At first, it was just an act to fill the lack of healing power due to Latieana’s absence.

That’s what the saintess candidates are.

Unlike me, who possesses noble and perfect healing power, they are infinitely insignificant things that disappear, blown away by the slightest breeze.

They were destined to die insignificantly even if it wasn’t by her hand. Wouldn’t it be better to sacrifice themselves to contribute even a meager power to the great saintess?

That was the reason at first, and then it was out of anxiety.

Fearing that others might notice her weakened power.

Fortunately, she had absorbed Latieana’s power again recently.

So she wasn’t lacking in healing power at the moment.

Nevertheless, the reason Ivy took the healing power of the saintess candidates again tonight was…

“It’s enjoyable.”

It was simply for pleasure.

The moonlight poured down sacred upon her beautiful, bare, fair skin.

Ivy closed her eyes, smiling gently, to reminisce about the past.

They were orphans of no different circumstances.

Except that Latieana stood out a little more.

A rural countryside.

Not just a small town, but a truly tiny rural village without even paved stone roads and few inhabitants.

The place where Ivy and Latieana lived was an orphanage made by renovating an old school, operated with support funds from a few very charitable and wealthy nobles in the capital.

Though unaware of how much money the nobles provided, the greedy director was not a good person. In summer, it was difficult with insects making their whole bodies itch, and in winter, it felt like they would freeze to death from the cold.

Ivy and Latieana grew up together in such a place.

They were the only friends of the same age among about ten children.

‘La, Latieana, where are you going?’

‘The village kids called me. Do you want to come too?’

‘Ah, no. I, I’m fine.’

Though the same age, they weren’t close friends.

That’s because Latieana was often called away by the village children rather than staying at the orphanage.

Nevertheless, Ivy thought she was more popular than Latieana.

Because she believed the reason village children called Latieana was to bully her.

Although she refused the invitation to play together, when she secretly followed and watched from afar, Latieana was always being teased.

‘Hey! Latieana! There’s a caterpillar on your head!’

‘Kyaaak! Help me!’

‘Hahaha. It’s a lie. You fool, falling for it again!’

The boys would scare her with lies, pull Latieana’s cherry blossom-colored hair, and laugh at her.

They would deliberately remove and break the few hair ties that neatly held her hair in two braids.

Each time, her glossy hair would flutter prettily in the wind.

Ivy would glare at that with fiercely raised eyes.

‘Why do you still meet and play with them when you’re being bullied?’

It didn’t make sense.

She thought Latieana was a stupid girl. She thought they didn’t ask her to play because she was smart.

But later she found out.

That the other children’s actions were because they liked Latieana.

And that they didn’t speak to her because they felt uncomfortable around her.

‘By the way, did you see her earlier?’

‘Who? That girl from the orphanage?’

‘I don’t like her.’

‘Why?’

‘I saw her by chance the other day, poking a dead pigeon with a stick and laughing. It gives me the creeps.’

‘Come to think of it, I remember something too! You know her friend. The nice one. Pink hair. She was chasing her with scissors. Then she ran away when she saw me.’

‘Wow, that’s really creepy!’

Ivy’s face flushed hot as she eavesdropped from the shadows.

The girls’ story wasn’t made up. But she was pushing the pigeon to feed the ants, and she was going to cut Latieana’s skirt a bit to teach her a lesson for being so hateful.

It was because that girl kept giggling with other kids instead of those at the orphanage.

She hated seeing an orphan acting like a normal child.

As if on cue, Ivy sprinkled a lot of powdered charcoal on Latieana’s skirt. A whole lot so it wouldn’t come off. It was the cleanest clothes Latieana had, and it happened to be the day she was invited to another friend’s birthday party.

Tears welled up painfully in Latieana’s hurt eyes.

Ivy hid her expression behind her dry, tangled hair and shouted.

‘Wh-who did su-such a ba-bad thing?’

It was as if she was getting angry on Latieana’s behalf. The culprit didn’t come forward. Ivy smiled with satisfaction while the other children’s faces darkened.

‘Did you see her smiling?’

‘I saw! That must have been Elder Sister Ivy’s doing. Elder Sister Latieana, I’m right, aren’t I?’

The children shouted at Latieana as they harvested carrots and radishes in the backyard.

‘Elder Sister Latieana! Aren’t you angry? She’s always following you around, spying on you! Say something.’

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t angry.

Latieana knew best that Ivy was strange. That she smiled with joy when something bad happened to her. That she repeated words like ‘Latieana, annoying, annoying, annoying’ in her self-talk.

At first, it gave her chills, but there was no good solution.

When Ivy heard something she didn’t like, she would scream until her anger subsided, to the point that even the mean-spirited director couldn’t handle it. One day, she screamed like a monster all night, rolling her body on the floor until she lost her voice. Another day, she kept chopping wood with an axe all day until her hands bled. But her strange behavior didn’t improve. When criticized, Ivy would retaliate with even worse actions, as if taking revenge.

So Latieana chose to ignore it.

