Chapter 45…………………………………………………
Jurgen grabbed the doorknob and pulled with all his strength, but contrary to his effort, the door didn’t budge an inch.
Even when he threw his weight into it and shoved hard, it remained firmly shut.
“It won’t move at all.”
Letting go, he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. I tried gripping the doorknob myself and yanking it, but it didn’t move either.
“Could it be because it’s old? Maybe the door’s just stiff… Ah! Do we have any torch oil left?”
If we poured it into the crack, we might be able to use it as lubricant.
“Unfortunately, the oil we soaked the torch with was the last of it.”
Was there any other way?
Jurgen clenched both fists.
“Priestess Sonia, please step back.”
Ah. Of course—brute force again.
Since there was no other option, I had no choice but to trust his fists.
“Hoo…”
After taking a deep breath, he swung his fist.
Bang! The sound of steel slamming hard against steel echoed.
Unlike the walls that had crumbled like sandcastles, the door only shed a little dust and didn’t move at all.
That was when it happened.
Something like smoke rose up and engulfed Jurgen.
“Ugh!”
He let out a short cry.
“K-Knight, are you okay?”
Startled, I rushed toward him and caught a bitter scent—one I’d smelled before when the walls collapsed.
I didn’t know exactly what it was, but judging by how strong the smell was, it seemed far more concentrated than the powder from the walls.
Covering my nose with my sleeve, I examined him.
“Sir Jurgen, are you alright?”
I called out to him again.
He stood silently, staring at the door.
Something about the situation felt wrong. The already chilly underground cavern seemed to grow even colder.
At the same time, that strange voice I’d been hearing ever since we entered the sanctuary rang out again.
—Covering your nose won’t help. That powder works as soon as it touches your skin.
I looked around at the eerie, amused voice, but no one was there.
“Who are you? What are you talking about?”
Then—
“Heh heh heh.”
Jurgen began muttering like someone possessed.
A chill ran down my spine at his unsettling change.
“Sir Jurgen! This isn’t funny.”
Still staring at the wall, he murmured,
“Hehehe, it’s already been three years since we got married.”
Babbling nonsense, he staggered forward and pressed his lips against a massive stone.
Ah—embarrassed by the sight, I quickly looked away.
The unfamiliar voices spoke again.
—There’s plenty of hallucinogenic powder beneath the sanctuary.
—He committed infidelity, so he’s being punished.
—You’ll receive the same punishment.
—We’d like to help, but it’s beyond our power. Sorry.
Hearing the unidentified voices, I realized something.
This maze was the final awakening trial ground for the healing attribute.
Then another voice spoke.
“So you were here.”
It was far deeper than Jurgen’s, and overwhelmingly authoritative. I knew exactly who it belonged to.
There’s no way Schwarz could be here.
I repeated it to myself again and again.
He should be at his mansion in the imperial capital—not deep underground in a distant sanctuary.
“Sonia, I’ve been looking for you for quite some time.”
In the end, I couldn’t help but turn toward the voice.
In the dark cavern stood Schwarz—blacker than the darkness itself, as if he could swallow even the smallest light.
“Grand Duke of Ründmir… Your Highness?”
“Yes. It’s me.”
It was really Schwarz.
“How are you here…?”
I had run into him at the imperial palace a few times recently.
But this was the sanctuary, far from the capital where the palace stood.
There was no reason for Schwarz to come here.
“I heard you fell underground…”
That’s when I realized—this was a hallucination.
I knew it, yet my mind grew hazy, and I couldn’t think straight.
My ears rang, and my vision blurred.
“Have you forgotten?”
His voice rang clearly again.
It was flat, just like before, but somehow different—cold, like he was addressing something utterly worthless.
I looked up at him in fear.
His golden eyes, like those of a bird of prey, flashed. In the black darkness, only the hunter’s gaze gleamed.
“Think carefully. What did I do after kidnapping Lancelot?”
Having read The Domain of Predators, I knew what came next. Obsessed only with Lancelot, he captured and killed me for following him around, claiming to love him.
His voice felt like it was gripping the back of my neck.
“I went to find you—my prey. You know why, don’t you?”
My breath caught in my throat.
But this was different from the original story.
It was Shane who tried to kidnap Lancelot, and Schwarz had actually saved his younger brother.
And I had become safe.
Schwarz opened his mouth.
“You’re supposed to die under my torture.”
Just like the story.
“In front of Lancelot.”
I had prayed thousands of times while living as a priest, but I had never once received a divine revelation.
Yet Schwarz’s chillingly low voice felt like a revelation, and it seemed as though everything he said would come true.
