I lived happy days, helping Lord Emilien as much as I could. Then it happened. One day, I was summoned over by Lord Emilien to the Rosetta Manor, and was quite surprised when I realized why.

In the manor was Lord Emilien, his nephew, the heir of the Ducal family, and in addition to them, a woman was there.

A pregnant woman.

It was someone I had never seen before, yet I had heard of her from Phillip and Damian, who were friends with her.

They took time to explain to me what was going on and what exactly they were expecting of me. And to be honest, to me, what they were doing, and what they were expecting me to do, was madness and potentially assisted suicide, if not assisted murder.

I was ready to do many things for Lord Emilien, but that was quite beyond what I was ready to help with, especially when I got to witness the said rampages along with the destructive power they brought along.

It took me some time to finally agree to help them. I put her to sleep and waited, fingers crossed, for the fated day.

When we knew the time had come, they summoned Madame Mathilda, who was in charge of the trio of Lord Emilien's and the Duke's two sons, but I also knew of her secret; after all, I was there when Lord Emilien was so candidly asking for that one child of light's guard when he had just lost Lady Diona. He didn't tell me why, but it didn't take long for me to figure it out on my own.

The fateful day arrived, and to our great disappointment, neither of the two awaited boys survived.

Truthfully, I thought I was hallucinating when I heard a coo coming from one of the cradles in which we had placed the two boys; it wasn't until I saw Madame Mathilda approaching the said cradle that I realized it was real.

She checked the cradle and discovered something that apparently shocked her, then dashed to the other, only to find nothing in disappointment.

Then she came at us, and at the time, she couldn't even say a single word because she seemed completely overwhelmed by emotions.

Then we went to check on the cradle, and inside we found a healthy and lively newborn baby who had seemed completely lifeless just a few minutes earlier.

To be honest, our first thought was that it was a strange case of remanism, but we were quickly silenced by Mathilda's reprimanding Luke for voicing his opinion; it was my first time seeing her almost slap him.

We were there. Lord Emilien and I, both of us were there, and we could testify that these children were not alive a few moments ago. And yet, one of them was still alive, surrounded by a strange halo of foggy matter. To add to the mystery, the child was strangely and solemnly silent.

Even though I was an adult at the time and had gone through a lot, that remains one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.

Despite our shared hesitancy, we proceeded to baptize the child, and on top of everything strange that had happened so far, something else happened to top each of them.

Mathilda suggested a name for the child because his mother couldn't anymore, and Luke decided to baptize the child under the authority of Djeem the Accursed. To be honest, I couldn't agree more with that decision, but then it happened. The ritual of baptismal consists of putting a child's umbilical cord inside a box, which is supposed to represent its mother's body. In theory, and in practice, this, along with the magic I cast upon it should’ve been enough to stop the child from having access to his mana.

However, this was not the case when I baptized the child.

After beginning the ceremony, the child gradually lost consciousness, resulting in what Mathilda later described as a sickness that occurred on a two-week cycle until his second birthday.

It was chaotic; the foggy matter haloing his body thickened, and his body convulsed as if in pain.

Nobody knew what to do; I knew it started when I started the ritual, so I assumed it was there that something went wrong; my first thought was to call it off.

But then I did something I can't explain because I don't know what process of thought led me to it.

Nonetheless, it was only then, when I did what I did, that the situation calmed down and the baptismal was successfully carried out.

To execute that child's baptismal, I had to do that.

I literally saved the day.

What happened, what it meant, I don’t know, and to be honest, I don’t want to know.

The fact that they made it to the ninth month without killing themselves or giving birth to their mother was a miracle in and of itself, so I stopped asking myself questions and attributed whatever happened that night in that mansion to divine intervention, not that I was a particularly firm believer.

We all returned to our normal lives after that night.

