New Calendar 1438, Destinos, the Silent Sanctuary.
Six-year-old Kaila sat on the stone steps, staring blankly at the setting sun gradually sinking below the horizon.
The light that day cast long, slanted shadows, and the clouds were shaped like a flock of three-horned sheep.
She was absolutely certain of this. After all, she had always been able to remember every single detail with crystal clarity.
“Hey.”
A piece of bread bounced off her head and landed in her lap.
Kaila looked up.
Sylvia was standing in the light with her hands on her hips, half of her face illuminated and the other half cast in shadow.
“What are you doing?” Sylvia asked.
“Staring into space.”
Kaila replied.
She looked down at the bread in her lap. “Right now... is clearly not... snack time. How did you get this?”
“Haven't I been studying how to pick locks lately? I've finally made some progress. As long as it isn't locked by magic, I can get into anywhere in the sanctuary now.” Sylvia tore off a piece of bread, tossed it into her mouth, and chewed. “So, how is it? An appetizer before dinner is pretty great, right?”
Kaila stared at the bread in her hands, lost in thought.
“What are you doing now?”
“Staring.”
“Why are you staring at bread?”
“Because I want to eat it,” Kaila answered. “But right now, I shouldn't.”
“There is no such thing as 'should' in this world. All those 'shoulds' are just ropes other people try to hand you. If you don't grab onto them, they can't bind you, and that's how a person becomes free.” Sylvia declared righteously. “Take right now, for example. My body tells me I'm hungry, so I go get bread to eat. That way, I won't be hungry anymore.”
“Mhm.”
“Are you staring again?”
“Thinking.” Kaila looked up. “It's just... I'm a little troubled.”
“Where on your face is there any expression of being troubled?”
“Perhaps...”
“Perhaps?”
“Perhaps there isn't.” Kaila touched her face. “I can't see it. There is no mirror.”
“Tell me something people don't know.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you just saying okay?”
“I was thinking about what there is that we don't know,” Kaila said honestly. “But there shouldn't be anything. If I didn't know it, I wouldn't be able to say it. And if I say it, then I know it.”
Sylvia fell silent for a moment.
“I didn't realize you were a philosopher.”
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps what?”
“Perhaps in the future, I will be a philosopher,” Kaila said. “After all, I haven't had my divination yet.”
“You were brought back by the previous Hero, so you'll probably end up as a Hero too.” Sylvia shrugged. “So stop thinking about such unrealistic things.”
“Mhm.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Because I feel a little regretful, so I am staring,” Kaila said.
“Your eyebrows don't move, your mouth doesn't move, and I can't even tell what your eyes are looking at. I'm definitely going to study micro-expression psychology in the future just to deal with a mute block of wood like you.” Sylvia gritted her teeth.
“Can you learn it? If it's unrelated.” Kaila was slightly confused. “If you ask me, I will tell you.”
“The point, of course, is what I want to do.” Sylvia let out a disdainful snort at the word 'unrelated'. “Who wants their entire life's destiny to be decided by some stupid curse?”
“Mhm.”
Kaila stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“To find Miss Hill and give her the bread.”
“Hey, hey! I went through all the trouble to get you something to eat. You're not going to report me, are you?”
“I won't. But I still... feel like I shouldn't eat it.” Kaila walked toward the interior of the monastery without looking back.
Of course she wouldn't report Little Shi.
It wasn't time to eat bread right now. Eating it would be inappropriate.
But if she brought it to Miss Hill, Miss Hill might impatiently wave her off and tell her to just eat it herself.
In that case, she would be allowed to eat the bread.
That was Kaila's line of thinking.
Destinos was a kingdom without Witches, but the curse of the Witches still lingered here. The moment people came of age, they would receive their Class, and they would live out the rest of their days according to that Class.
However, there was no Class for "parent."
Therefore, there were no parents in the Destined Sanctuary.
People merely mated during their leisure time away from their duties. If offspring were born, they would be sent to the Silent Sanctuary, which served as the rearing ground for all children.
This was not a sad thing, at least not in the eyes of the children who grew up in the Silent Sanctuary.
They had never possessed it, so naturally, they could not lose it. It was simply that absolutely no one had the "duty" of being someone's father or mother.
Everyone lived this way. It was common sense, nothing to be surprised about.
This sanctuary was under the direct administration of Destinos's High Archon, Miss Hill. On normal days, the children were cared for by rotating nuns, eating the same meals, sleeping in the same beds, and listening to the same rising and falling of the bells.
No one would sit alone by her bedside at night to ask if she was cold today, if there was anything she wanted to eat, or if she was being bullied.
The bedding in the Silent Sanctuary was very clean, the morning meals were always warm, medicine would be delivered if anyone fell ill, and clothes would be mended if they tore.
