Chapter 13.3

“What? So Miss Brienne isn’t just touring Miragium, she’s trapped inside?”  

Diashi, who had been repairing a magic tool in the main temple hallway, looked up in shock.  

After arriving at the temple—  

She’d heard from Garzen that Brienne was inside, but Diashi had assumed she was just sightseeing in Miragium.  

She’d learned that only Roeta royalty, high-ranking nobles, and devout followers were allowed to ‘tour’ Miragium, so she thought Brienne was doing the same.  

Garzen nodded.  

“Exactly. Lusell says we need to find a way to get them out of the vision and let them know, but… Sorry to say, unless you fix the communicator, there’s no way to help her.”  

“What? No way to help? We have to find a way, no matter what!”  

Diashi raised her voice in disbelief, prompting Garzen to rake his hand through his hair.  

“I’m telling you, there’s really no way. At least we have the communicator. Well, originally Lusell and I borrowed—no, stole it for Miss Brienne in case something happened while we met the Deputy Priest…”  

Garzen had been about to shamelessly say “borrowed,” but corrected himself quickly, watching Diashi’s reaction.  

But Diashi, unconcerned about that, asked anxiously,  

“Isn’t there anyone else who can help? Right, Lusellion said he’d meet with the Deputy Priest. If anyone knows a way, it’d be him…”  

“He’s already asked for help, I’m sure. If we wait, he’ll bring back something. Of course, that’s assuming the Deputy Priest agrees to help.”  

Garzen glanced gloomily down the hallway where Lusell had disappeared.  

Diashi’s usually cheerful face turned completely dark.  

Garzen, noticing the sudden silence, misunderstood and awkwardly added,  

“Well, you know. Priests may seem kind on the surface, but they’re not always so nice—especially to mages.”  

“……Of course I know.”  

After a brief pause, Diashi nodded.  

That was also why Diashi didn’t believe in Demekia.  

Priests, living off donations from the faithful, would privately earn money by treating people and charging fees.  

But they divided people into rich and poor, acting only for money.  

Many resented these practices, but no one could challenge the state religion that formed the country’s foundation.  

Old customs don’t change easily.  

But then, healing magic appeared.  

Mages began secretly treating society’s outcasts, and healing magic soon became a lifeline for the poor who couldn’t afford a priest.  

In countries with holy power, medical progress was slow, so magic quickly emerged as a new form of medicine.  

That’s when the temple imposed strict rules on the Mage Association and began to openly oppose mages.  

Mages were suddenly forbidden to heal anyone except themselves.  

“Because of that damned rule from the temple, I couldn’t treat my youngest sibling who was burning up with a fever. And the priest just sneered at me.”  

Diashi said through clenched teeth.  

“He said, ‘I hear you study magic at the academy, but if you can’t use it, what will you do? And do you even have money for treatment?’”  

“What? What kind of garbage is that…”  

“My thoughts exactly. Even now, it makes me want to curse them out. My family was counting on me, but we had no money for treatment. I didn’t know what to do, and in the end, I was so afraid of losing my mage credentials that all I could do was cry beside my feverish sibling.”  

Diashi rubbed her reddened eyes and grabbed tools from her bag.  

“…Ha, fine, let’s see who wins. Priests? Tell them not to help! I’ll just work harder myself!”  

“……”  

Garzen couldn’t say a word.  

He felt a sense of responsibility as a member of Roeta’s royal family while listening to Diashi’s story.  

He was searching for something to say, awkwardly about to apologize, when—  

“……Your Highness, I was right after all!”  

From the end of the hallway, Lusell came running, waving a map.  

“The Deputy Priest just confirmed that this is the map of the village where Riela lived! Here, he even lent us another undamaged map of the same place!”  

“What? Really?”  

Garzen jumped up, glancing at Diashi.  

Diashi met his gaze and grinned.  

“Wow, at least the Deputy Priest is a good person. That’s a relief.”  

“……It really is.”  

Garzen sighed in relief and looked at Lusell. Lusell, out of breath from running down the hallway, was exhausted.  

“Lusell, you’re struggling after running just this distance? That’s why I always tell you to exercise. Don’t regret it later.”  

“No, Your Highness, that’s not important right now. I found out something else…”  

After catching his breath, Lusell sat on the floor, laid out the map, and pulled out his notebook.  

