“Lady Sephra’s young master came with you as well.”

Daniel recognized Arsian right away. Well, with looks that striking, there was no way he wouldn’t.

“And this gentleman is... Jainer of House Escra, correct?”

What was odd was that he recognized Jainer’s status, too. He was a noble from the Gracia Empire, so it was strange that Daniel would know him.

“Long ago, I once went to the Gracia Empire for missionary work. I saw you once from afar back then.”

Daniel cleared up Camilla’s question.

“But what brings you here so suddenly?”

At his question, Camilla took out the shattered necklace she’d brought from home and set it down. It was the one she’d received from Daniel before.

She couldn’t exactly put out the necklace the Viscount of Orléans had been wearing.

“This is...!”

For the first time, Daniel’s smile vanished when he saw the crimson stone—the order’s holy relic—broken to pieces.

“I’m sorry. I accidentally broke it.”

“Accidentally?”

Daniel’s eyes widened slightly. He looked like he had a lot he wanted to ask. But he quickly smoothed his expression and bowed his head at once.

“It seems I gave you a holy relic with a problem. I will give you a new one.”

He called another priest and had them bring a new holy relic necklace. Before long, a fresh necklace was placed in front of Camilla.

“Please try it on.”

“Should I?”

Smiling brightly, Camilla picked up the necklace with an innocent face, like she knew nothing at all.

With her right hand.

PZZZT!

“......!”

“Oh my.”

Just as before, the crimson stone sparked in Camilla’s hand and shattered into fragments.

“Why does it keep doing this?”

Camilla tilted her head lightly, but Daniel stared as if he couldn’t believe it.

He hurriedly had another necklace brought in. They said you could barely buy one only after making an enormous donation, but he acted like it wasn’t a waste at all.

PZZZT!

“This...”

But again, it was the same.

“I guess I just don’t match with this necklace.”

“...It seems so.”

Hearing Daniel’s delayed answer, Camilla let out a sigh as if she were truly disappointed.

But unlike her calm outward face, she unconsciously reached over and lightly grabbed the hem of Arsian’s clothes where he sat beside her.

Her fingertips were trembling.

Crazy.

So this crimson stone really was connected to ripping out souls.

It’s real?

So the people here at the Papacy were all connected to them, too? And the fact he gave this stone to her meant she was a target as well?

Camilla gripped Arsian’s clothes even tighter. If she wasn’t holding onto something right now, it felt like her expression would collapse.

“.......”

Arsian felt Camilla’s faint tremor.

But he didn’t ask her what was wrong.

And he didn’t direct killing intent toward Daniel, who seemed to be the source of it.

He just stayed exactly as he had been—watching the other man’s every movement with a firm, unyielding gaze, as if he wouldn’t allow even the smallest trick.

“Soon, I will create a new necklace and come to see you.”

“Then I’d be grateful.”

Camilla rose, never letting the smile leave her face.

Halt.

But as she headed for the door, her steps stopped dead.

Now that she’d confirmed everything, she wanted to leave immediately—yet her feet wouldn’t move.

In the end, she turned back and faced Daniel again.

“Priest Daniel.”

“Yes, Lady Camilla.”

“If it’s all right... could I meet the children?”

“The children?”

“The children found at House Orléans this time. I heard they’re being treated here.”

She couldn’t help it. It bothered her.

Now that she knew the temple was connected to them—to the ones who extracted souls—she needed to check whether the children were safe.

Were they really receiving proper treatment? Were they truly /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ being cared for?

These are the people who even sold indulgences.

You never knew. They might be deliberately neglecting the children because they feared their crimes would be exposed.

Come to think of it, wasn’t it strange that they brought the children all the way here, to the Papacy, instead of some ordinary temple? And from what she’d heard, it wasn’t even the Pope or the high priests personally using holy power on them.

“Hm.”

At Camilla’s words, Daniel gave her a look of surprise. Camilla wore a faint smile and continued.

“I want to help if there’s anything I can do. I’m planning to pour all the power of our trading house and our family into finding a treatment.”

“Is that so?”

A smile returned to Daniel’s lips.

“That would be a great help.”

“So I want to see the children once. If I see their condition with my own eyes, it’ll help.”

“Understood.”

Priest Daniel personally led Camilla to where the children were.

From the start, he knew there was no treatment, so he had nothing to be wary of. Even if she saw them with her own eyes, the situation wouldn’t change.

