Vol 8. Chapter 11: Orion’s Teacher

The weather in the south-central part of the continent of Samael is mostly rainy.

Leon and Rosvisser had planned to set out for home the next day, but it kept pouring for days on end, making high-altitude flight inconvenient, so they had no choice but to remain a while longer in the City of Blazing Sun.

Ever since they arrived and parted from Orion, the couple hadn’t seen her again these past few days.

According to what Orion had said, from Thursday to Saturday she did volunteer work at the company’s welfare institute after finishing her shifts.

So she was probably too busy to spare any time of her own.

It was the weekend, and by noon the rain had eased a great deal.

The two decided to go out with umbrellas for a walk and, while they were at it, see whether the weather would suit flying.

They stepped out of the inn and opened the umbrella, raindrops began to patter on the canopy.

Leon offered his arm, Rosvisser lifted her skirt slightly with both hands and stepped over a shallow puddle at the threshold.

They shared a smile under the light rain. The umbrella wasn’t very big, so Leon quietly angled it more toward Rosvisser’s side, and rainwater immediately began to soak his shoulder.

“Leon, do you remember what Orion said, that she plays ball with the children Monday through Wednesday, and does volunteer work Thursday through Saturday?”

Leon nodded. “I remember. Why?”

“Then what do you think she does on Sundays?”

Leon blinked, then smiled and said:

“Does she have to find something to do? She’s been busy all week. Can’t you let her rest on the last day?”

Rosvisser lowered her eyes to the wet ground beneath her feet, thought for a moment, and replied:

“I don’t think she’s the kind who lets herself be idle.”

“Oh? Why do you say that?”

“What she told us the other day already shows that in a social climate like the City of Blazing Sun, she’s fated to have no one she can confide in.”

Rosvisser said softly:

“I even asked if she felt lonely. She didn’t deny it.”

So for someone tormented by loneliness, the only way to ease the pain is to keep as # Nоvеlight # busy as possible, not stopping for even a minute or a second.

Listening to Rosvisser, Leon didn’t reply right away.

He thought that Rosvisser understood Orion so well likely had something to do with her own past.

Even if the Silver Dragons weren’t as extreme as the Blazing Sun clan, Rosvisser’s life had surely had no shortage of hardship and trials.

Leon had encountered her younger self inside her memory world; even at a place like Saint Heath Academy, she was always alone.

Maybe Orion reminded her of who she had been, and that was why Rosvisser now cared so much about that girl.

Leon nodded, thoughtful.

“Mm, you make sense. But we can’t find her right now, and we certainly can’t make her do something that isn’t right.”

At that, Rosvisser pressed her lips together and sighed with a hint of disappointment.

“Yes. If we knew more about her past, maybe we could better understand the Blazing Sun as a people.”

It was a pity that the cool, aloof big sister’s whereabouts were a bit too mysterious.

The couple kept wandering aimlessly through the streets. After the rain, the sky cleared, and many vendors set up their stalls again.

Seeing the weather improve, they decided to set off for home early the next morning.

“Looks like we won’t run into Orion before we go back.”

Leon sighed.

Rosvisser didn’t say much—just nodded quietly.

They kept strolling.

One nice thing about not knowing a city is that you can walk anywhere you like, because every place is new to you.

Of course, the downside is that it’s easy to stray into odd places.

The two of them followed a narrow lane deeper and deeper until the foot traffic grew thinner. Only then did they notice how unusually quiet it was around them.

At last they figured out where they were.

“The Blazing Sun cemetery, huh...”

The cemetery was neatly maintained. Few people were around; now and then someone came to mourn a departed relative or friend.

Leon and Rosvisser liked walking together in unfamiliar cities, but a cemetery wasn’t exactly the right place to relax one’s mind after the rain.

Rosvisser laced her fingers through Leon’s and said softly,

“Let’s go back.”

“Mm, all right.”

But just as they turned to leave, Leon caught sight of a figure at the cemetery gate out of the corner of his eye.

He turned his head to look and widened his eyes slightly.

“Orion...”

“What?”

Following Leon’s gaze toward the entrance, Rosvisser saw her too.

Saw the captain of the guard standing there beneath the sky.

Orion held a bouquet in her hands, dressed all in black; her splendid golden hair was tied into a single ponytail draped down her back.

She wore no makeup, and her face, as ever, showed almost no expression.

