Yuria froze in place.

“……”

Soon realizing she hadn’t misheard, her face turned bright red with shame.

“Wh-what did you just…!”

Swoosh!

But Yupheon turned away as if he had nothing more to hear.

Having discovered the source of the strange voice, anything more would be a waste of time.

‘Why is a woman with such power near Jella?’

Though it wasn’t quite fitting for a priest’s thoughts, God Arne was a petty and mean-spirited being.

It was quite unpleasant that a woman bestowed with such a being’s power was close to Jella.

Well, as long as it didn’t harm her, whatever that woman did didn’t matter.

Yupheon quickly shook off thoughts of the suspicious woman and went to meet Jella.

“Oh, Priest Yupheon!”

The imperial palace servants recognized Yupheon and called out to him.

“Her Majesty went out to meet you earlier but returned alone, perhaps you missed each other.”

“Hm? Jella?”

Yupheon tilted his head. But soon he felt pleased knowing she had gone out to meet him.

“Where is Jella now?”

“Her Majesty is in the library. We were told to guide you there when you arrived.”

“Thank you.”

Yupheon moved along with a gentle smile.

While the Emperor’s private library was not a space just anyone could enter, the servants guarding the front recognized Yupheon and opened the door.

Yupheon found her inside the library.

Jella was lounging on the sofa, almost lying down, lazily blinking while turning pages.

Rustle. Rustle.

Only the sound of turning pages filled the quiet space.

“Ah…”

A soft moan escaped between Yupheon’s teeth.

The moment he saw her, his heart throbbed and he felt his blood vessels constrict throughout his body.

Yes, this is it.

An intense impulse far beyond Arne’s whispered enchantment wrapped around his entire consciousness.

This is real enchantment.

Jella.

She was the most dizzying and stimulating temptation in the world, and simultaneously the only stimulant that could make him react.

From when he was very young,

‘Hello, pretty one. Why are you crying?’

From the moment she had illuminated his dark world.

‘To kill. The ones who hurt you.’

…Jella had been his only light.

Sometimes Yupheon thought that light illuminating his world was so intense that he might go blind.

But that would be too unfair.

To become blind and unable to see that pretty, lovely face…

Just imagining it made his throat painfully constrict, and Yupheon barely managed to speak in a normal voice while forcing his lips into a smile.

“Jella.”

At his call, Jella turned around.

“Ah, you’re here?”

But there was something slightly off about Jella’s expression.

Though she curved her lips with that characteristic slightly indifferent expression no different from usual.

However, Yupheon could tell. That her mood was a bit down.

It was only natural that he could see through her expressions like this.

To young Yuphe who grew up in the darkness of the underground punishment room, Jella was his first light and his entire world, and Yuphe learned about the world through Jella.

How to come out of darkness and make eye contact and converse normally with people, how to read and write and explore the world, how to smile when happy and cry when sad, and even how to get angry.

He learned all of that from her.

His narrow world expanded because of her.

Therefore Jella, she was the world itself to him.

So how could he, who saw her as his world, not notice the subtle changes in her emotions?

“Did something happen?”

She wasn’t angry or irritated. This was the expression she made when she felt lonely and upset.

“What do you mean, happen?”

But Jella just smiled faintly in response.

Yupheon slowly lowered his head toward her.

“But, your expression…”

He carefully traced her lips.

Those lips, curved ever so slightly since earlier, seemed to mask her true emotions.

“My expression?”

At those words, Jella looked up at him with round eyes.

Ah, so pretty. Jella…

Even at a time like this, such thoughts came to him. Yupheon briefly wondered if he was becoming a pervert, but only for her.

Jella blinked those pretty eyes a couple of times before closing her book with a small smile.

“I’m just a bit tired, I guess. There have been a lot of things happening lately.”

“……”

Yupheon pressed his lips tightly together.

She was avoiding giving an answer. It meant she didn’t want to talk to him about it anymore.

She was always like this.

While shining most brilliantly in the world, she hid a lonely darkness he didn’t know behind it.

What could it be? That you’re hiding. That makes you so lonely like this.

Every time he discovered her loneliness, Yupheon always wished he could lighten her burden, but she didn’t want that.

And if she didn’t want it…

Slowly.

Yupheon straightened up. Then he walked to the sofa opposite her and sank into it, playfully drawing out his words.

“Aah, so you’re tireed.”

If she didn’t want it, then naturally he too should follow her wishes.

“I thought something had happened. Who made our Jella tired? Just tell me everything.”

“What, are you going to go beat them up if I tell you?”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

When he replied in an intentionally boastful voice, Jella burst into giggles.

“Don’t think about causing trouble. His Holiness Johannes will be grabbing his neck again.”

Small talk continued after that.

As if the loneliness felt earlier had been a mistake, their conversation was peaceful as always.

Nevertheless, whenever shadows flickered across her eyes, Yupheon felt something like grating residue blocking somewhere inside his chest.

Then she suddenly asked.

“Did you meet the Saint?”

Saint? Who was that again?

Yuphe briefly searched his memories before recalling Yuria whom he had met earlier.

Ah, that crazy woman.

“Ah, yes.”

“Is she pretty?”

“Hm?”

Yupheon tilted his head.

Was she pretty?

He wasn’t sure.

She seemed far inferior to his face though…

Yupheon furrowed his brow and pretended to think seriously.

Did Jella think that kind of face was pretty?

He didn’t like that…

He wanted only himself to be pretty to Jella…

With such childish thoughts, he pushed out his lips in a pout.

“Not particularly.”

Then, propping his face with both hands, he fluttered his eyes at Jella with a sweet smile.

“Aren’t I prettier than that woman?”

“You really…”

Jella burst out laughing.

Ah. Jella laughed.

Her expression had returned.

Finally, Yupheon could feel the grating feeling from earlier gradually improving, and he could brightly smile along with her.

He didn’t know then.

That it would be the last ‘real smile’ she would show in front of him.

When he voluntarily became Pope and declared he would protect the Saint in the name of the Grand Temple.

The expression she showed then still hadn’t been forgotten.

With the expression of one who had lost something irreplaceable, she gave a resigned, crooked smile.

Back then… he thought it would be very brief.

She might be a little upset, she might be quite upset and lonely.

But he thought that after a little while, he could reveal the truth to her and explain.

He thought he could drive away her loneliness and make her smile again.

However, that was his arrogance.

‘You know what, Yuphe? They say I’m a monster who ate my mom and dad when I was born. A wicked witch who ate her parents and was born.’

‘From this moment forward, the Grand Temple will protect the Saint from the witch of Shunaibel who has disrupted divine order, in the name of God Arne.’

Only after facing her corpse, turned pale and lifeless, did he realize that fact.

‘So everyone hates me, but you were the first. The first person who didn’t hate me and held my hand. The first person who got angry and cried for me.’

‘Let go of Yuria, Jella.’

Though he cried and begged her to please wake up, to open her eyes, she never rose again.

‘I like Yuphe the most too! More than Uncle in the Empire, more than His Holiness Johannes, more than my deceased mom and dad, I like Yuphe more!’

‘Yuria isn’t someone a woman like you can carelessly touch.’

Due to his foolishness, he had forever lost the chance to explain to her.

‘Then shall we be friends forever? The closest friends in the world!’

‘If you trouble Yuria one more time, I’ll end your life in God’s name, Jella.’

Memories from long ago crossed and echoed in his mind.

In the end, he couldn’t make her smile. He had to collapse helplessly and burst into tears in front of her who would never smile again.

Yupheon felt his heart constricting painfully again, and he violently bit his lower lip at the pain spreading across his chest.