Lu Mo was the bad child in the Kalis Family who made her peers tremble and gave the parents a massive headache.
Cecilia, compared to her, was at the complete other extreme.
When Lu Mo practiced in the corners of the manor, she could often hear voices coming from the other side of the wall.
“Little Cecilia, we’re over here.”
“Little Cecilia, is it really okay for us to play with your toys like this?”
“Oh, Little Cecilia, I’m so sorry. I think I accidentally broke it.”
The boys and girls were teasing Cecilia.
They toyed with her.
They broke her toys.
But Cecilia never lost her temper with them.
It was as if she didn’t know how to be angry, how to be hurt, or how to be sad.
It was as if… she were a doll.
Sometimes, after the children finished teasing Cecilia and saw that she remained unresponsive, they would find it boring and leave one after another.
At those times, Cecilia would just stand there.
She wouldn’t say a word.
However, standing on the other side of the wall, Lu Mo could see Cecilia’s golden cowlick twitching.
Only then could Lu Mo see any trace of emotional fluctuation in Cecilia.
***
Sometimes, Lu Mo would lean against the wall and speak to Cecilia on the other side. “They are bullying you.”
“Yes,” Cecilia answered slowly, appearing completely unbothered.
“Aren’t you angry? Aren’t you hurt or sad?” Lu Mo, on the contrary, was starting to get a bit angry. “They are bullying you. You can fight back.”
“It’s alright,” Cecilia’s soft voice drifted over the wall again. “When Cecilia grows up, I am going to be the Saintess. So, Cecilia won’t get angry, and I won’t be sad. Cecilia will love this world and every living being in it.”
On the outside of the wall, Lu Mo remained silent for a long time.
“Then you really are a dummy,” she finally spoke after a long while, softly scolding Cecilia.
“Miss Lu Mo… that… is a bad word. You shouldn’t say things like that,” Cecilia’s faint voice came from inside the wall.
“Dummy! Dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy!” Lu Mo shouted the ‘bad word’ several times in a row.
“God above, please forgive Miss Lu Mo. I am willing to accept the punishment in her place…” Cecilia panicked and began to pray in a low voice.
In this situation, Lu Mo could only smile helplessly. She said goodbye to Cecilia and quickly departed.
Saintess.
‘Will Cecilia really become the Saintess in the future?’
On the way back, Lu Mo thought to herself, and her expression gradually turned cold.
‘A girl who sacrifices everything.’
In this era, the word ‘Saintess’ was far heavier than in the era she originally came from.
The Saintess.
A girl chosen by the gods.
Destined to save this world.
Their souls were incredibly pure.
Their blood contained powerful holy power.
But their role never lay in killing the Demon King.
Instead, it lay in sacrifice.
They would offer their souls to the Hero, bestowing their own talent and holy power upon him to push the Hero’s strength to its absolute limit.
They would nurture divine artifacts with their own blood and, at the final moment, even sacrifice their lives to completely awaken the power of those artifacts.
The Saintess existed for the sake of the Hero.
In stories, it was always the Saintess who sacrificed herself for the Hero and The Holy Sanctuary.
The Hero would shed tears of regret, tightly grip the awakened divine artifact, and engage in the final duel with the Demon King.
In the end, the Hero would slay the Demon King and return home in glory.
People loved such stories and sang praises of the Hero.
But Lu Mo did not like them.
In stories, the Saintess was always sensible and obedient.
One could even say she had no temper, no self, and no soul.
Through her interactions with Cecilia, Lu Mo grew to detest the word ‘Saintess’ more and more.
She seemed to understand why the Saintesses in stories were always so submissive.
Saintesses were educated from a young age that they could not have tempers or a sense of self.
They could only silently endure everything.
They couldn’t express even a sliver of emotion.
Enduring all suffering, sacrificing for the Hero and the world.
— This was their entire life.
‘She really is a big dummy,’ Lu Mo whispered again.
***
Cecilia would indulge those boys and girls who bullied her, but Lu Mo would not.
On another afternoon, the boys and girls were standing by the wall.
They had taken Cecilia’s toy rabbit and were tossing it back and forth.
The toy rabbit fell to the ground several times, getting covered in mud.
Finally, a girl caught the toy rabbit thrown by a boy, threw it onto the ground, and stepped on the rabbit’s back.
She seemed to have been scolded by her parents and was in a foul mood, so she stomped on it forcefully several times.
“…”
The girl looked up at Cecilia, but Cecilia was still smiling.
“Why aren’t you crying, Cecilia?” she asked.
