MHHC Chapter 75

The Revealed Truth

Adelheid doubted, for an instant, what she had just heard.

"What, what did you say?"

"I asked if there is someone toward whom you feel an eerily overflowing affection."

Yet the man remained perfectly composed despite having uttered something utterly absurd. Even the trembling in his body was gradually subsiding.

Gone was the fevered heat, the streaming tears, the stuttering speech of moments before.

He was recovering his physical health at a speed that seemed unnatural even to Adelheid's eyes.

She stood there, momentarily lost, then noticed that Joachim still watched her with eyes demanding an answer.

So, the question was...

"Affection—did you just say affection?"

"Yes."

"What does that have to do with the current situation?"

"It is difficult to explain."

"You won't reveal your reasons, yet you tell me to be honest."

"If I tell you the reason, I suspect you won't be honest."

A taut standoff. Joachim, who had been kneeling on the ground, slowly rose to his feet.

The sense of intimidation was incomparable to when she had been looking down at him, but Adelheid did not retreat and spoke clearly.

"Until you tell me the reason first, I can't tell you who it is. And I have no obligation to tell you, Sir Knight."

"Cases where magic 'awakens' someone are extremely rare. And in such cases, the one whose magic has been awakened feels an unnaturally one-sided affection and favor toward the one who awakened it."

"...What?"

Unnaturally one-sided affection and favor. Adelheid couldn't even determine which phrase should surprise her most.

'Unnatural'? 'One-sided'? Or was it 'affection and favor'?

Joachim's words described her symptoms point by point—could this truly be mere coincidence?

"Why on earth..."

Adelheid moistened her parched lips with her tongue. It was a crude action unbefitting etiquette, but she had no mind to notice such things now.

"Why on earth would you think I'd feel such emotions toward 'that existence'?"

"It's a natural assumption. It would be similar to the feelings priests who have reached a certain level have toward Morig."

"..."

"The previous Pope often said in his sermons that whenever he occasionally heard Morig's voice, his heart would race and he'd feel a blissful mood as if he'd fallen into blind love. It's such a famous anecdote that even commoners know it—Your Grace must have heard it at least once."

Adelheid showed no reaction. But Joachim continued his story as calmly as if he had received an answer.

"It's exactly like that. Just as Morig is a god to us, 'that existence' would be a god to those who use magic. So naturally, those who use magic would feel boundless affection toward it."

"..."

"Just as a saint loves God like her husband, just as a priest worships God like a parent."

Joachim's voice sounded like a serpent's whisper.

Something cunning and wicked flowed deep into her heart like fresh poison poured into her ear.

It trampled her affection and devotion toward Valentin, her heart that had bloomed like shy wildflowers, uprooting them and planting seeds of doubt and wariness in their place.

Watching Adelheid's pale eyes waver, Joachim smiled broadly and said:

"What could be more one-sided and blind than a believer's desperate yearning toward God?"

Ah, her breath.

"Are you all right?"

She couldn't breathe properly. As strength drained from her entire body and she swayed, Joachim grabbed her wrist.

The moment she felt someone grip her wrist, Adelheid shook off that hand with all her might.

Then she cried out in a voice sharp enough to startle even herself.

"Don't you dare... touch me...!"

"I was merely trying to help."

The moment Joachim raised both hands and smiled, Adelheid saw the white hand resting on the back of his neck.

More precisely, 'Morig's hand.'

The thing she had seen in the light bursting from the sky last time was now crawling across Joachim's shoulder.

She had just barely suppressed her startled breath when—

"Ahhhhhhh!"

A woman's sharp scream suddenly tore through the quiet air.

At that moment, Adelheid and Joachim simultaneously looked in the same direction. The scream had come from not far away.

'There was an echo mixed in the voice.'

It seemed to be from inside a building, not the garden. Could it be Greta? She couldn't be certain, but the voice sounded similar.

Before she could think, her body moved first toward where the scream had burst forth. That was when—

Joachim grabbed her left wrist with a strong hand.

Caught in the opposite direction from her forward momentum, Adelheid nearly tumbled into Joachim's embrace.

