The baron gestured to his kneeling butler. The butler rose to his feet.

“I will guide you.”

The butler grabbed a blazing candlestick and opened a door in the corner of the hall.

Cold air rose from the open door. The corridor ahead was pitch-black darkness. When the butler shone his light, it revealed a staircase leading down to the basement. Ceres’s representative and his companions wrapped their fur cloaks around themselves once more.

They stepped into the basement entrance that gaped like a black maw.

The stairs to the basement were extremely slippery. This was because the damp water that had pooled on the floor had completely frozen. Icicles hung from the ceiling, frozen in the exact shape of dripping water. The representative’s party occasionally brushed away cobwebs that clung to their bodies.

“Is a woman in the final stages of pregnancy really in this freezing basement without a single light? I can’t believe it. How could anyone commit such a cruel act!”

Arianne, the only woman among Ceres’s representative’s party and also the only one who had not yet reached adulthood, spoke with anger. She was normally a discerning young woman, but the fact that a pregnant woman about to give birth had been abandoned in a cold basement scattered her judgment and made her burst with indignation. In a manner unbefitting a priestess, she ground her teeth in anger and answered her own question.

“It’s obvious. It must be an illegitimate child. He probably forced himself on some pretty woman, and when she unexpectedly became pregnant, he decided to get rid of both mother and child without a trace.”

“Priestess Arianne!”

Another priest walking beside her reprimanded her. The other priests shared similar thoughts, but the person guiding them right in front was the butler who served the very baron she was cursing. She closed her mouth with an “oops.” The butler continued down the stairs silently as if he hadn’t heard anything.

“We’ve arrived.”

The butler swept the torch around the spacious basement. The light revealed the corpse of a frozen rat. Dust rolled about in clumps, and the moldy smell from the wooden floor irritated their noses.

As the torch moved, parts of the basement were revealed and then disappeared back into darkness. The butler’s torch suddenly stopped. Under the flickering light, they finally discovered a collapsed pregnant woman.

They rushed to the fallen woman. She wore only shabby rags in the flesh-biting cold. Priestess Arianne, seeing this scene, became convinced that her suspicions were correct.

The representative knelt down and placed his index finger against the woman’s nose.

“…She’s already dead.”

Arianne let out a small cry of anguish.

“Then, what about the holy maiden in her womb… what shall we do?”

The representative tightly clasped the hands of the woman who had died curled up. He said a brief prayer for the woman who had frozen to death alone in the pitch darkness without a single window.

“May you now rest peacefully beside Amir.”

The representative began to straighten the body’s curled position.

“There is still faint warmth remaining in the body. She must have died very recently. The child in her womb should still be alive.”

Hearing this, several priests regained their senses and helped the representative straighten the body. The representative took out a dagger from inside his robe.

“Priestess Arianne, come here.”

Arianne, who had been covering her mouth with both hands and looking pale, hesitantly approached at the representative’s call. The representative took off his cloak, handed it to her, and said:

“I will cut open her belly to remove the child. When I take out the child, please receive it and cover it with the cloak.”

As Arianne slowly nodded, the representative raised his dagger. He asked forgiveness from the owner of the body who by now would be returning to Amir’s embrace.

Squelch—

The blade sank into the body’s belly. He drew the knife downward. Fearing that his hands, frozen from the cold, might harm the child in the womb, the representative continuously recited prayers. Fresh blood seeped from the body whose breath had just ceased. He continued to draw the knife downward.

Though his white priestly garments were soiled with blood and flesh, the representative did not stop. White breath rose from his mouth. Arianne stood beside him, tightly holding the hand of the poor woman who had frozen stiff and turned pale.

When he finally extracted the child from the mother’s womb, the representative was a mess, soaked in blood. He quickly handed the newborn to Arianne. The baby coughed repeatedly before bursting into tears. Arianne hurriedly received the blood-covered child and wiped it with the soft cloth of her priestly undergarment.

The sparse, soft baby hair shone silver in the darkness once the blood was wiped away. The tightly closed eyelashes were as white as falling snow. According to the revelation, the eyes, now tightly shut, would be transparent silver like ice crystals. The red, wrinkled skin would soon emit a soft powder-like scent.

