‘Scarlet……!’

Belladonna, who had knelt down in front of the powerlessly slumped Scarlet, placed her trembling hand on her thin arm.

Just as she was worried that she might have lost consciousness or fainted, she saw her eyelids opening very slowly.

Belladonna brought her face close to her, who couldn’t focus.

“……La, Lady……?”

Scarlet, blinking her eyes while looking at her in front of her, uttered with difficulty.

Hearing her faint voice, Belladonna felt like she was about to burst into tears.

Scarlet was innocent.

It was unbelievable that she was dragged to such a place overnight and suffered such hardship just because she was the family of her husband.

All because of me…….

“Lady….. Ho, how…… here……”

“Water….. Please give her some water!”

Belladonna, realizing that Scarlet was responding, shouted towards the Pope.

Scarlet’s eyes, which had been weakly looking at her speaking, were seen to widen slightly and then sink back.

“Please give her some water! Or at least some simple food……!”

Ah, what on earth is this Pope doing?

Belladonna, who had been looking around outside where there was no answer no matter how much she called, got up. He had clearly said he would give water and food!

Belladonna, who had come out with angry steps, looked for the Pope.

He, who was standing in front of the desk in a somewhat awkward posture, turned his head.

She shouted without even feeling the strangeness.

“Please bring food and water right away. You promised!”

“Now that you’ve confirmed with your own eyes that that woman isn’t dead, are you going to sign the documents?”

“I will! I’ll do it as much as you want, so please don’t leave Scarlet like that! Even a healthy person would be in danger if confined in a place like this for more than three days!”

Pope Prononce, who was looking at Belladonna shouting desperately, gave a small smile.

“Welcome back to Astanya, Belladonna.”

This crazy bastard…….

Belladonna looked at him with a face that seemed genuinely disgusted.

“Wait here. If I keep my promise, you’ll keep yours too, right?”

Soon, Prononce turned around and left the room. Outside, the sound of a key turning was heard.

It seemed he had locked the door, leaving Belladonna and Scarlet inside.

Belladonna, who had been glaring at the closed door, moved her steps again to approach Scarlet.

“Scarlet….. Are you alright?”

Scarlet, who had raised herself and was leaning against the wall, lifted her head. She seemed to have a lot to say, but looked weak.

She took a moment to catch her breath before opening her mouth.

“Lady, what happened to your voice? You couldn’t speak before.”

“It’s a long story to explain….. I lost my holy power and regained my voice. I’m sorry I can’t explain more than this right now.”

“That’s good. Your voice is pretty.”

She replied with a weak laugh in a thin voice.

Seeing her joke even in this situation, it seemed she was indeed Escalion’s younger sister.

Belladonna stroked her arm and said,

“The Pope will bring water and food soon. Escalion is outside too. We’ll rescue you soon, so don’t worry.”

“The Pope?”

Scarlet raised her head.

Seeing her surprised eyes, it seemed clear that she had been brought here without knowing anything.

She didn’t seem to know that this was inside the Pope’s office.

“Scarlet, don’t be surprised. This is the Pope’s office in Astanya.”

“The Pope’s office? Why am I in such a place…? I thought I was kidnapped by mercenaries or employers from other regions who held a grudge against Escalion. I thought the situation he was worried about had happened when it was revealed that I was Escalion’s younger sister.”

Similar, but….. Belladonna looked at her with a troubled face.

Scarlet continued to speak.

“Is there such a place in the Pope’s office? Why did they bring me here?”

“I’m sorry. It’s all because of me……”

Belladonna answered, bowing her head deeply.

She didn’t know where to start or how.

It was not easy to say that the Pope had demanded a divorce from Escalion to bring her to Astanya……

No, in fact, their marriage had been planned from the beginning, that she and the Pope had made such a bad plan together.

She was afraid that if she revealed that fact, even the meaning of the time she had built with Scarlet would fade.

Moreover, she had tried to escape from such a Pope, but the situation had come to the point where Scarlet was kidnapped…..

It was painful to think that both Escalion and Scarlet were suffering because of her.

Scarlet, who was looking at Belladonna unable to open her mouth easily, spoke.

“That one’s the bad guy, right?”

She moved her head to point at the door where the Pope had just left.

Bad guy…..

At Scarlet’s tone, which kept overlapping with Escalion’s, a small laugh that didn’t fit the time burst out.

She answered with a sound like a deflating laugh.

“That’s right, but Scarlet and Escalion are probably the only ones in this empire who can call the Pope of Astanya a bad guy.”

Then, Scarlet, who had been staring at her, opened her mouth.

“While I was confined, he came and went here several times.”

“What?”

“The person who captured me. He kept coming in and out of here.”

The Pope kept coming in and out of here? There’s no particular need to monitor Scarlet, so why?

