Hearing Amisha’s panicked scream, Vanessa immediately stood up from the sofa.

The odds were low, and the lock hadn’t been damaged, but all the servants here had left. There was still a chance thieves had slipped into this courtyard, broken into an empty house, and turned it into a temporary hideout. Maybe one thief just happened to be hiding in the kitchen, and Amisha ran into him??

Thinking that, Vanessa’s heart clenched. This was a Haukekai residence—there was even an armory here. If those thieves found the armory, armed themselves with weapons and armor, and then lay in ambush in the kitchen preparing to attack... then Amisha would be in danger!

Vanessa ran possibilities through her head as she moved—if the thieves had already taken Amisha hostage, how should she respond?

Amisha wasn’t Fennia. She probably hadn’t learned any fighting or swordsmanship—she was just a mage. She couldn’t let anyone get close. Once someone closed the distance, even a random bandit could pin her down easily.

With all those anxious thoughts, Vanessa rushed into the kitchen... only to find that aside from Amisha, there was no one else. And right now, Amisha was curled up in the corner, looking extremely unsafe as she covered her body tightly.

“Miss Amisha, what’s wrong? Are you okay??” Vanessa hurried over, placing herself in front of her like a shield.

“Where’s the thief who attacked you? Where did he go?” Vanessa demanded.

“Huh... huh?” Amisha looked completely lost. “Lady Saintess... what thief?”

“...You weren’t attacked by some thief hiding in the kitchen?” Vanessa hesitated. “Then why did you yell for help just now??”

“I... um...” Realizing she’d made Vanessa misunderstand, Amisha looked embarrassed. “Lady Saintess, I’m sorry... there wasn’t any thief.”

“Then what did you run into?” Vanessa finally let out a breath. As long as it wasn’t an intruder breaking in, everything else was whatever.

“Lady Saintess, I... I just now, when I opened the cupboard...” Amisha clearly had been badly frightened. Her pretty face was pale, both hands pressed to her chest, still shaken.

“I... I saw...”

“You saw?” Vanessa didn’t understand.

“I saw... i-inside... there was a cockroach!” Amisha’s face was deathly pale as she said it pitifully.

“......”

Vanessa fell silent.

“Um, Lady Saintess, p-please don’t be upset. I... I’m really terrified of that kind of creature. I’m truly sorry! I caused you trouble!” Thinking Vanessa was speechless because of her, Amisha hurried to explain.

But Vanessa still didn’t speak.

Not only did she not speak—Amisha wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt like Vanessa had pressed even closer to her. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Eh... eh??

Amisha couldn’t understand. Was she imagining it??

“Um... Lady Saintess? Are you okay?” Amisha asked tentatively.

“Mm, I’m fine.” Vanessa nodded. Her tone was as elegant and proper as ever, but for some reason, her movements felt slightly stiff.

“It’s okay, Amisha. I’ll protect you.” Vanessa said that, and then froze in place, staring hard in the direction of the cupboard, her back pressed tight to Amisha, not moving at all.

Her mouth said it was fine, but she didn’t do anything at all. Her gaze was locked on the cupboard like she was facing a mortal enemy.

“Um... Lady Saintess?” Amisha tried calling again.

“Mm? What is it?” Vanessa forced herself to turn her head back. Her face still maintained that outwardly calm, composed elegance.

“N-nothing—ah! It—it’s coming out!!” Amisha squeaked, instantly panicking like a startled little squirrel.

At that, Vanessa’s expression stiffened almost imperceptibly. Like she’d accepted her fate, she slowly turned her neck back around. When she saw that pitch-black thing with twitching antennae—a creature that could suddenly sprint a long distance with one careless moment—Vanessa swallowed hard. The smile at the corner of her lips froze too.

N-no way... it can’t be that perfect of a coincidence, right?

Just as Vanessa clung to that last shred of hope, the little roach that had crawled out and paused abruptly sped up, and in one burst, scuttled several meters straight toward Vanessa and Amisha.

