Four thick wooden pillars surrounded a large box on the altar.

Unknown symbols, inscribed vertically with the blood of monsters, were etched into the wooden columns.

Twisted straw ropes encircled the pillars, with fragments of bones, presumed to be human, hanging from them.

“Damn it, a barbarian’s barrier. Step back, Sel. If you mess with this the wrong way, you could get cursed instead.”

The ghost’s blue eyes gleamed as he pulled Sel behind him.

But Sel stepped forward again.

She couldn’t allow Lavi to take on such a dangerous task with his body.

“I’ll handle this.”

“No, Sel. Even a priest would struggle to break this. I’m better suited for it.”

“No way. Don’t you dare misuse that body. If you end up hurt, I won’t let it slide!”

Sel shouted, her voice full of anger.

Lavi had endured a lifetime of suffering due to his possession.

Learning that the cause of it all was his own father had broken his heart. She didn’t want to burden him any further. The ghost furrowed his brow.

“Sel… You’re not saying you…”

Sel didn’t answer. Watching the scene unfold, Eric’s expression turned complicated.

Sel quickly assessed the surroundings, analyzing the curse.

She could see it—the beginning and end of the spell, and the spirits sacrificed for it, now bound as a curse, lingering in the area.

“This must be my awakened ability,” she thought, swallowing hard.

Determined, Sel charged her pistol with magic to break the spell.

She fired precisely at specific points.

The barrier flashed as though struck by lightning.

The four pillars supporting it crumbled in all directions.

At the same time, spirits carrying the curse emerged as black smoke and lunged at Sel.

“Sel, watch out!”

“Step back, Sel!”

The ghost and Eric swung their swords toward the front.

Their strikes dispelled the evil spirits.

With the situation resolved, Sel and her companions climbed onto the altar.

At its peak, they opened the lid of the black box.

“!”

Sel turned pale.

Inside was the uncorrupted body of her mother, Creta.

“Mom…?”

Sel’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.

Tears she had been holding back rolled down her cheeks.

“Hngh… Mom…”

With trembling hands, Sel gently touched her mother’s face.

At that moment, Creta’s eyes snapped open.

“Mom! Mom!” Sel called her name desperately.

“Be careful, Sel.”

Eric, wary of the strange phenomenon, stepped protectively in front of Sel.

But the ghost stopped him.

“Step back for now, brat. From here on, I’ll take responsibility for Sel.”

“But—”

“Trust me.”

The ghost’s firm words made Eric hesitate before reluctantly taking a single step back.

Creta slowly lifted her upper body.

With each movement, her hair crumbled and fell like dry leaves.

Her blue skin, pale lips, and cloudy white eyes unmistakably marked her as a corpse.

Yet it moved as though alive.

Creta’s lips quivered.

Her voice was more akin to the grating sound of metal, but to Sel, even that was a welcome sound.

Sel tightly held her mother’s cold, discolored hand, her entire body trembling.

“What is this… Mom…!”

“My dear Sel. You met your father and broke the seal. You’ve done well…”

“What’s with this—this state?”

“I’m sorry you have to see me like this, Sel. There’s not much time left for this body. I wanted to hold your hand one last time… This is a blessing.”

Creta gripped Sel’s hand a little tighter.

The ghost collapsed to his knees beside Creta.

“Creta!”

“I’m sorry you have to see me like this, Luxos.”

Creta called the ghost by his name, Luxos.

Luxos suppressed a sob, carefully examining Creta’s form.

“My… my canary.”

“It feels nice to hear that nickname again.”

Creta managed a faint smile.

“I didn’t realize how much you were suffering.”

“Luxos, there’s no time to grieve now. Pull yourself together.”

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry for being late…!”

“Release me, Luxos. If we delay any longer, I may turn into an evil spirit as well. We’ll talk after my soul is freed.”

Creta’s words carried weight as she urged Luxos.

But Luxos shook his head.

“I can’t. No matter what, I can’t point a sword at you.”

