“By the authority of the High Priest, I will lend you the ‘Mirror of the Mind.'”
The High Priest was about to give instructions to Lova, so I spoke up first.
“Ah, I’m not feeling well, so could you guide only Edmund to where the mirror is?”
Lova glanced at the High Priest with anxious eyes.
The High Priest nodded but hesitated as if reluctant to leave, shifting his feet before finally agreeing and leaving the room.
Edmund, too, seemed uneasy about leaving me alone with the High Priest. He remained seated, unmoving.
I firmly pushed his back.
“Don’t worry, okay? I won’t need to use ‘Purification.'”
Edmund’s expression twisted slightly.
“It’s not that…”
Not that?
He glanced at the High Priest warily and seemed even more serious.
“You like handsome men, don’t you?”
“…”
“…And even more so if they have a broad chest—”
“Just go already.”
Worried the High Priest might hear, I quickly shoved him toward the door.
With a bang, the door closed. I leaned against it and cast a glance behind me.
‘Where did he even hear such nonsense?’
It was something I would have to address eventually.
“Hoo…”
As I sighed and looked up, I met the amused gaze of the High Priest, who was laughing cheerfully.
His dark eyes curved elegantly as he spoke.
“You sent them away on purpose, didn’t you?”
“…You’re quite perceptive.”
I stepped away from the door and spoke.
“I believe it was inevitable that I woke you up.”
“Why do you think so?”
I shrugged nonchalantly.
“Instinct? Just as you felt a good energy from me, I felt the same from you. There must be a reason why you showed yourself only to me.”
The High Priest, who had been silently observing me, picked up a lantern from Lova’s desk and walked toward the door.
“I do not know why a monster has been living as a human. However, records that were not preserved in the Saint’s archive remain in the underground library. Most of them pertain to experiments on taming monsters.”
As expected, I smiled with satisfaction and looked at the High Priest.
He opened the door and passed by me with a determined gaze.
“Follow me. I, too, must uncover the origins of that monster.”
I pushed the closing door open and followed him.
The place the High Priest led me to was a dark underground chamber.
He ran his hand along the stone wall as we walked through the underground passage, stopping at a certain point.
Placing his hand on the wall and closing his eyes, a soft glow enveloped his fingers—a faint trace of divine power.
Boom!
With a deep rumble, the stone wall parted, and the vibrations spread from my feet to the top of my head.
The High Priest stepped inside, signaling me to follow.
Inside was a vast library filled with the musty scent of old paper and dust.
Like a library in a movie, bookshelves towered so high that ladders were needed to reach them, packed with an overwhelming amount of records.
In one corner, covered in dust, was a bookshelf that supposedly stored records unfit for the Saint’s archive.
“Let’s take a look here. We might find information about a monster that became human.”
The High Priest and I stood at opposite ends of the bookshelf, gradually closing the distance as we browsed.
Just as he had said, the books documented failed attempts to tame monsters—far from anything resembling achievements.
As I reached for the next book, my fingertips brushed against a deep indigo-bound volume on the lower shelf.
I pulled it out, almost entranced, and opened the cover.
[Leticia.]
The Imperial script was clumsily written, as if by someone just learning to write.
‘Leticia… Leticia… I’ve heard that name before.’
“High Priest, do you know a Leticia?”
The High Priest, in the middle of pulling out another book, flinched and turned to me in surprise.
His shaken gaze met mine before he spoke in a hushed voice.
“The last… Saint.”
“Ah.”
At that moment, the name and the portrait I had learned about in the temple resurfaced in my mind.
The High Priest naturally approached and peered at the book I was holding.
“This is Leticia’s record on the monster-taming experiments.”
“Did you ever meet her in person?”
The High Priest shook his head. He had been a student at the theological academy when she had met her end.
He then recounted the now-distant story of Leticia.
The last Saint, Leticia.
A village girl who became a Saint at the age of twelve.
Her parents were traveling merchants, and she had one sister and one younger brother.
She reunited with her family at twenty, only for them to be killed by a monster that had been part of a taming experiment. She pursued the monster and died young in the forest.
A tragic end for the last Saint.
The High Priest added that it was widely believed that God, deeply grieved by her death, had never sent another Saint since.
I stared at the book with pity.
‘Her parents were killed by a monster… Just like Edmund’s.’
I instinctively turned a page.
Then—
The book emitted a golden light and floated from my hands.