“?!” Vanessa’s face changed instantly. She nearly crushed Amisha into the corner with her.

“It’s okay, Miss Amisha. I’ll protect you.” Vanessa’s rigid smile was about to collapse. She hugged Amisha tightly as she spoke, and even her forced composure was close to breaking.

“Uu... uu...!” Amisha made a small, cute, beast-like sound, squeezed her eyes shut, and hugged Vanessa back, trembling. Like a fledgling begging for protection, she burrowed into Vanessa’s soft embrace.

Vanessa had nowhere left to burrow.

Other than holding the doll-like Amisha in her arms, she could do nothing.

She pulled her legs back a little. On the surface she looked calm, soothing Amisha, but inside she was praying nonstop—Mr. Cockroach, please don’t come closer, don’t come over here, it’s not too late to turn back now.

The two of them stayed like that, huddled together, staring at the cockroach in the kitchen. Neither of them dared to move.

Vanessa didn’t want to look at something so disgusting and terrifying, but she had no choice. Those things crawled fast. If she didn’t keep her eyes on it, what if she blinked and it darted to her feet?!

What if she blinked again—and it climbed up her leg?!

Just imagining that made Vanessa feel like her SAN was about to hit zero.

She really wanted to turn around and leave, but Amisha was here—and Amisha was clinging to her. She couldn’t do that.

So what was she supposed to do??

Should she... muster the courage... and send Mr. Cockroach to meet the goddess??

It was just lifting her foot and stomping down. It was that simple. Couldn’t she do even that?

Fennia was right—she hadn’t even been afraid of dying before, so why was she afraid of a mere pest??

At worst, she could just close her eyes when she stepped on it!

With that thought, Vanessa took a deep breath like she was resigning herself to fate.

Of course she had to be the one to do it. She had to protect Amisha and the others.

So Vanessa made up her mind. Vanessa steeled herself. Vanessa gathered every ounce of courage.

Then Vanessa’s wrist twitched—

And that was it.

That was all.

She had symbolically produced the intention to resist.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t stomp Mr. Cockroach to death. It was just... the moment she pictured it bursting under her shoe—

Vanessa’s SAN plummeted straight toward the bottom.

She clapped a hand over her mouth, forcing down the urge to gag.

She felt like she still couldn’t do it. It was too disgusting!

Unless there was absolutely no other choice, she truly didn’t want to have anything to do with something this filthy and nauseating.

N-no, wait. Why did she have to be afraid of it? It was just... just a tiny cockroach. She’d grown up in that kind of environment—how could she be afraid of a creature like this??

But... but...

No matter how Vanessa tried to rationalize it, no matter how she tried to patch courage over the hole—

She still couldn’t do it.

Vanessa’s leg moved, the thought of stepping forward flashing through her mind for only an instant before vanishing just as fast. So her leg only showed the slightest tendency to lift—then immediately died.

And so this scene happened: Vanessa kept comforting Amisha, but she herself just clung to her and refused to move, not going over to deal with the cockroach running around the kitchen.

Mm. If she was “protecting Amisha,” then of course she had to stay right beside Amisha and guard her without leaving her for even a step, right? That was correct, right?

Vanessa felt like it was.

The stalemate continued until Fennia and Luna returned from picking weapons. Not seeing Vanessa in the living room, they found it strange. They figured maybe ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Vanessa was tired and had gone to rest, but when they heard Vanessa’s voice coming from the kitchen, they both walked in, confused.

And then they saw Vanessa and Amisha—huddled inexplicably in the corner, leaning into each other, and they had no idea what they were doing.

Luna saw it in one glance. Vanessa was trying as hard as possible to maintain her proper posture on the surface, but in reality she was already completely unable to hold it together—her face full of elegance was about to collapse.

“What... happened??” Fennia had no idea what was going on. She instinctively assumed the two of them had run into danger, and she immediately drew her sword and stood in front of them.

