[15]

The faint sounds of birds chirping and people passing by can be heard from inside the house. Stacks of books on the table, papers rustling with the warm breeze blowing through the window. It was a quiet morning where I, a princess of a kingdom, escaped in the morning to visit a house. Amazingly my shadow managed to do its job in place of my usual presence in the palace. 

 I leaned my back against the chair and tried to relax from all the stacks of books in front of me. My eyes fell on the person who had been lying quietly on the bed for a week. I fiddled with the quill in my hand and glanced at the white screen that was constantly hovering around me.

 [ Successfully archived story! ]

 [ Target's current recovery condition is 92% ]

 [ Good news in the morning! ]

 Since a few days ago, the system has been getting better and better. It can be said that it's pretty good for something that has always looked vibrant. But that's not what I want to think about right now. Perhaps I'll summarize the events of a week ago, about something that happened at night in Delfanto's orphanage.

The big creature I encountered back then was so tough, I almost defeated it before someone messed up. I was lucky that it was a dark night as I lured the creature into the forest. The interloper in the battle back then was someone who was captured by Kris and the royal soldiers to be brought to the royal court of law. I didn't recognize the man but when I asked Kris, he simply said something like this.

 "He was a scapegoat."

 "What do you mean?" I asked at the time.

 "I thank you for fighting that monster and asking me to come at fifty minutes past eleven that night."

 "You didn't answer my question. Did the king and queen punish that man?"

 "The owner of the Delfanto orphanage died before the court hearing, princess."

 "Did he commit suicide?"

"No, he didn't. This is black magic."

Black magic. Died just before the trial. The unfortunate thing was that there was no bright spot to this incident. Since the death of the orphanage owner, the king and queen decided to send knights and soldiers to search the Delfanto orphanage. The basement I was in at the time was not spared from the search. But the interesting thing was that all the picture frames there had been torn apart as if by something strong. And of course it did not leave the rest of the picture of the face shape of each child there.

After a series of searches and changing the ownership of the orphanage to be handled directly by the queen, the kingdom was troubled by the ins and outs of black magic itself. From the history books and monuments I saw and read, the emergence of black magic was not new news. This sounded like an old wound that seemed to be reopening. For this reason, the search began to be intensively carried out by the kingdom.

I wanted to ignore this, but my gut feeling told me that I would be dragged into this...

Out of all that, I got my hands on the pitch-black chunk of stone that I managed to get from prying the stone from the monster's forehead. The stone was quite large as it exceeded the size of my fist, but it was quite light and even floated on the water.

[ Name: Sin Stone ]

[ Uses: Strengthens weapons, Summons sins, Stores blood ]

If I'm being honest, the use of this stone is quite strange and unique. It stores blood. I tried it once and my blood simply absorbed into the stone as if it were a sponge. But I'm still skeptical about the invocation of sin. What was categorized as a sin on this black stone?

I put the stone back in and chose to look back at the papers in front of me. Until someone knocked on the door and I could see Kris coming in with several rolls of paper.

"Princess, the information you requested has been found," Kris said as he placed the scrolls on the table in front of me.

"Hm, thank you Kris. Are there any obstacles?" I asked.

"Nothing other than finding people who can be trusted with the authenticity of the information."

I unrolled the scroll and found a written report and a map. The map referred to the east of Angelise, a coastal region bordering the eastern kingdom. This was all the information of where brother Carl lived with his adoptive parents. I was quite surprised because the eastern region of Angelise was the farthest region from the capital or the palace. And my head began to wonder if the magic was still working at such a distance where a child would have to steal their adoptive parents' belongings.

"They are a family that is quite well known among some residents. They came to the capital to adopt a child. And the little boy was named-"

"Rain Mir Adalbern."

Kris paused for a moment and nodded.

"You're right. So what are you going to do next?"

I glanced at the person who was quietly sleeping. The fingers of the hand that looked stiff showed a slight movement there.

"Of course I have to visit the victim, don't I?" I asked.

I turned to ask Kris to prepare some hot tea to bring over. I stood up after Kris went out and walked slowly towards the bed. I could see the boy starting to open his eyes with his dim pupils.