“Luxos, hurry!”

“I can’t ask our daughter to do this. Please, quickly… cough!”

Creta coughed up black blood.

Her eyes, once white, began to turn black.

“No, Mom, no!”

“…Creta!”

Creta, affected by the broken spell, started to transform into an evil spirit.

Luxos howled in anguish.

“Damn them!”

Cursing the barbarians who cast such a spell, Luxos ground his teeth and raised his sword.

The blade hesitated in midair before finally descending.

Thud. The sword pierced through Creta.

The dark energy emanating from her body climbed the blade like heat waves, dispersing into the air.

Creta’s body, impaled by the sword, began to decay rapidly, leaving only bones behind in less than a minute.

Above the remains, Creta’s soul emerged.

It shimmered like a translucent curtain in the air.

“Thank you. At last… I’m finally free.”

Nine years.

She had suffered for nine long years, trapped in this place.

Creta’s soul, weeping tears of relief, floated toward Sel.

Sel had collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

“My daughter. My precious, beloved daughter whom I missed so dearly.”

Sel could only cry, unable to utter a word.

Her chest felt as if her heart were being plunged into icy water repeatedly.

Though she had repeated to herself for nine years that her mother was gone, the despair of witnessing her death before her eyes was unbearable.

The pain was just as great for Creta, but she couldn’t let her emotions show.

She didn’t have much time left.

“You’ve endured so much, haven’t you?”

Creta tried to speak as evenly as possible, but her voice cracked.

The past that radiated from Sel tore Creta’s heart into shreds, piece by piece.

The image of young Sel, struggling to survive on her own, pained Creta far more than the spell that had bound her for nine years.

“Haaaah!” Sel, crying like a child, swung his fist toward Creta.

The punch flew hopelessly through empty air.

“Sniff… who… sob… who told you… to disappear like that? Boohoo… who…!”

“I’m sorry, Sel. I’m so sorry I wasn’t a good mother. I’m sorry for hurting you.”

Creta patted Sel’s back as she sat there in despair.

Though she couldn’t touch her directly, her gestures were as delicate as stroking a baby bird.

“If you were going to die… sob… you should’ve done it in front of me! Boohoo… If you had to die like this, you should’ve just done it where I could see you!”

Who told you to die so miserably? Who told you to leave such pain behind even after death? What am I supposed to do, having to see all this?

Sel’s wailing, almost a scream, echoed through the cave.

“You… you could’ve shown up in my dreams at least! If you were dead, you could’ve told me, so I wouldn’t keep waiting!”

The poor child, who had barely managed to survive in that accursed hut, had gone out thousands of times to wait for someone who couldn’t be seen.

At the sound of every small leaf falling, she had foolishly opened the door dozens of times, waiting for her.

The only thing her mother had clearly left behind was the echo of her voice, now turned into a haunting tinnitus.

There had been good times, memories when they were happy together. But all that remained for Sel was a sharp voice that bordered on obsession.

It was terrifying. She had to wrestle with the thought that her dead mother might be yelling at her right into her ear or that she had hated her so much that she was cursed to hear her voice like this.

Those twisted feelings swelled inside her as much as her longing for her did.

“You told me to hide myself, to cover up, yelling at me like that. You should’ve at least checked if I was doing it properly!”

Her mother had done that—driven by an unknown anxiety, she had sat her down, forced a mask on her face, and cut her hair short.

She hadn’t bought her a single clean outfit like the children in the village wore. Instead, she patched up old rags identical to her own for her to wear.

Even though there had been a beautiful dress tucked inside the wardrobe, she never so much as looked at it.

On the rare days when Sel secretly wore that dress, her mother would beat her until she cried and repeatedly told her not to live as a woman until she became an adult.

That was why Sel had sworn, countless times, that if she ever met her again, she would let loose all her pent-up anger.

She had planned to return the pain she’d inflicted on her, wound for wound.

But it was strange.

Now that she actually saw her again, the first emotion that surged was longing.

Sel didn’t want to show it.

