Fallen Chronicles

Renji knew the way to Eileen's home, but when faced with the locked door in front of him, there was nothing he could do. After all, his relationship with the girl hadn't reached a point where Eileen would give him her house key.

Apologizing silently to Eileen in his heart, Renji motioned for the nun standing nearby to keep her distance.

Maria remained silent throughout, watching the young man's actions from behind as they approached the locked door. It wasn't until Renji didn't use a key but kicked the door open forcefully that a sweet smile appeared on the nun's face.

Of course, it was a fleeting expression.

"Come in." Renji didn't look back at Maria, just gestured behind him and then entered the house first.

"Sorry for intruding."

Following him inside, Maria used a soft and timid voice, even though there was no one else in the room to greet. This reflected her character as a polite and somewhat shy young nun.

In reality, she quickly scanned Eileen's home. Although she could guess the living conditions from the location, Maria couldn't help but furrow her brow.

The small space of about thirty to forty square meters was crowded with various old furniture, making it extremely cramped. In her eyes, there didn't even seem to be a place to stand.

The heavy rain outside beat against the old windows, and the strong wind, mixed with rainwater, made the rusty window frame creak as if it couldn't bear the weight. In fact, it had already developed cracks, and you could see that the floor under the eaves was leaking and damp.

The only thing that allowed Maria to hold back her eruption for the time being was perhaps the relative cleanliness of the room. At least there were no oil stains in the kitchen, the furniture, though old, had little dust, and daily trash was neatly tied up in bags, preventing any foul odors in the room.

'But...'

'Why!?'

'People who lived in such a shabby place were indicative of their status. Why could even such a person receive the "contract" of My Lord? Why... Why does she deserve it? How dare she use her dirty and lowly body to defile such a noble and exalted contract...'

The nun clenched her hand hidden in her sleeve tightly. Her eyes gradually turned red and uncontrollable, until the voice of the young man by her side brought her back to reality.

"The conditions here are a bit crude. Feel free to find a place to sit."

"It's okay, this place is already quite nice!" Maria waved her hands repeatedly, expressing great satisfaction.

"I'll go to the inner room and find some mediums for divination. If you have nothing to do, see if there are any towels or the like around. You can use them to dry yourself."

"Um, okay."

After a while, Renji emerged from the inner room, carrying a large box of items and bringing it in front of Maria.

After some careful selection, the nun finally chose three or four items as mediums for divination.

Renji glanced at the objects Maria picked out. They were all items that Eileen had used very recently: her clothes she changed out of that afternoon, an expired Kobold statue, and the dagger that had once "held" him hostage.

As an intermediary, Eileen was the root of his plan to rescue Nolan. From the perspective of divination mediums, she was indeed better than her mother. Renji intentionally brought a large box of items, partly to test Maria's abilities. Judging from the nun's performance so far, she had passed the first test.

"Then, there's one last item left, but it's a bit special."

"What is it?"

"Sir, your... blood."

Maria spoke apologetically, and seeing Renji frown, she quickly added,

 "If you're uncomfortable with that, we can use something else, but... the result will be less complete."

"No problem, just a moment."

Interrupting Maria, Renji didn't waste any more words. He simply extended his finger to his mouth and bit it hard, causing fresh blood to flow from his fingertip.

"And then, should I find a bowl or something Miss…"

"Maria, Maria?"

Renji, who had bitten his finger, asked the nun opposite him, but Maria seemed unprepared for his sudden and rapid action, falling into a daze.

Her gaze was fixed on Renji's bleeding fingertip as if she were in a trance. It wasn't until Renji called her several times that she suddenly snapped out of it.

"My… My apologies!"

"Don't put it in a bowl! Use this! You can just drip your blood on this!"

As Renji's blood flowed, Maria appeared quite flustered. She apologized for her momentary distraction and took out a handkerchief from her bosom.

It was a pure white handkerchief, clean, and even had silver patterns at the edges, giving it an extremely sacred appearance.

The nun was soaked from head to toe by the rain.

But this handkerchief in her embrace showed no signs of being wet by the rain. Renji found it a bit strange, but he could tell that this handkerchief was probably important, so it had been well protected, and he didn't ask further.

He suspended his finger over the handkerchief and squeezed it hard a few times. The fresh blood dripped vertically and quickly dyed the pure white handkerchief crimson in the center.

Gulp.

Maria's throat moved quietly.

Beneath her boots, her ten toes were gripping the ground tightly, as if by doing so, she could endure some intense stimulus.

'One drop, two drops, five drops...'

"Enough, enough, sir!"

Maria's voice raised a few decibels to stop Renji. She feared that if he let even one more drop fall, she wouldn't be able to hold back her desire any longer. The five drops he had given were already at her limit.

