"If that is for the best, then I will do as suggested."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

When Rinne and Lilyca returned from their "rest," the atmosphere in the reception room had shifted.

The chaos of earlier had subsided, and the tea had been refreshed. The winter light through the windows had softened from pale gold to the deeper, amber hue of late afternoon.

Lilyca had changed out of her feather ensemble. The layered cloak of black plumage had been replaced with a simple, comfortable dress, soft wool in a dark grey that matched the winter sky outside.

Without the feathers, she looked smaller. Her black hair had been brushed and rebraided, and her silver-white eyes seemed a fraction more relaxed.

Rinne had done a good job getting her more relaxed. He walked beside her and had recovered somewhat during their brief absence.

They approached the reception room just as the conversation inside reached its natural conclusion, and through the partially open door, they could hear Cecilia’s voice and Ivy’s voice in response.

The Emperor and Magnus Karas had already departed, presumably back to the palace through whatever unconventional means Magnus preferred. The window through which Damon had made his ungraceful entrance had been closed, and the room had been restored to its usual immaculate state.

Only Ivy, Cecilia, and Arkai remained, and it sounded like they were discussing Lilyca.

The girl paused just outside the door, and Rinne, walking beside her, noticed the hesitation and slowed his own steps.

Then Ivy’s eyes caught them through the doorway. Her expression brightened immediately. She beckoned them forward with an eager wave.

"Now, Lilyca," she said gently, "you will be staying here for now. I have asked Her Majesty to prepare everything you need. You don’t need to worry about anything."

Lilyca stepped into the room. Her silver-white eyes flicked toward Cecilia and then back to Ivy.

"About prophecies...?" she asked hesitantly, unsure she was allowed to ask this question, but needed to ask it anyway.

Ivy’s expression softened further. "Tell Her Majesty everything you would tell me," she said. "Treat her more respectfully than you treat everyone else. And trust her with your visions. She will know what to do with them."

Lilyca absorbed this as she turned toward Cecilia once more. Her silver-white eyes seemed to focus on something behind the veil, and she nodded slowly.

"I understand, Your Highness."

Ivy reached out and rubbed the top of Lilyca’s head, her fingers mussing the carefully braided black hair.

"When are we going to meet again?" Lilyca asked. It seemed that she had grown attached to her. And she actually liked the place Ivy settled her in these few days, where there was that old temple nearby. But she suddenly had to live in this opulent mansion...

"Very soon," Ivy said. Her smile did not falter. If anything, it grew warmer. "I promise."

"Okay."

And just like that Ivy Cassia rose to her feet, inclined her head respectfully toward Cecilia, and swept out of the room as breezily as she had arrived.

The door clicked shut behind her.

"Now, Miss Lilyca." Cecilia called as she let a beat of silence pass, allowing the girl to settle into the room and the absence of Ivy’s reassuring presence. "Her Highness told me you have been residing near the chocolate farm not far from Cassia Capital these past few days, yes?"

Lilyca blinked before nodding, her small hands now clasped in front of her. "Yes, Lesser Goddess."

Lesser Goddess. The title hit Cecilia again. It felt strange to think. Her? A goddess? That was something she had never expected to be called, in this world or any other. But she filed the discomfort away for later and pressed forward.

"The princess also told me you have been given a vision from the gods when you resided there. What did you see?"

"It is..." Lilyca hesitated. "A bit scary."

Cecilia straightened her back by a fraction. "Is that so? How is it scary? Do you mind telling me?"

Lilyca nodded. She did not look away and her silver-white eyes fixed on Cecilia’s veil. "Her Highness told me that the chocolate farmers had been suffering from the changing of Saintess lately. And she told me to stay there for a while."

Cecilia’s eyebrows creased behind the veil. She knew about the chocolate farmers’ problems. The plantations near Cassia’s southern border had been plagued by exploitation for years.

Trafficked laborers, enslaved workers, the kind of systematic abuse that flourished in the gaps between jurisdictions and the shadows of corrupt officials.

She had exposed it by tracing the trafficking routes, predicting the movements of the slavers, and mapping the networks that moved human cargo across borders.

The land owners and the companies and their sordid little agreements had been dragged into the light, and the routes had been dismantled.

"Her Highness, of course, had resolved the issue." Lilyca’s voice was steady now, but her eyes had grown sadder. "But traffickers are getting brave again nowadays."

Ah, of course. She had left and now Ruby Vaiva sat on the holy throne.

Ruby Vaiva wasn’t someone who would investigate. She didn’t even care to—wouldn’t even think about doing it either.

When the consequence didn’t come, the traffickers who had tested the waters and found them warm, grew bolder.

All because the Saintess who had once made it her personal mission to destroy the slavers was gone, and her replacement did not seem to care.

"I truly had been trying, I swear." Lilyca whispered. "I have been trying my hardest to ask the gods where the trafficking routes were. But I cannot seem to get any answer."

Her silver-white eyes glistened, and she blinked rapidly, fighting back tears. "I can’t see where those people are being taken and distributed... no matter how hard I try."

That was because it wasn’t solved by using miracles. Cecilia did not use visions, she was using information and deduction. Of course this little girl wouldn’t know such things.

Lilyca, if they were telling the truth, was a true oracle, a genuine vessel for divine sight. She might be able to see the future, but the future didn’t include shipping manifests, interview transcripts and financial records, and the careful, methodically assembled evidence.

Cecilia could believe that the gods would not show her where the slavers were hiding.

Perhaps, between herself, Ruby and this child, Lilyca was the one with the most blessing. But she could also be the most blind. Ruby had to live her life over, and her future was a huge source of information. Cecilia had whatever was wrong with her and her experience.

But Lilyca didn’t have that much experience, nor she had lived a whole life in the future, while also still completely relying on her vision.

Cecilia felt like she had a lot to teach her. But that was only if Lilyca wanted to.

"But when I prayed," Lilyca continued, "the gods gave me other visions instead."

"Other visions?" Cecilia leaned forward slightly.

Lilyca nodded slowly. "They showed me that monsters will disturb more routes. But not just slave routes."

She paused, her small brow furrowing with the effort of recall. "They will disturb merchant and general routes too. It will increase slowly in the next five years. And the peak..." her voice dropped, becoming almost a whisper. "...the peak will be in ten years."

Cecilia’s eyes widened behind the veil.

Monsters.

Another increase in monster activity. After seventeen years of massive decrease, seventeen years since the seasonal waves had thinned and the cycles had slowed...

The period of relative quiet that everyone had accepted as the new normal was about to end, and the monsters were coming back.

Five years, peaking at ten... Slowly at first. Then faster?

Could it be...

Just like the romance scenario world... Just like that strange future where rifts tore open in reality and monsters coated in black filth poured through in ever-increasing numbers...?

Just like the world that might exist if—