father.”
Alexandro Addis. The Duke of Addis.
Father.
Yes, that man was her father.
She hated him. She feared him. And yet, he was still her father.
But what? Someone else was claiming to be her dad?
Her mind snapped back into focus.
“I’m sorry, but…”
“……”
“This is all far too sudden. I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I apologize. I was too hasty.”
The Holy Spirit took a deep breath as if to steady himself. Inhale. Exhale. A sniffle.
His behavior was so painfully human. Not like a fairy or a ghost at all.
And it was disturbingly identical to her own.
“You know Seon-hui, don’t you?”
The Holy Spirit spoke carefully.
“How do you know her, Holy Spirit?”
“How could I not?”
He let out a sigh heavy with longing.
“I loved her.”
She had thought there was nothing left that could shock her.
“You are the daughter of Seon-hui and me.”
It was arrogance.
“We chose your name together. We picked it from the red flowers Seon-hui loved.”
The Holy Spirit smiled as if reminiscing about happier times.
“Actually, her favorite flower was the rose, but that name felt too common for a girl. So we debated between Salvia and Canna, and eventually settled on Canna.”
Canna. The name of a red flower.
Ah.
In that instant, a name flashed through her mind. The name she had once used.
Juhwa….
朱花. A name that literally meant “red flower.”
A bone-chilling sensation raced up her spine as scattered pieces suddenly clicked together with horrifying perfection.
Seon-hui was her mother?
Then did that make Juhwa her actual older sister?
“How am I supposed to believe any of this?”
“Seon-hui was an exceptional alchemist.”
The Holy Spirit answered as if he had been waiting for the question. He bent down and picked up a mana stone.
“She could extract the power within mana stones better than anyone and infuse it into her alchemy.”
Canna flinched.
Alchemists certainly existed in this world. They had existed.
But those born with the rare talent to properly harness the power of mana stones were few and far between.
Just like her.
“Mana stones, or rather the power they contain, do not originally belong to this world. They are an alien force from another dimension that appeared after the World Tree took root here.”
The Holy Spirit stared at the jet-black, glistening mana stone. His eyes were filled with both love and hatred.
“An alien power known as mana. And Seon-hui, who was essentially a foreign substance herself. It seems things from other worlds have a way of understanding each other.”
The word grated on her. Foreign substance?
“That’s why Seon-hui could handle mana stones with such mastery. Perhaps as skillfully as the ancient alchemists who have long since perished. And…”
The Holy Spirit looked at Canna with absolute certainty.
“You, who carry her blood, must undoubtedly be an outstanding alchemist as well.”
It was true. It really was.
In fact, Canna had never met an alchemist more talented than herself.
If Alexandro hadn’t forcibly suppressed her, she would have made a name for herself across the continent.
But Alexandro—her father—had opposed it.
He had ordered her to keep it hidden. He had crushed her talent and buried it where no one could see.
“Alexandro and you share not a single drop of blood.”
The Holy Spirit spoke as if he could read her thoughts.
“The Duke of Addis stole you from me. I wanted to save you. I tried to rescue you several times, but…”
“Wait. Just wait a moment.”
Her head was spinning. The flood of information threatened to crush her brain.
Canna raised her hand to cut him off.
“Father and Mother… Seon-hui exchanged letters. She even taught him Korean. If she had been kidnapped, that wouldn’t make any sense…”
“Alexandro despises Seon-hui.”
At those words, Canna’s tongue froze.
“I guarantee you, Alexandro is desperate to kill Seon-hui.”
A scene flashed through her mind.
The secret room. Her father’s hostility.
The sharp, vicious enmity directed at both Seon-hui and the Holy Spirit.
“Letters aren’t only exchanged between people on good terms. Seon-hui hated Alexandro just as much.”
“……”
“She would call him by nicknames he despised and mock him in the language of another world that he could barely understand.”
Crack. Crack. Crack.
“Please believe me.”
A sound like something fracturing echoed from somewhere.
“Canna, you are my daughter.”
The world that had supported her feet until now.
“You were kidnapped by Alexandro and raised like livestock.”
That was the sound of that world shattering completely. Canna stared at the Holy Spirit with an empty expression.
“You are all I have left, Canna.”
Their faces were so identical it was almost comical.
“Seon-hui abandoned you and me—abandoned us—and returned to her own world.”
To Korea.
“She always missed her homeland. She said she had a young daughter and a husband there.”
