"I'm pleading the fifth."

"Oh, come on! You just need to tell me, did you get a boyfriend?"

Alexandra sidestepped, successfully avoiding the chokehold her friend almost subjected her in. "Ugh, stop it! I'm just saying I'll withhold any information for now. I might take my words back, ■̷̡̺̥̩̹͒̄e̴͙̜͓̫̔͌ŕ̶̠͈̦͊͝■̵̛̮̥̗͋̌͛ṡ̷͇̖̬͆á̶̳͖̬͝."

"I'm just asking. You know you've been my best friend since forever. I'm just worried you won't have time for me anymore after finding some man you barely knew." The teen pouted, returning to her seat as she packed her lunch and placed it in her backpack. "I'm not saying you shouldn't. Just do it after vacation, so at least I could get myself busy while you both get all sappy and lovey-dovey."

Alexandra could not help but laugh at the b̸͕̘̱̊͒l̷͉̪͑■̶̧̟̒͛͐́͜c̷͉̗̏̈̄k̶̫̈́ -haired girl as she stood up to ruffle her hair. "You're so childish, and we're going to be turning fourteen soon, act your age. I can't always be with you, and we will eventually grow apart."

"But it doesn't have to be so soon!"

The teen-only stared at her friend as she sat at the top of her desk.

Her friend was a beauty that she knew. She had long b̸͕̘̱̊͒l̷͉̪͑■̶̧̟̒͛͐́͜c̷͉̗̏̈̄k̶̫̈́ hair and her eyes the deepest s̴̤̾̓̇ḩ̸͇̥͆̒͒̄͛■̸̡̛̮͔̫͓̋͂ḑ̶̡̝͂ḙ̶̳̂̈́̑ ̷͍̮̹̞̓́̄ö̴͉͉̳͓̞́̓f̶̟̰̭̤̻̀͗̃̓̆ ̷̤̽b̴̧̩̦̒̿l̶̲͈̮̻̂̐͝ù̴͔̼̠̮̑̔̓͂■̴̧̨̮̯̤̔͒͌̓. She could even hear her other classmates praise her when she was the only one around. Sadly, their seats were far apart; Alexandra was seated in front, and the other girl was in the middle row, near the window. Maybe it started then, but she would go near Alexandra whenever she could. It was clingy for the girl who was not very affectionate.

Additionally, she couldn't do the things she needed to do peacefully. It was okay for now, but what if they get old? The girl would probably depend on her with everything; she wouldn't be able to live her own life.

"I mean –" the girl meekly added when she did not receive a reply, peering to her friend's expressionless face she continued, "– I know it's wrong. But I wanted to hold onto this moment a while longer, you know?"

“■̷̡̺̥̩̹͒̄e̴͙̜͓̫̔͌ŕ̶̠͈̦͊͝■̵̛̮̥̗͋̌͛ṡ̷͇̖̬͆á̶̳͖̬͝.” Alexandra called her name distantly. "I've known you since forever, and we grew up with each other. But even I would feel guilty if you started to turn down the idea of getting to know other people because of me."

The b̸͕̘̱̊͒l̷͉̪͑■̶̧̟̒͛͐́͜c̷͉̗̏̈̄k̶̫̈́ -haired girl must have felt bad as she looked down and stared at the palms of her hand. "I-I didn't think of that. I just felt that it would be better if I could stay with you always, Alexandra."

Their families were neighbors and friends. It was no wonder they stuck with each other throughout middle school. They studied in the same schools, even have the same hobbies. Both of them excelled well in everything that they do, and it seemed they would also be together in the same university. It must have been a shock for the girl when she realized that her friend would be with another person in the future. The girl depended on her emotionally, and for her, it was almost like she raised the girl herself.

Alexandra let out a small smile as she patted the girl on the shoulder. "Even if I go anywhere," she reassured. "You would always be my best friend. No need to get overly emotional about me getting close with someone as much as I do with you."

The girl only nodded and raised her head to grimace. Her friend had always been willful. And personally, for her, if fused with her weak personality, it was such a bad combination. There would be many misunderstandings between her and others, so she always needed to explain in her stead. She had few friends, and Alexandra always felt she was only there to protect her.

Although, strangely, it does not felt bad.

"Okay, don't be too sad. I'll treat you later for lunch."

"Then maybe we could visit the place beside the bookstore where I bought the book I gave you?" The girl suggested then finally smiled.

"Alright."

