Episode 115
As the door shattered, several knights stormed into the room.
Whoosh—!
At the same moment, the violet glow surrounding Edwin disappeared.
The timing was so eerily perfect that I couldn’t tell whether the Duke had seen it or not.
Clang! Clang—!
The knights unsheathed their swords in unison, pointing them at Logan.
The once-cramped room was now overflowing with armed men.
“Edwin, Belze! Are you both alright?”
The Duke stormed in with a ferocious expression, his eyes scanning Edwin and me first.
“G-Gordon…! Hic!”
At the sight of him, something hot and overwhelming surged from deep within my chest.
Was it relief?
It had only been half a day since I last saw him—he had left early in the morning.
But for some reason, tears welled up as if this were the first time I’d seen him since my regression.
“I’m fine. But Belze—”
Hearing Edwin’s steady reply and confirming he wasn’t hurt, the Duke immediately turned to me.
“Belze.”
He stretched out his arms and lifted me from the floor, cradling me in his embrace.
As he examined me from head to toe, his brow furrowed sharply.
“You’re bleeding.”
At his words, I instinctively looked down.
A few drops of blood had splattered onto my clothes.
But, of course, it wasn’t mine.
It must have come from Logan’s hand after Edwin’s aura had slashed him.
“Where are you hurt? Hm?”
The Duke asked urgently.
Aside from the dull ache in my tailbone from my earlier fall, I wasn’t injured at all.
Still, for some reason, sniffles and whimpers spilled out of me.
“Hic… I’m not hurt.”
“Then what’s this blood?”
“I-It’s not mine…”
I shook my head weakly, trying to reassure him.
The Duke exhaled briefly in relief.
But the moment that sigh ended, his gaze turned to ice.
“Logan.”
“……”
“What the hell do you think you were doing to these children?”
His glare bore down on Logan, who had just staggered to his feet.
“…It’s a misunderstanding, Your Grace.”
Despite having multiple swords aimed at him, Logan remained eerily composed.
Perhaps he was too smart for his own good.
If he recklessly attempted to use dark magic here, he’d be impaled before he could even finish a spell.
“The Young Lord and… ahem, Lady Belze snuck into my room and ambushed me when I returned.”
“What…?!”
But his unsettling calmness only served to twist the situation in his favor—by framing me as the aggressor.
“Th-That’s not true!”
I panicked, turning to the Duke in desperation.
But I needn’t have worried.
“Hah.”
The Duke let out a dry laugh.
“A nine-year-old and a five-year-old joined forces to attack you?”
“Yes. Using this dagger and that sword.”
Logan shamelessly gestured toward the fallen dagger and the longsword Edwin was still gripping.
‘This lunatic! How could he pretend his own dagger belonged to me?!’
Not to mention—I’m only five!
A five-year-old wielding a dagger and stabbing people? Even a stray dog would laugh at such nonsense.
I was so flabbergasted that I couldn’t even come up with a retort.
“Besides, isn’t it a bit much to treat the Young Lord like an ordinary child? He already awakened his aura.”
Logan smoothly mixed a single truth into his web of lies.
The Duke’s gaze flickered, his sharp eyes landing on Edwin.
“……”
Perhaps because Logan’s words weren’t entirely false—Edwin had used aura to attack him.
Edwin didn’t offer any excuses. He simply gazed at Logan in silence.
‘What if they just let this slide?’
Anxious, I bit down on my lower lip.
It was painfully obvious that the Duke hadn’t seen the violet magic circle that had been trapping Edwin.
And there was a vast difference between just being a heretic and using dark magic to threaten a noble.
If I had to, I was prepared to reveal the truth about the Healing Eye to expose Logan’s identity.
But then—
“Alright. Let’s say that’s true.”
The Duke turned back to Logan, his sharp gaze unwavering.
“Why would the children attack you?”
“I wouldn’t know, Your Grace. I stepped out for a brief errand, and when I returned, they suddenly jumped out of my wardrobe and attacked me with a sword and dagger—”
“Stop lying, you foul-breathed, bald mutt!”
I snapped.
“That dagger is yours! And you tried to cast some weird magic on Edwin! You were speaking in ancient language!”
The memory of the terrifying moment when Edwin was about to lose his memories made me tremble. I swallowed my sobs and turned to the Duke.
