Once the withered Elim Tree had regained its vitality and the Grand Sanctuary had been cleansed by a divine force, the darkness enveloping the sacred grounds was finally lifted. The sanctuary returned to its former splendor.
As a precaution, Jaina quietly scattered fragments of the blessing she had received from the spirits throughout the sanctuary as she purified the area.
With the spirits’ blessing now woven into its very foundation, the Grand Sanctuary became even more sacred, bathed in a soft, wondrous light that felt almost divine.
“My heavens… It feels as though God Himself has passed through here.”
“To think Saint Jaina’s holy power would be this divine…”
“The holy power I possessed hardly deserves to be called holy power at all.”
“Even as children, Jaina’s power was the strongest among us.”
The High Priest and the other priests and saintesses expressed their gratitude and began to elevate Jaina to near-divine status.
This was probably because, although the Elim Tree had regained all its vitality, the saintesses’ holy power had not returned.
“I will look into a way to restore your holy power.”
Jaina said to Isabel.
Isabel offered her a gentle smile and nodded.
“There’s no need to worry, Jaina. Even without holy power, we have sacred water and weap*ns imbued with it. We can continue to fight monsters with ease.”
“Yes. There must be a reason God left the holy power to you alone.”
The High Priest added the words calmly.
‘A reason left by God.’
Jaina turned the thought over in her mind.
If God had taken the saintesses’ power for a reason, a far more disturbing possibility emerged: had He done so to transform the entire Empire into a paradise for monsters?
After all, there were far more monsters roaming the land now than before her regression. Dark mages were even rising up to threaten the Empire now.
If God intended to prevent the Empire from falling into the hands of monsters, why had he stripped the saintesses of their holy power at such a critical moment?
“God is not so foolish.”
Elysion appeared suddenly at her side.
His ability to appear and disappear at will still startled her each time.
‘Then why do you think their holy power hasn’t been returned? Or… will it slowly come back?’
“Neither. Once holy power vanishes, it cannot be reclaimed. And have they not already received the blessing of surviving despite losing it?”
‘Ah….’
Now that he had mentioned it, he was right.
Originally, when a saintess lost all her holy power, she was destined to die.
However, a saintess born with holy power was destined to live as long as that power remained within her. This was why Jaina had once poured all her remaining power into the Elim Tree when she tried to embrace her own death.
‘Then if the holy power has vanished from their bodies, yet they did not die….’
This meant that the holy power that had left them would never return. In short, the vessel that had once contained that power had been completely extinguished. As this dawned on her, Elysion nodded once and continued.
“I do not know how long it will last, but from now on, no human will likely be born with holy power. In the end, you will be the only one in the human world who possesses it.”
‘…Why would it turn out that way?’
That question still lingered.
She could not fathom why God had entrusted her with such immense power.
Was it because she had once poured all her power into the Elim Tree before her regression?
“That is not the reason either. Do not entertain strange thoughts.”
Elysion, having read her mind again, dismissed her speculation immediately.
Jaina’s brows knit faintly.
‘Am I not even allowed to think my own thoughts?’
“Useless thoughts are better left unformed. But tell me—does your husband not seem somewhat strange?”
Elysion’s gaze shifted to Cadel, who stood beside her looking puzzled.
Jaina turned her head swiftly.
Just as he had said, the color had drained from Cadel’s face. His body trembled faintly, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
“What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
Alarmed, she grabbed his arm.
Cadel looked down at her. His pitch-black eyes seemed slightly unfocused.
At that moment—
“Your Grace! A message from the North—rain has begun to fall!”
One of his knights in the escort held up the communication orb and shouted.
The dreadful rainy season of the north had begun.
***
“So even when you are elsewhere, you still become like this when it rains in the North.”
Standing by the window, gazing out at the darkness that had settled beyond the glass, Jaina murmured to herself.
“Jaina, forgive me—but I will return in the morning….”
Cadel’s face had turned completely pale. Without finishing his sentence, he stepped onto the teleportation stone.
He left her alone in the Grand Sanctuary.
“To be precise, it is not merely when it rains—but when it rains in the North at night.”
Elysion replied lazily to her murmur, his gaze drifting toward the darkness beyond the window.
“Rain that falls by nature is beyond even our touch. We cannot simply turn it into snow.”
“……”
“Tell me—do you truly know why your husband becomes like that?”
“…Yes. I heard it from his aide before my regression.”
“When His Grace was young, he was kidnapped while in the company of Violet, the daughter of his wet nurse.”
Jaina remembered the truth that Adil had revealed to her.
As the Edgar family were the only ones to possess the rare black mana, the Grand Duke’s house in the north had always lacked heirs strong enough to survive. Of all the children born into that bloodline, only one had not been frail.
That child was Cadel.
His parents cherished him more than anyone else in the empire. And precisely because of that, he had become a target for those who coveted wealth and power.
Violet, the daughter of his wet nurse, was assigned to him as both a companion and a personal attendant.
Four years his senior, she followed him like a shadow, tending to his every need.
He was only nine when he was kidnapped.
