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Chapter 25: This heart still beats for you

Chapter 25: This heart still beats for you

"I only looked away from him for a short while, and this is how the two of you have been taking care of Lathel?"

Anna stood in the doorway, her voice still as gentle as always.

After she stepped inside, the color in the room still hadn’t fully returned. The firelight in the hearth had turned pallid, the curtains swayed more slowly than usual, and even the sound of rain outside the window seemed to have been pushed very far away.

Neither Leviana nor Catrina answered.

Anna didn’t wait.

She walked straight past the two of them, step by step approaching the bed. The white cloth band trimmed with gold still covered her eyes, yet she seemed to need no sight to know exactly where Lathel lay.

When she was only one step from the bed, Anna stopped.

The smile on her lips disappeared.

Lathel lay still amid the white sheets, his chest and both arms wrapped in bandages. His left leg was immobilized with a magic splint, his complexion still pale from blood loss, and his right hand had been placed separately on a soft cushion to protect the two fingers the healer had just reattached.

Anna said nothing for a long time.

The hand hanging at her side slowly clenched.

Catrina stood not far away, watched her reaction, then spoke hoarsely: "The healer says his condition has stabilized. The leg can recover, and the two fingers have been set. He just hasn’t woken yet."

Anna still didn’t answer.

She took one more step and sat down beside the bed, placing two fingers against Lathel’s neck.

One beat.

Two beats.

The pulse was very weak, but steady.

Anna held her hand there for a few seconds, then slowly breathed out. The world around her that had nearly lost all color also began to recover slightly.

"He’s alive."

Leviana spoke very quietly from behind.

"I know."

Anna answered.

Just two simple words, but her voice had grown hoarser than when she first walked in.

Anna’s fingertip slowly traveled up to Lathel’s face. She touched his cheek, then traced downward near the neck, confirming there was still warmth in his skin. The movements were very gentle, but the hand was trembling enough for Leviana to see clearly.

Anna had prepared a great many things on the way here.

She had thought she would ask who was responsible.

Had thought about where to begin dealing with everyone involved.

Had even considered many methods to ensure Aldric couldn’t die too easily.

But standing before Lathel now, all of that was thrown aside.

The person before her still had warmth.

That alone was enough to temporarily calm the thoughts in Anna’s head that had nearly spun out of control.

She looked down at his immobilized right hand.

The two fingers Lathel most often used to communicate were encased in a thin splint. Though the healer had treated them with great care, the swelling around the joints was still clearly visible.

Anna stroked the bandage gently.

"Who did this?"

Her voice was very calm.

Catrina answered: "Aldric."

Anna’s hand stopped.

Leviana saw the section of curtain behind her lose its color once more.

A second later, Anna resumed stroking the bandage as though nothing had happened.

"Aldric..."

She murmured the name softly.

The corner of her mouth slowly curved.

"Very well."

Catrina frowned.

Anna didn’t elaborate on what she intended to do. She shifted to Lathel’s uninjured left hand, gently lifted it, and held it between both of hers.

The hand was still warm.

Anna bowed her head and pressed her cheek against the back of his hand.

After a moment, she slowly drew Lathel’s hand toward herself, placing his palm over her left breast, right where her heart was beating rapidly beneath the white dress.

"Can you feel it?"

Lathel naturally couldn’t answer.

Anna didn’t need one.

She held his hand there with both of hers, feeling each heartbeat transmit through the palm of the unconscious man. The corner of her mouth trembled faintly, and then a smile appeared so gentle that anyone unaware of the thoughts inside her head would have found nothing unusual at all.

"This heart is still beating. This body is still whole, and my soul is still here." Anna leaned closer to him, her voice very low. "I’ve kept all of it for you. If you want this body, I’ll give it to you. If you want my life, I’ll give that too. Even this soul isn’t something I’d regret parting with."

Leviana frowned the moment she heard that.

Catrina also looked at Anna with an expression difficult to name.

Anna continued as though the room held only herself and Lathel.

"I’d originally thought that after coming back, finding you would be enough. The Saintess title, the Holy Temple, the Eye of Life, all the things others consider precious, I could abandon them all."

She bowed her head, her fingers intertwining tightly with Lathel’s.

"But you have to live."

Her voice was very soft.

"That’s the one thing I cannot compromise on."

Leviana watched her in silence for a while before speaking: "Anna, you’re exactly the same as the last life."

Anna didn’t flinch.

Nor did she turn to ask how Leviana knew any of that.

The hand holding Lathel’s still didn’t let go.

"Yes."

The answer made Leviana narrow her eyes slightly.

Catrina asked coolly: "You knew?"

"Knew what?" Anna tilted her head toward the two of them, her expression showing almost no change. "That the two of you also came back?"

No surprise.

No joy at reuniting with allies who had once fought alongside her to the death.

