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Chapter 27: One more time!

Chapter 27: One more time!

Leviana shook her head.

"I don’t know yet."

Catrina’s eyes turned cold at once.

"I’ll find it."

"We have to." Leviana wiped her tears, then turned back, her voice steadier this time. "In this life, Lathel has already begun to sense a little mana. We absolutely cannot let him see Pandora’s Box, much less let him find out it can trade lifespan for the ability to use magic."

Catrina nodded.

Anna remained silent.

She looked at Lathel for a long time before slowly releasing his hand from her chest.

The reluctance in the motion was plain to see.

Anna stood.

She leaned down and traced her fingertip gently across Lathel’s face, from the temple to the cheek, stopping at the corner of his mouth.

Then Anna lifted his left hand and pressed his palm against her own face.

Her soft cheek rested against his hand.

She closed her eyes behind the white cloth band.

"I have to go."

Lathel slept on.

Anna smiled faintly.

"Keep sleeping. I’ll be waiting for you at the Academy."

Leviana looked at her. "You know what to do?"

Anna placed Lathel’s hand back on the blanket, so carefully it was as though she feared even the slightest movement would wake him.

"The four Saintess candidates, the aptitude examination, the combat trials, Aldric, and the soul beside him. I’ll prepare in advance."

Leviana nodded. "Don’t change too much before we’ve discussed it."

"I understand."

Anna turned and walked toward the door.

The sound of her heels echoed on the stone floor.

But the instant her hand touched the handle, her steps suddenly stopped.

Leviana and Catrina both looked over.

Anna didn’t turn around.

"There’s one thing."

Her voice was still very soft.

The color around the doorway slowly began to fade.

The flame in the hearth froze mid-flicker.

The sound of rain outside grew distant.

Anna continued: "I know we need to preserve the trajectory of the old events. I also know everyone wants to correct their mistakes this time, so I’ll cooperate."

The corner of her mouth curved ever so slightly.

"But if I come back again and find Lathel lying in bed covered in wounds like today..."

She paused.

The room went completely silent.

After a moment, Anna spoke again:

"I will no longer care whether the storyline is still useful or not."

Leviana frowned.

Catrina also tightened her fist.

Anna opened the door.

"I’ll take him myself."

The smile on her lips was still gentle.

"To a place where Aldric, the Church..."

She paused briefly.

"And neither of you can find."

Click.

The door closed.

Color in the room returned to normal at once.

The fire continued to burn.

Rain fell steadily outside the window once more.

Leviana stared at the door for a very long time.

Catrina was also silent for several seconds before saying: "She’s serious."

"I know."

Leviana pressed her hand to her forehead again.

Then she turned to Lathel.

He still lay motionless, completely unaware that during the time he’d been unconscious, three women had already begun preparing to alter a portion of the Church’s entire future.

Leviana’s gaze rested on his face.

Pandora’s Box surfaced in her memory once more.

A Lathel with a deathly pale face, hiding his trembling hands behind his back as he handed her the pouch of herbs.

"Good thing I made it in time."

Leviana’s chest ached again.

She walked to the bedside and gently took his hand.

’This time, there won’t be any such box.’

Even if it meant deploying all of House Avarenne to find it first, even if it had to be destroyed the instant it appeared, Leviana would never let Lathel trade a single day of his life for her sake again.

.....

Anna left Lathel’s room not long after.

As she walked through the eastern corridor, the strange state that had surrounded her vanished completely. The light outside the windows returned to its normal hue, and the sounds of rain and passing servants filled the hallway once more. Anna slowly adjusted her sleeves, then let the familiar gentle smile settle onto her lips.

In just a few steps, the woman who had made Leviana and Catrina tense with caution was gone. The person now walking down the corridor was the Anna everyone in the Church knew: a Saintess candidate who was always soft-spoken, proper, and who almost never let her true emotions show on her face.

Cassian and Mirelle were waiting for her in the great hall.

When a servant reported that Anna was preparing to leave, both had come in person to see her off. House Avarenne held a very high position among the nobility, but Anna’s status was more special than that of an ordinary Saintess candidate. The Church valued her, and the royal family also afforded her due respect, so Cassian had no intention of letting someone like her leave the castle without even the host appearing.

Seeing Anna approach, Cassian stepped forward, maintaining the proper courtesy. "Saintess Anna, your visit today was so sudden we had no time to prepare anything. It’s still raining outside, and the road back is not short. If there’s nothing too urgent, please stay for dinner. I’ll have a room prepared. Setting out tomorrow morning wouldn’t be too late."

Mirelle, standing beside her husband, also smiled and said: "You’ve barely arrived and you’re already heading back. Your body needs rest as well. If anything here isn’t to your liking, just let me know and the servants will arrange it immediately."

Anna gave a slight bow. The smile on her lips was perfectly natural, and even her voice carried the kind of softness that made it hard for anyone to find a reason to press further. "Thank you, Duke and Duchess. You’ve been most gracious hosts. It’s just that I still have a few matters to attend to back home. Coming here unannounced was the real imposition."

Cassian shook his head at once. "You are an honored guest at House Avarenne. How could we call it an imposition?"

