Shiya reached out and gently took Ilya’s hand.
“Let me take the helm, Ilya. I promised Yige’er I would take good care of you.”
Even if it meant Ilya would bear the curses of the Flower God villagers, and even if she herself would end up hating Shiya.
The girl had to do it anyway.
But what answered her was Ilya’s unwavering pale blue eyes.
The girl smiled at her and slowly pulled her hand back.
“I’m fine, Sister Shiya. You’re already too exhausted and have taken on too much.”
Even if she were called cold-blooded, Ilya couldn’t let her own weakness drag Sister Shiya down.
“So, Sister Shiya, please allow me to be a little greedy and ask for some compensation.”
The girl suddenly closed her eyes, leaned in, and under Shiya’s astonished gaze, lightly kissed the tip of her nose.
Returning that warmth along with her feelings to the other.
Then, without looking back, she focused on steering the alchemical ship.
Shiya covered her burning cheeks in disbelief, her pale golden eyes misting over.
‘How could a girl so much smaller than her just kiss her like that? Did she really look that easy to bully?’
On the island shore, the Flower God villagers looked at each other in bewilderment.
Their threats seemed to have no effect on the girls aboard that boat.
Only the fool with a knife at his neck stared at the departing Ilya, eyes gleaming as he giggled and clapped his hands.
“Mommy, Mommy~”
“Let her go,” said the burly man who had finally arrived, stepping out from the crowd.
He flexed his sinewy arms and cracked his neck, producing a series of clicks.
“We don’t need to take hostages to capture them.”
A thick red aura enveloped the burly man.
He plunged into the sea and approached at a speed far exceeding the alchemical ship, bursting out like a crimson shark.
Ilya raised her magitech machine gun again, the devouring belt of ammunition turning into an unceasing, raging tongue of fire.
But the red shark suddenly dove into the sea.
The explosive alchemical bullets merely stirred up futile ripples on the surface.
Shiya lunged for the helm, stomped down, and floored the throttle, trying to turn the boat to avoid the oncoming red shark.
But it was all too late.
Or rather, in the face of such an overwhelming disparity in strength, their fate had been sealed from the start.
splash
The waves surged, and the alchemical ship capsized completely.
Moments later, the burly man held the two girls by the napes of their necks, one in each hand, and dragged them to the shore.
Shiya, her hair completely soaked, clung tightly to the burly man’s wrist, scratching faint bloody marks with her nails.
“Ilya!”
Shiya refused to accept it.
The chance to escape that Yige’er had bought with his sacrifice, and Ilya’s future, had been utterly crushed by a laughable difference in power.
The burly man paid no attention to the girl’s resistance, his dark eyes fixed on the old village chief surrounded by the crowd.
The old man sighed.
“Let Ilya go. The god only needs one Flower God bride.”
The burly man retracted his fierce aura, respectfully acknowledged, then dropped Ilya onto the ground and lifted Shiya by the neck.
“Then I’ll take her to the dungeon.”
The old village chief did not respond.
Hunched over, he walked step by step to Ilya’s side, patted her head, and spoke with a pained voice.
“Little Ilya, don’t be so impulsive next time. Your brother was just as stubborn, and in the end, he angered the god and was cursed.”
Ilya coughed up seawater, raised her head, and her eyes no longer held their usual meekness.
“I don’t need Sister Shiya to take my place as some Flower God bride.”
The old village chief’s body stiffened.
He took a deep breath and glared at the defiant child.
“Tomorrow, I will bury Yige’er and Selanti together. You should come and see him for the last time.”
With that, the old village chief left with the crowd.
But that back seemed more like a hasty escape, avoiding Ilya’s gaze.
Ilya lowered her head and slumped on the muddy ground in defeat, not knowing what else she could do.
Her brother was dead, Sister Shiya was taken away.
Now she had no family or anyone trustworthy left.
It was as if, from the very start, their desperate resistance was nothing more than a ridiculous farce to the god in the sky.
Ilya sniffled and turned her gaze to the side.
“Brother Hai En, even you couldn’t escape the god’s curse.”
“Hehe, Mommy~ Mommy~”
The fool pointed excitedly at Ilya, muttering to himself, as if he found the girls’ failed escape highly amusing.
And just then, before Ilya could even react, a hand reached out from behind her.
It pressed a wet cloth firmly over her mouth and nose.
The girl slapped at the person’s arm in terror, but soon her consciousness faded into darkness.
By the next morning, Village Chief Edwin had not seen Ilya come to bid her brother a final farewell.
The old man lowered his head and looked at Yige’er, whose face was already cold and stiff.
It seemed that the older one got, the more their sighs increased with each passing day.
