Lumi took a step backward as she blinked and her heart hammered against her ribs.

’I-Impossible.’ she thought.

She took a slow, trembling deep breath, trying to calm down her racing pulse.

She had clearly seen Ren step in here. She had watched him open the oak door, walk inside, and come out moments later with a pouch. She had tracked him the entire time so throughout that whole thing... he hadn’t sold her staff?

She pointed a trembling finger at the man behind the counter. "You must be lying."

The shopkeeper immediately flinched. He raised both of his calloused hands in the air as his eyes widened in sheer panic.

"I am not lying, Your Holiness!" he said, his voice cracking. A bead of sweat rolled down his greasy temple. "I swear on the Goddess’s name! Why would I be lying to someone of your status? I would never dare!"

To prove his point, he reached under the heavy wooden counter. He grunted with effort and lifted a massive woven basket full of items slamming it onto the table with a heavy thud that rattled the glass display cases.

"You can check it out yourself to see if I am lying," the man said, gesturing frantically toward the pile of folded fabrics. "Why would I lie to a great figure of the Empire such as yourself?"

Lumi took a step forward. Her leg became a bit wobbly with her knee actually buckling for a fraction of a second, as she walked the rest of the way to the counter.

The dim light of the shop illuminated the contents of the basket and she pushed her hands into the pile as she began looking through the things.

Lumi could feel the smooth expensive silk of her favorite dresses as she ran her fingers over the heavy embroidered velvet of her ceremonial robes.

There was so much different stuff in here... every single item that Ren had bought for her over the past few months. She pushed aside a layer of velvet and found the picture as the intricately drawn portrait still perfectly intact but as she dug deeper, pushing the clothes aside until she hit the woven bottom of the basket, her stomach twisted into a cold knot.

She saw no staff... The long staff with the glowing crystalline core simply wasn’t there.

Lumi began panicking in her thoughts.

Her hands fumbled even more, violently tossing the expensive dresses onto the glass counter as she frantically searched the empty bottom of the basket.

’Where the hell is this? Where is it?’ she thought with her breath coming out in panicked gasps.

She patted down the sides of the basket, feeling nothing but wicker.

Finally, she pulled her hands back with her shoulders dropping in utter defeat. She let out a long heavy sigh that ruffled the loose strands of her purple hair.

Ren hadn’t sold it... He had kept it with him just to spite her. He knew exactly how much that staff meant to her, and he had held onto it simply to watch her scramble and the worst part was, there was nothing that she could do about it.

Lumi bit the inside of her cheek and placed a hand firmly on her waist to compose herself then she lifted her chin, adopting her usual authoritative posture.

"How much would it be to buy all of this stuff back?" she asked.

The man behind the counter swallowed hard with his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously.

He looked at the pile of expensive dresses, then back at her and he stuttered slightly with his eyes darting toward the door. "I... I could go fifty-five."

Lumi raised up one perfectly manicured eyebrow.

"Why the hell is it fifty-five?" She asked coldly. "It didn’t even cost that much to buy."

The man flinched again, wiping his sweaty palms on his dirty apron.

He continued with a bit of a stutter. "Lord Ren Crowhurst had sold everything for fifty, Your Holiness. So, naturally... I need to make a bit of gain. It is just business."

Lumi stared at him.

Though in true honesty, she knew he could probably make even more if she decided not to buy it. The world was full of degenerates.

A lot of perverts wanted the Saintess’s used clothes, and there could easily be one rich, obsessive noble in the capital that would buy absolutely everything in this basket and creepily offer it to her again just to gain her favor.

And for the man, as much as he wanted to overprice this and lie to squeeze more gold out of her, Saintess Lumi had a certain ability to read when people were lying.

Her class granted her a passive ability to tell when one was lying... If he tried to push the price to sixty or seventy, she would obviously point out his deception and demand to know why the price was so high.

He knew he was on a thin line of offending the church like this, so fifty-five was his safest gamble.

Lumi exhaled sharply through her nose.

"Alright..." she said.

She reached into the inner folds of her cloak, her fingers wrapping around the familiar shape of her leather coin purse. Lumi pulled it out and untied the golden drawstring.