The Holy Spirit smiled sadly.
“But I don’t resent her. Because she left me you.”
“……”
“So stay here with me. I will crown you as a Saintess and lay the entire Western Continent at your feet.”
Saintess. Western Continent. At your feet.
The words sounded like empty boasts, spoken so casually.
But the one saying them was the Holy Spirit. The ruler of the Great Temple. Even the Emperor would not dare look him in the eye.
And that Holy Spirit was telling her:
I am your father. Stay with me. I will give you the Western Continent.
“This is all too sudden.”
It was a dazzling, mouthwatering lure, but Canna didn’t bite. Not even the slightest hint of greed stirred within her.
It didn’t feel like something she could swallow. A powerful sense of wrongness surged through her.
Perhaps it was closer to pure instinct.
She could accept that he was her father. Their identical faces were proof enough.
She could also accept—for now—that Seon-hui was her mother.
But she still couldn’t bring herself to fully trust him.
“I need time to think.”
First, she had to get out of here.
A sharp warning bell rang violently in her head. Whether this man was truly her father or not. Whether he intended to hand her an entire continent or not.
She would leave first and think alone.
“Oh, of course. Take all the time you need.”
The Holy Spirit smiled gently.
“I’ll give you the finest room in the Holy Temple, Canna. You’ll be able to stay there without the slightest discomfort.”
But he had already decided she would remain here. He had made the choice for her, without asking.
A chill ran down the back of her neck. The warning bell rang even louder.
“Wherever I go is my decision to make.”
For a brief moment, sorrow flickered through the Holy Spirit’s black eyes.
“So you still can’t trust me.”
“It’s too sudden. Please understand.”
“Then you must understand me as well.”
At that moment, the sound of footsteps made Canna turn around.
“Please understand why I cannot let you leave, Canna.”
When had they approached? Dozens of men wearing blood-red clerical robes now blocked her path.
She immediately recognized who they were.
The Enforcers of the Great Temple. Combat priests created solely for battle!
Two Enforcers stepped to either side of her and seized both her arms.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Protecting you.”
“Protecting me?”
“Alexandro is a monster. He let his guard down this once and lost you, but there won’t be a next time. This is your only chance to be saved.”
He was speaking entirely on his own terms.
Strangely, that only made Canna calmer. She thought with icy clarity. And quickly finished her calculations.
For now, she would pretend to go along with it.
Come to think of it, staying here for a while would be more beneficial than trying to leave immediately.
It would give her a chance to gather information and determine whether the Holy Spirit’s words were true or false.
Then she could decide whether to escape or not.
She was confident she could escape. The necklace and ring she currently wore were laced with poisons strong enough to knock a person unconscious for days.
And that wasn’t all.
She had also prepared sleeping incense, deadly toxins—every kind of drug capable of subduing someone.
Just play along for now.
The moment Canna was about to accept the offer—
“Hey.”
A low voice cut through the air.
Canna and even the Enforcers turned in surprise. They found a man standing there.
“……Orsini?”
It was Orsini.
He stood with his sword resting lazily across one shoulder, posture crooked.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
A heavy silence fell.
No one had noticed him approaching all the way into the Holy Spirit’s domain, right behind the Enforcers!
“Orsini Addis, I presume.”
The Holy Spirit smiled with composure.
“Go back. This is my domain. You have no business here.”
“Ah. So you’re the Holy Spirit.”
Orsini replied indifferently, as if he couldn’t care less.
“I don’t give a damn who you are or where this is. But I’m taking her with me.”
Orsini jerked his chin toward Canna.
“So tell your Enforcers to get their filthy hands off her. Before I cut their wrists off.”
A chill raced across Canna’s nape.
Was this what killing intent felt like? The air around Orsini stabbed at her skin like sharp thorns.
“How insolent. You’re exactly like Alexandro in his youth.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“A compliment, you say.”
The Holy Spirit burst into loud laughter.
“Did you hear what I said earlier? That Canna is my daughter?”
Orsini’s eyes shook violently for a moment. But he soon sneered with thick contempt.
“Do I need to hear it to know? Anyone with eyes can see you two look exactly the same.”
“I see you didn’t hear the rest, then. Allow me to explain. Canna is my daughter. Do you understand what that means? It means the two of you are not siblings. Not a single drop of blood connects you. In other words—”
The Holy Spirit waved his hand magnanimously.
“I’ll overlook your rudeness this once. Now leave.”