“Commander! What on earth are you trying to do?”

Graham grabbed Escalion, who was moving with a half-crazed look in his eyes.

Blocking him with his whole body, Graham desperately signaled the surrounding knights with his eyes to ask for help.

Noticing his signal, the knights quickly approached and blocked Escalion all at once.

“Let go.”

“Where are you going? Are you planning to storm the Papal Office by yourself?”

“If I have to.”

“Come to your senses!”

Graham tried to stop him again, but Escalion pushed him hard.

Graham, who fell back in an instant, didn’t give up and returned to him.

“Let’s find Hazel first and talk. He’ll know what’s going on with all this!”

“……”

“You losing your mind and rushing in like this won’t help the lady at all! Think carefully, Escalion. Even with a proper plan, we don’t know if we can save the lady and Scarlet. If you charge in recklessly like this, nothing will come of it!”

“Hah……”

Escalion let out a frustrated sigh.

Graham seized that moment to turn to Timothy.

“Young man over there! Please guide us to your home for now!”

“Ah, understood! Please follow me.”

Timothy adjusted Tina in his arms and quickly turned around.

“Commander, I’m sorry……”

Hazel’s condition at Timothy’s house was even more miserable than expected.

Looking down at him, who was bowing his head with his face full of burst wounds as if he had been attacked while defenseless, Graham frowned and spoke.

“Is it okay for someone from the Papal Office to beat others like this?”

“……I have nothing to say.”

“Hah….. At least you’ve regained your senses, thankfully. Tell me what you remember from earlier.”

Hazel, who had been continuously rubbing his arm as if in pain, frowned and slowly opened his mouth.

“After the lady arrived at this house, I was looking around just in case. Then, I saw the Cardinal and six people he hired approaching from afar, so I tried to return to the house immediately….. Suddenly, my neck stung and my vision darkened.”

“Your vision?”

Graham asked back at the unexpected story.

Hazel nodded and narrowed his eyes to recall that moment.

“Yes. I don’t know if it was a poisoned needle or an injection, or something completely unrelated, but I remember the sting at that moment and the sudden darkness that came. Then I was indiscriminately beaten by them……”

He couldn’t continue and bowed his head.

“……I’m truly sorry I couldn’t protect the lady properly.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just get dizzy for a moment?”

“That could be possible, but……”

Graham roughly tousled Hazel’s hair, who still couldn’t lift his head, and deliberately spoke in a loud voice.

“Enough! Hurry up and pull yourself together and join us. We need to go into the Papal Office now to find the lady and young lady Scarlet.”

“Graham, look into it.”

“Huh? Into what?”

Escalion, who had been standing silently until then, suddenly opened his mouth.

He nodded towards Hazel and spoke again.

“The poisoned needle or injection or whatever. We need to find out if it was really their doing, or if there’s another force involved.”

“Isn’t that just this guy’s nonsense?”

“N-no…! I definitely felt it!”

Hazel opened his mouth as if wronged.

Escalion sighed and raised his head.

Hazel, looking up at him, trembled his lower lip and spoke.

“As I was losing consciousness, I heard their voices….. They said if I cooperated quietly, they would at least spare my life……”

He squeezed his eyes shut as if in pain.

“So….. That’s why the lady went with them. For my sake….. But I couldn’t even protect her……”

“Enough, stop it.”

Escalion turned around.

“Call a magician. It seems it’s time we heard the story.”

In the darkness, Belladonna glared at the tightly closed door.

Except for the sound of her breathing, no other sound could be heard.

She couldn’t even tell where she was confined, or if this place was even inside the Papal Office to begin with.

Cardinal Nicholas, who had brought her here with her eyes covered, uttered those words before leaving this narrow space.

Belladonna, tied to a chair placed in the middle of the room by them, could do nothing but glare at the door in front of her.

‘How long do I have to stay here?’

Her body, tied to the chair for hours, was starting to ache dully.

Let’s wait a little longer.

If there’s still no sign of anyone coming then, I’ll have to forcefully topple the chair and try to break the ropes……!

Just then, faint footsteps could be heard from far away.

She knew who the owner of those distinctive footsteps was, dragging with short beats.

“……”

Soon, the footsteps that had been growing louder stopped right in front of the door.

The doorknob could be seen turning, and the wooden door began to open with an old creaking sound.

A beam of light entering from outside gradually widened, illuminating the dark interior.

Belladonna, who had been in the darkness for a long time, frowned at the brightness and raised her head.

