A few days prior. The strategy meeting.
Ofilienne spoke slowly.
"I'll help you — that much is settled — but I need to be certain about this. Is the Cardinal really planning to turn Tiana into an angel?"
Her eyes were still, stripped of any playfulness.
This was not the face that had been teasing her brother just moments ago.
"It's true. I'd stake everything I have on it."
Matyos answered in a few short words.
There was no bravado in them. If anything, they carried the particular desperation of someone backed into a corner.
"Hmm…."
"If you don't believe me, look at this."
Matyos reached into his coat and produced a letter. The creases from being folded and unfolded many times were clearly visible.
"…That's the Sword Saint's letter. Why do you have this?"
"I went to her before I came to you. But…."
"But?"
"It failed. Even with the Emperor stepping in."
She said nothing and unfolded the letter.
Slowly, she read it line by line.
The Pope had demanded the Emperor retract his statement in exchange for a consecration — and the Emperor had agreed.
And then the news that Sword Saint Sharlot had departed to subjugate a monster in the northern reaches, in order to curry the Emperor's favor.
Ofilienne's gaze narrowed.
"…This is definitely strange."
She murmured it as she folded the letter back.
"Spending a consecration he treasured so dearly — all for a single student. That's excessive."
A consecration was the heaviest bargaining chip the Pope could play against the Emperor.
To spend it so freely like this.
"To use it just to make one nun… that's a terrible waste."
The gears in her mind began to turn.
Not merely excessive — it was suspicious. Something smelled rotten.
But.
'That means there's a gain worth the price.'
Pope Leo X was no fool.
If he was willing to spend a consecration, it meant Tiana Pilrn was worth more to him than that.
Whether it was the angel Matyos spoke of, she couldn't say — but something foul was certainly at work.
"…Excuse me, but do we have to stay like this?"
Matyos's whisper reached her.
Ofilienne was seated on the sofa.
And Matyos was seated on top of her.
Held in her arms like a doll.
"Operations like this require discretion."
"Discretion has nothing to do with—"
"Quiet."
She rested her chin on top of his head.
"…Is there actually a way to save Sister Tiana?"
"The first thing that comes to mind would be an infiltration."
She pulled a sheet of paper toward her with one hand and picked up a pen with the other.
Matyos sat still on her lap, perfectly docile.
Scratch, scratch.
"Going in through the front is out of the question, of course. We need to create an opening."
"An opening?"
"Yes. A crack in that enormous organization."
The tip of her pen drew a circle.
"To do that, we need to sow discord."
"Sow discord? How…?"
At Matyos's question, Ofilienne raised the corner of her mouth as though she'd been waiting for exactly that.
"Matyos."
She pressed her knuckles gently into his side.
"Even when danger closes in from every direction, there is always a way through. Watch and learn — this is a political skill worth knowing."
She spoke with absolute conviction.
"Look at the enemy you're facing. The Holy See is vast. Its history is long. An organization like that may look solid from the outside, but inside it's complicated."
"The Holy See's enemies…."
Matyos's eyes slowly widened.
"Think about it. Do all the faithful truly obey the Pope's every word?"
"No."
"Exactly. Human beings can never be truly unified — least of all when it comes to matters of faith."
She set down her pen.
"There have been persistent calls for religious reform in the Empire's north. It gained momentum when Leo X began selling indulgences. They call themselves the New Faith now."
"…The New Faith."
"Neither the Empire nor the Holy See can afford to ignore it any longer. All we need to do is strike a small spark. Enough to fan the flames until they're large enough to demand the Holy See's full attention. Do you understand?"
"Oh…."
Matyos marveled at his sister's scheme.
Her political acumen was, as ever, unsettlingly sharp.
To have conceived all of this in barely an hour.
But.
"…Isn't this a bit dangerous?"
Religious matters were sensitive.
Throughout history, they had been the kindling for wars.
"If what you're telling me is true, it won't be dangerous at all."
"Not dangerous?"
"You said the Holy See is conducting human experiments."
