I Became the Villain Saintess's Slave

Rumelia’s footsteps rang out sharp against the floor, quick and urgent as she closed the distance toward Lucian.

She arrived slightly breathless, a faint sheen of sweat across her brow, catching her breath even as her expression shifted the instant her eyes landed on his outfit, something close to admiration crossing her face.

She didn’t look particularly surprised by what he’d chosen to wear, though, as though some part of her had already expected exactly this.

What actually caught her off guard was something else entirely: dressed like this, Lucian looked, unmistakably, like a true-blooded descendant of House Lysandra.

Something sad flickered behind Rumelia’s expression at the realization. And yet, underneath that sadness, something else stirred in her eyes too, a fragile, unexpected hope, standing right there in front of her.

Her gaze drifted downward, and something achingly familiar caught her attention: the white sword fastened at Lucian’s hip.

She drew a slow breath and stepped closer, studying it carefully.

"Young master. Did you take this sword from your mother’s room?"

"I did. Not just the sword, either. This outfit too."

Something about the way Rumelia was reacting pulled Lucian’s focus sharp.

Does Rumelia know something about this sword? About the Kirana crystal?

As far as he could remember, Rumelia was one of the few people who’d genuinely spent time close to his mother, someone she’d spoken with often.

It struck him then that she might actually hold some real clue, something that could help him track down the missing fragment of the Kirana crystal.

"Rumelia. Do you know who actually brought this sword into House Sarnel?"

Something about the question visibly unsettled her.

"This sword? Of course, it was your mother, Lord Lucian. She brought it with her when she first came to live here."

She answered smoothly enough, offering exactly the response Lucian had already half-expected, her smile doing most of the work to smooth over whatever she was holding back.

"Was there anyone else involved? Do you know anything else important about this sword?"

Lucian wasn’t ready to let it go that easily, pressing for more.

Rumelia’s posture, slightly hunched until now, straightened as her eyes settled fully on the sword resting easily at his side.

"Anyone else?"

Something shifted across her face the moment Lucian said it, some memory clearly stirring behind her eyes.

Her expression sharpened into real concentration, eyes squeezing shut, one hand rising to press against her temple, as though she were physically chasing down a memory buried somewhere deep.

Lucian let himself hope, just for a moment, that she might actually recall something worth hearing.

Beside him, even Isabella looked visibly curious, waiting to see what Rumelia might manage to dredge up.

But after a long moment.

A quiet sigh slipped from Rumelia’s lips.

She shook her head.

Both Isabella and Lucian, who’d allowed themselves to hope she was on the verge of remembering something, let out matching breaths of disappointment.

"Forgive me, young master. I don’t know who you might mean."

Isabella’s gaze drifted toward Lucian then, and something about the attention made him distinctly uneasy. There was nothing overtly threatening in her expression, but plenty of open curiosity, clearly wondering exactly what Lucian was digging for.

He’d gotten a little too caught up chasing information about the crystal fragment, careless enough to forget, for a moment, that someone potentially dangerous was standing right beside him, watching his every move.

"Ah, no, that’s not quite what I meant. I was just curious who’s been maintaining this sword while I wasn’t around, since it looks so well cared for, almost brand new."

Lucian scrambled to reframe the question, hoping to throw Isabella off whatever trail she’d started following, gesturing toward the blade’s pristine condition as if that alone explained his curiosity.

"Actually, the Patriarch made it clear a long time ago that no one is permitted inside your mother’s room. So I doubt anyone could have gotten in there to maintain it at all, let alone dared to."

Lucian’s mouth fell open slightly at that, the revelation that the room was off-limits entirely landing somewhere he hadn’t expected.

His mind raced ahead instead to what might happen if Cassius ever found out he’d broken into that room and taken the sword for himself.

This might actually be really bad. I had no idea there was a rule like that about Mother’s room. Is this another blank spot, something the Elder’s forced memory extraction wiped out along with everything else?

It wasn’t entirely his fault, though. As a child, he’d played in that room constantly, without issue. The restriction had only been put in place after the Kirana crystal first went missing, right around the same time Lucian had left the main estate entirely.

And after Elder Meron’s forced memory extraction twelve years ago, most of his childhood had turned hazy and fragmented, leaving him with mostly clear memories only from after that event.

I think I might be making a brand new problem for myself tonight.

Unease settled hard into his chest, sweat beading faintly at his temple despite how cold the night air had turned.

Rumelia’s hand rose to cover her mouth, clearly stifling a laugh at the sight of Lucian’s obvious panic.

"Don’t worry so much, young master."

Her reassurance did little to actually calm him. As far as he was concerned, he shouldn’t have even been in that room to begin with, and now he’d apparently compounded the mistake in a way that risked more than just Cassius’s disapproval.

The Elders, too, would likely have plenty of uncomfortable questions once word of this got around.

Then, without warning, Rumelia reached out and lifted Sonata clean off his hip.

Her movement came fast enough that Lucian’s own reflexes never caught up in time to stop her.

She didn’t seem interested in confiscating it, though. If anything, she was studying it, closely, drawing the blade near enough to examine every detail.

Lucian let her, watching carefully, though a fresh worry crept in, that her handling the sword might somehow trigger the Chronos domain to reappear right then and there.

That worry, at least, turned out to be unfounded. Nothing happened.

Rumelia’s fingers found the tip of the blade first, drawing the sheath partway open, then traced upward along the length of it toward the hilt.

Her movements carried a clear, deliberate purpose, fingers pressing against a specific point on the sword, as though she knew exactly where to touch.

Her hand settled against the side of the hilt’s end, and pressed there, finding what looked like a hidden engraving worked into the metal.

The instant the pressure landed, a mechanism deep within the blade responded. The Kirana crystal, still fused into the sword’s body, sank inward, drawing itself deeper into the blade until it disappeared from view entirely, sealed away beneath the surface.

The transformation didn’t stop there. The pristine white of the blade itself began to shift, darkening steadily until it settled into pure, matte black.

Sonata now looked like an entirely different weapon. Anyone who’d seen it before wouldn’t have recognized it as the same blade at all.

Lucian stared, genuinely stunned. Whatever Rumelia had just done, it made one thing clear: she knew this sword intimately, far more than she’d let on.

"With it looking like this now, it shouldn’t raise any questions. And I doubt anyone will recognize the outfit as belonging to your mother’s wardrobe, either, young master."

She had a point. For the moment, at least, Lucian might actually get away with carrying the sword openly tonight.

"Rumelia. How did you know this sword could even do that?"

"I only copied what I once saw your mother do with it, back when she first brought it here."

Something about the explanation suggested this was some kind of built-in camouflage function, deliberately engineered into the sword itself. It only deepened Lucian’s certainty that this weapon carried genuine, significant value, valuable enough to warrant a feature like that at all.

But did she really only pick this up from watching once?

Before he could turn the question over any further, Rumelia caught his hand and pulled him forward, already leading him toward the doors of the main hall.

"Come on, young master. The event’s about to start."

Lucian had little choice but to follow along, and truthfully, his own curiosity about the purpose of tonight’s gathering had grown too strong to resist chasing down anyway.

The soldiers stationed at the doors studied him carefully as he approached.

But between his refined, noble attire and the Archpriest walking beside him, they clearly mistook him for one of tonight’s invited guests, and waved him through without hesitation.

Even the guards here don’t recognize me anymore.

The moment the doors swung open, a wave of noise spilled out to meet him.

The sheer number of people packed into that hall was staggering.

Then a voice rang out from somewhere near the main entrance, cutting cleanly through the noise.

"The Emperor and the Imperial Family of Bravenheart have arrived."

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