“Loki~”
In the space beyond the iron bars, a silver-haired girl dressed in white called out to Loki.
She gripped the railing with both hands, her whole body suspended in midair, her crimson-purple eyes emitting a suspicious glow in the darkness.
“Waaah!”
The witch, caught completely off guard, let out a cute scream that didn’t match her appearance at all.
Loki was walking back down to the ground with Ina.
He hadn’t expected that when passing the prison area, Celulu had already ambushed them here and prepared a rather tasteless scare prank.
The only one startled was the poor witch.
Loki was momentarily stunned, then gently shook his head, calmly pushing away the staff the witch had raised.
“Is the job done?”
“Yep~”
Celulu let out a voice that sent shivers down one’s spine, shaking her spotless white dress as she spoke to Loki.
She completely ignored Ina’s disapproving glare, which clearly said, “How dare you do such a lewd thing to Loki.”
“Do you have to wait in such a strange place like this…”
“Hmph~ So you planned to keep looking for you further on, but after seeing that monster taken care of by you, I hid here temporarily, planning to give you a surprise.”
Celulu stepped out from the gap in the cell.
Without hesitation, she grabbed Loki’s hand and looked at the finger that was slowly regenerating.
“Does it hurt?”
“I prepared a strong painkiller.”
“No wonder when you occasionally came back before, some parts of your body were mysteriously wrapped in bandages like now.”
The girl lowered her head, hiding her expression from Loki.
“How long until it heals?”
“About a day, Ina gave me a good potion.”
Upon hearing that, Celulu looked up at the wary Ina.
“Looks like you can still be of some use, witch.”
“I don’t need your approval, Saint. Besides, this was nothing.”
At the moment Ina fired back, Celulu snorted indifferently, quickly turning her head to face Loki again, putting on a dazzling smile.
Ina felt like she had hit a pillow and ground her teeth, cursing silently at how shameless this woman was.
Celulu once again stuck close to Loki as before.
“Take a look at this cell. Don’t you want to say something?”
“…You didn’t wait here just to torture me, right?”
Loki was a bit helpless.
He glanced over.
Although most of the cell Celulu had just slipped into had collapsed, in the corner there were still some fading children’s doodles.
It was impossible to tell what they once depicted.
—They were drawn by Celulu when she was a child.
Only she, having survived until the very end, had the time to pick up crayons and scribble on the walls.
Loki was not a god who could control everything; in such a terrifying environment, simply holding onto a small patch of land was already the limit.
So he could only coldly watch the children who cast pleading, numb, insane, and confused glances at him one by one disappear into the darkness, never to be seen again.
After all, even Loki himself was wearing a collar.
To be honest, Celulu’s survival until now was thanks to her own willpower.
Loki had just loosened some of the ropes binding her so she could live a bit more comfortably before death.
He never expected she would grow to this point…
Not talking about her figure.
Hmm.
Loki diverted his gaze.
“Eh? That’s not it. I just wanted you to remember the beautiful times we’ve been through.”
Celulu pouted.
“Dark corners, foul smells, begging, screams… and you and me.”
“How on earth is that connected to the word beautiful?”
“Isn’t it beautiful enough?”
Celulu giggled, but suddenly her body went limp and she leaned backward.
Loki quickly caught her around the waist.
Through the slightly cool fabric came a tight yet supple sensation that made Loki instinctively want to pull back his hand, but in the end, he spread his fingers and gently touched her.
…Could this be some weird little trick again?
Thinking so, Loki looked at Celulu’s face, but she showed none of the playful expressions that usually appeared at the right moment—only a dazed, helpless look.
“Celulu?”
She didn’t answer, quietly staring at him.
Her fingertips felt slightly damp, probably from sweat.
“Are you feeling unwell? Or did you get hurt in the fight earlier?”
“Let me see.”
Ina moved closer as well, carefully examining Celulu’s face, trying to find a crack in what might be a “feigned illness” — she was very experienced with that.
But she found nothing.
“Hmm… maybe just a bit tired? I don’t know… maybe some rest will help.”
A few seconds later, Celulu spoke slowly.
Her weakness was impossible to fake.
“But you can just carry me back like this, you know? How about it? Don’t I feel nice to the touch? I’ve been taking good care of myself all these years… You have to know, this body was tailor-made for you, packed full of almost bursting love.”
“Shut up, don’t say weird things.”
What was wrong with this woman, acting like she was drunk?
Though he wanted to scold her for objectifying herself, Loki could still tell what was serious and what wasn’t.
He gently lifted the girl’s small, though not light, body into his arms and said to Ina,
“Let’s go. We need to see what’s really going on.”
“If you want, I have a powerful sedative potion that can make her sleep soundly.”
Ina fiddled with Celulu’s limbs and, after confirming she had indeed entered a strange, weak state and was hard to move, took out two colorless vials.
Loki hesitated a moment but ultimately nodded to agree with Ina’s suggestion.
Seeing this, Celulu immediately protested with a panic-stricken look that pleased Ina.
“Eh? Hey? Absolutely not! If that happens, I won’t feel anything at all!”
“You don’t get a say, Saint.”
Ina frowned, pried Celulu’s lips open, and poured the potion in, muttering softly:
“Since you’re in first class, you better sleep soundly. You can’t have all the good things for yourself.”
After the three of them left the exit, from afar they saw the Knights Order and city defense forces surrounding the entire monastery.
The building, already shabby compared to before, was now emitting thick black smoke, the smell of burning even reaching Loki’s nose.
It seemed the Saint had gone a bit overboard.
But causing such a commotion wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The destruction of the Inquisition branch would give the Holy Church and other imperial forces a pretext to intervene.
In other words, it would force Kaisania into the spotlight.
At the same time, it would push all forces involved to make their final struggles.