Seti thought about the Saintess.

A girl supposedly favored by the gods, yet lacking any grace befitting that title. She was naïve enough to beam at the word "friend," wore an ill-fitting eyepatch to cover her eyes, and radiated a foolish charm… the girl monopolizing divine love.

Seti couldn’t bring herself to like her.

It wasn’t anger or hatred—those were feelings she reserved solely for the Korean government.

Then was it jealousy? No, it wasn’t even that. If she truly envied the Saintess, she would have had no qualms about exploiting her kindness.

It was simply… that she couldn’t like her. Yes, that was the most accurate description.

The Saintess would be heartbroken if she knew, but that was just how emotions worked.

No matter how rational one tried to be, emotions moved freely, igniting unintended flames within the heart.

‘…How petty.’

As she followed the footsteps of the invisible Saintess across the academy grounds, Seti criticized herself.

No one knew better than Seti herself; her feelings toward the Saintess were nothing but childish resentment.

The Saintess was not responsible for Seti’s misfortune.

Even if she had triggered certain events, those were things that would have happened eventually.

The Saintess had fought Seti fairly to prove their friendship. She was strong, and Seti had lost. That was all there was to it.

There had been no malice, no ill will.

It was simply that Seti’s circumstances were not normal.

It wasn’t the Saintess’s fault that the Korean government had forced her and her sisters into certain “tasks” after they failed to meet expectations at Olympia.

Nor was it the Saintess’s fault that the gods, disapproving of her filthy heritage, had stripped her of all blessings.

No, none of that was the Saintess’s fault. She knew this, logically.

…Just as she completed this mental inventory, the footsteps she’d been following abruptly stopped.

Since she had no way to track the Saintess under her invisibility cloak, Seti stopped right where the sound had ceased.

The back entrance to the first-year girls' dormitory.

“…Class isn’t over yet.”

She crossed her arms, eyeing the locked door.

If it were somewhere else, she might think the Saintess had fled, trying to escape quietly. But there was no way she would’ve come all the way here just for that.

“Hey.”

There was no response, but Seti was confident that the Saintess was watching her from nearby.

“…I’m heading to my room now. If you want to talk… feel free to follow me.”

With that, Seti entered the dorm.

Though class hadn’t officially ended, the temporary attendance policy meant that many students were already back in their rooms.

Seti passed by the quiet first-floor lobby, where a few students were chatting in hushed voices, and made her way upstairs.

Unlike the boys’ dorm, where rooms were fought over in crude brawls, the girls’ dorm had no such tradition, so her room was quite ordinary.

Fifth floor, far right.

Click.

She entered her room, leaving the door open, and waited.

She waited long enough to drink a cup of tea. Then, with no further signs of life, she closed the door and extended her hand into the air.

Her fingers brushed against the thin fabric of the cloak, and with a gentle pull, the invisible Saintess emerged.

Her white hair was in disarray, her eyepatch was damp, and her hands were clasped tightly as if in prayer.

Seti studied her quietly and finally asked, “Are you okay?”

…She wasn’t okay.

“Why did you do it?”

The words trembled out of her, the Saintess’s voice barely a whisper. She looked shattered.

“…You deceived me.”

“Excuse me?”

“I trusted you. I thought you two were my friends…”

“What are you talking about?”

“I saw it! That day, on the rooftop! I saw the two of you together!”

The rooftop? Realization dawned on Seti, her body tensing as she understood what the Saintess was referring to.

“You two looked so close. So close that I couldn’t believe you’d only met here at the academy.”

“….”

“Why… why didn’t you tell me? Were you afraid I’d get in the way? So you pretended not to know?”

As the Saintess’s voice rose, Seti’s heart sank, growing colder.

How much had she overheard? Did she catch the part about revenge? No, they hadn’t been that obvious…

Before Seti’s mind could spiral further, the Saintess blurted out something that took her completely off guard.

“How far… how far did you and Yeomyeong go?”

“…What?”

“Did… did you go all the way?”

All the way? Did she mean… what I think she means?

Seti stared at her, dumbfounded. The Saintess’s face turned beet red as she continued, shouting in a flustered voice.

“Did Yeomyeong leave his footprints in the snowy field of your pure heart?!”

Oh. So that is what she meant.

Seti was rendered speechless. And in the silence, the Saintess interpreted her reaction as an answer and began to cry.