"I only came to visit an acquaintance. There’s no need for such formality."

Anna spoke very calmly, but both Cassian and Mirelle paused for a moment.

Almost simultaneously, they thought of Leviana.

Their daughter had been one of the most famous young geniuses before her coma, and Anna was currently the Church’s most valued Saintess candidate. Even if the two had once met at a banquet, a Church ceremony, or a gathering among the great nobility, it would hardly have been unusual.

Cassian therefore didn’t ask further.

Anna had no intention of explaining either.

The three walked together to the front of the castle. A carriage bearing the Church’s insignia was already waiting outside, with several nuns and guards standing under the awning, quietly waiting for her.

Before stepping into the carriage, Anna paused and turned her face slightly toward Cassian. "Lathel still hasn’t woken. Over the next few days, please continue having the healer monitor his condition. The right hand especially... those two fingers must not be left with lasting damage."

Cassian was mildly surprised that she mentioned Lathel directly, but answered at once: "House Avarenne’s best healer is in charge. The leg and both fingers have been set. I’ve also instructed them to take no chances."

Anna smiled. "That’s good. I’ll be coming back."

She said nothing more, only gave the two of them a slight bow before stepping into the carriage.

The door closed.

The convoy bearing the Church’s insignia slowly departed from the castle, its wheels grinding over the rain-slicked road before gradually disappearing beyond the tree line in the distance.

Cassian stood watching a while longer. Only when the carriage was completely out of sight did he let out a long breath, his shoulders unconsciously relaxing. "She’s finally gone."

Mirelle glanced at her husband. "You felt the pressure too?"

"I’m not even sure what to call the feeling." Cassian frowned as they turned back into the castle. "She was perfectly polite the entire time. The way she spoke was fine. But standing in front of her, I just had this sense that I’d better not say anything wrong."

Mirelle didn’t answer right away.

She had felt the same.

From the moment Anna appeared at the castle, she had kept that gentle smile and hadn’t made things difficult for a single servant. Yet the guards with the highest combat ability who stood near her had unconsciously grown wary, as though their bodies recognized something their minds couldn’t explain.

The two had just stepped through the main doors when Mirelle suddenly slowed.

"Cassian, when did Leviana become acquainted with Anna?"

He turned to look at his wife. "I was just thinking about that. Perhaps before the coma, the two of them met at some Church function or noble gathering. Leviana knew a great many people back then."

Mirelle was still frowning. She looked back at the road Anna had just departed along, then said: "But I remember very clearly, Leviana was in a coma for five full years, and Anna never once came to visit. During those years we even asked Church officials to pray for her, but Anna was never the one assigned."

Cassian’s pace slowed slightly.

Mirelle looked at her husband and continued: "Now Lathel gets hurt and barely two days later, Anna comes here in person. Do you think she wasn’t actually here to visit Leviana?"

Cassian understood his wife’s implication at once, his expression turning peculiar. "You think Anna came because of Lathel?"

"I only find the timing too coincidental."

"That’s not possible." Cassian dismissed the idea almost immediately. He thought for a moment, then explained: "Lathel grew up in House Kirlinghalm with virtually no status. For the past three years he’s been at Leviana’s side caring for her the entire time. How would someone like him have ever had the chance to come into contact with Anna?"

Mirelle fell silent at that.

It truly didn’t make sense.

Anna was a Saintess candidate of the Church. The people who could see her regularly had to be at least high-ranking clergy, major nobility, or geniuses noticed by powerful factions. Meanwhile, Lathel was merely an orphan taken in by House Kirlinghalm for the sake of good fortune. After Aldric was born, even the nominal title of young master had lost most of its meaning.

The two of them should never have had any connection at all.

Mirelle finally shook her head. "Perhaps I’m overthinking it."

Cassian nodded. "Anna may have received word from Leviana. Or the Church heard about the fire and she came by on her way to check the situation."

Mirelle didn’t continue the debate. She walked deeper into the castle alongside her husband, but as they neared the staircase, her steps slowed once more.

The image of Lathel from two nights ago surfaced in her mind.

The young man lying on the stretcher, his clothes nearly soaked through with blood, left leg broken, two fingers on his right hand bent so badly it hurt just to look. And yet even when his consciousness was nearly gone, his body still lay shielding Leviana as though by reflex.

Mirelle sighed softly. "That child Lathel has truly suffered too much."

Cassian glanced over.

Mirelle pressed her lips together, then said: "Lost his parents young, then was taken in by Kirlinghalm but never truly treated as family. Can’t speak for himself, has no strength to protect himself either. Even after being pushed forward to replace Aldric on the betrothal, he still cared for Leviana for three whole years, and in the end nearly died trying to save her."

Cassian was silent for a while.

Before this, he had only known Lathel through a few reports. In those, the young man had nothing noteworthy beyond his status as Kirlinghalm’s adopted son and his role as Aldric’s replacement on the betrothal.

But after what he had witnessed with his own eyes on the night of the fire, that view had changed.

Cassian withdrew his gaze, then said: "We wait for him to wake first. If after all this he truly wants to leave House Kirlinghalm, House Avarenne can give him a place. Regardless of how the betrothal is handled later, the fact that he saved Leviana alone is enough that we cannot abandon him."

