Ivy’s small lips parted and then firmly closed.

“So you mean… escape? You deliberately jumped out of the carriage that day to run away? Why?”

“That’s……”

“Latieana, we were supposed to come to the temple together. We promised to forget our past sorrows and help each other here.”

Had we made such a promise? I couldn’t remember.

But since it could have been something from Latieana and Ivy’s past that I didn’t know about, I nodded meaninglessly.

“I’m sorry.”

She had been desperately searching for me, but my words must have sounded indifferent as she bit her peach-colored lips. Then Ivy cupped her face with both hands.

“You abandoned me……”

“I didn’t abandon you.”

“You just said with your own mouth that you ran away alone.”

“That……”

I was about to make more excuses but just closed my mouth. It didn’t seem like words would get through.

“I’m sorry if I made you misunderstand in many ways. I don’t know why you were looking for me like that, but please stop looking for me now. You’ve already become the Great Saint, and our positions are too different……”

At that moment, I stopped speaking.

“Ha!”

Ivy, who had been curling her body with her shoulders hunched as if crying, suddenly laughed and lifted her face.

“Ivy?”

I got up from my seat as Ivy’s gaze suddenly changed, and she grasped my shoulders with both hands.

The force wasn’t strong, but Ivy’s gaze had changed so much that it felt extremely jarring.

“Latieana.”

Ivy’s expression was very strange, frowning as if displeased while smiling with her lips.

“Yes, that’s right. As you said, we’re too different.”

“It hurts. Let go of this.”

I tried to remove my caught shoulders, but Ivy didn’t let go and grabbed my shoulders again.

“No! I absolutely can’t let go!”

It was a neurotic voice as if suppressing anger to the tip of her throat.

“……Ivy?”

I was so taken aback by Ivy’s strength pressing down on my shoulders harder than before.

We have similar builds, but where does this strength come from?

Ivy said, her eyes flashing.

“I’ve been worried all this time that you might have died by mistake after falling from the carriage.”

“So I’m sorry for making you worry. But……”

“My precious you can’t die. You have to be alive to be useful to me.”

“What?”

I widened my eyes, not understanding her words, and Ivy’s lips curled up ominously.

“I heard you clearly that day. Telling me to live happily, do you think I’m deaf or that I looked for you because I misheard?”

“What are you saying? You’re saying you knew everything and still looked for me?”

“Of course. Because you dared to try to run away from me, despite your status.”

Ivy lifted her chin and looked down at me. My bewilderment at Ivy’s absurd behavior of treating me like an inferior was only momentary.

“Ugh.”

I let out a groan through my teeth. Sharp nails dug into my shoulders.

Ivy was still smiling brightly. I violently shook off her hands with all my might and stepped back.

“Let go! I didn’t run away from you. I just didn’t want to come to the temple! You’ll become the Great Saint anyway, and I’ll die!”

I looked at Ivy while catching my breath at a distance. I was more perplexed than hurt. The holy and beautiful image of Ivy from just moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

My gaze involuntarily went to Ivy’s nails, as I was too shocked to continue speaking.

Blood had pooled at the tips of her nails, which were adorned with dazzling jewels.

After staring at it for a moment with wavering eyes, I lifted my head straight.

Even after hearing that I would die, a smile remained on Ivy’s lips.

“Ivy. Don’t tell me you knew the Saint candidates in the temple become mummies and still looked for me?”

Ivy smiled sweetly.

“Ah, so you knew too. How did you find out?”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I had hoped it wasn’t true, but Ivy knew too.

That I would die if I came to the temple.

She looked for me even knowing that. That’s why Hillstain treated me so rudely.

Right. Logically, there’s no way the Great Saint would search for a friend so disrespectfully.

It was because Ivy was searching while knowing I would die if I came to the temple that she was so ruthless.

My mind went cold. Then it’s no different from saying she looked for me to kill me. It felt like my blood was rushing backwards.

“You, what’s your true motive? Why did you look for me?”

At my cold tone, Ivy wiped her nails with a snow-white handkerchief that had been placed on the console.

It was an elegant gesture.

“Would you be able to remember if I told you? You don’t know anything.”