"I will even give you a little ti—"

She opened the purse. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Dust came out of it. Quite literally, a small puff of gray lint and dust drifted into the air, making her wave her face with her other hand and cough.

She stared down into the gaping dark void of the leather pouch. It was completely empty as not a single bronze coin rattled inside.

Then, the sickening realization hit her.

Lumi realized that she had spent her entire Saintly allowance... the stipend that the church gave her every month on some ridiculously expensive clothes and make-up that were coming from Ghol-Toram, the grand Capital of Dwarves.

The dwarven cosmetics were infused with permanent beautification runes, and the silks were woven from subterranean spider-silk.

The stuff she had bought would arrive here at the Empire soon, but still, that didn’t change her current reality.

She didn’t have any money on her currently... The Saintess was broke.

Lumi slowly turned back to the man. She zipped up her purse and tucked it back into her cloak as her cheeks burned with hot humiliation.

"Do you mind if I call someone?" she asked, refusing to make eye contact with him.

The Saintess was deeply ashamed of herself. To stand in a dingy pawnshop, bargaining for her own discarded clothes without a single coin to her name, was a new low but still, as long as she got all of her items back, she didn’t mind this little embarrassment.

After all, she had already shown these dresses off to the Princess... She couldn’t afford to lose them to some creepy people.

The man behind the counter nodded quickly.

"You can call, Your Holiness. Take your time," He said.

She turned on her heel and walked to the far corner of the store, putting herself beside a rack of rusted armor that was far away from the counter to ensure her privacy.

She reached into her pocket and brought out an item that looked like a wide circular mirror, except the glass was completely white and opaque.

She tapped the smooth surface twice with her index finger and instantly, a soft hum vibrated through the metal casing as a glowing blue hologram of her contacts came up, floating in the air an inch above the glass.

This was a technology known as The Mirror. It was an ancient relic design developed by someone known only as the Crafter Of Worlds.

It allowed people to call and message other people in real time by connecting them through the invisible magic lines strung deep beneath the earth in every town or city in the world.

That massive, underground network was exactly why people could call each other across the World without delay.

Lumi scrolled through the glowing blue text and looked at her recent calls. Jace had apparently called her three times, and she hadn’t even noticed the vibrations.

She tapped the hologram above his name, and immediately, her mirror began glowing with a bright white light as she raised the cool metal to her ear.

Ring~ Ring~

Jace usually answered her on the very first ring. If he was feeling down a bit, or if he was genuinely busy fighting a monster, it would be on the second ring.

While Lumi could tell by the missed calls that he was naturally unhappy that she had left him at that restaurant alone, he really had to think of it from her point of view... She was the one that was important so her needs came first.

Jace answered immediately on the third ring. The Hero’s voice became incredibly joyous and bright on the other side of the magical connection, completely dropping whatever anger he might have held.

"Lumi, my love!" Jace said. "How are you feeling now? Are you still down about all of that? I know Ren had been very rude when he asked you to—"

She rolled her eyes, completely uninterested in his apologies and interrupted him.

"I’m fine," she said flatly. "You don’t need to worry."

She paused, lowering her voice so the shopkeeper wouldn’t hear. "Can you borrow me some gold?"

She heard Jace shift on the other end of the line with the sound of armor clinking softly.

"I see," He said as his tone turned a bit nervous. "You ran into a bit of an issue? How serious is it, Lumi? Because... well, I have already burned out my own monthly allowance given to me by the Kingdom."

Lumi gripped the mirror tighter... She practically hissed into the device. "How the hell did you burn your monthly allowance of a hundred golds?"

One hundred gold coins was a fortune.

Jace sighed as he got defensive.

"Well, the cost of renting the arena where Ren and I usually fight took a massive chunk of it but that wasn’t just that cost! I also had to buy a special weapon from the Land of the Elves. It’s a moon-steel blade, Lumi, and even with the Hero Discount the elves gave me, it was still very costly."

He paused, taking a breath before rushing into his next excuse, desperately trying to seek her approval

"Plus, we have gone on a date on every single day of this month. Our dates cost a lot of gold to thoroughly do! I always book the best tables, the finest carriages even the small one that you walked out on today had cost about three gold just to arrange, and... and you hadn’t even gotten to see the dessert I ordered for you."

