"I don't think so. Because if the Goddess was crying, Noctua would appear. We serve as a guide for Saintesses therefore I don't think that the Goddess cried." Noctua said to Felicia who was taken aback by its answer.
"So you are like some sort of spirit animal?" Felicia asked, trying to forget its words because it's making his head throb. It's too much to handle! She could feel every vein in her brain throbbing from processing too much information about the relationship between this bird and the Saintess.
"Yes. Don't you think you should know this? Noctua's figures are everywhere, especially in the church." The bird said and if she could guess, the expression of the bird was looking at her with its brows furrowed, looking grumpy and annoyed.
"No... But if it's doves, there are doves kept as a symbol of peace everywhere. But you? I don't think so. Even the statues of the Goddess here in the duchy have only doves beside her. Are you really sure that you aren't some kind of a scam?" She asked once again.
"What? Noctua has always been the guardian of the Goddess sent by the Goddess herself!" The bird said as it flapped its wings angrily. Now this sounds alarming to Felicia. There are a lot of things that really didn't make sense and the novel didn't talk about either of these.
After all, it was only about how Felicia tortured the poor woman, Helena and made her look stupid. It's not making sense now for Felicia who had read the whole book without skipping any information.
Except for those treacherous moments between Helena and the Crown Prince. What a pair of hungry hippos, trying to eat each other's mouth. Such cringe cannot be explained by Felicia.
"..." The bird went silent as it flopped its body on the bed, resting or thinking about something. Even Felicia had to sit on her own bed and rethink those times when she had read the novel.
But there is no such thing that tells the readers about this new animal that she had helped, not even with the thought of it becoming a holy spirit sent by the Goddess. Everything was all about how Helena and the Crown Prince tried to push Felicia to her doom.
"Shit..." Felicia muttered when she felt a slight pang on her head, hurting her head. Was it because she forced herself to remember the novel? But why is the novel's content slowly disappearing from her mind?
Is it because she's too busy trying to stay alive that she has forgotten about the contents of the novel?
"Something is really weird. I feel like there's something that I need to discover, especially if it concerns me being the Saintess even though I wasn't born with an ounce of holy powers." Felicia said as she lay down, staring at the top of her bed.
Nothing was coming up inside her pea brain.
"You just need to rest. You used too much of her power that it's depleting you." Noctua said as she observed the woman who was still staring above her, wondering about something.
"If you were the guardian... Then why would they replace you with a dove?" She asked, trying to find an answer while skimming the novel through her head even though it was hurting a lot.
"I don't know. It's been like a hundred years since Noctua has been called." Noctua said as he looked at Felicia who was slowly feeling drowsy. She was yawning, keeping herself awake yet the feeling of exhaustion was too hard for her to resist.
"Sleep. You need it." Noctua said, covering Felicia's eyes using its wing to help Felicia sleep. This made Felicia even more sleepy, finally closed her eyes as her breath became even and stable.
Noctua who noticed that she was already sleeping, stood up from laying on the bed as it flapped its wings and started to fly into the darkest corner of Felicia's room and it was on the top of her dresser. Everyone should not see the Noctua, except for the Saintess.
—
Felicia was in the church, praying in front of the Goddess very seriously. She was kneeling in front of the Goddess with her eyes closed together and hands clasped together. She was muttering something that even she couldn't understand.
"Please... Please... Goddess Kartara... Make the Crown Prince fall for me... I will do anything that you wish for, in exchange for his love. I do not desire anything else in this world rather than the Crown Prince's love." Felicia prayed really hard.
Then all of a sudden, she could feel something washing down her head and saw that it was Helena with a basin and smiled at her evilly. After successfully making Felicia look over her, Helena threw the remaining water from the basin to herself and immediately let herself fall on the ground which made Felicia feel very alarmed.
"Sister... I-I didn't mean to accidentally trip over you but you don't have to do this to me..." Helena cried, acting pitifully while Felicia was taken aback by Helena's scheme. She clearly knew that this was just a ploy to destroy her.
