“Negotiate a deal with me?” Fion repeated each word slowly.
A smile appeared on his face, but there was nothing gentle about it. A ruthless glint lingered in his eyes, making him look very much like he had when he’d grabbed Wuli by the head and forced her toward the center of the magic array.
Wuli shivered involuntarily.
The hand bound in the cuff shrank back slightly, but it couldn’t move. The manacle remained tightly locked around her wrist, leaving her completely unable to struggle free.
Fion set down the book in his hand, thoroughly perplexed.
Not only had he never encountered a situation like this before, but none of the Saints who came before him had ever experienced anything similar either.
Not just the book in his hands, but every single volume on the bookshelves throughout the entire office contained no record of such a case.
He slowly approached Wuli, his calm tone tinged with cold indifference.
“Don’t try to use such crude tricks to…”
He could not finish the sentence.
He simply could not find the right words.
First, she’d asked him for the key to the library.
Then she’d begged him not to sacrifice her.
And now this.
He felt as though he was being toyed with, yet at the same time he found it unexpected and strangely amusing.
If she were truly nothing more than an ordinary little girl, he might have been willing to indulge her antics for a while longer.
Unfortunately, the person before him was definitely not as simple as she appeared on the surface.
She was hiding a far deeper secret.
Otherwise, Glenn would not have paid her so much attention.
Otherwise, Shuen would not have seemed like a completely different person overnight, their relationship transforming from the notoriously strained one spoken of in rumors into the sibling bond everyone envied.
Fion had never experienced such a peculiar feeling before.
Wariness crept into the blond young man’s gaze as he looked at Wuli.
Yet at the same time, it seemed as though something else inside him was quietly stirring.
Wuli was still dressed in a nun’s habit, yet even that could not conceal the aura that belonged only to a Saint.
If a Saint had a face, wouldn’t it look something like Wuli’s?
Her white hair was impossibly pristine. Her hands were fair, delicate, and slender. At a glance, anyone could tell she had grown up in a wealthy household, a child who had never truly known hardship. Her pale blue eyes were light, almost translucent, and her features naturally carried a gentle softness.
Yet now, her brows were drawn tightly together.
And within those eyes…
Resided the most incongruous soul of all.
At that moment, she curved her eyes into a smile as she looked at Fion.
There was sharpness in her gaze.
There was concern.
And hidden even deeper, the girl was not nearly as unbreakable as she appeared.
She was still afraid.
Afraid of death.
After all, if nothing unexpected had happened, she should no longer exist in this world.
Yet the unexpected had happened.
Seeing how little the man before her valued her proposal, Wuli immediately knew that negotiating a deal had been a hopeless idea after all.
Fion’s heterochromatic eyes, one black and one gold, rested on her, filling her with an indescribable sense of unease.
She tugged once more at the hand restrained by the cuff.
“Don’t worry. Until we discover why the magic array suddenly failed, you’ll be safer than anyone else.”
Wuli naturally understood the implication behind those words.
If the array ever regained its effect on her one day, then she would be finished.
Wuli: “…”
At that moment, all she wanted to do was let out a long sigh.
She wasn’t even from this world…
After one failed attempt after another, Fion began keeping an even closer watch on her.
Practically every day, Wuli saw Fion.
And aside from Fion, she no longer saw anyone else.
The feeling…
Was no different from being under house arrest.
Eventually, Fion attempted the ritual array once again.
“It failed again?”
The blond young man frowned as he compared the patterns of the magic array on the floor. His expression was deeply troubled. His brows knitted together, one hand resting beneath his chin as though he had encountered an exceptionally difficult problem.
Wuli had been dragged over so suddenly that she was completely bewildered.
She lay sprawled in the center of the array, her head buzzing. It took her a long while to gather her thoughts and realize that this latest sacrifice attempt had failed as well.
“Of course it failed.”
A voice she hadn’t heard in a long time suddenly rang out.
Wuli’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively turned toward the source of the voice.
Shuen slowly emerged into both of their fields of vision, his steps unhurried and light.
“What?”
Fion had not expected anyone to appear.
He certainly had not expected it to be Shuen.
The situation was difficult to explain away. If a member of the Sinclair family witnessed how he had been treating their eldest young lady, the consequences would hardly be pleasant.
Fion lowered the hand resting beneath his chin.
The tight furrow in his brows relaxed, and once again he wore the gentle, approachable image of the Saint that everyone was accustomed to seeing.
“How did you get in here?” Fion’s questioning voice reached Shuen’s ears.
While the Church did not strictly restrict access to this place, it was still somewhere ordinary people neither could nor would come.
Yet now, someone who did not belong to the Church, someone who had barely visited the Church a handful of times, had found his way here with remarkable ease.
The white-haired young man smiled.
His gaze drifted leisurely around the room, as though admiring the Saint’s handiwork.
At last, his eyes settled on Wuli.
The moment the white-haired girl saw Shuen standing there, shock nearly spilled openly across her face.
She pushed herself upright from the floor.
Outwardly, she appeared calmer than she felt.
This farce…
“I’ve come to take my little sister home.”
At the mention of her name, Wuli’s breathing stalled.
Shuen already knew her secret.
He had suddenly come to the Church and was now saying he wanted to take her back. What good could possibly come of that?
Shuen, however, showed no concern for what Wuli thought of him.