"What's next?"

"Just leave the rest to me. Please wait a moment," Maria replied urgently, looking even more anxious than Renji.

She held the mediums in her hands, and a faint holy light began to emanate from her, enveloping all the items. Then, Maria closed her eyes and seemed to enter a state of divination.

The entire process was much faster than Renji had imagined. It probably took less than half a minute.

When the holy light faded, revealing a panting nun with sweat-soaked hair on her forehead and labored breaths rising and falling in her chest, although the time was short, it seemed like a considerable effort for Maria.

She swayed and seemed on the verge of collapsing. Her legs couldn't support her, and she nearly fell to the ground.

Luckily, Renji was quick to catch her. Unfortunately, it seemed Maria didn't even have the strength to stand upright and collapsed into Renji's arms.

"I found her... she's in the... church's... underground. I saw many... dangerous creatures around her... She's hidden herself... in a safe corner... they haven't found her."

"But her condition is... bad... she doesn't want to... turn into a monster... she's still resisting... she can't be... agitated."

"And there are... two floating sigils in the very center underground... a brownish-red mist... pervading. They must be weakened before you can..."

Maria's voice grew quieter as she spoke, and towards the end, she slumped against Renji's chest and lost consciousness.

This left the young man somewhat overwhelmed.

'Another one "fainted"?'

He didn't suspect that Maria was faking it.

After all, the expression of fatigue and weakness on her face could be faked, but the physiological panting and limpness would be extremely difficult to fake.

Moreover, Maria's divination target involved the level of "Emperor's Relic," which was a bit beyond the scope of knowledge for people from 500 years ago.

Renji's thoughts returned to the divination results Maria had just provided.

From the keywords such as "church," "underground," "monsters," and even the later "insignias" that Maria mentioned, there was no reason for Renji to doubt the authenticity of her fortune-telling abilities.

Based on the fragmented information Maria provided, although it was somewhat unclear, Renji was able to piece together a fair amount of information.

Firstly, it seemed that Eileen's mother's greatest danger at the moment didn't come from the outside but from herself.

If one were to compare it to Callewa's factory, the underground space of the church must also be like a large incubator. If he were to break in rashly, considering the intense reaction of the [Eclipse Source Essence] to him in the factory, it would likely release a large amount of Tainted Miasma, drastically changing the environment of the "incubator."

And Eileen's mother was already on the verge of going berserk. If she were suddenly subjected to such a strong stimulus, she would probably mutate directly. This was likely the reason why Maria had stopped him, citing an "unfortunate future."

'Well... I had indeed overlooked this point'

The approach to this situation seemed to be that he couldn't personally intervene right now, or he needed to find a way, as Maria's last sentence suggested, to weaken the "relic" so that it wouldn't react so strongly to him.

Regardless of which method, it was clear that tonight was a no-go, and he could only wait until Eileen and Maria woke up the next day.

'In that case...'

Sigh*

Exhaling a long breath, Renji felt sleepiness creeping in. He wasn't a superhuman, and who would have thought that half a day ago, he was just a dead otaku sitting in front of a computer screen, and now he had become the focal point of the Blackhole Plains.

After all the commotion, it was already close to 3:00 AM. Since the decision was not to take any action, it was time to rest.

'Time to sleep!'

Renji, carrying the unconscious Maria, arrived in Eileen's room. He placed the young nun on the bed, removed her boots and coat, tucked her in, and closed the door.

It's worth mentioning that even though the nun had fallen asleep, her fingers were still clutching his clothes. Renji tried several times before finally managing to pry Maria's fingers away.

As for Renji himself, he hesitated about whether to go to Eileen's mother, Nolan's room. However, after some consideration, he found a blanket and decided to make do for the night on the tattered sofa in the living room.

Finally, the room was shrouded in the darkness and silence that it should have had.

If one had to speak, only the sound of rain "pattering" outside the window remained. The rain seemed to be getting heavier, as only in this way could it also cover up some strange noises hidden beneath the rain.

….

-Inside Eileen's room.

The young nun, who should have been tucked in bed with only her small head visible, sat up straight.

She recalled the young man's actions just now.

'My Lord is still so kind.'

 Suthia couldn't imagine how much willpower she had used to maintain her faking sleepiness at the time.

Suthia carefully took out a blood-stained handkerchief from between her large melons. She deeply inhaled the rich aroma that emanated from it, indulging in the scent of her Emperor's blood.

Under the brownish-red light and shadow, the room was filled with an eerie, hazy atmosphere, and in the nun's eyes, madness had already taken hold.

"Lord Ashen~..." she murmured with joy, clutching the bloodstained handkerchief.