Hugs

Following Fia into her spacious room, Zhao Si found the mirror with practiced ease.

It should have been the mirror that let players redesign their characters, but now it was nothing more than an ordinary mirror.

Studying his reflection, he got his first clear look at his face.

He was a boy with delicate, handsome features. Judging by his appearance alone, he might only have been in his teens.

His dull, lightless eyes marked him as Tarnished. His black hair was nothing remarkable, either. If it had been red, he could at least have claimed some connection to the giants.

His body was thin and frail. He certainly did not look like he could fight.

"Hero, did guidance bring you here?" Fia asked from the edge of the bed.

Zhao Si thought for a moment. "A maiden dragged me here."

Fia froze, then looked rather surprised. "You have a maiden?"

"Is that strange?" Zhao Si asked back.

Fia gently shook her head. "It's nothing. Then, guided hero, my name is Fia, and I have a presumptuous request."

"You already let me use your mirror. If you need help with anything, just ask." Zhao Si was feeling generous.

"Hero, would you allow me to hold you tight, if only for a moment?" Fia asked with a smile.

She was gentle, with a soft voice and a warm smile, very much like an older girl from next door.

Even her long black dress and black hood could not conceal her shapely curves and exquisite face.

Put simply, she was a beauty.

A beauty, asking a man for a hug...

"Of course!" Zhao Si's fingers trembled with excitement. "Only an idiot would turn that down."

He blurted out exactly what he felt and hurried eagerly into Fia's embrace.

Fia opened her arms and held Zhao Si, like a loving mother cradling an infant who had yet to grow.

Zhao Si buried his face in Fia's embrace, pressed close against her chest. A delicate fragrance filled his nose and mouth, soothing his heart.

For a moment, Zhao Si felt all his worries fly away. An extraordinary peace settled over him, even greater than what he felt when he saw Helena.

The difference between a mature woman and a young girl was like the difference between mountains and plains.

At that moment, Zhao Si desperately wanted to speak his heart.

"Can I tell you something in confidence?" Zhao Si asked very quietly, afraid of ruining the mood.

Fia lowered her head and whispered just as softly into his ear, "Of course."

Her breath was sweet, its warmth making Zhao Si's ear feel hot, ticklish, and a little damp. His heart itched even more, as though a cat were scratching at it.

"I'm not from this world. I'm weak, I have no power, and I don't even know what I came here to do." In a rush of impulse, Zhao Si told her everything.

"What does that matter?" Fia said. "Goddess Marika isn't from this world either. She's a Numen."

She stroked Zhao Si's head, as though trying to knead him into her embrace. "Sometimes, thinking too much only brings needless worries. Nor do I think you lack strength. I can feel your warmth. No, I should call it blazing heat. Like a burning fire."

Their hug came to an end. Happy moments were always brief.

When Zhao Si stood, he felt dizzy, his heart fluttered, and his legs were a little weak. He could tell this was definitely not an aftereffect of yesterday's training.

He knew the difference between sore muscles, pain from being beaten, and the weakness in his legs now.

"So this is what having my vitality drained feels like?" Zhao Si held his forehead.

Suddenly, the burn mark on his wrist flashed. Zhao Si instantly felt light and refreshed, all his discomfort swept away.

How strange.

He unconsciously rubbed his wrist.

Fia, meanwhile, could not hide her surprise. "You know about the Deathbed Companions?"

Zhao Si nodded. "Yes, I've heard of them."

"Ah, I never expected you to know." Fia regained her composure. "A Deathbed Companion embraces the living to receive their vitality and willpower, turning them into the strength that sustains her. Once I have received the warmth of countless heroes and the strength to live, I lie with the remains of a great person and restore noble life to him. All I can offer the living in return is Baldachin's Blessing. I'm truly sorry."

"Then how did you end up here?" Zhao Si asked.

"I was driven from my homeland when Grace awakened within me. I had nowhere else to go." A trace of sadness colored Fia's voice.

