Chapter 31

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T/N: Slight mentions of suicide, be warned.

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“Don’t touch her. Stand back.”

Goosebumps rose up my body as Izek clasped my half-stretched body. A faint blue light was gushing from Izek’s palm, holding Freya, who was throwing up blood.

That’s…

Izek looked back at me for the last time.

His calm face, which showed neither agitation nor shock, was unexpected, but his chilling cold frozen eyes were even more unfamiliar.

“Get out of here.”

“What?”

“Ivan! Please do it for me!”

Others followed behind Izek, who ran quickly into the temple. Ellenia also looked at me once and ran straight after him. It was noisy everywhere. A chaotic mess. I raised my arms and gazed blankly at Freya’s blood on my long sleeves.

I thought of my sister.

To be exact, her last appearance. The dried blood on her thin wrist…

“You…”

A rough hand suddenly clasped the back of my neck. Huh, this kid? I never expected him to be friendly in the first place. But why was he attacking me all of a sudden?

“You did it!”

“What…”

“I knew this would happen. From the beginning, this witch was behind her!”

What?

With a loud sound, the force that gripped the back of my neck loosened. Thwack, thwack, thwack! I opened my eyes wide, swallowing a cough.

A man was beating Lorenzo’s head mercilessly like a tin drum, with his huge palm. Lorenzo couldn’t even dare to fight back and soon fell on the floor.

“Lady Rudbeckia. Please forgive this rudeness. My foolish son seems to be out of his mind for a while.” The man’s eyes, who politely bowed to me, were a cold purple.

In other words, Marquis Furiana had beat up his own son. What a shrewd move. This was the front yard of the Temple, the land of Brittania, and I was the Pope’s daughter to whom the temple swore allegiance.

It was stupid to come at me here and accuse me all of a sudden; nothing short of accusing the temple and the Vatican City together. The problem was that the fact seemed to be amplifying antipathy.

Boom!

Even before I could answer anything, the roar of thunder shook heaven and earth. Screams rang. Someone who approached quickly wrapped their arms around my shoulder and led me somewhere.

“My Lady, this way… D-Damn it, forgive me for being rude.”

In one go, my blood-soaked sleeve was ripped off by Lord Ivan’s grasp. His hands were also surrounded by blue smoke-like light. Beyond rudeness, it was an act of wonder.

“Come on, everyone, get out of the temple quickly! This is not an emergency drill!”

“Area B sealed immediately, not emergency training! I repeat, block Area B immediately, not emergency training!”

“Let’s take the people out first!”

Thick raindrops poured down over the rushing people. I felt that I was the only one who didn’t understand what was going on. While I was being dragged, I heard a faint cry from afar. It was a bizarre cry, a mixture of flute and trumpet sounds.

Paladins with torches burning green ran and put the torches between the walls. Black smoke was emanating from over the wall. I had never heard or seen a case where the monsters come near the temple or attempt to get close to the temple.

I clearly remembered that it was nothing but suicide for them.

Apparently, most people were also very shocked.

“Sir Ivan!”

“Andymion, can you replace me…”

“He’ll take care of you, my lady,” said Sir Ivan, who immediately handed me over to Andymion, and ran to the other side, saying, “What the hell is this on a f*cking holiday?”

I was then handed over to Andymion and taken inside the temple with the others. Soon, the doors closed one after another with a thud. It was nearly half a day after the doors opened again.

Fortunately, Freya’s life was saved.

It happened in the front yard of the temple, so thanks to quick action by the paladins, she was able to escape. The person who brought us wine that day disappeared somewhere during the confusion and his whereabouts were unknown.

It was an unusual incident in many ways.

Since I and Ellenia drank right in front of them, they were openly aiming for Freya from the beginning. The placement of the glass was far too accurate for it to be a random attack.

“It’s called magic stone solution.”

“What?”

“The poison that the Marquis Furiana’s daughter drank. Do you have any idea?” Duke Omerta, who asked this, was calm and cool.