"What did you do?!" Marquis Liam asked, helping Helena to stand up. The Crown Prince arrived at the scene and was shocked to see Helena sobbing and weeping while Felicia was kneeling on the floor.
"What is the meaning of this?" The Crown Prince asked as she pulled Helena to her side and hugged her tightly. "You! You're a monster! How could you do this to your sister!" The Crown Prince added, blaming Felicia who was even more confused.
"I didn't do anything! I swear!" She said, defending herself. "Marquis Liam, aren't we friends? I didn't do anything wrong to her! Please believe me! I really didn't do anything to her!" Felicia said, getting frustrated as she was getting blamed for Helena's scheme.
"Friends? Are you crazy?! With your rotten attitude, you expect us to be friends?! Of course not! You're an absolute disaster that anyone despises! No wonder the Duke hates you!" The Marquis replied to her, making her heart shattered in many pieces.
"You're disgusting! To think that just because you couldn't accept your new sister doesn't mean you have to bully her! I loathe your monstrous behaviour! Helena is too good to have a sister like you!" The crown prince said, protecting Helena in his arms.
"I-It's my fault... Your Highness, if I was careful enough then I wouldn't have been able to accidentally throw water at my sister... It's my fault... Please blame me instead!" Helena pleaded, her eyes were droopy and her lips were quivering, curved downward.
"Please! I beg your pardon! Please listen to me! I really didn't do it—" Before she could even finish her words, a loud thud was heard and Felicia's body landed on the floor while her head looked the other way.
The Crown Prince had slapped her directly in her face, making her cry at how hard the slap was. She was still his fiancee after all, yet she was treated like a commoner—no, much worse than being a slave.
"No! Why did you do that, Your Highness?" Helena yelled, looking at Felicia with a scornful look yet pretending that she was angry because of what the crown prince did. The crown prince shook his head, removing the glove that he used and slapped Felicia across her face.
"It's not your fault, my Lady. It's just because of your sister. Let's go, we can't stay here with this monster." The Crown Prince said as he caressed Helena's cheek and stared at her eyes with a loving expression.
"Let's go before you get contaminated with her. I loathe her after all." The crown Prince added, wrapping his cape over Helena's body as he led her outside.
"Your Highness..." Felicia uttered, watching the Crown Prince leave with his sister once again, glaring at her existence and even cursing her harshly.
"No wonder nobody likes you." The marquis said, smirking as he looked at her with criticism and left, following the Crown Prince and Helena. Their harsh words were making Felicia's state feel more compressed as her self-confidence began to decrease.
Her self-esteem was crushed as a lot of people came after the commotion that happened yet they couldn't even point out that it was Helena who schemes her while she was praying hard in front of the Goddess.
Her heart was clouded with sadness as she stood up and started to run away from the scene, crying because of the humiliation and abuse that they would always pull whenever she was near them.
Her heart couldn't take it anymore, it was dying every day, in her house, outside, and even in the temple where bullying is forbidden. Yet she was also getting mistreated by the priests here, calling her a false Saintess.
She cried miserably as she reached the space where it wasn't allowed for everyone. When she saw a sword stuck in the stone, she ran towards it, held the sword and tried to pull it up.
Using all of her strength, she was able to lift the sword and immediately plunged it deep into her heart, resulting in her falling to the ground with blood gushing out of her body. Her eyes teared up, crying because of how hard it was for her to live.
Maybe disappearing is the best choice. She felt her heart beating slowly as she put her hand on her chest. She could feel a small gem that was coming out from the wound where she had stabbed herself.
She looked at the gem as it was shining brightly, similar to Ruby. Her eyes suddenly closed as her body felt exhausted and overall dead. The pain was vanishing but so did her life, committing suicide inside of the church.
—
"HAAAH! HAAAH!" Felicia woke up and she immediately sat down on her bed, touching her chest as she was breathing heavily. Her body was reacting in a panic mode while her eyes were wide. Her mouth was gaping wide, gasping for air, chasing her own breath.
"What the hell was that?!" She exclaimed, catching up with her breath. That was such a bad dream! What the hell is wrong with that dream of hers?!