The Missing Elusa

Unfortunately, they only got one night's rest before Estelle woke them early the next morning.

She took them along to Count Bain's Estate, her family home, where his maternal grandparents lived.

Count Bain's Estate had clearly received word of their visit well in advance, for a large crowd was already waiting at the entrance when they arrived.

Estelle looked rather overwhelmed, her beautiful eyes brimming with tears. After all, she had not returned to her family home in over twenty years.

Even Count Eureka Hisai Bain's usually stern face softened with emotion. As for the countess beside him, she was already sobbing too hard to speak.

The gentle-faced woman could no longer hold herself back. She hurried forward and gathered Estelle into her arms, patting her daughter's back and murmuring words of comfort.

At the sight, Wendy's eyes grew as red as a rabbit's.

Large tears kept rolling down her delicate, fair cheeks, while Eros rubbed his nose, feeling the sting of tears himself.

After letting out her emotions for a while, Estelle took Eros and Wendy by the hands and had them greet their grandfather and grandmother.

Then she pointed to the others standing nearby and introduced them one by one. Occasionally, she faltered. After all, she had been away for nearly twenty years, so it was only natural that she no longer recognized some faces.

Fortunately, the countess, their grandmother, happily took their hands and introduced everyone to them in turn.

Eros and Wendy dutifully greeted each of them, earning quite a few gifts from their elders in the process.

After lunch, Estelle, still feeling somewhat overwhelmed, asked her mother a question:

"Mother, where's Elusa? Where is she now?"

At those words, the countess's expression dimmed, and Count Eureka beside her let out a quiet sigh.

"Let me explain."

Seeing her parents' expressions, Estelle's heart tightened at once. Sure enough, Count Eureka said softly:

"Elusa disappeared in that Sin Domain in the Mount Matigold Range in the third year after you married."

"We asked the Church for help, but every search came back empty-handed. The only thing we can be sure of is that Elusa is still alive, trapped somewhere in that Sin Domain."

"You were about to give birth at the time, so your mother and I didn't tell you."

"Later, we thought that since we'd already kept it from you once, we might as well keep it from you forever. After all, telling you would only bring you more grief."

The countess wiped away her tears, her voice filled with pain and heartache.

"My poor Elusa. She was so young back then. Heaven knows how she's endured all these years since she disappeared. O great Deity, please have mercy on my poor Elusa!"

By the end, Eros's grandmother had begun praying right where she stood, asking for blessings for her younger daughter.

Elusa was Estelle's younger sister, and therefore Eros's aunt.

As for Sin Domains, Eros understood them as something like dungeon maps.

The faith of living beings rose to Heaven, while their sins sank into the Abyss.

The Abyss was the dwelling place of evil gods, a world of chaos and turmoil. Its space was therefore extremely unstable, and fragments of space would occasionally be flung out of it, forming Sin Domains in the main world.

Most of the Mystic Side's alchemical materials and formation materials came from Sin Domains.

Spirit marrow, for example, one of the most commonly used materials, was produced within Sin Domains. Calling them dungeons was not far off the mark.

Estelle fell silent. After a long while, she said, "Since we know she's still alive, I'll go search for her myself tomorrow."

The two sisters had been very close as children. Elusa had been like a little shadow, always following her around and calling her big sister.

After Estelle married, the distance and her children had kept her from returning to her family home for nearly twenty years. With her parents concealing Elusa's disappearance from her all that time, she had known nothing about her missing sister until she came home.

It was not as though she had never written to Elusa. But every reply had been written by someone her mother, the countess, had hired, and each letter had taken longer to arrive and been shorter than the last.

At the time, she had thought that their long separation, coupled with Elusa growing up, had caused the sisters to drift apart. The thought had saddened her for quite some time.

She had never imagined that Elusa had stopped replying not because their bond had faded, but because she had disappeared.

Her younger sister had been missing for well over a decade, yet she, her older sister, had known nothing about it. Though her parents had kept it from her, she still felt terribly guilty.

It was precisely that guilt that made her want to venture into the Sin Domain herself and see whether she could find the missing Elusa.

But Count Eureka immediately objected. "No. It's too dangerous. Besides, if even the Church's people couldn't find her, what good would it do for you to go?"

The countess beside him hurried to agree. "Yes, it's too dangerous. Please don't go."

After all, she had already lost one daughter. She did not want to lose another.