"What a shame last night was—such a perfect chance, and I actually missed it!"
By the next day, Cyrae was still kicking herself for falling asleep against her will the night before. Ever since she'd learned the confirmed truth about the existence of the Saints from me, she'd been intensely fascinated by that legendary race said to dwell in higher dimensions—so much so that she'd practically been dying to see one in person.
But unfortunately, the Saints had always upheld a policy of non-interference with the lower realm, and under normal circumstances they almost never showed themselves. This time, according to Kuntavi, he had only violated the rules and acted on his own because he didn't want our world to suffer an irreversible catastrophe. Yet before he could fully answer our questions, he was stopped midway by another of his kind. So no matter how badly you wanted to meet one, it wasn't exactly something you could make happen.
"That wasn't your fault," I said, doing my best to comfort her. "If a Saint acts personally, even I can't resist—unless someone has the complete abilities of an elemental angel. For anyone else, it would be the same."
I could completely understand how she felt.
In fact, as my understanding of the laws and authorities that governed reality deepened, this encounter made me keenly aware that—aside from their rather special form of existence—the power the Saints displayed was, at its core, still rooted in controlling natural laws and rules. In that sense, it wasn't difficult to understand at all, because it was quite similar to where an elemental angel's power came from.
The biggest difference was this: although Saints didn't seem connected to elements on the surface, they didn't appear to be restricted to a single element the way elemental angels were. In other words, each Saint could freely command the laws of all element types. That was why they seemed absurdly powerful at first glance—almost to the point of doing whatever they pleased.
I vaguely remembered Kuntavi casually referring to our world as an "Origin World." A bold guess suddenly formed in my mind:
Could the Saints, as a race, actually have some kind of connection to our world?
"That doesn't make sense," Cyrae shot back without hesitation when I shared my thought, and her rebuttal left me speechless in an instant. "According to the memories Lady Elara left behind, she believed elemental angels are something naturally nurtured and born by the world itself—so they're born holding authority over their own element."
"But if you're saying these 'Saints' are something similar—only even further, to the point of ignoring all kinds of limits—then it becomes completely unreasonable. After all, this world's knowledge about Saints is practically nonexistent. And besides, don't they claim to live in some other higher-dimensional space to begin with?"
"Fine," I said with a sigh. "You win."
Since I couldn't argue with her, I could only raise my hands and surrender. But this was just casual conversation anyway—so even if we didn't agree, neither of us kept digging into it.
What mattered was that we were leaving today.
The bizarre mass "fainting" incident at the mayor's house after last night's banquet had caused a huge uproar for a time, but since it didn't actually do any harm, the commotion quickly died down on its own.
And precisely because everyone else had been asleep, the entire "Saint's" descent was known to no one except Adrian and me. It was pretty clear the Saint didn't want excessive exposure, which was why it had been handled that way.
Now that the dragon harassment that had plagued Boyak Town for months was finally over, many of Dasan Village's original residents had already begun returning home ahead of schedule. Early that morning, Adrian decided to escort his mother back as well, and then set off with us immediately for Norvale.
Since Brennan had come back to his hometown to marry Yolanda, he naturally couldn't travel with us. Still, the two of them kindly came to Adrian's old home in Dasan Village to help clean and straighten the place up, saving us a lot of effort.
During all that, Cyrae personally witnessed how Adrian's mother had completely changed her attitude toward me—so attentive it was almost excessive, as if she was afraid I might get tired. She practically wouldn't let me lift a finger. It was obvious she had tacitly accepted my relationship with Adrian.
Completely baffled, Cyrae found a chance to lean close to my ear and whisper:
"This is weird. From what I saw, she seemed to have a real issue with you last night. How did things suddenly resolve today? Did you talk privately after she woke up? Tell me—how did you manage it?"
"You're already that old and you still gossip like Cyra?" I shot her a look.
But honestly, I had plenty of doubts myself. So I didn't hide it and simply told her what had happened not long ago.
It turned out that early that morning, not long after Madam Heidilun woke up, she had indeed sought me out privately and talked with me alone again.
But this time, it wasn't to break us up or oppose our relationship the way she had before—she came to apologize to me.
