Bale lowered the piece of meat in his hand.

"Haaah, this brat’s doing it again."

"Hmm..."

With a heavy sigh, Basto became the second one to enter the battlefield.

"Tie. Just one bite. Really, just try one bite. It’s good, okay?"

Tie still did not move.

But after the silence stretched on, the child secretly cracked one eye open.

Basto did not miss that moment.

"Come on now. Aaaah."

He brought the meat almost right to her mouth, and Tie slightly parted her lips.

The squad members’ eyes lit up all at once.

"That’s it! Yeah, just one little bi—"

But then—

Ptoo.

The meat that had entered Tie’s mouth rolled across the floor.

"...Ha."

Bale grabbed his head, while Basto blankly lowered his utensils.

Tesetan pretended to casually straighten the angle of his silver spoon.

Luciano’s face reflected across the spoon’s smooth inner surface.

Without moving, he stared at Tie.

His expression completely frozen.

Click—

The moment the door to the pilgrims’ quarters closed, Tie threw herself onto the bed.

Tesetan, who entered after her, quietly sat down beside her.

After a short silence,

smiles slowly spread across both father and daughter’s faces.

"Papa, Tie did good, right?!"

Tie giggled.

Tesetan nodded as well.

"Yeah. Luciano’s face was incredible."

"It looked super scary!"

In the end, Tie had not eaten a single thing during the entire banquet.

The rest of the squad members had not managed to eat properly either because they had spent the whole time trying to coax and calm Tie down.

"Papa, Tie acted like a really picky kid, right? Like a badly raised child at the dinner table?"

"Yeah. If the grandma from Room 107 saw you, you’d probably be standing with your hands up for five whole minutes."

The child’s laughter lightly filled the room.

But soon, the smile faded.

Resting her head against the pillow, Tie slowly blinked.

"Papa..."

Tie spoke in an {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} almost fading voice.

"Tie misses Mama..."

Tesetan, who had been stroking the child’s hair, froze.

For a while he said nothing, then quietly answered:

"We’ll be able to see her soon. Just hold on a little longer."

"What if Tie and Lucarion fail tonight?"

If the priests discovered them.

If they failed to obtain the drug from the underground labyrinth.

"If we can’t make the antidote..."

The child’s face darkened.

Truthfully, Tie was scared too.

The enormous underground labyrinth.

And the children trapped helplessly inside it.

"Daughter."

Tesetan carefully lifted Tie upright and sat her down.

"Don’t worry about anything. You have Papa."

"..."

"Even if you fail, that’s okay. Why do you think Papa, Grandpa, and your uncles all came here? Exactly for times like this."

Tie hesitantly lifted her eyes.

"Don’t be afraid. And don’t shrink back in fear. If you lose your nerve, even the things that should succeed won’t work out."

Tesetan gently brushed the short strands of hair away from her forehead.

"To Papa, our Tie has always been the most wonderful child and his greatest pride. Ever since we lived in Jongno."

At last, a tiny smile touched the corners of Tie’s lips.

A little later, Tie narrowed her eyes prettily and nodded.

"Mhm!"

Tesetan patted the back of the child leaning against him.

Outside the window, the round moon climbed higher into the sky.

That night, exactly at midnight—

"Fire! Fire—!!"

Panicked screams erupted from the eastern side of the pilgrims’ quarters.

"Open the water channels! Hurry!"

Priests carrying buckets of water rushed toward the prayer hall in droves.

The prayer hall had long since been repurposed as storage for the Grand Temple.

The wooden building, crammed full of parchments and scrolls, ignited so quickly that the flames devoured the ceiling in an instant.

"Of all places, why did the fire have to start in the prayer hall...!"

one of the priests cried out in despair.

Through the acrid smoke, shelves collapsed one after another.

"The fire’s spreading toward the diocesan building!"

At the same moment, an even more frantic shout rang out nearby.

The high priest turned pale and screamed:

"What are you standing around for?! Send more men! Even the mercenaries staying in the pilgrims’ quarters—"

But before he could finish, he abruptly fell silent.

The prayer hall.

And the diocesan building.