“Because Cecilia will become the Saintess in the future, so I can’t cry,” Cecilia answered as she always did.
She said this every single time.
But this time, such an answer seemed to irritate the girl.
“Saintess… Saintess… So what if you’re the Saintess?”
The girl muttered, beginning to stomp forcefully on the toy rabbit. “No crying, no crying, no crying… Is being unable to cry really that impressive?”
She suddenly kicked the rabbit away and walked straight toward Cecilia.
“Cry!” She pushed Cecilia hard.
Cecilia stumbled back several steps but did not fall.
Just as she was about to say something, the girl lunged in front of her again and pushed her hard once more.
“Cry!” the girl roared.
This time, Cecilia finally fell to the ground.
Her finger seemed to have been cut by something; it stung.
She subconsciously raised her hand and saw a cut on her delicate palm, which was bleeding.
Cecilia had never bled before.
Nor had she ever been treated so roughly.
She didn’t know why the girl was suddenly treating her like this.
She didn’t know what her current emotions were.
Nor did she know how to face the angry girl in front of her.
She only felt a slight sting in her nose.
Her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Cecilia… is the future Saintess…”
“So, I won’t be sad, and I won’t be hurt…”
“Cecilia… will love…”
She spoke, repeating her previous words.
“That’s… quite enough — “
At that moment, an unfamiliar, cold voice rang out from behind the group.
The boys and girls turned around and saw another girl sitting on the low wall.
She wore a beautiful hair accessory, a pretty little dress, white stockings, and small leather shoes. She looked well-behaved and adorable.
Immediately, several of the boys’ faces turned beet red.
However, in sharp contrast to her well-behaved appearance was the girl’s incredibly cold expression.
She held a wooden sword in her hand. As her gaze swept over the crowd, the boys and girls shivered.
“Who are you?”
The girl who had been bullying Cecilia turned around and looked at Lu Mo with hostility.
Relying on their numbers, she didn’t think Lu Mo was any threat. “Are we close? Do you think you’re someone special? Get the hell back — “
*Bang — *
In the next second, the wooden sword struck the girl’s face directly.
Her face caved in instantly. The sound of her nose breaking and her teeth cracking echoed, heard by everyone present.
“Ugh…”
The girl collapsed to the ground, clutching her face tightly, squirming on the grass like a maggot.
“It hurts… it hurts so much…”
“You actually dared to… hit me!”
The girl continued to groan.
The other boys and girls finally snapped out of it.
“This girl is trouble!”
“She’s here to pick a fight!”
“Everyone together! We can definitely beat her back!”
Thus, several figures rushed toward Lu Mo all at once, their holy power rippling out.
Squeals like those of a stuck pig began to ring out continuously.
— However, these screams did not belong to Lu Mo, but to those boys and girls.
In just a few minutes, the children who had rushed her were all lying on the ground in pain.
Some were wailing loudly, some were moaning, and some were playing dead.
“I’ll give you 3 minutes. Disappear from my sight,” Lu Mo said coldly.
The next second, the boys and girls dragged their aching bodies, stood up with great effort, and fled.
“Just you wait!”
“I’ll definitely be back!”
Some didn’t forget to throw out a few hollow threats. Following that, Wind Blades blasted forward, striking their backsides.
They jumped in pain and fled even faster.
Soon, their figures vanished from Lu Mo’s sight.
Lu Mo then walked toward Cecilia.
She crossed the wall and, for the first time, saw what Cecilia looked like up close.
The girl had long golden hair that was kept very neat and tidy, but for some reason, a single strand of hair always stuck up, swaying on top of her head.
She wore a pure white and gorgeous lace dress with white leather shoes. She looked delicate and beautiful, well-behaved and quiet.
But for some reason, Lu Mo felt that Cecilia lacked the innocence and naughtiness of others her age.
She was just like… a doll.
Cecilia looked up at Lu Mo, her eyes filled with confusion and a subconscious hint of panic.
Only now did Lu Mo feel that Cecilia wasn’t a doll, but a girl the same age as her.
“Are you okay?” Lu Mo asked. After thinking about it, she added one more thing. “You big dummy, Cecilia.”
“Miss… Miss Lu Mo?”
Cecilia stared blankly at the ‘bad child’ who had descended from the sky, chased everyone away, and stood before her against the light like a chaotic Great Demon King.
She recognized the other girl’s identity.
Hitting people and scolding people was wrong, wasn’t it?
But at this moment, Cecilia felt her trembling body and chaotic heart actually calm down.
She still didn’t understand what this emotion represented.
— It wouldn’t be until many years later that she finally understood. That emotion was a sense of security.