All the color drained from her face, and if she could see herself right now, Kira would probably realize she got scarily thin. The girl struggled to open her eyes, scanning the cold concrete cell she was in. The six-year-old had a strange dream; she was back in middle school with her childhood friend, who went missing just before entering high school. In the end, she didn't get any news if her best friend was ever found. Her family's relationship with hers went sour after they did not believe her when she said she had no idea where she went.

It was so sudden.

One day they were happily talking to each other, and the next, she suddenly lost her pillar of support.

Alexandra would usually criticize the girl for being too attached but never would she have known that she would be the one that would suffer more once one of them disappeared. The previous one became depressed and suddenly had no motivation to even get up and take a bath. As a result, her medical school plans disappeared - her dream reminded her all too well of the girl. She dropped out of high school and entered as a recruit in the military at the age of 16.

At first, her parents did not agree. None of their relatives served in the forces, so they were surprised she would go down that route. But when they saw how much she had lost all motivation, they finally gave in.

Kira knew she was not Alexandra, and Alexandra was not her. She merely had all those memories; it would genuinely be offensive to her family now if she kept pretending to live her life like she used to.

She would describe herself as a realist considering she was pretty adaptable but not susceptible to change. If she could call it that, her only drawback was that she was too loyal to the people close to her.

Dreaming of her past reminded her of how ignorant she was.

Oddly, Kira had also forgotten her best friend's face, even her name. In her dream, she would encounter certain glitches. Whenever she mentioned the girl's name and whenever she would look at the girl's face. It appears to be a fog in her brain, and as time goes by, it becomes bigger and bigger. Perhaps it was because her memories were fading.

It made her scared, but it was something inevitable.

"Subject P-001." A man appeared outside of the cell; he wore a dark robe, the hood covered the upper half of his face. The keys on his hand rattled as he tried to find the right one for her cell.

Kira hissed as she went as far as possible from the entrance; she found herself at the edge of the room.

During her stay, she refused to eat while being held captive, afraid that the food might be tampered with, causing her early death. If she were experimented on, she would prefer it not because of some harmful supplement that could harm the mind. Granted, that would be a way more straightforward way to go, but if somehow her saviors were almost near, she would save them the hassle of seeing an insane girl. It was not an empty guess; the girl had heard it from one of her cellmates, who were now dead, that they would put something to their food, causing the person to be hysterical. They would start to mumble to themselves, hallucinate, then lastly hurt themselves.

Kira was pretty sure their deaths were not caused by the drug alone, but it was a way to make it easier to die.

Ah, they would also secure each experimental subject's hand with a handcuff that could seal a person's mana as if they were afraid that children would cause enough ruckus to ruin their plans.

To be fair, she would if she could.

"Stand down, P-001. This is not the first time I will have to escort you. Do make it easy for the both of us." The man irritatedly stated as he raised his hand, activating the mana circle below them. As if gravity became a lot stronger, the little girl crashed on the floor face first. The ground acted like some magnet that forcefully dragged her body down.

This might be the tenth time she was going to be dragged out of the cell. The first few times she managed to hurt the robed man, she might have scratched his face here and there. But since she was now weak with no other idea how she could live on, she became less and less aggressive. To be honest, those dreams from her previous life were the only things keeping her intact; her mantra of 'live on, live on' every night started to lose its meaning, but she still does it anyway.

Kira coughed blood as she felt something being injected into her arm. She wanted to fight, but her body was too weak, which added to her pitiful situation on the floor; it seemed she was some kind of experimental rat. The robed man was a powerful mage; she had seen him do his water magic once when she was being restrained. His robes were of high quality and had a dragon logo embroidered on them. It was her first time encountering that symbol; she was unsure if they were originally from this continent or transferred here. The girl also tried to gain more information by staying awake during trials but only learned a few things.

They were not talkative people; most of them acted as if they would rather be at home doing bad things than be outside working their asses off. Although from what she learned, the shady business was an inter-organization project, they were making a sure-fire process to increase someone's capacity so they could recruit more people.

Also, they kidnapped children who had influential parents not for additional ransom – it was because they were more robust vessels. They could endure longer, survive more trials than an average person, and have a stronger mentality. They would be less likely to go insane, unlike the non-magician children they had experimented with before. From their results, they could only use it for a short time; then person would revert to normal.

Kira swore that once she was out of the place, she would spare no time to get rid of those involved in her abduction.