Every child had their own bed space, class schedule, meal tray, and pre-Class profile.
They were tacitly allowed to live indulgent lives before they came of age.
Before the age of eighteen, they were all simply the Unrung.
Bells that had yet to toll.
Marks that had yet to be stamped.
Blank sheets of paper upon which destiny had yet to write their duties.
Kaila reached the topmost floor of the sanctuary and pushed open the door to the room.
Miss Hill was resting on a chair. She seemed to always be resting; after all, every time Kaila came over, she had never once seen her actually working.
Yet, Destinos was indeed thriving under her arrangements.
“If it isn't Little Kai. I was just taking an afternoon nap.”
The moment Kaila stepped into the room, Hill opened her eyes.
When Hill saw Kaila enter the office with the bread in her hand, her eyes lit up.
“Did you bring me bread because you knew how hard I've been working? How sweet of you.” She waved her hand. “Quick, bring it here. I'm starving.”
Kaila: “...”
This was a bit different from what she had expected.
“This bread... on the way here, I accidentally tripped and fell, and I licked it all over, so... you can't eat it.” Kaila hid the bread behind her back, looking at her expectantly.
“Oh, then what are you here for?” Hill stroked her chin, assuming an inquisitive posture.
“It's like this. I have a friend...”
“Now this, I have to sit up to listen to.”
Hill sat up straight in her chair, propping up her cheek as she looked at her, her eyes twinkling with amused curiosity.
Kaila explained the process of how the bread had circulated.
She spoke very slowly, sentence by sentence, with long pauses in between. She described how that fictional friend had studied lockpicking, how she had obtained the bread at an hour when she shouldn't have, and how she had dropped that piece of bread onto the head of a fictional child who was watching the sunset.
She spoke of how the sunset was slanted, how the clouds were three-horned sheep, and how that child clearly wanted to eat it but felt it wasn't right to do so at that moment, thus falling into deep distress—even though it probably didn't show on her face.
Hill listened attentively to the end.
But immediately afterward, having expected some juicy gossip, she slumped back in disappointment and leaned against her chair.
“A friend.” She repeated, emphasizing the word meaningfully. “Little Kai, this friend you speak of... couldn't possibly be yourself, could it?”
Kaila shook her head in a hurry.
“No.”
“Oh?” Hill raised an eyebrow. “Then it's Little Shi. After all, your only friend is that little troublemaker.”
“No, it's not,” Kaila shook her head again, very seriously. “It is... a fictional friend.”
“Fictional?”
“Mhm.” Kaila nodded. “A... fictionalized friend.”
“That is a lie.”
Kaila fell silent.
“Though I do understand what you're asking.”
Hill summarized, “What you want to ask me is how to handle this fictional bread given to you by a fictional friend.”
“Mhm.” Kaila nodded solemnly.
“Since it's fictional,” Hill spread her hands, speaking as if it were obvious, “then of course you don't need to think about how to handle it. A fictional friend giving you fictional bread is just a piece of air-bread. Air is eaten whether you eat it or not, and it vanishes if you throw it into the wind. What is there to worry about?”
Kaila opened her mouth.
She wanted to say something, but the words dissolved in her throat.
She stammered for a long while, her hand still hidden behind her back, gripping that very real, unlicked piece of bread. Finally, she managed to squeeze out:
“The friend... is fictional.”
“Mhm.”
“But the bread... is not.”
Looking at her sneaky little posture, Hill couldn't help but burst into laughter.
“The bread is real,” she said meaningfully. “So does that mean the friend isn't real?” She paused, then waved her hand. “Since you've come all this way to ask me, there is naturally only one answer.”
“What is it?”
“Eat it.”
Kaila froze.
“But...”
“How should I put this...” Hill propped up her head lazily. “Regardless of whether the bread is fictional or the friend is fictional, the feelings delivered to your hands are real. She went through all that trouble to study lockpicking, took the bread when no one was looking, and specifically ran over to find you and drop it on your head. What do you think she wanted to see you do?”
“Wanted to see me eat it?”
“Of course, the point isn't the act of eating the bread itself. It's the satisfaction on your face when you eat it, and the gratitude you show her afterward,” Hill said. “The emotions the other person conveyed to you, and their expectations of you, should not be let down.”
“But eating bread right now is something I shouldn't do,” Kaila replied.
Hill asked back lazily:
“Little Kai, do you remember how many slices of bread you've eaten in your life?”
“Yes,” Kaila said.
Hill choked on her words.
“...Cough.” She cleared her throat. “That's your own unique problem. Anyway, normal people don't remember how many slices of bread they've eaten. But—” She raised a finger. “Normal people do remember how many times they've been let down, and how many times they've been hurt. Those are the things that truly leave a mark on the heart. A piece of bread that was eaten will be forgotten tomorrow. But a discarded feeling will be remembered forever.”
