At the Pope’s appearance, the atmosphere in the square shifted abruptly. His Holiness himself has come forth to punish the witch. People clasped their hands toward the large cross hanging at his neck and prayed. Some even wept as they begged the heavens to punish them for having been swayed, if only for a moment, by the witch’s allure.

“You joined hands with the demon Ranesh and shook the very pillars of this Holy Empire.”

Ludvig opened the holy scripture and raised his voice. His words were imbued with divine authority and could be heard clearly without the need for amplification.

“In human guise, you bewitched men and corrupted their minds. You disrupted the sacred order of the imperial palace and plotted to harm His Majesty the Emperor, the Holy Empire’s foremost ruler and the Lord’s most beloved son. Do you acknowledge these sins?”

“……”

What nonsense was he spouting? She had never been a witch, so how could she have seduced anyone or tried to harm the emperor? Using the same logic, shouldn’t Alix — who had seduced her and drawn her blood — be considered the real demon?

If she had had even a shred of strength left, she would have thrown those words back at them. But she was on the brink of death, unable to summon enough breath to speak.

As if she could not hear the Pope’s threatening voice, Selonia stared blankly ahead. When no answer came, a murmur of unease rippled through the crowd.

“Confess your sins!”
“Wicked witch!”
“Repent! Repent!”

‘Repent for what, exactly?’

Selonia felt as though she might burst into laughter, but her completely drained body wouldn’t even allow the corners of her lips to twitch. Selonia merely stared dully at the crowd, passively accepting the accusations being hurled at her.

If she had truly been a witch who wielded sorcery, she would never have been subjected to such grotesque injustice. In fact, at that moment, she almost wished she were one, as the Grand Cathedral’s tests had proclaimed. If that were the case, she would have set the imperial palace ablaze and brought the Grand Cathedral itself crashing down. She would slit open the belly of the man who had deceived and betrayed her, making him bleed as much as he had taken from her. Only then would it have been fitting for her to be swallowed by the flames.

The memory of the man’s golden eyes — which had never concealed their desire for her — made bile rise in her throat. Selonia forced her stiff neck to turn. If the Pope himself was presiding over the execution, then surely the Emperor would be present as well.

Her winter-lake eyes quickly found the man who had betrayed her.

Alix was sitting on the terrace of a tall building, surrounded by guards. Vanessa Bernac was sitting beside her.

Although Pope Ludvig was listing Selonia’s supposed crimes one by one, not a single word reached Alix. Vanessa was smiling brightly, leaning close to Alix and whispering in his ear. Alix nodded absently, looking visibly bored, then his gaze shifted and settled on Selonia.

The instant she realized he was looking at her, his eyes widened. He sprang to his feet. At that same moment, Selonia tore her gaze away. The Pope raised both arms and pronounced her sentence.

“Though every charge of attempting to overthrow the Empire has been proven, you still refuse to confess, thereby proving the depth of your guilt. Yet the Lord, in his boundless mercy, extends salvation even to one so wicked. Therefore, in the name of the Order and the Empire, we decree that the witch Selonia Brienne be granted the flames of purification!”

The moment the words ‘flames of purification’ were spoken, they swept through the crowd like wildfire. Grace. Salvation. Purification. Cloaked in sacred language, cruelty was softened — made righteous. The prayers of the frenzied masses rose higher and higher, filling the square with a roar of fervor.

“Descendant of the evil god! Be saved in the purifying flames!”

A boy’s voice rang out from somewhere at the front. Immediately afterwards, a stone flew through the air, bounced once, and came to rest at Selonia’s feet.

Selonia stared at it with empty eyes. As she did so, the Holy Knights approached and began to bind her to the stake.

The rope loosened from her wrists only to be wound tightly around her waist and upper body. Her arms were wrenched behind her back and crossed, and her already bleeding wrists were bound even more firmly than before.

“Do not gag her, the louder her screams, the more surely they will reach the Lord.”

When she heard the Pope speak, Selonia almost let out a hollow laugh. ‘Reach the Lord?’ It was more likely that they wanted her screams of agony to amuse the crowd and turn her suffering into a spectacle, instilling fear of witches in the masses through cruelty.

Had all the women who had been dragged away and burned before her been innocent, just like her? For some reason, Selonia felt a disturbing certainty that they had been. Then who truly were the demons? The innocent women who were dying, or the Grand Cathedral and the imperial family who were making false accusations and handing out such brutal punishments?

As these thoughts ran through her mind, those who had bound her stepped back. Priests formed a circle around her and began to chant prayers. The low, monotonous cadence rode the wind and flowed downward, and one by one, the people gathered in the square joined in.

“We will now carry out the execution by fire.”

One of the priests stepped forward as he spoke. On his chest gleamed a symbol where an eye and chains crossed—the mark of an inquisitor.

“Do you have any last words, witch?”

“……”

She could have said a lot of things. But on the way here, she had decided not to give them the satisfaction of saying anything that would please them. She had no intention of giving them even a hint of the pleading, despair, screaming or sobbing that they were so eager to hear.

When no answer came, the inquisitor nodded as if in understanding and reached his hand back. The wooden brand that a Holy Knight had placed in his grasp was wrapped in cloth thoroughly soaked with oil. The moment the inquisitor touched it, the end of the brand burst into flames.

“In the name of Ardian, purify the witch!”

The voice invoking the god — and the unwavering certainty in the inquisitor’s eyes — conveyed absolute conviction that he was acting righteously. He lowered his hand towards the lowest tier of stacked logs.

Sensing the end, Selonia’s eyelids fluttered slowly. It was almost laughable that the last thing she would see before her death would be people either cheering or condemning her.

‘What would they do if they learned I was innocent?’

Perhaps the truth about whether she was guilty or innocent did not matter to them at all. To preserve their faith, they needed to believe that the woman before them was a witch who threatened the Empire’s order.

Then, as she lifted her head and stared blankly past the crowd, she caught sight of someone she never expected to see there.

‘…Kailos?’

Before she could doubt her own eyes, his features came into sharp focus. Not far away, the Grand Duke of Laharden was forcing his way through the crowd towards her.

Had he come in such haste? Despite the cold, he wore only a single, half-unbuttoned shirt. His jet-black hair swayed with each long stride, stark against the falling snow.

His unmistakable violet eyes — the mark of House Laharden — never once left her.

She had once met his gaze at close range. Just as she had been then, captivated by eyes as vast as the night sky and glittering with icy brilliance, Selonia now found herself unable to look away.

The eyes that she had thought impossible to read were now flooded with a fierce light, as though violent waves were crashing within them. Had she ever seen the Grand Duke wear such an expression before? The crackle of logs catching fire rose from beneath her feet, yet for a brief moment, she forgot her own peril and could only stare at his face.

Was she mistaken? Perhaps, on the brink of death, her vision was deceiving her. His features were twisted and layered with rage, shock, sorrow, and despair that she could not begin to fathom.

Her heart jolted as though something were being torn from her chest. She could not understand it. According to Alix, this man had demanded her execution by fire. So why was he approaching her with that expression?

She wanted to seize him by the collar and demand answers.

‘You were the one who tried hardest to crush me—who succeeded in burning me alive like this. So why… why do you look at me that way?’

Was this contradiction meant to humiliate her even further?

Her bloodless lips parted, but no sound emerged.

The flames that had been creeping upward suddenly surged higher.

With a violent rush of fire, the once-chill air heated in an instant. Pain slammed into her, as though countless sharp needles were being driven into her feet all at once. The stark contrast between the searing heat and the biting winter wind only made the moment feel more merciless.