Giselle thought back to the child who had seemed nothing short of a miracle. After healing her wound, Eve had gone on to treat several of the soldiers nearby. What half a trained priest could manage, a three-year-old had accomplished on her own.

‘How could that be possible?’

Giselle leaned back in her chair, feeling weak with astonishment. Her own childhood had been almost identical. Even her great-uncle, who was a priest, had praised her extraordinary spiritual power. Eve’s control, however, was as fragile as a teenager’s. If she were sent to a monastery, she would undoubtedly be hailed as a prodigy.

‘…And the more she used holy power, the weaker the black magic seemed to grow.’

Giselle observed closely as the girl healed others. Each time she invoked holy power, the black magic flowing through her veins became weaker.

It was as though she wielded both forces as one. It was like a vast reservoir of energy with two outlets: when she opened the holy outlet, power flowed as holy light; when she opened the other outlet, black magic poured out.

Therefore, expending her holy power also drained the black magic.

This was a rare case — no, a unique one.

‘Come to think of it, in Dietrich’s research…’

She pressed her fingers to her temple, lost in thought—when the office door swung open. Whoever it was had no sense of courtesy. Turning, she found—as expected—her illustrious former fiancé.

“Giselle.”

When she heard Shed’s voice, Giselle’s expression hardened with open distaste.

He strode in with long, forceful strides and dropped a stack of documents onto her desk with a heavy thud.

“Here are the records on Luise. Proof that she was nothing but a victim.”

“…You came here to say this again?”

Her head already ached from the matter, and now he had appeared, offering more meddling advice.

“I’ve already spoken with Luise about it.”

“And you still mean to seal her, even after reading this?”

“Shed… if Luise lives, people’s fear will only grow. And what if others take up black magic as well?”

“Even if this research is proven to be true, would they still be calling for her to be silenced?”

His cold eyes bore down on her where she sat. Giselle moved her lips in silent prayer once again.

“I’m sorry, but the decision has been made to keep the research confidential.”

“Why? Is it because it shames the temple? Or is it because you allowed High Priest Dietrich to run rampant under your nose while this horror was unfolding?”

At his cutting words, Giselle pressed her brow with her fingers. She could not deny it.

The Pope and the Order wanted above all to keep this disgrace from ever reaching the world.

“Ha… And if someone were to see this research and try to use it for black magic?”

“I’m not saying we should publish every detail of the results!”

In response to Giselle’s flimsy excuse, Shed’s voice rose. He wasn’t demanding that every detail of the experiments be made public. At the very least, people should know the extent of the sacrifices and what Luise had endured. Only then would they truly grasp the horror of black magic.

“We want to minimize social unrest.”

“You want to preserve your unshakable authority. And for that, you need a scapegoat. It’s simple, and it’s safe.”

Shed biting words exposed the temple’s hypocrisy. His temper snapping, Giselle slammed the stack of records he had brought and rose from her chair.

“And you’re not the one letting your personal feelings run wild here? Stop being so damned stubborn!”

The High Priestess cast off all pretence of composure, lashing out with raw fury. Her voice was sharp enough to split the air as she confronted Shed, but he didn’t so much as flinch. He stood unmoved, as if her words could not shake him. This only served to further stoke her anger.

“And if Luise lives, then what? That woman will live forever. You’ll die, and she’ll still go on! Don’t you understand how unnatural that is?”

Even after shouting, she was still angry. She grabbed a pile of papers and threw them at him. The white sheets burst against his chest and scattered like feathers across the room.

Her cold, steady gaze swept the papers strewn across the floor before lifting once again.

“Luise never asked for that power. She’s fought all her life to be free of that curse.”

“And that’s why she’s chosen to end it this way. So respect her choice!”

“Her choice? Backed into a corner with no way out—that’s not a choice.”

His lips twisted with disgust. ‘If you pave a single road and force someone to drive down it, can you call that a choice?’

“Exactly. There is no other way.”

Giselle could not understand what he was trying to force her to do. She did not want to condemn Luise to the fate of a heretic, but she could not escape the situation.

As she seethed, Shed lifted his eyes, his long lashes no longer veiling the blaze beneath.

“…And what if there were another end?”

He reached for one of the heavy volumes he had brought in, a selection of Dietrich’s extensive experimental logs. He opened a page and placed it in front of her.

