“Sched.”

Louise straightened her body, which had been bent towards Eve, and stood up.

Her long brown hair fluttered in the blowing autumn wind.

“Is what Giselle said true…?”

He walked inside with long strides, as if unable to control his emotions.

At that, Louise closed her mouth and pointed to Eve with her eyes.

She didn’t want to bring up that story in front of Eve.

Then Sched clenched his fist tightly and turned his eyes to Eve.

“Eve. I have something to talk about with your mother for a moment, so go out and play.”

It was a colder commanding tone than usual.

As Eve hesitated and grabbed Louise’s hand, Sched glared at the child again.

“Sched.”

Louise pointed out his fierce attitude, but Sched had no room for such damn understanding.

Seeing his restless eyes, Louise realized that she could not make him back down.

“I’ll call you when the talk is over, so just go out for a bit, Eve.”

Louise gently stroked Eve’s head.

Intimidated by Sched’s cold gaze, Eve nodded and ran out of the room.

As soon as Eve left, Sched opened his mouth as if he could no longer hold back his surging emotions.

“Is it true that you will follow the temple’s judgment?”

He asked, barely suppressing his anger and excitement.

Louise met his eyes, red like flames, and nodded.

At that, his pupils shook uncontrollably.

“Louise!”

His voice became rough with excitement.

“Damn it, do you know what punishment a heretic receives? Are you sure you know what hellish torture is?!”

He grabbed Louise’s slender shoulders tightly.

But she nodded with an inscrutable smile.

She knew. She knew all too well.

She had researched and read about that punishment for a long time, over and over again.

Perhaps she knew more about that punishment than even Giselle.

Sched’s face contorted at her overly calm attitude.

“And yet you will follow the temple’s decision?”

“It was something I foresaw would happen someday. It’s just that the time has come now.”

Louise placed her hand on top of the large hand gripping her shoulder.

She said it indifferently, but she was trying to engrave each and every one of his expressions, each and every hot emotion, into her heart through his shoulders.

Just like with Eve, her parting with him was not far away.

“Why does that time have to be now…!”

He spat out a voice filled with resentment through his teeth.

Louise answered with a faint smile.

“Because it’s the only time I have a card to deal with.”

The merit of killing Dietrich. It was the only timing to protect Eve with that.

If it was delayed any further, that merit would fade, and she would lose the chance to obtain the guardian’s mark.

That’s why Louise had to make a decision now.

For Eve’s safety.

“So you’ll be trapped in that terrible punishment like this?”

“Sched, I have no other choice….”

“What do you mean you have no choice! With your power, you can just run away, so why…!”

He shouted as if screaming.

Louise found it amazing and grateful that someone could pour out this much emotion for her.

But at the same time, she felt sorry. Because she couldn’t accept his feelings.

“I don’t want to run away, Sched.”

Louise answered hazily.

For a moment, she wavered looking at Eve, but her conclusion remained unchanged.

Would she be happy if she ran away? Could she give Eve a better life?

The conclusion was no.

While running away, Eve would be unhappy.

She would be aware of the sin she inherited every moment, resent it, and fear it.

She would lose all the everyday life she had now.

She wouldn’t be able to meet people, and would wander the remote world, changing her name.

Just as Louise had, she would be trapped in terrible loneliness.

From the moment she bore the sin of a fugitive, she would not be able to reach out to Sched or Eclas.

Eve would gain Louise as her mother, but lose her father, lose her friends, and lose her neighbors.

She would have to live such an isolated life with just the two of them.

Therefore, Louise wanted to give up her own life, but return everyday life to her child.

Eve would lose her mother, but instead gain everything else.

Climbing trees, playing in the sand, horseback riding lessons, and even watching festivals.

There were many children in the world who lost their mothers early and lived on, and those children were not always unhappy.

Louise believed that.

But Sched shook his head.

“No matter what you say, Eve will find out the truth.”

Even if she received the guardian’s mark, Eve would surely come to clearly realize someday that the power of black magic flowed within her.

And she would also find out how her mother “died”.

At Sched’s point, Louise wore a bitter smile.

“But at least she can be happy for a few more years. And she will be safe.”

“You’re making this choice just for those few years? And you believe the temple will keep its promise? You think Eve will be safe without you?”

Sched poured out the emotions filling his insides.

He felt suffocated, as if a large rock had settled in the middle of his torso.

