Chapter 5: sister obsession
It turned out Duoluosa was overthinking.
At that moment, Liang Lai lay sprawled in a starfish shape, fast asleep on her bed.
She was practically glued to her pillow.
Liang Lai slept all the sleep Duoluosa didn’t.
The next morning, Liang Lai took Duoluosa’s hand to register her.
Along the way, Duoluosa gripped Liang Lai’s hand tightly, nervous.
She no longer minded Liang Lai’s touch.
She even wanted to be held, to bury her face in that soft chest.
“This child is so scared.”
“She must have suffered so much.”
Liang Lai still thought this, noticing nothing amiss.
While morning dew still clung to the rose window, Liang Lai stood before the stained-glass door of the Holy Favor Registry, holding Duoluosa’s hand.
The circular building, called the Dew Archives, was covered in luminescent vines.
Each leaf rustled in the morning breeze, recording the names of clergymen.
“Third Saintess.”
The registrar, in a mint-green robe, looked up from a pile of parchment.
A crystal monocle perched on his nose.
“The adoption process requires…”
“I know, I know!”
“We need to test the crystal resonance!”
Liang Lai rushed to answer.
Her fingers unconsciously twirled the ends of her hair.
Last night, she’d secretly read the Regulations on Adoption of Priests.
She learned the adopted person’s blood must produce a halo reaction on the holy crystal.
Duoluosa suddenly clutched the belt of Liang Lai’s holy robe.
She buried her small face in Liang Lai’s arms.
The inspection table was carved from a single moonstone.
A silver plate shaped like a little angel sat on it.
Liang Lai thought it looked familiar.
Then she noticed sharp teeth in the angel’s open mouth, like spooky decorations from the hardware store near her old apartment complex.
“Please have this person…”
The registrar glanced at Duoluosa.
“…drop their blood in the center of the holy plate.”
Duoluosa’s body jolted violently.
Liang Lai felt a sharp pain at her waist.
Looking down, she saw the girl’s brow furrowed, her back arched like a bristling cat.
Just as Liang Lai wondered what to do, the crystal wind chimes at the door jingled.
The air filled with the scent of cedar and myrrh.
Thirteen priests in red robes filed in.
The crosses on their foreheads dazzled.
The hems of their robes were embroidered with blood-red thorn patterns.
The Crimson Bishops.
“Today, we’re checking adopters’ qualifications,” the lead bishop said, his voice like rusted gears.
“Please cooperate.”
Before Liang Lai could react, Duoluosa was lifted into the air by an invisible force.
The bishop pressed a black crystal cross to the girl’s forehead.
A bloodshot eye opened in the cross’s center.
Its gaze rolled around, then fixed on Liang Lai.
“Third Saintess, you…”
“I found her behind the confessional!” Liang Lai blurted out.
“In that utility room where the brooms are kept!”
After speaking, she wanted to slap herself.
Her lie was worse than a delivery guy bluffing past a community gate guard.
The bishops chuckled mechanically.
The air froze.
The Inquisitors’ masks suddenly turned toward the gate in unison.
Liang Lai followed their gaze and nearly bit her tongue.
Pope Alphonsus VII stood in the shadow of the porch.
His crystallized fingers rested on the doorframe, reflecting rainbow-like flecks of light.
He wasn’t in a sedan chair today.
The hem of his white robe was stained with morning dew, as if he’d been out for a stroll.
Duoluosa began to tremble.
Liang Lai noticed the gleam in the girl’s blue eyes spreading rapidly.
Stranger still, when the Pope’s gaze swept over Duoluosa’s collarbone, the crystal on his right pinky finger cracked.
“Continue.”
The Pope’s voice sounded like it came through frosted glass.
As he turned, his white robe fluttered.
Liang Lai caught a glimpse of a crescent birthmark on the back of his neck.
The edges of the Pope’s birthmark were crystallizing.
‘That birthmark… I’ve seen it somewhere.’
The bishops bowed in unison.
The eye in the black crystal snapped shut.
When the Pope’s footsteps faded completely, the registrar grabbed the seal with trembling hands.
“Since the Pope has spoken, here is your adoption certificate.”
Liang Lai took the gilded parchment in a daze.
She noticed a line of small text on the back:
[The adopter, the Third Saintess, must feed the adopted person with her own blood every day for thirty new moon nights.]
She glanced at Duoluosa.
The girl stared in the direction the Pope had left.
An emotion Liang Lai couldn’t decipher flickered in her blue eyes.
“Come on, little ancestor.”
Liang Lai ruffled Duoluosa’s hair, mimicking a tone she’d seen in a short video.
“Mom’s taking you to eat ice cream… uh, I mean, light honey jelly here?”
For some reason, Duoluosa’s lips curled uncontrollably.
“Strange person…”
Her tone was oddly lively, though she didn’t notice.
At the corridor’s corner, the Pope stood in the light of a stained-glass window.
His crystal fingers caught a ray of silver light from Duoluosa’s birthmark.
His cracked pinky finger healed silently.
He took a long look at the two figures in the distance, then left.
Liang Lai bought two light honey jellies.
She gave one to Duoluosa and held the other, eating with relish.
‘Ahh~ I’m no longer that poor priest.’
‘I’m a wealthy Saintess now.’
‘I can eat whatever I want.’
‘This feels so good~’
It seemed to be Duoluosa’s first time trying it.
She shivered after one bite.
“This is… so cold.”
Hearing her tone, Liang Lai briefly thought Duoluosa was menstruating.
She smugly praised her own cleverness.
‘A grown man turned woman, yet I’m already thinking of such things. Impressive!’
“Oh, does your stomach hurt?”
“If it does, give me that…”
Liang Lai reached for the jelly, but Duoluosa dodged her grasp.
The smooth move stunned them both.
Liang Lai realized her mistake.
She withdrew her hand awkwardly, scratching her head.
“Ah, I thought your stomach hurt, and you didn’t want to eat.”
“If you like it, I’ll buy another.”
“But don’t eat too much.”
“Kids get sick easily from too much cold food…”
Duoluosa felt her face heat up.
A strange feeling stirred in her.
The first time she’d felt this way.
It irritated her inexplicably.
“No, I’m not craving it.”
“No… I mean, it’s delicious, but no need for another.”
Liang Lai stared at the child, dazed.
She pursed her lips, then rubbed Duoluosa’s head firmly.
‘What an awkward little thing.’
“Alright~ I’ll take you to eat other tasty stuff later~”
The silver-haired girl’s smile caught Duoluosa’s eye.
She suddenly found her so dazzling it almost burned.
She quickly turned her head away.
At that moment, she recalled something her companions once said:
Kids always have crushes on gentle, beautiful older sisters.