“……”

Bellota, completely unable to grasp the situation, simply looked at Seiden with eyes full of bewilderment.

“You must explain it in a way that I can understand.”

His eyes, seeming as if about to explode any moment, stared persistently at Bellota, who was frozen in shock, unable to even breathe properly. In her blue eyes, a mix of confusion, astonishment, fear, and shock surfaced.

“Is there really no way to lift the curse?”

Seiden recalled the conversation he overheard from the priests inside the carriage. Through that conversation, he could roughly grasp how things were unfolding.

Bellota was under a curse. A severe, high-level curse even the Pope couldn’t lift.

Seiden, almost forgetting to feign unconsciousness, nearly burst out from behind the carriage to grab the priests by the collar.

During his time as a Holy Knight, Seiden had witnessed countless individuals afflicted by terrible curses. From those whose insides gradually decayed until their whole bodies were consumed by necrosis and died, to those whose bodies crumbled and shattered as soon as they were touched, even those who reached the point of turning their own family into a handful of dust and those who eventually took their own lives by strangling themselves, or those whose every breath emitted a chilling sound and were killed by those who couldn’t stand that noise…

Curses stemming from dark magic were incredibly diverse, horrifying, and severe. Among those he had seen, only a few had succeeded in completely lifting the curse. But Bellota and a curse… The power of the divine and dark magic were polar opposites. How could a saintess be afflicted by a curse?

And with all that conversation, Seiden quickly surmised. The reason why a death row prisoner was needed for Bellota under the curse…

Someone who they could write off and kill to prevent stories about Bellota’s curse from spreading.

“Oh, of course, before that, I’ll give you what you want! Hehehe, I’ll personally take the Saintess’s vir… Ugh!”

The words of the death row prisoner who was babbling…

“It’s indeed a glorious opportunity for the prisoners. To die before Saintess Bellota… sigh…”

As Felton’s anger-filled, awkward voice added to it, a horrific assumption that he never wanted to acknowledge emerged. However, just as Bellota was about to climb on top of him and try to pull down his pants, Seiden realized that his dreadful assumption was correct.

“Why on earth are you in that position…”

Seiden’s low and chilly voice trailed off before continuing.

Bellota was cursed. It was probably a kind of curse that she couldn’t endure without engaging in physical relations with a man. As soon as he realized that, it felt like all the blood had drained from his body. His hand trembled as it pressed against Bellota’s shoulder out of anger.

“Today marks the second full moon. Is Saintess Bellota doing well?”

Felton said that. Today marks the second full moon. That means…

It felt like someone was thrusting a sharp knife deep into Seiden’s chest. If so, did someone, no, those filthy death row prisoners dare… dare to embrace the woman in front of me? Seiden’s face became dizzy with anger as blood surged in reverse.

“Yes. Saintess Bellota is stronger than we think. She has long accepted that such a day would come.”

The voice of the cardinal, who seemed indifferent as if he were Bellota herself, passed through Seiden’s ears in astonishment. It was absurd. Such a strong woman…

“……”

wouldn’t possibly have a face like that.

Seiden looked at Bellota as if he had forgotten to blink. In the depths of her bewildered blue eyes, frozen in confusion, there was a poignant resignation. Seiden realized that Bellota had been holding back her tears for a long time. Tears continued to fall from the tip of her reddened nose.

“Why are you here, Sir…”

As Bellota slowly parted her lips, she was trying to remain calm, but her voice trembled inadequately, making her seem even more frightened. Her once pale face had completely lost its color.

Bellota couldn’t understand the situation at all. Why was the Commander of the Holy Knights here? She hadn’t heard anything like this from the priests at all. Perhaps the commander had learned about my situation? Thinking like that made her heart, which she had been trying so hard to control, sway greatly, and her entire face felt hot with anger.

Perhaps the priests asked the Commander for that role…

As Bellota’s thoughts reached that point, her white face became even more pallid.

“No…”

Bellota murmured in a bluish voice, and Seiden’s eyes narrowed. A faint gasp escaped from her dry lips as she breathed faintly. Her breath was hot.

“Let me go.”

Bellota calmly demanded in the face of danger, but Seiden, standing above her and resisting, didn’t budge an inch.

“I haven’t heard an explanation yet.”

“I can’t tell you, Commander!”

In the end, when Bellota lost control and raised her voice, Seiden’s face stiffened even more. He had never seen Bellota raise her voice like this before. He must find out that secret immediately—something she so desperately wants to hide—at all costs. But he had no patience for the plea that followed.