Then hopefully retreat to the countryside after asking her father for a lot of money for her allowance.

The six-year-old felt her eyelids drooping as she lost consciousness again. By the time she woke up, she was back inside the cold room. She could not help but cursed at the robed man in her mind. Her body was not even on the bed; she was sprawled on the floor. The man had literally no consideration; it would take him nothing to walk a few steps inside. The girl tried to stand up but to no avail. With a tired sigh, she tried to drag her body to the bed. Her fingers bled as she used them to pull herself against the damp concrete. Eventually, she managed to climb the bed and lay down.

Thinking if she did not die of hunger, perish because she was being experimented on too much, or lose her life because she was a bother, she would die because of her infected injuries.

Tears flowed out of her eyes. She could not hold on anymore. This was too much for a 28-something-year-old person; it was no surprise no child could hold on for long. Who would have thought this would happen when she lived in a wealthy household with a caring family and all that.

No one could indeed have it all.

Kira's vision got blurry when she remembered what happened that night.

The girl dismissed Alicia when she felt a little melancholy about being unable to amuse herself outside. It was childish, she knew– but then again, she had every right to be since she was a child. Kira was in her world when she heard the glass window shattering in her room. The next thing she knew was a cloth-covered her nose and mouth, her vision darkened, and she became unconscious. When she woke up, she found herself in some sort of prison cell with a commoner girl.

Fast forward a few days after – where she could not differentiate between night or day – it must be over a week or so, and she had lost all hope that she could be saved. The girl exhausted all her means. The novels in her past life made it seem easier for the protagonists when they got reincarnated - why didn't she get all those buffs now? The girl worried the Grand Duke must be distraught, and she was scared her brother would not accept her disappearance. Then she thought of Alicia, who always cared for her, then the lovely emotionless Mirin. Would that maid go back like she said she would? It would not matter anyway; by the end of this, the least that could happen to her was death.

Kira hoped she would die quickly.

"Where should I put her?" A dark-robed man entered the dimly lit room. He was carrying the body of a little girl. She was limply staying in his arms when she was jolted awake by sounds of machinery around her.

"Put her on top of the magic circle." This time there was another person; although he was not wearing a uniform, he was wearing a long-sleeved top with an unfamiliar logo on the breast pocket. His hair was cleanly styled where his posture was unlike someone who was commoner born.

The room had a large platform in the middle where a magic circle was drawn. Around it were shackles of metal attached to the concrete. Its chains had signs of blood. Unlike the prisoner cells they used, the room felt humid, and there were also large apparatuses at every corner of the room. The inner half of the machine was covered by glass to display with swirling black mana inside.

They were at the last step of the experiment; they only had to know if it would be effective once done with the girl. It should have finished earlier than expected after they successfully caught the Prince. But it turned out an unwise thing to do, seeing that most of their bases were cleaned out by the royal family.

They were currently in an underground hideout built a few years earlier than the ones that were destroyed; it was one of the few that remained. It was also one of the bigger ones since it was built by a wealthy baron also working for the organization.

The robed man carried the girl and placed her on top of a platform. Kira struggled to open her eyes, but when she did, her eyes landed on the man without a robe and showed recognition. Her expression turned from familiarity to anger; it was a sudden change in her emotions that her body convulsed violently. The man being observed saw this then gestured for the man in a robe to take his place.

He checked with the girl as he touched her silver locks that turned into a dirty shade of brown after an extended stay in the cell. "Young miss, I know you're a little emotional." The man sarcastically drawled as he gazed at her eyes without emotions. "But you just need to endure a little bit longer, then who knows; you may go back after this."

Kira was visibly angry and tried to speak, but her voice failed to come out; it appeared her body was too weak to perform its normal functions. The girl settled with glaring at him; her face turned scary because of her gaunt face.

"Ah, you must be angry, yeah? That I didn't attend some of our last classes?" He chuckled slightly, stroking her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't know Galinda Clemens would go as far as destroying some of our bases, so I had to do some... damage control."

The girl tried to sit, but as soon as she did, she was roughly pushed down. The once smiling face of the man turned stern as he glanced down. "Stop making problems for us." His tone became authoritative, and her movements started to become aggressive. The affectionate stroking soon turned into a choke.

Then it was followed by a resounding slap that echoed in the chambers.