"Ah."
"If that turns out to be true — even one chance in ten thousand — the Holy See will fall. Every empire and kingdom will descend on it like hyenas and tear it apart."
"Don't worry. It's not a lie."
"I never doubted it for a moment."
Ofilienne took his face in both hands.
She squeezed his cheeks, soft as mochi.
"Now, as for the infiltration itself…."
"Oh, what about this?"
Matyos turned his head to look at her.
"What is it?"
"Here, Sister. Just hear me out."
Matyos's eyes lit up.
This was not the face that had been sunken in despair just moments ago.
He leaned close and explained his plan in a near-whisper.
When he finished, the corner of Ofilienne's mouth curved into a clean, graceful arc.
"Not bad."
* * *
…She had lost all sense of how much time had passed.
Pitch darkness without a single thread of light.
With every breath, the damp smell of the cave clung deep into her lungs.
At first, she had believed this was a nightmare.
Telling herself that nightmares end, she had screamed until her throat tore.
The cave walls shook, and the echoes came back to gouge at her ears.
Rage and terror tangled together and burst out of her as sobs she could no longer control.
"Hahaha!"
Cardinal Teo clutched his stomach and roared with laughter.
He found it so funny that tears even squeezed from his eyes.
"Ah, ha — hah. Phew… I'll die laughing at this rate. My dear Sister."
"Do you think you'll walk away from this unscathed?! God will strike you down!!"
It was a scream wrung from the depths of her. Her cracked voice scraped through the air.
"Divine punishment — heh, yes, yes. I'm sure He will."
Shhk.
He peeled off his red glove. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his hand as if to display it.
The scars were vivid — as though something had been driven clean through the back and palm. Flesh healed in a strange, precise pattern. Wounds too exact to be accidental.
"Did you know? A scar made by an expert is utterly convincing."
"…You fabricated them? The Sacred Stigmata?"
"You didn't realize that until I told you? Now that is a surprising revelation."
Cardinal Teo mocked her.
"Then again, your eyes have never seen anything clearly. You had an opportunity thrust right before your face — and you kicked it away with your own hands."
"…What are you talking about?"
"Are you pretending not to know, or do you truly not know?"
He tilted his head.
"Matyos. Matyos Binna Moretti."
The moment that name left his lips, his face twisted with open distaste.
"I don't know how he managed it, but he saw through my plan entirely. Frankly, it gave me chills. I was rather proud of how carefully I'd concealed it."
Tiana swallowed. Her heart slowly went cold.
"He acted as though he already knew my plans — trying to keep you and me apart. Heh heh, but fortunately for me, you shook off that lifeline and took my hand instead. Isn't that a wonderful stroke of luck?"
It was as though she had been struck in the head with a hammer. Her vision went white. Her head dropped without strength, and tears fell one after another, spotting the floor.
The realization came too late. The knowledge that she had made a terrible mistake.
But it was already too late. There was no going back.
Somewhere inside her, something was cracking.
*
Time passed.
Inside the cave where not even moonlight reached.
She knelt, and bowed her head toward a sky she could not see.
"God. God…."
Her body, cut off from water and food, swayed.
Her cracked lips had split and were seeping blood.
She pressed her forehead against the rough floor and clung to the being she believed to be holy.
"Please… your little lamb is here…."
"Remarkably tenacious."
Cold footsteps approached slowly.
The sound of shoes scraping stone trampled over her prayer.
Cardinal Teo looked down at her, tilting his wine glass.
She lay prostrate on the ground in prayer — to him, no more than an amusing spectacle, like a beast in a cage.
"By now most would have broken. What is it that keeps you so steadfast?"
"…Grant your mercy… to your little lamb…."
"God exists. At my side, not yours. He is extending His hand to me."
"God. I… I have truly sinned…."
"Really, there are limits to how thoroughly one can ignore another person."
Cardinal Teo clicked his tongue and passed his wine glass to the holy knight beside him.
"Now then. Let us resume where we left off yesterday."