[ Target recovery condition is currently 95% ]

[ Wait for the recovery to reach 100%! ]

You're getting noisier, system?

"Good morning, sleeping fairy," I greeted.

"Princess, Nana?" she murmured.

"Have you been having sweet dreams all week?"

Carl, the child shifted in his seat and held his head slightly.

"One week... ONE WEEK?!" 

"Wow! I didn't expect you to be surprised while yelling like this," I said with a chuckle.

"Wait, what happened? Did we get to the orphanage?"

"You don't remember?"

"All I remember is that we were about to get off and, all dark... what happened?"

So that's the extent of what she remembers, huh?

"Oh, it's all over. The palace has investigated the orphanage further," I replied casually as I accepted tea from Kris who had returned.

Kris excused herself for a moment after I asked her to go out for a while.

"The palace? You reported it to the king and queen?"

"Not me, but Kris. There's been suspicion from the start so you and I aren't involved here."

I handed a cup of the to Carl. The boy accepted it with visibly trembling hands.

"Are you worried?" I asked.

"No, it's just... Mm, so what happened?"

"The head of the orphanage died," I replied as I took another sip of tea.

Carl was silent, looking at me with a gaze that was hard to read.

"The orphanage children are safe, and the custody is now under the supervision of Her Majesty the Queen. So don't look at me like that," I said quickly.

"I see."

Is that so? Aren't you curious why the head of the orphanage died? Have you guessed the reason?

I placed my cup next to the white teapot with flower carvings. And refilled the cup with the tea that had run out.

To be honest this tea is very fresh, it's sweet and slightly bitter but fresh...

"That's why we need to visit someone in the eastern continent," I said.

"Eastern continent?"

"Yes, and we'll be leaving tonight."

"Don't say..."

I smiled as I saw the surprised expression shown by Carl.

"Don't forget to bring a bouquet of flowers."

In the evening, I was able to leave the palace around 10pm. Although I was quite bothered by Venus who kept whining about practicing until she fell asleep together. But of course, when that child was asleep, I took advantage of the time to get out of there quickly. And this is where I was when Lily lowered the altitude. From above I could see Kris standing in Carl's yard. By the time Lily was on the ground, I hadn't seen Carl yet.

"I sometimes wonder how you get in and out of the palace so easily," I asked Kris.

"I finished all my work quickly and rushed here because of your request, princess."

Still, this guy is the first person I suspect if there's going to be trouble later... But I trust his performance enough anyway...

"Will it be alright, princess?"

"What? I'll be back before breakfast starts," I replied casually.

"Traveling to the east of the continent at least takes less than a month by horse-drawn carriage. Even if you run on horseback all day, it takes two weeks to get there."

"Who says I'm going to run? I'll fly with her. It will only take five hours," I said as I extended my hand to Lily.

"Five hours?"

"That's if there are no air traffic obstructions," I joked.

The back door of the house opened and I could see Carl who was already wearing his black robe. 

"You need to cut your hair again," I taunted.

"I will, Nana."

I climbed on Lily's back with Carl following.

"Your safety to arrive and return safely is paramount, so please pay attention to that," Kris said.

"Take it easy uncle, I'll protect Nana," Carl replied.

"Uncle?" I said, stifling a laugh.

"Uncle Kris doesn't want to be called a teacher, just like you," Carl replied innocently.

"Oh please don't do that."

"I understand that feeling, princess."

"Please be quiet."

The pair of wide wings opened and took us flying high. Once, twice, and three times that powerful wide slash brought us lost among the clouds that were clumped together in the sky. Slowly, we flew steadily above the vast expanse of clouds below us. I glanced back briefly and found Carl who was closing his eyes tightly by hugging Lily's broad back tightly.

"Hey, look up," I pleaded.

"No thanks, it's an insane speed to open your eyes!" shouted Carl for fear of his voice not being heard.

"Haha! It's okay! Take a look first! Convince yourself."