Through a plot by a steward whom he trusted as much as his own father, Cadel and Violet were locked together in a narrow, suffocating space.
In her attempt to save him, Violet suffered a severe burn to her shoulder.
To force their captor to open the sealed door, she set fire to the room with a match she had been carrying. She then pushed Cadel towards the small opening that led to the ventilation shaft, shielding the entrance with her own body to ensure he would not be touched by a single flame.
Cadel endured his terror inside the suffocating vent, surrounded by roaring flames and protected by Violet.
It was a dark, rain-soaked night.
Ultimately, they were rescued.
However, from that day forward, whenever it rained at night, Cadel felt as though his body were being burned alive all over again.
Renowned physicians were summoned from across the Empire and even from distant foreign lands, yet none could alleviate his suffering.
Only when Violet remained by his side did the burning sensation fade. And so, even now, whenever it rained at night in the north, Cadel instinctively sought out Violet.
“Perhaps it has become a trauma that continues to torment him.”
Jaina lowered her gaze and her voice took on a bitter tone.
After reading her memory, Elysion fell silent for a moment. Then he slowly shook his head.
“That alone does not explain such a state. There is likely another reason.”
“…Another reason?”
Jaina turned her head toward Elysion.
He stood by the window, his expression calm yet faintly grave as he stared into the night.
“Yes. Another reason.”
The cryptic tone of his voice stirred a memory.
“You don’t need to concern yourself with whoever dared to curse your so-called husband. Don’t waste a single thought on it.”
She remembered the words he had spoken not long ago.
“Don’t tell me… the one who made the rain fall artificially in the North….”
“Whether you know or not will bring you little benefit.”
As before, when the spirits had turned rain into snow, Elysion avoided answering the question of who was responsible.
This evasion unsettled her.
“Why do you never give me a direct answer?”
She asked, her brows knitting slightly. She almost added that if he planned to speak in riddles, he might as well remain silent—but she held herself back.
“There is no such thing as a direct answer.”
He offered yet another ambiguous reply.
“When the time comes for you to understand what it is you truly desire, everything will become clear.”
“When I understand… what I truly desire?”
Jaina tilted her head slightly, repeating the words under her breath.
“In any case, if a dark mage is involved, we must observe further.”
‘A dark mage….’
It was a creature that had twisted the world using black magic forged from human souls. The harm it caused was unlike that of monsters; it was far more insidious.
For centuries, the identity of the dark mage had remained a mystery. No one knew whether it was truly human, or if it was one individual or many. Some rumors even claimed that it might be the king of monsters itself.
Even Jaina, despite having regressed, knew nothing of the dark mage’s true nature.
However, if Cadel’s affliction — his desperate need for Violet whenever it rained at night in the North — was the result of deliberate manipulation rather than simply trauma, then the involvement of a dark mage was possible.
“Observe? Why observe?”
“Why not?”
“I thought you meant you would be observing him.”
‘Why would a spirit with no interest in humans choose to watch Cadel?’
Elysion seemed to sense her confusion and responded with mild displeasure.
“He is the husband of the only human whose name I know. He is your husband. Naturally, I cannot help but be concerned.”
“Ah…”
Upon hearing Elysion’s words, Jaina let out a quiet breath.
“Husband.”
Yes, they were bound as such, but only by contract. Once the monsters had been subdued, the dark mage had been eliminated, and the Empire had been restored to stability, their marriage would end in divorce.
Their bond was so fragile that if either of them chose to let go, it would shatter without hesitation. And yet the Spirit of Light, who had blessed the marriage, seemed to regard it as profound and unbreakable.
This, more than anything else, unsettled her.
“Whatever the case, it is not a pleasant situation for you.”
Instead of answering, Jaina offered him a faint, bitter smile.
She had already experienced h*ll first-hand because of this very issue.
It was not just unpleasant.
It had almost driven her to take her own life.
The thought of enduring it again, knowing exactly what would happen, was unbearable.
“To be honest… I’m a little angry. No—quite a lot.”
She was angry enough to storm north at once, grab them by the hair and drag them away from the bed they were sharing.
Of course, even if she were sent back a hundred times, she would never actually do such a thing. But the fact that she could even imagine it revealed just how deeply she still resented the situation.
‘Even so, it has nothing to do with me anymore.’
She steadied herself and turned her gaze back toward the window.
Unlike the North, the Empire’s night was merely dark. No rain fell here.
‘It must be raining in the North….’
The rainy season had begun. Relentless rain would drench the land for a while.
On nights like this, Cadel would keep Violet by his side.
He would stay in her chambers.
“Forgive me—but I will return in the morning….”
The memory of his unfinished words before stepping onto the teleportation stone made her brow tighten.
“It would be more helpful to me if he did not return the next day either.”
At her quiet murmur, Elysion’s eyes widened slightly.
“Would it?”
“If that is what you wish, I can make it so.”
Translator
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Xesene
So she knows the extent of the curse and knows it’s not fooling around in bed? Geez, what is the direction of this. Thought she was told vaguely and didn’t know.