CH:16
Because she hadn’t closed her eyes, their gazes met directly. Amelia was so startled that her lips trembled where they touched, but she didn’t look away from Ivan.
“……”
After a moment passed, Amelia slowly lowered the heel she had been standing on. Naturally, her gaze dropped with it.
“I…”
She didn’t have the courage to meet his eyes. She was afraid of the rejection or indifference she might see in Ivan’s gaze.
“I think I like you.”
Moreover, she was painfully aware that somewhere within her desperate feelings for Ivan, there was a base, selfish desire. Even knowing it was wrong to use someone, she wanted to escape this place—using Ivan, if she had to.
“…And you?”
So she couldn’t possibly wait for his answer with ease. Amelia kept her eyes fixed somewhere around Ivan’s shoulder and collarbone as she awaited his response.
But Ivan remained silent for a while. Unable to endure the weight of his gaze pressing down on her head, Amelia eventually looked up.
“What about you?”
She asked more clearly this time, no longer hiding how desperately she hoped for an answer. She even wished he’d lie if the truth would be too cruel, just to spare her heart.
“Is my answer that important to you?”
Ivan’s green eyes were more beautiful than she had imagined—like gemstones. But his words weren’t what Amelia had hoped for. She suddenly felt bitter. She forgot her own guilt, how she’d meant to use his heart for her own ends. All she could feel was the floor crumbling beneath her. The hope that their hearts might connect, that he might help her escape this place, now scattered like dust.
“You’ll spend your whole life bound to this place anyway. Someone like me—you’ll just forget me as time passes.”
“……”
“You can never be anything to me.”
Ivan’s cold voice snapped her out of her daze.
“You won’t be my lover. You won’t be my wife. You know it, and so do I.”
“Ivan—”
“So why are you shaking me, just because your heart wavered for a moment…?”
Ivan made as if to push Amelia away. But her heart thudded wildly, as if she had just sprinted.
You do like me. Don’t you?
Her conviction was growing. Amelia felt her blood rush and a heady excitement coursing through her veins.
“No.”
She cut Ivan off.
“Ivan. I can be your lover. I can be your wife.”
And she whispered in his ear.
“If it means I can get out of here.”
Her voice sounded desperate—perhaps even seductive. Ivan flinched at the words brushing against his ear. Amelia noticed. He was shaken.
“Take me away from here, Ivan.”
Amelia clung to him. Before, she had only used her gaze or her voice to hold him. This time, she physically held onto him.
“I—I want to follow you.”
Ivan looked down at her with confused eyes, as if he couldn’t understand what she was saying—couldn’t grasp what she meant by such words.
“I’m actually… nothing.”
“What are you talking about?”
Ivan frowned as he asked.
“You already know. You figured it out. You know I’m not special.”
“……”
“Other than not aging or dying, I’ve never done anything remarkable.”
Ivan didn’t believe in gods. So how could he believe in Amelia, someone who claimed to be a divine representative? He probably thought all her actions had nothing to do with the divine. Of course he would.
“I’m trapped here, Ivan.”
Ivan looked at her quietly. Something about his gaze told her he didn’t believe her. Amelia’s heart grew frantic. Even if she believed he liked her, that didn’t guarantee anything.
“Just like my mother and grandmother were.”
Ivan’s brows twitched. His expression sharpened, as if weighing her words. If she wanted to persuade him, she had to be honest. Amelia raised her hand with resolve.
“What are you—”
She pulled down the shoulder of her dress. Ivan, startled by the unexpected move, instinctively reached out to stop her—but his hand froze in the air.
“……”
Because she rarely went outside, her exposed skin looked pale under the moonlight. But it wasn’t her soft, fair skin that had captivated Ivan.
“Can you see it?”
Amelia pointed to a scar just below her shoulder, where the dress normally covered.
A mark of hardship and pain no noble body should bear.
“When I was ten, I tried to escape. That’s when a dog bit me.”
From the front, the crescent-shaped bite mark was large. Ivan could imagine the pain. The scar might look smaller now, but it would’ve been large for a child’s body and left a mark that never faded.
“You understand what it means for me to say I have a mother and grandmother.”
“……”
“And now you know I was hurt trying to escape.”
Amelia’s voice trembled. She took Ivan’s hand and guided it to her scar. He could feel the faint unevenness of the scar tissue beneath his fingertips.
“I’m not a divine representative.”
“…Nor an immortal.”
Amelia nodded with a half-crying expression as Ivan added softly.
“I know it might be a burden for you.”
They had barely met a few times. To bare herself like this to a man she merely liked was miserable and humiliating. It felt more like human despair than vulnerability.
Still, Amelia had a reason to confess the truth and ask for his help.
“I only have two weeks left.”
Only a little over a fortnight remained until the Night of Coming of Age. And with each passing moment, that deadline tightened around Amelia’s neck.
“I have to create a replacement for myself. That’s considered my duty here.”
“No….”
Ivan’s lips parted, but he couldn’t bring himself to voice his suspicions. Any human would be horrified.
“They say it’s my life’s greatest honor to fulfill that duty. But Ivan, I…”
“……”
“I don’t want to live and die like that.”
So please—save me.
She was just about to say those words when Ivan sighed low.
Amelia’s shoulders trembled in anticipation of rejection.
“If you come with me, you’ll have to give up everything you have now.”
Ivan gently held her trembling arm. His thumb softly stroked over the scar. Maybe it was just her nerves, but his touch felt cold—chilling. Goosebumps prickled down her spine, but her heart felt calm.
“Do you still want to come with me?”
Ivan asked.
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation. Amelia answered immediately.
Ivan smiled faintly.
“Then come. I’ll figure out a way to get you out.”
And just like that, he gave her the answer she longed for. Amelia threw her arms around his neck with a radiant face.
“Thank you. Thank you, Ivan. I really…”
Tears welled up as she spoke. Ivan, frozen in surprise, slowly brought his hand up and gently stroked her back. It was a comforting gesture—something she had never felt here before.
For the first time in her life, Amelia felt true peace in a man’s arms. She thought she could live like this forever.
Until someone suddenly threw open the annex chapel’s door.
“Priestess.”
In the pale moonlight, the intruder’s face became visible. It was Aaron, flanked by knights.
“……”
Aaron said nothing. He simply looked at the robed man beside her, then turned his cold, betrayed gaze on Amelia.
It was laughable. Betrayal? As if their relationship had ever been anything but coercion and oppression.
“Seize that mongrel at once!”
At Aaron’s command, the holy knights moved swiftly. In an instant, they grabbed Ivan’s shoulders and arms with force. Even for someone with Ivan’s abilities, it wasn’t something he could easily shake off.
“Let go!”
Amelia struggled to hold onto Ivan with her frail arms, but it was useless. She managed to cling to his fingertips for a moment, but there was no stopping the physical separation. Even that faint connection was torn away.
“No… no!”
She reached out again in desperation, but Ivan’s hand never returned.
Like the rest of Amelia Escleif’s life—never able to grasp anything—only her foolishly outstretched hand remained, clutching empty air.
A few hours later, a massive fire broke out in the building where criminals were held. The blaze was so fierce that even with the temple officials scrambling, they couldn’t extinguish it easily.