And that was because the one who had secretly obtained that liquid for the Viscount of Orléans was Daniel himself. There was no way he wouldn’t know.

There is no antidote.

“This way.”

“......!”

A moment later, Camilla stepped into the room where the children were, and for a long while she couldn’t speak—couldn’t even move.

All she could do was hold back the groan that wanted to spill out.

They’d been like this the whole time?

“Uh... h-hk... uuh...”

“Hh... uuh...”

The two children couldn’t even lie down properly. They were still in the exact same posture they’d been found in, letting out sounds that were a mix of groans and crying.

Even making noise looked like it took everything they had—their voices were thin and mournful.

“Treatment...”

Camilla was about to ask whether there truly was no way—but she swallowed the word back down.

Asking that question here, with the children right in front of her, would itself be pain and despair.

But as if Daniel had already sensed what she wanted to ask, he continued in a low voice.

“At least we’re maintaining their lives with holy power.”

Because of the liquid the Viscount of Orléans had used, the children’s organs were hardening as well. They were barely breathing, kept alive only by the faint holy power the priests applied.

[Hey! Get a grip!]

A familiar voice reached Camilla’s ears. The priest’s ghost she’d seen before was standing right beside the children, shouting.

[You can’t die like this. It’s not fair! You have to cling on and live!]

She agreed. Dying like this was too—

[You pieces of shit! Why aren’t you using holy power properly? You’re going to just let these kids die, aren’t you!]

...Let them die?

“Ha.”

Without meaning to, Camilla turned and shot Daniel an incredulous look.

When he made a puzzled expression like What?, she quickly turned her head back.

So her suspicion had been right? These bastards had no intention of saving those kids at all.

[If I could use my power properly... damn it!]

Camilla’s eyes went round at the unexpected words.

What did you just say?

Power?

Their own power? In an instant, a sharp light flashed in Camilla’s eyes.

She immediately acted as if she were checking on the children and moved toward the priest’s ghost.

Then, after confirming she was far enough that Daniel couldn’t hear, she spoke quietly.

“Can you really save the children?”

[...?]

At the low question, the priest’s ghost hurriedly looked around. They thought Camilla had spoken to someone else.

Then they realized Camilla’s gaze was aimed precisely at them, and their eyes went huge.

[Don’t tell me you can see—]

“Answer me since you’re visible.”

Camilla cut off that tired reaction and pressed for an answer. Was there really a way to save the children?

The priest’s ghost seemed to understand what Camilla meant and didn’t say anything else.

Their eyes went back to the children.

[They react to holy power.]

“They react, but there’s no real effect.”

[I’m not talking about those things’ low-grade holy power.]

From the moment the ghost called the Pope a child, Camilla had figured they weren’t an ordinary priest. Was their holy power different somehow?

Whatever. Who cares.

This wasn’t the time to nitpick. Camilla’s gaze sank heavily as she stared at the two children.

Watching them—like their breaths could cut out at any moment—made her clench her fist.

You bastard.

All over again, she wanted to somehow find the Viscount of Orléans’s soul—already dead and gone—and grind it under her heel.

“Come in.”

[What?]

At the sudden words, the priest’s ghost didn’t understand at once. With their brows knotted, Camilla repeated herself.

“I’m lending you my body.”

[What...!]

Of course she knew. There was no guarantee the ghost’s holy power would work through Camilla’s body.

But with the children like this, she couldn’t afford any other thoughts. If there was even a one-percent chance, she had to try.

“Come in.”

[...]

Still staring at Camilla with their mouth slightly open, the priest’s ghost finally took a step closer.

*****

“Lady Sorpel truly has such a warm heart.”

As Camilla hovered around the children and refused to leave their side, Daniel’s face wore its habitual smile.

But Arsian, listening quietly at his side, thought something entirely different.

What is that?

Because he could see it.

Camilla was talking to a dead soul that looked like black smoke.

He didn’t know what was going on, but for now he blocked the way so no one else could get close to her.

With him standing there in a razor-edged presence, no one dared to pass him and approach Camilla.

“We, too, are deeply distressed, but there is no other—”

Daniel’s voice, spilling out like a complaint, cut off sharply. Shock flooded his face in an instant.

The other priests standing in the room were the same.

“Th-this is...!”

Fwoooosh!

A brilliant light filled the room.

An overwhelming surge of holy power.

And when people turned to look at the one releasing that holy power, they were struck with shock all over again.