Hearing her words, the suspicious and strange sensation she felt when first entering this room and the somehow strange and awkward attitude the Pope had shown earlier began to bother her more and more.

“Before that, where exactly is this? I thought the Pope’s office was just bright and holy, but is there such an underground prison-like place?”

“Scarlet is right. This is a room in the underground that you have to follow a complicated path from the outside and come down for a long time. I don’t know for what purpose it was built.”

“Then it’s an extremely secret space, isn’t it?”

Scarlet asked, brushing away the hair that had fallen over her face.

Why isn’t the Pope coming! Belladonna looked around outside, getting unnecessarily anxious.

I want to give her water quickly at least…..

Scarlet, who had been blinking her eyes for a moment, opened her mouth again.

“I was sleeping at home when suddenly someone attacked my bedroom. I tried to see their face, but they covered it with a thick cloth so I couldn’t see. When I resisted fiercely, they covered my mouth with a drug-soaked handkerchief. I lost consciousness immediately, so I don’t remember anything after that.”

Recalling the situation at that time made her feel chilled.

If Escalion hadn’t woken up in time and dealt with the intruder, she might have been in the same situation without being able to move.

“When I came to my senses, I was in this space. A dark place with nothing.”

“Scarlet……”

Belladonna mumbled in a small voice. She kept feeling sorry for her.

“Since I couldn’t see anything, I relied on my hearing, and I heard someone coming in periodically and moving around outside. At first I thought they were monitoring me, but it didn’t seem like that either.”

As I thought….. Is there something in this room? Belladonna frowned.

“Did they usually come alone?”

“Sometimes alone, sometimes with company. Most of the time they didn’t speak or lowered their voices, so I couldn’t hear the content of the conversations.”

Then it’s likely that the Pope or Cardinal Nicholas visited….. What on earth is there?

“There was a brief commotion in the next room at one point, that’s when you were captured too, right?”

“That’s right.”

“He really is a bad guy, the Pope.”

Scarlet muttered.

With those words, she leaned her head back against the wall, catching her breath.

She seemed to be out of breath from talking for a long time in a weak state.

“Scarlet, please hang on a little longer. Water and food will come soon. When you regain your senses, I’ll tell the Pope to take you to Escalion right away.”

Scarlet nodded instead of answering.

Belladonna, who was looking down at Scarlet leaning weakly against the wall with her eyes closed, slowly got up from her seat.

If she wanted to check something, now was the right time while the Pope was away.

She swallowed a dry gulp and came out of the room where Scarlet was.

“……”

It was still a small space that seemed to have no particular objects.

Belladonna walked without hesitation towards the safe with a padlock.

If my thoughts are correct…..

Belladonna reached into her pocket and grasped a square key.

She thought it wasn’t a coincidence that the key the Saint had and the key the Pope carried around were similar in shape.

‘Quickly…..’

She knelt down and picked up the padlock. The keyhole…..

She felt anxious about what on earth could be inside.

Belladonna pushed the key into the keyhole with trembling hands.

But whether it was because the lock itself was too old, or because her trembling hands were soaked with sweat, the key didn’t fit into the hole as well as she thought.

Ah, why is this…! Belladonna nervously applied force to the key.

Click.

“……!”

At that moment, the sound of someone unlocking the locked door from outside was heard.

Belladonna was startled and dropped the padlock she was holding.

Of all times……!

She resented the Pope, who hadn’t shown even the tip of his hair when she wanted him to come quickly, for returning at this time of all times.

Belladonna quickly moved to jump into the room where Scarlet was sitting to avoid being caught here.

As soon as she entered the room, the door opened and the Pope revealed himself.

He held out his hand holding a tray, not hiding his annoyed face.

“Take it.”

Belladonna approached him and took the plate and glass of water placed on the tray.

“When Scarlet regains a little strength, take her to her husband right away.”

“The signature comes first. If you just sign the documents, regardless of that woman, I can do anything.”

Belladonna watched him walk past her to the desk attached to the wall.

As she watched him arranging the documents on the desk, she turned and approached Scarlet.

“Scarlet, try to eat this. First, the water……”

At Belladonna’s words, Scarlet lifted her head, which had been hanging weakly.

She raised her trembling hand to take the glass of water.

She’s too weak….. Worried that she might drop the glass, Belladonna took the glass from her and put it to her parched lips.

“Slowly……”

Scarlet, who had been sipping the water little by little, removed her lips.

Belladonna turned towards the plate she had put down on the floor for a moment to give her food.

“Kugh, cough, kheuk……! Aagh!”

At that moment, Scarlet, who had swallowed the water, began to twist her body, screaming in pain from behind.

Wh-what? Belladonna turned her head in surprise.

“Aagh……! Agh!”

Scarlet, who had fallen to the floor and was writhing in pain, was screaming and scratching the floor with her sharp nails.