f anybody asked, Rem would declare the concept of sin to be nonsensical.

Lust prevented species from going deep-sixes as the third-wave feminist would eventually do. Pride might be redundant, but it tied with professionalism and morals. Without the concept of greed, the world economy would be the world's largest graveyard. Believe that the seven deadly sins were as reliable as a mailman traveling through a tropical hurricane was a few things Rem shared with his atheistic family.

Yet, Remus Breaker couldn't help but felt the ancient monk of antiquity might have a point upon witnessing the scene in front of him.

Plates stacked on top of another like layer of the Alp. Clanking resounded as one more porcelain disk join its brethren on that white mountain. Noodle, steak, fried rice, and bow of salads vanished into the mouth of the beast of calamity. Despite her shabby cloth and thin frame, the elf was more than qualified to be a vessel for the sin of gluttony. Wordlessly, she swallowed another grilled chicken breast. Rem stared, he could barely see her fork moved.

"Another!" Luxinna Drakokia shouted, her cheek puffing from the food in her mouth.

Scathach also stared.

"Yes!" Cytortia--who had recovered from the collision hours ago--slid a plate of succulently grilled fish down the table with a smile.

"You look too happy," Scathach said to the young goddess.

"No one ever ate my food like this," the goddess wiped her tears in gratitude. "Those bitches always call cooking plebeian jobs, so I never have to cook like this."

Rem chewed the fried rice. The food was good. Too good even. The meat was succulently spiced, and the steam rice was fresh and sweet. The goddess must have done something to the oil because the mixture just went together too well.

Woe betides the other Heavenly Daughters. Morale, regardless of power-level, was proportional to the food-quality; take Scathach munching on the fried rice enthusiastically as proof.

Finally, the beast of hunger was satiated when the plate-count hit twenty-nine.

"This is so good," Luxinna squirmed in delight while swallowing another homemade pudding. "So did my sister sent you here?"

Rem perked up.

"What makes you think that?"

Luxinna looked longingly toward Lightwell. Dusk already started settling, but even in the crimson sky, the city was dazzling with rays of emerald blue aura.

"So she didn't send you," Luxinna realized and sighed without any care in the world. "Well, I should have expected that. She has more to worry about than a reject."

Cytortia, who stared collecting dishes, heard that and frowned.

"You believe you are a reject?"

Luxinna leaned back lazily on her chair, swaying to and fro playfully while giving Cytortia a sad Cheshire smile.

"Yes, just look at me," Luxinna stretched her cramped body. "The only thing I can do is electrocuting people. Every time I try spirit magic, the spirit either tries to kill me or run. Hell, everything tries to kill me. Even my father gave it a go once, and my kind threw me into the wood and prayed the wildlife would finish me off."

Luxinna leaned backed and glanced at the cloud, contemplating dejectedly at the contrasting colors above.

"And after all these years of waiting and hoping even my friend and sister walk out on me," Luxinna faked a yawn. "I won't be surprised if the world wants me gone."

Cytortia slammed her hand onto the table. Her face incensed with frustration.

"That isn't true," she yelled at the elf who ignored her. "Eva writes to ask about you every week! Uncle Avar still cares about you even now!"

Luxinna flashed Cytortia an angry scowl. Thin neutral lips replaced her smile, and her blue eyes hardened harder than ice.

"Where are they then?"

Cytortia's answer stifled in her throat.

"You can say anything you want, but your words won't amount to anything," Luxinna said bitterly. "Eva wasn't there when uncle Avar exiled me. Everyone I know walked out on me when I was revealed to be a freak. If they care, then why don't they come to me and say this is all a massive misunderstanding?"

With that, the goddess pitch capsized. Now, the honey badger stepped up to the bat.

"I heard about you from Avar," Scathach said. "He spoke highly of you, and I agreed with him. I can teach you more than the Drakokia ever could. Girl, you deserve much better than to rot like this."

"Really, what are you going to teach me? How to use magic I never wanted?" Luxinna snorted indignantly.

"Do you think the elf knows what they wasted?" Scathach raised her voice. "Your ability isn't a curse. It is a gift, Luxinna. The idiotic loser is your family, not you. Your raw stats mix with your one-of-the-kind magic would put you up at the top of Phantasia's best with almost no effort. If you walk out of this forest-"

Luxinna stood up with a force that sent her chair sprawling.

