From beginning to end, Nome had cared about only one thing: Freya's whereabouts.
Harvey did not give him the answer he wanted. Instead, he shook his head with a strange expression. "She's dead."
Nome's gaze suddenly froze. Everything around him seemed to have been paused. He stood rooted to the spot, his heart seeming to stop at that very moment.
Freya had been a ray of light in his life. Watching her grow up, he had long since come to love her like his own daughter.
After that incident, after watching all his teammates die horrific deaths, Nome had lost the will to live.
His wedding had been the catalyst for the whole affair. Too many people had died because of it.
He had drunk himself into oblivion, finding relief from the pain only by sinking deeper. It was Freya's arrival that had given him hope to keep living.
For the orphaned daughter his former teammate had left behind, he had taken on the role of a father.
Joey felt no better upon hearing the news. His gaze stayed fixed on Harvey's face, searching for any sign that he was lying.
"Don't look at me like that."
Harvey ducked his head and shrugged. "Her death had nothing to do with me. She jumped into the sea herself."
The chosen women would be taken away in secret. The heretics had set their sights on Freya aboard a ship heading out to sea, but before they could act, she had jumped overboard herself.
In Joey's memory, Freya had been a very unusual teacher. She loved scientific research and had no interest in dressing up. Despite having a face beautiful enough to bring nations to ruin, she went around looking disheveled all day.
That was the same Freya who had spared no effort