Chapter 75: The Clear Mirror

Lenora looked at her new updated system. Well, it wasn’t as bad as it looked—but it still looked bad.

Name: Lenora

Astral Being: Gone.

Rank: Human.

Burden: Gone.

Class: Corrupted Consciousness.

As for the weapon and item part, they were just listed as lost—except for her sword blade, which was destroyed.

Lenora called the system off and looked blankly toward the window. It was closed, but she saw a tree there, its leaves covered in snow as the wind blew gently against it, sending small snowflakes falling to the ground.

The sun was shining high in the sky. This scene brought another memory to Lenora—one she did not want to remember, but for some reason, she wanted to. She wanted to understand something about her past and what she was like.

With her mind clearer than before, every thought of hers was vivid—hers. It was a strange feeling, different from looking down on people. She thought as she sighed to herself.

Why did she ever want to rank up? She was a Saint, but the next rank after Saint was on a different level entirely. And she wanted that power. But her family did not give her the keys to try the trial. So she had no choice but to turn to the Azure Gate.

Even as she thought this, a small dread seized her heart as she thought about the Dark One—the Lord of the Azure Breach. That day, she had faced a being she could not even fathom or grasp. It was that day Lenora felt like an ant against a creature like that.

Thinking about it now—it was her. Her taste to be stronger, to make people look up to her. She wanted them to see her. And when her family said no, it hurt her pride. All she wanted was to prove them wrong—to prove everyone who looked down on her.

This was never about humanity. Lenora knew she was not some saint who actually cared for the people of this world. She just wanted them to look up to her, to look at her and say, Yes, this is our Storm Saint. But at what cost was this?

It was just now Lenora was understanding the level of her pride. I mean, she had plans to kill her husband and she played it off like it was nothing. Lenora knew more than anyone what that blade could do, but she did not care.

Lenora did not know when her burden started to control her more than she realized. She was too far gone to have known that her hunger for power—to make no one look down on her—had caused the death of millions.

Now, with her burden gone and her mind clear, Lenora was just understanding the depth of her pride, and it was sickening. But there was nothing she could do. She could not bring back the dead. She could only sit in her regret.

Lenora had been lost in her mind, and Miss Baker just watched her lady. Weird—she was acting calmer than usual. Or maybe it was just her imagination.

She looked down, just realizing she had cut all the apples in the fruit basket, and now there was nothing left. Miss Baker put the basket down before saying nothing and just looking at her young lady.

Her thoughts drifted to what Preston had said about her family—were they truly letting her go?

Lenora looked at her maid all of a sudden and asked, as a small tear ran down her face, "Miss Baker, I need you to help me check something."

Miss Baker nodded. "What is it, miss?"

Lenora smiled, but her eyes were cold. As she asked, her voice was surprisingly clear. "Three years ago, what happened in Mazecrest City?"

Miss Baker looked at her lady. "Ma’am, you mean the breach?"

Lenora smiled, but it was a painful one. "I just need to be told what happened."

Miss Baker just nodded. "Mazecrest City and its district is at the bottom of the ocean now, ma’am. Like you said—it was a small sacrifice for the greater good."

Lenora looked at her maid. Her heart stopped at her words.

"Wait—isn’t Mazecrest City in the ocean?" the maid nodded.

"Yes, but it was destroyed when your team challenged the Azure Breach there."

Lenora looked at the maid as she remembered what she had said. As she looked at the city with about a hundred million people falling to their deaths—that she had caused. And the blade they used for building their city in the middle of the ocean.

Lenora looked away as tears started to fall from her eyes. She looked at the window. A pale young woman with cold tears and trickling eyes looked back at her, with pale lips.

She was nothing more than a prideful monster who killed millions for power. She looked at her broken legs. The price she paid was not enough.

Lenora felt wrong all over. Even with a pale face, she looked good—like she had been eating and sleeping well after everything she had done. And now she was cursing her mind for being clear enough to see how cruel she was. She was nothing different from her family.

Lenora gritted her teeth as she looked at herself in the mirror-like window.

How did you live with yourself this long after what you have done? she thought as she felt her heart beating fast, her face turning red.

She was filled with so many emotions but did not know what to do. Even moving her body was hard as all the emotions tried to push her to the edge. Her mind cleared it all as she looked down.

Miss Baker just watched and said nothing.

As the lawyer arrived, Miss Baker replied, "No, ma’am. I’m sorry—not yet."

Meanwhile, a group of doctors was rushing as a mini-transporter landed on the government rescue ship.

"Holo One, this is Gr 1. You have received reports that the young masters of the Graves family are on your ship receiving treatment, and we would like to ask you to release them to our medical team for care."

"Roger, this is Holo One. Your request has been granted."

Just then, the Graves family ship hovering above District 12 released two transports as they flew toward the medical wing of the government ship holding Sen and Orson.

On the Graves family ship, a young girl sat in the captain’s chair as one of the crew members controlled the ship.

"Young miss, I’m sorry, but how did you know about young master Orson being here?"

The girl smiled. "Lenora told me. And besides—if Orson’s sister heard that Orson was injured, she would lay waste to the whole Silvercrest City, and the higher-ups are not planning to lose any more settlements. But first, try to find Orson. I hear there are over hundreds of people injured there, so get to work."

The man nodded and continued his work.

The doctor was about to put Sen in the first transporter when the transporter detached itself and flew back to the Graves family ship.

In another wing of the government rescue vessel, Orson lay motionless on an operating table, his entire body wrapped in layers of white bandages like a mummy. His face was completely unrecognizable under the wrappings.

The medical team had just finished the agonizing process of scraping away every inch of scorched, dead tissue and burned skin from his body. The procedure had been brutal and grim, but they had to stop.

Despite their best efforts, the lead surgeon knew the outlook was bleak—Orson’s internal organs were riddled with deep shockwave trauma and residual burn marks that modern medical tech couldn’t easily fix without high-grade tissue synthesis.

Since there was nothing more they could do for an uncontracted civilian with injuries this severe, they simply pumped his system full of high-potency painkillers to stop the bleeding and numb his agony, leaving him heavily sedated.

Just as the nurses were preparing to move him to a hospice ward, the surgical bay doors hissed open.

A doctor dressed in high-tier private medical gear stepped inside, flashing an official clearance badge. Without a word of greeting, he pointed straight at Orson’s bed.

"This patient is coming with me."

Before the government staff could protest, two heavily armored medical nurses marched into the room. They unhooked Orson’s life-support lines, reattached them to a mobile gurney, and wheeled him out through the side corridor toward a private shuttle bay.

They loaded Orson onto a specialized Graves Family transport unit, strapping his bandaged frame securely to the gurney. The transport’s thrusters hummed to life, detaching from the rescue ship’s bay before shooting up into the grey sky toward the massive Graves family warship hovering above the clouds.

The transport aligned with the bottom bay of the floating leviathan, latching on with a heavy pneumatic THUD.

As the airlock pressurized, a team of elite Graves family medical personnel rushed forward, unlatching the gurney and wheeling the bandaged Orson directly toward their state-of-the-art medical bay.