Chapter 1893 - 520: The Colin Family Vampires' Heads, As Problematic As Ever

When Twilight City steps into March, it is always veiled in drizzling rain, the sky like a rag that can never be washed clean, pressing down over everyone's mouth and nose.

In the attic of an inn not far from the Central Cathedral, the air is thick with the mold of dampened boards, and there seem to be rats scurrying beneath the floor.

Erin was wrapped in a wool shawl long enough to trail across the ground, curled up in an old wooden chair by the window, her tall, straight back carrying a touch of loneliness.

It wasn't only the "Radiant Knight" that had been trapped by the "Bishop"; the Campbell people's legend was imprisoned as well.

She had been enduring here for almost half a year, and the Judicial Court showed not the slightest sign of leaving. She didn't know how much longer she would have to stay, even less what meaning there was in staying on.

She still remembered that the Northern Relief Army had come to resolve the Chaos Corrosion devouring the Twilight Province.

But perhaps she was the only one who still remembered.

"Theresa."

"I'm here, Your Highness."

Hearing the voice behind her, Erin did not turn around. After a moment of silence, she spoke.

"How are things outside lately?"

Theresa answered respectfully.

"Twilight City is still the same as ever, but the changes outside the walls are quite great. Spring plowing has already begun in Jing Shui Beach Territory, and over by Rapids Pass as well… thanks to you, the warriors who followed us here to the Twilight Province have all been granted land of their own."

"Is that so."

A faint thread of comfort eased Erin's heart, blowing away some of the gloom pressed between her brows.

Her gaze passed through the dust-filmed window and fell on the bleak, muddy street below, where soldiers on patrol occasionally strode by and emaciated townsfolk sat along the roadside.

Though many still lived in fear, at least the people standing behind her had been spared death and terror.

It seemed… there was nothing much to regret.

Just as the thought formed, a sudden, unheralded stab of pain climbed up her chest, making the fingers clutching her shawl involuntarily tighten.

It was not an ailment of the flesh, more like a string tied to the tip of her heart, plucked by an unseen hand with a short, trembling note.

"Your Highness?"

Theresa keenly sensed Erin's abnormality, hastily rose and took a few steps to the chair, concern written plainly in her eyes.

"Are you… feeling unwell anywhere?"

The ever-silent Sarah also lifted her head, the cat ears hidden in shadow giving a slight twitch, amber pupils unreadable.

"It's nothing, only… I suddenly feel a little flustered inside."

Erin drew in a deep breath. The palpitating sensation had come as quickly as it went, leaving behind only an illusory ache of emptiness.

She slowly shook her head and loosened the hand that had been clenched around her shawl.

Theresa was at a loss, intending to try and offer a few words of comfort, when Erin, her head bowed, suddenly spoke in a soft, dreamlike voice.

"Theresa, do you still remember the summer when I was eight?"

Theresa pondered for a moment.

"I remember you awakened your Extraordinary Power that year. Father seemed very happy."

Awakening Extraordinary Power at eight was rare, one might even call it a prodigy's gift.

On the Aus Continent, Extraordinary Power usually awakened in concentrated bursts between the ages of twelve and sixteen, with the growth phase beginning after sixteen.

As for the exact rate of growth, that depended on the environment, the upper limit decreed by birth, and the chances encountered later.

There were those still at Bronze at sixteen, yet in the short span from sixteen to twenty they could rise all the way to Platinum or even Diamond.

Erin was one such example.

Theresa remembered very clearly Duke Aaron Campbell's joy at the time. Yet to her surprise, Erin merely shook her head lightly.

That was not what she meant to speak of.

"That summer, I found a red-tailed sparrow in the castle garden with an injured wing. It stayed in my palm for an entire summer, and every morning it would sing to me, waiting for me to wake up."

Sarah thought for a while, then muttered to herself in a voice only she could hear.

"It was probably hungry."

Erin did not hear her tone-deaf interjection and continued on her own.

"…It accompanied me through a delightful summer, but when the autumn wind shook the leaves from the birches, it flew away from before my eyes and never returned."

As Erin spoke to this point, her gaze grew distant, as though she had slipped back into that childhood summer.

"I remember searching for a long time, but I never found it again. My mood now is much the same… I keep feeling that something important is slowly drifting away from me."

Sarah hadn't intended to butt in, but she had so few chances in a day to speak that she finally couldn't hold back from adding one more line.

"From my experience, if it didn't come back in spring… it probably nested somewhere else, or got eaten by a stray cat."

Theresa: "…"

"Is that so…" Erin was taken aback, then gave a tactful little smile. "Then I'd rather hope it found its own happiness, and wasn't eaten by a stray cat on the road of migration."

Sarah said nothing.

The Campbell people did not eat birds, but Demons who ate anything were another matter; when starving, she would even dare snatch the Demon King's food.

Erin drew back her gaze, her eyes unfocused as she looked out the window, and murmured under her breath for no clear reason.

"Please don't leave me…"

She herself didn't know why the words had suddenly slipped out, only that the emotion welling up and pressing at her lips was almost exactly like that summer she remembered.

Later her father gifted her a parrot that could speak, but she never again found that pure and simple happiness.