For a long time, you had nightmares every day.

When you woke up from them, curled up in a ball and crying in the dark, I carelessly promised something.

“When you pass through the deepest night, I will be by your side.”

For the first time, I saw the nightmare you dreamed.

That black, eternal, hopeless dream.

I thought you suffered from nightmares only in the night.

I did not know you lived within them always.

I was a fool for not being there for you when you needed me most.

How did you feel when you heard my empty promises?

How did you feel when you saw how ignorant I was and heard me complain?

Now, I can’t even protect you until the very end.

“…”

Shed opened his eyes.

In the wavering blur of his vision, he thought he saw her face.

“My lord!”

With a throbbing headache, his senses slowly grew clearer.

And then came the flood of memory.

Dietrich. Battle. Wraiths and death. And—

“Luise…”

At her name, memory struck him cold, as though doused in ice water.

Her ruined figure as she collapsed…

Shed’s body trembled in a convulsion.

In the end, he had not protected her.

It was he who had brought her here.

It was he who had driven her to the brink.

He had destroyed it—

His own paradise, by his own hand.

🌺⟡───⟡🌺 🌺⟡───⟡🌺

“His Holiness the Pope has said that the matter of the vessel will be decided by the council. Furthermore, other high priests will come here in person to discuss its disposal.”

Upon hearing the cleric’s words, Giselle crossed her legs and pressed her forehead with her hand.

The issue of how to deal with the vessel had sparked much debate.

Dietrich’s attack had been stopped for now, but it was best to settle the matter swiftly.

The only question was how to dispose of it.

“How in the world did the great Saint deal with Mephisto, to hide him so completely?”

It was possible to seal Dietrich with holy powers. However, the real issue was where to store the vessel.

Leaving it somewhere easily accessible would be dangerous. Not only might the seal be broken, but there could also be an increase in public interest in the dark arts.

“For now, the Crevasse of Prunig and the crater of Mount Dynaemes seem to be the most likely choices. The deep sea was considered but dismissed because it would be too difficult to ensure an accurate drop into the trench. The currents and other variables also make it too risky.”

Either way, it was troublesome.

“Perfect places to spend eternity.”

Giselle muttered under her breath and twisted her lips.

D*mn Dietrich! He’s a High Priest, and this is the chaos he left behind?

There had always been something unsettling about him. His presence was faint and his aura forbidding. She had hoped it was only her imagination.

“And then, about Luise Ideana.”

Cursing inwardly, Giselle knit her brow again.

Luise Ideana—the woman even more troublesome than Dietrich.

Just hearing the name made her head throb.

‘That Liana Serpens turned out to be her…’

She remembered the girl from the House of Ideana whom she had met as a child.

As she was from another prince-elector family, they had rarely met in their youth. Given their similar backgrounds, they could have been either friends or rivals.

Perhaps because of that, her memory of Luise remained vivid despite them having met so few times.

She was pretty, gentle and kind.

As a child, Giselle had felt a childish competitiveness toward her.

When she had visited the Ideana household with her great-uncle, a priest, she remembered the words he had spoken to Count Felix Ideana:

“Luise’s frailty is because her body cannot yet withstand her strong holy power. But it poses no danger to her life. As she grows, she will gradually stabilize.”

Giselle had never met anyone with more holy power than herself. As a child, she was shocked to discover someone stronger than her.

She had puffed herself up in front of Luise, acting arrogantly and thoughtlessly. She had also studied harder at the monastery so as not to fall behind.

But, unlike Giselle, Luise had always liked her.

‘…She was such a foolish girl, it was infuriating.’

Even when Giselle played spiteful tricks, Luise’s clear, innocent eyes looked at her without malice, making her feel guilty.

When Giselle spoke curtly out of childish pride, Luise would simply smile and nod. Giselle had always coveted that smile.

Now, however, that girl had become a demon.

“The Holy See seems intent on carrying out the same sentence.”

The cleric presented her with a letter from the Holy Palace.

“Ha… carry out the sentence?”

Taking the letter, Giselle ran a weary hand down her face.

“Yes. That is the principle, after all…”

The cleric answered with a bitter expression.

Opinions about Luise were divided among the priests of Faradel.

In principle, she should be condemned to damnation.

Yet everyone in Faradel knew the truth: on the day the world seemed on the brink of ruin, she was the one who averted catastrophe. They all owed their lives to her.

