The tip of her tongue stung.

A sharp, pungent scent lingered in the air. Wet sounds reached her ears. The rough sensation that permeated between the slick, entangled flesh felt intensely vivid.

The hands encircling her cold nape burned with heat. Catherine blinked dazedly while exhaling the hot breath that had poured into her mouth.

It resembled the day she had tasted strong kirsch. The sensation that felt somewhat misaligned, like being intoxicated, was gradually finding its proper place.

Through that subtly misaligned space, she felt fingertips that had wrapped around her nape now touching her chin. Then, half a beat later, she sensed her field of vision tilting.

Between the exchange of hot breaths, cold air pushed in sharply. Even within her tilting vision, she could see the faintly gleaming, swaying hair.

The blue eyes visible through the dimness still gazed at Catherine. Suddenly recognizing that gaze, she blinked rapidly in surprise.

It was David. The moment Catherine fully recognized him, the entangled flesh pulled away. 

Mmm. Unconsciously, a low, pained sound escaped her lips. Startled, Catherine reflexively pushed against David’s shoulders. His shoulders felt firm under her hands.

Despite Catherine’s attempt to push him away, David remained completely motionless for several seconds, refusing to retreat.

She watched his blue eyes, which had been staring openly at her, slowly drop downward until they were hidden behind lowered eyelids.

A wet sound brushed her ears. Only after gently exploring Catherine’s mouth once more did David slowly lift his tilted chin. For a moment, the sound of heavy breathing filled the surroundings.

With each labored breath, their misaligned noses lightly collided and separated repeatedly. The hot breath expelled by both clung to each other’s wet lips.

Catherine blinked dazedly. Her entire body felt languid and heavy, like she had been soaked in water. After swallowing the rough residue remaining in her mouth, she finally felt the sharp stones poking her back.

The cold rising from the dirt ground at last awakened Catherine’s mind clearly. She moved her lips, but no words came out. She didn’t know what to say.

“…What is this?”

Why was David here? Catherine couldn’t understand the situation at all. She clearly remembered talking with the gamekeeper and heading back to the main building, then sensing a strange presence on the way to the chapel and going to investigate. And after that…

“You were mistaken.”

David’s words, thrown out abruptly, roused Catherine from her shallow contemplation. Not understanding what he meant by “mistaken,” she frowned. Only after feeling tears flowing down her cheeks and wetting her ears did she realize she was crying.

Flustered, Catherine raised her empty hand and wiped her wet cheeks with the back of it. But the tears wouldn’t stop, continuing to flow along the path already traveled, trickling down the curves of her ears.

David, who had been watching Catherine’s reaction intently, slowly rose. His shoulders gradually moved beyond Catherine’s hands.

He grasped her hands, which had lost their support, and pulled back his body. Then he pulled her toward him, gently embracing Catherine’s back, which was thoroughly soaked with cold.

She couldn’t make sense of herself, David, or this situation. Unable to hide her confusion, Catherine allowed herself to be pulled up.

As her head straightened, she suddenly felt something bitter rising from within and pushed David away.

Ugh. She retched. The rough residue remaining in her mouth and the clinging, sharp scent suddenly felt unbearably intense.

Catherine struggled for quite some time to suppress her upset stomach while dry heaving. Having nothing to expel but saliva, by the time she finally stopped retching, her mouth had become completely dry. Belatedly, thirst arose.

“Drink this.”

A small glass vial was thrust before Catherine’s eyes as she exhaled a long breath that made her shoulders drop. She looked up. When their eyes met, David silently motioned toward the glass vial.

Drink it. Responding to his wordless encouragement, Catherine took the vial he offered.

The glass vial fit perfectly in Catherine’s hand. At a glance, it looked like an ordinary medicine bottle. She looked at it suspiciously for a moment and asked:

“What is this?”

“Holy water.”

His tone suggested he was simply saying

“It’s water.”

David spoke so casually, like it was nothing special, that Catherine unconsciously began to nod before catching herself.

