She let out a breath, a faint, holy smile appearing on her face as she looked at Lynn and said:
"I've never told anyone this much before. Just listen, that's all. Although I later learned that personality had been hiding in my heart all along, and that I hadn't truly severed all ties with the Abyss, I was genuinely happy during those first days after leaving it. So even now, I have no regrets."
"Because I freed myself from the shackles of faith. There's nothing more I could ask for."
She smiled.
It was the first time Lynn had seen such a heartfelt smile on the Matriarch's face.
He could also see a glimmer of tears trickling from the corner of her eye.
She really...
Had been through so much.
A sincere smile appeared on Lynn's face as well. He gave her an emphatic thumbs-up, truly happy for the Matriarch.
Yes.
If faith had become a shackle, if you no longer even understood why you were still guarding that divine statue, why couldn't you follow your heart and live as you wished?
I suppose that's what it means... to be your own god.
"Then what about that Raven?"
Lynn came back to his senses and asked his Matriarch curiously.
"Did you ever see him again after leaving the Abyss? What exactly did he look like, and where did he come from?"
Lynn was genuinely curious. It wasn't just the Colossus Brain and Sir Awen-even the Matriarch had once dealt with Raven. In a sense, it was Raven's appearance that had truly shown her the way.
He seemed to have drifted through the early days of various civilizations, guiding them onto the right path.
The Self-Binding Angel paused, then shook her head slightly, tucking her long golden hair behind her ear