Tie’s tightly clenched fists trembled.

"People who awaken both holy power and magic at the same time? Rare. Out of everyone I know, only Tie and Tesetan."

"The little one’s an exception since she inherited the World Tree’s power. But the vice squad leader just got lucky. Can someone really be born like that?"

"Who knows. I don’t know if there’s anyone else like me. And even if there is, they probably wouldn’t show it. People say awakening two powers at once is a bad omen."

The voices she had heard during the journey echoed through her mind.

"Aunt Ribia, why can’t Tie heal people? Tie has holy power now. She can heal!"

"Mm, well... Ah, young miss. There are things like that. Things people think are better kept hidden."

"What things?"

"Well, young miss is already known as a mage, right? The child who awakened dark magic. So... Ahh, how am I supposed to explain this? Allerik! Come over here. Young miss wants to ask you something!"

Back then, Ribia had ultimately avoided giving an answer.

And when Allerik came afterward, all he did was awkwardly scratch the back of his head, unable to explain properly either.

But looking at the reactions of those two, Tie had vaguely begun to understand.

"People... don’t like it."

Children born with two opposing powers at once.

Magic and holy power.

And the more she remembered their journey, the clearer that feeling became.

"I’m originally from the Northern Continent. It was even worse there."

Back when they spent their days laying siege after siege and sleeping in camps every other night.

"I was walking through an alley one day and saw a child crying in the middle of the street. On his wrist, a white holy mark and a dark blue magic seal were glowing at the same time."

After sunset, the squad members would gather around the campfire.

And they would pass the time telling stories they had heard or experienced themselves.

Tie had liked those evenings.

The moment she started listening to the voices drifting through the flames, she would almost immediately fall asleep.

"Was the problem that the power awakened too early?"

"Who knows. Maybe it was because both magic and holy power awakened at once. Did the parents abandon him?"

"Abandon or sell him... On the Northern Continent, children like that usually get handed over to the temple. And the reason, well, everybody knows it. ‘Bad omen.’"

That night, Tie had a nightmare.

In the dream, a child crouched beside an old wall and cried.

Clutching the wrist where both the holy mark and magic seal glowed together, the child looked around fearfully.

The next morning, Tie kept thinking about it while eating breakfast.

‘That’s strange.’

Why was it considered a bad omen?

Didn’t awakening power mean you had been chosen?

"Yeah, yeah. Even children can awaken power."

And if someone possessed both holy power and magic, didn’t that just mean they would become twice as strong?

But no matter how many days she thought about it, she couldn’t find an answer.

Because the world thought differently.

"Even in the Empire, mages born into Holy Knight families are branded as bad omens!"

Bale’s words.

"They say it brings misfortune. That because the child was born with two powers at once, they’ll eventually destroy their loved ones one by one."

"When power awakens that early, it really is alarming. The people around them might not be able to handle it."

"And what age does power usually awaken? Around ten years old?"

"Probably. Earlier than that is considered dangerous. A lot of people think children like that can’t grow up properly."

And the words she had overheard from the squad members.

Children born with magic in Holy Knight families.

Children born with holy power among mages.

Children born with both powers at once.

And children like Tie, whose power awakened far too early.

The world stamped all of them with the same label.

Bad omen.

People hated them with disturbing intensity.

And rejected them just as fiercely.

"...The church."

At last, Tie understood why.

‘The church made it all happen.’

The final missing piece clicked into place inside her head.

‘The church did all of this!’

Tie abruptly raised her head.

‘If power awakens too early, it’s dangerous, people can’t handle it. All of that...!’

Lucarion’s lips slowly parted.

"They say purification is necessary. That the power needs to be stabilized at the temple and all that."

The children the world called bad omens.

Tie could now see clearly that they were exactly the children the church needed most.

Because Luciano experimented on children like them.

And the experiments took many forms.

He could corrupt a child’s holy power.

Or mix it with magic and destroy the balance.

Lucarion frowned.