I looked back up. Without even glancing back, I was sure that the boy was trying to peer at the sky above us. From the pitch black color up there were many colorful specks blinking at each other. Even though I had seen this many times before, the appearance of the two moons looking so close together gave me goosebumps because of its beauty.

"It's really beautiful isn't it?" I asked.

"You're right," Carl replied in a low voice that was still audible to me.

With two hand claps from me, Lily switched from straight flying mode to sharp downward swooping flying. Because that of course made Carl scream loudly. And as Lily spun in the air to increase her flying speed, I could feel that the child's grip was not strong. The flow of aura twisted and when Lily flew properly, I could no longer hold back my laughter because I saw Carl who seemed to want to spit out his guts.

"Please have a firm grip," I said between my laughter.

"Please don't do this again."

Lily re-established her flying position and flew as before. At this speed, we could reach the eastern part of the continent by half past three in the morning. At least we could make it back before sunrise if we were returning to the capital. The scenery in the east of the continent looked amazing where I could see the vast expanse of the sea. But before approaching the horizon where the sea was, we flew lower to get closer to a city that seemed to glow from above. 

"Are we there yet?" asked Carl.

I paused for a moment and involuntarily smiled.

"Yes, we're about to land."

The city was quite large, and Lily continued to fly towards the location I requested. That location was a little close to where the forest at the foot of the mountain was. But it could also be said that we were still far away from the mountain and the sea that I saw from above. Lily's wide pair of wings flapped slowly and lowered the two of us on a large expanse of grass. But it wasn't an empty patch of grass, but a tomb. A tomb in a vast expanse of grass.

"Here we are," I said.

Carl just looked at me confused for a moment before finally widening his gaze to the surroundings. I unrolled the scroll of paper that Kris had given me earlier. I glanced at Carl where the boy was walking around by himself and looking at the surrounding tombs. 

It should be around here, right?...

I looked up and snorted. 

"Your bond is so strong, isn't it?" I muttered.

Carl stared blankly at the stone nameplate on one of the tombs. There was still a wreath that seemed to have been laid yesterday afternoon. I could feel that the family left behind by this child lying in the ground must have felt a great sense of loss. Carl squatted down and touched the cold tombstone and slightly rubbed his palm there.

"Nana, I know this person," Carl said.

"Hm, can you introduce me?" I asked.

Carl seemed to sigh for a moment before taking out a bouquet of white flowers from his storage ring artifact. He placed the flowers gently next to the other flowers on the grave.

"We're not related by blood, but he's my precious brother," Carl said with a pause.

The boy turned to me and smiled warmly at me.

"His name was Rain Mir, Rain Mir Adalbern."

I squatted right next to Carl and touched the edge of the grave stone where the cold pierced my hand.

"Hello, I'm Valencia Esther Royaley. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I didn't want to look at Carl's downcast face at the moment. I just focused on the flow of aura around the tomb. But I could feel a slight sense of relief as there were no signs of aura anomalies from the events that happened earlier. 

[ Didn't detect any strange magic aura! ]

"Perhaps this is a very late meeting. But I don't regret being able to come here," I continued.

I turned to Carl who was also looking at me.

"Your brother is very happy with our visit. So we can visit him whenever we want."

"Right?" I asked for confirmation.

Carl with his dim eyes, closed his eyes for a moment. He looked back at the tombstone with someone's name on it.

"That's right, we can visit you anytime. You're happy and free now," Carl paused and turned to look at me.

"Right, Nana?" he asked.

I smiled with satisfaction and nodded. A gust of wind hit the back of my head where I found Lily walking over with a bite of a tree branch containing a fruit that looked like a peach. The white wolf placed the medium-sized branch on the edge of the grave in front of us and sat down quietly.

"Hey, where did you get this?" I asked in surprise.

Carl laughed with a satisfied look at the tree branch lying in front of him.

"How thoughtful of your friend!" said Carl happily.

"She's putting in unnecessary effort," I snapped.

Carl only replied with his laughter. Meanwhile, Lily was silent and wagging her tail. Before we knew it, dawn was breaking and we had to return to the capital city with a warm morning.

✼⊷♛⊶✼