FMV 09

Chapter 9

To her astonishment, the documents contained a meticulous record of how Elize viewed the three men—from the day Esit gifted her this temple up until now.

And the moment she saw the very last page, she couldn’t say a word, as though she had been struck hard in the back of the head.

“Lady Elize must be so happy. To be loved by the finest men in the empire!”

“No. They’re all just being kind to me.”

“Oh, come on. Just tell me honestly. Which one do you like the most?”

“Hmm, honestly, I…….”

The conversations she had shared with Bell flashed through Elize’s mind.

“The kind and gentle Sir Gellina…….”

At the very end of the document, Leonhardt’s name had been marked with a red star.

If they wanted to successfully kill the Saintess by burning her at the stake, they needed a weapon capable of clouding her eyes and ears.

And one of the easiest ways to cloud a woman’s judgment was through romance.

Bell had merely been Esit’s tool for probing Elize’s feelings and finding out what was in her heart.

“I…….”

Of course, Elize had realized that Bell must have some connection to them, considering she had been hired by Esit.

But she had assumed that Bell merely knew the truth behind everything.

Unfortunately, it seemed that she, too, was a traitor who had deceived Elize.

Seeing every conversation she had shared with Bell and every action she had taken meticulously recorded in the documents before her was indescribably shocking.

It felt as though the world itself had collapsed and was pressing down heavily upon her.

“I thought…… you, Bell……!”

The reason Elize had never suspected Bell and had confided even her innermost thoughts in her was because, after spending two years together, she had believed they had become something like family.

Having grown up as an orphan and been treated worse than an animal, Elize had always carried a vague longing and yearning for a family somewhere in her heart.

So when she met Leonhardt, Ian, and Esit, she had thought of them as dependable older brothers she could lean on.

And Bell had been like a cute little sister.

She had found Bell’s constant cheerful chatter adorable and grown quite attached to her, sharing all kinds of emotions with her—sometimes as a friend, sometimes as family.

But apparently, every time Bell had approached her and chattered away, it had only been so she could pass this information on to Esit.

“L-Lady Elize!”

“If I had a younger sister, I thought…… this must be what it feels like.”

“I-I felt the same way! I couldn’t help it with these documents! How could I possibly disobey His Majesty the Emperor when he gave me an order?!”

“Bell…….”

At Bell’s continued excuses, Elize simply closed and opened her eyes in anguish, her expression filled with sadness.

A single tear rolled down her pale cheek.

Her tear-filled gaze shifted toward the mirror behind Bell.

Reflected clearly in the mirror was Bell holding a dagger behind her back.

“If you really had no choice, then why are you holding that dagger?”

“Gasp……!”

“Were you planning to kill me……?”

A sob escaped Elize before she could stop it.

The reality she had desperately wanted to deny had become even more cruel.

“……I’m not going to kill you.”

Giving up on making excuses, Bell brought the dagger forward and tightened her grip around it.

“Things have gone wrong, but it can’t be helped. Lady Elize must die through the sacred ritual.”

She, too, finally burst into tears.

Yet her eyes gleamed fiercely, like those of a beast.

“A sacred ritual?”

Elize deliberately raised her voice as though she knew nothing.

“Actually, Lady Elize…… I lied when I said I had to support my family. My mother, father, and siblings were all killed by monsters.”

Bell began explaining her circumstances as tears streamed down her face.

“By monsters……?”

“I was only ten years old. What could a little girl who had lost both her parents and siblings and become an orphan possibly have done……?”

The hand gripping the dagger trembled violently.

Recalling her horrifying past, Bell continued speaking even as her teeth chattered.

“I hated the monsters…… I hated them so much that if I had the power, I would have killed every last one of them……!”

Without realizing it, Bell raised her voice, becoming increasingly agitated.

Then she suddenly began laughing and sobbing like a madwoman.

“But they said everything would be fine if only you died, Lady Elize…… They said the monsters would die the moment they came into contact with the protective barrier…….”

A hollow laugh escaped her lips, and soon her shoulders began shaking with laughter.

“T-Then no one else would have to die! Those cruel monsters would all die!”

A hint of madness slowly appeared in Bell’s bloodshot eyes.

“You’re the Saintess…….”

“So what if I’m the Saintess?”

“You possess the only power of its kind on the entire continent. Isn’t it only natural for you to sacrifice yourself for everyone else……?”

Elize stared vacantly at Bell, who was smiling as though she had lost her mind.

She felt like laughing too.

“I had nothing until I turned eighteen. I had never possessed anything. I was too busy simply surviving like an emotionless object…… But I thought that, finally, I had gained a few things…….”

A disappointed smile appeared over her expression, which had sunk like lead.

“But I still had nothing after all.”

Her slowly blinking eyes shifted from the documents in her hand to Bell.

“A lover. An older brother. A younger sister.”

Bell, unaware that Elize’s circumstances were not all that different from her own, merely held her dagger more tightly, growing increasingly anxious.

“What are you going to do if I don’t want to sacrifice myself? What if I want to keep living, even if it means clinging desperately to this pitiful life of mine?”

“Then I suppose you don’t deserve to be the Saintess.”

Elize had only become the Saintess two years ago, when her divine power suddenly manifested.

And now she was being told that if she refused to sacrifice herself, she would lose the right to be called the Saintess.

“Ha……!”

The conclusion was so absurd that Elize couldn’t help but let out a mocking laugh.

“Then wouldn’t it be better to quit being a Saintess like that?”

Elize clenched her teeth and raised her voice.

“No one in this world wants to die. Especially not because someone else decides they should!”

“Then are you going to let everyone else die? You’re nothing but an evil woman, no different from Damian……!”

Bell’s attitude suddenly changed as though she had flipped her hand over.

An evil woman.

The fact that she had fallen from being revered as the Saintess to being branded a villain in an instant actually made Elize laugh.

“An evil woman. Rather than becoming a Saintess and dying in a way I never wanted, perhaps that’s better.”

“You wicked……!”

What an amusing situation.

The woman who had been so revered as the Saintess was, at this very moment, a villain in Bell’s eyes.

Ah, perhaps to someone else, I…….

“Die, Elize!”

I must have been a villain too.

Come to think of it, perhaps that was a name that suited her much better.

With that profound realization came an even greater surge of guilt toward Damian.

And it was at the very moment Bell’s dagger moved to attack Elize—

“G-Gasp……!”

Her wrist was caught swiftly and precisely.

The force gripping it was so strong that Bell could no longer resist and dropped the dagger.

With a sharp clang, the dagger fell to the floor.

Bell stared at Elize, unable to hide her trembling pupils.

“I’m sorry, Bell.”

Elize might not have been strong enough to defeat Leonhardt, the captain of the Imperial Guard……

“But I grew up rough.”

Subduing one woman who was smaller than her was hardly a problem.

Elize rolled her neck from side to side and clenched her fists tightly.

Before Bell, who was thoroughly frightened by the unexpected turn of events, the quiet sound of bones cracking echoed through the room like a final requiem.