Giselle’s expression froze solid as she read.

“…You mean purification?”

Her lips quivered, but Shed’s eyes never wavered as he nodded.

On that page was a fragment of the lost Desidera Scripture, transcribed by Dietrich. Many had speculated that the final chapters of the scripture described the resting place of Mephisto’s seal, or explained how it was bound.

However, this speculation was completely wrong.

The final passage of the Desidera Scripture did not speak of sealing the heretic Mephisto, but of his purification.

“Saint Desidera knew as much: leaving behind a seal would only bring disaster in time.”

Shed spoke slowly, turning the pages of the scripture.

“And so he sought a way to uproot black magic completely.”

Until now, heresy and black magic were only viewed as things to be destroyed. It was simple. The priests had never considered purification. To them, heretics were sinners, so their sole focus was on punishment and judgement.

However, if a heretic could be purified, everything would change. There would be no more need to fear demons.

Giselle understood this, and she closed her eyes and bit her lip.

“I know what you want, but it’s too soon. This isn’t something so simple.”

She shook her head. Perhaps, as he said, black magic could be purified from a heretic’s body. But who could do such a thing?

“That journal only had a line or two.”

Dietrich had never documented a method before. His research had never focused on purification. All he left behind were his anger and regret that Mephisto had been purified and erased, along with notes on how he could have done things differently.

But no method.

How could anyone attempt it without one? Pouring holy power into a heretic would only harm the body — it could not simply be done.

“Then we’ll find a way.”

“And when, in what age, do you expect to find it?”

Giselle shot back. It wasn’t as simple as rolling dice. It would require long, arduous study. A month? A year? Ten? Perhaps even generations. No one could say.

With that, Shed snapped the book shut.

“If I find a way—”

“What?”

“If I bring back the answer, can you promise not to seal Luise?”

“What nonsense is this…?”

To Giselle, his words were absurd. A few scattered lines in a journal could never yield an answer. Unless, perhaps, he found the lost Desidera Scripture Dietrich once claimed to have seen…

“Then I’ll bring back the Desidera Scripture.”

“You can’t mean… you truly mean to find it?”

“The Scripture, yes.”

Under normal circumstances, she would have laughed in his face and mocked him until her sides ached.

But she couldn’t. Not this time.

He was far too serious and desperate.

“The other High Priests are on their way.”

Giselle told him, offering earnest counsel against that foolish hope. At most, there were five days left.

“Not even I can stop them.”

She added the warning as if to say that he should not press his demands any further. Shed’s veins stood out sharply as he gripped Dietrich’s journal tighter.

“…That doesn’t matter. Just promise me this—if I find the way, you’ll give her a chance.”

His tone was at once unfailingly courteous and unshakably stubborn.

“If you truly find it, then yes.”

Giselle gave her word, with a laugh meant for what she still thought a futile hope.

🌺⟡───⟡🌺 🌺⟡───⟡🌺

Luise looked out of the window at the setting sun. The scarlet glow quickly faded into the bluish haze of dusk. The chill wind of the past few days blew the last leaves off the trees.

Time slipped away as if the clock’s spring had been wound too fast. No sooner had the sun set than the moon was high in the sky, bringing with it the darkness of night.

Three days had passed since Giselle made her promise. In that time, the temple had moved her from the Lester estate, and she had been granted her last days with Eve.

“…The token of absolution has been approved.”

Giselle announced that preparations for Eve were complete. The drawn, weary look on her face revealed how hard she had fought for approval, exhausting all of the Marlhein name’s authority and her own in the process. Despite the bargain, Luise felt nothing but deep gratitude.

The High Priests were due to arrive soon. Once Eclace had arrived, Giselle would give the token to Eve. Then it would be time for farewells. The preparations for the sealing were almost complete.

So Luise began her own quiet preparations.

She watched Eve, who was lying beside her, her soft breaths rising and falling as she slept. That gentle sound was lovelier than any music, and Luise listened to it as though she could never tire of it. When the blanket slipped, she carefully drew it back over her daughter’s small chest.

‘…You’ll understand one day. That I had no choice but to make this decision for you.’

Luise brushed back a lock of hair clinging to Eve’s cheek with tender fingers.