He sounded like a kicked puppy, practically begging for her to acknowledge his effort and Lumi’s face went completely pale.

She pulled the mirror away from her ear and slammed her thumb against the glass, hanging up on him instantly as the blue light died out.

Her left eye twitched in pure annoyance.

’Even with all of the expensive things,’ she thought with her nails digging into her palms. ’how the hell did he finish an allowance of a hundred golds? He is the Hero of the Kingdom! And if it was Ren then—’

She stopped herself. She clamped her mouth shut and let out a long, frustrated breath. Ren wouldn’t have run out of money.

The mirror in her hand began to vibrate violently as Jace was calling her again. She stared at his name glowing on the glass and hit the decline button without a second of hesitation.

From across the room, the man from the counter leaned over the glass display.

"Is everything alright, Your Holiness?" he asked tentatively.

Lumi forced a stiff unnatural smile onto her face. "It is fine," she said.

She tapped the glass again.

The hologram of her contacts formed in the air and she gulped, her throat turning incredibly dry as she dialed up the Princess. She raised her mirror to her ear, listening to the chime. It rang five times... much longer than Jace ever took.

Then, the Princess of the Empire answered.

"Hey Girl, what’s up?" the Princess said, her voice echoing with the ambient sounds of a busy throne room in the background.

Before Lumi could even greet her, the Princess followed up, "Make it quick. I have a meeting with the other Princesses in a few minutes and my tailor is currently pinning my dress."

Lumi cleared her throat, swallowing her immense pride.

"I ran into a bit of an issue," she said quietly. "Could you borrow me some gold?"

...

Halfway across the city, inside the sprawling estate of the Crowhurst family, a translucent blue screen materialized in the air.

『Congratulations for placing a gap in the Hero and Saintess’s relationship』

『You have received 5,000 SP』

A small smile appeared on Ren’s face as he read the floating text. He casually dismissed the notification after.

’Lumi is like a living SP farm..,’ he thought, leaning back on the plush chair.

He had been wondering when this specific tab was going to come through... but now, he had to focus on something much more important.

Right now, he was sitting in the grand dining room of the manor and sitting directly opposite him were Rowan and Stella Crowhurst, the parents of the real Ren Crowhurst.

Rowan set his porcelain teacup down onto its matching saucer.

"You called us here saying that it was important," Rowan said, folding his large hands on the polished wood. "What did you want to talk about?"

Ren sat up straighter. He cleared his throat, making sure his voice was perfectly level and completely devoid of hesitation.

"I want to move out..." he said.

A heavy silence went through the luxurious mansion of the Crowhursts as Rowan stopped breathing for a second and Stella froze entirely, her hand hovering halfway toward her own teacup.

They both just sat there, staring at him as if he had just spoken in a forgotten demonic language.

Ren kept his face neutral, but internally, he was analyzing the situation.

When he had told his parents from his old life.. back when he was just Jordan that he wanted to move out, they had practically lit up at the suggestion.

They had helped him pack his bags that very afternoon and had even given him a generous cash allowance to get him out the door faster. That was exactly how he had ended up living in that cramped, one-room apartment.

Because of that core memory, he honestly didn’t expect anything different from the Crowhursts... However, the silence broke in the most unexpected way possible.

Soft sniffles went out across the table and Ren blinked, shifting his gaze toward the woman sitting to Rowan’s right.

Stella immediately began crying.

Tears rained down her cheeks in drops, splashing onto the pristine mahogany table. She pulled a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and pressed it against her nose, sniffling loudly as her shoulders shook.

"I knew this day would come..." Stella said. Her voice broke completely, fracturing into a wet devastated sob.

She looked at him with wide, tear-filled eyes. "It’s too soon to be thinking about moving out Ren... You’re just eighteen. You should be like thirty before you even say stuff like that... Or don’t you want to stay with your mother anymore?"

She buried her face in her handkerchief and her chest heaved as she wept openly right there in the dining room.

’Wait,’ He thought as his eyes darting between the sobbing woman and her shocked husband. ’Is she really crying?’

[Author’s Note]

Will be doing one Chapter a day now.