Chapter 148
In a society where adultery was considered a mortal sin, Uncle had never publicly acknowledged me as his direct descendant. He’d rather keep me officially as his niece.
He did it to protect my honor, not his own.
“Rumors can be easily eliminated.”
This extended to the other members of the bloodline.
Given his lack of hesitation, both on the battlefield and in ordering these killings, it seemed karma didn’t apply to Uncle.
But what I actually wanted to know wasn’t the secret of my birth.
This kind of thing was more like… uncomfortable TMI.
As if my thoughts had been heard, the scene shifted again like pages of a book turning smoothly.
Now I saw Uncle Claude in a private audience with Saintess Justina at the Central Cathedral.
He was holding a silver goblet.
“In exchange for that, the branch bloodlines…”
Why was he holding a goblet when he’d sworn off alcohol and hadn’t had a drop since?
The moment I moved closer to hear their conversation, my body flung back and I found myself in the same spot where I’d started.
[Access Restricted — Record cannot be read]
He’d locked down even his soul’s records?
I tried several more times, but each attempt only bounced me back to the same position.
Watching Uncle take Saintess Justina’s hand filled me with an ominous feeling.
“Uncle Claude!”
I called out to him at the top of my lungs, but my voice didn’t reach.
I wanted to talk to him.
About what he’d given, and what he’d received in return.
Why he’d left me alone without a word.
Why he’d tried to handle everything himself without so much as a hint to me.
And why he had never told me that he was my real father.
Saintess Justina, her hand clasped in his, turned her head toward me and her violet eyes crinkled with a smile.
As though she could perceive me.
[Invalid Access — ….session …..terminated…..]
The notification shattered like corrupted pixels, and my consciousness slammed back like the jolt of waking from a dream.
I opened my eyes to find the dreary gray ceiling of the investigation holding cell.
“Did you get to meet him?”
Lize, who had been letting me rest my head on her lap, looked down at me with calm eyes.
I rubbed my eyes with my sleeve and nodded.
“Was I asleep? Is it some kind of dream-viewing method?”
Lize tilted her head with a puzzled look, her gaze following me as I sat up.
“You… don’t realize?”
“Realize what?”
She opened her mouth as if to say something, hesitated, then clutched her chest with a pained expression.
“You did it and still don’t understand what happened. You should go now. Dawn’s about to break.”
“I’ll come again.”
I rose and stepped out of the holding cell.
Just then, someone called to me from the punishment cell across the way.
“Big sis.”
It was the voice of a young boy.
Don’t tell me they locked up a child down here too?
I approached the direction of the voice and peered through the small barred window.
In the dim light, I could make out a boy who looked to be in his teens
Heavy iron clanged and scraped as the boy’s face drew closer to the bars.
“Hello.”
The polite boy had an ombré hairstyle with black hair fading to white at the tips and striking silver eyes set in a pretty face.
“Hello.”
He’d greeted me first with proper manners; the least I could do was respond in kind.
In the darkness, the boy’s silver eyes narrowed like a crescent moon.
“You’re very polite, big sis. My name is Kiesa.”
“Why are you locked up in here?”
At my question, he gripped the bars and shook his head side to side.
“I have no idea. I’ve been in solitary since day one.”
Was it just my imagination, or was there something oddly mature about his speech?
I stepped back and waved.
“I should get going. I snuck in.”
“Big sis, will you come back?”
“Probably?”
“Then let me tell you about a secret passage that leads here. It’ll make coming and going much easier.”
Was he lonely and looking for someone to talk to?
Just as I was thinking that, the mysterious boy added:
“Come closer, please.”
He beckoned with a gentle smile.
A sudden sense of wrongness prickled at me.
What was this? The crushing weight pressing down on my shoulders?
Instead of moving closer, I took another step back.
That child is a Wielder.
And if my instincts were right, Prisoner Number 3, the one kept in solitary.
That was what my gut was telling me.
“No thanks, I can get in without a secret key. Well then, I’ll be—”
Someone seized the back of my neck and yanked me backward. My body lurched.
A sound like a blade slicing through air, and something grazed the tip of my nose by a hair’s breadth.
“Ack.”
Seeing several strands of pink hair scatter through the air, my heart plummeted into my stomach.
“Ahaha, what a shame.”
The boy’s innocent laughter echoed off the walls, making the atmosphere all the more eerie.
“You nearly lost your head.”
At the sound of that voice, I spun around and felt my heart drop a second time.
El, dressed in the warden’s uniform, stood smiling at me.
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