Myths Reawakened

“Kristen, isn’t it? You’re pretty.” Filomina dismissed Dorrin with a wave and pointed at the chair across her office desk with a smile. “Sit. Don’t be nervous. I just have a few questions for you.”

Kristen nodded. Seeing Filomina’s friendly smile, she marveled at the older woman’s stunning beauty; even she felt her heart skip a beat.

“Kristen, are you close to Wayne?”

“Um...” Kristen blinked, unsure why the High Reverend was asking about Wayne. She said honestly, “I’ve known him for half a year. We’re just friends. By his request, I visited him every evening to tutor him.”

“And you say you’re friends?”

Kristen smiled awkwardly. They really were just friends. Wayne had built similar relationships with several other people.

Filomina continued, “What are you tutoring Wayne on? Be specific. It’s important.”

Kristen’s heart sank. The High Reverend seemed to be investigating Wayne. Should she answer her? If she revealed something important, Wayne would be angry.

Noting her hesitant and troubled expression, Filomina said with a severe look, “Kristen, which do you think is more important? Love, or faith?”

Kristen’s eyes widened. “High... High Reverend, you misunderstood. I don’t love Wayne. We’re just friends, and we’ll never be more than that.”

“I understand,” Filomina said seriously. “I’m meeting Wayne this afternoon. I’ll repeat your words to him verbatim.”

(Ծ‸Ծ;)

Kristen made a face.

“Hahaha, I’ll stop teasing you. To be honest, Wayne saved me in Luzerbourg a while ago. Without him, I would’ve died.” Filomina smiled. “I like him... Don’t make that face. I don’t like him in the same way you do. I’m only looking into him because I’m curious about the kind of person he is.”

She explained the partnership between the Church of Moonlight and the Ministry of Magic in Windsor. Since Wayne had saved her before, he was appointed the ambassador of the ministry. For a better partnership, Filomina had to learn more about his character and preferences.

Kristen sighed in relief. It was fine as long as the High Reverend didn’t like him like—as long as she wasn’t going to give him a hard time.

“He’s a good man, High Reverend,” Kristen said carefully. “He saved me once, too. That’s the reason I couldn’t reject his request for nightly tutoring...”

“I only taught him basic magical theories that don’t concern the faith of Moonlight. He became a mage not long ago. Only recently...”

“Wait!” Filomina raised her hand to stop Kristen, her eyes glinting. “He became a mage not long ago... Is that accurate, Kristen?”

“It is. It was back in March. I discovered that he had the potential to become a mage, and a genius one at that, so I planted a seed of mana in him, guiding him to sense the grace of the goddess. That was his first contact with magic.” Kristen nodded with certainty. She had been his first—she was the first to guide Wayne to the pursuit of magic and the first to teach him about magic.

“March...” Filomina’s heart raced. She narrowed her eyes and said, “To my knowledge, though, Wayne’s an archdeacon of the Church of Nature and has nothing to do with the Church of Moonlight.”

“That is true.” Kristen let out her pent-up frustration. “If nothing went wrong, he should’ve become a disciple of the goddess. However, due to his tremendous talent, the High Reverend of the Church of Nature took notice and took him in as her student.”

“That’s what happened?!” Filomina was at first in disbelief. Then her disbelief quickly gave way to fury. She slammed the table and shot to her feet. “How dare that woman steal people from us? We’re allies in the Life Alliance. How shameless does she have to be?!”

That’s right. Kristen nodded vehemently. Since Silvia was Veronica’s mother, Kristen had been keeping her complaints to herself out of her respect for the elderly, and she had bottled up a lot of feelings.

Filomina was beside herself with rage. According to Kristen, Wayne had long been marked as the Church of Moonlight’s, and when she became the High Reverend, he should’ve become her subordinate. Now, though, none of that happened.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She felt the urge to rush to the Church of Moonlight and demand an answer from Silvia.

“High Reverend, it’s too late now. Wayne has become a Silver-rank mage and gotten to know faith magic,” Kristen said softly. Wayne had already been reshaped by the Goddess of Nature. Even if they stole him back now, it wouldn’t change anything. They only had themselves to blame; the Church of Moonlight was too weak in Windsor and was unable to protect a valuable asset.