Arianne’s eyes widened in wonder despite the overwhelming smell of blood.

She wrapped the motherless child in the cloak, held it preciously, and soothed it with practiced skill.

As the child stopped crying and fell asleep, the fierce blizzard miraculously began to subside.

♣ ♣ ♣

A week had passed.

The child, who had nearly died with its mother before even being born, was fortunately healthy without any illness or injury. The priests said it was a blessing bestowed by the goddess Amir upon her holy maiden. The weather calamity that had been like a disaster ceased as soon as the child who had received divine revelation was born. Everything was very slowly returning to its place.

Priestess Arianne walked to the window, patting the baby in her arms. Dazzling sunlight that she thought she might never see again in her life poured abundantly through the window. The knee-deep snow had already melted considerably, turning into water and rising into the air with the sunlight.

A feeling of deep emotion washed over her. Arianne looked at the baby in her arms and whispered quietly:

“It’s all thanks to you, Holy Maiden.”

The baby snuggled into her arms, making soft breathing sounds. A bright room with sunlight streaming in, a priestess with disheveled orange hair holding a baby—it should have been a very peaceful scene, but somehow Arianne’s expression was not so good.

The holy maiden was a child who rarely cried. Someone who didn’t know better might say she was docile, but Arianne was worried about this.

Arianne, who had stayed close to the holy maiden, had only seen the baby cry once in a week. The first cry she let out when entering the world—that was the last time Arianne had seen the baby cry.

Arianne had followed her midwife mother from a young age and had experienced and heard many things. Someone who didn’t know better might say a non-crying baby was docile, but she kept worrying about a baby who cried too little. Babies normally express themselves through crying when they’re hungry or have problems, but the newborn holy maiden didn’t even do that.

She put the milk bottle in the baby’s mouth. Seeing how eagerly the baby sucked with eyes tightly closed, it was clear she had been hungry, yet the child had shown no reaction until Arianne gave her the bottle. Arianne’s complexion darkened as she watched the baby.

“Holy Maiden, you must grow up strong without any problems.”

The child in Arianne’s arms, whether understanding her feelings or not, eagerly sucked on the bottle.

♣ ♣ ♣

The holy maiden grew day by day. The accumulated snow completely melted, and newly sprouted buds began to unfurl leaves and form flower buds. Meanwhile, the child learned to hold her head up, make cooing sounds, and would giggle when she saw Arianne. Recently, she had even rolled over by herself, bringing pleased smiles to the faces of several high priests who had come to see the holy maiden.

And still, no one could see the young holy maiden cry.

♣ ♣ ♣

Arianne was nodding off in a white-painted rocking chair while the baby lay in bed. The warm weather that had continued for months since the holy maiden’s birth had brought about drowsiness. The page on her lap turned softly as the breeze blew through the open window.

Arianne tried to shake her head a few times to wake up, but soon her head began to nod again. For the past few months, she had put aside all her duties as a priestess and made caring for the newborn holy maiden her top priority. Considering that she hadn’t been sleeping properly at night due to worry about the non-crying holy maiden, it was no wonder her eyes were closing in this warm sunlight.

Just as Arianne was about to fall completely asleep:

Thud!

Startled by the sound of something falling, she opened her eyes wide. Then she heard piercing cries from beneath her feet.

The baby had rolled off the bed while Arianne had been dozing.

Without even realizing that the child was crying for the first time, Arianne, pale with shock, picked up the baby from the floor.

The baby must have been so startled that her usually fair face had turned bright red. Arianne continuously stroked the baby, comforting and soothing her. She couldn’t forgive herself for dozing off in front of a young child. Her mind was filled with near-terrified worry about whether the baby might be injured.

Thick teardrops kept falling along the baby’s white eyelashes. As Arianne was comforting the crying baby, she was startled once more by a loud boom! of thunder that shook the sky.

Through the open window, rain poured down in thick, strong streams, incomparable to the baby’s tears. Arianne hurriedly slammed the window shut. The sky, which had been cloudless, was now completely covered with dark storm clouds.

The baby, startled by the thunder, began to cry even more intensely. Thunder and lightning continued to shake heaven and earth. With the rumbling, crashing sounds mixed with the baby’s cries, Arianne couldn’t gather her thoughts at all.