She believes Seierd.

… No, she wants to believe.

In other words, she doesn’t fully believe.

While listening to the confession of the man named Father Emil, Kisa gradually realized this fact.

“No, I have to believe.”

She muttered as if urging herself.

As the words that came out of her mouth, his story was nothing more than a false accusation without a shred of evidence.

Couldn’t it be that the ever so kind Seierd would never have killed his brother?

“Believe. I believe.”

However, unfortunately, in one corner of her heart, there was an intuitive judgment that at least it didn’t seem like that person was telling a blatant lie.

The young priest was consistently upright and full of sincerity.

He seemed to be sincerely lamenting his own fault for not being able to stop Seierd’s crime and worrying about Kisa.

If that was an act, then Daniel and Viscount Seodor had cast a genius actor.

“……”

Inside the running carriage, Kisa chewed on her lips for a while in silence.

The thought that she wanted to conclude with ‘I believe Seierd’ went against her will and kept moving forward.

Points that had been bothering her but she had tried hard not to pay attention to were revived one by one.

Extreme hatred towards his brother. Kisa had glimpsed it once before.

‘In his diary.’

And among the names written in that notebook, there was one person whom she had recently faced.

“Covi.”

A man who suddenly appeared in front of the two one day and disappeared not long after.

Seierd said he entrusted him with the management of a villa located far away…

Would he really do that? The ominous question clearly came to mind.

To say it now, honestly, the whole process felt a bit hasty.

Seierd reunited with Covi in just two days, caught up, then appointed him as the manager of the villa and sent him off to another region.

In fact, having observed him handling work beside her, Seierd tended to deal with tasks carefully.

Of course, when necessary, he showed amazing drive, but was entrusting Covi with the position of villa manager a matter of such importance?

Above all, the look in Seierd’s eyes the moment he recognized Covi’s existence that day.

Although it was only for a moment, that look, which unusually revealed his inner thoughts, was impressively etched in Kisa’s memory.

It seemed to be mixed with a slightly strange emotion to be just joy from reuniting with a close friend whom he didn’t know was alive or dead. Something like a sense of victory.

No, to describe it more accurately, it was similar to a predator discovering its prey…

Startled by her own thoughts, Kisa shook her head.

“It, it’s just a mere feeling.”

It is right to grasp the situation objectively at that time without relying on these subjective factors.

She recalls. What happened then? What kind of conversation did Seierd and Covi, who met after a long time, have? How did they react to each other?

She closed her eyes and relied on her memory.

Certainly, on that day, Covi begged Seierd for forgiveness with yearning.

“So, sorry! Even though I wasn’t by your side when you needed me, I shamelessly came looking for you now. I’ll apologize a hundred times! I can even kneel down! If you want, you can spit on me!”

It was because Seierd, who was close to Covi, had to receive frowns on Covi’s behalf as well after Covi, who was caught stealing drugs, ran away alone.

In that sense, was there anything particularly suspicious about the conversation between the two… Wait.

Kisa tilted her head. Is it really like that?

No matter how much she recalled, there was no scene where Covi directly stated the reason for apologizing.

“Re, really? You’re really not angry?”

“Yes.”

“I, I left you and-”

“Yes, you left Pavella Monastery, leaving me behind. Honestly, I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed about you stealing drugs and running away. It’s a clear theft after all.”

“Oh? Oh, right.”

The bewilderment that flashed across Covi’s face at that moment was unexpected, so Kisa could remember the situation of that day relatively in detail.

‘At that time, I thought he was just confused by Seierd’s attitude of not being angry but strictly drawing the line, saying it was a crime.’

Perhaps there was another story behind it.

According to Father Emil’s story, he was a collaborator who conspired with Seierd to commit a crime.

The words that he ran away leaving Seierd behind may mean that he withdrew from the criminal acts-.

“No.”

Kisa shook her head once more at the imagination that kept making her suspect her lover, but the thoughts that had already spread out never stopped.

After that, Seierd said one of the reasons he hurriedly removed Covi from the capital was Kisa. He said he didn’t like Covi looking at her with lecherous eyes.

Because of that, Kisa secretly wanted to meet Covi once, but she couldn’t bring it up.

Was she being too sensitive? Now that other things were starting to look suspicious, even Seierd’s jealousy, which she used to find cute, seemed to have a different intention.

