Chapter 188
“…Your Eminence.”
“I heard you suffered quite a bit at the hands of demons. And you had signs of corruption last night, too?”
Prohmen’s gaze dropped to Payne’s g***n.
Payne, naturally feeling ashamed, clenched his shackled fists and tried to cover himself, but unfortunately, he was still aroused, just as Prohmen had pointed out.
To show himself in such a state before a cardinal—
The shame was unbearable, and after it kept happening, Payne fell into a deep self-loathing.
Prohmen’s scornful gaze only made it worse.
“We checked you for curses. Sure enough, you have an old, lingering curse clinging to you.”
“I need a purification ritual. I’ll overcome the corruption with divine power.”
“But…”
How could he, in that state?
Payne tensed up. Has he ever received such a look before?
Other than those in the stables with Ashtel, he’d never shown himself like this to anyone, which only made the shame worse.
The cardinal looked at him as if he was some filthy animal. Payne bowed his head, biting his lip, enduring the humiliation.
“I heard the demon attached to you was a succubus?”
“…Yes.”
“Even if you purify the curse, overcome the corruption, and erase every trace the succubus left behind, you’ll never truly return to who you were before breaking the seven deadly sins.”
The cardinal was right. Payne no longer felt worthy to respond, so he lowered his head in silence.
“And in Katzel Mediale, fallen priests are punished harshly.”
“…Yes.”
“Ordinarily, you’d be exiled beyond the city, but this time, things have become much more serious.”
Payne looked up, frowning.
Since entering the cell, his fever had only gotten worse, leaving him drenched in cold sweat. Now that his lust was resurfacing, the pain of Ashtel’s absence was almost unbearable.
His mind, dulled by all this, couldn’t quite follow the cardinal’s words—until the next statement left him shocked.
“We’ve found traces of demonic presence all over the temple. It must have been the work of the succubus who approached you. With Sir Duvalkan also abducted by that demon, the higher-ups decided a clear message was needed.”
“You mean…”
“Your execution date has been set.”
Time seemed to freeze.
Had he heard that right?
Payne blinked slowly, staring at the floor, before looking up again.
Prohmen still looked at him with the same cold, contemptuous expression, as if disgusted by the body now cut off from Katzel.
His hard, emotionless face reminded Payne of the great demon.
“The execution will take place outside Mediale after a formal religious trial.”
“Yes, Your Eminence.”
“Sorry, but there’s nothing more I can do. You’ve just been… unlucky.”
Unlucky. Could a person’s life really be so easily discarded for that reason?
A wave of despair washed over Payne, leaving him speechless.
Assuming Payne had more or less accepted it, Prohmen sighed deeply.
‘He really was unlucky.’
Just as Ashtel guessed, the temple had no intention of sparing Payne.
He was the bastard son of Duke Panchest, Mediale’s most generous secret patron, who only wished to have Payne hidden away in the temple, out of sight.
But with time, the cowardly duke grew fearful and ordered,
“Who knows what that boy might do, joining forces with a demon?”
With demonic power, it wouldn’t be hard to uncover secrets of his birth.
The Duke remembered abandoning Payne and his mother all those years ago. If anything, his son probably resented him and would never have felt affection.
He could reveal their blood ties and force his way into the family, or make his grudge known by assassinating the duke.
“It’s better to have no such son at all.”
He had assumed that Payne would be foolish, having been born to a commoner woman, and so left him in the temple. It was clearly a mistake.
Though he felt a faint bit of fatherly affection, that was all.
Duke Panchest immediately asked Pope Serena to have Payne killed, paying an enormous sum in gold.
The Pope regretted losing a useful weakness of Duke Panchest, but a priest who’d lain with a demon would forever stain the temple’s reputation, so she quickly agreed.
‘With this deal, having sacrificed his own son, the duke was now bound to me more than ever. He won’t be able to withdraw his support now.’
With that calculation, Payne was swept aside.
Out of sight, out of mind—banished from the temple, exiled from Katzel.
‘…Something is going very wrong here.’
And someone was listening in on all of this.
It was Liz, along with Chacha.
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