"Again."
Ofilienne seized Matyos by the shoulders. Her fingertips pressed in with force.
"Say it again."
Matyos swallowed.
His eyes were red at the corners. Moisture clung to the tips of his lashes, as though tears might fall at any moment.
"Please help me. Sister…."
His voice trailed off, limp and unraveling. His feet fidgeted against the floor, toes scraping restlessly.
He had set aside every last shred of dignity and pride.
Dangerous.
Gulp.
Ofilienne's throat moved, barely perceptibly.
Something rose from deep within her chest — a feeling she couldn't name. Superiority. Possessiveness. Tenderness. And a strangely sweet shiver running through her.
She opened her arms.
Those slender arms wrapped around Matyos and drew him in.
His body was pulled into her embrace.
At first he was stiff, twisting awkwardly this way and that.
Then, as though surrendering, he buried his face against her chest.
His breath seeped into her. The warmth of his body through thin fabric. The scent of perfume.
"You want me to help you?"
"…."
"Hm? Mati. Say it yourself. Should I help you, or not?"
Her voice was low and soft.
"…Please help me."
"How shall I help you?"
"…I don't know. Any way you can. Please."
Ofilienne savored the tingling sensation as she smoothed her hand through Matyos's hair. The strands were fine and silky. The way they caught gently against her fingertips felt wonderfully pleasant.
"If I help you, what will my little brother do for me?"
"…Anything."
"Anything? Really, anything?"
"Mm…."
A small nod.
There in her arms, without a moment's hesitation.
Her heart gave a hard, sudden beat.
"All right. I'll help you. I'll help you. It's Tiana Pilrn we need to save — that's it, isn't it?"
A nod.
Laughter nearly burst out of her. She barely swallowed it down.
'…I'm almost tempted to draw up a contract, but — well, I suppose that won't be necessary.'
Matyos was not the sort of child who broke his promises.
If he said 'anything,' he meant anything.
'Now, what shall I ask for?'
She'd been sitting at her desk so often lately that her shoulders had grown stiff.
Perhaps she'd have him give her a massage.
A foot soak wouldn't be bad either.
'…Is a foot soak going too far?'
Even so, the image of Matyos working her feet with those capable hands of his — kneading each toe with meticulous care — made her chest flutter pleasantly.
Matyos pulled back from her arms, his expression slightly loosened.
"Right then. Come sit. Let's figure out how to rescue that little shepherdess."
*
Early the following morning, before dawn.
Before even the first light of day had risen, the air lay heavy and damp.
Cutting through it, a company of holy knights in white armor arrived at Porca.
The steel, still holding the cold of night, gleamed with a pale sheen.
"God's grace be upon you."
They had come to receive Cardinal Teo.
The Cardinal smiled with gentle warmth.
"A pleasure. I am in your care. I trust you have been fully briefed on your duties."
"Of course, Your Eminence. The Shield of God will guard the safety of Your Eminence and Sister Tiana to the last."
"Ha — most reassuring."
The carriage door, adorned with gilded ornaments, swung open.
The Cardinal stepped in first.
"Sister Tiana? Come along, if you would."
Tiana, wrapped in a black traveling cloak and carrying a small bag, took a step forward.
Then she stopped.
A presence behind her.
"…Matyos."
He stood there with a quiet face.
In truth, he had not slept all night.
He had waited for dawn.
He had told himself he'd deliberately delayed to avoid this awkward farewell — and yet, in the end, he had come.
"My, my — Brother Matyos. Come to say your final goodbyes?"
Cardinal Teo greeted him with a faint, dismissive laugh.
"Regrettably, we are pressed for time and must be on our way. Still — as this is a farewell — I shall permit a brief exchange."
Matyos did not look at him.
He looked only at Tiana's green eyes, half-turned from the carriage step.
"Tiana."
"…Mati. Thank you — for everything. It was a short time, but you're someone I'll never forget. I'll pray for your path ahead."
"No matter what happens — don't give up. I'll be there soon."