Both places contained secrets of the order that absolutely could not be shown to the outside world.

If outsiders entered, leaks would be unavoidable.

"High Priest, what should we do?!"

At the urgent question, the high priest groaned and lifted his head.

"Forget the mercenaries! Gather every available person nearby instead! Even the guards around the pilgrims’ quarters!"

The priests hurriedly scattered in all directions.

At the same time—

"Papa, Tie’s going now!"

After whispering those words, Tie released her arms from around Tesetan’s neck.

Tesetan anxiously watched Tie take Lucarion’s hand.

"Yeah. Be careful."

The two children disappeared into the shadows on the western side of the pilgrims’ quarters.

Just as Valentis had promised earlier that day, he created chaos around the diocesan building exactly at midnight.

Setting the prayer hall on fire had been the method he chose.

Tesetan slowly rose from his seat, unable to hide his worry.

Then he headed deeper into the pilgrims’ quarters.

"We’ll be back within two hours at most."

Lucarion’s words still echoed in his ears.

Standing alone in the room, Tesetan silently watched the clock’s indifferent second hand continue moving.

'I’m hungry.'

Eloa sat curled up with her face buried between her knees.

How much time had passed since she had been imprisoned underground?

At first, she tried counting the days based on the Dark Spirit Squad’s patrols, but she had long since given up.

'Maybe I could’ve endured it for a month or two.'

The longer the endless imprisonment continued, the more meaningless it became to count time.

If she was going to die here without ever escaping anyway, what difference did it make how many days had passed?

Grrrr—

Maybe because she sat curled into herself,

the sound of her stomach growling echoed even louder.

Eloa staggered to her feet.

Then she pressed her face close to the bars and stared toward the far corner.

"...Has my head gotten weird too?"

For some reason, the Dark Spirit Squad, who always passed through here on patrol every night at midnight, had not appeared tonight.

Usually, she could only sneak to the food storage room after their rounds ended.

Grrrr—

Her head spun.

She could not eat the rations mixed with the drug, so Eloa only ate once a day.

And even then, it was only stolen bread or thin porridge from the storage room.

Perhaps because of that, her body had long since reached its limit.

Several times she considered stealing large amounts of food and storing it away, but—

'They noticed whenever food started disappearing.'

The Dark Spirit Squad could open the bars at any moment.

And if they became suspicious and discovered the hidden passage leading to Eloa’s shelter?

Then everything would be over.

Grrrrrr—

Her stomach twisted again.

Darkness clouded her vision, and Eloa weakly leaned against the wall.

And right then—

"Eloa!"

A quiet whisper sounded behind her.

Startled, she spun around and saw a small head sticking out from the tunnel beneath the bed.

"I’m here! Here!"

Eloa hurriedly looked beyond the bars.

Then she rushed closer to the opening and whispered back:

"What?! How did you get here?! It’s patrol time right now..."

"There’s no patrol today! There’s a fire at the diocesan building, and the Dark Spirit Squad went to help put it out too!"

"A fire...?"

Eloa sniffed lightly.

It was true.

A faint smell of smoke lingered in the air.

Eloa stared at Astie standing in front of her.

"Don’t tell me you did that..."

"Are you hungry?"

But at that moment, Tie slipped a hand beneath her cloak.

"This isn’t food from the order. Tie and Tie’s squad brought it from the Empire!"

She pulled out dried meat from beneath the cloak.

Eloa’s eyes slowly widened.

"Sorry. This is all we have. They said everything else would spoil too quickly..."

The next moment,

Eloa snatched the meat from Tie’s hands.

Then she hurriedly stuffed it into her mouth.

The instant the rich taste of greasy meat spread across her tongue, her eyes trembled.

"Ah, we still have more! But eat slowl—"

Before Tie could finish speaking, Eloa had already shoved a second piece into her mouth.

The salty, heavy flavor spread through her.

Eloa let out a shaky breath and lifted her head.

Two pairs of round eyes stared back at her.

"...Sorry."

Eloa muttered.

"I think I went a little crazy just now."

Tie’s mouth fell open, and then she hurriedly shook her head.

"No, going a little crazy is normal!"

"...Do you have any more?"