Anyway, Ivy was different from others and not someone who could be changed. So not reacting to her strangeness. When she said things that didn’t make sense, just letting it be, when she pretended to be close, just letting it be, when she did mean things out of jealousy, just letting it be. Reacting to each thing only made matters worse and more tiresome.

Also, Latieana thought she would leave the orphanage and go far away when she became an adult, so it would all pass eventually. The empire was vast, and once she left here, she would never encounter Ivy again.

It was sometime after that.

‘Latieana. What’s that?’

‘Oh, this? How is it? Pretty, right?’

There was a butterfly-shaped hair tie on Latieana’s hair, tied up high in a ponytail.

It had small cubic zirconia embedded in it, so it sparkled and reflected the sunlight every time she moved her head.

She said a quite wealthy boy from the village gave it to her.

‘You know how he always took my hair ties and broke them? When I got angry, he apologized and gave me this as a gift.’

The brightly smiling Latieana and the shining cubic zirconia suited each other very well.

‘I thought she was inferior to me!’

Ivy’s breathing became ragged, but her anger wouldn’t subside. She couldn’t control the boiling jealousy rising to the top of her head, unable to suppress the volcanic-like rage.

After much deliberation, that night, Ivy secretly stomped on that hair tie and cut it into shreds with scissors.

Then she buried the tie and cubic zirconia under a burnt tree in the forest. So that no one would ever find it.

‘You’ll never dare to show off in front of me again, will you?’

The next day, Latieana’s face was tear-stained from losing her hair tie, and she never brought any more gifts.

It was quite satisfying.

Still, Latieana got along well with other children, but Ivy only watched secretly.

‘Fall down. Break a bone or something. You’re in charge of dishwashing this week, so it would be perfect if your wrist got damaged. The director won’t be considerate of such circumstances, so you’ll suffer with a painful arm. Come on, fall!’

Sometimes the other village girls noticed Ivy and gave her wary looks, but it didn’t matter.

Ivy just wanted to curse Latieana.

As the gloomy Ivy grew, she became even more taciturn, and because of that, she started to stutter more.

Not only that, but she didn’t look in the mirror properly and didn’t wash her face or brush her hair well. Her originally dark skin became even darker from the sun, and her hair became dry and brittle.

On the contrary, Latieana had naturally fair skin. On top of that, thanks to diligent brushing, her pretty hair became even more glossy.

‘I’m sick of it!’

It was the day to harvest vegetables planted in the backyard. Ivy, who was heading to the orphanage’s backyard after stopping by the bathroom, discovered a shiny and splendid carriage in front of the building.

It was the front yard of the orphanage she saw every day, but it looked like a different world.

Ivy stopped walking and stared blankly at the carriage.

The door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing a uniform made of high-quality fabric and a lady dressed in a beautiful dress like a princess were coming out.

It seemed that just one brooch pinned to the lady’s dress could fetch a hefty price if stolen and sold.

The director ran out barefoot to welcome the couple.

Rubbing his thick hands like a pig, that is.

The couple headed to the director’s office.

‘We want to adopt a girl.’

‘What? From here? Are you serious!’

‘We’ve received recommendations from other places in the capital, but we feel a bit more attached to this place since we’ve been sponsoring it for a long time. Do you have any good children?’

‘Of course! Perhaps the age of the child…’

‘Not too young, an older child would be better. Young children might still have other opportunities. I heard that the age least likely to be adopted is around 13, do you have a girl that age?’

‘We have just the one!’

As the lady said, 13 was an age where it was difficult to expect adoption anymore.

It was an age where cuteness had faded, and there were rumors that it was troublesome in many ways due to it being a growth period where relationship adjustment wasn’t easy.

Nevertheless, the thoughtful couple wanted the age least likely to be adopted for the sake of the other children.

‘You can see from here.’

The director opened the window wide and pointed to one of the children picking vegetables in the backyard.

‘How about that child? Latieana Merigold. She’s a gentle and pretty girl. You’ll like her.’

‘Oh my. She has such beautiful hair. Like spring flower petals. Don’t you think so, dear?’

‘Indeed. Her hands helping the children also look kind.’

The couple smiled warmly as they looked at Latieana through the window.

‘Is she the only 13-year-old?’

‘Ah, yes. Well… that’s right.’

The director nodded while scratching the back of his head, and the couple made their decision without hesitation.

‘We’ll take Latieana.’

Ivy, who had heard all the conversation, twisted her face hideously.

‘No! I’m here! I’m here too! Why are you choosing Latieana? Why?’

Trembling with her fists clenched tightly, Ivy burst open the door and entered the director’s office.

It’s because the director lied! It must be because they don’t know I exist. If they know I exist, they’ll want to adopt me instead of Latieana!

She harbored such high expectations.

But when the noble couple saw Ivy who had opened the door and entered, they gasped and covered their mouths.

The fiercely raised eyes visible through tangled hair, the mouth struggling to smile somehow, the trembling skinny body.

Ivy’s appearance looked extremely bizarre.

‘So-sorry, child. We were just startled.’

The couple apologized belatedly, worried that the child might be hurt, but Ivy’s face had turned as red as a poisoned apple.