"Lea, why do you want to become a saintess?"

The gentle sunlight spilled across the saintess’s delicate profile; even her pale-gold long hair and clear eyes seemed to be bathed in spring water under the sunset.

She gazed at the little girl who had just been chosen, with such tenderness.

"To... to become a saintess?"

The timid little girl hid behind the carriage curtain, only two limpid big eyes peeking out to secretly size up this legendary Lady Saintess. Hearing the question, she panicked for a moment, her whole little face adorably scrunching up.

"Yes."

The saintess soothingly stroked Lea’s small head: "Becoming a saintess is not the easy road you imagine, nor is it only the boundless radiance you can see. This road stands for hardship and tedium beyond your imagination, for duties and burdens heavy enough to crush anyone.

So, before I officially become your teacher, I need you to answer this question, and you need to think it through in the process—otherwise you may regret it for life."

"Think... about the question..."

The little girl, still too young, seemed unable to grasp the deeper meaning, so she simply voiced her most straightforward thought. Turning her head, she spoke with infinite yearning:

"I want to... save people."

"Save... so many, many people."

The wind lifted the carriage curtain, revealing the desolate scene outside.

People wrapped in thick, sealed garments and wearing strange masks walked past one body after another covered by white cloth, filling one cold, lifeless number after another onto their papers.

From a tent came a woman’s anguished sobbing; her son and husband had just passed away.

A youth with faint red blotches still on his skin lay on a crude sickbed, his vacant stare no longer reflecting the sun.

Crows flew and cawed, especially mournful.

A brutal plague had just swept through here. If a saintess of the Church had not happened to pass by, there might not have been a single living person left within a hundred miles.

This was also the first trial experienced by little Lea, newly chosen as a candidate for saintess.

She showed great sympathy and compassion, letting her gaze pass over each person in pain, bustling about to decoct medicine and pass things along. There wasn’t much such a small body could do, but she did every single thing with earnest care.

Just like the qualities required of every saintess, the light of humanity had already begun to shine within her still-immature frame.

"If I can... I want to save everyone, to be as amazing as the Lady saintess!"

The little girl wore a determination beyond her years, clenched her chubby little fists, and spoke in all seriousness.

"To save everyone... that’s extremely hard, you know."

"I’m not afraid of hardship!"

"You may even pay costs that are hard to bear," the saintess looked deeply at her.

"I’m not afraid to pay the price either! The neighbor next door told me that a saintess is synonymous with devotion and selflessness, and a saintess’s love must be given to everyone!" Stars sparkled in the little girl’s eyes.

"Everyone... you truly are kind."

The saintess smiled gently. The carriage suddenly lurched; the clamor of voices and the knights’ furious shouts interrupted the important question and answer between master and disciple.

"Come, let’s take a look."

The saintess patted Lea’s shoulder and led her out of the carriage.

"Save me... please save me, I’m innocent, innocent!"

In front of the carriage, a man covered head to toe in red blotches, his clothes in rags and his face covered with tears, fell to his knees before the carriage. Two burly knights pinned him to the ground to keep him from charging the holy carriage.

People watched from afar, not daring to gather around, yet they pointed at him and cursed without cease.

"Lea, look at him."

The saintess pointed at the man and said:

"He is the source of this plague. To save his own son, he chose to make a deal with the dark god. The spread of this plague has resulted in more than a thousand deaths. His son did indeed come back, but he himself also contracted the plague, and more severely than anyone else.

And now, he wants us to save him."

"Please, Lady saintess, I’m innocent; I didn’t know it would turn out like this; I didn’t even know that was the dark god. I just wanted to save my son!"

The man was a mess of tears and snot; if he weren’t being held down, he would surely have rushed over and clutched the saintess’s feet:

"My son is only three. He’s still so little. He only has me. He can’t be without his father. Please, merciful Lady saintess, please save me too. Once I’ve settled my son, you can throw me into prison if you want. Please save me..."

"What a pitiful man."

The saintess sighed.

The man was overjoyed and banged his head hard against the ground: "Lady saintess, please, please..."

"Although ‘I knew nothing’ is probably a lie, isn’t it."

The man’s face froze.

Lea stared blankly at the man. Her little head couldn’t process the complexity of what she was seeing.

She only felt that this person was both hateful and pitiful.

But then the saintess placed a pill into Lea’s palm.

"Now, whether he is saved or not depends on you."

"Huh?"

"Cruel as it is for you right now, I don’t want you to face such a situation for real in the future and make a choice you’ll regret for life."

"So choose, Lea. Will you save a father, or kill a villain."

"This is the first lesson I’m giving you."

The saintess looked quietly at Lea, as if speaking of something trivial. Her gaze remained gentle.

