“You’re killing me, aren’t you, and then what becomes of my honor!”

Cardinal de Mare had dedicated the time since he was a poor orphan boy in a seaside village to climbing the ladder of the hierarchy.

Enough time had passed for a skinny twelveyearold boy to become a middleaged man with deep lines around his eyes and thinning hair.

“What the hell does Simon de Mare, the renowned theologian, become…!”

Cardinal de Mare came into this world emptyhanded. His reputation as a scholar and researcher was what drove his fame the most.

His pen was sharp in his youth, albeit dulled with age. He advocated for a God perceived through reason and theological theory. He persuaded the clergy to reach God through logic and rationality, saying that witch hunts, black magic, sorcery, and heresy judgments were all misled by emotions.

And now, a pentagram of the devil came out of Cardinal Simon de Mare’s house.

“Doesn’t this deny all my writings, my works!”

The person known to have the highest intellect is, in fact, a devil worshiper in his secret place.

“People will say it. So far, Cardinal Simon de Mare has opposed the inquisitors because he didn’t want to be dragged into it!”

He couldn’t understand his wife.

“What the hell are you thinking doing such a thing!”

Lucrezia, who began to weep continuously, stuttered.

“… it was for us.”

“What?”

“For our family… I thought it would be good if everything went well… ”

While Ariadne was not included in Lucrezia’s ‘family’, Cardinal de Mare did not specifically blame her for it. Lucrezia continued to speak, crying all the while.

“The astrologer said… Isabella is like this because she is possessed by evil spirits… if we perform a purification ceremony, everything will be fine… ”

“Do you believe that, woman!”

Half out of disbelief, half out of rage, Cardinal de Mare yelled. It was indeed too hard to converse with a person with no brain.

He couldn’t even grasp where to start to convince Lucrezia that it was irrational.

At the same time, the undeniable fact that this woman, who he had been with for over 20 years, was despairingly foolish, crept up on him.

“You didn’t know this would happen? Didn’t you know what would happen if the inquisitors discovered this!”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… ”

The past 20 years that he had struggled alone and led the household flashed before Cardinal de Mare’s eyes.

He thought that Lucrezia had been standing firmly behind him all these years, looking after the family and supporting him, but on reflection, this woman was actually a huge burden.

She was a leech on his back, sucking his blood. More than that, her family came as a package deal with Lucrezia.

He thought that Lucrezia was loyal to him, but for Lucrezia, her own family always came first.

He had felt this once before during the incident with the lowly servant. For him, his biological daughter was far more important than his dimwitted niece. And his faithful other half, his wife, should have felt the same way.

But as the time of choice approached, Lucrezia ruthlessly expelled Ariadne and chose Janobi.

The blood of Cardinal de Mare seemed to cool.

“Hey, Lucrezia. I think I’ve given you enough opportunities.”

The way Cardinal de Mare referred to Lucrezia had subtly changed. He always called her ‘you’ or ‘honey’, but now he was calling her ‘you’.

“You’re a minus to the de Mare family. You contribute nothing.”

Lucrezia’s purple eyes widened dramatically. She knew her husband very well.

“No, no…”

“Seems this is the end.”

Clang!

The sound of porcelain shattering echoed loudly throughout Ariadne’s quarters. Arabella, who had sneaked up and was hiding at the entrance to Ariadne’s study, had dropped the porcelain doll she was holding onto the marble floor.

Upon discovering young Arabella, Lucrezia, as if finding a lifeline, crawled on her knees towards Arabella. She nearly clung to her youngest daughter, embracing Arabella.

Arabella was startled by her mother’s desperate embrace, as if a rotten frog had turned over, she took a step to the side. However, Lucrezia did not care and held Arabella even deeper in her arms.

“Yes, yes! I am the mother who gave birth to your children from this womb!”

Lucrezia, who instinctively knew the nature of Cardinal de Mare, cried out with all her might. Her husband had decided to expel her today. If she were driven out here, it would be the end.

“I gave birth to three children from my womb! I lived with you for 22 years! You can’t just drive me out like this! Think of the children!”

Cardinal de Mare did not waver at all.

“I’m doing this thinking of the children.”

He looked at Lucrezia with his shimmering, metallic green eyes. He had long stared at the purple eyes of a woman he had found endlessly captivating, but had never understood.

“A woman like you, who cannot be controlled, is better off not sitting at home, pretending to be a mother. Isabella? Marrying? How well can she marry, having a mother obsessed with black magic!”

He stared at Lucrezia and blurted out the words he had been harboring.