Isabella bit down on her lip and glared at Cassia. “I... can’t accept this.”

“Does it matter whether you accept it or not?” Cassia said.

“You deceived Mr. Oh-Jin and led him right to a Black Star Celestial!”

By some stroke of luck, Mobius had withdrawn without pressing further. Kwon Oh-Jin hadn’t been gravely injured, but it could have easily cost him his life. Even if he had survived the fight, he would have been forced to use Open Heaven. Isabella knew all too well what that would mean.

Mr. Oh-Jin could’ve lost his memories again.

Even if they weren’t memories of her, the thought of him suffering from missing pieces of his own past was unbearable.

“That...” Isabella mockingly smiled. “What? That was for my sake? If you truly cared about me, you would never have done that, Cassia.”

Cassia knew how important Kwon Oh-Jin was to Isabella, yet she had lured him into a trap with a Black Star Celestial.

Isabella’s eyes burned with venom as she stared Cassia down. “What? Did you expect me to thank you for saving me?”

It wasn’t the kind of attitude to have toward an older sister who had risked their life to rescue her from captivity. No matter what, Isabella could never thank Cassia for what she had done.

“Why did you try to save me in the first place? Don’t you despise me? You said that you wanted me dead!”

“That’s...” Cassia, at a loss for words, deeply sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“Why I tried to save you... I just forgot.” She faintly smiled and shrugged.

Isabella bit her lip again and frowned. “What kind of answer is that?”

“Well, either way, things turned out fine, didn’t they? You’re safe, and Lord Oh-Jin wasn’t badly hurt.”

“As long as the result is good, that makes it all right?”

“Isn’t that better than if everything had ended badly?”

Isabella and Cassia glared at each other. Their suffocating hostility filled the abandoned building.

Until now, Kwon Oh-Jin only silently watched and waited for them to work things out. Clearly, they never would.

He sighed deeply. “Enough.”

The two sisters’ sharp gazes snapped to him.

“Let’s get the situation sorted out first. Cassia, how are you feeling?”

“Ah...” Only then did Cassia realize how badly injured she still was. She awkwardly smiled and shook her head. “The pain isn’t as bad as before since I haven’t been using mana, but I wouldn’t say I’m fine.”

“Come here,” he said.

“Eh? Kyaah!”

Kwon Oh-Jin slipped an arm around her waist, lifted her lightly, and sat her down on his lap. Then, he pressed his hand against the left side of her chest.

“L-Lord Oh-Jin?”

“W-What are you doing?!” Isabella exclaimed.

Cassia blushed like a schoolgirl in love and avoided eye contact while Isabella shot to her feet in outrage.

Their conflicting tones rang in his ears, but now wasn’t the time to pay attention.

“Hold still. I’m not used to working with the Stigma of Aquarius.” Kwon Oh-Jin’s hand rested on Cassia’s chest, specifically over her Stigma, as he activated the Stigma of Aquarius.

The Stigma of Aquarius specialized more in creating potions and medicines than in direct healing, but that didn’t mean it didn’t possess any restorative power.

And to bring that healing out to its fullest...

Kwon Oh-Jin closed his eyes and summoned the Black Heaven.

Sacred Ground Deployment.

Woong!

A soft halo of light spread over him. It was his first time creating a Sacred Ground with the Stigma of Aquarius, but the principle was similar to when he created one with the Stigma of Lyra.

Kwon Oh-Jin felt his mana drain away like a receding tide along with a feeling of omnipotence.

“Ah... my injuries.”

A pure mana flowed through Cassia like water droplets. Her ravaged mana circuits slowly began to mend.

After the Stigma of Aquarius’s mana coursed through Cassia once, Kwon Oh-Jin wearily sighed and deactivated the Sacred Ground. “Haaa.”

The soft light cloaking him dissolved into the air.

“I couldn’t heal you completely, but the pain should be much better.”

Cassia looked up at him with hazy eyes, almost as if intoxicated. “Thank you...”

She could still feel the Stigma of Aquarius’s lingering touch. As her internal injuries healed, the pain gave way to a tingling sense of bliss.

“Then...”

“Wait.” Cassia caught Kwon Oh-Jin’s hand as he tried to pull away from her chest and pressed his hand firmly back down.

Her heart pounded as if it would burst against his palm.

“Stay like this a little longer.”

A radiant smile spread across her face as the warmth from his hand seeped into her chest. His large hand carried a man’s undeniable strength unlike her slender, delicate fingers. That warmth made her wish for time itself to stop forever.