“What in the world…”
The pages, moving slowly at first, began flipping rapidly, stirring the air so fiercely that my hair whipped around.
As the book settled on its final page and gently descended into my hands, the High Priest and I could do nothing but stare in astonishment.
A strange tension made my hands tremble as I gripped the book.
Encouraged by the High Priest’s resolute nod, I began to read the first sentence on the last page.
[I will be cursed.]
The ominous words nearly made me drop the book.
I swallowed dryly and slowly began reading the rest.
It was an autobiographical story.
When Leticia was fifteen, she began a reformation experiment with a baby monster.
After several failures, she was finally able to communicate with a single purification stone.
The monster started eating human food, sleeping, speaking, and admiring humans.
Despite the priests’ objections, Leticia secretly released the monster.
In the year she turned sixteen, they became best friends. He was her only joy in a lifeless world—both a friend and family.
Then, when she turned twenty, she reunited with her parents…
Huh?
The letters slowly began to shimmer with a golden light. My vision turned blurry, and I rubbed my eyes, but the letters broke apart and scattered.
Suddenly, a sharp headache made me close my eyes tightly, and when I opened them again, my vision spun.
“Ah!”
My legs gave out, and I lost my balance.
“Lady Etricia…!”
The High Priest reached out for me urgently, but his image began to tilt.
Thud.
As I collapsed, my consciousness was instantly pulled into that place.
When I opened my eyes, everything around me was dark.
It felt like I was trapped somewhere, but at the same time, it felt different.
There was no clear line between the floor and the ceiling, and I couldn’t even hear the wind.
If only I could see something.
Just as my heartbeat quickened from the anxiety of this strange experience—
A small white light appeared before my eyes, and it grew brighter and brighter until it swallowed me.
“Ugh.”
I covered my eyes and closed them, unable to handle the overwhelming light.
Soon, as the light faded, I carefully opened my eyes and saw a girl lying on a cozy bed.
She was cheerfully talking to something in her hand, stomping her feet in excitement, or reading it a fairy tale.
Then the girl held the object, sat up, and turned toward me—and I gasped.
A girl with blonde hair and violet eyes, the same one I’d seen countless times in portraits from the Holy Book.
The girl was Leticia.
She didn’t seem to see me standing by the wall. She whispered to the purification stone.
“If I succeed in reforming monsters, maybe one day there will be a world where no one fights and no one dies. Then I can return to my family too.”
Leticia then kissed the purification stone.
You are our hope. As those stretched-out words echoed like rubber, the scene instantly changed.
A small creature, like a black-scaled lizard, sat on the saintess’s bed.
Leticia gently opened the door and left, telling it to stay quiet and not get caught by the priests until she returned.
The monster glanced her way once and then looked away. It didn’t seem to notice me standing there.
I also watched it blankly, as if just observing a scene.
Because it was such an unreal situation and they couldn’t see me, my senses dulled and my emotions faded.
In front of the monster were piles of enchanting fairy tale books and magical texts meant to stir a child’s imagination.
It seemed to have read them all—knocking each one off the bed and onto the floor with its hand. The monster spent a long time reading the last book.
It was a fantasy story about a legendary dragon falling in love with a human, turning into a human through ancient magic, and starting a family—an exotic myth turned into a fairy tale.
The monster looked completely entranced.
Green drool dripped from between its thick, dark lips.
It opened its mouth as if trying to speak, and wheezing breaths came out.
“Hu… hu… man… human…”
The words it finally spoke were slurred and messy.
“Fa… fa… mily…”
Its red eyes began to shine more clearly, like a moon with the haze cleared.
The monster kept its eyes fixed on that page until the sun went down.
The temple’s courtyard.
I stood behind a building and watched Leticia smiling brightly as she placed a flower crown on someone’s head.
They can’t see me.
I stepped out from the corner and looked at them more closely.
The one wearing the flower crown was a monster—twice as large as the one I’d seen in the Buell territory cave.
This was clearly the time when sixteen-year-old Leticia became friends with a monster.
Leticia excitedly talked about her family. She said her mother’s hair was as soft as silk from the East, her father’s voice was deep and strong, and though her older sister wasn’t prettier than her, she was still very beautiful.
For some reason, the monster’s red eyes sparkled with joy as it listened.
Finally, just as Leticia began to talk about her younger sibling, the monster whispered something.
Leticia’s eyes widened in surprise, and her eyelashes trembled.
