Episode 2
Rydel’s ears buzzed.
But something even more shocking hit him.
“What did I just hear?”
“…Wait, what?” Rydel quietly asked again.
“Did you say… Dad?”
The small child straightened her shoulders and clenched her tiny fists.
Then, with a trembling voice, she said,
“Dad… My dad…”
Rydel was speechless.
He took a deep breath.
No way…
His heart pounded.
“What’s your name?”
The girl glanced at him, then looked down and answered,
“Elly… My name is Elly.”
Rydel’s eyes widened.
Elly… That’s right. I picked that name if we ever had a daughter…
He remembered how his wife didn’t like it because it was too common.
But Rydel had always thought “Elly” was a pretty name.
And now, this little girl had that name.
Rydel stared blankly at her.
“Elly,” he said without thinking.
At that moment, the girl’s shoulders flinched.
“You’re saying… I’m your dad?”
She slowly nodded.
“…It’s true,” she whispered.
Rydel swallowed hard.
That tiny voice shook his heart.
If this child really is my daughter…
He knelt beside the bed, making eye contact with the girl.
He gently reached for her tightly clenched hands and held them.
Her hands were warm.
“I’m sorry, Elly,” he said softly.
“Daddy didn’t recognize you sooner.”
The girl slowly relaxed her hands.
“Daddy, does it… still hurt?” she asked quietly.
Rydel’s throat tightened.
“No. I’m not sick anymore.”
Elly smiled for the first time, looking relieved.
Rydel gently stroked her small back.
The orphanage, early morning.
A small girl in an old dress ran down the hallway.
A middle-aged priest saw her and yelled, “Stop running!”
The girl slowed down and mumbled, “Morning… prayer…”
She was going to pray.
The priest snorted. “The goddess doesn’t want your prayers.”
He walked past her coldly.
Another young priest followed and looked back at the girl.
“Wow, those eyes… That’s the girl they say is weird, right?”
The girl stood still, staring at the floor.
The older priest spoke again, his voice bitter.
“If she’s just mentally ill, that would be lucky. I think something evil is inside her.”
He was clearly angry from seeing her so early.
The younger priest asked, “Didn’t the exorcism help?”
“Not at all.”
Then he warned, “Don’t look into her eyes too long. You might lose your holy power.”
The young priest thought that sounded silly, but he obeyed.
Elly shook her head hard.
Her pale face and fluffy pink hair moved together.
She kept walking.
The goddess doesn’t want your prayers.
The priest’s words echoed in her ears.
But Elly didn’t believe him.
Because…
Her prayer had come true.
She had prayed every day, sitting in the front of the prayer room, in front of the statue of the goddess Fioresca.
She always mumbled the prayer with bad pronunciation and wished the same thing:
“Please make Daddy better…”
She never skipped a day.
That morning too, Elly ran to the front of the statue and whispered her prayer:
“Thank you for helping Daddy… I’ll tell him I love him a lot now… I’ll listen to him too…”
She smiled brightly.
She used to be sad every time she prayed, but not anymore. Daddy was awake.
She felt like flying.
But as she left the room, her steps suddenly stopped.
A group of kids walking toward her also froze.
They avoided eye contact and passed by silently.
Then, Elly suddenly grabbed the arm of a boy who looked about seven.
He screamed and yanked his arm away.
“Ahh! What? What?!”
Elly stared at him with her two-colored eyes and said,
“…Be careful.”
The boy panicked.
“What? Be careful of what?! You be careful! Don’t touch me! You’re creepy!”
He ran off quickly toward the prayer room.
As he reached the door—
SLAM!
“Ah!”
The door hit his nose, and he fell down crying with a nosebleed.
A female priest came out and gasped, “Are you okay?!”
Blood dripped from his nose.
“B-Blood! Waaaah!”
Another small boy nearby turned to Elly. Their eyes met.
He remembered scary rumors he had heard about her.
Then… he peed himself.
A friend yelled, “Priest! He peed his pants!”
The priest stood up in shock.
“Oh no! Not here…!”
The pure white floor in front of the holy room was now stained with blood and pee.
“Wait! Don’t move!”
But before she could get cleaning supplies, the middle-aged priest from earlier appeared.
He had been returning from the prayer room.
