"Truly, the body is the same, yet the soul bears no resemblance to its owner."
The man's words are like a riddle. A riddle that was so obvious to the one it talked about. It made Mona tremble a bit. This gentle-looking guy seems to have an idea of what happened.
In this world, Luna was tagged as a criminal, and evil, although Mona does not know exactly why that is, having incarnated into her body may bring danger in the future if she ever survives this meeting. The people will surely maltreat her.
So, if Mona was given a chance to escape that, she'd take it. But who would believe her if she said something like she's just an outsider and a different soul that just so happened to inhabit Luna's body? And now someone has appeared and said those words.
Mona had decided. She gulped before confirming what the long white-haired man asserted.
"How....did you know that?"
"Hmm. Responding like that....is like you are admitting you are not the real Lady Evangeline." The golden-haired guy answered her instead.
Mona looked at him while fighting the urge to cover her eyes because the man was so bright! She wanted to stare and admire his face more, but ever since she was young, she had a condition where her eyes hurt with even just a glare of brightness. It isn't to the point of having photophobia, maybe just a bit of light sensitivity. She was the kind of person who preferred darkness more than light.
"Yes. I'm not."
"Isn't it obvious? She did not even bow to you, nor fear your presence, Your Majesty." The Grand Duke pointed out. "Even the lady knows fear towards her king."
Mona agreed with that. But instead of nodding, she just gaped at the man beside the Grand Duke.
'So, that was the king!'
How young and dashingly handsome! Mona originally thought the king was the one who recognized her soul, and the blonde lady beside him was the queen. And so, the guy beside the Grand Duke is their son, since he has the eyes and the hair of the two mentioned earlier. Because of that knowledge, Mona didn't know if she should bow and greet him or just ignore it.
The king smiled and stroked his chin. "Lady Evangeline is a master of her craft. How could we say she wasn't just pretending?"
"There is a way to find out." The white-haired man, whose name was still unknown, responded.
The blonde lady, who was only observing everything from her seat stood up and took something out of her sleeves. Now that she was closer, Mona somehow thought their clothing resembled the clothing of ancient China.
She focused her gaze on the thing the blonde lady put on the table. It was a white crystal ball the size of a large apple. It doesn't have any base or podium, and the only thing keeping it from rolling away is the golden cloth that was used as its cover. But when the lady's hands left the crystal, the crystal's color became brownish.
Mona can't help but be amazed and wonder. It's like witnessing high-class magic right before her eyes. She can't even believe that such things could exist. She thought of preparing herself for seeing weirder and out-of-her-world surprises.
The golden blonde lady then uttered. "This is an ancient relic created by the first highest priest and was used for identifying the child of God back then. It has the ability to show the soul's nature."
'Even her voice is so somber.' Mona thought.
Everyone except Mona, who doesn't belong in that world, knew the history of the Great Seeker of God's Child. It was about the highest priest who devoted himself to creating the crystal upon receiving a revelation that God's child had descended on the land.
After completing it, he traveled the entire world asking every person he met to lay their hands on the crystal ball. But the priest died at the hands of the robbers instead. Because of this, a rumor spread that the priest was punished for daring to seek God's child, but a day after his death, the crystal ball was seen on the altar of the first temple of the Holy Nation, giving off bright golden hues everywhere.
Those who have seen the spectacle all said they felt enlightenment. And from that day onward, the ball was treated as a divine relic.
"An ordinary human, without mana or divinity, can only produce a brownish color, which means not much deviation from the original color." The lady continued. "Blue signifies possessing mana, white is divine, and black means dark mana. The thicker the color, the higher the level."
"The original owner of that body wields dark mana. So, it should be black." Said the man beside her.
Mona was confused about one thing, so she raised her hands gathering their attention on her.
"You said the ability is to know the soul's nature. But why mana is involved? Isn't mana about magic?"
"I commend such great acting prowess from the lady." The king butted in, probably thinking that she was just acting stupid, so Mona answered immediately.
"I wasn't acting."
While the Grand Duke looked so bored in life, he was the one who answered her instead.
"A human soul is the core of the body where mana resides. So long as one has a soul, mana can be attained by the body. Brownish colors don't necessarily mean ordinary, it only means the mana inside the body is dormant."
"And since the core is the soul, mana develops regarding the nature of the soul." The white-haired guy added. "Originally there are only three natures. Divine, good, and evil. The bluish color only stemmed from the mixing of mana from generation to generation. After all, a normal human is a combination of good and evil."
Mona was focused on the conversation until she heard the result of white and black was blue. She pressed her fingers on her temple helplessly. Which the rest misunderstood as her having headaches about all the explanations.
