“Move if you know, or we all burn to death together.”

The young girl’s voice was calm yet bold.

“Ahaha, look at her!”

And Rohika the tower master’s laughter was unbelievably cheerful.

So to Roble, everything about the situation before her eyes was strange without exception.

Five years ago, after prostrating herself before the tower master, Roble had not set foot in the tower’s basement even once. But now she had reluctantly come down because the tower master suddenly called her to the basement.

“What’s going on here?”

“Oh, you came?”

Rohika, who had been laughing with her arms resting on the railing, spotted Roble and beckoned.

“Come and watch too, it’s the child I brought.”

The tower master personally?

At these unexpected words, Roble hesitantly stood beside Rohika. Then she looked down at the chaotic hall one floor below.

There, one girl and about a dozen servants were facing off. But surprisingly, the girl had the upper hand.

That young girl was threatening everyone except herself, waving a lantern over a floor soaked with oil. And the servants were at a loss, unable to do anything about that one girl.

‘What in the world…’

Roble was utterly bewildered by this ridiculous situation. She couldn’t believe such a farce was happening here.

The short-haired girl in black held the lantern and slowly sidled to the side. The servants also moved slowly together, trying to snatch that light and catch the girl.

This strange tension continued for a moment.

“Eek!”

The girl threw the lantern at a servant approaching her.

While the servants scrambled to catch the lamp flying through the air, the girl dashed away nimbly.

The servants also rushed in earnest to catch the girl, but some slipped on the oil and they all tumbled down together. Thanks to that, the girl leisurely crossed the hall.

“Puhah!”

Rohika burst into laughter again at that comical sight. But Roble could not bring herself to laugh along.

“Ah, she might really escape at this rate.”

Rohika chuckled and flicked her finger over the railing.

Then a man in black clothes appeared from somewhere and snatched the girl by the scruff of her neck.

The servants who came running a step late flinched and backed away at the man’s appearance. Roble too pretended to be surprised when she recognized what that man was.

That was Rohika’s hound that she had only heard rumors about.

The hound, black and dark like a shadow, was visibly threatening at first glance.

But the girl caught by him neither struggled nor screamed. She wasn’t scared. If she had been frightened, she wouldn’t have sighed so calmly, nor would she have asked so brazenly.

“What punishment will you give this time?”

Roble doubted her own ears.

Rohika started laughing with her forehead pressed against the railing.

After giggling for a while, Rohika called out in a joyful voice to the floor below.

“Ibi!”

At Rohika’s call, the girl whose nape was held looked up slightly. Then she blatantly frowned at Rohika.

A girl who dared to make such a disgusted face at the tower master.

Indeed, to Roble’s eyes, everything about this situation was strange without exception.

But Rohika didn’t seem to mind, and put her hand on Roble’s shoulder as she said,

“This is the Holy Maiden, aren’t you interested?”

At the sudden introduction, the girl’s gaze turned to Roble.

The face of the girl who met the Holy Maiden’s eyes was unexpectedly very cute. Except for her very defiant black eyes, she was an utterly ordinary and lovely little girl.

Meanwhile, the child called Ibi stared blankly at Roble before turning her head away with a mutter.

That halfhearted whisper didn’t reach the corridor above. So Rohika asked the hound,

“What did Ibi just say?”

“She said, ‘Fraud, die.'”

“Pffft!”

As the red-haired hound answered bluntly, Rohika collapsed in laughter once again.

That child was childish, but Roble found Rohika laughing while clutching her stomach too unfamiliar and strange.

Had Rohika Sedro always been someone who laughed so loudly? No, Rohika’s laughter had always been sharply edged. But now she was acting so casually as if that child was simply adorable.

“Ah, how cute. How did she end up like that?”

Rohika muttered incomprehensibly. One thing was clear though – she regarded that child as special.

Roble was curious about the situation, but it wasn’t the time to indulge her curiosity. She wanted to get out of this space as soon as possible, so she carefully asked Rohika who had put her aside,

“Why did you call for me?”

“Ah, to show you to her. You can go now.”

To be called just to be shown – it was treatment Roble had never received in her life.

However, Roble was too tired to feel humiliated by this treatment. So at the words that she could leave, she turned around hastily without asking or arguing further.

And a few days later, Roble heard a few things about that girl.

“The tower master brought her in personally two months ago.”

It was through a servant who went between the basement and the upper floors of the tower.

“Her singing voice is truly mysterious. That’s why the tower master is interested in her, but the problem is that the child is a troublemaker who rebels at every opportunity.”

“A troublemaker?”

Roble murmured as if repeating an unfamiliar word.

A troublemaker – that was a word that couldn’t coexist with Rohika Sedro. Roble knew firsthand how easy it was for Rohika to tame something.

‘Is Rohika neglecting her?’

Otherwise, there’s no way a child locked in the basement could continue rebelling for two months.

‘Why? No matter how talented she is, if she’s not tamed she has no use…’

Roble, who had been thinking carelessly, was startled and covered her own mouth.

‘What am I thinking…?’

Taming, usefulness. Roble was horrified and shuddered at her own thoughts.

For the past 5 years, Roble had desperately ignored the existence of the basement. However, no matter how bright a place she was in, its presence clung to her like a shadow, never straying from her for a single moment.