Unless one’s an idiot, it was clear what he was implying. It was not just a normal poison. Magic stone solution.

Here, the Magic Stone was not just a stone, but an object that was used as a bait for summoning demons. One combined the Magic Stone, which was the core of a dead monster, with the Holy Spirit Stone.

Did I mention that it could be used only after putting human blood on it?

It was quite understandable that there was an unexpected disturbance that led to the blockade of the temple. The point was that Magic Stone had a tricky procedure for even Paladins to get permission to use it. It was a rare artifact. The quantity of Magic Stones owned by each temple was also limited, and the production was done in the Vatican City. Which meant…

“The magic stones kept at the temple are in place. Every single one of them. Do you understand what I mean?”

……He meant that I was the only one behind the incident, adding very plausible evidence to the allegations.

Hello, Father? It’s weird that you don’t understand me! Ha, I want to cry. This damn situation is such that even I’d doubt myself.

When Lorenzo lost his reason and attacked me, Marquis Furiana quickly stepped up and shut him down, but there was no doubt that most people were suspicious of my family. The notoriety of the Borgian family’s assassination history was already a public secret, and my reputation associated with my family was nothing good either. Furthermore, the Archbishop of Elendale was Freya’s uncle, so it was more reasonable for them to suspect me than an insider. For some or the other reason, they’d blame me…

“Father… “

“Of course, I will not tolerate tying my daughter-in-law into such nonsense allegations. You’re a part of the Omerta family, obviously.” The Duke, who answered in a sharp tone, soon coughed in vain as to what he had said.

That sounds new, even to my ears. I can’t believe I’m family with them.

“I don’t think you’re the kind of person to do that. I just want you to tell us here if you know something we need to know. My son told me not to say anything, but….” He was beating around the bush to ask if it’s related to my family.

I twisted my eyebrows at the Duke staring at me.

“I, I don’t know what you’re saying. If you doubt me, I really don’t know what to say. Should I… “Tears welled up in my eyes.

My nasty father-in-law was looking at me with a blank look on his face.

“I too, I too know what you’re all thinking. I have eyes and ears, too. You think I’m jealous of her. So I was blinded by jealousy and did such a terrible thing…”

“What.. who dares to say such nonsense? I’m just… Don’t, just don’t cry for now. I didn’t really mean to ask that.”

What do you mean? Damn it, I’m definitely acting but he actually thought I was crying. I was hoping for some luck, but this was like a lightning bolt. I took the Duke’s handkerchief and cried silently, “I-If Lord Izek is also suspicious, I’d rather ……”

“Don’t say that– it’s not like that. First of all, if Young Lady had secretly had magic stones, he’d be the first to notice.”

It was so, and yet most doubted me.

If I was the daughter of the Pope, they would vaguely conclude that there were plenty of separate purchases of magic stones. Or that I left it to someone else… That was sad.

At a glance, the Duke was scratching his beard with a complicated look that didn’t match him. He was not like his son. He didn’t look like he’d be shocked by a tear attack.

Well, if I said I couldn’t stand such unfair suspicions here and that I wanted to go back home, it would be something for the Duke. He was the last person who wanted to see my marriage canceled like that.

Why would someone who knew enough stab me? If he really suspected me, he’d better keep a low profile and spy. He must have been forced to comply with someone’s orders, without disclosing much. Did he even calculate that I wouldn’t know?

“I shouldn’t have said that. Forget everything I said. It was such a hopeless situation that I held on to the last straw and said all kinds of wrong things.”

“I-I’d rather die because I think you’re doubting me.”

“No, why would you… I told you I’m not doubting you. I’ll cut off my own tongue if anyone talks about that nonsense.”

“Hahaha, really?”

“Of course, insulting my daughter-in-law is like insulting Omerta.”

I was still a stranger. Who in the world was looking at me like an Omerta? A stranger who is reluctant and uncomfortable, but is more difficult to deal with because it was hard to reject them. The best thing to do was for me to stay calm, and sometimes help them when they needed me. Even if I died and moved on to another world to live as a different person, it would be the same.