I Became the Villain Saintess's Slave

Lucian’s gaze flicked forward, taking in the scene ahead of him.

Whatever Nora and Adrian were doing here, the Phantom unit deployed alongside them looked ready for actual combat.

Bringing out the Phantom unit just to escort these two? What exactly are they planning here?

"Who are you."

The cold voice belonged to a young man in a black blazer, Adrian, his stare locked sharp on Lucian.

Whatever calm Adrian had carried a moment ago vanished instantly, his hand already closing around his sword hilt. The Phantom soldiers behind him fell into formation at once, mirroring his shift into full alert, treating Lucian like a threat none of them recognized.

Lucian froze, caught off guard by how fast they’d turned hostile. If Adrian and the Phantom unit actually attacked him now, walking away with only minor injuries would already count as lucky.

The Phantom soldiers advanced, blades already drawn, angled straight at him.

Then a single raised hand forced every one of those blades back down.

Nora had done it, standing right beside Adrian.

Behind her glasses, her blue eyes stayed fixed on Lucian, though not on his outfit.

She was studying his body itself, something about his physical form clearly catching her attention, though her expression made it clear she hadn’t fully confirmed whatever she suspected yet.

Adrian turned on her, demanding to know why she’d called off the Phantom unit.

"Don’t be an idiot, Adrian. Do you really want to spill your own brother’s blood right before the event we’re about to host?"

Adrian’s attention snapped away from Nora, refocusing fully on Lucian now, chasing down exactly what she’d meant by that.

He studied the silver outfit Lucian wore, still skeptical that this stranger could actually be family, everyone from House Sarnel had come dressed head to toe in black tonight.

But something about the upper half of Lucian’s appearance, the silver hair, the black blindfold, tugged at recognition. Only one person in this entire family wore that exact combination.

His own younger brother.

"Lucian? Is that you?"

Adrian wasn’t the only one who’d failed to place him. The Phantom soldiers looked equally stunned, realizing the target they’d nearly cut down moments ago was actually their own young master.

It made a certain sense. Lucian had been absent from the main estate for so long, and whatever impression he’d left on House Sarnel before that had apparently faded into nothing worth remembering.

"You scared the hell out of us. What are you even doing up here? Didn’t I hear you just got wrecked by Kael?"

Word of Lucian’s defeat against Kael had clearly spread through the entire Sarnel household by now. But whatever version of the story had reached Adrian sounded wildly exaggerated.

According to him, Lucian had supposedly been taken down by a single strike from Kael’s sword, leaving him bedridden and immobile for weeks afterward. He even claimed Lucian had missed his own Awakening ceremony entirely because of the injury.

Lucian’s stomach turned at hearing that. Someone had clearly spread a wildly inaccurate rumor about him, one that conveniently left out what had actually happened during that duel with Kael.

He had lost the fight, that much was true. But not from a single strike, not even close. If anything, he’d nearly won the entire duel outright, right up until Kael pulled out some strange bell mid-fight. The sound of it had thrown off Lucian’s hearing entirely, stripping away his ability to track Kael’s movement, and that was the opening Kael had used to land the finishing blow from behind.

Using a relic like that mid-duel should never have been allowed in the first place, sword duels were supposed to be settled with blades alone, nothing else.

But everyone who’d witnessed it had stayed silent. And Lucian himself had accepted the loss without protest. Still, hearing this distorted version of events now left something bitter twisting in his gut, like someone out there had deliberately worked to tarnish whatever reputation he had left.

But what about the Awakening part? Wasn’t Sister Jeanne there with me the whole time? Didn’t she tell anyone what actually happened during it?

"So what exactly are you doing up here, Lucian?" Nora asked.

Lucian hesitated, unsure how much he was willing to share about everything he’d just been through.

"Lucian, are you seriously telling me you didn’t know the fourth floor’s been sealed off because of some ghost domain showing up here?"

According to Nora, she’d run into evil spirits multiple times on this floor recently. It had come to a head when she’d gone looking for her two maids, meaning to give them some medicine, only to find a strange door standing open in front of them, pulling both women straight through it.

What kind of medicine were you giving them that they ran from you, exactly? Whatever experiment she’s actually running here still isn’t clear to me at all.

"When I first saw that door, I’ll admit, something about it scared me. But I’m fairly certain now, watching it pull them through, that it came from the Chronos domain tied to one of our family’s relics."

Nora delivered that with a serious, if slightly baffled, expression.

She’d been confident enough in her assessment to report it directly to Cassius. But when Cassius had come to investigate personally, he’d found nothing, no source, no explanation for the door’s appearance at all.

He’d apparently searched through every relic housed in the estate capable of generating a domain like the one Nora described, and still turned up empty-handed.

That didn’t mean he was dismissing it outright, though. Even without pinpointing the source, Cassius suspected it might be connected to the evil spirits also showing up around the same time, and he’d already left to track down someone suited to deal with the problem properly.

In the meantime, Nora had been ordered to keep watch over the entire floor alongside Adrian and the Phantom unit.

Why didn’t Sebast tell me any of this beforehand?

And where were Sebast and Rumelia right now, anyway? They were supposed to be waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. If they’d been here, he might have avoided this entire awkward standoff altogether.

Still, it seemed his own siblings, the whole of House Sarnel, had no idea the strange domain actually traced back to Sonata, the very sword he now carried.

That’s actually good news. Whatever this domain was, it’s already been resolved. I should be able to keep carrying this sword without anyone questioning it.

But if he admitted the truth, that he himself was the source of the domain, there was a real risk they’d take the sword from him outright, maybe even pull it apart for study.

I can’t let them get their hands on this sword. Not when it’s the only real link I have to Miyu and Alayna, and to whatever my mother’s been hiding from this family all this time.

But what excuse could he actually give them to keep the truth buried?

His head started to ache just turning the problem over.

Then the sound of footsteps and a staff tapping against the floor reached him from behind.

Someone had come to stand right at his back. Nora startled visibly at the sight of whoever it was.

Adrian’s reaction ran deeper still, something close to captivated by the figure standing behind Lucian, until Nora shot him a sharp look, apparently recognizing exactly who this was.

"If I’m not mistaken, you’re Archpriest Isabella of the Order of Lumielle, stationed in the Kingdom of Castilla."

"It seems I’m fairly well known within House Sarnel."

Isabella stepped forward, coming to stand beside Lucian.

"Archpriest Isabella, please, don’t be modest. Everyone knows the story of your A-rank Awakening and your service to the Order at such a young age. It’s genuinely inspiring, Archpriest."

Isabella allowed herself a small smile at the compliment.

"The Order of Lumielle accepts anyone, regardless of their circumstances. Even the weakest among us, even those bearing a curse, all are welcome, so long as they’re willing to accept the Goddess Lumielle’s love."

As she said the word curse, her gaze flicked briefly toward Lucian.

Something about the timing of it all struck Nora as strange, Lucian appearing on this floor out of nowhere, and now an Archpriest turning up right alongside him, as though she’d missed some crucial piece connecting the two.

"Forgive me if this comes across as impertinent, but might I ask what brings you to the fourth floor, Archpriest Isabella?"

Lucian realized, belatedly, that he still hadn’t answered Nora’s earlier question about his own presence here either.

Please, don’t say anything strange about what just happened to me. Whatever secret I’m trying to keep buried right now, I need it to stay that way.

Isabella opened her mouth, a smile already forming.

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