Book 3: Chapter 39: Onward to St. Caroline
“Let me go.”
“No.”
“I want to go back, I don’t want to renounce my faith.”
“No.”
Thea and Lilith sat facing each other on a carriage that was leaving Aeria, looking like a pair of fighting siblings or lovers.
Thea glared at Lilith with her reddened eyes, wishing to escape from her but was unable to.
Being in her vulnerable state meant that Lilith, who was more powerful than her in the first place, was even more like a towering mountain.
An insurmountable mountain.
It was impossible to even think about escaping in her imagination.
However, it was even harder for Thea to come to terms with leaving the faith that she had been holding on to since she was young.
On top of that, she grew up in the church. That place was her home and the Pope was her family.
She felt as though the place she grew up in was burned to the ground overnight, leaving an empty void in her heart.
It felt so terrible. Extremely terrible.
“Three years.”
“Huh?”
“Three years.” Lilith showed Thea three fingers. “Stay with me for three years, then you can decide if you want to leave or stay after that.”
“Why?” Thea was puzzled by her words.Vissit novelbin(.)com for new novels
“I can’t force you to renounce your faith if you’re unwilling, but travel with me for three years. This is my request to you as a friend.”
Lilith leaned back in her seat and made herself comfortable again. “Three years can’t possibly change anything. By then, you can still choose to return and become a saintess. We can still be friends. There’s no issue with that. In any case, you should take this opportunity to broaden your horizons. You can’t become a good leader by just staying at the same place forever.”
“Are you dumb? She’s the saintess that everyone in the Luminous Theocracy knows. If someone saw her being abducted by me, the situation could get sticky. I’m not about to get myself into another trouble again.”
Lilith spread her arm, trying to convey to Sae that she deeply sympathized with her struggles and wanted to solve her problem but her hands were tied.
G̲o̲d̲d̲a̲m̲n̲, Sae really wanted to curse out loud.
In the end, she could only shoot a glare at Thea to express her dissatisfaction and then at Lilith while she was at it. However, she suddenly recalled that the latter was her current master, so she had no choice but to blink her huge eyes hard and hold herself back.
It was just a drive.
It was just a drive to the Holy Dragon Empire.
It was just staying under the sun and rain for two months without a physical body.
Just bear it. Just bear it.
She was a former artifact spirit who had fought countless battles and slain countless deities alongside the ancestors of the dragons. What kind of hardship had she not been through yet?
If she didn’t understand this point, would she still be standing here when her physical body was destroyed?
Having an eave was still having an eave. As long as it could shelter her from the wind and rain, it wouldn’t hurt to lower her head.
Sae turned around to raise the curtain and exited the carriage. Her translucent soul looked particularly pitiful and miserable.
However, Lilith didn’t manage to see that. She was feeling rather drowsy and shut her eyes after letting out a yawn.
She had been overworked lately and didn’t manage to get a good rest.
She wasn’t only physically exhausted, but also mentally exhausted.
The incomplete information was all jumbled up and she could only see a fragment of truth.
Yet it was shrouded by the fog again and she had no way of verifying if it was true.
It seemed like she had to calm herself down and rationalize during their journey to the Holy Dragon Empire.
Hm? Lilith suddenly recalled something, then took out something that had been left forgotten for quite a long time.
How long was it till the enrollment of St. Caroline Academy?