Mess 141

141.

‘…It’s a dream.’

Seraphie quickly grasped the situation.

She was standing in the capital square, barefoot and still in her pajamas. The once-familiar square was now a ruin, thick gray smoke curling from place to place.

Wounded and dead bodies lay scattered on the streets, while children who had lost their families sobbed nearby.

It was, in short, hell.

That was how she knew it wasn’t real.

‘Am I just too exhausted?’

Seraphie naturally recalled her day.

She had visited the imperial palace to receive a new title and discussed the first target of the upcoming hunt. Indeed, these were events to inspire restless dreams. No wonder she would have one like this.

First, Seraphie decided to get out of this place. Even if it was only a dream, she wanted no part of such a hellscape.

Just as she took a step to move away—

“…Ah!”

Seraphie screamed, reeling backward. Her environment began to change rapidly, abandoning her in place. Though still a dream, the vividness of the transformation unnerved her.

And the moment her foot touched the ground again—

“…Ddoondooni?”

One step had brought her to the land forsaken by the gods. The wasteland closest to the capital: known as Ddoondooni.

The Ddoondooni Seraphie knew was still under excavation. Though it had been a year since digging began, the divine treasures remained buried, rich and plentiful.

But in this dream, the excavation had ended. The wasteland, stripped of divine treasures, was marred only by a huge, bizarre pit.

Someone stood before it.

Hair like honey-drenched gold—an all too familiar color.

“…Lilie?”

Seraphie spoke the name.

“Lady Alveolos!”

But Lilie gave no response. No matter how many times Seraphie called, there was no reaction.

‘She can’t hear me.’

At that realization, Seraphie also noticed the state Lilie was in.

Seated before the empty mine, Lilie was a picture of devastation.

Her clothes, muddied with blood and dirt; her face, haggard with exhaustion; intermittent, mournful sobs escaping her lips.

She was deep in torment.

Beside her lay Peonia, in striking contrast—spotless and beautiful, quite unlike Lilie.

And a short distance away stood another.

Seraphie tried to turn and see who it was.

“…This isn’t what I wanted.”

From between Lilie’s lips came a crushed, anguished voice.

“Oh god, this isn’t what I wished for…!”

Tears dripped onto the dry, cracked earth.

Then, from the darkening sky, thick raindrops began to fall—as if someone were pouring water from a bucket overhead.

In an instant, Lilie was drenched.

“So take it all…”

Shivering in her wet clothes, Lilie tore the necklace from her own neck and threw it into the pit. Seraphie recognized it at once.

‘The necklace the Crown Prince gave her!’

In the original work, Lilie discovers the forsaken land and begins joint excavation with the Crown Prince.

As a token of gratitude, the prince gifts her a necklace wrought from divine treasure—this very necklace.

Lilie’s tear-laden voice was desperate.

“I’ll give up everything…!”

Suddenly, a faint wind began to stir in the black chasm, along with a wavering light. Seraphie recognized the glow immediately—it was the radiance of the god’s treasure.

“Wealth and honor I never deserved, disgusting praise, and unwanted love—take it all…!”

Crying out, Lilie gazed down at Peonia beside her.

Wiping dirt and mud from her hands onto her dress, she gently caressed Peonia’s face.

“…I’ll cast it all away.”

Lilie softly pressed her lips to Peonia’s cheek.

“There was only ever one thing I truly wanted.”

As her eyes slowly opened and closed, a stark light flickered in Lilie’s gaze.

“So give her back to me.”

At that moment, an immense beam of light erupted from the wasteland. Lilie poured all her magic and desperate longing into it.

Then, in far-off places, more beacons of light began to appear.

‘…….’

Seraphie watched, unable to close her mouth in shock.

‘That must be…!’

She’d studied the maps so many times, she was certain: the places where those lights now burst forth were other sites of ‘lands abandoned by the gods.’

“Lady Alveolos.”

A voice finally spoke from behind Lilie. Yet Seraphie could neither see the face nor discern the voice of the speaker.

Still, for some reason, the hazy figure felt achingly familiar to her.

Painfully so.

“Is it truly possible…?”

“I don’t know,” Lilie replied, her voice drained of life.

And Seraphie clearly saw the distant figure clench their fist tight.

“But…”

Turning to look back, Lilie managed a faint smile through her tears. For a fleeting moment, there was hope in her expression.

She reached out her hand.

The person who’d been slowly approaching delicately placed something onto it—a rosary necklace, dabbed here and there with blood.

‘That’s…!’

