PMEVBO 27

That bizarre letter, filled with nothing but piles of butterfly carcasses, was really a love letter?

But that wasn’t particularly important. What mattered now was that my body was slipping out of control again. My fingertips tingled, and cold sweat trickled down the back of my neck.

…Damn it.

I had reopened that problematic envelope by myself. You probably know the result without me saying. If a few words made me tremble like this, imagine how I’d react to the real thing.

But compared to opening the envelope, this is a piece of cake…

It wasn’t enough to make me want to abandon everything and run away like I had in front of Iser.

I gritted my teeth, and I forced myself to look calm and lifted my head. To hide my shortness of breath, I took a quick, shallow breath and slowly opened my mouth.

“Just because he stabbed a few insect corpses doesn’t mean I’ll fall for him. I’m not the type to be that easily seduced.”

I felt my lips go completely dry, but I didn’t care. I chuckled and continued.

“From what I hear, you’re quite the easy type? How about it? Want me to catch a few of those flies buzzing around over there? Would you fall for me then?”

“…Ha, fuck.”

Atsula turned his head in disbelief, letting out a hollow laugh before cursing under his breath.

I deliberately smiled. But my palms were ice-cold, and below my knees, my strength had drained away, leaving me trembling.

***

After Lucariel left the hall first, only the two archbishops remained at the vast table.

As Atsula rose from his seat, Tykvana spoke.

“…Archbishop Abet, do you recall what I said last night?”

“Why, do you think I’ve suddenly developed dementia?”

Atsula laughed briefly in response. That chuckle was full of irritation.

Tykvana despised Lucariel to an extreme degree over those hypocritical issues. He thought he could exploit that feeling to his advantage. But Lucariel, that damn bastard, had screwed things up.

That bastard, who used to charge like a wild dog at any trap or anything else, had turned into a slippery snake while he wasn’t looking. No matter how much he tried to scratch, it slipped away like oil, never giving him a chance to grab hold.

To Atsula, it was an irritating change. But to Tykvana, it seemed to look different. Her displays of disgust toward Lucariel gradually lessened, and last night, she even took his side.

‘You’re saying you want to make it look Priest Nebella is being driven to murder by divine power…?’

‘Yes.’

‘..Archbishop Abet, by the time I learned you had attempted to poison the Priest Nebella using my name, it was already too late. There was nothing I could do. But now is different. Nothing has begun yet. Then it can still be stopped.’

‘Huh? What could you possibly do?’

‘I will report this to His Holiness.’

‘…….’

‘If that frightens you, then stop trying to take another’s life out of loathing. Whether it’s Priest Nebella’s life or anyone else’s.’

That damn meddling seems set to continue today.

“You haven’t given up yet? You planned to provoke Priest Nebella into losing control of his divine power? You do realize you could get hurt too if that happens—”

Thud!

Atsula kicked over the chair beside him and smirked.

“You’re the one who backed down and ran away, so it’s a bit much for you to start meddling now.”

“……”

“You said you’d report it to His Holiness.”

Atsula placed both hands on the table, leaning forward until his face was inches from Tykvana’s. He continued with a smile.

“Go ahead and try. Then I’ll report that I caught you trying to poison that bastard Lucariel. Let’s see whose word His Holiness believes.”

With that, Atsula left the hall.

The poison used on Lucariel’s meal with the maid’s help. Only Atsula knew the true nature of that poison.

The lava serpent Vulcanus was a legendary monster extinct long ago. Its venom was said to be odorless and tasteless, a deadly poison that melted the victim’s internal organs the moment it was consumed, leading to death. Only a few lines in ancient texts and oral traditions remained in the world, making it known to very few. Yet, Atsula had succeeded in obtaining it.

Initially, Atsula sought the venom for himself. He was captivated by records stating that if a bearer of divine power consumed it and survived, their divine power would gradually increase.

However, there was a fatal flaw: no way to control the power thus enhanced. It was said that when divine power pushed to its limits encountered intense emotion, it would run wild. The bearer would lose all reason, rampaging until every ounce of power was exhausted.

‘Even the initial surge when divine power first manifests leaves some reason intact.’

No matter how much he searched through the texts, he couldn’t find a way to counteract the poison’s side effects. Yet, it was a shame to simply discard the poison he’d worked so hard to obtain.

That’s when he thought of Lucariel.

