Lilian glanced at the cover of the book again and scowled at the weird title.
"Maybe this book didn't get burned because of this,"
she muttered.
She searched for the author's name, but it only said written by Sel.
Closing the book, she slumped back. Everything she believed about the inborn wickedness of dark mages had crumbled. They weren't soldiers of the goddess sent to eliminate evil, instead they were the vile one that should be punished. Being manipulated by greedy people for centuries, that thought made her stomach turn. She didn't feel like a saint anymore. No matter how brightly the church painted them in stories, she now saw herself as nothing more than a murderer who took innocent lives.
"A saint..."
Lilian whispered.
In books, they were praised, hailed as humanity's highest beings, closest to the goddess herself. But that wasn't how she felt now. The word left a bitter taste in her mouth. Disgusted with herself , she paced the room for hours. Anger brewed in her chest, raw and relentless. She wanted to scream. The former pope, the king, the people who built lies over lies , she hated them.
Snatching a church history book off her shelf, she flipped through pages until she found the name of the first pope.
"Dickson Eris…"
she read aloud.
Lilian's eyes widened.
"Isn't this Julius's ancestor?
No wonder I can't stand him."
She gritted her teeth and burned every page that mentioned his name, watching the ashes curl and fall like black snow.
The room fell quiet again, and Lilian's thoughts drifted to Sylvia.
Did Sylvia know about this too? If she did, she would have told me long ago...
She convicted with uncertainty.
Digging into her drawer, Lilian pulled out the letter Sylvia had left her. The sight of Sylvia's handwriting made her chest tighten. She crouched on the floor, leaning her back against the bed, and read the letter again, tears filling her eyes.
A storm of emotions flooded her heart. Self-hatred. Anger. Guilt. Loneliness. It all crashed over her at once, and as she read Sylvia's words, her tears began to fall onto the paper.
She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, but then noticed something strange. The spots where her tears had touched the letter started to blur and shift.
"What's this…? Wait a second."
Heart pounding, Lilian stood and quickly splashed more water over the letter. Ink bled and swirled, revealing a hidden message written beneath the original words.
I can't take it anymore, Lia. I really, really want to see you. I remembered something… There's a map passed down to each pope. It shows the locations of secret passageways that connect to every room in the temple. It's protected by another barrier. If you enter through it, you won't trigger the spell in my room. I saw the Julius use it once. I think it's now in his office. I'm sorry for troubling you, Lia. I just feel like I'm going to die here without seeing you.
Love, Sylvia.
Lilian stared at the words in disbelief.
"A secret passage…?"
she whispered. "
Does it lead to my room too?"
A shiver ran down her spine.
"That's creepy. What if someone's already used it to peek into my room?"
The thought made her skin crawl, but it also lit a fire in her. She had to find that map. Not just to reach Sylvia, but to seal off the passage leading to her own room for good.
she swore, her voice steady now.
"And once I do, I'll block every passage that leads here."
It felt like her earlier breakdown had never happened. Now Determined,her tears dried, and she wiped her face clean.
And so, Lilian's midnight adventure as a thief began!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Night came quickly, and it was already 11 p.m. Lilian got out of bed and changed into black clothes, even though it wasn't necessary.
Lia could open a portal to any place she'd been before, but that only worked within temple grounds. Luckily for her, she'd been summoned to Julius's office a couple of times, either to be given missions or to get scolded.
She opened a portal and stepped in. The scene around her shifted, and she found herself standing inside Julius's office.
"That was so easy. I don't get why Julius never put a barrier here. Was he stupid or something?"
(A): No, Julius wasn't stupid. It was just that a certain archmage didn't want a barrier there, so he could come and go as he pleased and annoy Julius whenever he felt like it.