Chapter 139 - You only looked at me like a stranger

When the soldiers sent by Cesare came to find me, I was admiring the Christmas festival in the square right in front of the Vatican with Lady Adela. Amidst the bustling noise, I was sitting near the fountain, staring blankly at the balloons floating in the blue sky, when the men with determined steps approached me and surrounded me, demanding that I accompany them.

In fact, I was practically dragged away, but I didn’t feel particularly surprised or offended by the indecent behaviour. I knew very well that Cesare had made some derogatory comments about me while publicizing the clash with the north, and it was not surprising that it was known that I was not in my right mind.

As soon as we left the square and entered the Vatican, I was pushed into none other than the Pope’s room. The person who greeted me inside was none other than Cesare himself. As soon as we were alone, Cesare opened his mouth.

“Where’s the Holy Grail?”

“What?”

“Where is the Holy Grail?”

There was a moment of silence.

Standing with his arms crossed, Cesare stared at me with a slanting gaze. Come to think of it, he was wearing the armour of the chief commander. The ornate silver-plated armour that Enzo had worn at some point.

Had he already been replaced, even though my divorce issue hadn’t been resolved yet? Was this an attempt to press me down aggressively on the pretext that Enzo was dead?

Ironically, or perhaps contradictorily, it suited him better than its original owner. If only it had been this way from the beginning…

“Cardinal Lacroix has disappeared. Don’t ask the obvious question of who that is. Some other men suddenly disappeared from the radar as well.”

I gasped for breath as I was pulled away for a moment.

I see. He’s already hidden the evidence.

Fortunately, he managed to steal it safely…

“Why are you telling me this?”

“It’s not just a story that you would find interesting.”

“What?”

“I heard that your in-laws formed multiple alliances across the land.”

“….”

“Everyone is sending condemnation statements to me, as if it were their own country’s affairs. Anyway, it’s clear that the people who were involved in the smuggling have fled with the Holy Grail. If anyone could coax Father into telling him where it was, it’s you.”

His voice was calm and collected, in contrast to his deep blue eyes which were so dark that they appeared almost black.

It was clear that he was trying to suppress his anger.

An old warning bell rang in my head.

“So what now?”

“What?”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“I know where it is. That’s all. Are you going to kill me now? You’ve killed Enzo and Father, and now it’s my turn?”

He grabbed my neck and squeezed it tightly, forcing me to slump down.

It hurts, you son of a b*tch!

His dark blue eyes became dangerously tense and restless.

My light blue eyes were reflected in his eyes as I blinked slowly.

What are you going to do now? What will you do?

Father has also passed away, what will you do now?

You knew that Father was going to pass away.

Why did you do it even though you didn’t intend to kill him in the first place?

Is there something that shouldn’t have happened if Father was still alive?

Are you still dreaming an impossible dream?

Why are your eyes clouded?

What’s covering your eyes?

Is it also my fault?

“Is this because of that b*st*rd…? The one who said he would come and save you?”

“….”

“Would he lead a fleet to come and help you? Just for you? Have you read too many fairy tales?”

No….

I already know that I might never see him again.

Even if the Allied forces were able to invade and capture the castle as in the original, it would take a long time, and during that time, the situation in the castle where the Pope had died could change.

But if Cesare, who was cornered, turned a blind to everything and either escaped with me or killed me…

“Or is it just your foolish rebellion? Tell me, was that b*st*rd worth it? Worth sacrificing everything like this?”

“Everything? I don’t have anything here. There was nothing from the beginning.”

It was then that his eyes, which had been ready to tear me apart like a wild animal, suddenly shrunk.

I didn’t know what kind of change of heart it was, but Cesare slowly loosened his grip on my neck and stood up straight, staring at me for a moment.

“…Yes, I also knew that you had changed.”

“….”

“Ever since you were fifteen… since you got sick, you suddenly became a different person, as if your soul had been replaced.”

That was actually what had happened. I stared at him with my own eyes, which had also become dark.

“Not only that, but your unique core had disappeared as well. It was such an unimaginable situation that some people even thought you might have turned into a different person.”

“….”

“My sister, whom I knew, where did she go and how did she become a strange girl with an empty look? At first, I thought it was just the after-effects of being sick, but….”

He clenched his teeth.

His eyes, which had turned into those of a wounded beast, looked unfamiliar once again.

“You only looked at me like a stranger….”

“So, that’s why you hit me so easily? Pretending to be good to me and all? Just to make sure it wasn’t her?”

“….”

“Tell me, was it not you who kissed me too? You tried everything to confirm it?”

His hand on my neck twitched slightly before tightening again.

It wasn’t suffocating, but it was uncomfortable.

His slow, hoarse voice rang out after a while.

“That’s right…. I intended to watch over you all along. At first, no, from the beginning… I watched over you to tear you apart.”

His lowered head slowly came up.

The face that met mine had an expression I had never seen before.

It was unexpectedly painful, as if I was torturing him.

As if my appearance was causing him so much agony….

“That’s why I watched over you…. to tear you apart, to rip you to shreds.”

He wanted to tear me apart into tiny pieces with all that fierce hatred…

If only it was just that kind of intense hatred…

If only it was pure hatred, then maybe I could have forgiven you.

“I was trying to destroy everything about you… But instead, everything you had ended up consuming me.”

“…..”

“How pathetic must I have looked in your eyes as I fell apart…?”

His grip tightened around my neck as my breathing became laboured.

“Right now, I’m just miserable… Every time you look at me with those eyes, I feel so miserable…”

“…”

“If we just ended it all right here… if we just destroyed everything, it would be so much easier.”

Just as my reflex kicked in, his hand shook and fell towards my neck, just below my nape.

My entire body shuddered with chills.

“Ugh…”

“Maybe it would have been easier if I did what I wanted to from the beginning.”

As my body was torn apart, my mind screamed in warning.

I didn’t even have time to scream.

Actually, I did scream.

But at the same time I screamed, a deafening roar, like the wrath of God, a bolt of lightning from a clear sky, or some kind of earthquake, drowned me out.

In an instant, I couldn’t tell what was happening to my body.

With a loud thud, the entire landscape seemed to shake, and my body was thrown violently.

No, it wasn’t my body, but rather the entire place that shook.

Part XII: God’s Wrath

Crashing, clattering, banging, and banging sounds from all sorts of objects mixed with screams and cries for the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, and all sorts of saints echoed in all directions.

Either the building was completely destroyed, or it was being shaken by an angry deity; everything inside was rolling and flying around as if it had gone insane.

How long did I roll around like that? At some point, everything suddenly stopped.

I struggled to catch my breath, trying to regain my faint mind, while my whole body was shivering.

I couldn’t remember what had happened.

While slipping on the ground, I had managed to grab onto some pole that passed by me and barely hung on.

Screams and shouts from all sides were ringing out.

Curses, prayers, urgent instructions…

“The Holy Barrier…!”

The cause of the disappearance of the Holy Barrier, which always enveloped the area around the Vatican in a protective manner, was probably due to the death of the current Pope and the departure of the Holy Grail.

No, but even so, the Vatican was unconditionally filled with holy energy, this situation didn’t make sense… or so I thought.

Something passed by outside the small shattered glass window that was right in front of my jittery vision.

It was only natural that I doubted my eyes for a moment.

Because if not, it was impossible that I saw that familiar blue thing swaying in front of me.

No, this was impossible. This was not the North, but rather Romagna.

Get a grip, me…