Seraphie’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘That’s my necklace!’

It was the necklace she’d left in the library when searching for a way to drive out that damned father—Lilie now clasped it with both hands and kissed it.

“Though everything is twisted beyond recognition…”

Lilie’s voice was almost inaudible.

Yet never had Seraphie heard it so clearly. It was as though each word was etched directly into her mind.

“It isn’t over yet…!”

Her last sentence came out clenched, nearly ground between her teeth.

“Does this feel like your victory?”

No.

Seraphie answered before she knew she was speaking.

“No.”

Lilie repeated the word.

A chill ran down Seraphie’s spine.

“To set right this twisted ‘original’…”

“To set right this twisted ‘original’…”

She was echoing Lilie word for word. It felt as though she and Lilie were mirroring, their selves blurring into one another.

But even amidst this, a detail snagged in Seraphie’s mind.

‘Twisted original?’

Why those words—from Lilie’s lips?

A memory, buried so deep she hardly even knew it existed, threatened to surface for an instant—

“Sister.”

A priest reached out her hand.

“Sister, not yet.”

That hand blocked Seraphie’s field of vision. Her sight flickered and dimmed, but stubbornly, her consciousness strained to hold onto Lilie and the faceless other.

Up to the very last, Seraphie found herself chanting the same words as Lilie.

“…….”

But what they were—waking, Seraphie could not recall.

She remembered nothing.

---

“My god, look at your face!”

Luni peered at Seraphie with genuine concern.

“Did you get any sleep last night?”

“Doesn’t seem like it…”

Seraphie, still sluggish with sleep she couldn’t shake, yawned.

Fortunately, the early morning meal piqued her appetite and began to chase away her drowsiness.

Fresh-baked breads, a variety of jams and butters, crispy sausages and eggs, salad of crisp leafy greens, and refreshing fruit juices.

Luni, seated at the table, downed a glass of fruit juice in one go.

“Well, it’s no surprise.”

The events of recent days had given Seraphie little reason for restful sleep.

Returning from the chaos at the Iris estate, she found the temple making a racket about Validus’s bastard, spreading rumors far and wide.

Considering all that, getting any sleep would have been more impressive.

“I ought to bury those damn priests…”

Seraphie muttered with a mouthful of salad. Luni couldn’t help but feel that, with Seraphie, it just might happen.

“By the way.”

Seraphie spoke, massaging her tired eyes.

“Are you moving ahead with the plans we discussed before?”

“Of course,” Luni replied, picking up a plump sausage gleaming with fat.

“But as expected, we’ll need the Emperor’s approval.”

Currently, Validus was preparing a suitable reply to the temple’s brazen attack.

Seraphie’s idea was a spectacular counterstrike, but it might jeopardize the entire empire.

“…Indeed.”

Seraphie was well aware. In order to minimize collateral damage, she’d need the Emperor’s support.

“Well, it should be fine.”

But she wasn’t exactly worried.

“I’ll handle it.”

“That’s a relief for me.”

After finishing their meal, the two strolled through the garden for digestion, then parted ways to begin their days.

Luni went off to work with her newly hired assistants, and Seraphie began preparing to go out.

“Pura.”

Climbing into her carriage, Seraphie turned to her new bodyguard.

“How’s the uniform? Not too uncomfortable?”

“It’s a bit awkward, but it fits—can’t help it, I’ve just got the looks and the build.”

Pura grinned, smoothing a hand down the uniform.

Though not a true knight, Seraphie had ordered a tailored uniform for Pura, presenting it as a gift—the very first official bodyguard of the House of Validus.

“I plan to recruit a few more guards soon, but I want to focus on Glake for now.”

Serving as a noble’s bodyguard was a position of real prestige. Seraphie planned to slowly build Glake’s reputation this way.

It was the only way to shake off the stigma of ‘barbarian.’

It might be slow, but as their abilities were recognized, public perception would change.

“And you’ll be captain of the guard.”

“You’ll pay accordingly, right?”

“As much as you earn.”

As they joked, the carriage soon left the city behind.

They finally arrived at a remote site where a lone, curiously shaped building stood.

“There’s not a plant in sight,” Pura observed, looking around after getting out.

“If there are obstacles, it’s harder to catch escaped prisoners.”

Seraphie replied, studying the structure.

It was a stifling brick building that could steal the breath from onlookers. Windows no bigger than a palm. Only one entrance—the iron door before them.

And, like the wasteland abandoned by the gods, not a single blade of grass grew on the desolate plain.

This was a prison.