“What happened to the inmate?”

Seiden stared at him blankly and replied.

“Don’t worry about that; as soon as I go back, I will break his neck and kill him.”

A tense atmosphere pervaded the chilly corridor above which they stood.

“What about the saintess…?”

As Cardinal Loubert spoke about Bellota, Seiden’s eyes narrowed fiercely. His eyes showed such intense hostility that Felton held his breath in preparation for another attack. But Seiden took a deep breath and calmly gave a restrained response.

“……She has fallen asleep.”

Upon hearing those words, the priests exchanged glances. Fallen asleep…? The saintess falling asleep here was not part of their plan. It was clear that Bellota would not want to spend the night here either. Yet, she had fallen asleep…

Amidst the heavy and silent silence, Felton couldn’t hold back and suddenly asked,

“Have you completed the task?”

At his bold question, Seiden’s gaze, which had been directed towards the Cardinal all along, slowly turned towards Felton. Even the vicious gaze of Kanbremes’s mad dog, who was known to make demons urinate and flee upon meeting his eyes, was enough to send shivers down one’s spine just by quietly facing it. Nevertheless, Felton met that gaze without flinching.

Task… The straightforward and sinister word made Seiden’s lips curl upwards.

“Do you priests call that a task?”

As Seiden quietly inquired, a perplexed expression appeared on the faces of the priests. Seiden stared pointedly at the priest’s transparent silver eyes, who was pursing his lips as he realized his mistake, then turned back to the Cardinal and said,

“I’ve grasped the situation roughly, but please explain properly what has happened.”

“Do not dare to command the Cardinal!”

Felton got agitated again, but the Cardinal raised his hand to cover his mouth. Seiden, tilting his head slightly, coldly whispered,

“Then would it be better if I went to ask His Holiness right now?”

At those words, everyone’s faces were filled with confusion. The priests were well aware of the temperament of the Commander of the Holy Knights, who was also known as the Mad Dog of Kanbremes. It wouldn’t be unexpected for him to barge in and cause a commotion in front of His Holiness the Pope.

“I will explain.”

The Cardinal finally responded with a calm voice. Although he was trying to appear composed, his face was as red with anger as his hair color.

“The saintess has been cursed.”

There was a helpless and desolate tone in his quiet voice. As Seiden’s reluctant speculations were confirmed, his heart tightened painfully. Seiden quietly lowered his breath and looked at the Cardinal.

“No, it would be more appropriate to say that the saintess’s position has been cursed.”

Seiden’s eyes narrowed at the sigh mixed with a murmur. A curse on the saintess’s position. It was a story that was hard to comprehend. The Cardinal continued to explain.

“The saintess of the Runhardt Empire must receive a man’s essence once every month when her divine power reaches a certain level.”

Seiden continued to glare coldly at the Cardinal with unmoving eyes. In the end, all his speculations turned out to be true.

“The saintess has finally achieved the divine power required by the curse recently, and therefore…”

“What happens if she refuses?”

“…The concentrated divine power inside her will explode. If that happens, not only the saintess but half of the empire will be affected. The current saintess’s divine power is rapidly increasing.”

Seiden’s throat moved slowly.

The explosion of divine power meant Bellota’s death. But Seiden could understand why Bellota had chosen to endure all this pain, what her true intentions were.

Sh*t…

“I… I have to… with you…”

Bellota’s urgent voice and gestures flashed in Seiden’s mind, causing his chest to ache sharply.

“I… with you… a relationship…”

If she was risking only her life at the end of the lowly curse, she would have chosen a noble death, refusing the humiliation the curse demanded. But at the end of Bellota’s life, many others’ lives were at stake.

“Since she became a saintess, she has been prepared for all this. So we must not go against her will.”

Ha. In a surge of rising anger, Seiden gritted his teeth. Bellota had become a saintess at the mere age of seventeen. From that moment on… 

Seiden gave the Cardinal a cold glare.

“Shouldn’t we be looking for a way to lift the curse?”

They had to. When Seiden pressed for an answer, the Cardinal sighed.

“We are doing our best to find a solution.”

At those dismal and powerless words, something that had been simmering inside Seiden finally exploded. Seiden couldn’t bear it and grabbed the Cardinal by the collar. The terrified priests rushed in and clung to him, but Seiden’s body didn’t flinch.