Anna’s tone was so calm that Leviana and Catrina’s return might as well have been learning it was raining outside today.

Leviana looked at her. "You’re not surprised?"

"Why should I be?" Anna turned back to Lathel, her fingertip tracing lightly over the back of his hand. "I came back. The two of you appeared earlier than you should have. Black Rose already exists. A moment’s thought is all it takes."

Catrina didn’t argue.

Anna continued in the same detached voice: "Whether or not the two of you remember doesn’t affect why I’m here. I only needed to confirm one thing."

She looked at Lathel.

"That he’s still alive."

The room fell quiet again.

Leviana slowly clenched her hand.

Those words caused a memory she had spent years forcing down to surface at once.

In the previous life, after Lathel’s death, Aldric had risen to a very high position.

By then he had stolen far too many magic veins, bloodlines, holy artifacts, and fortuitous encounters that had belonged to others. The Fate Usurpation Ritual let him endlessly drain strength from geniuses, while the destiny of a Son of Fate kept saving him from situations that should have been fatal.

By the final phase, most of the continent’s powerhouses no longer wanted to face him directly.

But Leviana still remembered one battle.

The sky that day had lost all color entirely.

Tens of thousands of soldiers fighting on the ground simultaneously felt everything around them slow down, from magic and light to the drops of blood suspended in the air.

A woman in a white dress walked across the battlefield.

No cloth band over her eyes.

The eyes had fully awakened.

Anna.

At that point, she no longer resembled the Saintess who had once stood before millions of believers to pray. After learning that Lathel was dead, something inside Anna had awakened along with it.

Leviana had never understood what that power was.

She only knew that even Aldric had been forced to retreat.

Beside Anna stood Catherine.

The Empress who held the power of an entire Empire, the sword in her hand having shattered two of Aldric’s protective holy artifacts in a single day.

The third was a woman whose true identity even Leviana had never fully understood.

The three of them had hunted Aldric across a very long stretch of time, step by step dismantling the layers of protection fate had placed around him, and they were the ones who had pushed him closest to death before the final battle.

Catrina remembered that scene too.

She had stood very far away, watching Anna walk through a city already destroyed by war.

No one dared approach.

Even allies kept their distance.

Anna had asked only one question.

"Why was he the one who died?"

No one could answer.

And those on Aldric’s side who stood before her that day did not survive.

Leviana blinked.

The memory vanished.

The present room appeared before her eyes again.

Anna was still sitting beside Lathel, her pale face so calm it was nearly impossible to connect with the woman from that memory.

Catrina had also snapped out of the recollection.

She looked at Anna for a while longer, then said: "It seems you remember quite clearly."

Anna gave a slight nod. "Clearly enough to know who caused his death."

She said nothing more.

Aldric.

As long as all three of them remembered that name, it was enough.

Anna slowly set Lathel’s hand down beside him, then used her fingertip to trace across his face. When she reached the corner of his mouth, the motion stopped.

The lips still held a trace of color.

Still warm.

Anna looked for a long time.

Her hand began to tremble again.

"In the last life they were much colder..."

Her voice was so small it seemed meant only for herself.

Her fingertip slowly grazed Lathel’s lips, and then Anna leaned down.

Leviana immediately noticed the mana in the room shifting.

"Anna?"

Anna didn’t answer.

Lines of white light began appearing on her wrist.

They ran along her arm, slipping beneath the skin before converging near her collarbone. Unlike a healer’s restorative magic, this power drew no mana from the environment at all.

Leviana needed only a few seconds to understand.

"Life force."

Catrina immediately stepped forward. "You’re going to use your own life to heal him?"

"It won’t go that far."

Anna was still looking at Lathel. "His body has stabilized, but he lost too much blood and took too many injuries at once. I’m only helping the recovery go faster."

Leviana frowned. "Your Eye of Life is still sealed, and your current body isn’t whole yet. Don’t use too much."

Anna showed no reaction to the warning.

"I know how much my body can handle."

She paused a moment, then added with perfect composure: "Going a little over won’t matter."

Leviana’s voice turned cold: "If you die, how does that help him?"

Only then did Anna turn her head.

The two looked at each other.

After a few seconds, Anna nodded.

"Fair point."

She pulled back some of her mana.

The answer was so simple that even Leviana didn’t know what else to say.

Anna placed one hand behind Lathel’s neck, carefully raising his head slightly. Her other hand pressed against the center of his chest.

A white magic circle appeared beneath the bed.

The fine patterns running along Anna’s arm lit up in unison.

Immediately after, a symbol appeared at the center of her forehead.

Two white wings, folded together.

A similar symbol slowly materialized at the center of Lathel’s forehead as well.

Leviana’s eyes narrowed at once.

She had never seen this magic in the present day.

But a fragment of a Sage’s memory told her this was a type of ritual that used the caster’s own life as a medium.