Except for Mathilda, who stayed at Rosetta Manor to care for the child because Luke and his uncle couldn't simply bring him back with them. They had to keep the child's existence a secret, and luckily, Madam Mathilda was the perfect person for that. She replaced the previous denizens of the Roseta Manor with people she hired through her family connection, and these people, without exception, knew that the child was a noble but had no idea whose noble child it was. All they knew was that they were being paid to look after the son of a noble, and the contract required them to cut all ties with the outside world in exchange for a large sum of money paid by an unknown noble.

Mathilda seemed to have developed a devotion to that child similar to what I've seen her once do for her own child. She made every effort to erase that child's existence from the world, and it was largely due to her that no one was able to trace the child's existence.

Despite his strange recurring illness, Ronandt grew into a healthy young boy. When the opportunity to introduce him to noble society as an active noble presented itself, Lord Emilien and Luke seized it.

Everything went off without a hitch, and there was a good chance of success.

I had faith in it. After all even I, who murdered a Bishop, was given the opportunity to flee and find a place in noble society. I was sure he would also find his.

But then it happened, and it happened so quickly.

When I awoke, I was in the Rosetta Manor with one of the men tasked with tracking down the faceless one, as well as the seven Archbishops and seven Holy Paladins.

I had no idea what had happened because my last memory was of me fainting on the ground while Syrus and Ronandt were fighting the bishop and his man.

My next memory was waking up in the Rosetta manor and seeing what was outside the manor. It was nothing but destruction, a large portion of the forest had been destroyed, as had an important part of the human continent.

I witnessed the giant blue barrier that the church was so proud of being breached, as if it had been eaten by something.

When the church came after us, It was unclear to me, assuming he was the Faceless One, what the Church's reason for wanting him dead so badly, he was born of both commoner and noble parents, though pregnancy and relationship between commoner and noble being considered heresy by the Church, the birth of one should've been at the very least an exception for it had never happened before, why just killing him off, at first I assumed it could've been because of his parental heritage but the more I got interrogated the more I realized that even the Archbishop and the Holy Paladin didn’t seem to be aware of that fact he was born of uniqueness, at least not until that night, to them the Faceless One was just a person they were tasked to dispose of

So my second guess was his magic. After all, all these years, the church had been looking for her by using one lead, a magic item that reacts to him, or more importantly, his magic, I got to see the chaos it caused during the pregnancy and, potentially, with what happened with his mother, one of his magic effects on people, but even then, is the magic one born with a reason to condemn someone to death. With his massive magic pool, I'm sure he could've competed with the top Holy Paladins with a little bit of training and good mentoring. This was even one of our best bets to convince his great-grandfather that, despite being born of a commoner and a noble, he was born with an immense mana pool. I've officiated at many high-ranking noble children's baptismals, but his was unlike anything I'd ever performed before. So, at least for me, it didn't hold water.

When I saw the prospect of hunting a child for reasons unknown to even oneself, I thought it was insane, but when I saw the chaos around me, the state in which it was, assuming that it was truly that child's fault, I could understand why the Church was so eager to get rid of him.

After the event known as the Night Ecarlate, I was framed for the killing of the Church for the killing of Bishop Stanis and his goons, but I knew the real reason. I was punished for having helped that child because he was what the church was most concerned about while interrogating me.

At the time I was connected with him through the baptismal, I knew from the connection I shared on the other hand that he was no longer, so when I was asked whether he was dead or alive, because even among the fourteen, they weren't sure whether or not he was alive or dead, I told them that he was dead, because that was what I truly believed.

As punishment, I was imprisoned for a few months and treated like the worst of the criminals; it was then that I realized that on the other side, on Ronandt's side, I had gotten some semblance of reaction, he had somehow survived and must've been somewhere looking for help; being imprisoned, there wasn't much I could do, but one day when I was transferred elsewhere from where I was originally imprisoned, someone came rescuing me; that someone was Madam Mathilda

It appears that, despite being at the center of everything Ronandt-related, the one the church has been relentlessly searching for for more than nine years, she was not even mentioned by the church, as if someone had completely erased her trace from the entire affair.

