On Solmara, in the newly occupied region of the wrath domain that birthed the budding territory of the youngest lord, Ashen Hart, a new department was developed.
The inquisition department.
The building lay a few meters away from the small church that the people built to honor the Saintess and thank her for revitalizing the land.
Inside, Hans, the head of the inquisition team, stood with his head bowed, reporting solemnly to the two women before him.
"Captain Hans, I assume your venture was successful?" The blonde woman with pink streaks initiated the conversation, noticing the man's growing nervousness.
"...Yes, Saintess. We have apprehended five confirmed cultists in today's hunt. Those elusive madmen seem to be easily caught after following your instructions, and Lady Evernight."
The second woman, Lucia, who sat on the reclined sofa with Seraphine, nodded.
"As I've taught you, you just have to consider them rats. And what are rats famous for?"
"Multiplying and hiding," he turned to the other woman and answered seriously.
"Exactly." She nodded in satisfaction and added, "They are also responsible for the propagation of diseases, they are ugly, and refuse extinction."
"cultists are the same. You can consider them rats in human guise." She faintly smiled, "All that remains is to use that logic to hunt them down."
"...But my lady, today we have caught a young woman with a baby. She says that she was forced to join the cult."
Instead of Lucia, it was Seraphine who took over now, "Oh, Hans! Poor me, it seems that the last few weeks of training really have gone to waste."
The man appeared to shrink further into himself at her exaggerated dramatics, which was probably why she was doing this in the first place.
"How many times did I tell you. A cultist is a cultist. There's no in-between. Being forced is the first and oldest excuse they'll use to wiggle their way out."
She made a fist and waved it around. The gesture was almost cute, if not for the content leaving her mouth.
"When dealing with cultists, just kill them, then ask questions never! They are a scourge of earth and are no different from the monsters we slay to protect our lands!"
She looked at him right in the eye, and Hans had to lower his face again from the intensity of her gaze. "I'm sure you have also tasted their malevolence at least once in your life as well, Hans. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here standing before me."
He almost hallucinated that her pupils morphed into butterfly shapes for a fleeting moment.
Thankfully, Seraphine's vigor retreated as fast as it came, and she reverted to her sunny Saintess look. "Oh, of course, you should leave some alive for interrogation! We don't want to lose our leads, after all, don't we?"
"Yes, my ladies, I understand. I apologize for misspeaking. It won't happen again."
The two sitting women nodded, Seraphine with apparently more satisfaction, "As long as you understand. Dismissed."
With that, he bowed one last time and left.
And the moment he did, Lucia turned to her newest friend, who was also a 'sister' in a sense, and asked, "You've been unusually harsh these past few days."
The blonde tilted her head, "That was harsh?"
"Not particularly, but coming from the ever-optimistic, cheerful Saintess, it was plenty harsh."
Seraphine froze for a moment, then realized that she might've been right, let a deep sigh while muttering, "You may have a point…"
"Is it due to his absence?" Lucia asked with a knowing smile, "...Or something else?"
"Heh, you really are like his little puppy. The moment you think he is in pain, you start fretting." And just like that, she casually revealed the reason why Seraphine's mood was so low enough for her to lash out at her subordinate.
The latter didn't mind being called a puppy to her lover, though, in fact, it didn't even register as an insult in her head.
That doesn't mean that she'd let this so-called 'sister' of hers act all smug, though.
"What about you? Do you think I don't know how many times you tried to sneak into his training grounds only to be stopped by Mr. Edward?"
Now it was Lucia's time to freeze.
"...I was driven by curiosity."
"Yeah, right." Seraphine rolled her eyes at her, then, with a smirk and an obscene gesture of her fingers, she added, "It's totally not because you are hungry for that massive cock, right? Didn't he give you the dicking of your life before he left?"
With an exaggerated motion, she put her hand on her forehead and looked at her with wronged eyes. "I could hear your moaning all the way to my room, you know? The way he made you scream like a bitch in heat… I wonder what kind of face you made back then… certainly, not the smug one you currently have." She finished with a smug look of her own.
Lucia didn't get flustered at being called out. So what if she was caught sneaking around? So what if she was heard while having the best time of her life?
She was just trying to visit her lover, and even if the objective was just to get pounded, it still didn't arouse any shame in her. It was her right after all.
As for being overheard, the one who did the overhearing was none other than a fellow 'harem member,' so she didn't mind.
But this was this, and that was that, and she got to teach the minx a lesson in manners.
"I wonder what Ashen would think if he ever heard those vulgar words leave that sweet, innocent little mouth of yours." Her look turned disdainful, "You two-faced bitch."
Seraphine didn't back down, "Look who's talking! You many, many! Faced bitch!"
Then, she added in an exaggeratedly aggravated look, "and I'm sure Ashen would find me cute no matter what I say, Hmph!"
