Chapter 63: You Are My Only Light

“Elia? What’s wrong?” Kiz asked, puzzled.

Elia didn’t answer her, just stared fixedly at the container.

Kiz followed her gaze and froze too.

“This is…”

Elia slowly walked towards the container.

And every step she took felt heavy.

When she reached it, she gently touched the glass wall and whispered, “This… why does this child look exactly like me…”

Kiz, standing to the side, carefully examined the child and said, “It looks like a clone… that’s a technique the Holy Grail Order is skilled at.”

So, the children in those memory fragments were all her… or rather, all her clones.

Elia felt as if her heart were being pierced by a knife.

At that moment, she suddenly remembered what was written in that diary: “They said we would become very powerful.”

And then? So what? What did they become?

Where did all those children who supposedly “became powerful” end up?

Elia closed her eyes.

She didn’t dare to think about it…

Suddenly, the child inside the container opened its eyes.

This made Elia take a sharp step back, but the child was merely looking at Elia… just looking.

And those eyes were blue, the exact same color as Elia’s.

Then, the child opened its mouth and whispered, “You… finally came…”

“You… know me?” Elia’s eyes widened.

The child’s lips curved into a slight smile and said, “We are all you… the you who was abandoned… the you who was forgotten… the you who was sacrificed…”

As it spoke, its body inexplicably began to glow.

Elia instinctively reached out to grab it, but her hand passed through the light, catching nothing.

The child dissipated into countless points of light right before her eyes.

All that remained was one last sentence: “Beware… the shadow…”

Everything fell into silence.

“Elia… are you, are you okay?” Kiz asked with concern.

Elia turned her head, and her eyes were clearly glistening with tears.

“She, she was also me… those children… were all me…”

Her voice trembled uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Kiz quickly pulled her into a hug and gently patted her back, comforting her, “I know… I know… it’s okay…”

Elia buried her face in Kiz’s shoulder, her body trembling slightly.

But this time, she didn’t cry out loud.

She just let the tears flow quietly.

Elia had to muster all her strength to force herself to calm down.

Really… she was now almost certain… her memories had definitely been tampered with, and her true past was being one of these bastards’ test subjects.

And her status as the Saint was obtained through a cruel elimination system.

What puzzled her, though, was that she was a transmigrator who had taken over the original owner “Elia’s” body, so why did she have such intense emotional fluctuations about this situation… Could it be that the original owner’s will or something was still influencing her?

However, she didn’t have even a few seconds to dwell on it.

Because after the child in the crystal container dissipated, the entire underground space seemed to lose some kind of support and began to tremble slightly.

“It’s going to collapse! Let’s go! Teleport!” Seeing this, Kiz quickly grabbed Elia beside her, and the two were instantly surrounded by a swarm of bats and disappeared from the spot.

The moment the two teleported out of the temple, the building behind them collapsed with a thunderous roar.

At the same time, the guards rushed towards them.

“Your Highness! Saint! Are you alright?” the Captain of the Guards asked worriedly.

Kiz waved her hand and said, “We’re fine.”

It was Elia who wasn’t fine…

So, she turned to look at Elia. Her face was now covered in dust, her eyes were red, but her expression had calmed down.

“Let’s go back… we’ll talk back at home.” Elia said softly.

“Okay, let’s go home.” Kiz nodded. “Everything will be better once we’re home…”

Leaning against the window, Elia watched the ruins gradually recede into the distance.

Kiz, sitting beside her, quietly held her hand without saying a word.

After a long time, Elia finally spoke. “Kiz… that child said ‘beware the shadow’… what do you think it meant?”

Kiz thought carefully and said, “It might be some kind of warning. Like danger is hidden in the shadows, or… someone is watching us from the shadows.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know, but for that child to use its last bit of strength to say that, it definitely can’t be anything simple.”

“Mhm… we’ll just take it one step at a time… at least I have you with me.” Elia sighed, then showed her classic, cheeky grin again.

Seeing this, Kiz also smiled with relief. “Mhm.”

It seemed Elia had adjusted! But still… she couldn’t understand… was Elia’s negative emotion back then born from sympathy for those test subjects? Or… from a sense of guilt?

By nightfall, the group had set up camp by the edge of a forest.

The guards sat around the fire, chatting quietly, while Kiz and Elia sat a bit further away, admiring the Starlight above.

“There are so many stars tonight… and so beautiful…” Elia murmured.

“Mhm, the night sky in the Northern Territory has always been beautiful.”

“Hey Kiz, do you think there are people on those stars?”

This question made Kiz pause. “Huh? What kind of people?”

“People like us… with their own countries… their own histories and… their own lives.”

Perhaps, on some star in this night sky, there really was that blue planet from her previous life… just kidding.

“Maybe. This world is vast, there might really be.”

“If there really are, would they be watching the two of us too?”

“Oh? So, you’re saying they really like eating Dog Food?”

“Ah, this… okay, whatever you say, Little Princess Kiz.”

After that, the two quietly watched the stars for a while.

Then, Kiz suddenly asked that question. “Elia, today in the temple, when you saw those… what exactly did you feel?”

She had thought about it for a long time but couldn’t figure it out, so she might as well ask the person herself.

Hearing this, Elia was silent for a few seconds before answering. “It’s complicated… sadness, anger, confusion… and of course, a bit of fear.”

“Mhm? Fear of what?”

“Of what I really am… I am Elia, the Saint. But those children… those clones… they are also me. Their pain, their deaths… perhaps are also my pain and death.”

Elia uttered these words as if possessed.

“I don’t know if a me like this can still be considered a complete person.”

At that moment, Kiz reached out and cupped Elia’s face. “Elia, listen to me. No matter who you are, no matter what your past is… you are the person I love! The person I want to protect! The person who belongs to me!”

Her gaze was serious, though mixed with a hint of something twisted.

“That pain, that past, they don’t define who you are! Only you yourself can define who you are! Understand?”

Elia’s eyes reddened again from her words.

“Kiz…”

“And! Even if you feel incomplete, it’s okay. Because…”

She leaned closer to Elia, pressing her forehead against hers.

“I will spend my whole life helping you fill those gaps, don’t worry.”

At that, Elia’s tears finally fell.

But this time, they were tears of happiness.

“Thank you…” she whispered.

“No need to thank me~ Because, you are my light… the only light I can see in this darkness…”

For the rest of the time, the two held each other… neither of them drank the other’s blood, nor touched any places they shouldn’t.

And the guards had long since tactfully turned their backs, pretending not to see.