Louise parted and pressed her lips together several times.

And as if her resolve was set, she slowly parted her lips.

“So there’s something I want to ask of you, Sched.”

Louise gently stroked Sched’s hand gripping her shoulder.

He didn’t want to listen to the request of the woman who had made such an arbitrary decision.

But Sched found himself lending an ear like a trained dog.

It was because her hand caressing the back of his hand was too hot.

Louise took a moment to catch her breath and slightly lowered her gaze.

“I want you to… protect Eve.”

Sched’s brow furrowed at the voice that flowed out mixed with the cold wind.

And a hollow laugh burst out from one corner of his lips, twisted unnaturally.

In the end, she doesn’t answer that she won’t follow the temple to the end.

His insides were boiling hot like lava, and she calmly requested what should be done after she disappeared.

It was a cruel deception.

“Why should I…?”

He spat out a voice that was chewed up as if in defiance.

Then Louise raised her gaze that she had lowered for a moment and looked at him.

It was a terribly beautiful face.

She parted her lips with a damned lovely and sad look in her eyes.

“…Because Eve takes after you a lot.”

Louise’s trembling voice rang in his ears.

Sched’s expression froze as it was.

“What…?”

“…She’s the child conceived on the night I spent with you that day.”

The sentence flowing from the end of her dry lips stung.

Louise knew how cowardly she was being.

Until now, she had said nothing, and only at the end did she selfishly confess the truth to him.

She thought to herself that she was really a bad bitch.

If she was going to keep it a secret for the rest of her life, she should have kept it a secret.

Louise bit her lip, blaming herself.

But she had no regrets.

For Eve’s sake, she was prepared to be as selfish and cowardly a bitch as it took.

It was fine if Sched got angry, cursed at her, or even slapped her.

If only he could reach out even a little to Eve, who would be left alone….

“Ha….”

A powerless breath dropped from Sched’s mouth.

His head throbbed.

Actually, he had suspected it too.

Whenever he saw Eve, he kept suspecting if she was his child and trying to gauge the timing.

Seeing her exceptional movements compared to ordinary children, he thought there might be Lupus blood mixed in.

He also thought that the shape of the corners of her mouth rising whenever she smiled seemed to resemble him.

And, if the child was born between her and him, he had also thought that would be nice.

But as expected, anger boiled.

“Why are you only revealing it now?”

The reason Louise was revealing Eve’s secret was transparent.

After she left, she needed someone to take care of Eve.

She was afraid and anxious to leave her just to Eclas.

“Because Eve will still need family….”

Louise’s voice crumbled self-deprecatingly as she continued her words.

Eve doesn’t even know yet that Sched is her father.

‘I really lived telling nothing but lies.’

The lies that began with the single reason of hiding the power of a heretic had snowballed.

Hiding her power, changing her name, changing her identity.

Even her way of speaking and the color of her hair were not her own.

And she had lived telling a huge lie even to her most beloved daughter.

A life riddled with lies and secrets.

Had she ever lived being completely as she was?

Like a doll that had lost its original form, patched up messily.

“I’m sorry, Sched.”

Louise quietly removed Sched’s hand gripping her shoulder.

Looking back, it seemed she had never given Sched a good memory.

From the days of living as a slave to the moment she struck down Dietrich, he had always been a victim of the Ideana family’s black magic.

Ripples arose in Sched’s pupils at the apology foretelling the end.

It hurt too much to see that wavering.

But Louise didn’t take her eyes off it and faced it head-on.

“And I’ll be sorry.”

From now on. Without forgetting.

Then Sched’s face crumbled.

The violet eyes she loved shook unsteadily as if they would shatter like glass beads.

But soon, a glint flashed in those violet eyes.

“…I should be the one who’s sorry, Louise.”

At the same time as Sched muttered softly, Louise’s body staggered and was pulled into his arms.

A hot heat enveloped her whole body, and a thick fragrance rushed into her lungs along with the cold wind.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can grant your request.”

“Sched…!”

“I can’t end it like this.”

Sched hugged Louise, who was nestled in his arms, so tightly as if he would crush her.

“How did I find you.”

He could never make Louise a sacrificial lamb for hellish torture.

“You will live forever, by my side.”

Even if he had to tear down the temple, even if he himself became a traitor, even if he became a heretic.

Because I will protect you.