"...Do you even know what's happening over there before you go rushing off?"

"Let me go."

Adelheid spoke breathlessly. But Joachim gripped her even more tightly.

"What will you do going there alone? What if assailants attacked her and they're still there?"

"I don't need an escort, so let me go right now. If you don't...!"

"If I don't? Will you overpower me with your delicate arms, Your Grace?"

He whispered mockingly. She tried to push Joachim away with her free arm, but he stood firm and immovable.

Frustrated breath rose to the top of her head.

"You still haven't answered me, have you? It would be problematic for you to flee the scene like this."

"I told you to step aside—I ordered it."

"I cannot let you go for the sake of your safety."

"I am the wife of the lord to whom you swore loyalty."

"Your Grace, I—"

Joachim's face reddened slightly with shame. The words 'swore loyalty' seemed to have touched his pride as a knight that remained even in his half-mad state.

"To save my sister, I can do any vile thing."

"Don't do something you'll regret. Step aside. You're not even in your right mind."

"I am perfectly fine."

He said this because he couldn't see the back of his own neck.

Behind his neck, like a curse, Morig's power clung in thick clusters.

God, monster, dragon—to her eyes, they all looked equally horrific.

Even at this moment, Greta might be dying with each passing second. Adelheid warned coldly.

"I warned you clearly."

It was strange. The angrier she became, the more coldly she could view the situation.

Things she wouldn't have dared attempt when calm, she could now do without hesitation.

She quickly unfastened the bracelet from the wrist Joachim held.

Joachim's eyes widened in surprise, and he released her wrist. He looked bewildered, as if he'd received a sharp static shock.

Before he could collect himself, Adelheid swiftly drew up her magic.

'Can I draw out magic as pure as what Valentin brought forth for me?'

The doubt was fleeting and the result immediate. Magic of a painfully deep blue formed in Adelheid's hand.

The powers crawling across Joachim's neck seemed to sense her power and raised themselves threateningly like fingers.

They felt exactly like a snake with multiple heads.

Adelheid didn't hesitate and reached her hand toward Joachim's neck.

"What are you—"

Crack—a sound like something shattering.

Joachim, who had opened his mouth as if to speak, froze with widened eyes. Strength drained from his grip.

When Adelheid pushed him again, he clasped the back of his neck with his own hands and fell to his knees.

He made choking sounds like someone being strangled, then slowly collapsed to the ground.

'He's lost consciousness.'

The moment Adelheid confirmed he was breathing shallowly, she rose to her feet.

She gathered her flowing skirts and quickly climbed the stairs, plunging into the building without a moment's hesitation.

Just as Joachim had babbled—if assailants had attacked Greta, this might not be a situation she could resolve by going there.

"Greta!"

But nothing else mattered. Fear that Greta might have been attacked turned her mind white with terror.

A frantic anxiety that felt like losing her mind coexisted strangely with a calm insistence that she mustn't panic like this.

Truly as if her mind had split in two—even to her own perception, she felt half-mad.

"Answer me! Where are you?"

The shout Adelheid threw out echoed resonantly down the empty building corridor.

If she could at least draw the assailants' attention to herself, she might be able to buy time with magic, however briefly.

Moreover, by now Donovan must have noticed her disappearance.

Perhaps a search was already underway. So the more commotion she made, the more anxious the assailants would become.

It would be even better if they fled in surprise.

"Please answer! I know you're here...!"

When she had crossed about half the corridor, a groan like flowing water reached Adelheid's heightened ears.

Not far away, and faint as breaking thread.

Adelheid flung open a nearby door. The moment she opened it, the fishy smell of blood that rushed in made her spine run cold.

"Dear God..."

Adelheid covered her nose with the back of her hand and hurriedly surveyed the room's interior. Heavy curtains covered the windows, and in the dim room only a single torch burned.

Statues of Morig and various objects that looked like holy relics were scattered about like toys.

"Hh, uh..."

And in the center of those objects, a woman lay stretched out, groaning, mortally wounded beyond recovery.

Adelheid recognized the woman at a glance. It was Greta.