“Duke Lester.”

As rough footsteps strode across the temple hall, the priests gathered in confusion.

“High Priest Dietrich is…”

“If you’re looking for the High Priest, he went to rest after yesterday’s harvest festival and hasn’t come out yet.”

“Resting?”

“Yes. He said he was tired and not to disturb him… High Priestess Giselle will be here soon, and he told us to prepare for her arrival on our own.”

The priests’ faces showed a troubled expression.

He said not to disturb him since yesterday?

Sched’s expression sank even colder.

“I need to see the High Priest.”

Sched headed towards the inner part of the temple.

Past the front chapel and prayer room, in the innermost area, there was a dormitory building called the Sacred Quarters where the priests and acolytes resided.

The High Priest Dietrich lived alone in a separate building at the very back of the temple.

“We will first go to the High Priest and…”

“No. I’ll ask him directly.”

Sched pushed away the cumbersome priests and knocked on the door of the High Priest’s quarters.

However, there was no response from inside.

If it were any other time, he would have just turned back, but Sched had no such leisure.

Sched firmly grasped the gilded door handle and pushed with force.

With a creaking sound, the door’s lock broke feebly and the large door to the quarters opened.

“Du-Duke Lester! Opening the door so recklessly like that…!”

Ignoring the shocked priests’ attempts to stop him, he entered and saw the clean and tidy room of the High Priest.

The white bed was neatly made as if it hadn’t been used all night, and darkness gloomily covered the unlit room.

The priests who tried to stop Sched looked around the empty room in a daze.

“Where did the High Priest go?”

“I’m certain we haven’t seen him since he went in yesterday. He didn’t even come out for the dawn prayer…”

As the priests stood there flustered and indecisive, Sched coldly turned his head.

“Find High Priest Dietrich.”

In principle, the duke had no authority to give orders to the temple priests.

However, overwhelmed by his imposing manner, the priests just nodded their heads without a second thought and dispersed.

Sched also tried to go outside to search for the missing Dietrich.

But a faint object lying in the corner of the room caught his eye for a fleeting moment.

A small, long lump hidden in the shadows.

As if enchanted, Sched entered the unlit room.

And he picked up the object that reflected light faintly but smoothly, as if calling to him.

The familiar sensation in his hand.

“This is…!”

The Ideana family crest engraved on the surface.

It was the Ideana dagger he had given to Louise.

‘Why is this here…!’

It was clear evidence that Louise had been here.

More precisely, from last night until just now. It meant Louise was here during that time.

Because she was still carrying this dagger at the festival yesterday.

However, the surroundings were spotless as if nothing had happened.

There were no signs of resistance to be found.

‘Louise, Eve…!’

Sched looked around as if searching for an invisible ghost.

Perhaps there would be clues as to where Louise and Eve had disappeared.

He thoroughly searched the area where the dagger had fallen.

This lone dagger seemed as if Louise had deliberately left it as a trace.

He lit a lantern and shone it around.

At that moment, a faint light like mother-of-pearl shimmered and disappeared on the floor under the desk.

“A barrier…?”

Shining the light closer to the floor revealed a pattern, as if aurora had been thinly spread to engrave letters.

It blended with the white marble and was hidden under the desk, making it nearly unnoticeable.

If not for the dagger, he would have passed by without discovering it.

Sched struck the barrier-covered floor with the back of his sword with all his might.

However, even with the huge impact, the barrier did not budge.

‘Damn it, if only there was an aura user…’

Whether it was spiritual power or aura, something more than physical force was needed.

“Priest!”

He immediately called for a priest with spiritual power from outside.

“Duke Lester, if you recklessly rummage through the High Priest’s bedroom like this…”

The priest who was called tried to stop Sched, who was roughly pushing away the desk.

But Sched paid no heed and forcefully dragged the priest in front of the barrier.

“Check what this barrier is.”

When the desk was pushed away and light fully shone, the barrier that had been covertly hidden was clearly revealed.

“Huh? Of course, it must be where he keeps the temple’s confidential items…!”

“Is that so? Does the temple allow the High Priest to personally store confidential items in his bedroom to be examined?”

It was basic to arrange duplicate security measures for official confidential matters to prevent easy access.

For example, the important documents and family treasures of the Lester family were divided among Sched, his trusted vassals, and knights who held the keys.

No matter how much Sched was the head of the family, important things could not be entrusted to a single person.

The same would be true for the temple.

“Can he manage the church’s items without the knowledge of the deputy priest?”

“Well… It could be personal belongings, couldn’t it?”

“Are there personal belongings that a priest would go to the extent of using a barrier to privately own?”

Sched’s patience was wearing thin.

Priests, at least nominally, refrained from owning many personal possessions.

So they often accumulated wealth under the name of their family or spouse.