But Lea held that pill as if it were a block of ice that hadn’t melted in a thousand years, feeling the warmth drain from her whole body.

The warm sunset turned into a deep, cold, and desolate sea, closing in to drown her...

"I..."

...

...

"I didn’t expect to suddenly think of something so long ago."

Lea’s head gradually cleared, though her eyes were still a little dazed.

"Back then, what was my choice again?"

She couldn’t remember clearly—perhaps she had forgotten.

Over these years, in order to become the saintess she longed for, to become like her saintess teacher, someone who could save everyone, she had crammed too much into her mind; such trivial matters had naturally been swept into the deepest corners of memory.

"So cold."

Lea suddenly shivered, hugged her shoulders, and a wisp of white breath slipped from between her lips.

"But cold... is normal too, right."

Her gaze turned to her surroundings.

It was a sea.

A pitch-black sea.

Like a mire that swallowed everything, it settled at the bottom of this vast, vast space. Looking down from above, Lea could not even see the end; she could only feel her own smallness.

But what rose and sank in the sea were not cute creatures like octopuses.

They were... people.

Deformed, twisted, suffering people.

They struggled, wept, and cried for help in the sea of mire. Just by looking at them, you could tell what torments those souls were going through.

"Ah, you have come."

Suddenly, the throng rising and sinking in the mire seemed to notice her and surged madly in this direction. They raised their hands high, swaying like seaweed, trying to grasp something.

"Have you come to save us?"

"Save us... please save us..."

"It hurts, it hurts so much..."

"Save me... you must save me..."

Countless cries for help buzzed like a provoked swarm of bees, stabbing into Lea’s mind like needles.

"Stop... be quiet!"

Lea clutched her head in pain.

And then the entire sea of mire truly fell silent.

As Lea was wondering, she suddenly saw the mire writhe. A hunched figure parted the countless floating human shapes and walked out.

It was an old woman—or rather, it should have been an old woman—for her deformity far exceeded that of ordinary people. Lea could only discern her advanced years from the wrinkles that covered her face.

Yet her awareness was far clearer than that of most in the mire; she was not merely parroting pleas for help. She came before Lea and knelt, bowing respectfully.

"Messenger from beyond... have you finally come to save us?"

"Messenger... me?"

"Yes. The aura upon you tells me that you are the messenger we have long awaited, the messenger from that great deity."

A great deity?

Who was she talking about? The Goddess?

But aren’t they supposed to worship the Goddess? Why use such a strange phrasing as ‘the messenger from a great deity’?

Lea looked at the old woman, hesitated for a moment, and asked:

"You... are the natives, aren’t you."

"Yes... we are the natives of this realm."

The old woman raised her head, turbid tears streaming down:

"We have been here, waiting for a thousand years."

"Waiting a thousand years... what does that mean?"

Lea’s mouth hung open blankly: "Isn’t this supposed to be Canterwell? The golden land without hunger or pain..."

"No! This is not a golden land at all!"

The old woman roared in anger, the wrinkles on her face twitching like twisted bark:

"We were deceived by the dark god. This is not some sanctuary without hunger and pain, containing only happiness and joy. This is... the dark god’s pasture!"

"Dark god? Pasture?"

Lea felt as if struck by lightning, her eyes widening in innocent shock.

The old woman’s words were completely at odds with what she knew.

But Lea was not stupid. From the scene before her, the old woman’s words, and some earlier hints, she quickly pieced together part of the truth:

"In other words, the dark god disguised himself as Goddess Emil and deceived you?"

The old woman looked at Lea, fell silent for a moment, then nodded vigorously: "Yes. We were all deceived. This Canterwell—an entire one million people—were deceived and became lambs raised by the dark god."

"..."

Lea’s mind was in chaos.

Every word the old woman said was like a heavy hammer striking her heart. She once again felt that sensation of sinking into the deep sea, wrapped in deathly stillness and crushing pressure.

"Then... you called me here..."

"As you have heard, please... save us."

the old woman said with utmost earnestness:

"The moment when the dark god brings down the butcher's blade to harvest us completely is not far off; when that time comes, all of us will become the dark god's food.

So before that, I hope you can save us, purify the filth upon us, and erase the mark of the lamb from us."

"Purify the filth..."

Lea was stunned for a moment, then shook her head hard: "No, I can't, I can't do it, something like this..."

"You can do it. You certainly can."

The old woman lifted her head and gazed at Lea.

At the same time, a million twisted people, a million suffering souls, raised their heads together from the pitch-black sea of mud, the eyes in their deformed faces blazing as they fixed on Lea.

"Are you not here for this very purpose? The saintess of that deity... Lady Saintess."