Chapter 244: Sacred
Heroes?
Both Lillian and Rex froze for a moment and exchanged glances, each seeing the same mixture of astonishment and absurdity in the other’s eyes.
What kind of heroes were they?
They had barely escaped with their lives. They were battered, filthy, and exhausted. Their companions still lay unconscious.
“You mean the young lady with the gray eyes?” the soldier asked. “She seemed less seriously hurt, and she woke up earlier. As for your other companions...” He pointed toward the largest and most imposing deep-blue tent in the center of the camp. “They’re all in the medical tent next to the main pavilion, with a high-tier military mage personally looking after them. But...” He lowered his voice a little, and reverence appeared on his face. “You’d better not just go barging over there. The main pavilion... has real important people in it right now. A special envoy sent by His Majesty the Emperor, and... Her Highness the Royal Princess is there as well. The Saintess of the Church came personally to treat the wounded at the Royal Princess’s request. They’re talking inside now, and the rules there are strict.”
The Royal Princess?
The Saintess?
At the same instant, something in both Lillian’s and Rex’s hearts sank.
Princess Cecilia? She had come in person? And she had even brought the Church’s Saintess?
“Thank you,” Lillian said, forcing a smile as she thanked the soldier.
The soldier shifted the crate in his arms, added another “You’re really amazing,” and then hurried off.
The two of them remained standing there in silence for a moment.
The sunlight was warm on their skin, but Lillian felt a chill along her back.
“Should we go to the main pavilion?” Rex asked in a low voice, his brow knotted tightly. The mere thought of the Royal Princess and people of that rank being present made him feel instinctively uneasy and pressured.
“Yes.” Lillian nodded. Her voice was soft, but certain. “If we want to know what happened to Ryan and the others... and the answers to everything else we need to know, we’ll probably only get them there.”
They did not waste any more time. Following the direction the soldier had pointed out, they headed for the prominent deep-blue tent at the center of the camp.
The closer they drew, the tighter the security became. Knights in even finer armor stood rigidly at their posts, their gazes as sharp as drawn blades as they swept over anyone approaching. An invisible pressure hung in the air.
Just as they came within a dozen paces of the main pavilion and were about to explain themselves to the guards at the entrance—
the heavy curtain of the pavilion was lifted from within.
A group of people emerged.
At the center, surrounded by attendants, was a young woman.
It seemed as though the sunlight loved her more than anyone else. Her brilliant golden hair flowed downward like molten radiance, every strand carrying a soft glow of gold. It was not dazzling, only warm and pure.
She held her head slightly tilted as she listened to someone speaking beside her, and the graceful line of her jaw and long neck gave her an air of stainless stillness.
Her eyes, red as rubies, were astonishingly clear, as though they could reflect the deepest dust hidden in a person’s heart. Yet there was no trace of scrutiny in them—only a kind of tranquil compassion.
When one met those eyes, one felt ashamed without knowing why, and yet strangely soothed, as though the unrest within one’s soul had been washed clean by that quiet gaze.
She wore a white holy robe tailored perfectly to her figure. The material looked plain at first glance, yet as she walked, it shimmered with the soft luster of pearl.
The hem and sleeves were embroidered in the finest gold thread with dense, intricate patterns of sacred design. Those patterns were not entirely still; with her breathing and footsteps, the faintest pale-gold light moved silently along them like something alive.
In her hand she carried an ancient-looking wooden staff, its shaft wrapped in reliefs of evergreen vines that would never fade. At its crown was set a flawless light-element magic crystal the size of a dove’s egg, now giving off a restrained, gentle glow that brought peace to the heart.
Yet the most extraordinary thing about her was none of those.
It was the aura surrounding her naturally.
It was not deliberate pressure, but rather a warmth, a clarity, a radiance full of life itself. Wherever she stood, it seemed as though even the air was purified, the dust driven away, leaving behind only a serenity that made the heart feel strangely unburdened.
One could not help but hold one’s breath at the sight of her. Reverence and closeness arose together in the heart, tangled in something almost impossible to describe. One almost wished to lower one’s head, and yet also wanted to keep looking, just a little longer, to draw in that warmth that seemed capable of healing every wound.
There could be no doubt.
This had to be the Saintess the soldier had spoken of.
Such presence, such radiance—there could be no imitation of it in this world.
There was some weariness on the Saintess’s exquisitely lovely face. Beneath the sunlight, her fine skin seemed almost translucent, and faint shadows rested beneath her eyes.
But her spine was perfectly straight, and her bearing remained flawless. Each step she took was light and steady, as though even fatigue could not diminish the solemnity and sacredness that lay at the core of her being.
Half a step behind her, following close at her side, came another young woman with equally striking golden hair—
Cecilia Ishtar, the Royal Princess.
Only, Cecilia’s hair was a colder platinum blond, and her eyes a frigid azure blue.
The Royal Princess had her head slightly inclined toward the Saintess and was saying something, a restrained and elegant smile resting at her lips.
“Saintess, I truly cannot thank you enough for personally making the journey. If Your Grace had not intervened, the injuries of these children would likely have...”
The Saintess gave a gentle nod, then stopped and turned toward the Royal Princess.
When she spoke, her voice was not loud, yet it reached Lillian and Rex clearly even from the short distance away. It was warm and calm, like a stream flowing over stones in spring.
“Your Highness the Royal Princess speaks too generously. To heal wounds and guide those who have strayed is the duty granted by the Light, and the path we ought to walk. To offer what little aid I can is merely the grace their resilience deserves.”
The sunlight fell over her long lashes, casting small fan-shaped shadows beneath her eyes, making her face seem even purer, even more sacred, as though she scarcely belonged among mortals.
That brief exchange ended.
Escorted by several solemn-faced clerics and knights, the Saintess walked gracefully toward another area of the camp prepared specifically for the Church’s people.
The Royal Princess remained before the main pavilion, watching her leave. The expression in her ice-blue eyes was unreadable.
Then, at the instant she drew back her gaze and prepared to turn toward the tent again, the corner of her eye precisely caught sight of Lillian and Rex, who stood about a dozen paces away, awkward and uncertain.
Her gaze settled on them and swept over them with astonishing speed.
Then, the composed smile she had worn for formal occasions melted away like ice under spring sunlight and turned at once into a warm, approachable smile.
With a light turn of her step, she actually walked toward them of her own accord, the pale hem of her dress brushing over the gravel and stirring tiny puffs of dust.
“Oh my, Lillian and Rex, is it?” Cecilia’s voice was bright and pleasant, like pearls falling onto jade. It was as though she were speaking to two younger people she had genuinely been concerned about. “You’re already able to walk on your own? That is such a relief! I had only just gone to ask the chief military physician about your condition and was still worrying over you.”
She stopped before them, carrying with her a faint fragrance.
Her ice-blue eyes were full of gentle smiling warmth as they swept quickly and carefully over the two of them.
“You’ve come to see Ryan and the others, haven’t you?” Her smile remained perfectly gracious, and with natural ease she drew them into the orbit of her guidance. “Come in with me. It’s hardly convenient to stand outside talking. As it happens, I have wanted for some time to hear about the details of this ruins expedition from the people who experienced it firsthand.”
Her manner was so warm and friendly that it felt utterly different from the remote, unapproachable royal they had imagined.
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