His calloused hand gently brushed the young man’s face—
A man who could have been his daughter’s husband.
“Don’t worry, Yige’er. I will take good care of your sister.”
Even if it meant doing something shameless—
Tricking another girl into replacing Ilya as the Flower God bride—
He didn’t care.
A steady male voice suddenly rang out behind the old village chief.
“Your kindness is moving, Village Chief Edwin.”
The old village chief paused, but his voice betrayed little emotion.
“Are you also here to see Yige’er for the last time? Fluite.”
At that, the burly man stepped out of the shadows and waved his hand in undisguised disgust.
“There’s nothing worth mourning about someone who defiled the god.”
“I came to tell you that a few more drowned baby girls were found in the river ditch recently.”
“This is also why fewer and fewer girls can be chosen as Flower God brides in the marriage ritual.”
The fanatical villagers seemed to have reached some unspoken agreement—they would not raise any baby girls.
Perhaps they saw them as financial burdens,
or perhaps it was the last twisted, numbed struggle of their conscience.
The old village chief changed the subject.
“Fluite, I heard your wife gave birth to another child these past few days.”
The burly man’s mood lifted considerably.
He raised his head.
“It’s a girl. I will raise her well, hoping she will be chosen by the god in the future and become the most perfect bride.”
Then he bowed respectfully to the old village chief, who still had his back to him.
“Just as you once personally offered up your own daughter—such piety toward the god is truly admirable.”
The old village chief finally couldn’t help but take a deep breath, clenching his fists.
He didn’t want to say another word to this man.
Even now, he didn’t know whether his daughter was alive or dead.
Even the burial with Yige’er now was only a cenotaph for Selanti.
“The Flower God has delivered a new oracle. We should go and listen to the god’s will.”
The old man, as if sensing something, spoke to the burly man in a flat tone.
He and Fluite were both servants of the Flower God, able to hear the god’s voice in their minds.
That was also why he had been able to confirm at a glance that Shiya was the god’s chosen next bride.
The two walked through a corridor lined with stained glass, then entered the main hall.
They prostrated themselves before a half-human-tall stone statue of the Flower God.
The stone statue depicted a handsome long-haired man, wearing a robe woven from many flowers.
Although the smile on the god’s face was gentle and benevolent, the play of light from the stained glass behind gave it a bone-chilling feeling, as if one were being watched by a venomous snake.
The old village chief pressed his forehead to the ground, not daring to be negligent, and reported in detail the arrangements for the upcoming marriage ritual and the offering of the bride.
The Flower God’s voice rang in his mind—
A murmur that couldn’t even be called language—
Yet it made the old chief acutely feel the god’s extraordinary excitement.
It was as if choosing Shiya as the bride was an unexpected delight for this entity, enough to make it lose its composure and nearly leap for joy.
To put it, it was like picking up an incredible surprise right under the nose of some great figure.
The oracle, not meant for mere mortals to pry into, continued to descend.
“I want the marriage ritual held immediately.”
“Understood, Lord God.”
The last shred of conscience still pricked at Village Chief Edwin’s heart, but he steeled himself and nodded.
“And also bring that girl with the chestnut short hair.”
The god’s oracle ended there, and the stone statue fell silent again.
But Village Chief Edwin suddenly stood up and shouted in disbelief:
“This isn’t the rule you’ve established for a thousand years! Wasn’t it only one Flower God bride each year?”
The burly man prostrate behind him frowned in displeasure, stretched out his leg, and kicked the back of the old chief’s knee.
“Don’t be rude to the god, Edwin.”
Village Chief Edwin stumbled to his knees, gritted his teeth, and began kowtowing repeatedly, begging the god to retract the oracle.
She was the younger sister Yige’er and Selanti had doted on the most.
He had already gone down this dark path, so why couldn’t he avoid little Ilya’s sacrifice?
Blood gradually spread across the floor, soaking into every crack in the church tiles.
But only the cold stone face of the Flower God answered him.
How could a god perched high above the clouds care about the feelings of livestock on the ground?
“Just offering one or two girls each year, and the god spares the Flower God villagers from punishment.”
“Even so, these common mortals still try to bargain. Indeed, human greed knows no bounds, doesn’t it?”
The burly man finally straightened up, looking down at the old man he had once revered so deeply.
“Too ugly, Village Chief Edwin. A man like you is unworthy to be a servant at the god’s side.”
Then, as if carrying a stray dog, he threw Village Chief Edwin out of the church door.
On the other side, Ilya gradually regained consciousness.
She instinctively sat up in bed and looked around the room—
Everything around her was unfamiliar.
Out of a girl’s instinct for self-preservation, she checked herself.
There were no abnormalities and no discomfort.
The girl couldn’t help but frown in thought.