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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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They poisoned the village and killed the people in it.
They said it was simply because their God commanded it.
They killed her mother. They killed the husband her mother loved. They killed the child those two loved.
And then they kidnapped Elin, who was isolated and confined in a basement alone.
“You were also born under the light of a constellation. However, you didn’t receive the light of Fiat, Nephthys’ constellation. A black constellation obscured by Fiat’s bright light shone upon you. You must walk in the shadows created by the celestial bodies according to that fate. Yuan has chosen you.”
The men said that to Elin, who was trembling in fear with her whole body tied up.
Elin couldn’t understand their words as she was transported far away from the village where she had lived.
The men threw the kidnapped children one by one into a bottomless pit.
All the children gathered there were twins.
They had kidnapped the children to find a single saintess or saint.
The pit had smooth walls that were impossible to crawl up.
A place completely isolated from the outside, belonging only to the children.
And in the pit, only one hole opened towards the sky.
During the day, they struggled for survival; they looked at the moon through that tiny hole at night.
Amidst sorrow, pain, and suffering, Elin prayed again, clasping her hands together.
“May that child be happy.”
Then, one day, the moon began to speak to Elin’s ears for the first time.
‘Are you okay? You barely survived today too. You did well.’
Like a close friend, it comforted Elin’s heart.
‘I must be finally hearing hallucinations.’
Elin thought she responded to the soft voice of her old mother.
‘I barely survived. Are you comforting me? Thank you.’
After that, Elin wasn’t lonely for a while, even in that terrible pit.
The voice always kindly comforted Elin.
Elin began to love that voice as if it were her mother.
Then, one day, the voice said this.
‘You have a twin.’
‘What to do. The world chose for that child to be happy instead of you.’
‘Even if you pray for that child’s happiness, there’s nothing for you.’
‘That child is not you.’
“But…”
Elin tried to refute.
‘That child took your happiness.’
‘You could have been that child too.’
Ah.
“I-”
Elin looked at the moon floating in the sky.
“That child”
The moon was like the sun but hazy.
“Can I be?”
She gazed at the moon, which was just like herself.
‘Yes.’
Elin realized.
What she thought was a hallucination and talked to every night was neither a hallucination nor the moon.
This voice was definitely God.
‘Yes. Child. I am the God you must serve.’
That voice was kind and seductive as if caressing her cheek with silk woven from moonlight.
“Can I really become that child?”
I can become that child.
She hesitated for a moment, but Elin didn’t like it after all.
That doesn’t make sense.
It can’t be.
To think that I would take away the life of my sister, who is already living happily.
“I can’t do that.”
Elin answered the voice of God.
‘I see. Child. If you had given the right answer now, you could have gotten out of this cursed box. What a pity. Never hope for salvation from me again.’
“…What?”
Elin was startled.
Getting out of here.
If I can get out, I want to get out.
Right now!
“God, God…!”
She didn’t want to be abandoned again.
After being abandoned by her mother, now she was being abandoned by God too!
“No. Give me one more chance! This time…”
Elin prayed desperately.
She wanted to get even just one more chance.
However, the answer didn’t come back for a very long time.
Until all the children except herself died, and a single rope was lowered into the pit.
Elin thought this rope was the salvation God had given her.
However, the slave traders informed her that it wasn’t salvation by bringing a hot branding iron to the back of Elin’s hand.
‘Why does this keep happening to me?’
Elin thought like a scream.
What would happen to her now?
Abandoned by her mother and God, would she now become a slave, too?
But they didn’t seem to be trying to sell Elin as a slave.
They had confined Elin in a spacious room, different from the other slaves.
“Stay here. We’ll have a use for you later.”
The fierce-looking man with red hair seemed to have something else he wanted from Elin.
But Elin was afraid of that man.
He had the same eyes as the men in black who had taken her and thrown her into the pit.
‘They don’t see me as a person.’
Elin wanted to run away from that man right away.
Creak.
As she thought that, the locked door opened by itself.
Like a miracle.
‘God…?’
Elin thought this was some kind of signal God had sent her.
So, grasping her trembling heart, she took a step outside.
