Chapter 153
As the Empress was taken aback, Angelina snapped her fingers.
BOOM!
An explosion occurred as if the air had expanded.
“…!”
Seeing the light pouring toward her, the Empress immediately used the Witch’s power to create a barrier.
The Holy Knights around her also built defensive formations.
But they belatedly realized that they weren’t Angelina’s target.
Ante was behind Angelina’s back.
He had been her objective all along.
“How…!”
How could she free him when he was bound by multiple layers of restraints!
Angelina sneered at the Empress’s shocked expression.
“Aren’t you underestimating the child of the Sun too much?”
The Empress’s face contorted.
“You must have only recently recovered all of the Sun’s memories, so how could you even do that…!”
The Empress couldn’t help but be astonished that the young girl before her easily accomplished a technique that even the Sun in historical memories had never properly succeeded at.
But contrary to her calm expression, Angelina was inwardly relieved.
The magic circle on the back of her hand silently disappeared.
‘I didn’t actually think it would work.’
After all, all she had done was concentrate the Sun’s power and release it to startle the Holy Knights, then activate the magic that Ante had left on the back of her hand.
She had been uncertain since Ante was bound, but she remembered hearing that summoning magic could be activated regardless of Ante’s will, so she tried it.
Angelina wiped away the tears wetting his cheeks by gently rubbing Ante’s face, who had fallen into her arms.
Then she sent the Sun’s power through her palm.
The Witch’s power binding him crumbled with a hiss, and a massive amount of the Sun’s power enveloped his body.
It not only healed his wounds but also completely purified the red energy that the Empress had embedded in his heart.
Ante’s pupils trembled endlessly at the warm touch.
Angelina gave him a slight smile before turning her gaze to the Empress.
“Is this the only recording crystal?”
Angelina asked.
But before the Empress could answer.
Crack. Hiss…
She shattered the crystal ball.
“Well, it doesn’t matter.”
Then she spoke in a nonchalant voice.
“I’ll just find them all and destroy them.”
“…!”
The Empress’s composed expression crumbled, and Ante’s face contorted.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
When the Empress asked in disbelief, Angelina let out a short laugh.
“So it’s because of something this trivial that my brother bowed his head to you.”
Her quiet murmur conveyed boiling anger and disgust.
“Trivial? Are you in your right mind?!”
The Empress’s sharp voice filled the hall.
“That man is a madman who massacred your family and took everything from you! Don’t you understand?!”
Ante’s shoulders flinched greatly as she mentioned the truth again.
Angelina’s expression crumpled.
Seeing her always confident brother so withdrawn made her heart ache.
“If it weren’t for him, you would have received love as a Saint from the Empire, no, from the world. You would have married my Aiden and enjoyed power too! And yet you’re defending the one who ruined it all?”
At the Empress’s passionate speech, Angelina slowly turned her body to hide Ante behind her back.
Her face hardened, becoming even colder than before.
“How ridiculous.”
Ante flinched prematurely at Angelina’s coldly frozen voice, causing her to press him even more firmly behind her back.
“Family? The world’s love?”
If she had stayed there, far from being a Saint enjoying love and power, she would have lived a miserable life as a puppet of the Order and the Empress, only being used.
Yet she had the audacity to say such things.
“Ha.”
A scoff escaped through her teeth.
She could feel Ante’s hand gripping her clothes tightly enough to wrinkle them, trembling behind her back.
His actions—desperately needing her warmth yet not daring to embrace her—made Angelina’s blood boil in reverse.
Ah, yes. It was like this back then, too.
‘I’ll just hold on for a moment… Thank you…’
His small hand that firmly held hers trembled just like this.
“Aaaagh! Kuk, kuaaagh!”
How could she have forgotten the screams that were so painful they echoed throughout the entire temple?
“I’m sorry, please, ku, kuaaaagh!”
His screams, which were terrible enough to be deeply imprinted on the mind of a baby who had just learned to crawl… she remembered them now.
“My screams were too loud… I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”
‘I was scared that today I would have to endure alone…’
The story of a boy who was locked alone in a cold torture chamber on days when the ‘treatment’ ‘failed,’ and the baby who always visited him.
“You look pretty when you smile… Huh? Are, are you crying?”
“It’s just because you’re so pretty… I’m sorry, baby. Please don’t cry, okay?”
The harsh treatment that made a baby, surrounded by numerous priests and holy knights, who couldn’t even distinguish her own father and mother, instinctively go to that boy without missing a single day.
“I’m sorry, just a little more today… Just hold me for a moment.”
“How nice it would be if you were my family…”
“…Thank you, baby.”
Perhaps it was the ‘Sun’ inside the baby sending help to somehow save that boy.
Otherwise, how could a baby who couldn’t speak or walk find her way to that deep torture chamber every day, avoiding everyone’s gaze?
And…
“Ha, how long do I have to play this ridiculous nanny role? We don’t even know if she’s really a Saint.”
“Be patient. This is how you become the next High Priest. Even if she’s not real, you can package her as one. You have that much power, don’t you?”
The fraudsters pretending to be parents.
Their voices, fighting every day when no one was around, always made the baby cry.
“Baby, will you smile? You need to smile!’ You need to smile so I can have power… Ooooh…! Yes, that’s it. Ah, this beautiful light…!”
The priests who would give her candy with a smile, but in return demanded her power.
‘Angelina, this is a secret between you and me, okay? This is you giving me your blessing. Understand?’
The Holy Knights who gave disgusting looks to a baby.
So that’s why.
“Capture Angelina! If she escapes, we have no future!”
The reason the baby laughed while watching the exploding and collapsing temple.
Goo-goo, goo-goo
“Damn, she’s supposed to be a Saint but can’t even prevent one disaster… Aaagh!”
Because the voices of the fighting couple disappeared forever.
“No! Baby, you need to come here and protect us…!”
Because she didn’t have to force a smile to receive candy anymore.
“Run away! Sa, save…”
Because the sticky gazes of the Holy Knights were gone.
And…
“…Lina, hello?”
Because a boy covered in blood and dust…
Now, she wouldn’t have to hear his screams anymore.
That’s why the baby laughed.
Goo-goo!
For the first time in her life, she laughed as brightly as the sun shining down on them.
‘…I see.’
Angelina felt nauseated by the disgust as she remembered everything.
‘Now I understand.’
「Ante Flaubert lost his light that day.」
So this is how it felt.
This is why the original Ante Flaubert went mad.
She could personally feel what madness consumed him.
「If he could only destroy the damn Sun God’s Order, he was willing to do anything. He could gladly sacrifice his soul.」
Soul? That’s not even funny.
This body, my past life, present life, next life, and all my future lives and time, and that soul—take it all.
If only I could kill all that trash.
“So that’s what you call family and love?”
The moment she faced Angelina, who sneered, the Empress realized something had gone wrong.
She felt a chill run through her entire body.
A gaze that seemed to pierce through her opponent.
The Empress knew well the look in Angelina’s eyes as she stared at her now.
It was the same look Ante gave when she tried to use Angelina to bargain with him.
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