Kira, perhaps, was numb as she did not react too much. She continued to growl at him attempting to bite his fingers. The man seeing this, narrowed his eyes, turned and gave out orders. "Proceed with the activation of the circle –" he strode on the side of the room where a large apparatus was located. " – I will now commence mana injection."

"There's a problem, Baron." The robed man who silently watched their interactions hesitated as he pointed to the shackles of her arms and feet. He proceeded to insert his mana on the magic circle, but there was no change. The circle was unable to activate because the magic cuffs attached to Kira that were supposed to prevent the wearer from casting spells had also affected the process of mana transfer.

The man narrowed his eyes. "Exchange the shackles with normal ones." He then proceeded to tamper with the apparatus. "Add more if possible," he added as an afterthought.

The robed man nodded and followed his orders. After a while, the circle started to glow, which in turn lightened the room, enabling them to see the place much clearer. The Baron pulled a lever activating the apparatus, the swirling dark energy inside it started to flow to the pipes and onto the ground. The mana circle started to glow brighter, and the girl on top began convulsing. The two turned a blind eye to it as they continued their operation; they both observed the experimental subject and started taking notes.

Kira started groaning as if in incredible pain, even coughing up blood from time to time. Her frail body seemed it would break any moment.

It took a few minutes before the mana inside the apparatus transferred entirely to the magic circle; the light dimmed slowly until it disappeared. The two men blinked, trying to adjust their eyesight to the sudden darkness. After everything was visible, the Baron gestured for the robed-man to check the girl's pulse.

"She's still alive." He removed his hands from her wrist as he listened to her shallow breathing.

The Baron nodded, appearing to be in a good mood. "Then take her –"

A black dome suddenly appeared, enveloping half of the room. Coincidentally, it included only parts of the two men's bodies after moving to the corner to discuss their findings. There was a loud screeching sound as the whole place suddenly disappeared, leaving empty space behind it. Bodies of the two men fell on the floor, some of their parts missing, as their blood spurted from pressure.

"Are you sure about leaving?"

The brunette in front of him nodded solemnly, determination in her eyes. "Yes, Your Grace."

Albert realized he could not stop the woman from going as he shook his head and signed her letter of resignation. "I am grateful for your service, Saintess. If we knew about your identity, we would not dare give you the position of a maid."

"You sure are jesting, Grand Duke." Alicia gave a shallow smile as she bowed. "I would gladly offer my life to my young mistress."

Grand Duke Albert raised his eyebrow. If she were a maid, her true master would be the Grand Duke, and yet she would only offer her life to her daughter. It should be disrespectful to him, but it made Albert happy in his heart.

The man could only smile sadly. "Then I am thankful she has someone like you. I wish you the Goddess of Light's blessing."

"May the Goddess of Light also bless you." Alicia nodded and carried her baggage out of the door.

Albert silently watched her as she disappeared from his gaze. Her child's maid was apparently the run-away Saintess whom the Goddess of Church's Light was trying to find for a few years now. He was not aware of the details about how and why this happened, but Galinda – who did not inform of such a matter – helped the woman six years ago using his place as her hiding spot.

It had been a few weeks since her daughter disappeared, and until now, he did not stop expending efforts even if most of the people were telling him to give up. He would never give up. No matter how long – even if it would take months, years, or decades. Currently, there were no clues about where her daughter had vanished to. The place where they brought her had signs of her being there, but the girl herself was not present. In one of the place's experimentation rooms, a large part was missing - the floor, the ceiling, and even some walls. The edge of the concrete was cleanly cut.

There were decayed body parts on the floor, estimated to have been rotting there for at least a week. Albert recognized one of the heads. It was the Baron whom he assigned to teach the girl's magic classes. When Albert saw him, he could not describe his anger; he would make sure none of those bastards would live. His daughter would not be their last victim. He was sure of it.

The scene was pretty much the same as what he had seen a couple of years ago when a group of mercenaries kidnap her daughter. At that time, they concluded it was a powerful person who passed by, but it happened again, so they had to find out who it was.

When they informed the Saintess about it, she seemed to have formed some kind of resolve as she decided to leave. The poor woman was in a state of depression after she failed to protect Kira. Albert was in no position to blame her since he was not even present in their home in the first place. He even had a nagging feeling they used the kidnappings from his territory as a distraction to lure him away from his child.

Esternon, on the other hand, left the Academy using Galinda's connection. He was currently staying in the mansion, helping with the search. The boy completely turned emotionless, and no one could talk to him without being aggressively attacked. Albert was the only one who could control him, if he got suddenly emotional, he would knock him out.

