By the time I had exited the temple, there was a crowd of people surrounding the entrance grounds. In front of me were men in navy blue uniforms. Had the nearby residents already alerted the royal knights about what I did? I didn't realize it—maybe because of the crazed frenzy I was in—but the temple behind me was burning in flames. The roof of the grand structure caved in on itself as wooden supports and whatnot followed soon after. The knights looked at me with uneasy faces.
"Are you all right?" one of the knights asked. He looked like a tired middle-aged man who had a long day of work. I assumed he thought I was a survivor of the disaster that befell this temple. Far from it.
"It was him!" an old lady yelled. "A young boy with black hair and violet eyes!" She began to hic and cry. "Gods, why did you go back, Arnulf... My Arnulf! What did you do to my dear Arnulf!?"
I didn't respond to her. There were hundreds, if not a couple of thousand, people who were attending whatever congregation was going on inside the temple. I felt guilty that I didn't even bother remembering the faces of any of those people.
"Kid, what did you do?" another knight stepped in and asked.
For a moment, I dared not answer. In that moment of silence, I considered lying. I could've said something along the lines of, "I swear it wasn't me!" or "I'm just a kid! I'm innocent!" But I couldn't bring myself to do that. If there was one thing that Ghislain or Sucaria always told me, it was that I always told the truth no matter what. Maybe this time it would be different, I thought to myself.
But I confessed.
The knights cuffed me in special bindings that restricted my usage of mana. I couldn't have escaped even if I wanted to. As the knights escorted me into a carriage, I could still see the brigade of mages who specialized in water magic, putting out the fire that ravaged the temple. Smoke still filled the sky as snowflakes began to fall slowly.
As we were about to leave, in the corner of my eye, I saw a young girl who was maybe a few years younger than me. She had silky black hair, wore a headdress, and a puffy black dress as if she were attending a funeral. Her gaze was on me, as was everyone else's. The crowd of people looked at me with fear or disgust, somewhere in between, but the girl had a solemn look in her eyes. It felt as if she were assessing me.
I had seen those eyes somewhere before. I think it was when the glass windows from within the temple had shattered from the heat of the fire. I had mistaken the sound of exploding glass for somebody casting a spell. When I turned to it, I saw a violet light shining within the broken and fractured window. The light was from the very eyes I called my own. Now, I was seeing that same glint come from the gaze of that girl.
As she looked away, the carriage took off, and I believed that this would be the last time I would ever see that girl again. I believed that this would be the last time I would ever see this town again.