It was natural. Every element that made up the Holy Maiden was established by the quiet sacrifice of the girls trapped in the basement.

Nevertheless, she had persistently ignored it because she felt she would go crazy if she kept being conscious of it, but this shallow avoidance didn’t work at all.

Roble was being tainted by the tower’s way of thinking without even realizing it.

Roble was shocked when she realized this. So she hurriedly shook off the basement matters etched in her mind.

‘Whatever whim Rohika is indulging in, it won’t last long. That child will soon be tamed too. It’s not my business.’

Roble thought so and forgot about that girl. It felt like she had to in order to survive.

But contrary to Roble’s wishes, that girl did not disappear easily.

Far from disappearing, exactly three years later, she invaded Roble’s life in an even more shocking form.

That day was when Roble was holding her 78th purification ceremony as the Holy Maiden.

When she first learned the truth about the tower, Roble felt ashamed to sing in front of people. But as she entered her 8th year, even that guilt had become so dulled that she felt nothing now. She just wanted to finish quickly and go down.

‘Once this is over, twenty-two more times…’

Roble muttered inwardly as she looked at the nobles sparsely filling the tower’s terrace.

The Holy Maiden’s term ends honorably after performing 100 purification ceremonies. So now less than a quarter remained, but as the end of her term approached, Roble was suffering from new pressure rather than feeling lighthearted.

‘The new Holy Maiden will despise me too.’

When my term ends and the next Holy Maiden is selected, that child will also be invited to the basement of the tower. Then, just as I did, she will feel disillusionment towards the former Holy Maidens. Towards the tower’s collaborator who wears a noble mask to lure slaves.

To think I have to suffer this fear again after barely enduring.

Roble resented the former Holy Maidens who didn’t tell her anything, then realized she was no different from them and despaired.

She too couldn’t say anything to her precious younger sister who said she wanted to become a Holy Maiden like her. It was unbearably painful for that child to be frustrated like her, to learn of her cowardice, but Roble had no strength.

The greatest elders of the Tuha family are the former Holy Maidens. And they were hoping.

Just as they had overcome that ordeal and raised the name of Tuha, they hoped the young daughters of the family would do the same, so that Tuha’s tomorrow would be brilliant too, so that there would be no lack in their remaining lives.

Even Roble Tuha, the noble Holy Maiden, did not have the strength to overcome such family pressure. So she couldn’t say anything to her sister.

In the end, even the Holy Maiden was in the same situation as the girls trapped in the basement. A pretty slave bound by beauty.

The only consolation was that her situation was better than those girls underground.

That she didn’t have to sacrifice her lifespan because she was a noble.

That she could spend an elegant later life as the price of cowardice.

That she was on the side of stepping up while pretending to be sorry, not on the side of being stepped on without any choice.

Roble found all of this disgusting, but like a well-trained Holy Maiden, she smiled towards the blue lake without showing it.

Then, just as she was about to open her mouth to imitate the dragon’s song,

A voice ringing out from somewhere intercepted the Holy Maiden’s song.

Roble, who was taking a breath at the singing voice clearly imprinted in her ears, raised her head in surprise.

High up there, a girl leaning out of a window in the middle of the tower was visible.

“What is that?”

That girl had her long black hair carelessly let down and was wearing a plain white dress. So the nobles murmured, thinking some crazy servant was disrupting the purification ceremony.

But their questions and complaints were erased the next moment.

Because that girl raised her voice and unleashed an unbelievable tone.

The nobles froze at that overwhelming voice. Even the purifiers stared at that girl, losing their senses.

And Roble alone realized the identity of that girl and was stunned.

‘How did she escape?’

Roble was certain that girl was a child who had escaped from the basement. Only the girls trapped in the basement could sing so chillingly.

It was an extremely awkward situation, but somehow Roble couldn’t move. The girl’s song arbitrarily invaded and stole the anxiety from the Holy Maiden. So even the Holy Maiden who knew the situation was helplessly captivated by that singing voice.

The girl’s song gently overwhelmed the listeners.

So everyone was listening comfortably, but at some point the girl’s tone heightened and stole their breath. The nobles twisted their gloves and hems at the song demanding submission.

Then a wind blew in from somewhere. Following that, the calm surface of the lake began to ripple.

The nobles looked back and forth between the wavering lake and the girl enveloped in wind in surprise. Some even doubted if they were dreaming.

The atmosphere moved as if responding to the girl’s song. It was as if the world specially cherished that girl and caressed her directly.

This alone was marvelous, but an even more unbelievable thing happened.

“That…!”

Exclamations burst out here and there.

Because in front of everyone’s eyes, the girl’s black hair brightened to a brilliant water color.

That was the miracle of the first Holy Maiden.

A scene from the myths read in childhood tore through the old book pages and arrived in reality.

The nobles who couldn’t stand it anymore stood up and raised their feet to see that girl better. The purifiers turned pale at the truly unbelievable song, and Roble, the Holy Maiden, vaguely felt like crying.

They gazed endlessly at the girl singing, separated from the world.

Shortly after, the song that had filled a time indistinguishable between eternity and a moment ended. And complete silence came.

No one could open their mouth. No one dared to move. They worshipped that girl in silence, overwhelmed by shock.

Then the girl who finished singing threw something out the window. It was a long fluttering string, a ribbon.