Kaila lowered her head, looking at her hand hidden behind her back.
“So, don't let that feeling, which was meant to be delivered, vanish in vain. That's all,” Hill said.
Kaila felt a bit conflicted.
“But that is... not allowed...” Her voice grew softer and softer. “Right now is not snack time. The rules say snacks must wait until after noon. I... remember very clearly.”
Hill said unhurriedly, “Then just correct it.”
“...Correct it?” Kaila looked up, the word sounding very unfamiliar to her.
“Yes, correct it.” Hill nodded. “Use the Personality Correction Fist and deliver a fierce punch straight to their head, and you can perfectly correct their flaws.”
“Is... Is that true? But I don't want to hit Little Shi... I mean, I don't want to hit my fictional friend.”
“Then correct your 'shoulds.' That's all.”
“Either correct your friend, or correct your 'shoulds.' Since those two are in conflict anyway, just correcting one of them will do.”
“Both are possible.” She yawned. “That is the answer.”
Hill withdrew her hand, slumped back into her chair once more, and closed her eyes.
Kaila stood in place, motionless.
“Oh, right, there's one more way.”
“What?”
“Just split the bread with me.”
“Eh?”
“If you can't make a decision, look at it from another angle.” Hill stretched out her hand. “From another perspective, perhaps the conclusion will be different. For example, it's wrong for a child to steal bread, but it's perfectly normal to eat it together with the Archon.”
“But, Miss Hill, in the end you just... want to eat my bread...”
...
Correcting Little Shi was definitely wrong.
Kaila held the half piece of bread, nibbling on it as she thought.
Little Shi was the only child willing to speak to her.
After all, she had never been accustomed to responding to others.
She wouldn't take the initiative to interact with people, and normally, no one else was willing to talk to her either.
With the sole exceptions of Little Shi and Miss Hill.
Little Shi talked a lot. She didn't seem to need much response from others and could talk on and on by herself for a very long time.
Miss Hill, on the other hand, was capable of listening to her for just as long.
Kaila still remembered when she first met Sylvia.
The red-haired girl had run up to her.
“My name is Sylvia.”
“Mhm.”
“Don't just say mhm. What about you? At least introduce yourself.”
“Kaila.”
“Looks like I found the right person. You're very famous.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone says you're really hard to talk to.”
“Oh.”
“Aren't you going to ask why I did this?”
“Why?”
“Because you never know until you try. Maybe I can do it.”
“Good luck.”
“Now I know why everyone says you're hard to get along with.”
“Why?”
“Don't ask about things that everyone already knows.”
“Mhm.”
...
From then on, Sylvia started looking for her.
Sylvia loved asking pointless questions.
Like what was outside the walls.
Like if the bell at the highest point of the sanctuary broke, would they not have to attend morning classes the next day?
Like if an Unrung didn't want to toll, could they stay in the sanctuary forever, living as an adult who never had to receive a Class?
Like if destiny was truly omniscient, why did it have to wait until people turned eighteen to tell them what they should do?
She usually switched to the next question before anyone could even give an answer to the first.
Because of this, Kaila also understood why Sylvia never got along with anyone else.
They grew up together.
From six to ten, from ten to fourteen.
Year after year.
The Silent Sanctuary taught many things.
Morning bells, washing up, morning classes, meals, physical training, etiquette, mana perception, pre-Class observation, tool taboos, evening prayers, and lights out.
Every three months, the nuns would take them to see the Corridor of the Awakened.
It was a very long hallway, with countless magical marks embedded in the walls on both sides, bearing written words.
Tailors, guards, scribes, holy seal stewards, messengers, judicial assistants, porters, doctors, cooks, maids, servants, prostitutes, beggars...
Oracle messengers, judges, mages, knights, Heroes, and other Classes.
The nuns would tell them that a Class was not a job.
A job could be quit.
A Class could not.
A Class bestowed power, authority, social standing, and recognized meaning.
At the same time, it imposed boundaries, impulses, taboos, and lifelong duties.
A servant should not carry weapons.
An adjudicator should not evade judgment.
A diviner should not refuse to peek.
A Hero must not turn a deaf ear to calamity, cries for help, and evil acts committed right before their eyes.
Just as rain falls, fire burns, and lamps need to be lit at night, these were all fundamental truths.
But every time this was taught, Sylvia, standing at the back of the crowd, would ask, “What if I insist on breaking the rules?”
Kaila looked at her.
“If destiny says I can't hold a sword, but I hold it anyway, will it break my hand? Will it turn the sword to ash? Or will it just make everyone tell me that what I'm doing is wrong?”
Kaila could not answer this question.
Because she had not yet come of age.
She could only reply based on the course material: “You might be punished by the curse.”