“Lady Saintess—Amisha—are you two okay?!” Fennia guarded them as she spoke. “What happened?!”

“Fennia, no need to make such a fuss.” Luna stopped her. “I think... nothing worth paying attention to happened.”

“Eh? Really?” Fennia hesitated. If nothing happened, then why were these two stuck in the corner, not daring to move??

“It’s fine.” As she spoke, Luna walked over and casually flicked a tiny spark. The cockroach that was still trying to scuttle around was burned into ash.

The motion was extremely subtle. It didn’t catch Fennia’s attention at all—but Vanessa and Amisha noticed, because their attention had been locked on the cockroach the entire time.

“Lady Saintess, Miss Amisha—are you alright?” Luna walked up with a smile, eyes curved.

“I-I’m fine. Thank you, Lady Luna...” Amisha said in shame.

She’d only been cooking, and the moment she saw a cockroach she’d been scared out of her mind—she’d even made the Lady Saintess get distracted to take care of her.

“The Lady Saintess arrived in time. I’m sorry, Lady Saintess. I caused you trouble.”

“It’s fine. As long as you’re okay.” Vanessa didn’t know how to respond to Amisha’s praise. It was awkward. She could only say that.

She’d come to save the situation, and yet she’d ended up like this.

“Mm, yes. It really was thanks to the Lady Saintess arriving in time~” Luna’s eyes curved into crescent moons. She looked at Vanessa with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, her tone packed with meaning.

“Mm.” Vanessa of course heard Luna’s deliberate teasing, and could only nod in embarrassment.

“Uh... huh?” Fennia looked at Vanessa, then at Luna, completely bewildered.

What... just happened?

Her thick-nerved self hadn’t noticed the cockroach that had been burned to death—or rather, her attention hadn’t been on the floor at all. She probably would never imagine that the Lady Saintess had been scared stiff by a tiny cockroach.

The little incident ended. Amisha went back to cooking. With limited ingredients and limited time, she couldn’t possibly make a grand meal, but eating their fill was enough. The food tasted pretty good—Amisha clearly had real skill. You could tell just from Fennia’s expression that she regularly mooched meals off her.

After eating, everyone’s mood recovered a lot, but they were all exhausted. Half an hour later, they each went back to their rooms to sleep.

They stayed in the Haukekai villa for several days. On the fifth day, the servants returned. Seeing people inside, they all jumped—until they saw Luna, and only then did they calm down. After Luna explained, they understood what had happened.

As for the rest, if Luna didn’t explain, they naturally wouldn’t ask—and wouldn’t speak carelessly.

“By the way, where did you all go before?” Luna asked.

“It’s like this, young lady. We noticed the abnormal changes at Kamov Mountain too. We thought your academy’s study trip destination was right here, so we wanted to notify the family headquarters. But we don’t have any message scrolls here, so we had to go back in person. And since this place was also short on supplies, we all went back together to haul things over.” The servants explained. “It’s good that you’re safe. Once the lord hears, he’ll be relieved.”

Luna nodded. “What about Carillian Academy’s side? Do you know what’s happened?”

“Ah—we were just about to mention that. On our way back, we saw a Carillian Academy team heading toward the Empire border.” a servant said.

“Where? Take us there.”

“Understood. Then... do you not need us to send word to the family, so they can send people to pick you up?”

“No.” Luna shook her head. “Just tell us the general direction.”

“Alright. If you don’t find them, you can come back to us at any time.” After the servants gave Luna the rough location where the Carillian Academy team had gone, the group packed some food and water and continued forward. Before leaving, Luna also took a set of men’s clothes.

After resting for several days, they had fully recovered. After all, their Spirit Souls were all [Saint’s Envoy]. What injuries could they still have? They could heal themselves at any time.

Luckily, that Carillian Academy team hadn’t gone far. They quickly spotted the tail end of the group.

It was probably a group the instructors had organized out of the students they could find when they escaped that dim-cube anomaly space.

Vanessa watched the distant team, not knowing whether any familiar faces were in there.