Orion stepped into the cemetery and headed straight inward.

Leon and Rosvisser exchanged a look, then nodded in tacit agreement and followed her.

They trailed Orion all the way to the back of the cemetery.

The location wasn’t great, and from how neglected it looked, no one had come to pay respects here for a long time.

Except for the grave Orion was facing.

In front of the headstone lay flowers that were about to wither, yet even in withering their color stood in stark contrast to the desolation around them.

Orion slowly bent down and replaced the dying bouquet with the fresh one she’d just bought.

Then she straightened and gazed at the black-and-white portrait on the headstone.

Even without color, you could tell the woman in the photo was a stunning beauty.

She seemed a bit older than Orion, but judging by their brows and features, they clearly weren’t related by blood.

The couple hid off to the side, watching quietly.

“So she comes every weekend to pay respects to her friend,” Leon said.

“Mm... and a very important friend, probably. The flowers never quite wither away completely—that means she truly does come every week.”

Rosvisser’s eyes moved slightly as she watched Orion in profile.

After a moment of silence, they heard Orion speak in a low voice:

“I’ve come to see you again, Teacher.”

“Teacher?”

At that form of address, the couple couldn’t help but look at each other.

Clearly, in Orion’s past, this woman who had died young occupied an extremely important place.

Perhaps this person had influenced Orion’s thinking—or even her whole life—in an extraordinary way.

Otherwise Orion wouldn’t come here every week to see her teacher.

“This week I was as busy as ever—leading patrols, drilling, carrying out assignments,”

Orion’s tone, when speaking to her teacher, was far gentler than when she spoke to others.

“City Lord Fuyuan and the old city lord are both well, nothing different from usual. The only ripple was two guests from the dragon race. They came to ask us to help face the crisis soon to descend on Samael. As expected, the two city lords refused them. But afterward I sought out those two guests. We talked a great deal. They truly are heroes who saved this world. I envy them—the way they can go all out for what they value. And I can only be like I was when you left...”

Here, Orion lowered her eyes; a trace of dimness and regret crossed her blue pupils.

“Watching from far away, unable to do anything.”

She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. After steadying herself, Orion went on:

“I’ve already lost you. I won’t lose the people of my clan whom I hold dear. So, Teacher, please watch me carefully. If the day truly comes when the Blazing Sun stands on the brink, I will, in my own way, save everything.”

With that, Orion bowed deeply to the headstone, then turned to leave.

But she hadn’t taken more than a few steps before she spotted Leon and Rosvisser hiding to the side.

Orion stopped short, lowered her brows, and said with some displeasure:

“Were you following me?”

Leon grimaced and scratched his head, embarrassed.

“If I said we were just wandering around and happened to end up here, would you believe me...”

“No.”

The blunt girl replied with a straight face.

“...”

“We weren’t following you, Orion.”

Rosvisser stepped forward and said gently:

“Leon and I really were just strolling and came to this cemetery. We were about to leave when we saw you come to pay respects to someone, and out of curiosity we followed. There was nothing deliberate about trailing you.”

Orion looked into those silver eyes.

After a brief moment of eye contact, she looked away and gave a slight nod.

“All right. I understand.”

With the misunderstanding cleared up, the three left the cemetery together.

On the way, Rosvisser asked:

“We just heard you call the departed lady your teacher, didn’t we, Miss Orion?”

“Mm. When I had just passed the assessment and entered the inner-city guard, she was the one in charge of teaching me. She took what she had and passed her experience on to me.”

Orion said evenly: “She was one of the top experts in the guard and in the entire City of Blazing Sun. With her instruction, my strength improved very quickly.”

“A fine teacher makes a fine disciple,” Rosvisser praised.

“She was indeed a fine teacher—and a benefactor.”

But as Leon listened quietly to their conversation, something felt off.

If Orion’s teacher had been so respected and so capable, then why had she been laid to rest in such a desolate section of the cemetery?

By rights, someone like that should have been beloved by the people; building a separate memorial for her wouldn’t have been excessive. Yet she’d been buried in a dilapidated, barren spot, forgotten by the world along with those slowly withering flowers.

Driven by strong curiosity, Leon said:

“May I ask, was your teacher lost to illness, or...”

Orion stopped in her tracks.

She looked at Leon, her gaze silent but solemn.

After a moment of silence, Orion said softly:

“She took her own life.”