Tiana's eyes wavered.
She didn't understand what he meant.
Don't give up. Give up on what?
"Stop. Mati… I'm going to become a nun now. I'm going to serve the Holy One. I can't see you again."
"No. That's not how it will be. So please — wait for me."
Strangely, he spoke with absolute certainty.
As though he were seeing off someone he would meet again very soon.
That composure, more than anything, was what tightened around Tiana's heart.
She was about to say more.
Thud.
The Cardinal shut the door.
The carriage wheels began to turn, and the two of them slowly drew apart.
Tiana looked out the window.
Matyos was standing there.
He was waving.
Just then, the dawn rose behind him.
Light wrapped around his silhouette.
Without thinking, Tiana raised her hand and waved back.
Until his figure had vanished entirely from sight.
"Do you have regrets?"
"…It would be a lie to say I don't."
"All things are insignificant beside the grace of God. To leave the world behind and go to the embrace of the Light — it is a most admirable choice."
"…."
"You are still wavering, I see."
At Cardinal Teo's words, Tiana gave a silent nod.
He sighed and removed his red gloves.
"Have a look."
"…That's—!"
Tiana startled at the sight of Cardinal Teo's hand.
There was a scar on the back of it.
A Sacred Stigmata.
A miraculous mark left upon the skin.
"Shameful as it is to admit — God saw fit to grant me this. Unworthy as I am, I intend to offer this body entirely to His glory."
"…Your Eminence."
"And so, Sister Tiana — please, set down every burden in your heart, and come with me in peace."
Tiana swallowed.
The moment she saw the Sacred Stigmata, something collapsed deep within her chest.
The sign of God. The mark of the chosen.
Before it, her own wavering felt like sin.
"Yes…."
She nodded, almost without realizing it.
* * *
Under the ironclad escort of the holy knights, Tiana and Cardinal Teo arrived at the Sanctum City-State.
The Eternal City, Sanctum.
Spires of white marble pierced the sky, and golden crosses blazed in the morning light. Hymns drifted low through every street, and the scent of incense floated on the air. People bowed their heads and knelt in reverent silence.
Tiana was briefly struck speechless.
Truly. This place felt like the city of God.
And yet.
"Shall we step out of the carriage and walk a little?"
Cardinal Teo suggested with a gentle smile.
"Pardon? Oh… yes. Of course."
She wanted to see more of the city.
She hoped this magnificent sight might smother the fear lurking in one corner of her heart.
The carriage door opened, and the moment her foot touched the ground —
Click.
The holy knights closed in, dense and seamless.
Front, back, left, right — not a gap to be found.
White armor formed a wall around her, cutting off her view.
In that instant, Tiana felt not as though she were walking through a city, but through a corridor.
Not sightseeing. Transport.
They walked like that for some time.
The busy streets gradually emptied of people, and the sound of prayers grew distant.
Then they entered a building.
Inside, it was unexpectedly gloomy.
A staircase, descending straight down.
Stairs…?
Overgrown with vines, thick with settled dust — stairs that had seen no maintenance.
Nothing like the sacred city above.
Tiana tilted her head, but the Cardinal walked ahead without concern.
"Do you know the passage, Sister?"
He spoke as he walked.
"'I, who sit upon the heavens, declare: my most blessed and truest child shall be born.'"
"Oh! I know that one. It's Revelation, chapter eighteen, verse twenty-two."
Her voice brightened.
Scripture was something she knew well.
"Correct. It appears in the final book of the Bible — Revelation."
"The next verse was this, wasn't it? 'You, O Dawn Saint, who possess the purest of souls, shall cleanse the wicked things of this world.'"
"Ha ha — Sister Tiana has studied the Scriptures most thoroughly."
"The Bible is the most sacred of books! I'm trying to memorize every verse."
She smiled, a little shyly.
Just then, the staircase ended.
Hard stone floor stretched ahead.
The air was damp. A rotten, raw smell pricked at her nose.