It was several months after my liberation when it occurred that, in order to remove the effect of the baptismal, one had to proceed normally to the coronation. or to kill the person who officiated the ritual, but something happened that day that I couldn't explain, but the result was clear: each of the children whose baptisms I officiated had their ability to use magic restored without having to go through the coronation ceremony, and I soon learned of the disastrous consequences of that phenomenon.

Elliel, Luke's cadet, and the last person I had officiated the Baptismal of, had harmed his own mother as a result.

It wasn't done on purpose, and it was beyond my control, but I knew I had to accept responsibility.

That day, it was as if the baptismal effect had been refracted on me, I temporarily lost my ability to use my own magic, but once I regained it, it was too late, their magic was already freed; it was a wild guess, but to me, that was most likely a reaction to something from that child.

Madame Mathilda sent people to search for Ffor in the Iharana Great as soon as she could, because for a long time the entire access to the human continent's southern border had been impossible due to the Night Ecarlate, but she found no trace of him, and having no more connection with him, I was no longer sure if he was still safe or not.

In this situation, where I had no way of knowing his whereabouts, I had no choice but to pray and hope that he would be found soon.

However, Madam Mathilda's habit of sitting idly waiting is not one of hers. Soon after I was released, I realized she wasn't content with simply erasing her presence; she formed alliances with people I, as a Vicar of the Church, should regard as despicable, and she managed to enlist the help of someone I never expected to support her.

I initially assumed she was using this alliance to divert the church's attention away from her true goal of retrieving Ronandt, but as the months, the years progressed, I realized that from what she was doing, something great would come out of it.

For better or worse, something on a scale never seen before will result from it.

And I want to be part of it this time, not because I was forced or out of gratitude, but because I want to.

Which is why I was here with her sitting across from me.

Wearing thick and warm coats, Madam Mathilda and I were inside a moving carriage.

Looking diverted outside the windows, "I’ve been thinking of late, don’t you think it is weird?"

"What is it?"

"The church regards and promotes the idea of noble and commoner marrying together as a heresy."

"I somehow see where they are coming from. After all, with a single exception, wouldn't that union eventually lead nowhere?"

"Well, it is true. Let me put it from another perspective. "

She drew the carriage's curtains open, allowing me to see the scenery. Outside, there was a mountainous relief fogged by snow, with only white snow and rocky brown visible.

"Let’s say you are the ruler of these lands. Your soil doesn’t permit the growth of many plants, especially fruits. Let’s say grapes. Would you think you, as the ruler of the estate, would you create a law that would consider everyone trying to plant grapes on your territory’s soil a criminal? "

"I suppose I won’t."

"Because?"

"Because this sight should be enough to disconcert even the most stubborn or stupid peasant to even try."

"Indeed."

"A ruler should have no reason to go so far as to pass legislation making people who try to plant grapes on these lands criminals, unless?"

"... There was a valid reason besides the obvious one or the simplest one, such as the ruler of the land having something personal against grapes or people trying to plant grapes."

"Exactly... … I’ve come to think of it and-" Suddenly, as we spoke, the carriage came to a halt, "It seems we have arrived. We’ll continue this talk another day." She said as she prepared herself to leave the carriage.

"Welcome back, Lady Mathilda," a familiar voice greeted us the moment we opened the carriage door.

Amidst the falling snow, awaiting us outside the carriage holding an umbrella was a woman I got to see at many reprises.

"It’s nice to see, you too, my friend." Madam Mathilda said as she approached the woman she called Lidy, embracing her.

She was Lidy, the former governess of the house, but most importantly to Madam, she was a loyal follower who was also, as she put it, a "friend."

Once they finished greeting each other, Madam Mathilda, looked at the structure in front of us, a giant fortress, "It has been a while since I’ve been here." she said with nostalgia.

"Almost forty years. My lady. "

"... I see, that much time has already gone by."

So in meantime, my lady.

"Nostalgia, aside, My Lady, I think we should head inside. We are not as young as we used to be anymore."

A smile that one doesn’t see very often appeared on her face, "I guess you’re right."