"Anna, that’s enough."

Anna didn’t stop.

She leaned down close to Lathel and whispered: "Just a little."

Then their lips touched.

There was no unnecessary movement.

The instant the point of contact was formed, both wing symbols on their foreheads lit up simultaneously.

An extraordinarily pure current of life force flowed from Anna’s body into Lathel’s.

The healing array beneath the bed glowed brighter.

The mana lines that had been moving sluggishly around the left leg began circulating more steadily, and color gradually returned to Lathel’s face. The two immobilized fingers on his right hand were enveloped by a very thin layer of white light that didn’t directly mend the bone but only supported the body’s natural recovery.

Catrina observed closely.

Anna wasn’t forcing the healing.

She was simply giving Lathel what his body needed most right now.

Life force.

A few seconds later, Anna immediately ended the ritual.

She set Lathel’s head back on the pillow and sat upright. Her already pale complexion had grown more wan, and her breathing was slightly unsteady, but when she placed her hand on Lathel’s neck once more, the smile on her lips was clearer than before.

The pulse was stronger.

His breathing was more stable.

"That’s enough."

Anna used a finger to brush the hair from Lathel’s forehead.

Catrina looked at her complexion and asked: "How much did you transfer?"

"A small portion."

"How much is a small portion?"

Anna thought for a few seconds, then answered: "Not enough to affect whether I stay alive."

The corner of Catrina’s eye twitched.

Leviana said coldly: "That’s not an answer."

"Then consider it one I don’t want to give."

Anna said it very naturally, then turned back to Lathel.

Leviana fell silent.

She suddenly understood why so many people in the Holy Temple during the previous life hadn’t known what to do with Anna.

This woman was always very calm.

And precisely because she was too calm, others often couldn’t tell whether she was being honest or simply didn’t care about consequences.

Right then, Anna suddenly paused.

Lines of pale golden text appeared before her eyes.

[You have established a link with the Bearer of Fortune.]

[Fortune Star Halo has sensed your will.]

[Anna has become the third person chosen by Fortune Star Halo.]

[You are being protected by Fortune Star Halo.]

Anna looked at the text in silence.

Leviana recognized that expression at once.

Catrina did too.

Both of them had seen similar lines of text before.

"You saw it?" Leviana asked.

Anna gave a slight nod.

"Yes."

The same detached attitude.

But immediately after, a very gentle current of power from Lathel flowed back into her body.

Anna froze.

The life force she had just expended stabilized rapidly. The magic veins that had been strained from the ritual gradually returned to normal, and even the seal around the Eye of Life behind the white cloth band trembled faintly.

Anna raised a hand to touch her eyes.

She knew this feeling far too well.

In the previous life, many strange things had also happened whenever Lathel was by her side.

A clue thought to have been lost for centuries suddenly appeared.

An herb she had searched for over many months was discovered during a trip that had nothing to do with it.

And in the end, even the Breath of the Spring Goddess that could help the Eye of Life break free from its seal had appeared through a chain of coincidences impossible to explain.

Back then, Anna hadn’t understood.

Now she had her answer.

She turned to look at Lathel.

This time the smile was entirely different from when she first walked in.

No longer the cold feeling that drained the color from an entire room, nor the flawless smile she wore before the faithful.

Anna was genuinely happy.

"It’s you again."

She gently took Lathel’s left hand.

Neither Leviana nor Catrina spoke.

Anna leaned down, pressed her forehead against the back of his hand for a few seconds, then said softly: "I wanted to give you everything, but in the end the one who receives the most is always me. It was like that in the last life, and it’s the same this time."

She raised her head and placed Lathel’s hand over her heart once more.

The heartbeat had calmed.

Anna closed her eyes behind the white band, held his hand with both of hers, and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper: "Sleep a little longer. I’ll be here. When you wake, whatever you want is yours. If you don’t want anything, then I’ll find a way to make you need me."

Leviana frowned at once.

Catrina also glanced over.

Anna seemed not to realize there was anything wrong with what she had just said, or perhaps she realized it and simply didn’t care.

After a moment, the corner of her lips curved again.

"This time I won’t let you disappear from my sight."

Leviana asked coolly: "How long do you plan to stay?"

Anna turned her head toward her.

"Until Lathel wakes."

"You still have matters at the Holy Temple."

"They can wait."

Catrina asked: "What if he sleeps another week?"

"Then I stay a week."

"A month?"

"Then a month."

Anna answered so quickly that Catrina fell silent.

Leviana looked at her for a long time.

In the previous life, Anna had always been like this.

She could calmly weigh the interests of millions, could stand before a battle about to kill tens of thousands and still make the right decision.

But the moment something involved Lathel, her standards shifted completely.

Anna stroked the hand resting in hers, then spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"The Holy Temple can find another Saintess."

She turned her face toward Lathel.

"But I only have one Lathel."