"Is that so! How devout you are, Sister."
"Thank you."
"Do you know what the Dawn Saint is?"
"Ah… I'm not quite sure about that part yet."
"It is simple."
His footsteps slowed.
"The Dawn Saint is a child sent by God. She descends to this earth and purifies the world anew."
"I see. But why bring up that passage all of a sudden…?"
"Well, you see."
Abrupt stillness.
Cardinal Teo stopped without warning.
Tiana, walking without caution, walked straight into his back.
The holy knights halted in unison.
"Your Eminence…?"
Slowly, he turned to face her.
He was smiling.
But it was not the merciful smile she had seen in the city.
His cheeks were drawn high, as though overcome with rapture.
The expression was faintly grotesque, and Tiana's body went rigid.
"We are going to try something."
"…Pardon?"
Tiana blinked, unable to catch the meaning of his words.
As comprehension arrived a beat too late, Cardinal Teo's lips parted slowly.
"Sister Tiana — you are going to become that Dawn Saint."
Before her confusion could even fully form —
Cardinal Teo wove a hand seal and invoked his sacred arts.
Flash!
A blinding radiance erupted outward.
The light twisted like rope and coiled around her wrists and throat.
"Ngh…!"
Her breath was cut off.
A cold, rigid force constricted her skin.
"Bind her carefully. Don't damage her."
The Cardinal's words were as indifferent as idle conversation.
Tiana struggled.
But her body was no longer her own.
Each time the cords of light tightened even slightly, her breath came in short, severed gasps.
The footsteps of approaching holy knights rang out. The clang of metal echoed through the space like a cave.
The holy knights came forward and hoisted the bound Tiana up.
Her body rose high.
Only then could she take in her surroundings.
A vast hollow.
An underground chamber sealed on all sides. A grim cavern lit only by the eerie flicker of candles.
"Grrrgh…."
"Eeeeugh…."
The sounds struck her ears first.
Something that might have been human — or might not have been.
She saw them.
Inside iron cages.
"….!"
Things writhing and shrieking within.
Tiana squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.
She told herself that when she opened them, it would be gone.
But what her green eyes found again was the same scene.
What those green eyes beheld was something of unspeakable cruelty.
Neither human nor beast.
Less like life, and more like a mistake given form.
Human and serpent and eagle, fused together….
Wolf and hippopotamus and human, merged….
Human and human and human, joined end to end in a single line…!
"Ugh!"
Her stomach lurched.
Vomit spilled across the floor.
Something snapped inside her mind.
Confronted with a parade of sights that shattered all reason, Tiana's sanity fractured with terrifying speed.
Cardinal Teo watched, and spoke with perfect composure.
"Those, you see — are, well, a kind of prototype."
"…Ugh."
"Life is truly wondrous, is it not? To think they still live, even joined together like that."
He gave a thin smile.
"I practiced with those before using the finest material. What do you think? Not bad, are they?"
Tiana could not answer.
She felt that if she opened her mouth, a scream would come out.
"Ha ha, do not worry. Sister Tiana will not be mixed together so haphazardly. Your pure soul must not be used in such a way."
The holy knights clamped shackles onto Tiana's wrists.
She stared down at Cardinal Teo, her eyes vacant.
"…This is a dream, isn't it?"
"Hm."
"This — this is a dream, isn't it? Your Eminence. I'm having a nightmare right now, aren't I?"
She tried to smile. The corners of her mouth trembled awkwardly.
She wanted to hear from his lips that this was not real.
Only then would her faith remain unbroken.
Only then would all her prayers not have been in vain.
She looked away.
She decided not to see what she was seeing.
Like draping a thin cloth over the truth, she deceived herself.
Cardinal Teo regarded her for a moment.
His eyes were hollow. The eyes of someone who already knows the outcome.
He burst into laughter.
"Keh heh heh — yes, that's right."
He nodded.
"It is a dream, Sister."
His eyes curved into a narrow smile.
"All of this is a nightmare."