Angela’s heart grew heavy as she climbed the dark, damp stone steps. From the outside, the tower looked beautiful, but inside it was so dark that taking even a single step without relying on candlelight proved difficult.

Once a week. Nearly three months had passed since she began making these trips to this dark place.

Ivres. At the top of the tower, a prisoner captured from the Demon Army was being held.

‘Imprisonment… isn’t this too harsh?’

Angela believed that even if someone was a prisoner, the Holy Knights who championed justice should show some degree of tolerance. However, Angela wasn’t in a position to say such things.

She was climbing the tower to do something far more terrible than imprisonment.

Right before the door, Angela took a deep breath. With each inhale and exhale, her chest rose and fell beneath her white, sacred priestess robes.

A moment later, Angela knocked on the door—a signal that she was entering. When she opened the door, blazing light greeted her, making the previous darkness seem like a lie.

She’d been coming here for three months now, so she could prepare for this much. Angela entered with her eyes tightly shut and quickly closed the door behind her.

Though imprisoned, the senior priests believed Ivres to be a high-ranking demon. She couldn’t show even the smallest opening in front of him.

Those who belong to darkness hate light. This was an obvious truth and fact, like saying the sun rises in the east.

That’s why the Demon Army prisoner was confined here—in the room at the top of the tower, surrounded on all sides by sacred light.

After counting to thirty, Angela opened her eyes. Now that she’d adjusted to the blindingly bright light, she could finally make out objects.

In the room without a single trace of darkness, an incongruous man sat on the bed placed in the center.

His thin clothing failed to hide his silhouette. If his body weren’t bound, he possessed a well-honed physique capable of subduing someone like Ines in an instant. 

His body, packed with solid muscle, still looked good despite being confined here for months without moving a single step.

His handsome face showed no damage whatsoever. A small mole beneath his eye looked like a stray drop of ink, but if anything, it added character to his perfect features, making him seem even more beautiful.

His hair was black. Unlike his hair that resembled the pitch-black night sky, his eyes were a brilliant golden color.

Angela had been taught that black things and colors like worldly gold were evil. That man was composed entirely of things she should avoid and guard against in life—like a blatant warning to stay away.

That’s why Ivres didn’t seem all that impressive to Angela’s eyes. Though his appearance was excessively flamboyant, he just felt like an ordinary human.

‘There’s no way someone like that could be a high-ranking demon…’

But the decision wasn’t made by a lowest-ranking priestess like Angela. She just had to do what her superiors ordered.

Three months ago, after Ivres was brought here as a captive, Angela was assigned to manage him.

Getting a high-ranking demon to reveal secrets was the biggest task she’d been given since becoming a priestess.

“Hello, Ivres.”

Angela offered an awkward greeting. It meant another day like the one a week ago was beginning. Ivres simply smiled an inscrutable smile at Angela’s words. That expression pricked at Angela’s conscience.

When they first brought this person here, the atmosphere hadn’t been this hostile. The treatment of prisoners had been reasonably proper.

However, as the war with the Demon Army turned unfavorable, her superiors wanted Angela to take more decisive action. They demanded she obtain information about the Demon Army by any means necessary. The important phrase here wasn’t “information about the Demon Army.”

It was “by any means necessary.”

Whatever it takes—that’s what mattered.

This precondition had no room for noble and expensive things like being on the side of justice or pangs of conscience.

“Today too… is there nothing you want to tell me? Ivres?”

“Ah.”

Ivres let out a strange, indecipherable exclamation. Angela desperately hoped he would say something—anything. If he would just say even the smallest thing, she wouldn’t have to perform that “sordid act.”

Though it was forbidden to say such things to a prisoner, Angela timidly approached him and spoke.

“Even something very small would be fine. If you give me information, I can skip that act today.”

Ivres’s bewitching golden eyes gleamed brilliantly each time he blinked.

“I’d love to do what you’re asking, Priestess, but I have nothing to say today either.”

Another strange smile. Angela sighed. She’d heard that demons were fickle and lacked loyalty—that they were beings who would betray anyone for their own benefit.

But those words were wrong, if Ivres truly was a demon. For three months now, hadn’t he been enduring imprisonment, threats, and t*rture while maintaining his loyalty to the Demon Army?

“From what I can see, I don’t think you’re actually a demon…”

Angela accidentally let her thoughts slip out. However, Ivres showed no happiness at Angela’s words.

“Whether I’m a demon or not doesn’t really matter to you people, does it? Even if you judged me that way, you wouldn’t let me go.”

“That’s… true.”

“Then hurry up and do what you need to do today. Today I’m truly ’prepared to endure it.’”

Angela’s body flinched at Ivres’s resolute words.

She really didn’t feel like doing this. The aftereffects from a week ago still lingered in Angela’s body. If her own body was like this, the physical state of Ivres, imprisoned in the tower, went without saying.

Hesitating, Angela asked Ivres.

“Should we just rest today?”

“Rest?”

Ivres asked, seemingly surprised. Angela nodded.

“Even if you are a prisoner of the Demon Army, being tortured every day is…”

“How unexpected.”

Ivres looked at Angela with gently closed eyes.

“I’m grateful, but will you be okay? To think your love for your god amounts to only this much. The one in heaven would be deeply dismayed to see it.”

At Ivres’s words, Angela’s body stiffened.

“I think your doctrine has something like this: When punishing evil, don’t be particular about means and methods. They are things I hate, so don’t hesitate to destroy them from the world.”

Ivres’s words, delivered with a slight smile like he was asking if she’d forgotten, backed Angela into a corner.

Though Angela wanted to show him consideration, if she hesitated to t*rture him after hearing those words… that would mean losing her priestess qualification.

“That’s not it at all. I just wanted to show kindness. But if you’re going to say that, Ivres… I have no choice today either.”

Yet contrary to her words, Angela’s eyes wavered.

“I’ll ask one last time. Don’t you have anything you want to tell me? You can’t withstand the t*rture anyway. So…”

“No. And whether I can endure it today isn’t for you to judge, Priestess.”

His response was immediate. Angela lowered her gaze. Really, even after all this, that man maintained his stubbornly consistent attitude.

“I really didn’t want to go this far…”

At Angela’s mumbled excuse, Ivres nodded.

“I know.”

“Give me your hands.”

Angela approached right next to Ivres. Ivres obediently offered his bound hands to Angela, like he’d been waiting for it.

“No scars. That’s a relief.”

At Angela’s words, Ivres smiled slightly. Though his hands were wrapped tightly in chains, there were no scars just like she said. Ivres couldn’t gauge how to respond to Angela’s words, which genuinely seemed relieved.

Angela made Ivres lie down on the bed and connected the chains binding his hands to the headboard.

The headboard was made of strong iron bars, so no matter how much strength he applied, he wouldn’t be able to break it.

After binding his hands, Angela took another deep breath. The surroundings were filled with brilliant light. 

The “t*rture” about to take place in this location brimming with sacred energy always made Angela uncomfortable.

“I’ll begin now.”

Click, click.

The sound of Angela’s priestess robe buttons coming undone clearly reached Ivres’s ears.

The white priestess robe that had been neatly covering her body fell to the floor.

Since there was nothing in the top floor of the tower except the bed positioned in the center, neatly arranging her precious priestess robes on the stone floor was the best she could do.

Ivres watched Angela begin to undress before his eyes with an unblinking, ravenous gaze.