His gaze shifted and landed on the pair of dark blue earrings Wuli had never once taken off. His eyes curved lazily with amusement before he continued,
“Wuli left for the Church without a word of warning. She packed up and disappeared without saying a thing. I couldn’t help wondering how she’s been doing here, whether she’s adjusted or not.”
Regardless of whether she had adjusted, he intended to take her away today.
There would be no discussion.
Hearing those words, Wuli lowered her head.
It was true.
After her identity had been exposed, she had practically packed her things and left the Duke’s Residence the very next day.
She had not discussed it with Shuen at all.
By the time Shuen discovered she had left, she had long since arrived at the Church.
The wariness in Fion’s eyes deepened further.
He was still smiling, but there was no warmth behind it.
“Lord Shuen, that wouldn’t be appropriate, would it? Wuli is only halfway through her studies. Surely there’s no reason for her to abandon them midway.”
Fion stepped forward, positioning himself in front of Wuli.
As a result, the white-haired young man’s gaze could only fall upon Fion once more.
“I know that giving up halfway is hardly a good thing.”
Wuli kept her head lowered.
She had no idea how she was supposed to involve herself in this conflict between the male leads.
From her perspective, neither side was particularly appealing.
On one side was the elder brother who already knew she was a transmigrator.
On the other was the Saint who had been wholeheartedly trying to sacrifice her to a god, only for the ritual array to mysteriously stop working.
It was a terrible situation.
Even if the two of them openly asked her whom she wanted to go with, she would not be able to choose.
Shuen had not finished speaking.
When he continued, a note of mockery entered his voice.
His tone became distinctly peculiar, enough for everyone present to recognize that his words carried another meaning beneath the surface.
He said, “Then why is it that when I came here today, I found my little sister sitting on the floor?”
Ignoring Fion standing in his way, Shuen brushed past him and walked to Wuli’s side.
He extended a hand toward her.
“If Wuli feels uncomfortable here, she has every right to return to the Duke’s Residence. The Duke family’s eldest young lady isn’t someone others can bully as they please.”
Wuli looked at the hand offered before her.
The white-haired girl hesitated for a moment before lifting her head.
The white-haired young man lowered his gaze and met her eyes.
Layers of shadow fell across his face, making his eyes seem unfathomably deep beneath the dim light. Yet the gentle smile curving his lips seemed to tell her that no one blamed her.
That everyone had simply been waiting for her to come home.
Wuli bit her lower lip.
For a moment, she had almost believed him.
And yet, taking that outstretched hand would merely mean falling from one abyss into another.
When Wuli failed to move for quite some time, the smile on Shuen’s lips faded slightly.
One eyebrow rose in puzzlement.
His expression seemed to be asking: ‘Are you planning to sit on the floor forever?’
That was, of course, not what Wuli intended.
She looked away, reached out, and placed her hand in his.
With a pull from Shuen, she rose to her feet and brushed the dust from her nun’s habit.
The blond young man spoke in his usual gentle tone.
“Wuli cannot leave. The Church has reason to believe she may be connected to a forbidden Church ritual. Keeping her here is also a form of protection for her, wouldn’t you agree?”
The explanation flowed smoothly from his lips.
Clearly, Fion had prepared these words long ago.
“If Wuli leaves now, then the object of our ‘protection’ may expand from one person to an entire Duke’s Residence.”
His gaze settled on Shuen.
“Lord Shuen is a sensible man. It would be best if you didn’t involve yourself in this matter.”
“…”
Not only did Shuen understand the meaning behind those words, but Wuli did as well.
If Shuen insisted on taking her away, then the entire Sinclair family would be implicated.
Hearing this, the white-haired girl frowned.
Even Shuen had not expected Fion to state it so openly.
A dark look flickered through his eyes.
Did this Saint truly think the Duke was someone to be trifled with?
His gaze lingered briefly on Fion.
Fion continued smiling flawlessly, as though the moment he had spoken those words, Wuli’s departure from the Church had become an impossibility.
Wuli’s heart pounded violently in her chest.
She almost believed it too.
She could not imagine Shuen truly confronting the Saint for her sake.
Was she really worth that much?
Besides, Shuen had known from the beginning that she was not a person of this world.
As that thought surfaced, her mind spiraled further and further.
The chances of Shuen successfully taking her away felt vanishingly small.
Rounded up or down, the result was the same.
Practically zero.
Wuli raised a hand and lightly caught the edge of Shuen’s sleeve.
‘Will you take me away?’
‘Even though both choices look like dead ends…’
‘If you can take me away…’
‘Then I’ll go with you.’
Wuli never voiced those words.
Even the motion of tugging at his sleeve lasted only a fleeting instant.
‘It’s difficult, isn’t it?’ she thought.
The other party was the Saint, after all.
Maintaining a good relationship with the Saint was surely far more important than protecting a younger sister who had appeared out of nowhere, with no clear origins and no blood relation to him at all.
Wuli thought bitterly, giving in to despair.
The white-haired young man felt the slight tug on his sleeve.
His gaze lowered for a brief moment.
Then, instead of letting go, he caught Wuli’s hand and pulled her behind him.
‘Does he really think the Duke’s Residence is some harmless pushover?’
A trace of disdain surfaced in his thoughts, and his eyes grew increasingly resolute.
“A forbidden ritual, then a forbidden ritual.”
His lips curved slightly.
“If the Church dares to come, the Duke’s Residence will be sure to give them a very warm welcome.”