When she had woke up, Seulgi found herself lying on the back seat of a vehicle. Her head lying on top of a person’s lap as she looked up to see the person sleeping, leaning back in the seat of the vehicle. 

After seconds of staring blurrily at the woman, realisation dawned upon her that it was Irene's lap she had her head lying on top off. She quickly sat up as a red blush creeped on both her cheeks. 

‘My head was on top of a pretty woman's lap!’ She thought to herself as she panicked internally. 

Irene being the light sleeper that she was, woke up from her sleep when she felt the weight on her lap was lifted. She yawned before she turned to look at Seulgi who was still blushing madly beside her. 

“You’ve woke up.” She said as she smiled at Seulgi before she introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Irene.” She greeted and Seulgi found herself a stuttering mess as she tried to introduce herself. 

“H-hi, I’m Ire-.” She stopped for a second when she realised she was about to say Irene’s name, “I mean I’m S-seulgi.” 

As if the already very red blush on her plump cheeks couldn’t get any redder than it did, it did. Damn it, just why was she always so weak for beautiful women. She heard Irene giggled at how she stuttered before she replied her. 

“Hi S-seulgi.” She intentionally stuttered Seulgi's name to and Seulgi couldn’t find the courage in her to look Joohyun in the eye when she giggled so she resorted to looking down at her own lap. 

“You know, you’re really cute Seulgi.”

‘She thinks I’m cute?’ Seulgi thought to herself as she wondered what she had done in her past life for her to deserve getting someone as pretty as Irene to think she was cute at all. 

“Oh! I see you’re awake!” She heard someone said from the front seat. She then looked up to see the driver of the vehicle turned back to look at her as she introduced her to the rest of the people in the vehicle. 

“I’m Taeyeon!” She greeted cheerfully before pointing a finger to the person beside her, “This grumpy sleeping one beside me is my love, Sooyeon and the one behind you is Kibum.” 

“Ermm, hi?” Seulgi awkwardly greeted them as she didn’t know what else she was supposed to say as both the Sooyeon and Kibum were asleep. 

“You’re Seulgi right? Heard a lot about you from Seyeon.” Taeyeon said, she turned back to look to the front as she drove.

“You know my Mom?” Seulgi replied, surprised by the sudden mention of her mother. 

Reality then hit her as the thoughts of her mother finally caught up. What happened to her mother? What about the demon? Where is she? And where the hell were they taking her? 

“Yeah, I know your Mom. She was a brave soul, Seulgi. One of the best the church has ever had.” Taeyeon responded solemnly, trying to convey to Seulgi that her mother was a strong person. 

“I know.” was her reply as she finally took in the fact that she had lost her whole family. She had lost both her parents and her brother to the demons and she hated it. She hated how she couldn’t do a thing to stop it, how she was so useless and how the demons were so cruel.

She had heard from her mother before about how the demons would torture humans, and the ways they would tempt humans with their desires only to end up harvesting their souls and feed on their sins. 

But what Seulgi hated the most was how demons would take up her family’s time so much that even birthdays were spent alone by herself. Growing up, her family have always been busy with the church and Seulgi was the outsider since she wasn’t good enough to be a demon slayer. Having a strong soul was one, but whether or not she was blessed to be one was another thing. You have to at least be able to see through and detect the demons if you were to become a demon slayer and unfortunately, Seulgi wasn't able to do it.

She initially thought that her mother coming home was a good thing, thinking maybe she could at least spent sometime with her mother but who would have thought it was to bring her to a hideout to avoid getting killed by a Demon Lord. 

And now, all of her family was gone. Not one of them was left except for herself. If anything, her hatred for demons grew stronger and stronger. 

“What about the demon?” The thought came to her as she remembered about their -Taeyeon and her unit- fight. 

“You mean the Demon Lord? That escaped! , should’ve tried to spear his head just now!” Taeyeon cussed as she slammed her hand on the steering wheel, remembering how they have failed to slay the Lord of Wrath. 

The image of the Lord of Wrath saying, “I’ll get my revenge!” as he escaped from them ingrained in her head only made her even more pissed. 

“That was a Demon Lord?” Seulgi questioned as she was shocked to know that the demon she had faced previously was a Demon Lord. If it was not because of Taeyeon and her unit's timely arrival in the nick of time, then Seulgi would have definitely been killed by the Demon Lord.

“Yup, good thing Irene healed you just in time. If not, then you might have to live with a broken back.” Hearing what Taeyeon had just said, Seulgi turned to her left to see Irene looking at her nodding. 

“Thank you, I guess.” She thanked her timidly as she had a hand behind her neck, rubbing her nape while looking down.

“Don’t get me wrong!” She shouted as she realised that her wording might have sounded insincere, “It’s just, it feels pathetic to have demon slayers watch me fight a Demon Lord.” Her hand back to rubbing the back of her neck. 

“What do you mean pathetic?” Irene frowned, her hand reached for Seulgi’s, removing it from rubbing her nape. She took hold of Seulgi’s hand to rub circles on it in an attempt to comfort Seulgi.

“What you did was beyond brave, Seulgi.” She looked up from staring at their hands, “You fought against a demon knowing you stood no chance, how is that pathetic?” 

And Seulgi thought, maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t as pathetic as she thought. 

*****

“Where are we going?” Seulgi asked after a while of silence in the vehicle. 

“We’re almost there, Seulgi.” And truthfully, they reached their destination a few minutes later. 

“Oh.” Was what came of Seulgi’s mouth as she realised Taeyeon was taking her to the church’s sanctuary. No wonder the path they were taking was familiar. 

She remembered the sanctuary was located somewhere hidden on the mountains and that there was a rather large and lengthy bridge connecting it from the mountain they were currently traveling on to the one that housed the sanctuary of the Church of the Seven Virtues. 

There it was, Seulgi took in the view of the gargantuan and majestic castle like sanctuary. Right at the end of the bridge extends to a field of green before the main gate of the sanctuary, looking as menacing as ever. Well, at least that was what ten year old Seulgi thought it looked like. 

On both sides of the gate were high walls connected to it, surrounding the compound of the sanctuary. Several watchtowers were built all over between different sections of the walls, observing and watching over the surrounding area for any possible incoming threat. 

‘Of all places, the sanctuary. Huh.’ She wondered to herself with a frown.

No good memories came to mind as they crossed the magnificent bridge made of earth and stone, the previous time Seulgi visited the sanctuary was when she was ten years old and it was the same day she was rejected by the church to enlist into the academy. 

Seulgi remembered she even promised a girl on the same day before the church rejected her that they would become demon slayers and slay demons together. 

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