"What? Didn't get it?"
She glared at the Grand Duke. Who just leaned back in his seat and folded his arms.
"See, Your Majesty? Lady Evangeline is not stupid."
"Hey!"
"Why don't you try touching the crystal ball?" The blonde lady interrupted.
She looked at the ball and started to walk closer to the table. Mona reached her hand and laid it on the crystal. She was nervous. What if it produces a blackish color? They would believe she really was just acting and claim that she's still the noble lady
But then a white smoke slowly enveloped the crystal inside and it became brighter and thicker until the crystal ball was glowing white. Mona was relieved and ecstatic. She proved her identity! She wasn't evil!
Her vision was filled with the brightness of the crystal, and it hurt her eyes so bad she had to close it completely.
And once again, darkness prevailed.
Though Mona knew where it would take her...
***
A burning place.
Embers of fire fluttered everywhere.
Shouts and cries were overcome by the huge flickers of fire creeping on the entire mansion. The heat waves didn't harm Mona, so she walked around. Looking if there is something or someone she could recognize.
In actuality, she was looking for Luna. She already realized whenever darkness pulled her, it showed a memory belonging to her landlady. She called her landlady because she's technically living on Luna's properties.
She walked and walked unconsciously bringing herself inside. Even the inside of the mansion was engulfed in fire. She saw a few dead bodies collapse on the floor but ignored it. She can't do anything anyway.
She went upstairs, and in the hallway leading to the bedrooms, there she found the woman she was looking for.
Luna was dragging an unconscious woman out of a room. The surroundings were on fire, but she didn't even flinch at the flickers and embers that got in her way. She was entirely covered in black.
Mona approached and realized the black covering her was darkness. It was like a living being slithering and creeping everywhere, it was the one actually dragging the knocked-out woman. She followed Luna and saw her heading to an open balcony.
She witnessed how Luna used her dark magic to drag and lift the woman, then carefully laid her down on the ground beneath where the fire was not present. After laying her down, she ran back quickly and entered another room, dragged another person, and so on. It repeated many times.
Luna saved plenty of people on that fire using her magic. Without even resting, or wiping her ash-covered face. She roamed the mansion looking for survivors and took them out of that place that bathed in fire.
If so, why was she convicted and proven guilty of arson? Is there an arsonist who would set a house aflame and then save its inhabitants?
Is there a criminal who frantically saves people that maltreated them? A murderer who risks their own life, and keeps saving others over and over again?
Mona knew one thing. She doesn't know this world. She doesn't know about magic or mana or whatever. She knows no one here. So, she never doubted all their verdict, words, and beliefs because she was just a newcomer.
But somehow, she was convinced that her landlady wasn't evil.
***
When her senses came back, everyone in the room was in utter silence. Mona thought it was perhaps because of the result. The crystal was glowing radiantly. As radiant as when the blonde lady touched it earlier.
She ignored them and took back her hand.
The first one to break the silence was the white-haired man. "Of course. For someone who was the subject of prophecy, this amount of divinity is only reasonable."
"The prophecy...." The king murmured.
"Yes, your Majesty. It said a flower would bloom from a rotten seed, and that flower would bring forth peace upon darkness."
"According to the oracle who interpreted the revelation, the flower would be a woman and the rotten seed pertains to a decaying life." The blonde lady explained. "And based on what I foresaw, even before the execution, the convicted lady had already died by strangulation. But hearing that the execution would still commence, I figured something happened to the lady's body because my visions had never been wrong. That is why we fled here right away."
"I see. So, Lady Evangeline was already dead and then came back to life, but has become another person already."
"That's right, your Majesty."
Mona was silent. She was only listening to them after witnessing another memory. She could feel an intense gaze directed at her. She looked up and met the gaze of the Grand Duke. Far from being so bored an hour ago, the Grand Duke was observing her and focusing on her.
On normal days, Mona would have squealed and blushed to find out she was being stared at by a handsome man, but her heart right now was so broken by the unfairness Luna had experienced.
She bowed her head and clenched her fist. Then took a deep breath before firing them a question.
"Did you also use this thing on Lady Evangeline?"
The question took them aback. No one was able to answer immediately.
Except for that one priest behind the blonde lady. "There is no need to use a divine relic to know the lady's core nature."
Ah.
Mona realized.
"Instead, since it was proven that you are not her. Tell us your name."
She lifted her head and faced them.
"My name...is Luna Evangeline. Nice meeting you, everyone."
Mona smiled derisively after greeting them. The smile she always gave to someone she was going to mess up.