Tiendavis - For Perfect Salvation (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 16
The first time young Ivy truly understood her own circumstances was through the Holy Maiden who came from Tienda.
One day, the Holy Maiden visited the city where Ivy lived.
So many people gathered in the square to see her, and the Holy Maiden, seated in an open carriage, smiled and waved.
At that moment, Ivy was also among the crowd.
But Ivy wasn’t looking at the benevolent Holy Maiden—she was staring at the little girl sitting beside her.
The girl, who appeared to be Ivy’s age, seemed to have come from Tienda just like the Holy Maiden.
She bore a strong resemblance to the Holy Maiden and wore very fine clothes, receiving the crowd’s attention and cheers from her place beside the Holy Maiden.
For some reason, Ivy couldn’t take her eyes off that girl more than the Holy Maiden herself.
A question had pierced straight through the crown of her head, gripping Ivy tightly.
Why is that girl so different from me?
Amid the clamor of the street, Ivy suddenly wondered.
I always try so hard not to be noticed by others—why can that girl stand so confidently before everyone?
Why do the adults, who always chased me away on sight, greet her first and act so kindly?
Pure curiosity seized Ivy, and only as the Holy Maiden’s procession neared its end did she finally understand.
Ah, I see.
A girl my age can be treated as someone so important.
It’s just that I’m not her.
Has that girl ever gone hungry? Slept on the streets? Begged or stolen?
Probably not.
Why?
Just as I’m not her, she’s not me.
She’s different from me. I don’t know why, but nearly everything about her is different.
Orphans in the slums naturally come to accept such fate once they mature.
But Ivy, instead, found herself filled with a new question.
How strange.
If people are all born differently and live different lives, why must I be here and you be there?
Why, of all things, must I be the one on the unhappy side?
Ivy couldn’t find an answer.
Instead, every detail of that moment was seared into her memory, occasionally resurfacing even years later.
That was true even when twelve-year-old Ivy was running desperately, gasping for breath.
“There she is! Split up and chase her!”
Shouts and curses from the men.
The loud barking of a large dog.
Countless footsteps pounding against the cobblestones as they gave chase.
Ivy ran for her life, dodging all those sounds.
Even as her breath filled her throat to bursting, she thought:
Ah. You, who are so different from me—have you ever even imagined a moment like this?
Escaping the alley, Ivy spotted a collapsed wall and squeezed her body into its narrow gap.
If I just get through here, they won’t be able to follow.
“Ah!”
But something sank its teeth into Ivy’s ankle—it was the hunting dog chasing her alongside the men.
Ivy thrashed without even a moment to feel the pain.
Yet the dog clung on stubbornly, and in that moment, one of the men yanked Ivy out from between the broken walls.
“Wow, this damn brat. Finally caught her.”
“Let go of me!”
The man sneered unpleasantly, then kicked Ivy in the side, his expression instantly turning harsh.
“Damn it, you—!”
He struck Ivy down. Still unsatisfied, he raised his hand again.
At that moment, Ivy felt not pain—but shock.
The force of it left her mind blank for an instant.
It was as if her body and spirit had split apart, making the person curled up on the ground taking the blows feel like someone else entirely.
So Ivy became a nameless spectator, quietly watching what happened to herself.
“Hey, that’s enough!”
Another man shouted at that moment.
For an instant, Ivy snapped out of that strange sensation.
“If you break a bone, it’ll be a headache. Why ruin what we worked so hard to catch?”
But at the man’s next words, Ivy gave a hollow laugh and sank back into that numb detachment.
Of course.
Everything felt absurd. Her mood felt strangely light and fluttery.
Though her body was trapped here, unable to move, her mind felt as if it could fly anywhere.
Ah, when I open my eyes again, will I be behind iron bars?
And if so, why must it be me?
If things keep going like this, wouldn’t it be better to just give up on myself?
Just as Ivy was lost in these blank thoughts,
a strange sound echoed in her distant ears.
The crash of thunder.
Men screaming in agony.
And dogs yelping pitifully.
Ivy couldn’t tell whether the sounds were real or delusion.
Nor could she believe the gentle hands lifting her up.
So when Ivy awoke again, she couldn’t easily accept it—
the reality of lying in an unrealistically cozy bed, facing a diviner whose kindness felt like a lie.
.
.
.
Eight years had passed since that brush with death.
Now, Ivy was once again fighting for survival, harassed by a reptilian flying beast on Tienda’s Windy Hill.
“M-Mr. Deis, please do something about this…!”
Ivy cried out, uncharacteristically terrified.
She stood at the westernmost cliff of Tienda.
On that ever-windy green hill, Ivy—dressed in her outdoor clothes—had gone pale at the sight of the bright red dragon curiously sniffing around right in front of her.
The dragon was about twice the size of a horse and neatly covered in vivid crimson scales like the evening sun.
Seeing Ivy stiffen nervously as she watched the dragon’s every move, Deis spoke.
“There’s no need to be so frightened.”
“You know I’ve been bitten by a dog before!”
“That remark is quite rude to the Daughters of Tardes…”
Deis scolded softly, and Ivy quickly clamped her mouth shut.
Then she glanced toward a group of dragons resting in the grass nearby.
In Tiendavis, these red dragons were called “the Daughters of Tardes.”
Because they were avatars of Tardes, the Dusk Dragon, who had gone into hiding after suffering grievous wounds.
Tardes, like Manyanya, was an essential being for the world’s continued existence.
If Manyanya purified the seawater for Tiendavis, then Tardes was the one who drew that water up from the distant ocean by moving the very air.