When she turned to him in surprise, David, without any particular reaction, overlapped her hand with his and opened the bottle cap. Then he brought the bottle opening to the lips of the bewildered Catherine and tilted it.

As Catherine tilted her head following David’s lead, the small amount of liquid poured out.

The amount of liquid in the bottle wasn’t much—just about two sips—but it was enough to moisten her parched mouth. It seemed like ordinary, clean water. As she handed the bottle back to David, Catherine belatedly wondered if he might have been joking.

Originally, consecrated water was strictly managed by each parish and couldn’t be casually removed. Only priests with divine power could perform consecration.

Becoming a priest only required entering a seminary and undergoing a certain period of education, but possessing divine power was permitted only to a select few who had lived faithfully as servants of God.

Using something so precious merely for rinsing one’s mouth seemed absurd.

“It’s fine, it’s not something managed by the parish.”

However, as David, who had been quietly observing Catherine, added this comment, she realized he hadn’t been joking after all.

Her head ached, perhaps because too many unexpected things had happened at once.

“I can’t tell you.”

When Catherine turned to David with a look seeking explanation, he simply repeated what he had said before and pulled his lips into a smile. Though he was smiling, she sensed he was drawing a line, telling her not to ask further.

Feeling he wouldn’t answer no matter what, Catherine asked something else instead.

“…Fine. Then what were you doing here?”

Only now did she have the presence of mind to look around. As she turned her gaze while asking, Catherine realized their surroundings were familiar.

They were in front of the chapel. Though it had felt like she had run a great distance, Catherine hadn’t actually come very far. As she looked toward the winding path bordered by broom shrubs, David’s voice fell upon her head.

“And you? What brings you here?”

At this returned question, Catherine fell silent. It was difficult to explain how she had arrived. The sudden sound of applause, the presence of the hunting dog following that sound… No, in truth, she didn’t want to explain.

It was not only difficult to explain, but even if she could, Catherine wouldn’t have spoken of it. It was Catherine’s long-standing nightmare that she couldn’t share even with Saul…

Apart from that, however, Catherine simply couldn’t understand what had happened to her. She thought she might have been entranced by something, but she couldn’t say so. Being entranced—anyone hearing such words would readily accuse her of heresy or devil worship. 

The Central Temple rejected all strange phenomena except divine miracles, believing that acknowledging unusual phenomena outside of divine miracles would empower malevolent entities.

“…I thought I saw someone nearby.”

For this reason, Catherine could only answer that way. David seemed to realize her answer wasn’t complete, but with an attitude suggesting he wouldn’t press the matter, he nodded lightly.

“No one came here.”

You must have seen something wrong because you’re tired; you should rest, Catherine. Adding these words, David helped Catherine to her feet as she still sat on the dirt ground.

Catherine wanted to push David away, insisting she could stand on her own, but whether due to her mental confusion or because it had been so long since she had run… her body kept going limp, forcing her to accept David’s help.

However, as Catherine stood unsteadily, practically leaning on David’s arm, she belatedly realized her problems didn’t end there.

She could feel the cold dirt ground beneath her feet, covered only by thin stockings. Catherine sighed.

She looked at David with suspicious eyes.

Perhaps seeing Samuel had been an illusion, but David’s firm denial somehow made her suspect he was hiding something. However, despite Catherine’s suspicions, David maintained an innocent expression suggesting he truly had nothing to hide.

Since even her sighting of Samuel wasn’t certain, Catherine stopped pursuing the matter further.

“Earlier.”

As she was about to ask about something else, she suddenly remembered what she had forgotten and nervously bit her lip. The sharp scent that hadn’t completely faded still lingered faintly in her mouth.

Catherine swallowed dryly. Recognizing that scent made her suddenly recall facts she had mindlessly overlooked in her confusion. Unconsciously biting the inside of her lip, she repeated what she had begun to say.

“Earlier…”

But not knowing how to continue, she closed her mouth. Anything she might say would sound strange.