“Jade, open your eyes.”

“…..”

Unable to leave her collapsed here, I immediately ran to call the butler.

The butler was surprised to see Jade unconscious and moved her to the bedroom.

“I will bring a doctor!”

As soon as he laid her on the bed, the butler hurried out to fetch a doctor.

“What’s going on all of a sudden……”

Jade’s breathing was irregular, as if it was difficult for her to breathe.

I wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with a wet cloth.

My legs were hurting from standing for so long, so I was about to turn around to get a chair.

“Don’t… go.”

Jade, who had grabbed my hand, spoke softly through her teeth.

“Jade, when did you wake up?”

“…Just now.”

I helped her as she tried to sit up. Jade was still breathing slowly.

“…Larien. What happened? Why am I here?”

Not seeming to remember collapsing, she asked about the situation.

“You suddenly collapsed earlier. Are you alright now?”

He nodded quietly while rubbing his shoulder.

Judging by the fact that he wasn’t frowning like before, it seemed he wasn’t in pain anymore.

Knock knock.

“I’ve brought the doctor.”

The door opened with a brief knock from the butler outside.

“Please come in…”

“Send him back.”

Jade stopped the butler who was about to let the doctor in and ordered him out.

“Young lord, are you awake? Are you feeling alright?”

The butler was pleased to see that Jade had regained consciousness.

“I’m fine. You may leave now.”

“Understood, young lord…”

The butler carefully withdrew after observing his expression.

“Jade, what’s wrong? Why are you sending the doctor away?”

“It must have been because of the mark anyway. I just lost consciousness for a moment due to the pain. Since I’m not physically ill, an examination isn’t necessary.”

Jade had lost consciousness while saying his shoulder hurt.

Even if it was related to holy power, you never know what might happen.

“Jade. Wouldn’t it be better to get an examination anyway?”

“…I don’t like being touched by others. I’m up now, so it’s fine.”

Jade adamantly refused the examination.

‘He’s always been sensitive about being touched by others.’

Knowing how much he hated the touch of others, I couldn’t push him further.

“Then, let’s at least go to the Grand Temple. Since it hurts because of the mark, maybe they can help relieve the pain if we ask.”

Since we had to go to the Grand Temple for Blanche’s saint education anyway, I tried to persuade him.

“It’s fine…”

“Jade.”

This time, I glared at him without backing down.

“…Alright.”

“Blanche won’t be up for a while. We’ll go to the Grand Temple later, so you should get some rest too.”

I forcibly made Jade lie down.

‘I should leave once Jade falls asleep.’

He closed his eyes slowly and moved his lips.

“Larien. Don’t go…”

“…Jade?”

“Stay here.”

Jade grabbed my hand to prevent me from moving.

The warmth he gave off felt especially hot today.

‘Blanche also had a fever when her holy power was depleted…’

I hurriedly placed my hand on his forehead. Only a faint warmth remained.

Soon, his breathing changed to a peaceful rhythm.

I sat quietly by his bedside, feeling relieved.

After sleeping for a while, Jade said he felt much lighter and moved around normally.

Before sunset, we visited the Grand Temple. As before, we headed to the prayer room.

Unlike last time, the Pope wasn’t in the prayer room, perhaps because it wasn’t prayer time.

After a long while, the Pope entered with slow movements.

“We greet Your Holiness, the Pope, the first servant of Lady Stella.”

“I apologize for being late due to some business.”

“It’s alright, Your Holiness.”

The Pope didn’t go into details and just said he was late.

It was a rude response, but I was about to let it go, not wanting to cause unnecessary conflict.

“If you made us wait like this, shouldn’t you provide a satisfactory explanation?”

Jade, who was beside me, openly rebuked the Pope.

“…Marquis Rowe, why are you here?”

“I heard it was Your Holiness who asked us to come, not that we barged in unannounced.”

I lightly touched Jade, signaling him to stop.

“I’d appreciate your understanding that I can’t give you details as it’s related to internal matters.”

Although it was a longer explanation than before, the Pope still seemed to be hiding something.

“Then, I’ll escort your child to the purification room for education.”

“Just Blanche?”

“You cannot observe during the education.”

“Your Holiness. You didn’t mention this before.”

I protested, surprised by the Pope’s sudden change of words.

