Merry Christmas to all my readers! To celebrate, I’m treating you to extra chapter updates. Please enjoy this special release of four bonus chapters! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 2/4 🎉)

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Yupheon Arne, the Pope of the Holy Kingdom and the leader of the Arne Order.

He was born as the illegitimate child of the previous Pope Johannes.

According to the doctrine of the Arne Order, the Pope could not marry and should not have children.

However, Johannes couldn’t ignore the child born by the woman he loved in exchange for her life, and so Yupheon had to become his father’s shame from the moment he was born.

Having already broken the doctrine once, Johannes couldn’t openly stand as Yupheon’s father.

Because of this, he didn’t know. The fact that his fanatical followers had been cursing and abusing young Yupheon.

Some priests of the Grand Temple who usually admired Johannes believed that Yupheon had tarnished Johannes’ name.

The underground punishment room without a single light was always dark and gloomy.

Young Yuphe was more familiar with darkness than light, but familiarity didn’t mean it was pleasant.

Yuphe was afraid of the dark.

For him, darkness was a cold, painful, and hungry space.

The day he met her was when the priests’ torment was particularly prolonged.

He just kept sobbing endlessly, looking at the locked door of the punishment room with a gloomy heart.

Then, as he sat crouched in a dark corner, not knowing how much time had passed, having given up even his tears…

Bang!

The door that seemed like it would never open again opened, and a girl appeared with a bright white light.

More precisely, she had noisily kicked down the iron door.

She was a doll-like girl with gorgeous features, dark purple hair, and pink eyes.

Yuphe felt like he might go blind for a moment at her dazzling appearance.

“Hello, pretty one. Why are you crying?”

The girl suddenly asked, tilting her head, but Yuphe couldn’t answer.

Due to the abuse that had started as soon as he began to speak, he couldn’t properly express what was in his mind.

However, even if he had grown up in a normal family with a normal education, he probably wouldn’t have been able to answer properly.

It was a moment too wonderful to express in human language.

“Hm? Are you sick?”

Sensing something strange, the girl approached closer with a puzzled look.

Yuphe unconsciously flinched and backed away.

It was a learned fear from countless instances of abuse.

“You… why are you like this?”

The girl asked in a slightly trembling voice, belatedly noticing the wounds on Yuphe’s body.

“Uh…”

Yuphe couldn’t answer, but the clever girl figured out it was the doing of the disciplinary priests.

“These bastards…”

The girl gritted her teeth and turned her body abruptly.

Fearing that she might leave the room, Yuphe unconsciously grabbed the hem of her clothes tightly.

“Where are you going…?”

To Yuphe’s labored question, the girl answered arrogantly, tilting her head back.

“To kill. The ones who hurt you.”

The girl left with just those words.

Left alone, Yuphe waited for her to return.

It was a short time, but for Yuphe on that day, it felt very long. It was probably because he had felt warmth and light from another person for the first time.

All Yuphe could do was repeat her last words.

To kill. The ones who hurt you.

To kill. The ones who hurt you.

To kill. The ones who…

To kill…

He must have dozed off at some point.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in a warm bed, not in the underground punishment room.

The girl’s name was Jella, a princess from the distant Shunaibel Empire, they said.

Whether Jella really killed them or not, Yuphe couldn’t know. But he knew that his life had changed dramatically since that day.

From that day on, Yuphe took his first step towards a wider, brighter world, like a baby duck just out of its egg, leaving behind his cramped world.

Jella helped Yuphe find his father, but Yuphe followed Jella more than his father Johannes.

The adults found the young Yuphe, who followed her around like a baby duck, very adorable.

“This little one, he’ll probably cry his eyes out when the princess gets married someday.”

“What’s marriage?”

Yuphe blinked his eyes cutely and asked back to the priests who were teasing him.

“Hm? Marriage is…”

After the priests’ explanation, Yuphe exclaimed with sparkling eyes.

“Then I want to marry Jella too!”

Learning that marriage could make them a real family, from then on, Yuphe’s dream was to marry Jella.

That dream didn’t change. Even when he learned that Jella, who had returned to the empire, had gotten engaged.