My head was so foggy I couldn’t tell whether this was a dream or reality.
Even if it was a dream, I didn’t want to die.
I didn’t want to die miserably like in the original story!
Why did I have to die for no reason?!
“N-No!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Step. Step.
Schwarz approached slowly.
There was no need for him to hurry.
To Schwarz, I was nothing more than easy prey—like an animal with broken legs, unable to move, caught with a simple reach.
“Come. Back to where you belong.”
Schwarz dragged me back to his mansion.
And just like in The Domain of Predators, which I had read before being born as Sonia, he tortured me.
I lost consciousness again and again. I still couldn’t distinguish reality from illusion, but the pain tearing through my body felt real. That’s why being trapped in the basement of Schwarz’s mansion felt like reality.
My battered body hurt unbearably.
Pierced and torn everywhere, I was soaked in blood. Even the slightest movement sent pain down to my bones.
At some point, Schwarz brought Lancelot with him.
“Lancelot, watch carefully. This is what happens when you try to escape me.”
Schwarz’s gaze turned to me.
It was the look he gave something insignificant.
To him, I was no different from a bug—something that could be crushed to death with a single press of his hand.
“You’ll scream until your breath runs out, so Lancelot remembers clearly.”
It seemed Schwarz intended to kill me as planned.
Death would free me from the pain, but if I could, I wanted to refuse it.
Am I going to die again?
My previous life couldn’t be called happy, even as a lie.
It was a life without a single redeeming quality.
Still, I wanted to live. There were so many things I wanted to do.
Please, let me live.
“I don’t… want to die…”
Those were my last words.
Please.
I begged desperately, but Schwarz’s merciless black blade pierced my heart.
My consciousness drifted away—and then was cut off.
Meanwhile, Cassius was touring the newly constructed Grand Temple of the Empire under Emperor Jade’s guidance.
Jade proudly explained the splendor of the temple in great detail.
But to Cassius, it was a building overflowing with greed, utterly devoid of restraint.
“We preserved the framework of the old structure and rebuilt it using famous local specialties from across the Empire. Even the former Holy Emperor praised its majesty—”
At that moment, a green mass of light approached Cassius from afar.
After hearing the tale carried by the wind, Cassius stopped abruptly.
“Sonia?”
The message didn’t include what happened to Sonia after she fell through the hole beneath the sanctuary.
No further messenger arrived, and his frustration grew.
Sonia was weak. She had never received special training, and if she had fallen from such a height, she could have been seriously injured.
Just imagining her hurt and in pain twisted his insides.
If she were in a state too horrifying to even imagine, he felt like drowning the entire Empire in rain and wiping it out for causing it.
He needed to confirm her safety immediately.
Beside him, the Emperor kept rambling on.
Compared to Sonia’s well-being, the Emperor’s voice was as meaningless and irritating as the sound of kicking trash.
“That concludes our tour of the Grand Temple.”
At Cassius’s murderous tone, Jade shut his mouth tightly.
Their scheduled engagement lasted until that evening.
Yet Jade couldn’t complain about the broken promise. If he said a single word in protest, it felt like his head might roll. That was how much power Cassius held.
Leaving the still-chattering Jade behind, Cassius strode quickly toward the temple’s exit.
“Levia.”
The holy knight guarding Cassius’s carriage knelt.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
She was weaker than Jurgen, but she possessed divine power of wind.
“Send a message to Jurgen at the sanctuary.”
Levia used her wind-based divine power to inquire after Jurgen.
But even after enough time had passed for several messages to go back and forth, there was no reply from Jurgen. The same was true when they contacted the wind priest who had sent word to Cassius.
Something had clearly gone wrong at the Sanctuary of Healing.
“There’s no response, Your Majesty. I will go personally and assess the situation.”
“No. I will go myself.”
“Understood.”
Levia immediately summoned the holy knights on standby and ordered them to prepare for departure. Jade, who had belatedly emerged from the temple, looked utterly shocked at the sight of Cassius preparing to leave.
“Your Majesty? What is the meaning of this?”
I don’t have time for the likes of you, so shut up—the words rose to Cassius’s throat, but he forced himself to be patient.
“It seems something has happened at the sanctuary.”
“At the sanctuary, you say?”
Jade feigned surprise with all his might.
In truth, he had already received reports from imperial knights about an accident at the sanctuary and the healing priest falling into a hole, and had even sent Shane there.
He had simply pretended ignorance, not wanting the matter to reach Cassius’s ears.
But seeing through the Emperor’s act with his ability, Cassius’s expression hardened instantly.
Thanks to that power, he could read Jade’s intentions down to the smallest detail.