"Oh yeah? Then why don't you speak that way in his presence?" Lucia arched her brows challengingly.
"It's because I'm shy! That's for real, actually…"
Lucia fell silent at that. As a professional manipulator and liar, spotting lies was as easy as breathing for her; that was why she didn't continue with the teasing.
…Because Seraphine, against all odds, really seemed to be shy in his presence.
She eventually shrugged, "Well, as long as you remain sincere, there doesn't seem to be a problem. And it's not like I don't like your more unhinged side. It's a breath of fresh air to be honest."
Seraphine blinked, then smiled brightly, "Oh, thank you." Sticking her tongue, she added, "I also don't dislike your wanton behavior."
"I'm glad to hear that." Lucia deadpanned.
"..."
"..."
"Pfft."
The two looked at each other in silence before Seraphine buckled first and let a little snicker under Lucia's amused expression.
She had never imagined that she, the con artist who used to regard everything too precious to replace as trash, would gain two new friends whom she would come to consider as real sisters.
'The world works in strange ways sometimes… and it's all thanks to you, my most precious one.'
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'Endure.'
'Endure.'
'Endure.'
The words kept echoing in his head for years now; they were permanently etched deep within his consciousness.
'Endure.'
'Endure.'
'Endure.'
Whenever he was about to falter, the chant seemed to keep him holding for a moment long enough for him to gather his bearings.
'Endure.'
'Endure.'
'Endure.'
In the end, the word evolved into a mantra that refused to leave the back of his head. Even as he closed his eyes now and didn't deliberately say the word in his head, he could still hear it unceasingly repeat on its own.
'Endure.'
It was as relentless as it was endless. Even when he despaired, he could hear it; when he became numb, he would hear it. And when he accepted his fate, he heard it all the same.
It was the theme of his life, as well as its meaning.
Now, as he manipulated mana in ways anyone would find inconceivable to fight meaninglessness, the word never left him.
Breathe—
He inhaled, and the breath rolled in a rough gust as it stirred the air. The same air that was gaining a bluer color from the concentration of unrefined mana.
His refined mana moved in tandem to reinforce his enraging chest that was trying to accommodate the excess entering mana and oxygen, reinforcing it and making it more flexible.
After discovering the miracles that could arise from sustaining a single intent over time, Ashen decided to obviously keep doing it.
The first thing he did was change states to his mana technique. Each state absorbed mana at different rates, with the last breath being an example of the state that allowed him to absorb the most mana in the least amount of time.
But its downsides were that he would be rendered immobile since he had to engage most of his upper muscles and refined mana to deal with the influx of energy.
But this was meant to be used when he was in a safe environment where he could sit undisturbed either way.
The other states, while they regenerated less mana, allowed him to move along and even fight when he employed the state that was opposite to the full recovery one.
'Regenerating mana while I fight… what genius I am…' He absentmindedly congratulated himself with a round of self-praise before moving to the next thing.
He had to move on; if not, that dreadful feeling of hollowness would eventually catch up to him and make his life miserable.
'Let's try that.' An idea that seemed to always be dancing at the edge of his thoughts came back to him.
He wanted to make it true, but time and the lack of mana had halted his desire. Now he had the former to compensate for the latter, so he decided to do it.
Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he let the billions of thin mana threads propagate every part of his body, but instead of physical reinforcement, he did something else.
{Activated Path Skill: Somatic Autonomy}
The next step was naturally infusing his intent, and the intention he fused with his will was simple and fantastical at once.
Let my body become pleasant to mana.
To find something pleasant, one would have to possess a minimum amount of awareness. But mana was simply energy; how could it have something so strange?
Well, since the day he reunited with his uncle Dorian, Ashen didn't think it was so strange anymore.
That man had casually revealed that his concepts seemed to be alive. But in Ashen's head, concepts on their own are merely dead laws, ideas, and understanding of phenomena.
Without mana, they lose most of their supernatural power.
So, in other words, mana gave Dorian's concepts life.
Seeing how the unrefined and even his own refined mana reacted to his prolonged intent, Ashen was even more sure of his conjecture.
So, what would happen if he made his body more friendly to this awareness…?
The answer would depend on Somatic Autonomy now.
Normally, the more you know about the process of what you want, the less effort and energy the skill would take to execute the task. Having less would make it harder, but it could be done all the same.
Though you had to have something. A starting point of sorts, one that the skill could start from. Ashen, of course, didn't understand the first thing about what he was attempting, but it also couldn't be said that he had zero knowledge.
At least, his current conjecture seemed to be enough for the skill to start working toward the goal he had set.
It was just that, the measure of waiting for results to show would be in units of years…
'But when did I lack time in this godforsaken situation…?'
He could wait. Ultimately, it wouldn't be meaningless. And in the meantime, all he had to do was…
'Endure.'