She held her forehead as her head started to ache.

Where did Seierd really send Covi to?

“…Where did he send him to?”

If, really if, he was the culprit who killed his brother. And if Kisa’s assumption just now was correct.

Then Covi not only betrayed Seierd but also knows his weakness of murder, making him a huge risk factor.

There would be no reason to keep him alive with a high probability.

So Covi wouldn’t have come looking for Seierd for a while either. In the end, unable to endure the cold and hunger, he tried his luck with a small hope.

Kisa chewed on her fingernails.

This won’t do. Her thoughts were gradually leaning towards Seierd being the culprit.

But there’s no helping it. Assuming so, the questions she had felt so far were solved at once.

Not only things related to his diary or Covi.

Seierd’s rather impulsive act of leaving the monastery without permission, and his choice to keep someone of poor quality like Covi close.

Would Seierd, who is always planned and calm, really have committed a deviation because he couldn’t stand the hostility of the other priests?

Did he really get along with Covi because they were truly compatible?

The more questions piled up, the heavier her heart sank.

Kisa wanted to believe him.

At the same time, she couldn’t believe him.

The conflicting heart and mind tormented Kisa.

Arriving at her residence, Kisa returned to the bedroom without even having dinner and opened the bottom drawer of the dressing table.

The diary Seierd wrote when he was young was still sleeping nicely inside the jewel box.

The vivid hatred written in it as well.

Covi’s death. Bishop’s death. And the terrible ambition to take everything from his brother.

No matter how many times she read it again, the unchanging letters made her feel nauseous even though she hadn’t eaten anything for nearly half a day.

“Seierd…”

Perhaps the face of the man who might have really killed his brother and robbed him of everything came to her mind.

Ah, even so, how lovely he is.

Kisa felt the strange emotion of love accompanied by fear and lay down on the bed.

That night, Seierd appeared in her dream.

In the dim evening, his back figure holding a key and heading towards a pastel-colored villa.

The next day, Kisa barely had a meal with thin soup and headed to the Hillan Duke’s residence.

If it were up to her, she wouldn’t want to see Seierd for a while, promise or not.

She couldn’t even figure out what face and heart to face him with, and she felt like he would see through her true feelings if she let her guard down even a little.

However, if she broke the promise without any proper reason, Seierd would surely find it suspicious… no, he would definitely worry.

It would be the worst to make an excuse that she wasn’t feeling well and then get caught faking it.

In the end, Kisa put on her makeup as brightly as possible, then practiced making expressions in the carriage.

To look as normal as possible in his eyes.

“Welcome, Kisa.”

Whether such efforts were effective, Seierd greeted Kisa with the same attitude as usual.

The two had warm tea in the glass greenhouse that even the winter cold couldn’t invade.

Holding a teacup in his hand, Seierd asked Kisa.

“Did you buy the item you wanted?”

Since she mentioned it in passing before, he also knew that Kisa had stopped by the shopping district yesterday.

“Unfortunately, something came up, so I couldn’t. I’m planning to go again later.”

“I see. It seems Viscount Seodor took up a lot of your time.”

For a moment, her heart jumped, but it wasn’t an unexpected remark.

The person who assigned the escorts to Kisa yesterday was none other than him.

It wasn’t strange for the news that Kisa met the viscount to reach his ears.

Resting her chin on the table, she answered in a slightly sulky voice.

“That’s right. He was really a persistent person. Seierd must have had a hard time dealing with him too.”

Was it natural? Seierd made a somewhat apologetic expression and comforted his lover.

“I understand. The viscount is a bit like that. So what did he say to you?”

“He told me to put in a good word for him to Seierd? How brazen. When it was time to slander, he did it to his heart’s content, and now he’s trying to use me.”

“That’s just the kind of idea the viscount would have. He’s quite cunning.”

After taking a sip of tea, Seierd continued.

“And?”

The reddish-brown eyes that didn’t seem to have any hint of suspicion gazed at Kisa.

Swallowing dry saliva, Kisa answered as if it was nothing.

“And then he handed over the bribes he brought in bulk? Even when I tried to get up, he begged and introduced the contents one by one, so I was really bored to death.”

Hearing that, he shrugged his shoulders, saying oh my.

“I’m so sorry. But… was that all he said?”

Cold sweat formed in Kisa’s palm.