PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Four days had passed since the invasion day, a tribute to the dead that became a festival of death and mourning. The invading forces of Kormat bathed the city’s streets in blood, bringing with them a trail of pain that would take too long to fade.

From what I hear, Kormat did not get the lightning victory they expected, all due to the decisive intervention of the church in the fighting inside the city. However, the royal knights also played an important role.

I hated to admit it, but the church was more capable than I thought. At least they played their cards very well during the previous conflict and burned a massive amount of funds on the war effort, something unexpected but well received by the royal family.

You cunning bastards, I was pretty sure the church had something to do with how Kormat’s army so easily infiltrated the city. Still, given the church’s dazzling role during the invasion, it was unlikely anyone would ever suspect them.

I was dying to make those old bastards pay for what they did, for the pain they caused. However, with Cecilia’s current state, my hands were tied.

That day, after receiving that last gesture of love from Nana, Cecilia broke down; not in the literal sense or anything like that, she just couldn’t take the trauma and collapsed.

There wasn’t much I could do with a dead body, an unconscious girl, and an injured fairy on my hands. That’s not even about my bad state, so I had to swallow my anger and stay in place guarding Cecilia while I gradually recovered from my injuries and exhaustion.

As the hours passed, the battle in the city seemed to intensify, only reaching its peak at sunset; a couple of hours later, the news broke that the forces that had infiltrated the city’s interior had been annihilated.

.....

I felt no joy for the people in that room; the damage was done. Kyuru might heal, but Nana would never come back, and Cecilia would live forever with her memory. I knew that pain, losing someone, knowing that no matter how much you wanted it, you would never see that person again; it was a feeling I tried to forget.

Cecilia did not make it better; it was to be expected. No matter how special she became, deep down, she was still an ordinary girl who had just lost her only friend, the only person she could call family.

In fact, Cecilia seemed to take it worse than I expected. It was as if all light had been banished from her world; her eyes were always dull, her countenance weak, and she looked empty.

I still remember how difficult it was to get her to separate from Nana’s body. Nana’s body had been taken by the church staff to give her a proper burial, a luxury that was not denied her; Cecilia’s enemies didn’t seem to be interested in messing with a dead girl.

It was surprising that Nana actually had quite a lavish farewell ceremony for her servant status, perhaps a display of remorse from the few people within the church who weren’t wholly corrupted.

Not that it mattered at this point, Nana was dead, and Cecilia didn’t even attend her funeral. She couldn’t; she refused to go through that ceremony and increase the pain she was feeling.

Things only went from bad to worse since then. Cecilia had stopped worrying about everything; she stopped eating, cleaning herself, and leaving her room. She locked herself inside those four walls that witnessed her friend’s final moments.

I stopped being Cecilia’s bodyguard and became her new servant from then on. I always made sure that she ate and took care of her, although I had to force her on many occasions.

It was painful to see her like this. All the joy in her, all the warmth in her, and that air of kindness around her had withered. There was only a feeling of loneliness and sadness around her; Cecilia almost looked like a broken doll that had lost the strings that kept it moving.

I could understand her, really, but there was nothing I could do for her. I saw it in her eyes, that hate that I was so familiar with; Cecilia hated herself for not being able to save her friend, but she also hated the world that had taken Nana away from her.

The tower now only housed Kyuru, Cecilia, and me, so silence reigned in the corridors and floors. There were no longer happy conversations or warmth; even I was affected by the gloomy atmosphere.

This morning, as had become usual in the last four days, I was the one who was in charge of preparing breakfast for everyone, having to go through a lot of trouble to get Cecilia out of her bed.

I managed to get her to wake up and out of the embrace of her blankets. But feeding her proved to be quite a challenge, not unlike feeding an uncooperative baby.

While dealing with Cecilia’s resistance to consuming food, my attention ended on the girl’s lips; today, it was the same. Although Cecilia refused to do anything for herself besides sleep and cry, she still took a moment to sit in front of her dressing table mirror to put on her lipstick; the crimson had turned into a color that never left her lips.

I knew this wasn’t healthy for her, but I had no idea how to deal with her. Cecilia had lost any interest in her life; Had I left her alone, there’s a good chance she would have starved to death.

Those old bastards at church would sure jump for joy if they found out that her headache starved to death. The murderous intentions sprouted like water from a spring just by remembering those disgusting old men, especially the face of the high priest.

After Nana’s funeral, some bishops and high church officials came to offer their condolences to Cecilia, though inside, they might be rejoicing; they all displayed some degree of decorum. Everyone except the high priest, who came by himself to drop a couple of sneers and hypocritical comments, the disgusting bloody pig couldn’t wait to laugh out loud in Cecilia’s face.

It took all my willpower not to attack the asshole, but it couldn’t be helped. With the room filled with high church officials, there were at least eight holy knights in the room at the time; attacking would have been suicide.

Similar logic led me to not make a move against Erigard until now. I couldn’t afford to part with Cecilia in her current state, not to mention that if I provoked the church enough, then it wasn’t a whole impossible scenario that an entire squad full of holy knights came to knock on our doors.

It also helped my mood calm down that Kyuru fully recovered from her injuries in just a couple of days; she wasn’t lying when she said fairies heal fast. On the other hand, Cecilia didn’t react to the high priest’s taunts or sympathy she received from other people; it was as if she wasn’t even paying any attention.

I finished feeding Cecilia, having to clean her face carefully; due to how uncooperative she always ended up a mess, even though I was cautious not to mess up her lipstick... She was really upset the last time that happened.

Having finished my task, I watched as Cecilia almost crawled back to her bed before covering her entire body and face with a blanket, thus returning to her comfort zone.

“She seems to be getting worse.” Seeing Cecilia’s current state, I couldn’t help but comment, knowing that Kyuru was listening to me, even though she had been keeping a lot of silence lately.

Kyuru looked pityingly in the direction of the bed, and with a hand on her chest, she commented, “She is going through a delicate time. Her pain and the loneliness that she feels now are among the worst emotions I’ve felt in a long time.”

I had to take Kyuru’s words very seriously. After all, she had been through many of my emotional ups and downs, so if she said that Cecilia’s condition was delicate, she was probably only a couple of steps away from the madness.

Not that it was unheard of either, I had heard of cases where people were utterly unable to get over the death of a loved one and fell victim to insanity and suicide.

But a part of me still found all of this very strange. Two things didn’t make much sense to me. The first would be Katya; I found it odd that this archangel had not appeared until now. I thought she would show up to express her concern for the delicate emotional state Cecilia was in.

I was unaware of how Cecilia was supposed to become a Celestial, but I doubted that the process included such things as falling insane or committing suicide.

The other thing I found strange was the lack of activity on the part of the church. Kormat’s invasion had officially stopped the night before, with the withdrawal of their troops taking place shortly after. I knew that the church hadn’t made a move against Cecilia in recent days due to the invasion, but after Nana’s funeral ceremony, the atmosphere seemed strange.

It almost seemed like everyone was trying not to provoke Cecilia into doing something drastic. It was suspicious, and I had a bad feeling that this attitude wouldn’t last long; moreover, I could already feel the underground currents forming as soon as the besieging of the city ended.