She did it!
Mowan wrapped her arms around Iserin’s waist.
After a brief pause, Iserin also opened her arms and pulled Mowan into a tight embrace.
Mowan was beyond excited.
She could hear her own heart thundering in her chest.
She pressed herself firmly against Iserin’s body, hoping to transmit her own burning heartbeat to Iris.
Though she couldn’t feel Iserin’s heartbeat from the other side, Iserin’s body temperature was much hotter than usual.
Mowan felt it.
This was more than just a simple hug; the importance lay in Iserin’s response to her feelings.
It was a long time before Mowan let go. Iserin gently held her shoulders as they stepped apart.
Mowan turned her head to the side.
She was too embarrassed to look Iserin directly in the eye.
It wasn’t that she didn’t dare, or that she feared Iserin’s gaze wouldn’t be what she hoped for.
It was just… a strange sense of shyness.
Mowan felt that if she stared into Iserin’s eyes at a moment like this, her heart would surely explode from the pace.
“Do you know what I was reflecting on yesterday when we were having lunch together?”
“What was it?”
Mowan looked back at Iserin, her curiosity overcoming her shyness.
“I was reflecting on how it felt like home. It felt like how things were when I was very young. Back then, I wasn’t the Saintess; I was just an ordinary commoner. My sister and I would eat bread that had gone hard, yet we were very happy.”
“Happiness is like that, of course. Being with someone you treasure, regardless of poverty, never leaving or forsaking them.”
“Yes. However, I don’t miss that impoverished past. I only miss my sister. I miss the few but precious memories we created together. Even after ten or twenty years, those memories remain vivid. If I close my eyes, I can still recall every smile and every expression of hers.”
“……”
Mowan didn’t know how to continue the conversation.
She was more than willing to listen.
But she didn’t know how to answer in a way that would bring Iserin comfort.
“Your smile is very similar to hers.”
“Is… Is that so…”
Mowan’s breathing grew heavy.
This was the first time Iserin had proactively shared how much Mowan mattered to her.
“But in the end, you are not her.”
Mowan clenched her fists.
She felt a pang of sadness in her heart, yet also a sense of relief.
She was relieved that Iserin didn’t seem to view her as a mere replacement.
Yet, if she wasn’t a replacement, she seemed to become insignificant again.
Mowan took a deep breath.
She secretly told herself not to be discouraged.
There had to be other ways to reach deeper into Iserin’s heart.
“But just like her, I can give you the feeling of home, can’t I? Sister Serin, you said it just now.”
The latter half of the sentence felt like Mowan was emphasizing it to herself, cheering herself on.
“Yes. That is why I sometimes can’t help but hug you or kiss you. Because that is how I used to interact with my sister.”
“But I’m not your sister.”
“Mm.”
Worried that if she wasn’t Iserin’s sister she wouldn’t receive Iserin’s affection, Mowan immediately stepped forward and grabbed Iserin’s hand.
“I can be, though.”
She was conflicted.
She was willing to fill the role of Iserin’s sister, but if she became Iserin’s sister, it seemed she wouldn’t be able to pursue a romantic relationship with her.
Iserin only gave a thin smile and did not answer.
Afterward.
She never brought up the topic again.
That evening, she gave Mowan her orders: Mowan was to continue accompanying the Princess to subjugate Monsters the following day.
***
Mowan was troubled.
She felt that her relationship with Iserin had hit a bottleneck.
For the next month.
She and Iserin continued the same routine.
Whenever Mowan went out to protect the Princess, Iserin would be waiting for her to return in the evening, without a single exception.
Mowan was happy.
Yet, she greedily wanted to demand more.
Every time she returned from a mission and saw Iserin, her heart would itch, feeling as if something were about to sprout from the soil.
She knew exactly what was stirring in her heart.
It was the budding of her first love, awakening for the first time in her eighteen years in this world.
She was very clear about it—she had fallen for Iserin.