"I'm truly sorry! I really am sorry—I misunderstood who you were! You're not an angel who was cast aside by the 'Lord' for wrongdoing. I know that now. Last night I had a dream… no—rather, I've understood that this was the 'Lord's' will all along…"
"You and Adrian are truly a perfect match! So it's all my fault for not understanding and talking nonsense before! Please don't take it to heart. Please say a few good words for me in front of the 'Lord.' In any case, I have absolutely no objections to you and Adrian being together!"
That was basically her exact wording when she spoke with me face to face. Her attitude had done a full one‑eighty so abruptly that I'd almost wondered whether my ears had malfunctioned or my eyes were playing tricks on me.
"Could it have been the Saint's doing?" I had wondered too. "Did it say something to her in that dream?"
But when I brought it up to Adrian, he seemed completely unaware. He knew his mother's temper and personality better than anyone—someone as deeply devoted as her simply wouldn't change her view overnight after one fainting spell.
There was good reason to suspect that when Kuntavi used Adrian's mother's body as a channel, he had also quietly "fed" her something strange. But what exactly it was, I had no way of knowing. Madam Heidilun kept her mouth tightly shut; she seemed afraid to reveal even a single detail about the dream. Fortunately, at least the result was beneficial to Adrian and me.
"Even the Saints are helping you two along?" Cyrae stared in disbelief after hearing all this. "What kind of melodramatic soap-opera plot is this? I thought they weren't supposed to interfere with the lower realm."
Even if she questioned me, I couldn't give a real answer. Everything was just speculation on Adrian's and my part—but it was also the only explanation that made sense. After all, Kuntavi had already violated the non-interference rule by descending to warn us; doing a little extra "rule-breaking" wasn't exactly unimaginable.
"Are you two talking about that warning?" Adrian asked.
Under his mother's constant ordering and nagging, Adrian was cleaning so hard he was basically running ragged. When he glanced over and saw Cyrae and me chatting animatedly, he turned back with curiosity and asked.
"Uh… more or less," I replied after thinking for a moment. "After all, this so-called threat doesn't even have a shadow yet, and we still don't really understand what 'becoming a god' is supposed to mean…"
In truth, Adrian had been very troubled by his mother's sudden change in outlook, worrying there might be side effects. But aside from her attitude toward me flipping completely, we hadn't seen any other problems. To keep him from worrying too much, I felt it was better not to bring up that topic again.
"But isn't 'becoming a god' something only the Ancient God Religion talks about?" Cyrae suddenly cut in, as if she'd remembered something. "Does your world have that too?"
The way she said it made Adrian and me both assume she knew something.
"In the Ancient God Religion," Cyrae explained, "their supreme god, Sprin, has always claimed that as long as believers devote themselves wholeheartedly to spreading the doctrine and lead more people to witness Sprin's glory, then those who meet certain conditions will receive a special reward after death—namely, with Sprin's help, they will be elevated directly into godhood."
So that was how it worked.
But honestly, what Cyrae described wasn't exactly new. Nearly every religion makes some form of promise about what comes after death. Whether that promise is ever fulfilled can't be proven—because the dead don't speak.
And based on Lady Elara's long-term observations in another world, as well as hints Nicola had let slip, that "Sprin" was very likely deceiving people.
"But Sprin really exists in your world, doesn't it?" Adrian asked, suddenly thoughtful. "If Sprin counts as a god—at least to ordinary people—then how did those gods come to exist in the first place? There wouldn't be any other 'gods' to help them become one, would there?"
"Could the 'apotheosis' disaster Kuntavi warned about be referring to something like that?"
It was hard not to connect Kuntavi's grave tone—when he spoke of someone attempting to become a god—with the trouble Sprin had caused in another parallel world.
Unfortunately, Cyrae could only tell us that Sprin came from an entirely different, distant world. Sprin had appeared out of nothing in response to the Ancient God Religion believers' long-term yearning and summons. Because Sprin hadn't been "born" on the Eldoria Continent, almost no one knew the origin behind them.
By the time noon arrived, we had finally finished dealing with all the household chores. Everyone ate a simple lunch at Adrian's home.
Then, at the entrance of Dasan Village, we waved goodbye to Madam Heidilun, Brennan, and the others.