CHAPTER 116
Late yesterday afternoon, while climbing the mountain, Kisha was attacked by a monster.
If she told her husband, Jonathan, that she was gathering valuable herbs, he wouldn’t say anything even if she stayed away from home for two or three days.
He knew that the herbs Kisha collected were not only their livelihood but also the means to pay off his gambling debts.
Kisha was on her way to gather mushrooms for a porridge she planned to make for her sister, who had given birth the day before.
A starving monster that had escaped from the underworld blocked her path.
It had caught the scent of the Lumen Savior's blood flowing in Kisha and followed her.
The remaining Lumen Savior blood, diluted over fifteen hundred years by mixing with human blood, was now scarce.
But unfortunately, the monster from the underworld had senses far superior to any monster that roamed the human world.
Moreover, Kisha was pregnant.
Even if the Lumen Savior's blood was weak, there were two Lumen Saviors.
The scent and the light were naturally stronger than usual.
The monster's sharp claws scraped across her belly, and poison seeped in.
The monster's eyes gleamed with exhilaration as it saw the red blood flowing onto the grass.
There were not one, but two prey, including the baby.
The monster licked its lips as it crawled towards the fallen Kisha...
KRAAAA!!
The monster's desperate scream echoed through the deep mountains.
A pack of wolves had emerged from the forest and attacked the monster.
Unable to shake off the relentless pack of wolves biting and tearing at it, the monster was reduced to a hunk of meat.
Kisha, clutching her bleeding belly, desperately made her way back to the cave.
Inside the cave, her sister, Elenya, who had given birth the day before, was nursing her daughter.
"Kisha!"
Elenya cried out, seeing her twin sister enter the cave, drenched in cold sweat.
Elenya quickly laid Kisha down where she had been resting and began to stop the bleeding.
Golden light emerged from Elenya's palms as she placed them on Kisha's belly, forming a protective sphere.
Though the twins shared the same Lumen Savior blood, the difference in their light was vast.
While Kisha's light was faint and almost imperceptible, Elenya's light was powerful and noble, like that of the ancient Lumen Savior royalty.
Elenya's light could save Kisha's life, but the unborn child was still in danger.
The Lumen Savior's light hesitated, unable to penetrate the womb.
Elenya had just exhausted much of her energy during childbirth.
Having just saved her dying sister, she lacked the strength to share her light with another life.
Moreover, it was a fragile life that hadn't even reached full term.
Using her unstable light after such a significant energy drain could put the child in even greater danger.
As she felt her niece's pain directly, the light enveloping Kisha began to fracture.
"Sob, I'm sorry, Kisha. If it weren't for me... If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been hurt... Sob, sob."
Kisha's face grew paler as she struggled to breathe.
Elenya, holding her sister's trembling hand, let her tears fall in large drops.
Unlike Kisha, who could live among humans, Elenya, with her powerful light, had to live in hiding in the mountains.
It was both a blessing and a curse of the Lumen Savior lineage.
When the Lumen Saviors lived together as a tribe, they had no reason to worry.
No one believed that the light they possessed could put them in danger.
There was a communal strength that protected them.
But after the extermination of the Lumen Savior tribe, the few remaining descendants had to scatter.
And they had to protect themselves, alone.
Elenya and Kisha had never met another Lumen Savior.
They had only heard about their light from the grandmother who raised them.
The light that the Lumen Saviors carried was invisible and imperceptible to humans.
However, it had immense power over animals, mythical creatures, and monsters.
Unlike her sister, Elenya was born with the powerful light of the Lumen Saviors.
'Perhaps you're the only one left in the human world with the full light of the Lumen Savior, Elenya.'
It was natural that not only monsters from the underworld but also witches who knew about the Lumen Saviors and priests from ancient kingdoms would seek her out.
"No... I'm sorry. I believed that man was your mate... Sob, sob... If I had known this would happen, I would have stopped you when you left..."
Kisha burst into tears, feeling the desperate movements of the child in her womb.
It wasn't until their grandmother passed away that they learned she wasn't their real grandmother but a witch.
The kind witch had saved the last Lumen Savior twins from her sister Basilica and raised them as her own.
As she took her final breath, the witch looked at Kisha and Elenya, whom she cherished as her own granddaughters, with sorrowful eyes.
She seemed to know the harsh life the kind-hearted sisters would face.
'Elenya, there's no Lumen Savior left who can hide your light from the monsters. You must find a mate who can hold your light, even if he's human.'
The witch had warned them, gently stroking Elenya's tear-streaked cheeks.
'Remember this. If you have a child with a man who isn't your true mate, your hidden light will be exposed to monsters, witches, and the priests of the old kingdoms. The light of both you and your child, being Lumen Saviors, will be impossible to conceal. Only your true mate can shield your light.'
The witch had comforted Elenya, who had buried her face in the witch's wrinkled hands, crying.
'However, if you do meet your true mate, your light will shine nobly and brilliantly, more than ever before. It will become a light that illuminates the world.'
After their grandmother passed away, Kisha met Jonathan, who introduced himself as a healer, while living in the mountains.
Having been raised under their grandmother's protection, the sisters knew little about the world and had no skill in discerning people.
Moreover, they possessed the innocent nature of the Lumen Saviors, who were too trusting to suspect anyone.
To win over the heart of the beautiful maiden, Jonathan boasted endlessly about how much he loved animals and how dedicated he was to researching ways to heal the sick.
Though she bore the title of Marchioness, Jonathan’s sister, who was on the brink of bankruptcy, initially vehemently opposed Kisha. She shouted that she couldn’t possibly accept an orphan raised in the mountains.
