Chapter 240: Viktor and Qiu Tailang

"That was how I met Qiu Tailang. Though, at the time, I did not know his name or what kind of person he was."

"Qiu Tailang was originally in the elven village?"

"Yes. I do not know why he was there. The elven village has always been extremely closed off, and they strongly dislike outsiders entering or leaving the village. The fact that someone from the human race was simply there as though it were perfectly normal was strange in itself. Looking back now, I can imagine that something must have happened, but at the time, I never thought it was strange."

Qiu Tailang took the two children, who were feeling increasingly uncomfortable, away from the others and showed them around the elven village. The villagers continued to cast rude, scrutinizing looks at Viktor and his sister, but for some reason, everyone seemed to hold Qiu Tailang in high regard. Whenever they saw him walking around with the children, they would bow to him.

From that day onward, Viktor’s father began taking the two children outside the mansion more often. Sometimes they went to the elven village, sometimes to the royal palace, and sometimes they simply went sightseeing for the sake of sightseeing. For some reason, however, their mother never accompanied them.

"Looking back, I think my mother must have already been falling ill around that time. My sister and I were both very attached to her, and having two children constantly hovering around her would have made it impossible for her to get any rest. I think that was why Father took the two of us out so often. Mother probably did not want us to see that she was becoming weaker, either."

As these outings continued, Viktor gradually grew comfortable with Qiu Tailang whenever he happened to see him. To young Viktor, Qiu Tailang was the older boy he often encountered while they were out, someone who would spend time with him and play with him.

Since Viktor’s only playmate had been his older sister, most of the games he knew were quiet activities that girls often enjoyed, such as playing with dolls and drawing pictures.

Qiu Tailang, however, never got angry when Viktor ran around energetically. He would happily play tag with him, too.

It was also around this time that Viktor apparently began learning simple magic for the first time, with Qiu Tailang as his teacher.

Amid those uneventful days, Viktor encountered another person who left a strong impression on him when he was taken to the royal palace one day.

Whenever Viktor spoke about this person, his expression became somewhat bitter, and a crease appeared between his brows. Considering the fact that they had met at the royal palace, along with Viktor’s expression and everything he had said and done up to this point, Qiu Nuoya could more or less guess who it was.

"The person my Father urged me to greet was His Majesty King Warrington de Velikorya. The moment he glanced at me, he looked extremely stern and harshly questioned Father about why he had brought me there. Perhaps he simply did not like children very much. I remember that the way he looked at me was severe, though it was different from the way the people in the elven village looked at me. And the one who tried to calm him down and admonished His Majesty was Qiu Tailang."

Qiu Nuoya had learned from Viktor that Qiu Tailang and Warrington de Velikorya had apparently been married. The two were bound by a relationship of mutual trust, and Qiu Tailang had probably held a position similar to that of a queen consort, allowing him to admonish Warrington de Velikorya when necessary.

"Within the royal palace, His Majesty always kept Qiu Tailang by his side and would not allow me to interact with him. That was why I hated the royal palace, but my sister, on the other hand, said she preferred it to the elven village, where we were treated like something unpleasant that people did not want to touch. The palace was more beautiful, and no one there looked at us strangely. My sister resembled our mother and looked more human than elven, so I suppose the elven village must have been particularly uncomfortable for her."

"Once we were allowed to visit the palace regularly, my sister gradually became close to the people who would later become the driving force behind the establishment of the Church. I only learned later that it was Qiu Tailang who founded the Church, but the people who supported him and formed its backbone were those skilled in holy magic who are now known as saints and saintesses. My sister had the qualities needed to become a saintess, and through that connection, she gradually became close to them."

Through holy magic, Viktor’s sister began interacting with people outside her family. Little by little, she built a world of her own and began stepping beyond the closed world she had shared with Viktor.

Until then, whenever they spent time at the mansion, it had always been the two of them, with his sister being almost Viktor’s entire world. He could not hide his confusion as he watched her change.

And when Viktor found himself struggling with that change, the person who reached out a hand to him was, naturally, Qiu Tailang.

"My sister said she wanted to study holy magic together with everyone at the royal palace, and that brought an end to the life the two of us had shared. I was around five years old at the time. By then, my Mother had begun spending more and more time confined to her bed. Perhaps seeing my Mother in that condition made my sister all the more determined to find a way to fight the illness that was taking her away from us."

After becoming an apprentice saintess, Viktor’s sister spent less and less time at home, leaving Viktor alone in the enormous mansion more and more often.