Chapter 9: Find a new good girl
Liang Lai blinked at Duoluosa and made a goofy face.
Duoluosa’s crying stopped abruptly.
She saw Liang Lai’s blood-stained lips moving, as if saying something.
At the 250th step, Liang Lai’s vision blurred.
Warm liquid trickled from the corner of her eye.
She couldn’t tell if it was blood or tears.
A sudden gasp rose from the crowd.
The bloodstains beneath her feet began to glow.
They formed small cross patterns.
“Stigmata!”
An old believer shouted.
“She bears holy wounds!”
Liang Lai heard none of it.
Instead, the Old Church Tongue passage Duoluosa taught her that morning echoed in her ears:
“Love is patient, love is compassionate…”
At the final step, Liang Lai fell to her knees.
But she struggled back to her feet.
She turned and saluted the judges.
“Thank you all…”
Thank you for forcing her to face reality.
For making her see this transmigration wasn’t a joke or a tourist trip.
She had a burden to carry.
When Duoluosa broke free and rushed to her, Liang Lai could no longer hold on.
She collapsed forward.
The girl caught her with her frail body.
They fell together in a pool of blood.
Duoluosa’s tears fell on Liang Lai’s face.
“Why…”
It was the first time she remembered crying so hard.
Liang Lai cupped Duoluosa’s face with her bloody hands.
Her palms were shredded by the crystals, but her touch was gentle as a feather.
“Because… if even I’m scared, what will those kids do?”
Something shattered in Duoluosa’s chest.
She looked at her fingertips.
They had crystallized at some point.
The spikes that once pierced Blue Robe Inquisitors softened now, turning into gentle points of light.
Liang Lai’s blood stained her face, burning like a molten sun.
She lacked the strength to act now.
If she caused trouble, she’d implicate the Saintess before her.
“I hate them.”
Duoluosa buried her face in Liang Lai’s neck, her voice muffled.
“I hate them so much…”
Liang Lai stroked her back, humming a tuneless ballad.
The crowd began to whisper.
Some wiped away tears secretly.
Even Margaret turned her face away.
Something was breaking.
When the medical priest arrived, Liang Lai was nearly unconscious.
But she clung tightly to Duoluosa’s hand.
“Come with me… I’m worried about you… being alone…”
Duoluosa ran after the stretcher.
She saw strange changes in the soles of Liang Lai’s feet.
The crystal fragments embedded in her flesh were melting.
They formed a crystalline film over the wounds.
“You’ll be fine…”
Duoluosa pressed Liang Lai’s hand to her face.
Late at night in the medical room, Duoluosa slept beside Liang Lai’s bed.
Her fingertips were tangled in a lock of Liang Lai’s silver hair, as if it were her only anchor.
Moonlight filtered through the stained glass, casting mottled shadows on her face.
Liang Lai half-woke from the pain.
She felt something warm against her palm.
She tilted her head slightly.
Traces of tears lingered on Duoluosa’s sleeping face.
Between their clasped hands, a small crystal cornflower bloomed.
“Hmm~”
Liang Lai sighed softly.
“It seems my script isn’t a simple isekai adventure.”
“This kind of world isn’t much fun…”
“I feel like I’ll die if I keep going like this.”
She shifted her shoulders gently.
Her wounds had nearly healed.
That was the perk of most isekai worlds: non-fatal wounds healed fast with enough money for medicine.
‘I was too impulsive today,’ Liang Lai thought.
She’d oversimplified things.
The sudden transmigration didn’t feel real, so she spoke without thinking.
She forgot this world’s rigid class system.
Forgot this wasn’t a video game.
“Don’t take risks like this again…”
“If you die, you’ll drag others down…”
Her gaze fell on Duoluosa.
She sighed softly.
“And innocent kids would get caught up.”
Liang Lai felt Duoluosa’s life had been hard enough.
Abandoned by her birth parents, taken to the Underground Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary recognized her abilities and kept her.
Liang Lai didn’t know what lay inside, but she’d heard those who entered rarely returned.
Something terrifying lurked there, revered by the Darkkin, feared by the Church.
“If I only have one child, her chances of becoming Pope are too slim.”
Liang Lai’s body ached from lying too long.
She threw off the quilt and shuffled to the window in her slippers.
Her hands rested on the cold windowsill.
She tilted her head, gazing at the moon.
“I need to go out more, find some new good kids.”
Duoluosa woke as morning light filtered through the medical room’s gauze curtains.
“We’re going to the market today!”
Liang Lai announced.
“I heard there are birds that breathe fire.”
Duoluosa was instantly alert.
“But your injuries…”
“Good morning~”
Liang Lai spun on the spot.
Her holy robe’s hem flared like a lotus.
“Our Saintess’s physique is top-notch.”
She didn’t mention she’d secretly used her crystallization ability at midnight to mend her deepest wounds.
Spiderweb-like golden lines still traced the soles of her feet.
The market was livelier than expected.
Vendors selling honey swarmed among colorful tents.
Trained birds circled overhead, sprinkling scented gold dust.
Duoluosa clutched Liang Lai’s sleeve tightly.
Her eyes sparkled like stars.
“Try this.”
Liang Lai popped a color-changing candy into Duoluosa’s mouth.
Suddenly, screams erupted from a dark alley.
Liang Lai pushed through the crowd.
She saw five or six Dustfolk children throwing stones at a wall’s corner.
A small girl huddled in the shadows, head in her hands.
Her shadow rippled irregularly, like boiling water.
“Stop!”
Liang Lai’s scolding carried a Saintess’s majesty.
The children scattered, leaving the trembling girl alone.
Duoluosa grabbed the hem of Liang Lai’s robe.
“Her shadow…”
Liang Lai had already knelt down.
She touched the girl’s shoulder.
The girl looked up, revealing light green eyes with five-pointed star pupils.
Stranger still, Liang Lai saw a half-withered hand extend from the girl’s shadow.
It quickly retracted.
She’d read about shadow-dwelling creatures in this world’s books.
They were called Darkkin.
“What’s your name?”
Liang Lai asked softly, her fingers quietly forming a purifying seal.
The girl’s lips moved a few times.
She fainted in Liang Lai’s arms.
Her shadow calmed instantly, as if the disturbance was an illusion.
Duoluosa frowned at the black slime left on the ground.
“We have to take her back.”
Liang Lai lifted the feather-light girl.
“She needs…”
“Are you adopting this weird one too?”