Everything was all over the place, and Albert was at a loss about what to do. If he dies right now, he would be ashamed to meet his wife in the afterlife seeing he had failed to protect their daughter twice.

He heard a knock from the door, and the butler entered.

"Your Grace, the Princess is here." The butler informed him as he bowed.

Albert arranged the mess on his table. "Let her enter."

"Yes, Your Grace," he said, then left the room.

A few minutes later, the redhead entered wearing a serious expression. Galinda wore her mage uniform, and her hair was tied into a ponytail. She nodded at him as she sat on the sofa in front of the table. "How are you faring?"

"By a thread," he said frankly as he collapsed on the table. "We have no other leads, and we've interrogated all the people who should be interrogated. If I could turn back time, I would already have."

"They were supposed to finish the experiment that day, but for some other reason, something happened. Even the Baron and his accomplice were killed." Galinda produced a cigar from the inside of her robes and gave it to the Grand Duke.

"I already stopped smoking –" Albert shook his head as he stared at the cigar blankly, "– actually, please light it for me."

Galinda shrugged at his sudden change of mind and used mana at her index finger to produce fire. The end of the cigar crackled when exposed to the flame, and smoke started to appear. She gave the other end to the man and lit one herself. Both of them liked smoking, but after Albert married, he stopped in consideration of his wife, who hated the residual smoke.

The redhead would still give in to her addiction, but it would be from time to time only when she was stressed.

"I heard the Saintess left," she mentioned as she blew smoke out of her mouth. "The poor girl must be incredibly sad after what happened. I heard she was there during the abduction."

Albert shook his head, refusing to talk about the topic. "We should talk about how you did not even tell me she is the Saintess."

"Was." Galinda corrected, not even embarrassed she used her friend. "The girl asked me for help back then. You know how they changed the Pope, right? Well, Alicia disapproved of how he handled things – so, she left."

"Well, now I'm pretty sure she's going back."

"She's enamored by your daughter, and I think she's going to help. Pretty sure the Church of Light would be reorganized from top to bottom now that she is back." Galinda explained further. "The Saintess would usually be brought in from a young age and would be taught what they need to know. Technically, they would have more power than the Pope since they have the faith of the people. Not to mention, they are literally God's favorite."

Albert scoffed as he tapped the cigar butt on the ashtray. "If a God liked me – instead of getting happy, I would be scared to death. But if that specific God would tell me where my daughter is, then I would reconsider."

"Reconsider what?" Galinda thought the man's idea was dumb. "You would have no choice, dumbass. You remember the Priestess of Darkness who didn't want her job?"

"Ah, the one who refused to be the messenger?" Albert remembered a particular story from before. It was a few years earlier than what happened to the Church of Light. The Priestess, who was roughly the equivalent of the Saintess, had disappeared. Like every other messenger of God, before the new Priestess would be born, the previous one had to die first. So the Church would have no choice but to search for God's messenger pronto if they want their God to support them.

The difference between a Saintess and a Priestess was that the former could remember their previous lives in dreams while the latter had thrice as long life spans than average.

The redhead hummed silently as she set fire to the whole cigar and enclosed the ashes in her palm. "I visited you to tell you there might be a lead to where your daughter is."

"Then where is she?" It came as a great shock, so it took great effort for Albert to prevent himself from shouting. He tried to calm himself down by pushing down the sudden joy in his heart.

"Haah, it's both good news and bad news." Galinda even raised a disclaimer before she sighed; she was sure the man would have the same reaction she had when she got to know the news. "It was an oracle from the Goddess of Darkness. The Priestess recently returned, and she was the one who received the message."

"Why would the Goddess help me?" Albert felt suspicious, then wrinkled his forehead, not erasing the idea that the information could be false. As far as he was aware, he had no dealings with the Church of Darkness; although he was close with some of their believers, it was not a reason to help him – a man who visits their churches just to donate. If a Church would help him, he would instead wager it would be the Goddess of Light.

"I don't know; maybe you'll know when you see her since she requested a meeting."

The Grand Duke was sure he had never met the woman, but he kept it to himself. "Then where did the Goddess say my daughter is?"

The redhead avoided his gaze. "Some place you don't wish to know."

"Just tell me! Where is my child?" Albert grew frustrated as he scowled.

Galinda winced then told the truth. "Not here."

"What do you mean?"

"Not on this continent."