“I forgot to inform you.”

The Pope was very authoritative, all trace of his previous kindness gone.

I had no choice but to watch as Blanche entered the purification room with the Pope.

‘If anything happens to Blanche, I won’t stay quiet.’

I paced near the purification room, swallowing my irritation at the Pope’s changed attitude.

“Larien. I don’t hear any suspicious sounds from inside. It seems they’re writing scriptures.”

Jade guessed the situation based on the sounds coming from the purification room.

“…That’s a relief.”

Just that was enough to ease my unpleasant feelings.

“But why is the Pope acting like this? He wasn’t like this when we met yesterday. His face did harden after smiling, though…”

“The Pope has long been ruthless in discarding those who become useless to him. Can you think of anything that might explain this?”

“Anything that might explain…”

I sighed deeply at Jade’s words and thought.

‘I know he’s not compassionate by nature. If he’s suddenly acting like this when we haven’t insulted God or been disrespectful…’

It was more likely that we had become useless.

It was certainly related to the ‘power’ the Pope mentioned had disappeared.

‘Just what is this power…’

My frustration grew as I couldn’t figure it out.

“Isn’t it Marquis Rowe! And the young count, no, count is here too!”

The priest who greeted Jade as he walked towards us from the opposite direction was someone I had seen before.

“It’s still far from the anniversary, what brings you to the Grand Temple, Marquis?”

“I had something to check briefly.”

“I see. If there’s anything I can help with, please feel free to ask.”

The priest kept bowing and fawning.

‘Anniversary? What does that mean?’

I didn’t understand the conversation between Jade and the priest.

“Recently, the pain in my shoulder where the mark is has intensified, and the appearance of the mark has changed.”

“The mark? May I check it briefly?”

“Go ahead.”

The priest emitted a pure white light on Jade’s body, just as he had done with Blanche.

“…Marquis! I, I can feel holy power flowing!”

The priest continued with a surprised face, stumbling over his words.

“Holy power? What nonsense. The previous marquis absorbed all my holy power.”

Jade frowned as if it made no sense.

“Yes… I know that, but it seems you’re experiencing pain in the process of receiving newly generated holy power.”

From the priest’s explanation, I realized why Jade had collapsed while grabbing his shoulder.

‘Jade has gained holy power…?’

It was uncommon for lost holy power to regenerate.

It only happened occasionally when one visited the Grand Temple daily and prayed devoutly.

‘So that’s why the appearance of the mark changed.’

This didn’t apply to Jade, who didn’t believe in God.

“It seems God has found your devotion admirable, Marquis. Congratulations.”

The priest, unaware of this, had tears in his eyes, looking deeply moved.

“For the records, may I ask when you first felt the pain?”

To the priest’s question, Jade thought for a moment before answering.

“It was from winter, so about 3 months ago.”

3 months.

‘That overlaps with when Blanche met Jade.’

The reason the Pope was initially hospitable was also because of Blanche’s ‘power’.

‘If Blanche’s power disappeared just when Jade’s holy power appeared…’

Could it be that the ‘power’ flowed to Jade, causing his holy power to emerge?

I was lost in speculation that they might be related.

After some time, Blanche came out of the purification room.

“Blanche!”

“Mom, Shu Shu’s hand hurts. I wrote so many scriptures…”

I massaged Blanche’s wrist while biting my lip.

‘Making a child write scriptures to the point of pain…’

I looked at the Pope who followed, trying to suppress the anger rising inside me.

“Count Boston. It seems your child is not suitable as a vessel for a saint.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“We will consider the previous saint proposal to your child as if it never happened.”

It was the Pope who first proposed that she become a saint.

I was going to refuse so that Blanche wouldn’t be bound to the Grand Temple.

But they promised to teach methods to control her when she went berserk, on the condition of receiving education.

Saying they would withdraw the proposal meant they would treat that promise as if it never existed as well.

“Your Holiness. If you unilaterally do this−”

“Ah yes, you’ll need to return the bracelet I gave to your child.”

The Pope interrupted me mid-sentence and gestured for the bracelet to be handed over.

‘This bracelet contains my power, it will help prevent holy power from escaping.’

The bracelet was a gift the Pope had given, saying it would prevent the depletion of holy power.

‘Now he’s even taking back what he gave first…?’