Now lying in bed, Lilian found herself deep in thought. It had been so long since she'd set foot outside the church grounds. The only times she left were when there were missions, and even then, those didn't feel like true moments of freedom. It was different from actually going out because you wanted to, without orders, without burdens, without blood on your hands.
Unlike Sylvia, who had been raised inside the church since she was a baby, Lilian spent the first twelve years of her life with her family. She missed them dearly. She hadn't seen them once since her test. Not even a single letter. Not a glimpse of their faces. No visits were allowed, no exceptions made.
She missed her old friends in her hometown. She missed their mansion, its old stone walls and warm kitchen. She missed going to the market with her mother, picking different sweets and chocolates. She missed playing by the lake, chasing dragonflies and skipping stones across the water until sundown. She missed so many things. The taste of her favorite honey tarts, the sound of the village festival drums, the scent of fresh bread in the morning.
Most of all, she missed what it felt like to be free.
Although Lilian sometimes thought the church wasn't so bad, since there were still people she cared about here, like Sylvia, her priest friends like Emma, and the friendly deaconesses who always offered her extra biscuits during afternoon tea, and most importantly she meet him here...
That man ,Rin.
"I wonder what he's doing right now,"
Lilian murmured quietly into the darkness of her room.
It was a strange habit. Ever since that night, she found herself thinking about him without realizing it.
What became of him after that? Was he alright now? Was he still hiding somewhere in the city, or had he left far away? Come to think of it, today was Saturday night.
The same day of the week she had met him. Maybe that was why she was feeling restless.
Without thinking too deeply, Lilian grabbed a shawl and threw it over her shoulders. She left her room quietly, using a teleportation spell to slip out unseen. It wasn't even that late ,only around half past seven, and there were still people awake in the church. But she didn't want to be questioned.
She appeared inside the old, abandoned temple and looked around. It was quiet, just as it always was. Dust hung in the air like thin mist, and the light from the half-moon shone through the cracked ceiling.
For a while, she stood there, her hand clutching the shawl at her chest like she was expecting something. Or someone.
"What am I doing?"
she whispered to herself.
It wasn't like Rin was here. She knew that. It wasn't like she even had a reason to see him. And yet… she kind of wanted to.
Her thoughts drifted back to that night. Rin's face flashed in her mind ,covered in blood, panting, desperate. The look in his eyes. There had been something raw about him. Something dangerous, and yet… it didn't frighten her the way it should have. Instead, it stirred something inside her.
"Ugh! What am I thinking?"
Lilian groaned, covering her face with her hands.
This was understandable though. After all, Lilian was still a nineteen-year-old girl. She had no experience with men, let alone someone like Rin. Every man she met in the church was either old, strict, or obsessed with killing dark mages. Rin was nothing like them.
His appearance alone was something else entirely. Smooth, slightly tan skin. Black hair like a polished black diamond, and blood-red eyes that sent chills down her spine. It was unsettling and beautiful at the same time.
He looked just like the villain in the old fairy tale she loved as a child.
It was a story called
He had black hair, tan skin, red eyes, and a two horns on his head. The demon lord kidnapped the princess because the greedy king had stolen his treasure. When a neighboring prince came to rescue her, the demon lord defeated him and was about to claim justice for himself when, of course, the prince made a miraculous comeback, killed the demon lord, and took the princess back.
Everyone cheered for the prince, but little seven-year-old Lilian cried when the demon lord died.
"It wasn't fair,"
she remembered protesting to her mother, waving the book in frustration.
"The king was the thief, and the demon lord just wanted his treasure back!"
Not satisfied with the ending, she secretly made her own version. She titled it
Ever since then, that character became her ultimate favorite. She had declared back then that one day she would marry someone like that.
And now, all these years later, it didn't seem like her type had changed.