"I'm not coming back to the temple," said Lumi, breaking away from the grasp of the templars. The priests surrounded her, and as they combined their divine powers, they entrapped her with a materialized cage especially fashioned to handle a 'catalyst' like her.
'With all of my efforts to escape, I would just be captured meaninglessly like this!?' Lumi bit her lips to the point of bleeding as golden chains wrapped around her body.
'Why did I even try?' Lumi parted her lips, looking at the sky with her blue eyes filling with unadulterated rage.
"I hate you," she screamed to the sky, thinking about that single entity who has made her life miserable.
"I fucking hate you!"
She then struggled to smother the chains, causing her hands to bleed; her screams grew louder and louder as she began to cry and scream endlessly until her voice was hoarse.
"I will kill you," she said to the light her blurry eyes see, "…empyrean goddess!"
.
.
.
Lumi's eyes shot open as she immediately sat down, with her breaths coming out in gasps. Cold sweat trickled down to her forehead as her vision adjusts.
"Where…" Lumi looked around, "am I…?"
She was now sitting on a bed amid the darkness. As she scanned the vicinity, she was able to surmise that her current location is in an inn.
She wasn't back in the temple.
Lumi looked down at her trembling hands. She held her wrist to stop the uncontrollable shaking as she tried to regulate her breathing.
"…I'm still free."
There was no way that the temple would catch her. She has Siegren.
'Siegren!' Lumi's eyes widened, realizing it.
'That's right. Siegren caught me from falling…'
"Then after that…" Lumi blinked. "What happened after that?"
She could remember it perfectly. The templars found her just in time when she exhausted her mana. However, when she fell, she found herself in the arms of that person.
Siegren.
Lumi then stood up, with body still aching from the overuse of mana and being tossed here and there, which is something she isn't used to.
"Siegren?" Lumi called, looking around as she searches for any signs of him in the place.
Five minutes of searching for any clues…
Lumi cannot find anything at all.
There was no trace of Siegren left in the room. Lumi then stared at the side of the bed, where a small shawl was folded.
**
The door of the room closed behind Lumi. As she fixed her shawl to cover her face, she got out of the room and then went to the room beside if.
"If I remember it correctly, I know his room's the same as mine back then…" Lumi thought.
She then knocked on the room next door, waiting for a response.
Another knock.
Silence.
Another.
But there was nothing. As Lumi went to open the door, "hey. That's an empty room."
"A-ah! Huh?" Lumi scowled as she turned around to the housekeeper who passed by.
"Did you get into the wrong room? I was about to clean that." The housekeeper said, going to the room beside Lumi as she opens the door with a key.
"Um, is there…" The housekeeper then faced the girl who called upon her attention.
"Is there a person who used this room the same time as I did?"
"Oh, do you mean the fellow with the cloak?"
Lumi's face lit up. "Yes! Yes. That person. May I know where he is?"
"He left about several hours ago," said the maid.
"What?"
**
'I can't believe Siegren left.'
Lumi stared at the skies from the window of the opened inn. As she let the breeze pass through the room, she felt a bit… hopeless.
"He could've said a word. Or left a note. Or something." Lumi murmured.
Of course, she hasn't experienced those things—being locked in a temple. But she has seen the other priests writing to their families. Through other people, she was able to see a glimpse of what the outside world was like.
"He didn't have to leave like that."
Lumi sighed.
"But is this revenge? Is it because I left without a word and tried to ditch him…?" Lumi looked sideways, "ah… that's a valid reason to leave me."
Silence.
The town was noisy, even in the evening. The people down below were scattered. Lumi could hear people selling wares and even ointment to the injured. From the far distance, she could also hear buildings being rebuilt.
"Hmm…" Lumi stared at the moon, who was almost at its full peak. "I guess the king of this country does care about his people, seeing how quick they are to respond to the needs of the citizens…"
**
"Thank you for coming to our inn."
Lumi nodded, before she exited the premise.
Shawled in a brown scarf, Lumi went out of the inn and then into the roads of the town she had gone, carrying only a duffel of the essentials she was able to buy from the people of the inn.
"What now?" Lumi stared the road ahead of her.
"Do I go to Hescurg?" She whispered to herself.
The deal she made with Siegren… "That's right. I already fulfilled my part of the deal. I helped him with what he was searching for."
Lumi tightened her grip around the strap of her duffel bag.
'Isn't this unfair?'
Lumi looked down.
From here on now, she was on her own. She was going to get to Hescurg by herself.
Lumi then slapped her cheeks, breathing deeply as she stares at the road before her.
"I can make it. On my own. I can do it."
As Lumi made the first step, she felt her chest sting as uncertainty clouded her mind.
"Can I really…"
Lumi bit stared at her vision blurring.
"Can I really make it on my own, though?"
Does she have to deal with the people from before? But even then, she wasn't able to defend herself properly.
Even if she was raised as a powerful tool—
She was still an 18 year old girl who doesn't know anything about the outside world.
Lumi felt her vision blurring up as tears loomed on the corner of her eyes.
"Lumi?"
Lumi blinked, turning around immediately as soon as she heard a voice calling her name.
Then, she saw his familiar figure coming to light.
Like a child lost, Lumi ran towards him without second thought.
"I—" Lumi then saw his confused expression, which made her swallow her words. "I… I went f-for a stroll. You know. Uhm… so…"
"Where were you?" Lumi asked.
Siegren then looked down to Lumi without a hint of emotion in his eyes.
'Use her.'
"Siegren?"
"We should go to town," he said.
"H-huh? Why?"
"Supplies." He said, walking past her. "For our trip to Hescurg."
Lumi's face brightened up as she ran to follow him.
Siegren stared at the road ahead.
'Use her.' He thought.
'What a ridiculous thought.'