The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 132

I couldn’t organize my thoughts.

A bottomless sense of vertigo swept over me, as if the ground had suddenly fallen away beneath me, from things that had happened without my knowing.

This feeling.

A feeling I could never have experienced in my original self. Who would dare make me feel this way?

But, then and now, whenever I am with that man, I often feel such emotions.

As if I were a powerless, pathetic being unable to protect even a single person.

I stared straight into Kayden’s eyes.

His blue eyes were indifferent. Unlike mine.

I asked him, “Do you even know what you’re saying right now? Do you know how I feel right now?”

“It seems I am repeating myself from earlier. I don’t understand what you are saying to me, Saintess.”

“You… why are you always like this?”

Why do you appear in my life and cause such turmoil?

Emotions I would never have known if it weren’t for you. Emotions I sometimes wish I had never known.

So what should I do now?

If at least your memories were intact, it would be one thing, but with how you are now, it doesn’t seem like I can get any information out of you.

“You… just return to the ducal residence for now.”

I barely suppressed my turbulent thoughts and muttered to Kayden.

I didn’t know what kind of situation he was in, but at the very least, I needed to keep him where I could see him.

Only then could I protect him.

At my words, Kayden shook his head and said, “I no longer have any reason to remain in that mansion.”

“Why wouldn’t you? I’m the Saintess, am I not? If you’re a Holy Knight, you should be by my side, protecting me.”

“His Holiness the High Priest has said that I no longer need to remain by your side.”

“That damned human again!”

I burst out in anger.

Of course, I knew Kayden considered the High Priest like a father, but I couldn’t suppress the fury that rose as I recalled what Sher had told me about the High Priest’s true nature.

Before, when I heard that the High Priest had abused Kayden, I was simply deeply displeased. But now…

If that High Priest shows up before me now, the sun that rose today may very well be the last one he ever sees.

“Leave the temple. Go to the ducal residence. From now on, I will protect you,” I said to Kayden.

One by one, my thoughts were starting to come together. My head was still a mess, but I knew what I had to do next.

I needed to find out why Zachary had been reborn with the name Kayden, and what he had gone through.

There were still many things I didn’t know, but one thing was certain.

No one but me could lay a hand on my contractor. No matter the cost, I would make them pay.

Kayden looked puzzled at my words. “Why are you suddenly saying these things, Saintess?”

“Is the temple so great? Do you really want to stay there that badly?”

“…The temple is where I belong. It’s my home, and it’s everything to me.”

His words were filled only with a sense of duty, not with any fondness for the temple.

You’re still the same. Always enduring, always bearing everything.

I slowly said to Kayden, “Even if it’s your home, if it makes you unhappy, you must leave it. I’m saying I’ll make that possible.”

Sher said the High Priest abused Kayden. If that’s true, then the temple is neither a good place nor a safe one for him.

Kayden looked flustered as he asked me, “…Why are you making such an offer to me?”

“I’ve never liked you. Even now, just looking at you makes me angry.”

“……”

Kayden, who had no memories, probably didn’t understand why I was saying such things.

Even so, I didn’t stop speaking.

“Noble sacrifice for the sake of others? Hah. Do you know how sick and tired I am of your attitude?”

Zachary’s noble spirit of sacrifice.

As a demon, it was a sense of sacrifice I could never understand, not even if I died and came back.

Thinking about how much I suffered because of it…

It was always like that from the beginning.

Great heroes who sealed the Demon God?

Nonsense. No mere handful of humans could stand against the Demon God.

Back then, the humans simply needed a scapegoat who would die before them.

Yet Zachary humbly accepted the role of hero that had been forced upon him.

Even when I said I could save his life if he just turned a blind eye to the deaths of the other humans, he rejected it without hesitation.

The emotion I felt back then was…

“How dare you make me feel such things. As if I were ‘human.'”

As I said that, I curled up the corner of my mouth. It was a sneer directed at no one but myself.

If someone confuses you, it’s enough to never see them again. Or erase them.

That would be the usual course for a demon.

“But even so, I’ll still make the foolish choice again,” I said with self-mockery.

In a way, I found myself pathetic. So different from the confident, self-assured image I always portrayed as a demon.

And yet.

It was always the same. Every time I saw you, I wanted to reach out. If only you would take my hand, I would have done anything you wanted.

“Answer me. Will you come with me to the ducal residence?” I asked Kayden.

***

Kayden rejected my offer.

“You seem confused, Saintess.”

“So that’s how you elegantly say I’m crazy. But I’m not crazy. Well, then again, maybe I am.”

“…Return to the ducal residence. Where I belong is the temple. And right now, His Holiness the High Priest is… anyway, please be careful.”

“Now is not the time for you to be worrying about me. If staying in the temple is truly your wish, then so be it. Though I wonder if you’ll be able to maintain that stubbornness once the temple burns down and collapses into ash.”

A natural reaction—wait a minute. Why is it natural?

Logically, I knew it wasn’t strange for him to respond that way since he had lost his memories, but my feelings were different.

Once you get your memories back, you’d better be prepared, Zachary. I will make you pay dearly for rejecting me.

Anyway.

Right now, I need to find Lilith.

She might be able to answer the questions I have.

With that thought in mind, I strode into the temple.

Perhaps because it was still early, the temple’s interior was quiet.

“Hey, you!”

Crossing the hallway, I called out to one of the priests I spotted.

The priest looked at me, eyes widening as he asked, “Saintess?”

“Where is the princess right now?”

I got straight to the point. The priest seemed a bit flustered by my question but soon replied.

“Ah, the princess is currently staying in the guest room of the west wing. But why do you—”

Before the priest could finish speaking, I left.

It wasn’t until I arrived at the west wing that I realized I hadn’t gotten the exact location of Lilith’s room from the priest.

But it didn’t matter.

“Lady Bella.”

At the sound of someone calling me, I turned around.

“…You’re not Lilith.”

That was the first thing that came out of my mouth the moment I saw the face of the person who had spoken. Princess Karolea.

Understandable, since she had just called me “Lady Bella.”

She might have the same appearance as Princess Karolea, but… if she had been Lilith, she wouldn’t have called me that.

So her identity was obvious.

She wasn’t Lilith but the real princess.

Even if not for the way she addressed me, I would have noticed eventually.

That’s how different the aura she gave off was from Lilith’s.

“Let’s go into my room first.”

Following the princess’s lead, I entered the room she was staying in.

It was a neat and tidy room, similar to the one I had stayed in while at the temple.

That must mean the princess was an important guest.

As soon as the door closed, I asked the princess, “Where has Lilith gone?”

“She has departed for the Demon Realm.”

Departed?

Now, of all times? At a time when I had so many things I needed to ask her?

It didn’t feel like a coincidence.

“When is she coming back?”

“Well… she didn’t say when she’d return.”

I slowly processed the princess’s words.

That means… there’s a possibility she won’t come back.

I clenched my fist tightly. Now that I knew Kayden’s true identity.

For Lilith, who clearly knew it before I did, to leave now of all times…

What exactly is Lilith’s intention?