Chapter 2
My reaction clearly caught Lila off guard.
It was like she'd thrown a punch with all her strength, only to hit a pillow.
After a long pause, she finally spat out, "You have no shame."
I stood up, gesturing for her to go. "If you have no official business here, you need to leave. Your voice is messing with my monitoring of the energy here."
"You dare order me to leave?" Lila said, her voice thick with disbelief. "Do you know who I am? I am Elias's chosen partner, the soon-to-be mistress of Brightspire Hall."
"I see," I replied, my voice flat. "Then, mistress, please leave."
"You..." Lila sputtered, lost for words.
Vivian, one of the juniors behind her, stepped forward impatiently.
Her voice was sharp. "Chiara, you're just a useless reject dumped by Elias. How dare you speak to Lila like that?"
My gaze turned icy, and a surge of invisible sword aura shot out from me.
Vivian let out a sharp scream as she was knocked back several steps and landed flat on her backside.
Lila's face suddenly lost all color.
She looked at me in terror. "Y-Your power..."
I knew she was shocked that I still had any power left.
My core was shattered, and I got banished to Purgatory.
I was supposed to be nothing but a broken shell.
Oh, I forgot to tell them. I didn't have any feelings anymore, and my Sword Heart was activated.
I ignored her shock and repeated, "Please leave."
Lila shot me a glare, her eyes burning with resentment. But eventually, she turned and stormed off with her followers.
I sat back down and opened the notebook.
The world was quiet again.
I got a lot more done.
*****
At Brightspire Hall, Elias finished up his sect duties and picked up his coffee cup.
He took a sip and frowned slightly.
It was way too hot.
Back when Chiara used to bring him coffee, it was always at the perfect temperature.
He set the cup down and glanced at Lila, who was fumbling with a pile of books.
She'd made a mess of them, and several had even tumbled onto the floor.
"Elias, I-I'm sorry," Lila stammered, scrambling to pick them up.
A sudden irritation rose in Elias.
He waved his hand, and the books put themselves back in place automatically.
"That's enough," he said. "Go and rest."
Lila bit her lip, looking at him with a wounded expression.
"Do you think I'm clumsy?" she whispered. "If I had been doing this for seven hundred years like Chiara, I would do better."
At the mention of Chiara, something twisted sharply in Elias's chest.
It had been a month since Chiara was sent to Purgatory.
But she never came to beg for mercy, never made a fuss, and never even sent word back.
It was like she'd disappeared from the world.
It was way too quiet.
He couldn't get used to it.
"Elias?" Lila called out.
Elias pulled himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah? What is it?"
"I went to see Chiara today," Lila said, watching Elias closely for his reaction. "She looked totally fine, not upset at all. She made me leave, said I was disturbing her work."
Elias's grip on his cup tightened.
'She was not upset and sent Lila away?
'That's not like her at all,' he thought.
Back in the day, no matter how hurt Chiara was, a single kind word was enough to make her forgive everything.
"She even hurt Vivian," Lila added, her eyes welling up with tears.
Elias stood up. "I'll go see Chiara."
He needed to see for himself if Chiara was acting tough.
He rode his sword to the gates of Purgatory, and from afar, he spotted Chiara.
Her figure looked familiar, yet somehow, it felt strangely distant.
Dressed in a simple gray uniform, she sat cross-legged before the great gate, her posture rigidly straight.
She was slender, but there was a lonely, icy aura about her that words couldn't quite capture.
At the sound of his approach, she lifted her gaze.
Their eyes met.
Her eyes were as still as a frozen pond.
There was no love, no hate, no pain. Nothing at all.
"Elder Sterling," she said, her voice polite but distant.
Elias sensed her indifference.
His throat went dry. "Are you settling in here?"
"It's my duty. Whether I'm used to it or not is irrelevant," Chiara replied, her tone formal and detached.
"Lila said you hurt Vivian."
"She barged into a restricted area and interrupted my work. I sent her away as per the rules. If she got hurt, it's because her cultivation is weak. The sword aura leaking from Purgatory did that, not me."
Chiara's explanation was flawless, leaving no room for argument.
Elias found himself at a loss for words.
He stared at her pale face and those hollow eyes, and a sudden ache twisted in his chest.
He took a step closer. "If you admit your mistake, you can come back with me. I can—"
"Elder Sterling," Chiara interrupted, standing up with the worn notebook in hand. "Purgatory is a restricted area. Unless this is an official visit, you'll need to leave."
She was dismissing him.
And her tone was as cold and businesslike as when she told Lila to leave.