Therefore, there would be no personal belongings to store like this in the Sacred Quarters.

“Open it.”

“But the High Priest…!”

As the priests protested, a cold blade touched the back of their necks.

“I ordered you to open it.”

When Sched’s voice, devoid of patience, coldly pressed down like ice, the priest nodded his head without a word.

The priest turned his back to Sched, who was holding a sword, and began to undo the barrier on the floor.

However, undoing it was not easy.

Dietrich’s barrier was written in ancient words more complex and meticulous than the protective barrier he had placed in Paradel.

At that point, even the priest seemed to find the excessively meticulous barrier suspicious.

Moreover, the ancient prayer contained content related to heresy inserted here and there.

Judging that it was not a problem he could solve alone, the priest called other priests.

The other priests came to assist, but it seemed they also lacked the ability to undo the barrier at once.

The lit candles melted endlessly, and sweat flowed down the priests’ foreheads.

The anxious wait lengthened.

He couldn’t just leave it to the priests and do nothing.

Sched had his knights and servants search for Louise and Eve.

Too much damn time was being delayed.

When half a day passed, raindrops began to fall outside the window.

The ground was already soaked and sticky, and the air hung heavy and damp.

Sched still had no choice but to stand powerlessly in the darkness and wait.

It was always like this.

He desperately grew stronger and climbed up tenaciously to grasp power.

However, in the end, when it mattered, everything he had built became meaningless.

Louise always made him realize he was nothing but a weak human being.

She reminds him of his helplessness and powerlessness.

How much time had passed like that?

The rain intensified, and the wind lost its warmth and turned cold.

“The undoing is complete.”

Finally, the priests slumped down.

Only after nearly half a day of all the priests sticking together, the barrier was barely undone.

Sched had no leisure to wait any longer.

He struck the marble where the barrier had been with the end of his scabbard.

With a loud cracking sound, the marble shattered with web-like cracks.

Underneath the broken marble, an iron door was revealed.

There was a lock on the iron door, but that wasn’t a problem.

Clang! Sched immediately destroyed the lock and tore open the door.

Below the door, a dark tunnel continued.

He felt a strong sense of déjà vu in the underground tunnel.

The underground tunnel where the heretic Parmen had once dragged him.

“To think there was such a place under the temple…”

Even the priests, who had only imagined a small safe, couldn’t hide their surprise at the deep tunnel.

While the priests were dumbfounded, Sched picked up a lantern and jumped down without a ladder.

Too much time had been wasted.

He ran through the dark path without even knowing where the cave led.

His intuition was telling him.

At the end of this long, dark path, Louise would be there.

Due to the rain, the dampness of the cave was doubled with the darkness.

At the end of the pitch-black darkness, a faint light flickered.

He broke through the long path as if piercing it.

And the place he arrived at was a vast space he never thought would be underground.

Sched abruptly stopped his steps in front of it.

It seemed somehow familiar.

For a moment, his head throbbed as if it would split.

The memories he wanted to cut out forcibly flowed through his mind.

The fishy and disgusting smell. The giggling voices of the soldiers. Torture and screams…

“Damn it…”

The memories he had suppressed became vivid.

Sched shook his head to brush off the unnecessary memories.

It wasn’t the time to have his feet tied by the damn past.

He raised his eyes again and looked around the underground space.

Now that he had cleared his memories and looked again, this place was similar to the torture chamber he remembered but different.

Old books and glass bottles displayed on high bookshelves, strange ingredients hanging on the walls, potted plants that seemed impossible to grow underground, unknown formulas and ancient words written on stone tablets.

The musty smell settled underground mixed with the pungent smell of blood, making his head dizzy.

The disgusting smell he had encountered countless times on battlefields further fueled his unease.

“Louise…”

The unease grew so immense that it engulfed him, pressing down on his entire body.

He knew the reason for the thick smell of blood.

He had seen it too much, experienced it too much, so he knew it too well.

“It can’t be…”

Sched clenched his trembling hand tightly and walked inside.

He had to find Louise and Eve.

As he searched the laboratory, he saw a curtain half-draped to one side.

And, splash, a sticky puddle was stepped on under his black shoes.

A stronger smell of iron.

Stronger unease and conviction.

Sched followed the trail of the blood puddle to the curtain.

He grasped the curtain with a trembling hand.

The bottom of the curtain dragging on the floor was already soaked and hung heavily.

A fleeting hesitation flashed through his fingertips holding the curtain.

He was afraid. Of what awaited behind the curtain.

But the longer he hesitated, the farther away Louise and Eve would be.

As always, he had to cut off his weak humanity.

His deep amethyst eyes stared at the damp air.

The hand clenched so tightly that veins bulged pulled back the curtain of fear.

And he found it.

On the floor dyed a deep crimson, a blood-soaked body collapsed on it.

The scene he feared the most.