“……”

Ella smiled, her eyes curving.

“Didn’t you say we are to be husband and wife?”

At the sweet whisper, Zikhart’s heartbeat surged.

As though he had forgotten entirely that he had been walking with Dienne only moments ago, his eyes were filled with nothing but Ella.

***

Dienne returned to her palace in a thoroughly foul mood.

The maids attending her were on edge, exchanging nervous glances.

‘Why is Dienne so angry?’

‘I have no idea either.’

She had been nothing but blissfully happy for days.

On top of that, today she had set out for a stroll in the rear garden with the crown prince, who had come to find her despite a busy schedule. She had been smiling without pause right up until they left.

With no way of knowing the reason, the maids stole anxious glances at Dienne.

Her clenched fist trembling, Dienne gave a cold command.

“Everyone out.”

“Yes, Dienne.”

Once the maids were gone, the fury Dienne had been pressing down exploded.

She had been raised to never lose her composure even in anger, but right now she couldn’t remember any of that.

The fan in her hand snapped under her grip. She hurled the broken pieces into the air as though they were someone’s neck.

Crash.

The full-length mirror it struck shattered into pieces.

“Ha! Over that common-born saintess of all people!”

It had been a pleasant walk.

“He left me behind?!”

Over the past few nights, Zikhart’s unusual persistence hadn’t been unwelcome, but Dienne had felt a quiet unease beneath it.

She had pushed it aside, though.

The ardent love that had returned, the desire-filled gaze, she had welcomed them and set her unease far away.

But today, having that unease confirmed right before her eyes left her feeling wretched.

Because of Zikhart, who had been thinking of the saintess even while craving her every night.

“Aaah!”

Dienne’s hysterical scream filled the room.

A nervous swipe of her hand sent the centerpiece on the tea table crashing to the floor.

The decorative flowers were crushed mercilessly beneath her feet.

“You despised her so much, so why now, all of a sudden!”

She had vaguely sensed the saintess‘s change in air since the Orpen duchy banquet.

Even the subtle quality of her gaze was different from before. The ease with which she handled the nobility, her sharp way with words……

Even to Dienne’s own eyes, she seemed like an entirely different person.

She simply hadn’t expected Zikhart’s heart to be shaken this easily.

“Don’t tell me…… that woman……”

If what she had dismissed as curiosity was something genuine, she could no longer afford to overlook it.

Dienne smoothed her disheveled skirt and straightened her posture.

“Come in.”

At her word, those outside opened the door as though they had been waiting.

The maids moved to clean the floor without flinching at the state of the room. The ladies-in-waiting stood with bowed heads, waiting for Dienne to speak.

She took one deep breath and opened her mouth, her face composed and elegant, all anger erased.

“Send word to the Orpen duchy. Tell them I wish to meet soon.”

Her smile was no different from any other day. The same Dienne, the crown prince’s consort, as always.

***

A dark night with even the stars hidden behind clouds.

Ella headed to the chapel at Lake Wellea under the pretense of a purification prayer.

Having coughed blood once already that day, no one would disturb her if she spent the night here.

It was a perfect night to slip out.

She surveyed the inside of the chapel and circled the altar. The wooden altar that had been broken was now replaced with a sturdy, elegant marble one.

“It should definitely be here……”

The problem was that the interior layout had been completely changed during the restoration, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact location.

After running her hands over various parts of the chapel, Ella approached the altar again.

“The only thing left is this floor……”

She folded her knees and sat down.

Using the altar as a brace, she pushed the cold marble with all her strength. She gritted her teeth and pushed, but it wasn’t enough.

“Move, please……”

Sweat gathered on her forehead and ran down the line of her face. And at last, the marble gave the faintest shift.

Ella caught it and drove her toes into the ground, releasing a burst of force.

Grrrk.

The altar moved with a heavy grinding sound. The objects on the platform toppled and scattered in every direction, but Ella paid them no mind.

Her eyes were fixed only on the marking beneath the altar, the symbol meaning ‘Solea’s Rest.’

“Found it!”

Inside a large circle, a flame motif and a water drop motif faced each other, and at the center was an hourglass surrounded by a resting prayer inscription.

It was a kind of design drawn with holy water dye. Whoever had drawn it must have possessed considerable holy power.

Solea’s Rest.

Since ancient times in the Becarto Empire, there had existed a curse that said disturbing the chief god’s rest would corrupt the soul. Perhaps because of that, even those who had carried out the chapel’s restoration appeared not to have touched this spot.

“So that’s why they made the altar unnecessarily large. Addressing this would require notifying the Grand Temple.”

The marking was drawn inside an iron circle, and the rust already eating red into the rim supported that theory.

“Then, shall I begin?”

Ella brought her hand to the hourglass portion and closed her eyes.

She called Marian to mind and focused her concentration into her palm, the way Marian had done.

‘It will work……’

A faint blue light began to gather at Ella’s fingertips and seep into the hourglass marking.

The iron surface hummed and trembled faintly with a small resonance, but no significant change followed.

After some time, a headache began to build as her holy power gradually depleted. The blue light at her fingertips was growing weaker.

“No! I have to get out there!”

Please, please open.

Against Ella’s desperate wish, the blue light at her fingertips finally vanished.

This d*mn holy power!

Curses poured from her mouth without stopping, but Ella didn’t stop concentrating force into her fingertips.

Sticky sweat seeped from every part of her body. Her breathing and pulse quickened.

“Hah, hah.”

Biting down on the inside of her cheek, Ella closed her eyes to block out the spinning in her vision.

She drew strength up from her core and held her breath.

‘D*mn it, let’s see who wins.’

But the more she concentrated, the more it felt like every vein in her body was drying up.

Blood surged up without warning.

“Ugh!”

Dark red blood dripped steadily through her clenched teeth. The crushing pain at the pit of her stomach twisted Ella’s face.

“What…… is this, suddenly.”

It wasn’t the toho leaves. Their effect had already been used during dinner with Zikhart.

‘Holy power depletion?’

That wasn’t it either. She didn’t have enough holy power to trigger something like this.

Ella wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and drew ragged breaths.

“Something’s wrong…… with my body.”

Her heart was being squeezed as her blood vessels contracted and expanded in rapid, relentless cycles. The blood from her mouth wouldn’t stop.

When the pain made it impossible to breathe, Ella pressed her hand to the floor and bent forward.

It felt almost identical to the pain she had experienced when Marian’s holy power had flooded into her before the return.

‘Could it be Solea?’

She had been quiet all this time, but that psychotic chief god was capable of anything.

If she survived this, she would look for a way to obliterate the wretched chief god first. Even if it was reckless.

‘Go to hell!’

Even through the agony, Ella didn’t stop cursing Solea.

But all that came out of her mouth were pain-soaked m*ans.

“Ugh……”

Just as her vision was about to go dark, without warning, something inside her chest snapped with a clean, distinct sound.

In that instant, her pale blue pupils dilated, taking on a color as deep as an abyss. Something ice-cold began to move through her veins.

Her heart seemed to freeze with a sharp, ringing sensation.

“Hah!”

Air rushed into her lungs all at once. She felt nauseous.

Her head swam, as though she had inhaled a lungful of clear, crisp mountain air all at once.

A surge, and then vivid red blood welled up once more, carrying a metallic scent.

Crack, crack, crash!

The iron surface her fingertips had been touching split apart like ice and shattered.

Ella caught her breath in short, sharp gasps and slowly lifted her head.

“What was that……?”

She felt as though something enormous had just happened.