CH 1

Fluffy silver hair. Sky blue eyes visible through the rich eyelashes. A skinny body contrasted with soft cheeks.

The child blinked and murmured.

“Why am I alive?”

The child was obviously dead.

At the age of less than thirty.

***

In the pouring rain, a baby wrapped in an old blanket cried sadly.

“Wuaaah!”

Priestess Noelle, who discovered that figure, took the baby in her arms with a surprised face and went to the High Priest.

Noelle, who has injured her vocal cords and is thus unable to use her voice, moved her hand.

[High Priest. A baby was abandoned in front of the temple. What should we do?]

The temple’s truth of loving and embracing everyone in the world has long since become a thing of the past.

The fat High Priest had no interest at all in anything other than money and power.

“You’re bothering people with trivial things. Send them to a nearby orphanage…”

However, the moment his eyes met the baby in Noelle’s arms, they changed.

“That baby, it has divine power…!”

Divine power.

It was the power to heal any disease or wound, and it was a power possessed only by the selected few.

“To think that a baby abandoned in front of a temple possesses such a precious power…”

This is a chance to reclaim the authority of the crumbling temple!

The High Priest said as he took the baby and brought it to his arms.

“From now on, I will raise this baby.”

The High Priest named the baby ‘Liriette’. It was the name of a saintess who saved the continent long ago.

The High Priest spread the news about Liriette.

“A baby with divine power came to me. It’s a baby sent by the goddess.”

Countless people visited the temple to see Liriette. The High Priest held Liriette in his arms and condescended.

“She’s still too young to show her divine power, but when she gets older, it will be great. She will be able to heal any disease or wound.”

At those words, people scrambled to donate money.

“If the power of the child is manifested, please surely use her strength for me.”

Seeing the money piled up, the High Priest was delighted.

However, contrary to the expectations of the High Priest and people, Liriette couldn’t use divine power even after several years.

The High Priest took a baby without divine power in and lied.

As the word went around, the High Priest was on the verge of going crazy.

“Why the hell! I’m sure you have divine power, but why can’t you manifest it!”

At the High Priest’s wrath, young Liriette trembled with her small body.

“I-I’m sorry, High Priest. I will try it once again.”

Liriette held back her tears and remembered the method the High Priest had told her.

Gather the divine power in your body and send it out. Then the divine power will be manifested in pure white light.

However, no matter how hard she tried, the power didn’t appear.

“Useless thing!”

Impatient with it, the High Priest swung the staff he was holding in his hand. Terrible pain ran over Liriette’s tiny body.

It was a hellish time.

Even so, the reason  Liriette was able to endure was thanks to the priestess, Noelle.

She sobbed as she applied medicine over Liriette’s scarred body.

[I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Lily.]

If she hadn’t brought Liriette to the temple, she wouldn’t have suffered like this.

Liriette shook her head.

“Don’t say that. I would have died in the rain if it wasn’t for Noelle. Thanks, Noelle.”

Tears fell from Noelle’s dark eyes at the kind girl’s words.

Noelle wanted to protect Liriette.

However, she was a timid and weak low-ranking priestess, and the High Priest was an absolute power holding the temple tightly.

All Noelle could do was shed tears and heal Liriette’s wounds.

It was the day Liriette turned 17 years old.

Noelle said, holding out a heavy pocket and moving her hand.

[Leave the temple with this money, Lily.]

Liriette opened her eyes wide and said in a trembling voice.

“Then Noelle will go with me.”

[I swore to dedicate my body and mind to the High Priest in exchange for his great favor. I can’t leave this place.]

“…”

[But not you. Get out of here and live freely, Lily.]

Liriette nodded her head through tears.

That night, she decided to escape the temple.

[I’ll lure the priests watching over Lily to another place. Take your chance of the gap and leave the temple.]

With Noelle’s help, Liriette slipped out of her room and walked towards the exit.

The moment she thought that she could leave the temple safely, the High Priest appeared.

“Where do you dare to go without my permission, Liriette?”

