Hathaway wasn’t lying—her home was indeed quite spacious.
It was a quintessentially classic standalone townhouse, spanning roughly two hundred square meters. This included a small courtyard where vibrant bursts of color dotted meticulously manicured flower beds. Lush green ivy clung to the walls, lending a refreshing sense of vitality to the stone structure.
Every corner of the house radiated a design that was simultaneously deliberate yet natural. Every inch of it reeked of… wealth.
Fumbling for her keys, Hathaway opened the iron gate with practiced ease. Sensing Luo Wei’s wide-eyed, lingering gaze, she let out a soft chuckle within the girl’s mind. “If you ever saw Eliana’s family estate, you’d realize this is nothing at all.”
“I know, I know. Just more of those ‘unspoken tales’ between you and Lady Eliana,” Luo Wei replied, her voice tinged with feigned exhaustion.
“…”
Knowing that denial was futile, Hathaway chose to maintain a dignified silence.
Auntie Miriel, the professional steward who managed the Duke’s manor, was a meticulous woman. Even though Eliana had gifted this house to Hathaway, and neither had returned to The Metropolis for years, Miriel still sent servants regularly to clean it. Even the Holy Flame, hidden within the secret passages, had been kept burning.
After stepping into the townhouse, Hathaway immediately moved toward a small room.
However, when Luo Wei moved to follow, Hathaway stopped, her face tightening with disapproval.
“Please do not follow me, Miss Luo Wei.”
“Why not?” Luo Wei asked reflexively.
“I am going to pray,” Hathaway said, gesturing with the Holy Scripture in her hand. “You are a believer of Lilith. My Lord would not wish to see you.”
“Hmph, that’s not necessarily true…” Luo Wei pouted.
Back in the Spectral Kolun County, hadn’t she gotten along quite well with the Gray Goddess? Or well, maybe it was just Luo Wei who thought they were getting along.
Still, Luo Wei wasn’t an unreasonable person. She followed the “when in Rome” philosophy; she was curious, but she wasn’t impolite. Since the hostess had explicitly forbidden it, she abandoned the idea and sat down in the main hall to wait.
Watching Luo Wei’s retreating back, Hathaway remained tense, not daring to turn around just yet. She was terrified that if she blinked, she’d see that petite figure racing past her into the prayer room to frolic in front of the Gray Goddess’s Sacred Icon.
Miss Luo Wei actually looks quite cute when she’s being quiet, Hathaway thought.
Because it was so rare to see Luo Wei acting seriously, Hathaway couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances—until Luo Wei looked up and shot her a glare.
“Seen enough? I thought you were going to pray.”
“I simply found it… unbelievable to see Miss Luo Wei so still.” Hathaway immediately averted her eyes, feeling a strange, inexplicable pang of guilt.
“Nonsense! You were clearly captivated by my beauty!” Luo Wei huffed. This was a peak-tier character model she had crafted, after all—a white-haired, red-eyed little girl. Who wouldn’t be dazed?
I certainly wasn’t… Hathaway muttered softly in her heart before turning to enter the prayer room.
Standing before the Sacred Icon of the Gray Goddess Nanala, Hathaway composed herself. Her expression gradually shifted into one of solemnity. She knelt on the floor and clasped her hands. Just as she had for the past ten years, she projected her devotion to her Lord through a heart filled with calm and silence.
But for some reason, the response she expected never came.
Normally, pious prayer was the primary path to commune with the Divine. By beseeching the Lord, one established a link of Inspiration, receiving a response in turn. The Gray Goddess Nanala brought serenity to her followers—a feeling like standing on a deserted island, gazing at the endless ocean until one’s very soul was washed clean by the tranquility.
During her time as a nun in Kolun County’s Silent Chapel, Hathaway spent more than half her day in prayer, bathed in her Lord’s presence. But now, even after reciting the liturgical prayers several times in her heart, there was nothing. Absolute silence.
Panic began to set in.
Could it be because of Lilith’s believer…?
