After her brief conversation with Natasha, Celine returned home.
However, as soon as she approached the door, she immediately sensed that something inside was off.
She pushed the door open and walked in.
The scene inside confirmed her intuition.
Seele stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall, her brow furrowed and her expression carrying her usual impatience, along with a hint of irritation.
Standing opposite her was Bronya.
The bewilderment she had shown at the clinic was gone.
Instead, her face was filled with shock, confusion, and self-doubt.
The air between them seemed frozen in a silent standoff.
Seeing Bronya there, Celine paused almost imperceptibly for half a second, a flicker of surprise crossing her eyes.
“Seele.” Celine’s gaze swept between the two before settling on Seele.
“What happened?”
Seele turned at the sound of her voice.
Seeing Celine, her expression softened slightly, though her tone remained sharp.
“When I was on patrol, I saw this noble young lady from the Upper District getting surrounded by several Fragmentum monsters. She just stood there frozen, almost getting scratched without even knowing how to fight back. Tsk. I just happened to save her.”
As she spoke, she glanced at the rifle hanging from Bronya’s waist, her tone becoming even more sarcastic.
“Seriously, you’re carrying a weapon, yet you just stand there like an idiot waiting to be eaten by monsters?”
“I…” Bronya’s face paled at Seele’s words.
She instinctively clenched her fists, her voice hoarse.
“My understanding of the Underworld has just… been completely shattered.”
She looked up, her gaze seemingly piercing through the rocky ceiling overhead, her voice filled with disbelief and pain.
“I thought the Fragmentum and its monsters were mainly concentrated on the outskirts of the Overworld, something the Silvermane Guards fought day and night… I never imagined they had already spread into the Underworld.”
Her voice lowered, trembling slightly.
“Why… why… why has the Supreme Guardian never mentioned this?”
“Heh.” Seele let out a cold laugh, her purple eyes filled with mockery.
“Don’t you get it? That Supreme Guardian of yours probably abandoned the Underworld a long time ago and left us to fend for ourselves.”
But as she looked into Seele’s undisguised scorn, recalled the ruins she had witnessed, the complaints she had heard, the despair she had felt, and the undeniable reality before her—that Fragmentum monsters roamed the Underworld—her once unwavering conviction crumbled.
In the end, her rebuttal faded into silence.
“Hmph.” Seele seemed too tired to argue any further.
She grabbed Celine’s wrist, pulled her outside without another word, and shut the door behind them, leaving Bronya alone inside.
“What’s wrong, Seele?” Celine let herself be led to a quiet corner outside before asking calmly.
Seele released her wrist, turned around, placed her hands on her hips, and stared directly at Celine.
Her eyes were filled with confusion and a trace of barely concealed irritation.
“Tell me honestly,” she said, lowering her voice, her tone unusually serious.
“Does that young lady from the Upper District… have something to do with me?”
Celine looked at her without answering immediately.
Seele frowned even more deeply and continued.
“I keep feeling…
something strange whenever I look at her.
It’s not dislike, and it’s not affection either.
It’s just…
weird.
Seeing her surrounded by monsters made me feel really uncomfortable.
Logically speaking, I shouldn’t have a good impression of people from the Upper District.
Saving her and taking her to Dr.
Natasha should’ve been enough.
So why did I bring her home?”
The more she spoke, the more unsettled she became, as though she were trying to convince herself—or questioning Celine.
“But I just… feel like something isn’t right. It’s a really strange feeling, like if I hadn’t brought her back and kept an eye on her, it just… wouldn’t feel right. What’s going on?”
Celine quietly listened before finally speaking, her voice calm, carrying a subtle hint of guidance.
“Ah… that.”
“Do you remember… before I adopted you?”
“Before you adopted me?” Seele paused, her thoughts drifting back to a distant past.
A hazy, bleak memory filled with hunger, cold, and helplessness.
“Back then…” Celine’s voice was gentle, as though afraid of disturbing those long-buried memories.
“Your parents had already passed away, and you were living in an orphanage. But because of… well, your personality, and the severe shortage of food there, you were often hungry. So you would sometimes sneak out to look for food on the outskirts of town or in abandoned mines.”
Seele’s pupils contracted slightly.
Those memories she had almost forced herself to forget—the desperate struggle to survive—gradually resurfaced as Celine spoke.
The freezing wind.
The moldy scraps of food.
The hostile gazes of homeless people and scavengers…
“And…”
“That’s how we met,” Celine continued.
“I had to rescue you from ill-intentioned vagrants several times.”
Seele’s breathing hitched.
She abruptly looked up at Celine’s calm face before instinctively turning toward the house, as though she could see the silent figure inside through the walls.
An absurd, yet heartbreaking possibility surfaced in her mind.
“The orphanage…” she murmured, her voice dry.
“Are you saying… that young lady from the Upper District… used to be in the same orphanage as me?”
“Yes.” Celine’s tone remained calm, like a key unlocking the past.
“Didn’t you once tell me that you had a childhood playmate at the orphanage? You said she was… a little slow, always taking a moment longer to react than everyone else. But she was quiet, never stole your things, and would secretly give you half of her already meager food.”
Seele’s pupils widened in shock.
“Later,” Celine continued as she watched Seele’s expression change, “you even asked me to adopt her too. You said she was so slow that she would be bullied to death if she stayed there alone.”
“However, when we finally went to the orphanage to adopt her as your sister (wife), we were told that she had already been chosen and adopted by an important figure from the Upper District.”
Seele suddenly looked up, staring fixedly at Celine’s calm face.
Her voice trembled with overwhelming shock and indescribable emotion as she forced the words through clenched teeth.
“You mean…?”