“H-How…”

“This temple is mine. Did you think I wouldn’t even notice a kitten running away?”

The High Priest took a step towards Liriette with his face full of rage.

“Liriette, I cherished you like my own child. I fed you food and treated you when you were sick. Although you couldn’t use it properly because you were incompetent, I even taught you how to use divine power.”

Liriet couldn’t bear to say anything, and she trembled, taking a step back from him.

“Then, you did something like this in the end. I’ll scold you so that you will never do such a shameful thing again.”

It was the moment the High Priest was about to swing his staff at Liriette.

Noelle appeared out of nowhere and quickly moved her hand, blocking him from Liriette.

[High Priest. Liriette did nothing wrong. I’m the one who encouraged Liriette, who stayed still. So if you want to punish someone, do it to me.]

The High Priest knew that the relationship between Liriette and Noelle was quite special. But he never imagined that they would be friendly enough to do such an outrageous thing.

And Noelle, who followed him to the point of death if he were to die.

He was so angry that he couldn’t stand it.

“You wicked bastard!”

Whackㅡ!

The High Priest’s staff began to strike Noelle down without mercy.

Liriette ran up to the High Priest and desperately grabbed his hand.

“Stop it!”

However, the High Priest pushed Liriette away and continued to wield his staff. Like a child trying to kill a bug by stepping on it.

While doing that…

Crack!

There was an unpleasant sound, as if something was exploding.

“Cough.”

Dark red blood leaked from Noelle’s mouth. Then, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, all her movements stopped.

Only then did the High Priest come to his senses.

‘I didn’t even mean to kill her…’

Well, even if he kills her, there’s no big problem.

Because this was the temple where the High Priest reigned with absolute power.

Asking about the killing of a low-ranking priestess wasn’t difficult.

The High Priest pointed the staff stained with soggy blood to Liriette.

“Take a good look, Liriette. It’s all because of you that Noelle suffered such a meaningless death. Because you had a sneaky idea…”

At that moment, Liriette pulled out a small knife from her bosom.

The High Priest, frightened for a moment, shrank.

However, the place Liriette headed with the knife was not the High Priest. It was Noelle, who was lying down.

Kneeling next to Noelle, Liriette slashed her palm with the knife. Soon, red blood pooled.

Liriet brought it to Noelle’s mouth.

Drip. Drip.

Drops of red blood began to enter Noelle’s slightly parted mouth.

Liriette prayed with a teary face.

“Please… Please…”

After a while, a miracle happened.

“Haaㅡ”

Noelle, whose breath was once stopped, began to exhale again.

Liriette, who saw that her dying life had returned, shed tears and hugged Noelle tightly.

From behind Liriette, the surprised voice of the High Priest was heard.

“So you were able to use divine power?”

No. Liriette still couldn’t manifest divine power with white light. But she found out by accident.

That the blood in her body can heal the wounds of others.

However, Liriette desperately hid that fact.

Because she knew how the High Priest would deal with her.

Clomp, clomp.

At the sound of his footsteps approaching, Liriette slowly turned her head.

The High Priest looked down at her and raised the corners of his lips.

“Now I can use you.”

It was a devilish smile.

***

Liriette’s long eyelashes trembled.

“After that, the real hell began.”

The High Priest imprisoned Liriette within the deepest room of the temple.

Then, whenever those whose bodies wanted to be healed came, they mercilessly wounded Liriette’s body and drew her blood.

No matter how much Liriette screamed in pain, no matter how she cried, they never stopped.

Just as Liriette expected.

Liriette lived like that for 10 years, and she died before she was thirty.

Liriet murmured as she cradled her tiny body with both of her trembling hands.

“I’m certain, I was dead. But how in the world am I still alive?”

That wasn’t all.

Liriette didn’t look like what she did at the end of her life now. She was much younger

‘Am I about ten years old?’

Liriette looked at the mirror with a confused look.

Then, the door opened.

The moment she saw someone entering her room, Liriette’s heart sank.

It was Noelle.