He saw the mess and scowled.
“How dare you defile the prayer room!”
He pulled out a wooden rod.
“Stand against the wall. Now!”
The kids all ran to the wall, terrified.
The boy who peed ran after Elly.
Squelch, squelch, squelch!
The priest’s face twisted with disgust.
The stick in his hand trembled.
He raised the rod toward the peeing boy.
“This is right in front of the prayer room! There’s a bathroom nearby! What were you thinking?!”
The boy cried, “E-Elly scared me…!”
The priest’s grip tightened.
You again…
The boy with the nosebleed shouted too.
“Elly’s fault! She scared me with weird words!”
The priest bent over to face Elly.
She quickly looked down.
If she made eye contact, she’d get in trouble.
“Is that true?” he asked in a thunderous voice.
Elly hesitated, then nodded.
WHACK!
He hit the wall near her head with the stick.
“You answer with words.”
“…!”
She gasped and sat down in fear.
Her skinny body trembled.
“I d-don’t know… I don’t know…”
Everyone was silent.
“Why did you say that?”
Elly tried to answer, but she started crying instead.
The priest didn’t wait.
“Answer when an adult talks to you.”
Only her crying echoed through the hall.
He couldn’t hold in his anger anymore.
“Elly. Can you still see the black shadow around me?”
He looked at her through her messy pink hair.
She nodded.
“…Yes.”
“….”
That wasn’t the answer he wanted.
He noticed others were watching.
His face turned red with shame.
He leaned close and grabbed Elly’s arm tightly.
Then he whispered,
“If you keep talking nonsense, people will hate you. Even your dad who just woke up—he’ll leave you.”
“…!”
Elly froze in shock.
He kept going, even more cruelly.
“Just like your mom and grandpa left you.”
She whimpered and tried to pull away.
But his grip was too strong.
He raised his stick high—
Rydel stood in front of the orphanage with a basket of fruit.
Fioresca’s Children’s Shelter
He hadn’t seen that sign in a long time.
He had grown up in a place like this. He didn’t have good memories.
My daughter lived like I did…
He was furious with his ex-wife and her father, the Tower Master.
He understood why they left him while he was unconscious… but to abandon their daughter?
Unforgivable.
He’d heard his ex-wife remarried a noble in the north.
Was Elly in the way?
Rydel calmed himself.
He didn’t want to scare his daughter.
I never saw her born. I missed her first steps. I missed four years of her life…
She had shouted “Daddy” over and over just to be heard.
Then hid her red face behind tiny hands.
Rydel smiled softly at the memory.
Maybe fate brought me back—to be with my daughter.
He brushed back his silver-blond hair and knocked on the door.
A teenage priest opened it.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m Elly’s… father.”
It felt strange but exciting to say it.
The priest asked flatly, “Can you be more specific? We have lots of kids named Elly here.”
“Oh! The Elly who’s leaving tomorrow.”
“Ah, that Elly. You’re really taking her?”
“Of course. I came to thank the priests before we go.”
He handed over the fruit basket. The sweet smell made the boy swallow hard.
“I’d like to see Elly now. The kids are praying, right?”
“Yes. Would you like to go see her?”
“Yes, please. I want to thank the goddess, too.”
Rydel didn’t trust the priests, but he believed in the goddess Fioresca.
Her healing power was real.
“This way, sir.”
As he followed the priest, he thought about many things.
What kind of life had Elly lived here?
Did she eat well? Have friends?
Was she sad to leave?
Was she ever sick?
He didn’t know anything.
He made a mental list of questions to ask later.
Then—he heard crying from a hallway nearby.
A child’s cry.
The boy told him to wait, but Rydel walked forward anyway.
He had to.
He saw her.
His tiny daughter, sitting on the floor, crying.
The priest had grabbed her arm and was whispering something.
Rydel pushed the young priest aside and ran forward.
He used magic to hear what the older priest was saying.
It rang clear in his ears.
“Even your dad will leave you if you talk like that.”
Rydel’s blood boiled.
“Just like your mom and grandpa did.”
The priest raised his stick.
FLASH!
A bright light burst.
The stick shattered into pieces in the air.
Then, the wood pieces turned into dozens of sharp splinters—
all pointing straight at the priest’s eyes.
