Chapter 455: Stars

“Finally done.”

At the desk, Liya, who had at last finished all of today’s work, stretched languidly.

The fitted dress traced her perfect slender waist; the magnificence on her chest seemed about to break free and surge forth. Unfortunately, there was no one else in the quiet room, and thus no one to appreciate this captivating figure.

The wall clock’s hands were about to point to nine; the deep night had shrouded the entire Holy City.

The Saintess’s duties were even busier than Liya had imagined, especially in these first days after taking office. Many tasks still required her to hand over and learn them in turn; today’s conference and the reception of all parties at all levels were nothing more than a snapshot of her life to come.

The newly appointed Saintess Liya Angel was still constantly learning and improving.

“Muen... what is he doing now?”

With work over, Liya couldn’t help thinking yet again of that bad man she hadn’t seen for only half a day.

Thinking of his face, thinking of his eyes, thinking of his handsome smile, thinking of his solid chest and...

“No, no, I’m the Saintess. How can I let my thoughts run wild like that?”

With cheeks slightly flushed, Liya cut off her dangerous train of thought.

But her fingers still, without meaning to, brushed over her plump, tender body.

In front of others, she was the holy and pure Saintess. Yet who would know... that after tasting the marrow and remembering the flavor, she did indeed harbor a certain craving for that sort of thing?

But she would never admit to lewdness or anything like that. This was merely attachment to her beloved, definitely without any evil thoughts mixed in. Besides, that Senior Anna’s openness in bed was in no way inferior to her own.

Quite a few moves of hers were learned from that very person!

“Speaking of Senior Anna... Muen has been nowhere to be seen all afternoon. Don’t tell me he’s off cuddling and cooing with Senior Anna!”

The moment she pictured, while she was toiling away at work, that bad man and Senior Anna doing this and that, murmuring sweet nothings, Liya puffed out her cheeks in a huff, a feeling of being cuckolded rising unbidden.

Clearly I was first... no, wait, it seems Senior Anna was first...

But that won’t do. Daytime is one thing—at least at night...

Liya slapped the desk and was about to get up and drag a certain scumbag back, but as she lifted her head, she suddenly glimpsed a few points of light flickering outside the window, like fireflies.

“At this season, there shouldn’t be fireflies yet.”

Liya’s willow brows knit; she assumed it was someone’s prank.

But in the entire Church, who would dare pull any prank in front of the Saintess’s window?

Unless...

As if she had figured something out, Liya’s brows instantly relaxed. She pushed the window open and looked out.

A dozen # Nоvеlight # clear, bright points of light flickered and shifted before her window, like stars fallen from the sky.

Liya blinked. She saw those lights flashing with remarkable regularity—at one moment forming letters, at another forming a horizontal stroke, then arranging into a smiling face, then into a crying face.

The comical expressions made Liya smile despite herself, while also showing, without exception, the manipulator’s exquisite control of magic and familiarity with this little spell.

In the end, those points of light lined up into an arrow pointing toward some direction in the night.

“Honestly, you just love playing these inexplicable little tricks.”

Liya’s tone was scolding, but her crystal-like eyes were full of laughter.

Like a little girl encountering something novel, she hopped down from the chair at once, cast aside the Saintess airs she had maintained all day, and with light steps walked out of the room.

She was going to where the arrow pointed.

Outside the door, Lin—as usual—was silently standing guard. Seeing Liya come out in a cheerful mood, she let out a helpless sigh.

“Your Highness, all idle individuals have been temporarily cleared away.”

“Thank you, Lin.”

Liya was not surprised by Lin’s response. Before playing this little set-up, that bad man had probably already made all the arrangements.

“No need to thank me. It’s what I should do.”

Lin shook her already salted-fish eyes.

Her feelings were complicated now. After witnessing the complicated relationship among Her Highness the Saintess, Muen, and the lady named Anna, and after several attempts to straighten it out only to find the more she tried the messier it got, Lin had given up thinking about their affairs altogether.

Forget it. Let the world burn. Do what you like, play how you like.

I’m just a tool who serves Her Highness the Saintess anyway.

“Have a pleasant night, Your Highness.”

“Mm, I will.”

Liya nodded lightly, smiling as she bid Lin farewell.

Then, unable to wait, she stepped into the dimly lit corridor.