“Commander! You can’t do this!”

“The responsibility of lifting the curse lies with you all. What have you been doing for seven years?”

Seiden growled lowly.

“We tried everything but couldn’t lift it! Do you think we just sat idly by? Do you really think that’s what we did?”

Felton tried to free Seiden’s firm hand that was gripping the Cardinal’s collar and raised his voice.

“Preventing the saintess’s pregnancy was the best we could do. Should we have just let her die like that? Do you think the saintess’s life is more important than her purity?”

As Felton spoke, Seiden’s hand gripping the collar barely loosened. Ha, purity. They seemed to think that he was angry about such trivial matters. It was the limit of imagination that these incompetent priests possessed.

But when the word ‘pregnancy’ came up, it felt like his mind was turned upside down. If by chance, Bellota had borne a child from those wretched convicts, if she had… he could truly swear to it. The priests present would not have survived until morning.

But Seiden had no choice when it came to Bellota’s life. With the realization of this great secret and the emergence of clear images of past saintesses, he knew that they too…

As soon as Seiden released his grip, the priests quickly hid the Cardinal behind them and faced him with determined gazes. Only tense breaths echoed on the chilly corridor. Felton swallowed his trembling breath and calmly spoke to appease Seiden.

“We are also doing our best to find a solution. There must surely be a way to lift any curse. So until then…”

But Felton’s efforts were abruptly cut off by Seiden’s sudden words.

“I will take care of things at the next full moon.”

At his firm statement, all the priests looked surprised and stared at Seiden together.

“And you priests must find a way to lift the curse by any means necessary.”

Seiden’s fierce and cold gaze was directed at Felton.

“It won’t be enough just to do your best. Curses are not something to be taken lightly.”

Seiden spat out a warning-like remark, and then he slowly turned away. The priests stood speechless, watching his retreating figure as he walked towards the door again.

When Seiden walked away, he hesitated for a moment before turning back and opening his mouth again.

“If you dare bring those filthy convicts near the saintess again…”

In his quiet yet seemingly about-to-explode anger-filled voice, the priests’ breathing slowed down.

“Next time, I’ll break all of your necks.”

There was truly a sense of reality in his low voice. The priests all knew about Seiden Blackwood’s dog-like temperament, so they also knew that those words were not just spoken lightly.

Seiden turned back and walked slowly towards the door, grasping the handle.

“Until morning, no one is to come in.”

After Seiden finished his shameless remarks, he opened the door and entered the room. With a thud, the door finally closed, and the corridor regained its silence, where not even a breath could be heard.

“……What should we do now.”

It was only after Seiden disappeared that Felton cautiously spoke up. In the bewildering situation, even Cardinal Loubert let out a small sigh.

This was an unexpected situation. They had considered the possibility of someone finding out about this situation, but they never thought it would be Seiden. And they had never imagined he would come out like this. Nevertheless, seeing the saintess, the tower, and the empire all unharmed, it seemed like tonight’s curse had passed without incident. That meant…

“It’s better this way. We can’t bring the death row inmates here forever.”

“But…”

“The Commander is a man of few words. Despite his eccentric nature, he is trusted even by the Pope, so we have no choice but to believe in him.”

The Cardinal stared firmly at the closed door.

* * *

Bellota, who had fallen asleep in a daze, woke up the next morning. By the time the white moonlight streaming through the window turned into dazzling sunlight and poured onto her face, Bellota slowly opened her eyes.

Rubbing her unusually heavy eyelids, Bellota soon recalled what had happened last night. Startled, she sat up and felt a strange pain in her waist. Closing her eyes tightly, she confirmed that the pain proved yesterday was not a dream.

“……”

She looked around with a confused expression and then froze when she saw a man sitting by the window, absentmindedly gazing outside. The man heard her gasp and slowly turned his head to look at Bellota. It was Seiden.

“Have you woken up?”

Seiden greeted her with a casual tone. Despite seemingly not having slept at all through the night, his face showed no signs of fatigue.

Bellota looked at him, speechless for a moment. The dazzling morning sunlight shone white on Seiden’s face. As the indifferent expression overlapped with the passionate face from last night that had embraced her fiercely, Bellota’s ears burned hot. She remembered being in that man’s arms last night, engaging in intimate activities…

“……”