“Remember when I said I’d translated Roeta script from the tomb of the first Pope?”

“Ah, that?”  

When Garzen showed signs of remembering, Lusell held out his notebook to him.  

“If you overlay those characters with the ones I interpreted in the underground prison of Rontiano…”  

The letters, written sparsely on thin paper, overlapped with those in the notebook.  

“Look, it becomes one continuous text!”  

Lusell, looking proud, glanced between Garzen and Diashi.  

“Up until now, I only interpreted them, but didn’t know what they meant. Turns out, each character was written in a different place! It was a hidden secret document.”  

Lusell, looking slightly embarrassed, explained he learned this because he was late for the appointment.  

While waiting for him, the Deputy Priest, tired of waiting, had been restoring old books lost in the library explosion and happened to overlay two pieces of paper. Seeing that, Lusell himself got a clue for decoding the cipher.  

If Lusell hadn’t been late for today’s meeting, he might never have learned the secret of the code he’d wanted to solve since childhood.

“Is that true?”  

Garzen urgently took the notebook Lusell handed over.  

The contents formed by overlapping the two sheets were as follows:  

[The earth, once the foundation of all things, is engulfed in flames, and humans wage wars of blood, hating one another. I cannot help but expel the sinner, the root of this evil, from the Celestial Realm.  

But, accepting the plea of the sinner’s father, Leosus, I will grant the sinner both a curse and mercy, allowing repentance and a chance for atonement.  

The sinner’s soul will be torn in two: one sealed in the Celestial Realm, and one cast into the human world.  

The pitiful soul gathered by the sinner’s greed will be freed to enjoy the blessing of reincarnation.  

On the other hand, the half soul cast into the human world will always endure trials as in the past.  

The sinner’s punishment is the repetition of the same fate.  

The sinner will forever suffer from choices driven by trials and will never escape the cycle of fate.]  

“This is……”  

Garzen’s expression darkened as he took his eyes off the notebook.  

“It seems the sinner is Riela, and the pitiful soul refers to Arthur. Now, it seems we can deduce what ‘original sin’ Miss Brienne must solve.”  

“……D*mn.”  

In that case, shouldn’t they hurry and inform her?  

Garzen quickly turned to Diashi.  

“Sorry, Mage, are you still not done?”  

Diashi, caught by his gaze, shook her head.  

“I’m sorry… There’s nothing wrong with the circuit, and the magic power test was finished ages ago. I don’t know why it still won’t work……”  

At that moment—  

“Oh…!”  

Diashi, startled, hurriedly grabbed the magic device.

* * *

At the same time.  

“It’s over now, Witch.”  

Sally slowly approached Herace, whose feet were bound. Brienne looked down at her with frightened eyes.  

Was it really going to end like this?  

They had tried so hard to escape……  

“In the name of Demekia, I will take your life.”  

Sally spoke with force, bringing her hands together as if in prayer.  

At the same moment, a rippling white light shot from Sally’s hands, flying toward Herace and Brienne as if to engulf them.  

……And then.  

—Miss, it’s me! Can you hear me?!  

Miraculously, the magic device hanging around Brienne’s neck lit up.  

‘Diashi…?’  

Brienne, who had squeezed her eyes shut, quickly opened them and lifted her head. The sharply honed light had frozen right in front of her nose.  

It seemed the voice of salvation had stopped the flow of time in the vision.  

‘……Thank goodness.’  

Brienne’s cold, stiff expression slowly returned to normal. With a long sigh, she grabbed the magic device, her face brightening.  

“Thank you, Miss Diashi. Really. You saved me……”  

—Saved you?  

As Brienne mumbled weakly, a flustered voice came from the other side of the communicator. At that, Herace, whose legs had been tightly bound and unable to move, tried moving and let out a faint sigh.  

“That was close. Did you fix the communicator?”  

—Ah, yes! Herace is with you too! It shouldn’t cut off anymore. But what do you mean, ‘saved you’? What happened?  

What happened……  

‘Too much to even list.’  

Brienne, staring at the rigid Sally, hurriedly tugged on Herace’s collar.  

Seeing Brienne’s look that said, ‘Let’s get out of here,’ Herace nodded. Brienne slipped from Herace’s arms, took his hand, and walked along the wall.