However, the moment she saw the chest full of gold coins left behind by their grandmother, she immediately agreed to the marriage.
But within less than a year of the wedding, her husband and sister-in-law's couple had spent it all.
After Kisha left, Elenya was left alone in the mountains.
In her absence, Kisha gathered herbs from the mountains to support her incompetent, gambling husband and visited her sister daily.
Then one day,
“This man is the one, sister. Your light is forming a barrier over his body, shimmering. He must be the mate that Grandmother spoke of!”
Kisha exclaimed when she saw Elenya tending to a man, gravely wounded and near death, in the mountains.
The light of a Lumen Savior had little impact on ordinary people.
It only responded to other Lumen Saviors, animals, monsters, and the humans they loved.
In particular, it had the power to recognize and protect their mate.
Just as the last princess of the Lumen Savior tribe, Ermeore, had saved the king she loved.
Remarkably, the man’s body showed no resistance to Elenya’s light.
His deep wounds began to heal at an astonishing rate.
When the man opened his eyes, the first sight that greeted him was his savior, Elenya.
And they fell in love at first sight.
“Will you return to my estate with me and become my wife?”
The young man, whom Elenya had saved, knelt on the ground and proposed to her.
Elenya left the mountains with the heir to the Chesire Count, who owned a large estate in the empire's east.
Two years later.
Elenya and Kisha reunited on Mount Ecol.
The twins could sense intuitively that great changes had come upon each other.
Both sisters were pregnant when they met in the cave.
“He… he’s dead... Father, Mother, and the young lady’s family... all of them... the entire estate is in ruins... sob, sob...”
Elenya and Kisha clung to each other, weeping bitterly.
The reason she hadn't followed her beloved husband was that she was carrying a nearly full-term baby in her womb.
Her loving husband, his kind family, and everyone in the castle and estate had lost their lives.
By the monsters who had found Elenya’s light during her pregnancy.
Elenya’s husband had not been the mate who could conceal her light and the light of the child in her womb.
Wild animals had rescued the unconscious Elenya and brought her back to Mount Ecol.
And just two days ago, with her sister’s help, she had given birth to a tiny daughter, just like herself.
***
“Waaah, waaah...”
A frail cry of a baby echoed inside the cave.
As Esperel tilted her staff slightly, the vines densely covering the cave entrance parted a little.
The dim light of dawn seeping through the leaves filtered into the cave.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Elenya sobbed as she received her niece from Esperel.
Though it was a difficult birth, with the help of the elf, Kisha had been able to give birth to a daughter.
Unfortunately, a shadow of death loomed heavily over the newborn.
She was even smaller and frailer than Elenya’s own daughter.
She was a baby born two months premature.
Her frail back rose and fell with difficulty as she struggled to breathe, a pitiful sight.
Elenya stifled the sobs of guilt welling up in her throat.
At that moment, Elenya’s daughter woke up and opened her hand, a small, bright light flickered to life.
A round, shimmering orb of light floated in the air and then settled above the baby in Kisha’s arms.
The light shimmered as if to protect the newborn.
The baby’s uneven breaths gradually became more steady.
“She has a greater light than her mother. It’s a light that rivals even that of the last princess of the Lumen Savior tribe, Ermeore.”
Esperel’s voice softened as she met the baby’s eyes with affection.
She was born with a fate no different from her mother’s.
The light around her could be a blessing to others but a curse to her.
Elenya, recalling her beloved husband who had lost his life because of her, broke down in tears again.
It was too cruel.
Now she and her daughter, unable to fully conceal their light, would inevitably become targets for monsters or witches.
At that moment, the skin of the baby in Kisha’s arms turned blue.
The child’s face contorted in pain as she struggled to breathe.
“My baby... My little one...”
Kisha’s heart-wrenching sobs filled the cave as her daughter lay dying in her arms, and she could do nothing to help her.
“Master...”
Beryl, who had been watching the two sisters’ tragic fate with tearful eyes, called out to Esperel.
Esperel nodded resolutely.
She took the dying baby from Kisha in one hand and Elenya’s daughter in the other.
“A child infected by the monster’s poison will die soon.”
At Esperel’s words, Kisha sobbed uncontrollably.
“A baby born with such a strong light among the Lumen Savior tribe will die before it can even walk if it stays with a mother who also possesses such a powerful light. It will become a target for monsters.”
Though she had suspected as much, hearing it in the elf’s voice made Elenya break down, crying bitterly.
Esperel, who had been looking alternately between the two babies in her arms, spoke softly.
“If the baby is raised by a powerful Lumen Savior like her aunt, she will grow strong. A child nurtured on her milk and bathed in her light will possess a light even stronger than the one she has now.”
Kisha stared at her pale, dying child, covering her mouth with her hands.
Esperel smiled at the baby creating tiny droplets of light with her small hands.
“A baby born with the light of the Lumen Savior princess will be able to hide her light if she grows up with her aunt. When she becomes an adult and the true master of her light, she will be able to command even monsters.”
Elenya and Kisha looked at each other.
They didn’t need words to understand each other’s thoughts.
Their eyes spoke of the same decision.
Esperel looked between Elenya and Kisha.
“Will you follow my advice?”
Elenya opened her arms and took her niece, Tristini, and began to nurse her.
Kisha took her niece from Esperel.
She cradled the baby gently in her arms and whispered softly.
“Arabelle... Until the day you grow up and return to your mother, I swear I will be your mother and protect you.”
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