"I won't," Luxinna angrily replied. "I am perfectly content in this forest--thank you very much. Do you think I want to return the favor against my people for throwing me out here? Sorry, but blood is thicker than water. There is no deal in the world that you can give to turn me against Lightwell. So quit it. I like it here and won't be moving."

Luxinna's eyes were unshakable. Scathach's feature scrunched as she contemplated whether or not to drag the elf out of the forest by force.

But Luxinna didn't know about the devil--luckily a trustworthy one--in their midst.

"Oh, but that is a lie, isn't it?" said the emotionless whispers of Rem Breaker. "Quite a fickle one, aren't you? One moment you gave up, saying everything hates you. But when we offered you that acceptance, you pushed it away. Why is that?"

Rem took out a bottle he prepared and poured the elf a glass of cider.

Both the badger and the goddess looked blasphemously at the bottle Rem stole with their permission.

"Need a drink?"

"Why should I take it?" Luxinna said with indignations. "Did you spike the drink or something? Look, I thank you for the meal, but I will stay in this forest. So take your bottle and leave me alone."

"Yep," Rem took that glass of cider and swigged it all down his throat. "Shame that you don't want it. By the way, it is from elder Avar."

"Wh-" Luxinna looked covetingly at the empty glass. "That is that uncle Avar's apple cider?"

"Why should I tell you?" Rem poured himself another drink and teased it in front of Luxinna. "But since you are that pitiful, I will say yes."

Then Rem cocked his head to aside. He lifted that glass of elven's apple cider high and tossed it way.

All pairs of eyes but one widened in panic and disbelief.

The glass never landed. None of its content tipped or spilled over either.

The reason was obvious.

At the moment the glass flew, a person moved. Her reaction and speed took even Scathach by surprised. Luxinna dove for that glass with the speed Cytortia couldn't believe, and her peers were Chunag and Tie Hua.

No, Cytortia corrected herself. Her senior sister was much faster, but Luxinna's movement was more driven. It was almost animalistic as if that pale beverage was everything to her.

Luxinna laid prone to the ground. In her hand held the glass of cider that rippled like a nearly forgotten memory.

Then Rem started narrating.

"You said you hate your power. Yes, that might sound reasonable, lightning brought you nothing but trouble. But that doesn't explain why you spent time in the forest half-starving yourself. That can't explain why you reject our offer the way you did."

Rem continued his analysis without a pause. His voice was mercilessly was cutting at her without any sympathy.

"Let look at our conversation, you try acting dismissive and lazy, but that could be a lie--or a defense mechanism. Let ignore every claim you made and focus on your action. Only two consistent things were clear: you get pissed off when your folk got trash-talk, and you keep looking back at Lightwell City like it is your long-lost childhood."

Rem twisted the knife in further, leaving the elf trembling on the ground.

"So I make a theory. You never left this forest because you want to be as close as possible to your home. You wish, despite how impossible, that everything can go back to when you were ten. Maybe a miracle will happen, and your sentence will overturn. The fact that you thought Magnolia sent us gave it away. Disappoint must suck hard, given how crusty you get after discovering that your expectation is still in an imaginary land. But I must admit I am happy that is the case. If the loyal girl the elder talked so highly about already changed, we would have wasted a trip."

Cytortia and Scathach looked solemnly at the haggard girl who treasured that glass of cider with the care reserved for a wish-granting lamp.

"That glass must feel warm, isn't it, Luxinna? It must be aged ago when you, your sister, and Eva crash into old uncle Avar place, sharing a glass of apple cider. It is that pleasant nostalgia you can't abandon."

Rem stopped talking. His facial expression never changed, but for a second, he heard an internal voice of hesitation. Remus Breaker ignored that voice. Empathy was unnecessary to do what he must,

"Am I right, Luxinna Drakokia? Is that what you truly want?"

Luxinna looked back at him. A single line of tears ran down her face. Her face sagged from lack of sleep, dirt, and stress. Miserably, her eyes welled up in sadness.

"What if that is true?" The broken girl cried. "Is it wrong to have faith in your family? I only want to go home! Is there anything wrong with that? Is that too much to ask? I am holding out here for the day Mag finally convince father. I know she might already forget about me. But Mag never let me down! Not even once!"

