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Prologue
“Are you okay? You look really sick.”
Cedric met her for the first time on his eleventh birthday.
“Can you stand up?”
That day had been particularly unlucky.
For two weeks, all he had eaten were roadside weeds and tree bark.
Even the restaurant dumpsters he usually rummaged through had been completely cleaned out, not a single bread crumb left.
His hunger had turned into pain. Then, lured by the smell of freshly baked bread wafting from a shop, he lost control and stole a baguette.
“You filthy rat! How dare you touch someone else’s bread!”
He got caught and was beaten to within an inch of his life.
He was dizzy, likely from hunger.
There was no strength in his arms or legs. The back of his head throbbed from repeated blows.
And then, suddenly, a pretty girl around his age approached and held out her small, delicate hand.
“What’s your name?”
“…Why should you care?”
“I’m Justina!”
She grabbed Cedric’s hand and helped support his staggering body.
His stomach growled loudly.
Justina, watching him, rummaged through her pocket and pulled something out.
It was damp, moldy bread.
“Here, you can have—”
Cedric didn’t even let her finish. He shoved the moldy bread into his mouth without hesitation.
It was hard as a rock—who knows how old it was—but after starving for days, even that tasted sweet. He devoured every crumb and licked the remains from his palm.
Her kindness was sweet, but a piece of bread wasn’t enough to quell his hunger. Justina looked at him with wide, blinking eyes, then asked gently,
“Do you want to come to my house?”
Cedric nodded.
From that day on, Cedric lived with her.
Of course, they didn’t live alone.
“Yus-nuna! Marti stole my bread again!”
“Hmph, that’s because you looked away while you were eating.”
“Okay, okay… Both of you calm down.”
Justina’s house was home to forty-two children.
“Here, you can have my bread. Marti, you shouldn’t take others’ food, okay?”
“…Okay. I’m sorry.”
Watching Justina give away her own portion, Cedric recalled an earlier conversation.
“You’re the new kid, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“Don’t mess with Yus.”
A boy three years older than Cedric had given him a firm warning.
“The only reason all the orphans around here can survive is thanks to Yus. She opened her house to us.”
“…But isn’t she an orphan too? How’d she get this house?”
“She wasn’t. At least not until two years ago.”
That’s when Cedric learned.
Justina had lost her parents two years ago and had been living in a crumbling house ever since.
Despite that, she brought in street orphans. She gave them a shabby but warm home, food to fill their bellies, and love.
“She’s amazing, right? Hard to believe she’s only nine.”
Cedric hadn’t answered at the time, but he agreed.
The bread Justina gave him on his birthday was the one piece she was allowed to eat per day.
She had shared that precious food with a complete stranger.
If it were me, I would’ve eaten it alone.
To be honest, the house was too small for over forty children. And with the babies growing rapidly, life was becoming increasingly cramped.
Yet Justina never seemed to mind. Even when she had nothing for herself, she’d gladly give her entire share to a younger sibling who begged for more.
How can someone like her exist?
Cedric couldn’t understand her.
He had lived in the slums for as long as he could remember. He was a complete orphan who didn’t even know his parents’ faces.
Other than the time before age nine—which he strangely couldn’t recall—his past two years had been a constant battle.
If you’re weak, you get robbed.
If you’re strong, you rob.
He thought that was all there was to life.
“Cedric, why aren’t you eating?”
Lost in thought, Cedric turned to see Justina approaching.
Her clear blue eyes curved gently as she smiled.
Seeing that doll-like face, Cedric suddenly felt embarrassed and looked away.
“You eat it. I’m not hungry today.”
“Huh?”
She looked startled to see the bread he offered.
“Cedric…”
“I said you eat it.”
Before she could say anything else, Cedric stood up.
Even though I starved yesterday too…
He didn’t like that she gave her bread to the others again.
Can’t she live a little selfishly?
He still didn’t understand her.
Just as he was about to leave the room—
“Thank you.”
He stopped at the soft words.
“Thank you, Cedric.”
Justina was smiling.
Though she was pitifully thin from lack of food, her smile was truly…
“Tch… It’s nothing…”
Cedric turned away quickly.
For some reason, his ears were burning.
Three years passed since Cedric began living with Justina.
Now fourteen, he had gone from being cared for to being one of the caretakers.
“Cedric, can you wash the blankets?”
“Sure.”
By then, the number of children in Justina’s house had exceeded fifty.
But the old two-story house couldn’t hold more than that. Lately, Justina had stopped bringing in new orphans.
This life isn’t so bad.
The slightly older kids earned money doing odd jobs for nearby adults.