“The Shunaibel royalty can have multiple spouses, right? Then even if she has a fiancé, she can still marry me too.”

Eight-year-old Yupheon truly thought so.

The following year, Yuphe, who had just turned nine, insisted to Johannes that he wanted to visit the empire to propose to Jella.

However, when he met Jella again, she would often erase her smile suddenly even while laughing brightly, and sometimes she would be lost in thought even with him in front of her.

Of course, it was such a subtle change that no one but him would have noticed, but still.

Could Jella be sick?

But she had never been sick at the Grand Temple…

Maybe there’s someone here who’s hurting Jella. If there’s someone hurting her…

“Shall I kill them for you?”

Yuphe asked in a serious voice. Jella burst into laughter.

“You, do you even know what dying means?”

“Uh…?”

At that naive answer, Jella chuckled.

Jella had changed a bit since returning to the empire.

Even though they were both nine years old, she often felt particularly mature, and it seemed like she knew everything he didn’t know.

Well, Jella was always extraordinary.

At this moment, she sighed deeply and muttered.

“Dying must hurt… I don’t like pain…”

“…?”

Yuphe tilted his head, not understanding her soliloquy, but then clenched his fists as if making a vow.

“I’ll kill anything that hurts you!”

“Oh my, how reliable.”

Jella looked at him adorably and gently stroked his fluffy pink hair.

Looking at the upturned corners of her mouth and her rounded eyes, Yuphe unconsciously gulped.

“Go study what death is first.”

She said, giggling. Yuphe, unable to contain that ticklish feeling in his heart, hastily changed the subject.

“Do you know? What death is.”

“Well. I wish I didn’t know.”

Jella answered in a melancholic voice uncharacteristic of a child.

At that time, Yuphe was too young and too incompetent to know.

That she was struggling to escape from death…

***

I sat next to Cail in front of the fountain, looking up at the dark night sky.

“Ah, that was fun.”

I thought festivals were just as boring as the balls held at the imperial palace.

As I giggled happily, Cail asked me.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes!”

“It was more enjoyable coming with me than with that man, right?”

“Huh?”

I blinked and turned to Cail, hearing a strangely prickly voice.

But when I looked, there was only a neat smile on his face.

“I didn’t know you’d want to come here.”

Cail asked, gently curving his eyes while maintaining his smile.

“If it wasn’t for me, would you have come with that man?”

“…?”

Seeing that I still didn’t understand his words, Cail muttered bitterly.

“…Right, today I’m just a substitute for that man.”

“What are you talking about?”

“…”

Cail looked at me with somewhat sorrowful eyes.

Even so, his slightly upturned lips still didn’t lose their smile.

As I was about to avert my gaze, feeling strangely chilled, rolling my eyes around.

I raised my head again as his thick fingertips gently brushed my cheek.

Cail was quietly looking down at me.

“Why…?”

I asked carefully, feeling somewhat tense under that gaze. He opened his lips while slowly caressing my cheek.

“I promised to be responsible for your day today.”

His pleasant, low voice flowed from between his lips.

“And the day isn’t over yet.”

His large palm cupped my cheek.

I suddenly realized belatedly that all the people sitting shoulder to shoulder around the fountain, chatting intimately, were couples.

‘Ah, right. This place is also called the sanctuary for lovers. If you kiss in front of this fountain… Eek!’

Only then did I notice couples kissing here and there in this wide-open space, to my embarrassment.

‘Oh my, how shameless!’

However, it wasn’t the time to be flustered by the embarrassing actions of others.

Cail gently applied pressure to the hand holding my cheek, lifting my face.

Thanks to that, I had to fix my gaze on his face. That is, on that ascetic yet sensual face that was making a very dangerous expression towards me.

“I’ll take responsibility for your night too.”

He whispered in a precarious voice as he slowly tilted his head towards me.

“Let me take responsibility, Jella.”

“…!”

I froze at the low, deep voice that tickled my eardrums.

No, no! I was just curious about this fountain because it was a meaningful place in the original work! This isn’t what I wanted!

No, in the first place…! You weren’t supposed to be a character who does this with just anyone!

But my inner voice didn’t reach him.

Instead, his lips slowly approached, about to touch mine.