Hathaway’s mind immediately jumped to Luo Wei waiting nearby. But that made no sense. Back in Kolun County, her “sacrilege” had been far worse; Miss Luo Wei had even dragged her along to read forbidden grimoires right in front of the Sacred Icon. Even then, her Lord had not abandoned her.
Hathaway opened her eyes and nearly jumped out of her skin.
Two streaks of blood were slowly trickling down from the eyes of the Gray Goddess’s Sacred Icon.
“Ah!”
“What happened?” Luo Wei asked, frowning slightly as she appeared at the doorway. She didn’t enter; since Hathaway didn’t want her near the Icon, she saw no reason to be difficult. Hathaway’s fear of her “frolicking” before the Icon was misplaced. While Luo Wei’s actions often seemed “Unspeakable” to Hathaway, they always had a purpose. For instance, the last time she read forbidden books in front of Nanala’s Icon was simply because the Icon was the only place in the entire Silent Chapel that was lit—she couldn’t see the words anywhere else.
“The Icon…” Hathaway swallowed hard. She had never encountered anything like this and was losing her composure. Was the Icon corrupted? How was that possible? It was a Sacred Icon! Icons represented the manifestation of a deity’s power in the mortal realm, entities even more sacred than the Holy Flame. What kind of Horror could possibly corrupt an Icon?
Luo Wei leaned in curiously, taking a look. “Eh? Did we stumble into the Spectral Metropolis?”
“What?” Hearing that term sent a jolt of fear through Hathaway. “Spectral [Place]” was never a good sign. Her experiences in the Spectral Kolun County still haunted her.
“I mean, I saw this exact thing happen in the Spectral Kolun County,” Luo Wei said, rubbing her chin. “I remember Nanala’s Icon was corrupted there too… Do you mind if I come in and take a closer look?”
Hathaway looked at Luo Wei with an expression of pure disbelief.
“I’m not an impolite savage, you know,” Luo Wei said, annoyed. At what point had her image in Hathaway’s eyes become so villainous? She had always been perfectly friendly!
“…Come in.” Hathaway nodded slightly, stepping aside.
The prayer room wasn’t large. Aside from the Icon, there was barely enough room for one person to kneel. With both of them inside, it was cramped. To put it bluntly, it was the size of a closet. Private prayer rooms in residences were rarely large—firstly because land in The Metropolis was expensive, and secondly because prayer was a private matter; a vast, empty space made it harder to find focus.
Compared to the one in the Silent Chapel, this Icon was a miniature, standing only about half a person tall. Its posture and details were scaled perfectly, however. In mainstream churches, the appearance of an Icon was vital; even the smallest detail could not differ. After all, the specific design of the Icon was what distinguished orthodox faith from heresy when worshipping the same deity.
“Can I touch it?” Luo Wei asked.
Though she was extremely reluctant, Hathaway hesitated for a moment before nodding. Allowing a “heretic” to touch her Lord’s Icon—especially a blasphemous follower of Lilith—was something Hathaway wouldn’t have dreamed of in the past. But ever since Luo Wei had read the Grimoire of Forbidden Curses before Nanala without the Goddess objecting, Hathaway’s core beliefs had been subtly, irrevocably shifting.
“Let me see…” Luo Wei reached out, her fingers gently touching the bloody tears. Her small face tightened. A flicker of Starfire flashed at her fingertips, so fast that Hathaway, standing right next to her, didn’t notice.
“A hollow shell?”
The burning of the Starfire brought Luo Wei nothing but a sense of void, as if she were touching nothing at all. She had tried to commune with the Gray Goddess directly through this contact; she wasn’t afraid of offending the deity—she had offended more than one already. Besides, several previous incidents suggested Nanala was a relatively friendly goddess, unlike the Lord of Somniloquy, who started screaming whenever anything related to Lilith appeared.
“It’s probably dead,” Luo Wei murmured after a moment of thought.
“?” Hathaway’s face went dark.
