Towards Hazel, Graham answered.
“The Pope is certainly dead, and Cardinal Nicholas was also found nearby. The knights caught him trying to go back down to the underground through a secret passage.”
“Cowardly to the end.”
“The Archmage was also arrested immediately at the scene. Not only did he actively help the Pope’s escape this time, but he also confessed to everything, including creating a portal to Griblata for illegal entry not long ago.”
“Well done! But… What kind of relationship did the Archmage have with the Pope?”
To Hazel’s question, Graham shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“How would I know? Seeing how much he helped, some say the Pope must have had some fatal weakness on him, but I can’t know the complicated and detailed circumstances of those above.”
After finishing his words, Graham changed his expression and looked at Belladonna with an awkward face.
He swallowed hard and opened his reluctant mouth.
“My lady…”
Hazel, who sensed what Graham was about to say, also looked down at her with a troubled face.
Astanya had become a mess overnight.
The Pope, who had been respected and loved by the people of the Elinorus Empire, was revealed to have committed all sorts of immoral acts against powerless commoners before dying, and the Saint, the only person who could take the center of the papacy after him, was the very person who killed such a Pope.
Moreover, for such a Saint to lose her holy power and regain her voice…
It wasn’t difficult to imagine how great the confusion that would soon engulf Astanya, no, the entire Elinorus Empire, would be when day broke.
“My lady… That is…”
“Am I to be put on trial?”
In place of Graham, who ultimately couldn’t continue his words, Belladonna spoke.
Graham bit his lower lip, unable to answer clearly.
“The… The Knight Commander is waiting in the lobby.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Belladonna stood up from her seat.
A deep fatigue and dizziness enveloped her.
As she was about to leave the reception room, Belladonna stopped her steps and looked up at Graham, saying,
“Before that, I want to see Escalion.”
[This is the timeline separator]Belladonna pushed open the heavy door.
Escalion was lying on a temporary hospital bed in the papal office.
His appearance, with his greatly swollen arm and white bandages tightly wrapped around his upper body, eyes closed, was very unfamiliar to Belladonna.
He seemed to be in a deep sleep, yet also appeared so still as if he might never wake up again.
Closing the door tightly behind her, Belladonna approached the bed, holding back tears that kept trying to escape.
She carefully sat down on a chair beside the bed and quietly looked down at Escalion. She slowly reached out her hand towards him.
Belladonna’s hand was also thickly wrapped in bandages.
She had been gripping the candlestick unnecessarily tightly for a long time, causing it to dig deeply into her skin, resulting in small wounds, but strangely, she felt no pain.
“…”
As she placed her hand on Escalion’s bandages, she could still feel the swollen skin underneath.
The royal knights were still investigating what drug the Pope had injected into the commoners and Escalion.
However, the documents that the Pope had hurriedly hidden or burned while fleeing had not been recovered in the end.
‘The Pope…’
As she naturally thought of the Pope, Belladonna closed her eyes tightly and shook her head hard.
If she stopped thinking even for a moment, the heavy sensation that had struck her fingertips dominated her mind.
She felt as if the pungent smell that had filled the chapel after the Pope collapsed was enveloping her from all directions.
“Ha…”
Belladonna took a deep breath.
Did I really… Did I really do that to the Pope with my own hands…
Even though she knew it was unavoidable, she felt an endless sense of guilt for having done such a thing with her own hands in the end.
Her hand placed on Escalion’s body trembled uncontrollably.
At that moment, a hot and large hand covered the back of her hand.
“Bella.”
Surprised, she turned her head to see Escalion, who had opened his eyes at some point, staring at her.
His deep golden eyes were looking at her clearly.
“Escalion? Are you conscious?”
“How could I not wake up when you’re trembling like that on top of me.”
Escalion raised his hand and brushed her hair.
Belladonna nuzzled her face against his hand, holding back tears that were welling up again.
“I thought you might never wake up again…”
“What a terrible thing to say.”
“Is your body alright? Is there anywhere uncomfortable or painful?”
Belladonna, who had been leaning on his hand, sat up and thoroughly examined Escalion’s body here and there.
As her hands touched various places, Escalion let out a groan and opened his mouth.
“I’m not sure about pain, but it just feels good when you touch me.”
“Don’t joke around…!”
Belladonna cried out in a sobbing voice.
She hated how he could only say playful things even while hovering between life and death.
Laughing with a deflating sound at her reaction, Escalion asked,
“How’s Scarlet?”
“She’s in the next room. Fortunately, her life isn’t in danger, and they said she’ll be fine if she rests well.”
Hearing that Scarlet was safe, Escalion’s expression relaxed even more.
“Was the Pope captured? Seeing that I can face you peacefully here like this, it seems the royal knights must have accomplished something.”