What does that mean? What am I not remembering? There’s no way Ivy could know that I’m not the real Latieana.

“Latieana, you can’t run away anywhere. You have to stay by my side. You have to die beside me. That’s what we agreed on.”

What on earth is she saying? My pupils shook with shock.

A red aura was now flickering around Ivy.

It wasn’t healing power. Something that looked like black mist appeared and disappeared repeatedly, faintly visible among the red aura.

Before I could furrow my brow to confirm what it was, black blood vessels began to rise from Ivy’s cleavage. At the same time, the red aura around Ivy was dyed black as if devoured by the mist that had been flickering nearby.

I had never felt such an unpleasant sensation in my life. As my complexion turned pale, she suddenly grabbed both my hands.

“Latieana, your power is mine.”

In that moment, with a feeling of my stomach turning, healing power burst out of me forcibly.

“Kuhek!”

Black blood vessels crept up my hands.

This was a sensation I had felt once before.

It was that chilling feeling when I healed Edan, when he tried to forcibly take my healing power for a moment.

The creepy sensation of all the blood in my body being drained. But what was completely different from when I healed Edan was that now I was only feeling the sensation of death.

‘I can’t breathe!’

I felt a terrible feeling of sinking into very deep water, as if I would never rise to the surface again.

Tears welled up in my eyes. Ivy was stealing my healing power.

“Ah, Ivy……”

Ivy’s face was already covered in black blood vessels, and as the black energy grew stronger, she was smiling as if her mouth was torn.

Pleased that the stolen healing power was filling her body, Ivy reached out one hand and slowly stroked my cheek.

“This is it. This is what I wanted.”

“Kuhek……!”

Her pupils had already turned pitch black.

With even the whites of her eyes completely black, she was no longer a saint.

“It’s incomparable to those useless Saint candidate bitches. Even taking dozens of those wenches wasn’t enough. Only you will do. Latieana, with you, I become real. You’re really the best……!”

This can’t be. Is this why she looked for me? She looked for me to steal my power?

Even knowing I would die becoming a mummy! No. Ivy was the one who made me a mummy.

The moment I heard Ivy muttering to herself like a demon in the air, I understood everything.

In the original story, the deaths of the Saint candidates that kept occurring did not happen after Latieana’s death.

Everything changed from that day.

The deepening relationships between the male leads and Ivy, and even the timing of Edan kidnapping Ivy, all happened after I died.

Ivy was the one who made me a mummy.

That’s why she could easily forget me and live happily at a word from the male leads even after I died.

No. From the beginning, my existence didn’t matter at all. She only thought about stealing my power because I was real. All of that was done with my power!

‘Damn it, Ivy……’

My body, which had been tense, was losing strength at some point. My body, which had been holding onto Ivy’s arms and resisting, was gradually going limp.

My vision blurred, and even the faint breath I had been maintaining seemed to be blocked somewhere.

It felt like all the moisture was being drained out. In my shaking vision, I could see my fingers gradually drying up.

My body was slowly turning into a mummy, starting from my fingernails.

I tried to somehow come to my senses and hold onto my power that was being stolen, but I couldn’t control it.

I could only release my power, I had never tried to pull it back or hold onto it.

With a pale face, I barely turned my head to look at the door.

‘Maxium is outside……’

I wanted to call for help, but no sound came out. It was useless to reach out.

With my body turning into a mummy, I could only flail in the air.

That’s when it happened. Just as everything was about to go dark, a familiar warmth touched my hand.

At the same time, with a thud sound,

“Kyaak−!”

Ivy’s sharp scream hit my ears, and I felt strong arms embracing me.

Familiar scent, familiar warmth. As I gasped urgently in the arms of someone I knew, my darkened vision quickly returned.

Ivy was lying on the floor in front of me.

The red aura that had surrounded her just moments ago was gone, and the black blood vessel marks that had filled Ivy’s body had also disappeared.

“It’s alright.”

Edan’s voice was heard over the firm chest holding and supporting me.

It wasn’t a question.

As if to reassure me, as if telling me not to worry, Edan slowly spoke again.

“It’s alright, Latieana.”

At this moment, he was the one who would be on my side more than anyone else.