“I mean the Icon is dead, not your Lord,” Luo Wei added hastily.
“A Sacred Icon… can die?” Hathaway was shocked.
“In layman’s terms, yes,” Luo Wei explained, recalling the void she just felt and the sensation she experienced when Claudia prayed to her. “Anyway, this Icon is just a normal piece of wood now. Think of it that way.”
Some mysterious power had severed the link between the Icon and the deity. Hathaway’s prayer had tried to force that connection back into existence, but it couldn’t overcome the interference, causing the Icon to weep blood.
“Since things have come to this, let’s eat first!” Luo Wei clapped her hands. She had been hungry since arriving in The Metropolis. This custom-made doll body was so realistic it even simulated hunger perfectly. Luo Wei didn’t dislike the feeling; on the contrary, she enjoyed it. She was a foodie at heart, and hunger only served to heighten the sensory explosion that good food brought to the taste buds. Everything tasted better when you were starving.
“Don’t just walk away! Miss Luo Wei, please, help me!” Hathaway was genuinely panicked. Her power to resist Horror was gifted by Nanala. If even the Icon was being corrupted, what hope did she have?
“Will you die if you don’t pray for a while?” Luo Wei asked, spreading her arms.
“Uh, probably… no.” Hathaway’s expression stiffened.
“Then there you go. Just wait for the Icon to ‘revive’ on its own,” Luo Wei said nonchalantly.
Luo Wei knew well that something was happening in The Metropolis. The wisest Queen in history had been assassinated, and the “Remnant Tower”—the organization claiming to be followers of the Lady Witch—had left no trace. In a few days, it would be the Queen’s funeral, followed by a bloody struggle for the throne. Cults like the Crimson Troupe were gathering in the shadows and the light alike. To say there wasn’t a conspiracy afoot would be a lie.
But… those weren’t problems that could be solved this second. As she said before:
“Since things have come to this, let’s eat first!” Luo Wei proposed again.
Hathaway remained silent for a long time. While she felt like Miss Luo Wei was being “Unspeakable” again, why did it feel like she actually made sense this time?
“…Fine. Let’s eat,” Hathaway sighed.
“I’ll cook! I saw the ingredients in the kitchen. Wah-ka-ka, it’s so bountiful! Let me show off my skills!” Luo Wei gave Hathaway a thumbs-up, smiling brightly. “Hehe, Miss Hathaway, I’ll show you the glory of a ‘Wage-slave Medley’!”
“Huh? Why ‘Wage-slave’?”
“Is that really the part you’re questioning?”
“……”
***
Eliana sat by the window, her chin resting in her hand. She absentmindedly tugged at her soft silk gloves, her eyes drooping as she watched the butterflies fluttering in the backyard. Her thoughts drifted far away.
I wonder where Hathaway took Miss Luo Wei to play…
If Luo Wei were to see Eliana now, she wouldn’t recognize her at first glance. Back in Kolun County, Eliana was almost always in light armor or simple loungewear. Now, she wore a decadently luxurious evening gown. The magnificent hem, which almost brushed the floor, was encrusted with shimmering gemstones. The lace and gossamer of the bodice highlighted her pale complexion, softening the heroic sharpness of her brows and leaving behind only a radiant, breathtaking beauty.
“Nana-ah…” A deep, slightly fawning voice called out from behind her.
“Father, please do not bother me.” Eliana didn’t even turn her head.
“Now, now, Nana, your old man hasn’t seen you in so long…”
A short, stout man rubbed his hands together nervously, looking quite flustered. This was Grand Duke Hilton, the cousin of the late Queen and one of the highest-ranking individuals in the Kingdom of York. Even though the previous King had stripped much of his power, the strength he still commanded was not to be underestimated. Yet, even as a man of immense status, he looked completely overwhelmed when facing the daughter he hadn’t seen in years.
Eliana sighed and turned to look at Grand Duke Hilton. “So, Father… what kind of trouble have you brought me this time?”