Her hands trembled, her eyepatch grew damp again, her cheeks flushed like ripe apples, and her lips quivered as tears trickled down her face.

Her sniffles quickly turned into full-blown sobs.

“S-Seti…!”

 

After crying for a while, the Saintess finally collapsed onto Seti.

Seti didn’t push her away; instead, she held her gently and patted her back in silence, comforting her the way she did with her younger sisters.

While her body moved instinctively, her mind still hadn’t caught up with the bizarre situation.

…What on earth is wrong with her?

She racked her brain, searching for an answer, while the Saintess buried her face in Seti’s chest, weeping and smearing tears and snot all over.

Eventually, the Saintess looked up, sniffling, and asked cautiously, “Seti… did you forget… our promise?”

…Promise? What promise?

“You know… when I become a full-fledged priestess… we’d live together in the Holy Land…”

Oh. Seti finally remembered the promise they’d made during their middle school days at Olympia.

“When I become a priestess, we’ll live together in the Holy Land.”

A promise she’d made back when she still dreamed of escaping from Korea, a naïve little girl grasping at a sliver of hope.

Seti, who had thrown those words around lightly, had long forgotten them. But the Saintess… she’d held onto it.

Is that why she was crying so bitterly, fearing she could no longer be a priestess if she lost her purity?

Seti found the misunderstanding endearing… no, touching. She smiled faintly without realizing it.

Gently, she stroked the Saintess’s back.

“…I’m sorry, but I can’t become a priestess anymore.”

Half-truth and half-lie. She truly couldn’t become a priestess, though not for the reason the Saintess assumed.

“Seti…”

“But I didn’t entirely break our promise, did I? We can still live in the Holy Land, even if I’m not a priestess.”

“….”

The Saintess immediately lowered her head, as if on the verge of tears again.

…If she isn’t a priestess, she can’t enter the High Temple.

She swallowed the words that nearly escaped her lips.

Would she be left waiting there alone again? Stuck in a place where they might only meet once a week, or even once a month?

That wasn’t the future she’d dreamed of.

She wanted to share her days with Seti. To talk, pray, and sometimes even fall asleep together.

Like the previous Saintess, she didn’t want a life spent waiting for occasional visits from a distant friend.

As her thoughts drifted, a man’s face appeared in her mind.

Yeomyeong.

Her second friend and the man who had supposedly trampled the snowy field of Seti’s heart.

She didn’t know why, but the thought of him ignited a small flame in her chest.

It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling that no one had explained to her before.

The more she thought about Yeomyeong, the more that fire grew, burning fiercer within her.

From their worst possible first meeting to fighting alongside him against the dragon to save Manju, joining him at the academy, slapping him in the shelter, and even…

Even waking up by his side.

As she recalled these memories, her feelings intensified, becoming something she could no longer ignore.

Was this anger? Or jealousy? Or… something else entirely?

“…Seti, what should I do?”

Finally, unable to contain her feelings, the Saintess spoke.

“Hm? What’s wrong? Is it about the promise…?”

“No, that’s not it. It’s… I think… I think I might… like Yeomyeong.”

“…Like Yeomyeong?”

“I… I think I feel… something special for him.”

The moment she confessed, Seti’s expression froze, her face growing colder than ever before.

Facing that unfamiliar, icy expression, the Saintess finally realized what she had said.

“Seti… wait, that’s not what I meant—”

Before she could explain further, Seti pushed her away.

“…Saintess, do you know something?”

Her voice was low and cold, devoid of its usual warmth. The Saintess looked at her with a quivering lip.

“Se-Seti, why are you talking formally? Don’t do this…”

“The truth is, Yeomyeong and I are nothing to each other.”

“…What?”

“At least, not yet.”

The Saintess’s mouth dropped open.

“Wait… then, what about the snowy field?”

“…Who knows? Think whatever you like, Saintess.”

The Saintess tried to ask more, but Seti abruptly picked her up and tossed her out of the room.

“Hold on, Seti—!”

Before she could protest, Seti threw the invisible cloak after her and slammed the door shut.

Bang!

The Saintess stared at the closed door in shock, slowly realizing what she had just done.

“…What… what did I just do?”

With a crimson face, she looked down, mortified.

Meanwhile, an elven girl who had been lurking in the hallway took a cautious step back, not wanting to be noticed.