The Runaway Maid is Loved by the Archmage - Chapter 212

※ This book contains depictions of coercive/dubcon/noncon acts, violence, and immorality. Reader discretion is advised.

Roina didn’t know what to say and simply accepted his help. According to Ethan, it was like this even after he had wiped her once… Since she couldn’t wipe inside no matter how much she wiped, it must have flowed out when she lay down and then got up.

“…Thank you.”

Should she say thank you? It felt awkward to say it to the culprit who had caused this, but she said it out of politeness. Ethan, also slightly embarrassed, bowed his head deeply and accepted it.

Roina then washed up, put on new clothes neatly, and went to see the mirror fragment she had picked up. The mirror fragment, placed on one side of her room, was emitting a mysterious light and pulsing with a vibration like a heartbeat.

Roina calmly picked up the fragment. As she held it in her hand, the mirror melted and changed shape according to her hand, twinkling as if welcoming her.

“…You were lonely.”

A deep loneliness was felt from the mirror. An existence that could only imitate other beings, an existence that could do nothing on its own without its own power. Roina stroked the mirror once. The only fragment that had not lost its purity even in the midst of the dark energy that had consumed it. It was the center of the shadow.

“I’ll give you a name.”

It was a small but necessary thing that Roina could do. Just as Fides was able to stand on his own two feet when she gave him his name, she had a feeling that the shadow would be able to do the same.

Roina pondered for a moment and then opened her mouth.

“Amor.”

It was the most basic word, but it was the most necessary and important word for the shadow. Because she didn’t know how to love properly, she could only express it by imitating or yearning for it. In fact, this fragment was in love. With humans. And with Roina. That’s why it had constantly tried to resemble her and yearned for her.

It had simply failed to learn how to love because of the wrong person it had met at that time.

“Your name is Amor from now on.”

As soon as Roina finished speaking, the mirror, which had been twinkling and shining, trembled and then spread out, becoming a full-length mirror with a smaller but warm and gentle wooden frame.

She turned into a mirror. Then, after shining once more, she took the form of a small girl resembling Roina. She was a small child, perhaps similar to Fides.

She ran straight to Roina and nestled snugly in her arms. Roina accepted Amor as she was.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“Thank you……”

I’ve done such a terrible thing, yet you accept me like this…

Thank you.

Amor said that, then began to sob and burst into loud tears. The dark energy that had made her chaotic inside had receded, and she had regained her pure heart. They were tears of remorse for the many people who had been hurt and killed because of her foolishness.

Roina simply held Amor tightly.

I will never let this child fall again.

* * *

Amor cried for a long time in repentance and then fell into a deep sleep again. She had returned to a state similar to when she was just born. Roina sighed. Fides came and quietly covered her with a blanket. Amor curled up even more with tears in her eyes. Perhaps her body didn’t particularly need a blanket, but Amor, who had always wanted to be human, acted even more like a human after gaining a name.

It seemed that she was finally able to understand humans with her heart, rather than just superficially imitating them as she had wanted.

Roina felt that the golden energy, which was filling and overflowing inside her, had become a little more stable. She stroked the head of Amor, who had become a young girl. The sleeping girl’s lips curved upward. Just like a real child. To an outsider, it would look like a heartwarming moment between a mother and daughter.

She had found the third fragment.

Roina thought with calm eyes.

‘Now, if I find the last two remaining fragments, Castrello in the west and the fragment in the south…’

Considering the accidents that the fragments had caused so far, the work ahead wouldn’t be easy. She didn’t know what else was waiting for her, what kind of fragment was waiting for her.

But

‘I have to do it.’

She had to regain her power, and now that she had come to feel that there were beings waiting only for her, she couldn’t just turn a blind eye, saying it wasn’t her responsibility.

Roina laughed, like a sigh.