She tried to mask her longing with anger, but it didn’t work.

“I couldn’t leave this place, Sel. I wanted to see you… but I couldn’t escape.”

Creta’s voice, trembling with tears, spread softly through the air.

“I don’t have any strength left now. But… we’ll meet again, Sel. And when we do…”

Before she could finish her sentence, her spirit dissipated like smoke.

Sel lowered her head, staring at her feet. Tears flowed incessantly, refusing to stop.

Luxos approached silently and wiped away Sel’s tears.

“I’m sorry… We failed you, as your parents. I’m so sorry.”

Luxos, who never lowered his head before anyone, bowed deeply, using Lavi’s body.

It was an act that would have shocked anyone who had known Luxos in life.

Sel roughly wiped her tears away. She was too drained to handle the storm of emotions raging within her.

With Eric’s help, Sel carefully tended to Creta’s remains, still bewildered by the situation.

***

Before they knew it, night had faded, and dawn had arrived.

The pitch-black night sky was tinged with blue, and the horizon shimmered like glowing, fiery threads.

Sel leaned weakly against the entrance of the cave, listening to Luxos recount his story.

Though the mining team occasionally glanced at him, Sel’s vacant eyes seemed fixed on a point far beyond them.

“Losing Creta devastated me. I chose death to escape the pain. After that, I waited for your mother by the goddess’s side. But then, the goddess spoke to me. She said Creta’s soul was trapped in an unknown place.”

The story flowing from Luxos’s lips was more tragic than the saddest ballad.

“She said the black forest was likely the place where Creta’s soul was imprisoned. Its strong magical currents could easily deceive the eyes of spiritual beings. But as a mere spirit myself, I couldn’t approach it. That’s why I borrowed this boy’s body.”

“Why him, of all people?”

“When I descended to the mortal realm, this body caught my eye. But now, I think it was the goddess’s design. To search the perilous forest, one would need to reach the pinnacle of mastery. And this boy accomplished that.”

Sel recalled Lavi’s sudden obsession with sword dances and his bloodied, relentless wandering through the black forest.

Only now did Sel understand the reasons behind it all.

She felt sorry for Lavi.

She was deeply apologetic that the pain Lavi had endured stemmed from her father’s actions.

“Because of you… Because of you, he suffered so much! All because of you!”

Sel’s sharp voice cut through the air.

Luxos nodded weakly and slowly knelt on one knee.

Though his words and actions could be brusque at times, Luxos had always exuded overwhelming authority and maintained his dignity.

To see him kneel was utterly unfamiliar.

“Don’t worry anymore. Now that my purpose is fulfilled, this will be the last time I inhabit this body.”

“!”

“Take this.”

Luxos handed Sel a necklace he had retrieved from Creta’s body.

Sel recognized the necklace immediately. It was the one her mother had always kept hidden close to her heart. It held a thin, round silver pendant.

On the front of the pendant was a finely detailed lion emblem, and engraved on the back was her mother’s name.

“Take this and go to the imperial palace. Show this to the gatekeeper, and they will grant you immediate entry.”

“My daughter.”

The voice calling her in the end was so soft that it didn’t quite reach Sel.

Unable to grasp the meaning behind his words, she stared blankly at Luxos.

“This necklace is made of adamantium. It is a mineral that only royalty can possess.”

“Why… why would my mother have something like this?”

“Because Creta, my wife and your mother, was the former empress of the Latrancia Empire.”

Sel’s clouded eyes widened in shock.

She couldn’t begin to comprehend what she was hearing.

Nothing in the stories Luxos had just recounted gave any indication of their lofty status.

“I am Luxos Latrancia, the former emperor of this empire, and you…”

You.

Luxos paused briefly, gathering his breath.

The knights and mercenaries who had been tending to Creta’s remains froze in place, turning to look at Luxos, still inhabiting Lavi’s body.

“…are my daughter and the imperial princess of this empire. Selestia Latrancia. That is the name you had forgotten, your true name.”