“Please, please get out…”

Her words came out like a sob. Her plea, laced with obvious fear, softened her previously sharp red eyes into helplessness.

“……”

At that moment, strength drained from the large hand that was holding onto Bellota’s shoulders. As Bellota’s delicate hand quickly pushed Seiden’s chest away, he finally retreated, allowing space for her. It was because his heart melted emptily at seeing Bellota in such a terrifying state of fear.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Bellota managed to rise up with great difficulty and reached for the bell next to the bed but couldn’t do it.

“Gasp…”

When Bellota tried to reach out, she froze in place and stopped breathing. Seiden’s eyebrows twisted as he helplessly watched Bellota.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, nothing… No… Huh…!”

Bellota tried to shake her head again, then she gasped for breath once more. Her body wavered, and Seiden quickly grabbed Bellota’s arms to support her. Bellota’s body felt hot against his grip. Seiden’s face stiffened firmly.

In a moment like this…?

“Saintess…?”

Feeling something unusual, Seiden immediately touched Bellota’s forehead. Surprisingly, her face was also burning up.

“Saintess.”

“Guh…”

Unable to bear it any longer, Bellota collapsed into Seiden’s arms. Seiden quickly caught Bellota and examined her. Could it be that the curse was already manifesting?

Seiden became anxious. He hadn’t yet heard the specifics about Bellota’s curse. What kind of curse she was under, how the curse manifested, how it could be dispelled; if they failed to prevent it in time, what would happen to Bellota, the host of the curse…

But Bellota was already gasping for breath in Seiden’s arms as though she was on the brink of passing out.

“Bellota!”

“Ha, huh…”

“Snap out of it!”

“Huh…”

“Damn it…!”

Seiden reached out for the bell that Bellota had tried to ring a moment ago, but Bellota grabbed his hand to stop him. Though her grip was weak, Seiden’s movement halted at her touch. Bellota’s hand, holding onto his, trembled urgently.

“…….”

As Seiden stared down at Bellota, she barely lifted her head to meet his gaze. Belotta fumbled, grabbed Seiden’s collar, and pulled him closer, tears pooling in her eyes as she whispered, 

“I… I have to… with you…”

After hearing her words, Seiden’s eyes, filled with unease, froze in place. 

“I… with you… a relationship…”

As her words continued, Seiden’s breath ceased. When Seiden remained motionless, Bellota, in distress, reached for his face and pleaded pitifully as she touched it.

“Quickly… please…”

Seiden saw her tear-streaked face that shattered his thoughts in an instant. As Bellota’s compassionate hand touched his cheek, everything within him crumbled. Seiden immediately grasped the hand that had touched his cheek. After clearing his mind of all thoughts, he simply held her small face which was emitting warm breaths in front of him, and then pulled Bellota closer, kissing her deeply.

Their bodies intertwined, and her reddened figure weakly collapsed onto his thick body. Seiden firmly embraced Bellota’s warm body in his arms, enveloping her delicate cheek as he passionately devoured her red lips.

Startled by the sudden kiss, Bellota trembled but did not push away the thick tongue that pressed between her parted lips. It was because she felt the terrifying curse wavering. As his hot tongue unknowingly explored her mouth, entwining with her wandering tongue, Bellota’s vision blurred.

“Hmph.”

Seiden, like a madman, explored her mouth while laying Bellota back on his chest. The large hand that had been gripping her tender cheek now descended lower, lifting the hem of her long skirt.

For a moment, Seiden’s sanity, which had barely held on, sounded a long warning in his mind. It warned him clearly that what he was doing was madness, but the hot and moist flesh touching the tip of his tongue was dizzyingly sweet.

Seiden swept up Bellota’s thigh and quickly delved between her legs. When his large and thick hand touched her p*ssy, her waist twisted. When their deep kiss almost suffocated Bellota, she desperately pushed Seiden’s shoulder away. Only then did his lips reluctantly part.

Bellota’s face was now entirely flushed with tears uncontrollably streaming down her face. Her agonized expression caused something within Seiden that had been long tormented by her disheveled face, and his blood surged.

“Haa…….”

Exhausted, hot breaths settled on her lips, which were swollen to the point of being painful. But she could no longer feel the sensation on her lips. His fingers, hardened with calluses, were pressed against her p*ssy, which was shamefully w*t.