Chapter 177: Error

The Silver Moon Corridor, second floor.

Dressed in silver armor, Cersei still stood outside the door at the end of the hallway, motionless as a statue. The halo from the wall sconce spilled onto her pauldrons, reflecting a cold, hard glint.

Inside the room, candlelight cast Freya’s silhouette onto the wall, which was covered in pale gold silk wallpaper. She placed a newly written letter into an envelope, sealed it with wax, and then pushed it across to Mirana, along with a small glass vial filled with white powder.

“…”

Across the table, Mirana looked at the small glass vial before her and confirmed once more,

“You guarantee this is just Sleep Powder, right?”

“It’s a potent Sleep Powder.”

Freya glanced at her. “An ordinary powder wouldn’t be effective enough for you to bring him back.”

“Alright. I’ll head into the forest first thing tomorrow morning.”

Nodding, Mirana said no more. She tucked the letter and the vial into an inner pocket, then rose and left under Freya’s calm gaze.

The night was deep by the time she walked out of the Silver Moon Corridor.

Sparse stars twinkled in the gaps between the clouds, like the eyes of gods peering down upon the mortal world.

She walked briskly down the pitch-black street. Occasionally, drunken Adventurers would stagger past her, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, reeking of acrid alcohol and tobacco.

Whenever she saw people like this, Mirana would be reminded of the drunkard now buried in a corner of the cemetery.

Perhaps due to the effect of [Judgement], she truly felt no guilt for him.

Considering the man most likely had no wife or children, was utterly destroyed by alcohol, and was far more of a harm to society than a contributor… even without [Judgement], Mirana could find plenty of reasons to console herself.

‘I’m just ridding society of a parasite.’

Of course, such reasoning might work on Lu Wei, but it would have absolutely no persuasive power over a “man of justice” like Furen.

His response would probably just be an angry retort—

“No one but the gods and the law has the right to judge others!”

‘Looking at it this way, if Lu Wei and Furen’s worldviews were categorized on a nine-box alignment chart, they would be a classic “Neutral Evil” and “Lawful Good,” respectively.’

As for which alignment Mirana herself belonged to, that was still hard to say.

After all, she was certainly selfish enough, even if she had been forced into it.

But at the same time, she was selfless enough, even if only to atone for her own mistakes.

Clearly, in her eyes, the responsibility for Kairos losing his legs was entirely hers.

And to atone for this mistake, she had already given up at least 15 gold coins worth of loot and taken an innocent person’s life.

Now, she was even about to “sell out” Furen.

Hmm…

Considering Mirana’s initial act of “dragging the Mushroom Squad into her mess,” and the fact that she never admitted to being a member of the squad, her actions weren’t entirely incomprehensible.

“My own interests and my teammates’ interests above all else”—this seemed to be her guiding principle.

But any normal person, upon learning the full story, would likely be unable to agree with her choices.

Lu Wei, at least, definitely wouldn’t agree.

To be honest, a month ago, when Mirana first came to him and proposed they cooperate to earn points to heal Kairos’s legs, he didn’t understand her, but he was deeply impressed.

But now, if he knew what Mirana had done, he would just call her a “fucking idiot.”

Or he might suspect that her relationship with Kairos wasn’t really “unrelated,” but that they were siblings, lovers, or something of the sort.

In any case, this behavior of “committing more and more mistakes to atone for a single one” seemed incredibly foolish no matter how you looked at it.

But Mirana didn’t seem like a fool.

So, perhaps only she herself knew why she was doing all this.

…

…

TING-A-LING—

A dozen or so minutes later, the old wind chime on the lintel of the Red Rose inn rang out with a clear, crisp sound.

The woman wiping down a table in the front hall looked up, a warm smile immediately appearing on her wrinkled face.

“You’re back.”

“Young Lu Wei came looking for you around noon. He left a message.”

“Said you should go find him at his place when you got back.”

The woman set down her rag, wiped her hands on her apron, and said with a smile,

“You know where he lives, right?”

“It’s just south of town. Follow the small river, and it’s the smallest wooden cabin on the earthen slope.”

“Are you going now? Then take this lamp. It’s too dark outside…”

As she spoke, the woman took a brightly polished brass kerosene lamp from under the counter, lit the wick with a match, and handed it to Mirana.

Mirana didn’t refuse. She just offered a quiet word of thanks, then turned and left the inn, lamp in hand.

The night grew deeper. Most of the taverns on the street had closed, with only one or two still showing light behind their windows, from which faint, indistinct murmurs and shouts could be heard.

The night wind howled, and the faint halo of light swayed continuously, like a lonely firefly.

The river flowed silently. Mirana walked quietly along the well-trodden dirt path on the bank. She didn’t know how long she walked before she finally stopped in front of a familiar, somewhat dilapidated courtyard gate.

The gate wasn’t locked… it wasn’t even closed, just ajar, swaying gently in the wind.

Behind the low fence, the small wooden cabin was pitch black, a sign that its owner was long asleep.

After a moment’s hesitation, Mirana gently pushed open the gate and stepped into the front yard.

But she didn’t continue forward, stopping instead by the stove.

She took five Gold Coins from her money pouch and placed them gently on the stove.

Then she turned and left, pulling the gate back to its original position as she went.

“…”

In the main bedroom, Lu Wei was still sound asleep.

Even with a Perception score as high as 18, it was useless while he was asleep, so naturally, he was unaware of Mirana’s arrival.

As for Bai Ya in the small bedroom, there was even less chance she would notice.

However, Hess, curled up in her arms, opened its eyes with some confusion.

A Fur Ball’s habits are a bit like a cat’s. They sleep all day, but they are light sleepers, waking at the slightest disturbance.

Coupled with their extremely keen sense of smell, Hess was the only one to notice anything.

But after taking a careful sniff of the air, it immediately closed its eyes and went back to sleep.

After all, Mirana’s scent, just like Bai Ya’s, Lu Wei’s, and Furen’s, meant “safety” to it.

RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE…

The wind blew through the weeds that had grown again in the yard, making a soft sound.

Soon, Mirana “quietly departed.”

Just as she had “quietly come.”

She waved no sleeves, nor did she take away any clouds.

Instead, she left behind five Gold Coins.

Walking all the way back to the inn, she returned the kerosene lamp and went back to her room.

She locked the door, took off her Cloak and Leather Armor, then took out the letter and the vial of Sleeping Powder to look at them.

After a moment’s hesitation, Mirana carefully uncorked the vial and poured a little of the powder into a cup of water.

Then she picked up the cup and drank the liquid in one gulp.

In less than a minute, an intense drowsiness washed over her, and her eyelids felt as heavy as lead.

But aside from the drowsiness, she felt nothing else.

‘This proves it really is just Sleeping Powder.’

‘Thank goodness…’

Breathing a sigh of relief, Mirana blew out the candle, lay down on the narrow but very tidy single bed, and pulled the thin blanket over herself.

She silently gazed at the night sky outside the window.

Gradually, her thoughts became mired, growing more and more sluggish. The starlight in her vision blurred and faded away.

The moment before her consciousness was completely swallowed by darkness, she finally closed her eyes.

A Confession, so quiet it was almost inaudible, dissipated into the night along with her fading consciousness.

“I’m sorry.”