She bit her lip hard. The unbearable pain made her vision blur.

Still unable to exhale the breath she had taken in, she gasped and forced herself to turn toward the open window. As tears welled up in her eyes, black storm clouds were forming drop by drop in the sky.

“Ugh…”

She groaned, tilting her head back to prevent more tears from falling. She still clenched her teeth as she slowly exhaled. She was careful not to move her hand that remained fixed to the floor with the glass. She could feel her pulse throbbing at the injured area.

With her uninjured hand, she continuously dabbed away the tears that threatened to fall. And she forced herself to lift the corners of her mouth, trying to create something resembling a smile.

Lost in pain, it was only after a while that she heard knocking at the door. Surely the priest guarding the hallway had heard the sound of breaking glass.

“C-come… in,” she said, trying not to let her voice tremble. The door clicked open.

“Oh no, Holy Maiden!”

The male priest who entered had no time to pay proper respects, but rushed to her as she sat amid scattered glass fragments. The cut must have been deep, as a small pool of blood had formed on the marble floor around the hand she was pressing down.

“Hey! Is anyone out there? The Holy Maiden is injured!”

The loud cry echoed throughout the Santarium, the holy maiden’s space. Soon, priests from all over the Santarium hurriedly gathered in the holy maiden’s room. Normally, she would have been overwhelmed with shyness in front of so many people, but the severity of her injury made her completely forget about embarrassment due to the pain. By the time the doctor arrived, she had finally managed to regain some composure.

She looked out the window once more. The sky was already completely engulfed by ominous black clouds, making it dark.

‘Everyone will be worried seeing the dark sky…’

She consoled herself that since she hadn’t cried, nothing worse would happen. The holy maiden knew that dwelling on gloomy thoughts would only make the situation worse.

Just then, a group of priests rushed into the holy maiden’s room. They were those who had realized something had happened to her upon seeing the darkened sky.

The holy maiden spotted a familiar person among the crowd.

“Arianne!”

“Holy Maiden! My goodness, what happened! How did you…”

“How did you get here so quickly? I thought you’d be late today!”

“When I saw the dark clouds in the sky, I dropped everything and ran here. I should have been by your side… It’s all my fault.”

Arianne made a tearful face as she looked at the red glass fragments with dried blood. It was horrifying to think that those terrible things had been embedded in the holy maiden’s hand. Despite what must have been great pain, the holy maiden was smiling brightly at Arianne.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes.”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Not at all.”

Arianne rushed to the holy maiden, knelt down to meet her at eye level, then carefully brushed her snow-white hair aside, anxiously checking for any other injuries. Arianne soon noticed that the area around the holy maiden’s eyes was flushed red. She had clearly been forcing back tears, continuously wiping them away with her hand.

It pained Arianne’s heart to think of the six-year-old child trying to endure pain that even adults would find difficult to bear. Arianne buried her face in the holy maiden’s lap.

“Holy Maiden, may I stay like this for a moment?”

“You were very shocked because I got hurt? I’m fine, Arianne.”

The holy maiden spoke in a thin voice, patting Arianne’s shoulder with her small hand. Overwhelmed with emotion, Arianne finally burst into tears. All the priests gathered in the room looked with pity at the holy maiden who could not cry, sharing similar feelings to Arianne.

♣ ♣ ♣

Arianne was one of the few female priests in the temple. She had been selected to be part of the group sent to receive the newborn holy maiden because of her experience helping her mother, who had been a midwife in the secular world. She became the first priest to properly hold the holy maiden when she came into the world.

Even now, six years later, she remembered everything that happened that night as vividly as if it were yesterday.

The dark basement with frozen ice puddles everywhere. The pungent, foul smell that stung the nose. The cold, dark place without a single light until her group descended with torches.

When Arianne learned that the holy maiden’s mother was already dead, she thought all was lost. It felt as though the last remaining hope had shattered. So when High Priest Patrick, who stood there as Ceres’s representative, offered a short prayer and then took out a knife from his robe, she didn’t understand what he intended to do.

“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.”

Though the words didn’t immediately register and just buzzed in her ears, she nodded. She vaguely watched as High Priest Patrick raised his knife, tore away the clothing over the dead woman’s swollen belly, and cut open the stomach skin as if skinning meat.