A cart was wheeled in.
Glass bottles clinked against one another, producing a clear, bright sound.
Each bottle was filled to the brim with a golden liquid — 'holy water' that shimmered faintly, as though it had swallowed light.
It was 'holy water' into which divine power had been artificially extracted and stored.
Divine power, in its nature, resembled mana.
It had to be accumulated gradually through spiritual discipline and meditation — gathered like rainwater, drop by patient drop.
Power forced into the body twisted both flesh and soul. Like the 'somethings' that had lost their form and now littered this place.
Cardinal Teo picked up one of the bottles. He gazed at the golden shimmer through the glass as though admiring it.
'As expected — her aptitude is beyond question.'
Hundreds of bottles had been administered, and yet Tiana still retained her human form.
Under ordinary circumstances, the second bottle would have been enough to make a subject's form collapse.
'Under ordinary circumstances, the second bottle would have broken her.'
She had to remain alive. She was to become an angel.
The correct dosage was injected to slowly dissolve body and mind.
Upon the ruins of what had crumbled, flesh and spirit would be reconstructed upon a foundation of accumulated divine power.
The shell would crack, and she would be reforged as something else entirely….
He imagined it.
When the human shell finally shattered — what would be born from within.
The transformation had already begun.
A radiance seeping from Tiana's body.
A light vivid enough to see with the naked eye writhed beneath her skin. A strange luminescence spreading outward like the dying glow of the sun.
Cardinal Teo approached Tiana, his heart full of anticipation for what was to come.
It would not be long now.
After today, she would become an angel.
It was then.
"Your Eminence."
A holy knight came running from the entrance, catching his breath.
"What is it."
"Ofilienne of Moretti requests an audience with Your Eminence."
"Kindly tell her to get lost."
"But she says she knows everything that is happening here."
"…."
"She says that if you don't wish for this to become a larger matter, you will come to her willingly."
"Ha. Like brother, like sister. Neither of them has a shred of manners. Very well. Let's go."
"I will have a carriage prepared."
"No. I'll go alone. Stay here and keep watch. I'm a little uneasy leaving, but… I'll be back shortly. Honestly, these heretics."
Cardinal Teo set down the bottle of holy water he had been holding.
The outskirts of the Sanctum City-State.
This place, where the secret experiments were conducted, was ordinarily guarded by over a hundred holy knights.
But with the New Faith rising up and causing chaos in the Empire's north, many of those knights had been dispatched there.
As a result, only sixty holy knights remained to guard this location.
They were elite soldiers raised by the Holy See.
No ordinary person would be able to set foot here.
"If anyone approaches, sever their limbs and set them aside. The more test subjects, the better."
"Yes, Your Eminence."
"I'll return shortly."
Cardinal Teo drained his wine in a single swallow and walked out of the laboratory.
Once he was gone, the underground cave sank back into dark silence.
Tiana remained with her forehead pressed to the ground.
Pain drags a person relentlessly back into the past.
Where things went wrong. What was missed.
Tiana's regrets were not distant.
Just recently — a few weeks ago, a few days ago.
The person who had stayed by her side. Who had warned her, extended a hand, given her a chance.
And yet.
And yet….
"Hk…."
The tears she shed now could change nothing.
She pushed herself upright.
Swaying, she pressed her hands together. Toward the sealed ceiling, toward the sky she could not see.
"Please… save me…."
BOOM!!
That was the moment.
The ceiling exploded with a thunderous blast. Stone and earth came crashing down in a torrent.
Dust and smoke billowed upward, and through it all, a round hole was torn open.
The pale white moon revealed itself. The night sky opened.
Moonlight poured in.
The pitch-black darkness was driven back.
Through the smoke, a boy walked forward.
"I told you to wait."
The moment she saw that face, time seemed to stop.
The one she had believed in yet failed to trust — the one who had been at her side yet whom she had pushed away. The face she had conjured countless times in her regret was here, right before her eyes.
Her lips trembled. A flood of words rose to her throat, but not a single one came out.