As if fearing someone might notice the Saintess running about at night, the place Liya was headed for had already, under the pretext of maintenance, extinguished all the luminous magic stones.

Only a few candles that barely let her make out the path flickered stubbornly.

Beyond the corridor, the lights outside the window stayed a few paces ahead of Liya, neither hurried nor slow. Following them through lefts and rights, she finally reached a secluded spot and pushed open a small door in a corner.

Fresh outdoor air rushed her face; a faint floral scent curled at her nose. Through the scattered, resplendent starlight on the vault of the sky, Liya could just make out the Sacred Grove’s gentle silhouette in the night.

The points of light once more gathered into an arrow before Liya, pointing toward the depths of the Sacred Grove—then they sped away and vanished.

“Honestly, can’t you wait for me?”

Liya stamped her foot in a huff, though there was little real anger in her eyes. After glancing around at the empty surroundings, she pinched up her skirt and broke into a small run.

......

......

“The most well-fitting formalwear in the Holy City... resolved.”

Ariel looked at herself in the mirror: a simple high ponytail, a custom men’s suit upon her, the understated color exuding a different kind of nobility—entirely unlike the generic goods from those street shops a few days ago.

She spun in delight, feeling that everything was just perfect.

“The prettiest flowers in the Holy City... resolved.”

Ariel lifted the bouquet by her side. In the carefully crafted wrapping, thirteen colors of flowers formed a dreamlike palette like an oil painting. Each petal was sculpted like crystal, exceptionally exquisite. A faint fragrance spread; even though Ariel was used to the Holy City’s omnipresent floral scents, she still felt her mind clear and her spirit soothed.

These were flowers Ariel had plucked at the risk of her life from the Sacred Grove; it was said their preciousness was no less than the strands atop Bishop Meredith’s head.

“And finally, a heart brimming with courage...”

Ariel closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and cleared every stray thought from her mind.

Thus when she opened her eyes, the mirror reflected only her resolute gaze and her habitual, untamed smile at the corners of her lips.

“Resolved!”

Ariel snapped her fingers with pride.

Everything was resolved.

Everything was perfect.

Previously, because it had come too suddenly, she chose to retreat temporarily when faced with Liya’s confession.

But it wasn’t out of timidity or cowardice; rather, she believed that bringing about that result required a solemn ritual.

A temporary contraction was for the sake of ramming even harder at the door to the girl’s heart!

So she spent an entire day preparing.

First, before dawn, she snuck into the Sacred Grove to pluck flowers.

Then she went to the best tailor in the Holy City, bled her purse dry to hire several of the city’s finest old tailors to work overtime and rush out her suit.

Lastly, after an afternoon of meditation to firm her resolve, there remained not a shred of doubt in her heart.

Feelings for a girl should be met with even more active response!

The real battle begins now!

“Teacher, you’ll bless me, won’t you?”

“......”

“Very good.”

Ariel stepped out the door, facing the cold night wind like a general gripping sword and blade, about to set foot on the battlefield.

“Wait for me, Liya!”

Ariel declared once more with solemnity.

She feared nothing.

She advanced bravely.

She would surely... return in triumph!

......

......

“Huff...”

After a light run, Liya finally stopped at the very center of the Sacred Grove. The last of the lights had vanished here.

Catching her breath, she craned her neck and peered about.

Night deepened; all things lay under a hazy shadow. With Lin having cleared unrelated people away in advance, the place was naturally very quiet—so quiet she could hear only her own breathing, and another familiar one.

Liya’s willow brows arched; with a glance she spotted that familiar bad man sitting on a bench not far away, seriously reading a thick book by the light of the points hovering at his shoulder.

His hair, golden like spilled sunlight, was as conspicuous as ever. His absorbed profile looked like carved marble; each line touched the core of a maiden’s heart.

Liya stepped softly. The little-girl temper flared—she wanted to startle the bad man. But after only a few steps, he lifted his head, lake-deep blue eyes looking at her with a faint hint of amusement.

“I could smell Your Highness the Saintess from far away, and you still wanted to scare me?”

“W-what smell?”

Liya pouted.

“Of course, a pleasant smell.”

Muen closed the book of fundamental magical theory, smiled handsomely, and patted the bench beside him. “Sit.”