Even though life had already left the body, red blood poured out in unmanageable amounts. Even as the flowing blood soaked her shoes, Arianne felt completely detached from reality, as if watching some vision passing before her eyes. At High Priest Patrick’s instruction to step back, she released the dead woman’s hand and moved a few steps away.

She snapped back to her senses at the sound of the newborn baby’s cry. High Priest Patrick handed her the blood-covered baby. Taking the child in her arms, Arianne carefully wiped the blood from the baby’s face and body with the underskirt of her priestly garment. Unlike what one would expect from a child born from such a frozen body, the crying baby had a remarkably warm temperature.

The baby soon stopped crying. The white eyebrows, the same color as her hair, emerged from beneath the red blood.

Though she had held countless newborn babies while assisting her mother, never had she felt such awe as at that moment.

‘You were born well, noble one.’

Strangely, holding the child, she didn’t feel the cold at all. The blizzard outside was rapidly subsiding.

The holy maiden, born by cutting open the womb of a mother abandoned by the father. Overwhelmed by the profound emotion that the most precious person had been born in the lowest, most humble place, Arianne offered a prayer of thanks to the goddess as soon as she returned to the temple that day.

Afterwards, Arianne volunteered to care for the holy maiden. She went to Ceres, who held a position above the high priests and could be called the head of all priests, and said she wished to stay by the holy maiden’s side and serve her. Knowing that she was the first to hold the holy maiden, Ceres granted this request, and from then on, everything related to the holy maiden took priority over all other matters for Arianne.

Arianne couldn’t help but smile when the baby looked at her with round, transparent silver eyes so clear that one might doubt whether she could actually see.

♣ ♣ ♣

“Our Holy Maiden, how much pain you must have felt.”

Arianne spoke with regret as she cradled the small hand tightly wrapped in bandages.

“No, I really didn’t feel any pain at all!”

The holy maiden said with a bright smile. But even this smile of the holy maiden seemed too pitiful and heartbreaking to Arianne.

The holy maiden was literally a holy maiden. She created miracles every moment, regardless of her own will. When she smiled brightly during the day, the sun shone more warmly, and gentle drizzles that refreshed the mood fell softly. When she giggled at night, the stars in the sky twinkled as if competing with each other.

Conversely, her tears became torrential rain and snow that poured down on the empire’s skies, and on days when she felt gloomy, dark storm clouds densely blocked the sunlight. When she was immersed in melancholy, people collapsed from the cold in winter and from the heat waves in summer.

The holy maiden, who rarely cried from a young age, seemed to instinctively know this fact. She would just smile brightly even at things that would normally make a child throw tantrums or get irritated.

Once, when the holy maiden, who had just started walking, bumped her head on the corner of a table and got a small bump, the child bit her lip firmly and pitifully held back the tears that were about to come. To Arianne, the fact that a young child who could barely speak was holding back her tears like this wasn’t so much amazing or admirable as it was simply heartbreaking.

“But you know, Arianne, I’m curious about something.”

The holy maiden looked up at Arianne with her silver eyes. Arianne, who had been looking at the holy maiden with pity, gave a small smile.

“What is it?”

The holy maiden thrust forward the teddy bear she had been holding.

“This is Mari. Your name is Arianne.”

Arianne made a slightly puzzled expression, not quite grasping what the holy maiden wanted to say. The holy maiden continued, moving her small mouth continuously.

“Ceres’s name is Martadia. Everyone has a name.”

“And?”

“Why don’t I have a name?”

‘Oh my.’

Arianne was surprised by the unexpected question. It made sense that the young holy maiden would think that way. Everyone called her ‘Holy Maiden.’ No priest was disrespectful enough to casually use the name of the holy maiden sent directly by the Goddess Amir in her presence. Arianne thoroughly scolded herself inwardly for not having taught the holy maiden her name earlier.

“That can’t be, Holy Maiden. You have a beautiful name too.”

“Really?”

“Of course! Ceres pondered deeply when giving you your name.”

At the news that she too had a name, the child’s silver eyes sparkled like clean snowflakes.

“Really, really? My goodness, I have a name too? Why didn’t I know?”

The holy maiden’s delight as she spun around holding the teddy bear Mari was utterly adorable. Arianne felt the urge to hug her tightly.

“Then what is my name?”