Sylvia curled her lip. “Then it's too petty.”
“Curses aren't meant to be generous.”
“What are curses for?”
“Maybe a curse... is just a curse,” Kaila said uncertainly.
Curses were a part of their lives.
“Then I will escape the curse. I will find a free future,” Sylvia said.
“Why?”
“Because I want to,” Sylvia said. “By the way, Little Kai, aren't you highly likely to become a Hero? Can't you work hard and wipe out all the Witches? Then there wouldn't be any curses left in this world.”
“I will try,” Kaila said.
“Ah, I was just speaking casually. You don't have to take it to heart.”
Sylvia turned to a new topic, as she always did.
But Kaila remained silent and did not continue.
From that day on, Kaila began to study what exactly a 【Hero】 was.
In the winter of her fifteenth year, a light snow fell over the Silent Sanctuary.
The snow did not accumulate.
The magic circle of Destinos's sanctuary maintained the temperature inside the building, preventing the children from falling ill due to the weather. The snow fell outside the white stone corridors and was quickly cleared away by low-tier cleaning spells and drainage channels, leaving only wet traces along the edges of the windowsills.
Sylvia leaned against the window and watched for a long time.
“I want to run away.”
Kaila was organizing her notes on the Class courses.
Kaila's handwriting was very neat, with almost identical spacing between each line.
Hearing this, she stopped her pen.
“Run away where?”
“Anywhere.”
“If you go outside, they will see that you are underage and send you back.”
“Then I'll go to another country.”
“Other countries have curses too.”
“So why is this world so terrible?” Sylvia lamented.
“If you leave the sanctuary, you won't have Miss Hill's protection. Cross-border travel is dangerous, you might run into a Witch, and you don't have any money, so don't run away...”
As if trying to dispel Sylvia's thoughts, Kaila spoke in a rare long sentence.
“What are you muttering about?”
Sylvia turned her head, speaking helplessly.
“Kaila, can't you say something that sounds at least a little bit supportive of me?”
Kaila fell silent for a moment.
“It is better to be alive.”
Her underlying meaning was naturally that Sylvia's whimsical ideas all carried the scent of danger.
“Little Kai, you really are a strange person.”
“Mhm.”
“I'm not praising you.”
“Mhm.”
Sylvia let out a laugh. She looked at the thin snow outside the window and asked, “Then what if what I want to escape is destiny itself?”
Kaila looked at her.
This time, she didn't immediately give the answer from her classes.
“Could escaping destiny itself... also be a part of destiny?”
“If people are born... with something they are meant to do, then a Class... might not be a curse. It merely points out... the path most suitable for us. Without it, we might be... in even more pain, because we wouldn't know... why we are alive.”
“Then have you figured out why you are alive now?”
Kaila shook her head blankly. “I'm not sure yet...”
“Then that's that.”
“But I... have some thoughts.”
“What thoughts?”
“As long as... my existence can change something, or accomplish something, perhaps that is the meaning... of my life.”
Except for Miss Hill, who had never said it, everyone else believed she would become the Hero.
Because Kaila was the one chosen by the dying previous Hero.
Kaila also believed she would become the Hero.
But if she became the Hero, possessing an identity with almost the highest potential, would she just stay in Destinos like those with ordinary Classes such as "cleaner," "maid," or "nun"?
Since destiny and everyone else had decided that Kaila would become the new Hero, there had to be a reason for it.
What could she achieve? What places could she reach? What positions could she attain? What kind of things could she do for the people?
She had to possess some extraordinary qualities to be entrusted by destiny with the role of the Hero.
And what people expected of her was beyond doubt.
Wipe out the Witches, and eliminate all the curses in this world.
This way, even if the path itself wasn't chosen by Kaila, as long as she could truly change something, it would have value.
It was said that the greatest misfortune in this world was to be needed by no one.
Kaila could not imagine herself without the company of Miss Hill and Little Shi.
“If it were... Little Shi who became the Hero, she would probably... do the same,” Kaila said.
“Definitely not,” Sylvia said.
“Ah.”
“If I became the Hero, I'd probably use my physical stats to secure some start-up capital first. Then I'd figure out how to most efficiently prevent my Class from getting in the way while still enjoying the benefits it brings. Who knows, maybe I'd even run into a beef noodle shop and say, 'I don't eat beef.'”
“Why?”
“Because my life must be chosen by me. Even if I choose wrong, even if I destroy everything, as long as it's my own choice, it has value. That is the meaning of my life.”
“That is my answer,” Sylvia said.
Kaila did not reply.
“I thought so. Little Kai definitely can't understand me. We are destined to walk different paths,” Sylvia said regretfully. “However...”
“If we head down completely opposite paths, only to meet again at the very end of our journeys, wouldn't that be quite interesting?”
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