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Chapter 13
"Your name."
"It's Chesa!"
Chesa quickly added to her response.
"Chesa of House of Basilian."
Hailon, seated across the table from me, spoke with icy detachment.
"Tell me if anyone forced you into this."
"...Forced me?"
"The Pure Child Prayer Ceremony attendance. I can help you ‌‌‌if you're being coerced."
"I'm fine!"
When I pretended not to understand, he fell silent for a moment.
Instead, he studied my eyes intently.
His gaze was as though searching for traces of hidden magic.
Our eyes met and held for a long time.
Perhaps it was because I hadn't seen him in so long.
Being fixed with that unwavering gaze made my chest itch uncomfortably.
I struggled to maintain an innocent, childlike expression. ‌‌
I was nervous, unsure what he might ask next.
Of course, outwardly I simply wore a serene, wide-eyed look.
After staring ‌‌‌at me for some time, Hailon suddenly posed a question.
"Do you happen to know the witch Lichesia?"
"N-No, I don't know her."
It felt as though a dagger had pierced straight through my heart.
Cold sweat beaded on my skin.
With my anxiety mounting, my already short tongue seemed to shrink further.
"I-I was just born ‌not long ago, so I don't know anything."
I waved my hands frantically, desperately emphasizing that I was merely a two-year-old child.
Looking back at what I'd said, it sounded less like a two-year-old and more like someone on their second life, but fortunately, my defense seemed to work.
Hailon had ‌‌‌‌apparently realized that interrogating a young child seriously ‌‌would yield nothing.
He exhaled a low breath and covered his eyes with his hand.
After remaining like that for a moment, he wearily dragged his hand down his face.
Fine cracks like spider silk appeared in the frigid, expressionless mask ‌‌‌that seemed incapable of bleeding even if pierced.
Why was that?
Hailon looked tormented.
He was a ‌‌‌‌man I had known for longer than I'd intended.
When I fled the Orphanage and Hailon ‌‌entered the Holy Temple to become an apprentice knight.
Our relationship had begun during a time when both our lives were in upheaval, and it had continued ever since. ‌‌
It was not something I could call good, even in empty words, but still... ‌‌‌
Between Hailon and me, there existed something difficult to express in words—something subtle.
I wished for him not to die.
If Hailon were to die, I believed it should be by my ‌‌‌‌own hand at the very least.
I suppose I arbitrarily assumed he felt the same way.
'Are you lonely without me?'
Chesa observed ‌him from the corner of her eye.
Her gloved hand moved slowly, caressing the bracelet at her wrist.
It felt as though pristine white chains might unfurl from all directions at any moment.
The phantom ‌‌‌sound of chains rattling faintly echoed at the edges of her hearing.
Suddenly, a memory from the past surfaced.
"Your name."
Bound in pristine white chains, suspended in ‌‌the air like a pinned butterfly, I had been interrogated by him.
"Speak your name, sorceress."
His curt, commanding tone annoyed me, so I smiled deliberately.
"You already know my name."
"Answer only what is asked."
His blue eyes betrayed not the ‌‌‌slightest emotion.
His emotionless voice repeated the same words with dry precision.
"Your name."
That must ‌‌have been why.
Chesa had decided to be spiteful.
Escaped from the chains of condemnation, I repaid him in kind.
I dug a trap to lure ‌‌‌him in, and succeeded in binding the Holy Knight with thorns and suspending him ‌‌in the air.
The sight of him tangled in flowers and thorns was so amusing that I burst into laughter—
"Kill her."
The moment I was captured, his immediate command to end my life without hesitation infuriated me, so I resolved to torment him.
"How could you? You saved my life."
"...."
When I mentioned the beginning of our tangled relationship, Hailon's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
It was a reaction that ‌‌seemed almost like regret for his past actions.
Whether he regretted the past or not was of no concern to me.
What mattered was only ‌‌‌‌the present.
Chesa waved away the butterflies fluttering around her with an elegant gesture as she spoke.
"I'll spare you once. But you need to understand something."
She fixed ‌her crimson eyes, brimming with ‌‌‌light, upon her captured prey.
"Our lives have become far more valuable since then."
She placed her hand gently against Hailon's cheek.
As her nails lightly scraped across his skin, his composed eyes twisted further.
"Saving you now costs me far more ‌‌‌than ‌‌‌‌when you saved me back then."
Hailon gazed down at her hand for a moment, then lifted ‌‌‌his eyes to meet Chesa's once more.
His cold voice finally broke the silence.