Cedric would soon be one of them.
I’ll keep doing my best.
He liked it here.
He imagined a future where he stayed with these people even after becoming an adult.
“Hey, do you smell something?”
“Smell what?”
“Something burning…”
That was until that day.
“Fire! Fire!”
“Get all the babies out!”
The old wooden house quickly turned into an inferno. The older kids grabbed the younger ones and fled outside.
Cedric did the same, carrying a two-year-old sibling, gasping for breath.
“Is everyone out?”
“Oh no…”
The fire spread rapidly, and the atmosphere grew tense. Then a girl shouted, pale with fear.
“Luca! Luca’s missing!”
Luca was a five-year-old boy. The children turned to look at the burning, collapsing house.
“I’ll go in.”
It was Justina who stepped forward.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t worry.”
Cedric wanted to stop her.
But there was no time.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Justina ran into the flames.
How can she do that?
Justina was only twelve.
Even Cedric, fourteen, was terrified. Yet she acted like her life didn’t matter.
No, but if it’s Yus…
Justina was incredible.
He believed that someone like her could survive a burning house and come back out with the child, safe and sound.
But he was wrong.
“The house is collapsing!”
“Yus! Luca!”
It all felt like a nightmare.
His heart pounded wildly.
“Luca! It’s Luca!”
As the front collapsed, Luca was thrown out of the wreckage.
And Cedric saw it.
“Yus, no!”
Justina had pushed Luca out and was now trapped beneath falling beams.
She said something.
Cedric ran toward her.
But it was useless.
No matter how much he screamed, the beams didn’t lift, and the fire didn’t stop.
Over and over, her final moment replayed in his mind.
“Cedric, grow up to be a good adult.”
Her last words.
Another ten years passed.
After losing Justina, Cedric became the head of the underworld.
Assassinations. Illegal trading. Pursuits.
If the money was right, he’d do anything. He had become a renowned errand man in the shadows.
“There’s a request.”
It was a strange day.
His visitor was a priest dressed in pure white robes—completely out of place in the back alleys.
“What business does a holy man have here?”
“We need your help.”
The priest handed him a heavy pouch.
Cedric accepted it with a nod, and the priest spoke again.
“Protect the Saint.”
“…The Saint?”
He paused at the unfamiliar word.
I’ve heard rumors a Saint reappeared on the Eastern Continent…
In this era of magical engineering, divine authority had long crumbled.
When he heard someone had been declared a Saint, he scoffed.
Just some primitive power grab on a backwards continent. That was his impression.
A puppet for the Pope, maybe.
There’s no such thing as a Saint.
A human performing miracles? Please.
Unless she was the greatest con artist of the century.
Still, work was work. He had taken the money.
“Do I head to the Eastern Continent?”
“Is this your first time in a temple?”
“You ask the obvious.”
Though known as the underworld’s leader, Cedric was still just a dog cleaning up after the powerful.
Rituals and etiquette weren’t his thing. He frowned as he looked at the all-white temple.
“What a useless building. They should demolish it and build a food factory instead—it would help the poor more.”
“You don’t believe in God?”
“No. I don’t.”
His answer was firm.
“The Saint is inside. She’s praying, so if you wait—”
Cedric ignored the priest and opened the prayer room door.
White hair…
An old memory surfaced.
But that was all. Nothing more stirred in him.
Whoever this poor woman being used as propaganda was, Cedric would do his job as paid.
“Is that her?”
A woman knelt before a goddess statue, draped in a white veil.
Cedric gave a curt greeting.
“I’ll be your escort starting today, Saint. I look forward to working with you.”
“Oh.”
A soft exclamation.
Up to that point, everything was fine.
Then she turned to him.
“Greetings, brother.”
She spoke warmly.
“My name is Justina.”
And with a smile that hadn’t changed in ten years—
“I look forward to working with you.”
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart thundered in his chest.
She was his first love. The one he had longed for over a decade.
He thought she was dead.
So why was she here—
“Yu… Yus…”
His voice cracked. He reached out to her with a trembling hand.
But she didn’t react.
As if she hadn’t seen his crumbling face or outstretched hand.
Then the priest beside them spoke.
“Sir Cedric, the Saint… cannot see.”
“…What?”
Only then did Cedric notice.
No focus…
Her beautiful eyes were like glass, simply set in place. Unmoving.
As silence dragged on, Justina fidgeted nervously.
“Ah, s-sorry. Did I say something inappropriate?”
“…No.”
Cedric clenched his fists.
“There’s no problem.”
The first love he met again—
Could no longer see him.