“Belladonna.”

Pope Provence addressed his daughter in the darkness.

With his back to the bright light, his expression couldn’t be seen.

Belladonna looked at him silently.

“It’s been a while since you’ve been in this room, hasn’t it?”

Has the Saint been to this room before?

Belladonna swallowed dry saliva. An inexplicable anxiety came over her.

Provence, slowly moving his legs to enter, came a little closer to her.

Belladonna raised her head higher as he approached.

“It’s a bit disappointing to receive such a look from my beloved daughter. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that face, except when you were young.”

“……”

“Don’t worry, I won’t lay a hand on you today. I’ve only come to propose a deal to you.”

After finishing his words, he went behind her.

Belladonna exhaled the breath she had been holding as she felt the ropes binding her body loosen.

She kept her mind straight to prevent her staggering body from collapsing forward.

“There was no need to tie you up, Cardinal Nicholas overdid it. I apologize on his behalf.”

Provence spoke in the kind and benevolent tone he shows in front of the public.

What? Why is he making me more anxious?

Belladonna listened to his voice without lowering her guard.

“One day, such a thought suddenly occurred to me. Whether I had been too restrictive of you all this time.”

He said, throwing the rope that had bound Belladonna completely to the floor.

He circled around her sitting in the chair and came to the front, continuing to speak.

“The thought that I might have kept you too close to me, saying I cherished you, saying I was protecting you from danger.”

“……”

“So, you could have been captivated by the charm of a place you’ve never seen before, and you could have developed affection for a type of person you’ve never met before.”

What on earth is he talking about…..

Belladonna kept her mouth shut for now and listened to what he was saying.

Pope Provence continued in a still gentle voice.

“So, it’s like this, child. You’re in a state of intoxication with new things right now. Even though such things are of no help to you at all.”

“……”

“You, the Saint of Astanya, have forgotten that you are most noble and excellent when you are here, and when you are by my side.”

Provence stood directly in front of Belladonna.

“It would have been nice if you had realized this on your own, but it seems you ultimately couldn’t. But it’s okay. Don’t worry. I’m thinking of giving you one more chance.”

He grabbed the tip of her chin and lifted it high.

“If I beat around the bush, you’ll obviously not understand again, so I’ll say it clearly. Return to Astanya.”

Belladonna shook her head violently, freeing her chin from his grasp.

She glared at him and shook her head.

The Pope let out a low laugh, “Heh.”

“You still don’t understand even after I’ve said this much. Then let me have you choose. In the room right next door, your husband’s younger sister is there. At first, I thought she was just some trivial mistress, but when I dug deeper, I found out she wasn’t a mistress but a half-sister? It turned out even better.”

Scarlet is……?

Belladonna bit her lower lip. The Pope opened his mouth while rubbing his chin.

“Since I’ve left her alone after bringing her here, she probably hasn’t eaten or heard anything for a full day. I’m not sure if Nicholas tied that woman up like this too.”

“……”

“If you just promise to stay here, I intend to immediately open the door where that woman is locked with this key. Then that woman can return to Gribblata and live safely under your husband’s protection.”

Pope Provence raised the key he was holding.

Belladonna’s eyes widened slightly as she looked at it.

That is……?

Although it was different, it had a size and appearance quite similar to the last square-shaped key she had.

Especially the bent part on the left corner was almost identical.

The Pope pushed the key he had shown her briefly back into his pocket and opened his mouth.

“But if you don’t promise, I’ll just leave that woman there and let her die. I don’t know how long she’ll last.”

How dare you….. How dare you threaten me with Scarlet?

Belladonna’s breathing became rough as she sat quietly listening to his voice.

She couldn’t believe that someone who had become the Pope serving God would do such a thing.

“And when everything is over, I’ll tell your husband everything. Then he’ll know that none other than his wife made the choice to let his sister die.”

Belladonna let out a sigh.

Her fists trembled uncontrollably with anger.

“I wonder who Lord Diete will choose between his sister and his wife?”

“……”

“What will he think when he learns that his wife, who could have saved his sister’s life just by staying in Astanya, didn’t do so? And if so….. Can your remaining married life be happy?”

Pope Provence’s voice rose slightly as if pleased.

“Belladonna. You were trapped in a very foolish dream. Such ordinary and trivial happiness of everyday life was not a life permitted to you. It was I who brought you here, and it was I who made you. I wish you would know your place, the one and only Saint of Astanya.”