"What do you want...."
Hailon's words came to an abrupt halt.
Chesa lowered her gaze slightly and leaned her face close to his.
"...!"
His eyes ‌widened in shock.
In the next moment, his bound hands clenched with a sharp crack, grasping at the ‌‌‌thorny brambles.
Blood trickled down, yet Hailon refused to release his grip.
His clenched fist trembled violently.
After that ‌‌brief but intense contact, the skin that ‌had touched separated.
His blue eyes, swirling with fury and humiliation, glared at Chesa.
Watching that gaze shatter and waver was utterly delightful.
As I savored the sight of ‌‌him, his eyes reddened with rage, I deliberately licked my lips.
"So a kiss as payment for your life should be fine, right?"
In that moment, I nearly met my end at the hands of Hailon, consumed entirely by fury.
With incredible strength, ‌‌‌he tore the brambles apart and pursued me relentlessly for three ‌‌‌‌days and nights afterward. ‌‌
It had been an amusing memory.
'But now it's anything but amusing....' ‌‌
I sighed, regretting the misdeeds I had committed in the past.
Had I tormented Hailon even slightly less, I wouldn't be this tense now.
I was worried that the House of Basilian might get dragged into this.
'Actually, thinking about it, that place is already a mess.'
It wasn't a matter of getting dragged in—they were already scheming something outrageous enough to ‌‌make the Heresy Inquisitors' eyes roll back.
After all, Kieran wanted to ‌resurrect a dead person.
It was while I was lost in these various thoughts.
Hailon made a sound as if flipping through something inside me.
"Do you remember your biological mother who ‌‌‌gave birth to you?"
"Pardon?"
"Is it possible your biological mother had dazzling golden hair and crimson eyes?"
"...I'm ‌sorry?"
Hailon spoke utter nonsense with a serious expression.
"Whether you saw butterflies or ‌‌‌flowers, or noticed a floral scent from her body—tell me anything at all that comes to mind ‌‌‌‌‌‌about ‌your biological mother."
Wait. Wait just a moment.
Is he seriously—is Hailon actually—
Does he think ‌that I, ‌‌‌the enchantress Lichesia, am—
That I gave birth to a child and abandoned her at the Orphanage?
'Does he think I'm Lichesia's daughter?!'
It was a truly horrifying notion.
The enchantress Lichesia didn't even have time to become pregnant.
Between looking after Hata, causing trouble, and constantly fleeing, when would I have had the leisure to love someone peacefully?
Yet now Hailon seemed to be entertaining ‌‌‌that impossible fantasy.
I could understand ‌‌‌it, just a little.
Lichesia's whereabouts remained a mystery, yet here stood a baby bearing an uncanny resemblance, materializing before my eyes without warning.
'No! This makes no sense!'
I desperately hoped Hailon would abandon his absurd delusion.
I was seized by the urge to tear out his silver hair.
"Or perhaps."
A gloved hand flicked open the button of his stiffly raised collar.
I parted my lips.
Hailon drew down the uniform buttons one after another—click, click—in succession.
The small clasp buttons of the black undershirt beneath were undone without hesitation, tap-tap-tap.
I slowly inched my body backward.
Pressed against the sofa's backrest, I stared at him with eyes screaming 'What is wrong with this bastard? Has he lost his mind?'—yet Hailon paid no mind.
He deliberately exposed the flesh concealed beneath his uniform.
With his chest half-bared from the undone buttons, he grasped his collar and pulled it to the side.
His defined ‌‌collarbone came into view.
"Eek!"
I covered ‌‌‌‌my eyes with both hands.
Though not completely—my fingers ‌‌‌‌remained slightly parted.
The crimson floral mark ‌‌‌‌etched above his collarbone ‌‌‌gleamed vividly beneath the midday sun. ‌‌‌‌‌
Despite committing ‌‌‌‌this madness in broad daylight, Hailon spoke in an unruffled voice.
"Have you seen this mark before?"
Of course I had seen it.
It was the brand I had carved into him.
I couldn't immediately decide how to react or what to say.
I was gaping like a fish, my lips trembling in shock.
Click—the door opened without a knock.
"...This."
A man in an ‌‌‌immaculate suit spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"I'm not sure what reaction I'm supposed to have."
Chesa and Hailon turned toward the door simultaneously.
Crack—Kieran tore a candlestick from the wall.
He swung it with a flourish and ‌laughed.
"Do ‌‌you wish to die, Hailon?"

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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, ‌please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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