Zhao Si could indeed see a golden light in her eyes-the proof of Grace.

"Why were you driven from your homeland for awakening Grace?" Zhao Si had never thought anything was wrong before. He had skimmed over much of the character dialogue, and only now, hearing it in person, did he notice the problem.

There was clearly more to Fia than the Prince of Death's questline. Her "homeland" probably did not mean Leyndell; Leyndell had no reason to expel a Deathbed Companion blessed with Grace. Her "work clothes"-the Deathbed Dress-could even be found on a bed in a small church in Leyndell.

Putting together the clues he currently had, Fia's homeland probably disliked Grace, which was why they had driven her out. The "Deathbed Companions" were a group, and Fia was one of them. After receiving Grace, she could have stopped being a Deathbed Companion, yet she had persisted in this work. It seemed less like a passion and more like a responsibility she could not abandon.

Which raised another question. Roundtable Hold was a secret society of Tarnished, so why had Fia come here? Aside from an anomaly like Zhao Si, the Two Fingers presumably would not recruit anyone of no use to them.

Fia fell silent.

Awkwardness spread through the air. Nothing was worse than a sudden silence.

"You don't have to say if you don't want to. But I do have another question," Zhao Si ventured. "May I ask?"

"Yes," Fia said quietly.

"As far as I know, the Erdtree doesn't permit true death. Souls return to the Erdtree, while bodies are buried beneath its roots. What role do you play in that process?" Zhao Si voiced his confusion.

Fia understood what he meant and explained, "Many people think anyone can be reborn. But that isn't the case. Deathbed Companions serve only certain special people, restoring their life force."

"So, resurrection?" Zhao Si pressed.

"You could understand it that way. It is our people's purpose." Fia calmly accepted her fate, as though this was simply what she had been born to do.

"Have you ever thought about not doing it?" Zhao Si asked, a little anxiously.

Fia remained serene. "If I didn't do this, what else could I do? Everyone is born with a purpose. I am fond of the dead, and I willingly embrace death. Many people despise such behavior, but that is only natural."

Zhao Si did not know what else he could say to persuade her. Fia was not the sort to listen to advice; her devotion to the Prince of Death made that clear.

Taking the strength to live from the living and giving it to the dead was a little hard for the living to accept. After

all, the gulf between life and death was immense. "Hugging" was itself a veiled expression. Those who knew, knew.

Godwyn's assassination had left him unable to die completely, making him one of Those Who Live in Death. Fia, who loved a "dead man," had devoted everything to Godwyn, the Prince of Death.

Fia could not really be counted as a "wife." She had never loved the living. She was more like a confidante, a safe harbor amid bloodshed. Zhao Si wanted to free Fia from this fate, which could also indirectly save his buddy, the burly D.

There were probably two ways to save them both.

The first was to prevent Godwyn's death. As long as Godwyn did not die, Fia would remain an ordinary Deathbed Companion, and D would remain an ordinary supporter of the Golden Order.

The second was to make Godwyn die completely-to give him proper, true death and fulfill destined death.

Neither condition would be easy to achieve. The difficulty with the first was that he would have to intervene in the Night of the Black Knives and kill every Black Knife assassin who infiltrated Leyndell to keep Godwyn safe, because getting Ranni to give up was utterly impossible. Ranni was a Demigod capable of killing herself. She was far too ruthless.

The difficulty with the second lay in making him "die completely," and that was the fault of the idiotic Golden Order. True death did not exist within the Golden Order, so Godwyn's flesh could not die completely, and neither could Ranni. Of these two close siblings with "different fathers and different mothers," one had lost his soul, and the other had lost her body. He had to admit that Ranni's execution had been incredibly precise: she had managed to avoid killing her own soul.

When Zhao Si left Fia's room, his thoughts were a tangled mess. He felt pressed for time and burdened with urgent tasks, yet he was so weak. There were far, far too many things he needed to understand and do.

He could not discuss it openly with Gideon, either. He could only probe indirectly.