Her placating words were somewhat provocative, though, which stemmed from her grievances. Again, she had been his first!

Filomina was so infuriated that she paced around in her office; she was practically salivating after Wayne as a talent, but it turned out that he should’ve been hers, only he had been taken by an ally. If they wanted to get Wayne back now, they would have to pay a great price...

Why were they buying their own belongings out of their pocket? The Ministry of Magic bullied them for being decent, and their ally did the same. When would being decent stop being equated to being a pushover?

What about the Church of Sun? Did they also think of decency as a weakness to exploit?

Kristen made another attempt to placate Filomina, but it wasn’t effective. She was too furious to listen to reason.

It took a long time for her to calm down. She had just arrived in Londan. Her foundation was shaky, and her strength was lacking. She had to refrain from turning on their ally for nothing if not the church’s interest, but she refused to let the matter go. She had to fight back, or she wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly at night.

Filomina stared at Kristen, considering how she should go about it.

At the Silver rank, mages would begin to learn faith magic. The Life Alliance was special in that, in addition to each mage’s specific faith magic, a member of theirs could also learn the faith magic of their allies, combining the three to use Life Magic.

Filomina believed that was an opening.

Yes, she was a little late, and the Goddess of Nature had already broken Wayne in, but there was a benefit to being a latecomer. He could be stretched into the shape of the Goddess of Moonlight instead.

She didn’t mind him having popped his faith magic cherry. She would consider that preparation work for him to take Moonlight!

“Kristen, you said that you tutored Wayne every night, right?”

“Yes.”

“After the basic theories, I permit you to teach him the faith magic of the Church of Moonlight. You can teach him everything,” Filomina said darkly.

“Um, that...” Kristen’s heart skipped a beat. She realized what the High Reverend was planning, and the plan excited her. Still, she said in an awkward tone, “It’ll be inappropriate, won’t it? He’s an archdeacon at the Church of Nature after all. If his master learns about it, she’ll accuse us of robbing our ally.”

“This is the church’s mission for you. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility. You only have to follow the order.” Filomina looked outside the window with a scoff. “Besides, we’re not robbing anyone but taking what should’ve been ours to begin with.”

Kristen nodded. That was right. They were only taking what should be theirs. It was their sacred right to revenge, a counterattack launched by a victim. There was nothing shameful about that.

Seeing Kristen’s eagerness, Filomina continued, “Only teaching him knowledge isn’t good enough. When tutoring him...”

She detailed what Kristen should do during their lessons to make Wayne addicted. She would be seducing him!

Kristen didn’t react at all. The childish tricks made the High Reverend sound like a pure girl without any experience. The way she and Wayne usually spent their nights seemed kinky in comparison.

Filomina’s heart was still thumping when she was done. What she told Kristen were all things she would like to try, but never did. It gave her a sense of fulfillment to teach Kristen about the thrills of adulthood. However, she soon realized that the reality wasn’t as she had expected.

A pure-hearted girl like Kristen should’ve blushed and shaken her head in rejection, only agreeing to the mission under Filomina’s coercion and promise of rewards. But...

Why aren’t you blushing?

One’s lack of embarrassment often led to the other party feeling embarrassed. While Kristen didn’t even blush, Filomina was feeling bashful.

Right, a young couple in love would be touchy-feely with each other. They would’ve tried and gotten tired of all those tricks. Filomina’s excited spiel only exposed her lack of experience.

“Ahem!” She coughed into her fist and concluded, “Anyway, you have an important mission. Wayne’s the heir of the Lando family. Winning him over will be crucial to the church.”

“What?!” Kristen’s composure crumbled. “Wayne’s the heir of the Lando family?”

“Don’t you know?” Filomina was surprised. She pointed at the investigation report on the table. “He’s an illegitimate son of the Lando family head, Auston Lando. It’s common knowledge. Has he not told you?”

“I-I... he hasn’t told me. I’m hearing it... for the first time.”

Her expression twisted further. It didn’t matter if Wayne had told her, but it mattered a lot whether he had told Veronica.

Wake up, Veronica. Wayne’s your brother. You can’t be together!