"...Then children whose power awakened too early were also branded as ominous."

"..."

"Because that made them easier to obtain?"

Thinking about it, it wasn’t surprising at all.

The temple was a massive organization.

Especially after the appearance of Magic Crystals, its influence had only grown stronger.

People believed the church alone could stop what was happening.

That Luciano, hailed as the greatest Pope in history, would one day purify the World Tree.

And when that happened, the Magic Crystals would disappear and this age of darkness would finally end.

In a situation like that, every word spoken by the Pope was probably treated as absolute law.

"Children whose power awakens too early must be sent to the temple. They are impure."

"Children whose powers appear outside the proper order require purification, so send them to the temple."

Parents of low birth abandoned their children without much hesitation.

Now that everyone was struggling because of the Magic Crystals, sending away a child who might one day become a burden was the easiest way to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

The nobles were no different.

If anything, people of high status probably handed over their children without the slightest hesitation.

They didn’t know what was happening on the Central Continent.

And if something happened to the child, the temple merely announced that a tragic accident had occurred during the purification ritual.

‘Then the family left behind... can’t do anything.’

Tie sniffled as she remembered Valentis and her uncles.

‘They can’t even tell anyone about it....’

From the very beginning, this had been a secret nobody was allowed to speak of.

Slowly, everything began connecting together.

Why there were so few children in the world born with two powers.

Why children whose powers awakened too early were almost never seen.

‘They took all of them....’

Tie clenched her fists tightly.

‘They secretly sent them all to the Central Continent this whole time....’

The Pilgrimage Corps.

Creak—

The wooden door quietly opened.

Tie stepped into the dark room where no lights were lit.

Outside the window—

Gray smoke still billowed from the diocesan building.

The fire Valentis had started still hadn’t been extinguished.

And then—

"...Tie."

A candle lit up in the corner of the room.

Tears instantly welled in Tie’s eyes.

“Papaaa....”

Tie dropped her bag and ran straight toward Tesetan, throwing her arms tightly around him.

Startled, Tesetan gently patted her back.

“What happened to our little girl? Are you alright? Hm?”

With her face buried in his chest, leaving damp tear stains on his clothes, Tie looked up at him.

Then she carefully pulled something out from inside her uniform.

A transparent bottle filled with white powder.

Tesetan’s eyes widened.

“You did it. You got the medicine.”

Tie nodded.

At that moment, the other squad members appeared in the doorway.

“Little one! Why were you gone so long? We were starting to worry.”

“What matters is that you came back safely. Nothing happened, right?”

“Young miss, why are you crying? Kkamani, what in the world happened?”

“Ribia. Quiet.”

Bale, Basto, Ribia, and Allerik.

Tie quickly wiped her tears away as she looked at the squad members.

Then she tried to speak—

But stopped.

‘How am I supposed to explain this....?’

She wanted to tell them everything she had learned underground, but her lips refused to move.

‘Because all of it is connected to Papa.’

The truth she had uncovered cut far too deeply into Tesetan himself.

‘The reason Papa suffered all this time, and the reason he lost control... all of it....’

Tie sniffled again, nearly bursting into tears.

“For now.”

Lucarion stepped forward after reading the expression on her face.

“Let’s examine the medicine first. We don’t have time.”

The squad members hesitantly nodded.

And at that moment, Marbas—who had been lying on the bed disguised as Tie until now—with a pop returned to his original form.

“Leave it to me! I—”

But in the very next instant—

Creeeak—

A strange sound suddenly cut through the room.

The squad members, their senses sharpened, instantly turned their heads toward the door.

Creak— creak—

Bale’s expression froze.

“Wait.”

Someone was walking down the second floor hallway of the Pilgrimage Corps building straight toward them.

But they hadn’t heard any door open.

Nor any footsteps outside.

“Ribia. Draw your sword.”

Tesetan set Tie down in a chair, his expression darkening.

Creeeeak—

The footsteps stopped directly in front of the door.