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Lilith gripped the black card so hard that it crumpled in her hands. Her eyes were glued to it as she tried her best to find any familiar traces on it.

—“Previous life”.

For most people, this was a nebulous term. For Lilith, it was merely a journey she had made before.

The train she took in her previous life had reached its destination. She alighted from it, left the station and took another train. That journey was now a distant memory that she would occasionally look back on.

Lilith did not even think much about this transition. To her, it was as if she had woken up from a nightmare and then embarked on a new journey with a new identity.

She had always thought that these two journeys were parallel lines that would never intersect with each other. That was until today, when the black card in her hands clearly showed to her that these two lines had quietly intersected at a certain point without her noticing.

“What… is this?” Lilith murmured, not knowing who she could ask this question to.

Apart from the characters that should have never appeared here in this word, the meaning behind them alone was mind-boggling enough.

“Guilty? Who? What sin have they committed?”

And the missing Thea and Brea, could it be…

It was then Lilith recalled that powerful predecessor of hers from Cornelia’s dream who had transmigrated a thousand years ago. Logically speaking, she should be the only other person who knew the language Lilith used in her previous life. However, her whereabouts had been a mystery for a thousand years already. Although Lilith believed that this person would not die so easily, she still refused to believe that she would be so bored enough to pop out of nowhere just to pull a prank on them.

Then again, it was not completely impossible. What if that person was really that bored?

She threw a glance at Cornelia who was at the side. Sensing her mother’s gaze on her, the little girl immediately turned her head around and started babbling at Lilith with a silly grin on her face.

“……”

It seemed like the only person who had actually seen that fellow from a thousand years ago could not be of any use either.

“Well, s̲h̲i̲t̲.”

Lilith smacked her forehead in frustration. Her brain was too useless to put all these fragments of information into a clue. The harder she thought about it, the mushier her brain became.

How she wished Lesiah were here. If the princess were here, she might be able to find out some clues hidden among the pile of information presented to her.

Ugh, Lilith already started missing Lesiah during the first hour of their separation.

“Eeeeyah.”

Little Cornelia’s childish voice pulled Lilith out from her thoughts, which had drifted off at some point. Lilith narrowed her eyes and quickly went to Brea’s bed to put away the card on it. Alert like a deer that had sensed an approaching beast, she straightened up and fixed her wary eyes on the door of their dorm room.

The sounds of hurried footsteps grew louder and louder. They seemed to belong to more than one person.

Lilith narrowed her eyes and glanced to the side. Cornelia seemed to have no sense of danger. Despite the unwillingness in her heart, Lilith still chose to protect the weaker of them two.

“Eeeyah?”

“……”

Lilith smoothly grabbed the back of Cornelia’s collar in one fell swoop, then lifted the child in front of herself. She hid behind Cornelia’s back like the child was her shield and watched the door warily.

She felt no shame for her own actions.

Having Cornelia as her shield was quite reassuring. Even a weak and delicate girl would feel a bit more confident if she had the button to detonate a nuclear bomb in her hand when bandits broke into her house.

“Oh no, oh no, we’re not going to make it in time!”

“Ugh… If everyone wasn’t sent home by the academy, we wouldn’t have to descend the mountain just to buy supplies.”

“Urgh, that stupid chief disciplinarian. Why did he have to check the things we buy? This isn’t a national border. Was he worried that we would smuggle prohibited items in?”

Lilith was slightly taken aback when she heard the two extremely familiar teenage girls’ voices mixed with anger coming from the other side of the dorm door.

They…

BANG!

A fair, smooth and long leg kicked open the dorm door. The cool evening breeze came into the room first, followed by two youthful and lovely figures, carrying two boxes in their arms each with a lot of other strange things draping all over their body.

“Hurry! Set them up quickly! Lilith may return at any time now!”
“Mm-hmm.”

In their panic, the two girls were completely oblivious to Lilith’s presence in the room. They got to work quickly while yelling at each other like there was no one else in the room.

The appearance of the two girls instantly made Lilith feel as though an enormous burden had been lifted from her.

“Ahem.”

She deliberately cleared her throat to announce her presence to the two other girls. For the very first time, two pairs of eyes fell onto the delicate face of the third occupant in the room. When they saw the usual smile on that porcelain doll-like face, they froze for a moment.

Thud.

The cylindrical confetti popper in Thea’s hand fell to the ground. It rolled along the ground for a good distance before some sort of switch on it got triggered, causing countless colorful ribbons and confetti to suddenly sprung out from it.

The wind that came in through the window blew the ribbons and confetti up in a flash, causing them to then flutter around in the room like the rain of good fortune from the heavens.

The sound of the confetti popper going off immediately snapped the two back to their senses. Unbeknownst to them, tears had gathered in their eyes.

“I’m back!”

Lilith spread open her arms and smiled at them.

“LILITH!”

The two wept tears of joy and rushed into her arms, hugging her tightly.

Since the two girls were obviously much taller than Lilith, they had to force themselves into extremely uncomfortable positions by crouching a little just to fit in Lilith’s arms.

Lilith shrugged. “What are you two crying about? Do you have to act like I just came back from the dead when I’ve only been away for a few days?”

“But… the vice dean said… He said that Lilith you have… been sacrificed…” Brea choked.

For someone who could not even speak well under normal circumstances to form a coherent sentence in this state was quite a feat.

Knowing the pain of losing someone important, Lilith reached out and patted Brea’s head happily.

She then turned to Thea who was washing her own face with tears. With a smile, she said, “I can understand why Brea is feeling that way, but to think that you’ll still worry that I won’t return…? Come on, if you continue to cry like this, the sun is going to come crashing down.”

Thea straightened up from Lilith’s arms while wiping her tears away. A dazzling smile bloomed across her face so brightly that it would outshine even the sun and moon.

“Don’t worry about that. Haven’t you already solved that for me long ago?”

Author’s note:

Regarding Thea’s character inconsistency… I spent half a day re-reading volume three and finally realized a huge problem—I have forgotten to explain how Saintess Thea had momentarily lost her ability in causing disasters with her emotional fluctuations! 〒_〒

This is not an inconsistency. In fact, I have already thought of this part from the beginning when I was constructing the outline. My loyal readers should have remembered that for some reason, I kind of took a break for a month or two back then… so… I ended up forgetting about this.

Boohoo, I’m terribly sorry! Someone like me should be burnt at a stake as a sacrificial lamb…

Since I still have a bit of use to everyone, please forgive me…! Thank you!

I believe everyone should have guessed the reason for the temporary disappearance of Thea’s unluckiness. Yep, it was because of the almighty black flame! This was also one of the conditions when the Pope agreed to let Lilith take Thea away.

I will explain everything in detail in due time! Let’s pretend this slip-up never happened, pretty please~

This incident is also a wake-up call for me that I should really write down my outlines. Brain is really unreliable for this kind of thing! ( •̥́ ˍ •̀ू )

(I promise I’ll be extra careful from now on…)