‘Since he doesn’t have any divine power, I figured he’d just drop dead if he ate it…’

He never imagined Lucariel had been hiding his divine power.

When he first heard Lucariel had killed the maid, he thought it was simple. That lucky bastard Lucariel had beaten him to it. It must’ve been the stupid maid who gave it away. That was all he thought.

But seeing Lucariel use divine power at the banquet changed his mind.

If Lucariel truly manifested divine power before age 13, that despicable bastard had concealed it for at least four years.

But if he suddenly manifested divine power at the banquet…

‘Perhaps he ingested poison, and its effects caused him to unleash divine power unknowingly?’

If that were the case, Lucariel was now nothing but a pile of gunpowder drenched in oil. A single spark could send it blazing in an instant. In a moment of heightened emotion, with reason gone, who knew what Lucariel might do?

‘At the very least, this entire Hayut Castle would be blown to smithereens.’

But he couldn’t be certain. Because the divine power Lucariel had used at the banquet hadn’t been uncontrolled. It had been almost perfectly restrained.

‘What is this? Has the poison’s effect not progressed that far yet? Or did he not ingest the poison in the first place?’

In fact, he had deliberately provoked Lucariel just now to confirm this. This time too, he wanted to see if he could control his divine power, if the amount he possessed remained unchanged, and gauge whether he had indeed ingested the poison.

But he couldn’t confirm any of it.

‘He’s so furious about the love letter that his face went deathly pale, yet he hasn’t used a single bit of divine power?’

If he can control it that well, doesn’t that mean he didn’t eat the poison?

Frowning and gritting his teeth, Atsula suddenly realized he was standing in front of the duke’s study. Lost in thought while walking, he must have veered off course.

“This is infuriating.”

He clicked his tongue, about to turn away. Conversation between the duke and the butler seeped through the crack of the closed door.

“Ah, my head… Just how long will this damn headache last!”

“Since we can no longer charge Priest Nebella with the maid’s murder, what if we resubmit a petition to His Holiness the Pope regarding the suspicion of theft of the duke’s belonging?”

“You fool! What if His Holiness finds out what that item is then?!”

” Ah, that was short-sighted of me…”

“Damn it! That good-for-nothing scoundrel must have stolen it and hidden it in the room the very day he killed the maid. Didn’t you say his wounds heal unusually quickly?”

“I didn’t manage to confirm that.”

“What have you been doing all this time without even checking that?! Go and find out immediately!”

“Yes, understood, Your Grace!”

Atsula, who had been standing with arms crossed, ear pressed to the door, grinned. Then, before the butler could step out, he vanished down the hallway.

***

I returned to my room from the grand hall, but my limbs still trembled, and the back of my neck was cold, drenched in cold sweat.

But instead of running a bath, I immediately opened the vanity cabinet. I don’t know why I did it.

It was halfway down the underground corridor leading to the hideout. The candle inside the lamp burned down completely and finally went out.

The corridor was instantly plunged into darkness.

Ah, I forgot to replace the candle and just came down…

I let out a hollow laugh at my own stupidity and gathered divine power on my index finger. I tried to form it into a small flame to use as a makeshift lamp. A tiny flame flared up from the tip of my finger, and as expected, the surroundings brightened.

What would I have done without divine power?

But my relief was short-lived.

Poof.

The divine power surged out uncontrollably, then vanished as if it had exploded.

What? Why is this happening…?

I tried gathering divine power on my index finger again. But the divine power I squeezed out didn’t coalesce; it scattered in all directions.

“…It never rains but it pours.”

Was it because I wasn’t feeling well? Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d tried using divine power when I was in such poor condition.

If I’d been at the start of the corridor, I could have gone back to my room to swap out the candles. But I was already halfway there, so I had no choice but to stubbornly continue on my path.

I began moving forward, feeling my way along the wall with one hand. How long had I been walking like this? Suddenly, my breath caught in my throat.

Damn it, not this again…

I hadn’t been afraid of the dark since I was very young. Normally, I wouldn’t have felt anything in this situation. But now, after hearing all that about the cardinal and the love letter, I felt like I was going crazy.

“Ugh.”

The pressure tightening around my throat made me reflexively grab my neck. The lamp slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor. My whole body was shaking so much I couldn’t steady myself. I ended up leaning against the wall and slowly slid down to sit.

Then, a small light approached from the far end of the hallway.

“Lucariel…?”