“Hmph.”

Liya twisted her slim waist and sat down beside Muen in a huff, yet deliberately left twenty or thirty centimeters between them.

“Calling me to a place like this in the middle of the night with that little trick—what are you trying to do?”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?”

Muen blinked.

“I think you want to do something bad!”

In the night, Liya’s pretty face reddened.

She snuck a look at the dense flowerbeds and shrubs around them, easily enough to hide someone, and secretly thought that this bad man couldn’t possibly be planning to do that with her here like in the books, right?

The Sacred Grove, where someone else might come by at any time, plus herself being the holy and pure Saintess—if the sky were the canopy and the ground the bed, how thrilling would that be.

Just the thought...

“Hey—ow.”

“Don’t let your thoughts run wild!”

Muen, amused, flicked Liya on the forehead.

“I merely invited my dear Miss Liya to come see the gift I’m giving you.”

“A gift?”

“Yes.”

Without allowing refusal, Muen pulled Liya into his arms and hooked a finger under her smooth, fair little chin.

“Come on, be good. Look up.”

“I don’t need your help—I can...”

Liya snorted lightly through her nose. She meant to bat away the bad man’s teasing hand, but when her gaze lifted and fell upon the vault overhead, she froze.

Stars.

A sky full of stars.

In the deep night, the resplendent multitude scattered like diamonds everywhere.

As if a holy, iridescent gauze had been draped across the sky, it filled Liya’s entire field of vision. For a moment she couldn’t even tell which star her gaze ought to settle upon.

“So beautiful...”

Liya murmured without thinking.

“Right?”

Muen leaned his head close and unabashedly nuzzled her cheek.

“Remember the first time we watched the stars? It was just the two of us, and it was in a night just as deep as this. Of course, that’s nonsense—if it weren’t night, we wouldn’t see a single star—”

“I remember.”

Liya cut off Muen’s rambling, whispering to herself:

“Of course I remember.”

Desolate ridges.

Deep mountains.

Long darkness.

Night talks.

Those were images etched deep in Liya’s mind, scenes she could never forget for a lifetime.

Because the reason she could now be at this man’s side, craving his breath and warmth like this—tracing it back, the earliest flutter may have been in that tiny carriage with just the two of them, or beneath that wide night sky studded with stars.

Of course, if one spoke of fate, it could be traced back further still—to outside that classroom where orioles trilled in melodious turns, even to that dinner appointment born of mistaken circumstances.

He said: Come be my music appreciation instructor.

She, with every reluctance, answered: Fine.

And thus everything that followed came to be.

“This is your gift?”

“Yes. I’m going to give you the stars.”

“That’s stingy.”

Liya puffed up as if in anger, but her eyes were full of feelings that would not dissolve:

“A view of nature like this counts as a gift?”

“Gifts from nature count as scenery too. I was once given a very memorable gift just like this.”

Muen winked mysteriously at Liya and rubbed her head.

“But... look carefully again. Is that really scenery?”

“Hm?”

Bewildered, Liya raised her head. Her clear eyes looked higher still.

“Ah.”

She let out a small cry.

Because behind that glittering starlight, she saw—heavy cloud!

A chill night wind blew, carrying moisture from afar, making Liya realize this was not, in fact, a fine and cloudless night.

But then how had stars appeared beneath the clouds?

“I really did want to invite you to watch the stars, but heaven wasn’t cooperative. Clear in the day, and come night, thick clouds.”

“Still, when I thought about it, spring’s stars aren’t as good as midsummer’s anyway—nothing much to see.”

“So...”

Muen suddenly raised his head and clapped his hands.

“Fall!”

At the sound, Liya couldn’t help widening her beautiful eyes.

Because in that instant, the starry sky began to drop—one star after another, in succession!

They were like sprites from a fairyland, coming from a distance unimaginably far to Liya’s side, blinking, circling her, leaping, dancing... A skyful of stars draped the maiden’s figure, as enchanting as a scene from a fairy tale.

“This is...”

Dazed, Liya turned to look at Muen—and only then, by the starlight so close at hand, did she see his slightly pale face and the fine sweat on his brow that had yet to dry.

“You couldn’t see the stars in the sky...”

Muen looked into Liya’s eyes and said lightly, unconcerned:

“So I hand-kneaded some.”