Thus, while some priests argued that they could not openly praise her, they insisted that they could not demand her punishment either.

However, having witnessed her power, others were all the more insistent that she must be consigned to damnation.

The Church maintained its position that there could be no exceptions to divine judgement for heretics.

‘Indeed… that would be the simplest path.’

Giselle understood the Church’s perspective well.

For the Holy Temple, this incident was humiliating and precarious.

The discovery that a high priest had been practizing dark magic would turn the arrows of condemnation on the temple itself for failing in its duty of oversight. Meanwhile, the Imperial Court would welcome any sign of the Temple’s weakened spiritual authority.

The Temple needed a scapegoat.

“The survivor of the Ideana family, once traitors, had vilely hidden her identity and survived, only to incite heresy…”

It was the same old political script. Tired, yet all too effective.

Despite having the pen in her hand, Giselle could not bring herself to reply to the Pope’s letter.

She stared blankly at the empty page.

There were still questions she had not answered. Without those answers, she could not draft a response.

“Haa…”

How utterly infuriating.

She slammed the pen down in irritation.

The thought that continued to weigh on her mind: Why had Luise, with such overwhelming power, chosen to remain hidden until now?

Giselle recalled that terrible might—power that had pierced the very heavens, a force no one could dare approach. And yet Luise, even with such strength, had lived as the maid.

Dismissed. Despised. Forced into obedience.

Swallowing her words, enduring in silence, powerless.

Giselle could not comprehend it.

With power like that, Luise could have struck back at those who tormented her. She could have carved out wealth through cunning and force, then lived quietly in comfort.

At least Giselle herself would have.

But Luise had chosen a station far too low.

To Giselle, it was almost pitiful—foolish, even.

‘But if that was her choice, why had she learned dark magic?’

To save the world? For self-defense? Or merely from pure curiosity and thirst for knowledge?

Unable to decipher Luise’s motives, Giselle tapped her fingertips against the Pope’s letter.

At that moment, the door burst open without warning.

When Giselle turned her head, she saw a man with a pale face standing there.

“Shed!”

Startled, Giselle shot to her feet.

Just a few hours had passed since the healing ritual had been completed. She had never imagined that he would wake up so soon. And to be moving around in a body that had barely received any proper treatment…

“Where is Luise…?”

Shed gripped the doorknob as if he might crush it.

Though she had been worried for him, Giselle let out a twisted laugh at the all-too-familiar scene.

Ha. Of course. That was the kind of man he had always been.

“You mad bastard.”

She forgot even to mutter under her breath, cursing outright at her former fiancé.

“I asked you—where is Luise!”

“Would it kill you to show some courtesy to the one who saved your life?”

Giselle folded her arms and looked him squarely in the eye.

His voice was hoarse and broken; his face was thinner than before; and his breath was ragged. He could barely stand on his own two feet, leaning against the doorframe. Yet his eyes burned wide and unyielding as they fixed on hers.

“Giselle Marlhein!”

“The end of a heretic is obvious, isn’t it?”

Narrowing her eyes, Giselle met the gaze of her former betrothed.

How honest he was—those violet eyes shook violently.

“Don’t tell me… you sealed her?”

His fingertips trembled visibly.

Giselle laughed derisively.

A moment ago, he had been snarling; now, he was shaking like a frightened child.

The man who had always acted as though nothing could be denied him was now ready to drop to his knees and beg.

What if she told him that Luise had already been condemned to damnation? What kind of reaction would he show then?

The sadistic thought flickered through her mind. She wondered, almost curiously, how he would respond.

But looking into his eyes, she decided against the experiment.

Truly, if she spoke such words, it seemed he might die on the spot.

And Giselle Marlhein, High Priestess, was famed for her mercy.

“She hasn’t been sealed. She’s alive. For now.”

When she responded to him in a feigned tone of kindness, he nearly collapsed, his legs giving way beneath him. His shallow, ragged breathing slowed as if a weight had been lifted from him.

He swept a gaunt hand down his face.

“For now… you mean…”

It was hardly a hopeful answer.

But as long as she was alive, that was enough.

The fog of dread that had clouded his mind seemed to clear.

Only one thought filled him entirely:

‘Luise.’

He had to save her.

If she had not yet been sealed, he would take her away by any means necessary. He would hide her and help her escape.

His mind began to race at an abnormal speed.