Mirelle looked at her husband for a few seconds, then smiled. "At least this time you’ve said something I like hearing."

Cassian glanced at her but didn’t argue. The two continued deeper into the castle, completely unaware that Mirelle’s earlier guess had been the truth.

Anna had never come here for Leviana.

The person she wanted to see from beginning to end was only Lathel.

.....

The Church’s carriage had traveled quite far from the castle grounds.

After the sound-barrier was activated, the noise of the wheels and the rain outside only reached the interior as a faint murmur. Anna sat alone in the cabin, her back resting against the soft cushion, both hands placed neatly on her lap.

The smile she had used while speaking with Cassian and Mirelle lingered on her lips for a few more seconds.

Then it slowly disappeared.

Anna tilted her head slightly, sensing the auras of the escorting nuns outside. Once she confirmed no one was close enough to notice anything inside, she reached over and opened the spatial pouch beside her.

A piece of white fabric was taken out.

It was the undershirt Lathel had been wearing when he was brought to House Avarenne.

The healer had cut away part of the clothing to treat the wounds on his body. The shirt had afterward been gathered with the other bloodstained garments, waiting for a servant to dispose of them.

On her way out of the room, Anna had seen it.

She didn’t ask anyone.

Didn’t tell anyone either.

She simply took it with her.

Anna laid the shirt across her lap, both hands smoothing the wrinkled fabric. Dried bloodstains still clung around the chest and sleeves, and the collar carried a faint scent of medicinal herbs from two days of lying in the treatment room.

She looked at it for a very long time.

Then slowly lifted it.

The collar stopped just before her nose.

Anna breathed in.

Her body went rigid at once.

The smell of medicine and dried blood mingled with the faintest trace of soap, but beneath all of that there still lingered a familiar scent she had committed to memory from the previous life.

The hand holding the shirt trembled.

Anna inhaled again, deeper this time.

Both cheeks quickly flushed, and her normally steady breathing grew slightly faster. She gripped the fabric tightly, tried to hold her composure for a few more seconds, but in the end couldn’t stop herself from pressing the entire shirt against her face.

"Ah..."

A very small sound escaped her lips.

Anna immediately bit down gently on her lower lip, but her face had already reddened all the way to the tips of her ears. She buried her nose in the collar, breathed in deeply, then hugged the shirt tight against her chest, her whole body trembling from the familiar feeling she had just rediscovered.

"Lathel’s scent... it’s wonderful..."

If a Church believer had seen this scene, they likely would not have been able to connect the woman before them with the Saintess candidate who was always pure and gentle in every rumor.

Anna couldn’t have cared less.

She closed her eyes behind the white cloth, pressed her cheek against the shirt, then softly nuzzled the part of the fabric that still held the trace of Lathel’s presence.

In the previous life, after his death, Anna had searched for everything connected to him.

Sheets of paper Lathel had once written on.

A cup he had once used.

Old clothes.

Even an item worth almost nothing at all, as long as she knew it had once been in his hands, Anna refused to let anyone else touch it.

But by then it had been too late.

House Kirlinghalm had already discarded most of Lathel’s belongings. Some things had vanished, others had been disposed of by servants as trash. No matter how much power Anna wielded, she could not recover things that had been burned to ash years before.

In the end, all she managed to keep were a few small objects and memories she could never touch.

But this time was different.

Anna clutched the shirt tighter.

Lathel was alive.

The person lying in that bed still had warmth. She had just touched him, had just heard his heartbeat, and that hand had even rested right against her chest.

Thinking of that, the corner of Anna’s mouth curved upward at once.

"He’s still alive."

She raised the shirt to her nose again, breathed in once more, then murmured with a look of satisfaction: "This time I can keep more."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Anna paused.

She tilted her head slightly, seeming to realize her phrasing wasn’t quite right.

"No, that’s wrong."

She looked at the shirt in her hands, her fingertip slowly tracing over the dried bloodstain, then smiled.

"I don’t need to keep his things."

The smile grew clearer.

"I just need to keep him."

Anna hugged the shirt to her chest and leaned back into the seat. It was a long while before her heartbeat finally steadied.

Outside the carriage, the escorting nuns continued in disciplined formation on either side. In their minds, Saintess Anna was probably resting after a long journey, and not one of them had any idea what she was doing behind the sound-barrier.

At last, Anna took out the white wooden box that held all of Lathel’s letters.

She carefully folded the shirt and placed it on top of the letters, then prepared to close the lid. But when the lid was only a sliver from the rim, her hand stopped.

Anna looked at the shirt.

Hesitated for a few seconds.

Then took it back out.

She brought the collar close to her nose and breathed in one more deep breath. The blush on her cheeks that had just faded returned at once.

"One last time."

Anna folded the shirt again.

But barely a few seconds passed before she unfolded it, leaned in for another breath, and mumbled as though explaining herself to herself.

"One more time won’t hurt."

The carriage continued its steady journey toward the Magic Academy.

It took a very long stretch of road before the wooden box on Anna’s lap was truly closed at last.