Because of Iserin’s beauty, because of Iserin’s gentleness, her thoughtfulness, and her meticulous care for her.
By day, she was a divine Saintess who loved all people and her believers with an impartial grace.
But by night, she was like a sister from next door.
She used her actions to tell Mowan that the favoritism no one else would ever receive was shown only to her.
She would gently touch Mowan’s face, pinch her ears, and sometimes even hold her tail in her palm to play with it.
Especially the tail.
Every time she was toyed with by Iserin, she felt a warmth in her lower abdomen.
Whenever Iserin left her home after those moments.
She would curl up under the covers, breathing in the scent that still lingered in the air, quietly dispelling her loneliness in the dead of night.
She really, really liked Iserin—so much so that Iserin filled her dreams.
But Mowan understood.
Her understanding of Iserin wasn’t deep enough yet; she had probably only seen ten percent of Iserin’s heart.
Yet she couldn’t control her emotions as they grew and spread wildly.
Sometimes she would deceive herself with her thoughts.
If she liked her this much after only knowing ten percent of her, if she knew a hundred percent, wouldn’t she love her until the seas ran dry and the rocks crumbled?
She became more and more convinced that she would only find more surprises and more reasons to love her from Iserin.
She felt that her Sister Serin was the most flawless woman in the world.
***
“This makes me so angry! More ordinary Monsters again! Sister Iserin is just coaxing a child!”
Suddenly.
The shouting of Princess Croll broke Mowan’s focus on her eagerness to go home.
Personally, Mowan felt that simply cleaning up ordinary Monsters was for the best.
There was no threat to their lives, and everyone could go home in one piece and be happy.
Her entire heart was already set on the road back home.
But Croll flopped down on the grass, her legs splayed.
“I know Sister Iserin has more confidential missions, but she just won’t give them to me! She must have guessed something—guessed what my father and the others are doing. She’s just like them, refusing to let me participate!”
“Her Highness the Princess…”
Seeing that her Princess lacked even a shred of lady-like decorum and was sitting with her legs spread wide, the maid Beti hurriedly stepped forward to press down the Princess’s skirt.
Croll looked up at Mowan.
“Mowan, don’t you find it boring? It’s the same dull subjugation mission every single time.”
“It is… a little boring.”
It wasn’t boring at all.
As a working girl, she just wanted stability.
While her mouth complied with the Princess’s words, her heart was thinking, *My dear lady, please just get up so we can go home.*
“What do I have to do for my father to believe in me? I’m not just a child. I can achieve many things. I can manage government affairs, and I can lead troops into battle. What am I supposed to do? They all think I’m just playing around, even Sister Iserin thinks so.”
The Princess hugged her knees, her voice carrying a hint of a sob.
“The Saintess doesn’t think of you as a child.
She is simply worried for your safety.
She doesn’t want to experience the pain of losing someone close to her again.”
Mowan walked over to Croll, speaking up in Iserin’s defense.
“If only she really thought that! She has never once treated me like a sister! She’s just afraid she won’t be able to explain herself to my father!”
“Her Highness the Princess, how can you think that?”
“……”
Croll puffed out her cheeks.
She knew Mowan didn’t understand anything and only said such things based on her impression of Iserin’s outward appearance.
Therefore, she wouldn’t vent her internal frustration directly on Mowan.
“Alright, Her Highness the Princess, let us head back. It is getting late.”
The maid helped Croll to her feet.
“I’m going to do something big and prove myself!”
Croll said resentfully before boarding the carriage.
Mowan was stunned for a moment after hearing that.
She turned to look; Beti was helping Croll climb into the carriage.
Mowan’s gaze was somewhat complicated.
After spending so many days together, she also felt that Croll was a child.
Even though they were the same age, she understood Croll’s state of mind—it was almost identical to hers three years ago.
Forget it, forget it.
Mowan sat in the carriage with the soldiers.
She closed her eyes, praying in her heart for the return journey to end quickly.
Go home.
If she went home, she could see her dearest Sister Serin.
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