But after the war with Noche, Tardes sustained deep injuries and could no longer fulfill her role, so she created beings to send in her stead.
Those were the small dragons—the Daughters of Tardes.
The Daughters stabilized the atmosphere and drew up seawater in their mother’s place, and even carried people on their backs so they could travel between Tienda and Vis.
Yet it was strictly forbidden to treat them like livestock or attempt to own them.
Dragons, by nature, were sacred and wise beings who cared for humankind.
As avatars of such a being, the Daughters of Tardes deserved proper respect—
even if one of them had been persistently sniffing and nudging Ivy since earlier.
“Then please wait a moment. I’ll go find one willing to carry us.”
Leaving the flustered Ivy behind, Deis approached the dragons resting in the field.
To ride a Daughter of Tardes, one must first politely ask for help and receive permission.
Thus, left alone with a single Daughter, Ivy fumbled through starting a conversation.
“Um… do you have something to say to me? Why are you… oh, wait—”
Overwhelmed by the Daughter’s attention, Ivy suddenly remembered what was in her pocket.
It was a large chocolate cookie—she’d absentmindedly packed it as emergency rations, feeling she might need it for the trip to Vis.
When Ivy pulled the cookie from her pocket, the Daughter’s eyes lit up. Hesitantly, Ivy held it out.
“Um… would you like this?”
Before Ivy could even finish offering it, the dragon snatched the cookie and gulped it down in one bite.
From a few steps away, Deis belatedly called out to stop her.
“Lady Ivy, you mustn’t do that.”
“Oh! So I shouldn’t give cookies?”
“No—it’s just that if you give one to only one of them, the others will protest.”
“Eep!”
The moment Deis finished speaking, the other Daughters who saw the cookie swarmed Ivy.
They began nudging her with their snouts, as if demanding their share.
“Ah, please don’t! I don’t have any more! Ow…”
Some of the Daughters even flapped their wings against the ground or used their front paws to rummage through Ivy’s pockets.
Already terrified of dragons, Ivy nearly turned white with fear as they surrounded her.
But then, the Daughter who’d eaten Ivy’s cookie let out a roar toward her sisters.
At a reprimand inaudible to Ivy or Deis, the harassing dragons quietly backed away.
Then that one Daughter walked up to Deis and lowered herself onto the ground.
“She seems willing to carry us.”
Perhaps as thanks for the cookie, the Daughter readily offered her back.
So Deis carefully placed the saddle he’d brought onto her.
Once the reins were secured, Ivy and Deis climbed onto the Daughter’s back together.
The red dragon immediately dashed down the hill and leapt into the air from the cliff’s edge.
Ivy, suddenly plummeting, felt her heart lurch upward.
Just as she was about to scream in desperation, the dragon beat its wings and soared upward.
Finally able to breathe again, Ivy looked up—and saw Tienda, now far in the distance, clearly visible.
That vast yet small continent was dotted with rainbows, cast by the great waterfalls and spray cascading down into Vis.
Ivy gazed at Tienda for a while, then lowered her head.
There, stretching endlessly before her eyes, was Vis.
How long had it been since she’d last seen Vis?
Reuniting with that hateful yet longed-for world, Ivy was overwhelmed with emotion.
But there was no time to indulge in sentiment.
Because the Daughter of Tardes, who had been descending smoothly with Ivy and Deis on her back, suddenly halted midair.
The Daughter hovered calmly, flapping her wings gently, leaving Deis stranded in the sky and prompting him to ask,
“Why have you stopped?”
Normally, she should have continued descending straight down to Wind Valley, just beneath Tienda, to drop them off.
But instead, the Daughter stopped at a dizzying height and began circling the same spot.
Startled, Ivy gripped the saddle; Deis, equally alarmed, grabbed Ivy’s shoulders from behind.
Even when Deis pulled the reins, the Daughter only shook her head, refusing—but without any roughness in her manner.
So Deis asked, half-believing, half-doubting,
“Could it be… you intend to take us all the way to our destination?”
The Daughter gave a large, clear nod—as if confirming Deis’s guess.
For a Daughter of Tardes to personally escort them was an extraordinary honor. Without hesitation, Deis immediately stated their destination.
“We’re headed to the southeast. Please take us to the junction between the border and the southern city.”
Understanding perfectly, the Daughter powerfully beat her wings—then shot southeastward like an arrow.
.
.
.
The Daughter of Tardes covered in a single hour a distance that would take two days by carriage.
It was rare for the Daughters to leave the area between Windy Hill and Wind Valley—so Ivy and Deis had struck quite a fortune with just one cookie.
“We’ve saved a good deal of travel time, thanks to you.”
Deis murmured at the southeastern junction, where they’d arrived in the blink of an eye.
Though the ride had been comfortable and swift, the day to meet their ally was already set.
So Deis decided they’d stay nearby and wait without altering their schedule.
But Ivy had a different idea.
“So we have about two days to spare now?”
“Yes, we have time until the morning of the third day.”
“Then… can I visit another city? It’s not far from here.”
The look on Ivy’s face as she spoke was unmistakably earnest.
In truth, ever since Deis’s ally had instructed them to come to the southeast, Ivy’s heart had been restless.
Because the southeast was where she’d met the diviner—and where they’d lived together.
“That should be fine—as long as it’s a city within the southeast.”
Seeing Ivy’s expression, Deis followed her wish without objection.
So Ivy, suppressing her hope and bracing for disappointment, headed toward her hometown—a place tangled with painful memories and warm recollections.
And there, she encountered someone she never could have imagined.
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
is this chapter from another story?…… it doesn’t make sense at all…