Kwon Oh-Jin coughed awkwardly, looking flustered. “Uh... y-you want me to just stay like this?”

He hadn’t thought much when treating her injuries, but couldn’t ignore the soft sensation pressing faintly against his palm now. Despite her slim frame, that area was certainly well-developed.

“What do you mean just a little longer? The treatment is done, so get off already!” Isabella scowled fiercely and tugged Cassia off his lap.

Forced away, Cassia brushed her hand longingly over the spot on her left breast where Kwon Oh-Jin’s hand had been.

“It felt nice... Didn’t it, Lord Oh-Jin?”

“Hmph. What’s so nice about having such itty bitty titties?”

Cassia’s emerald eyes glinted dangerously. “What did you just say?”

Isabella crossed her arms with a smirk. “What? Am I wrong?”

Her posture pressed her massive breasts forward with imposing weight.

“Ugh...” Cassia wasn’t exactly small herself, but that was only by ordinary standards.

Compared to Isabella’s absurd peaks, her own were just little more than speed bumps.

“So, that’s all you can come up with? Flaunting your body? Pathetic. Too childish for me to even bother replying,” Cassia said.

“Sure, itty bitty titties.”

“Ha. And where did you pick up that insolence? You really haven’t changed at all since the time you were running wild in the garden as a child.”

“Yeah, okay, itty bitty titties.”

“Y-You little...!”

Sometimes, the simplest and pettiest provocations were the most effective. Especially between siblings, these kinds of jabs hit harder than any refined insult.

“You petty little brat!”

“Says the one who’s clinging to her younger sister’s man!”

At this point, their dignity had long disappeared. The two sisters lunged and pulled at each other's hair.

Unable to watch this cute little fight, Kwon Oh-Jin quietly stood and slipped out of the abandoned building.

Moonlight shone down on him from the night sky.

“Haaa...”

I just wanna go home.

***

After their fierce fight, the two sisters lay sprawled on the floor, panting for breath.

“Haa, haa.”

“Ugh... what the hell was that?”

“... Itty bitty titties.”

“Oh my, didn’t know a pile of fat could talk.”

Even lying side by side, they glared at each other. The murderous tension between them was thick enough to spark again at any moment, but neither made the first move.

“Haaa.”

“What are we even doing?”

The end of a war always felt empty. Caught in the hollowness that followed, the sisters fell silent and turned their backs to each other.

Isabella finally broke the silence. “Cassia.”

“What?”

“Why did you try to save me?”

“I told you. I forgot.”

“Liar.”

Cassia flinched. She could feel Isabella’s sharp stare burning into her back.

“Don’t you hate me?” Isabella asked.

“I do.”

How could she not? Everything she lacked, Isabella possessed naturally and effortlessly.

“Then why—”

“Even so.” Cassia turned around with a faint smile, reaching out to gently stroke Isabella’s hair.

“Hehe. I love you the most, Cassia!”

A memory she could never erase no matter how much she tried. A recollection that refused to fade despite wishing it away. Old, rusty, and weathered—but still there.

“You’re my little sister, aren’t you?” Recalling those precious times, Cassia beamed with a bright smile.

Isabella sat there with her mouth open, stunned as if a hammer had struck her in the head. Her lips moved as if to say something. Instead, her face flushed red, and she quickly turned away.

“Ahem. Anyway, shouldn’t we get up now?” Breaking the awkward silence, Cassia rose to her feet.

She pulled a small mirror from inside her dress, grimacing at the sight of her disheveled hair and ruined makeup. Just thinking about them literally pulling each other’s hair filled her with indescribable shame.

“This is the first time I’ve ever felt this pathetic,” Cassia muttered.

Isabella stuck out her lower lip. “Well, that’s what you get for throwing yourself at someone else’s husband.”

“Anyone overhearing you would actually think Lord Oh-Jin was really your husband. In reality, aren’t you just the second one in line, Bella?”

“T-That’s...!”

“And it seems like that silver-haired Celestial recently joined too.”

“Hmph.”

Cassia chuckled at the sight of Isabella biting her lip. “They say the first is the hardest, but the second comes easier. Or wait, would this be his third now?”

“A-Are you insane? We’re sisters!” Isabella shouted.

“Oh my, is there some law that says sisters can’t like the same man?”

“That’s not it... I-It’s just weird.”

“Because we’re sisters, some things might actually make it even better.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Cassia laughed playfully and shrugged. “Who knows? What do you think it means?”