Rem looked at her with the eyes fill with space where the light went to die. That false-memory she created was the only thing propping up her shoulder. They had no doubt the elf went to sleep every night, dreaming about the trees city of canals and cedars. Maybe she imagined herself back on Lightwell, under the shade of a massive tree with everyone back home welcoming her back with open arms. Then perhaps she would finally get to enjoy the cider she longed for three years with her family.

Cytortia refused to meet the girl watering eyes.

"That won't happen," Rem said, cruelly plunging a sword down into the heart of that weakly beating dream. "Your sister told me herself. If I remember correctly, we talked about how your exile was an elder's decision, a ruling far from help."

Luxinna's eyes widened as her mind began to crack. The edge of that sunny dream started to fume.

"That's a lie," Luxinna's hand spasm like she was vainly grabbing to that impossible fantasy.

"Scathach," Rem said airily. "You had a habit of secretly recording stuff to explore later so-"

With speed surpassing Rem's expectation, the badger whipped up a black metal-plate and lighted the rune engraved on the device dejectedly. Even the Scathach wasn't enthusiastic about this.

'What happened to Luxinna Drakokia was simply an unfortunate necessity to preserve the Drakokia's reputation.'

The voice of Magnolia from the recorder shattered Luxinna completely. The girl sank on her knees. Every hope she carried broke like glasses. The tears she held back gushed out amidst the crush pieces of that tragic wishes. Images she kept in her heart for the last thousand days smashed into smithereens and fell like snow together with the stream of teardrops. Her face, pale and blank, twitched weakly in horror as her worst fear finally realized itself and struck her down.

"I am sorry," Scathach mouthed toward the watering girl. "But you needed to accept this... they are not coming for you."

However, Rem didn't stop there; crushing people's dreams was not his mission. Doing something like this without purpose would be vain cruelty. Rem wasn't cruel. That was the reason he must follow through and crushed those shattered hope some more.

"Here you are, crying hopelessly like a reject from reality TV's audition," Rem stared apathetically at the girl. "I will let you cry for a while, but you better hurry up. Your dad and sister are on the warpath. As a daughter and a sister, it's your job to be there at their deathbed."

Luxinna's cry stifled. Her blue eyes widened as she barely comprehended what she was hearing.

Rem smiled creepily. His figure cast a dark highlight in a pleasant light of the sunset.

"Oh, you are interested? Do you know your dad is planning to invade the rest of the world for the sake of Drakokia's glory? I don't know about your sister, but given how our conversation went, your old man has her wrapped in his finger. I wonder how many will die from the conflict. Would your little sister join the battlefield? Would she kill? Cross that, maybe she already did. Ever wonder how many innocent civilians will die by your sister's order? Maybe dear old Mag would get lucky and die a pointless death in the battlefield without killing single women and children."

With every word progressed in that speech, Luxinna's malnourished face grew more enraged. Her fist clenched tighter and her teeth ground in rage as she looked at the hateful shadow who casually slashed her wishes to piece.

"Shut up," Luxinna growled at him. "Mag isn't that kind of person! You don't know her at all!"

"And you do?"

Luxinna opened her mouth to retort, but she replied died in her throat.

"Yes, you don't know your sister anymore," Rem pointed causally at the sword resting on the leg of the plastic table. "Given who I work for, maybe the day I have to kill her might arrive. Rest assured, I would do it without any hesitation. Maybe it would even be with that sword over there."

Luxinna remained silent, tear still trickling down her cheek. Cytortia itched away from the boiling atmosphere. She knew this couldn't end well.

"Infact, let cut the rope today, " Rem lied as he leisurely walked toward his sword. "That's far cheaper for my wallet and effort, not that it won't make any difference. It doesn't matter when the wild animal get slaughtered, all that counts is that it is dead. Want to give your sister some last good-bye?"

Rem stopped walking, his blade within hand reach. The boy ignored the dissipating sobs and rising pressure from an elf girl who glared at him with murderous intent.

"Seriously," Rem gave Luxinna a jesting smile founded only on the devil's face. "I can pass it along when I slide this sword through her ribs. So-"

The sword Rem was reaching for vanished. An elf appeared in front of him. Her body bent low. The sword flashed beautifully from her hand. Its sharpened edge raced quickly toward Rem's eyes.

Luxinna whispered.

"Die..."

Rem smiled.