“…”
“Did all this happen after I lost consciousness? I must have looked quite unsightly, collapsing like that.”
“…”
“If everything’s been wrapped up, let’s leave all the aftermath to Felix and return to Griblata quickly. I’m starting to feel stiff. I want to get out of this hot place as soon as possible too.”
“…”
As Belladonna continued to give no response, Escalion quietly looked at her.
He spoke again to her, who seemed somewhat dazed.
“Bella.”
“…”
“Bella, what’s wrong? Did something go wrong?”
At his question, Belladonna shook her head.
Nothing had gone wrong. The Pope was dead, and everything was over.
Escalion was safe for now, and everything that threatened Belladonna had disappeared. And yet…
“Then why are you like this?”
“…I.”
Belladonna slowly opened her mouth.
Escalion quietly listened to her voice.
“I… killed the Pope.”
At Belladonna’s words, Escalion closed his mouth and looked at her.
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
“I struck the back of the Pope’s head. If I didn’t… If I didn’t do that, I was afraid he might get up again and grab me, that he might really kill you…”
“Bella.”
“I killed the Pope of Astanya. The Pope that the people of the Elinorus Empire believe in and look up to… The one and only representative of God, I, with my own hands… I, the Saint…”
“Bella, look at me.”
Escalion reached out his large hand to her.
He grabbed Belladonna’s waist, who was sitting in the chair, and lifted her onto his lap.
Suddenly changing positions, Belladonna looked at him with a bewildered face, still with tears in her eyes.
Escalion fixed his firm gaze on her.
“Thank you.”
“What?”
“I said thank you.”
Belladonna blinked her eyes, not understanding.
I said I killed the Pope, so why…
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.”
“…”
The thought alone was terrible. To think that Escalion might not be here…
“Thanks to you, your husband, Scarlet’s only brother, and the lord of Griblata’s life was saved.”
“That’s…”
Belladonna quietly exhaled.
Escalion grabbed Belladonna’s wrist and shook it up and down as he continued speaking.
“You just protected your husband and his sister, with these delicate hands.”
Belladonna looked at her own hands, helplessly fluttering up and down by his action.
Her hands, now round and comical with bandages wrapped around them.
“How difficult it must have been?”
Escalion said playfully.
Being with him, who treated what had happened to her as if it were natural, made her feel as if her anxious and floating heart was gradually settling down.
“You don’t need to feel any unnecessary guilt.”
“…”
“You just acted in self-defense to protect your family.”
Belladonna looked at Escalion, who continued to fiddle with her hand as if playing with a toy, hiding all traces of his fierce nature, and then opened her mouth.
“But now I have to go to the capital to stand trial.”
“Ah, that’s a bit of a problem.”
Escalion, who had been tightly holding her wrist, groaned and rested his face on her slender shoulder.
He removed his hand from her wrist and wrapped both arms around her waist as he spoke.
“Just when I thought I could finally take you to Griblata, there’s still more to do?”
“I might go to prison instead of Griblata…”
“Please don’t say such terrible things, Bella.”
Escalion lifted his head from her shoulder.
His deep golden eyes were filled with dissatisfaction.
“I won’t let that happen.”
“But in the end, it’s His Majesty the Emperor who makes the decision, isn’t it?”
“He may be old, but his judgment shouldn’t be clouded. If he can’t even judge that much, he should step down from the throne.”
“Please, someone might hear you…!”
Belladonna startled and raised her uninjured hand to cover his mouth.
No matter how alone they were here, it was too disrespectful to speak that way about His Majesty the Emperor.
Escalion planted a light kiss on the palm of her hand covering his lips.
“I’ll stay with you all the time, so don’t worry.”
“No. Escalion needs to rest. We don’t know what kind of abnormalities might occur in your body.”
“By your side is where I rest.”
Escalion said firmly.
Belladonna looked at him quietly for a moment before speaking.
“If I had my holy power, I could have healed Escalion…”
“I prefer your downy voice over that.”
Escalion, who had been continuously staring at Belladonna, opened his mouth.
“Give me a kiss. I feel like I’ll be completely cured then.”
“That’s not related at all.”
“Right, actually just do it. Because I want it.”
Belladonna slowly lowered her head towards him.
Perhaps it seemed too slow to him, as Escalion, unable to wait, raised one hand and strongly pulled the back of her head.
Soon, the breaths of the two became entangled towards each other.
Belladonna tilted her head and pressed her body closer to him.
In this moment of fully receiving his hot breath, she could erase all frightening thoughts.
She gripped Escalion’s shoulders tightly, like a drowning person grasping a rescue rope.
Escalion responded by moving his upper body greatly up and down, embracing Belladonna’s waist.
They continued to focus on each other and press their bodies together for a long time after that.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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