Once she mustered up the courage, there was no hesitation in running out.
Elin desperately escaped from the slave traders’ hideout.
After the pursuers caught up, she moved her feet even faster.
The moonlight coming down from the sky seemed to be guiding her somewhere.
And it was in an alley when the slave traders caught her.
“What kind of unjust act is this! You villains!”
A girl’s voice was heard like salvation.
And then, the men were instantly knocked down by a boy.
The girl who had first screamed approached, knelt, and gently held her hand.
As the hood was pulled down, Elin saw that girl.
A righteous and upright girl who had lived a completely different, happy life from herself.
“Are you alright?”
Her fated twin sister, shining with the moonlight as a halo, spoke with a smile utterly different from hers.
‘…I could have been that child too.’
Elin thought like that.
She was madly envious of that child.
She wanted to become that child.
‘You can.’
When God spoke to Elin again, Elin was convinced.
‘How is it? Do you want to have that child’s happiness?’
That child’s things were her things.
Elin was swept away by the madness of the moon.
Elin didn’t realize it was an impure emotion amplified by the evil God Yuan.
She just desperately wished to be happy, too.
“I wish I was her.”
So, she answered like that.
Perhaps it wasn’t that she wanted to become Elena…
But that she just wanted to be happy.
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“I don’t know.”
Elin said that in a trembling voice.
With a face that looked like she was about to cry.
I smiled faintly at that answer.
This wasn’t Elin’s will.
It was the will of the evil god Yuan.
And the reason why the evil God Yuan was trying to kill Elena.
The reason why he was trying to kill her today, even at the risk of exposing his own saintess.
“That’s right. It’s not that you want to kill Elena. It’s that the God you serve wants to kill Elena.”
Elena and Elin.
The gazes of the two beautiful girls landed on me.
One with puzzlement and the other with shock.
“Even knowing that his own saintess would be exposed today, the evil God Yuan tried to kill Elena. It had to be today, without fail.”
I continued speaking.
You can only arrive at one answer if you fill in all the settings.
“Once this dawn passes and the sun rises, Elena will become the saintess of Nephthys, the rival of the evil god Yuan.”
Nephthys is the God of light.
Since the sun is the power that becomes the origin of Nephthys, it wouldn’t be out of place to say that she awakens as a saintess when the sun shines.
“Yuan was planning to kill the saintess of Nephthys before his rival was born.”
What was lacking in this story was why Elena had to be killed today.
And I just filled in that answer to the world.
Now, it was time for the flipped coin to land.
*Ding!*
It worked!
If Elena becomes a saintess, she will be able to use the Divine Field.
Then,
Now if I can stall for just a very short time, it’s my victory.
The problem is that it’s too dangerous.
“I’m… a saintess?”
Elena looked at me in disbelief at that declaration.
It would be hard to believe that she was Nephthys’ saintess who appeared after 100 years.
“You have the qualifications.”
I spoke softly while looking at Elena.
“Wh- what are you saying such embarrassing things for!”
Elena covered her face.
I was just praising her, what’s there to be embarrassed about?
“It’s going to get a bit dangerous.”
At my warning, Elena just nodded her head while covering her face, without answering.
Alright, that takes care of Elena.
“Now, Elin.”
I shifted my gaze to Elin, who was looking up at me with her eyes open in astonishment.
No, to be precise, I spoke while looking at Yuan who was controlling Elin.
“I won’t move. Even if there are sacrifices, I just need to wait for the short time left until the sun rises.”
I pointed to the dark place where the sun would rise.
Of course, it was a lie.
If Yuan kept expanding the Divine Field, I wouldn’t be able to endure it and would end up moving.
“What will you do? Aren’t you the one who’s more pressed for time? What’s it going to be, Yuan?”
And my provocation worked.
The night with not much left.
The sun would rise soon.
The Divine Field that had been expanding around began to churn, splitting into hundreds of branches and shooting out like claws.
I immediately realized that he opted to drain Elin’s life force for more power.
But it was faster than I thought, and there were too many branches.
“Huh?”
Uhm, I don’t think I can dodge this?
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