“Hic, Duke! That bad man used dark magic to do something awful to Eddie! It’s true!”
“The one who used dark magic… was you, wasn’t it, Lady Belze?”
Logan cut in immediately, his tone disturbingly even.
As if framing me for the dagger wasn’t enough, now he wanted to pin dark magic on me too.
“…What?”
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even speak.
Logan turned to the Duke, expression calm.
“You can see for yourself, Your Grace. Look at me—who here looks like the real victim?”
The Duke’s eyes swept over Logan’s disheveled form.
Admittedly, Logan did look terrible—his scalp was completely bald, his hand was slashed open, and blood streaked down his side from the earlier wound.
Meanwhile, Edwin and I were, for the most part, unscathed.
It was infuriating, but on surface level, Logan’s claim made sense.
“…Hmm. So you’re saying the kids did that to your head as well?”
The Duke finally broke the silence, staring at Logan’s shiny exposed scalp.
“It almost looks like you grew a beard on your forehead.”
“Pfft!”
“Khm…!”
At that moment, the knights, who had been standing tall and serious with their swords drawn, shook with restrained laughter.
Honestly, they had probably been holding it in ever since they walked in.
Logan, his face burning red, gritted his teeth.
“Lady Belze did this to me. With dark magic.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
The Duke said with zero sincerity.
“I don’t know why, but it seems only those who mistreat Belze end up losing their hair—first that priest who was fired for abuse, and now you.”
“…I don’t know anything about that.”
Logan quickly denied any connection. The Duke clicked his tongue.
“The priest was an old man, so I suppose it was expected. But you—you’re still young. What a shame.”
“It will grow back.”
Logan snapped, voice tight with barely contained fury.
Then, his glare landed on me.
“A spell that causes baldness… it’s pure evil—even the devil himself would weep at its cruelty!”
“Hmm.”
The Duke hummed.
“Your Grace, you must be cautious!” Logan pressed on. “That girl—no, that vile witch—who knows what she might do to you?! Just look at what she did to me!”
“I’m not evil! You’re the one who looks more evil, you bald-headed, foul-breathed devil!”
I shot back, furious.
“Pfft!”
“Khh…!”
Despite the serious situation, muffled snorts leaked from the knights once again.
Logan’s face contorted into pure hatred as he glared daggers at me.
But unlike before, I wasn’t scared.
Even the Duke, who was holding me, was shaking slightly, as if stifling his own laughter.
“A five-year-old using dark magic? That’s quite something.”
The Duke met my gaze, amusement twinkling in his eyes.
And that’s when I finally felt at ease.
I realized something.
The Duke wasn’t taking anything Logan said seriously.
Emboldened by this, I stuck out my tongue at Logan and made a mocking face.
‘What? You gonna glare at me to death? Lower your eyes, baldy!’
Logan’s expression twisted into something even uglier.
But he couldn’t lash out like before—not while trying to persuade the Duke. So, instead, he gritted his teeth and muttered:
“…Your Grace, don’t be fooled by appearances. Who’s to say she isn’t a heretic witch in disguise?”
“The Pope himself publicly declared her a Saintess candidate.”
The Duke responded smoothly.
“That’s a pretty severe accusation of blasphemy, Logan.”
“Then let’s be reasonable!” Logan snapped, looking desperate. “Does it make sense for a Saintess candidate to make two grown men go bald?! Even as a former temple member, I have never heard of such a thing! Your Grace, have you?”
“……”
‘Your baldness was inevitable, you bastard!’
It was truly a shame that I couldn’t yell that at Logan’s face.
All I had done was purge the ominous violet energy lingering on his scalp.
That it resulted in rapid, irreversible baldness?
That was entirely the will of the Goddess.
Because divine power was her power.
Seeing that the Duke hadn’t responded immediately, Logan took it as an opportunity to press harder.
“And according to scripture, it’s not unheard of for heretics to infiltrate the temple! For instance, decades ago, a group of them seized a temple in the southern region—”
“That’s fascinating.”
The Duke cut in, bored.
Logan, who had been rambling passionately, suddenly froze.
Then—
THUD.
He dropped to his knees.
“I understand this is hard to believe, Your Grace… but I swear, I have never sought to harm the Young Lord. Please, believe me!”
“Hmm.”
The Duke’s expression remained unmoved.
“Is that really your story?”
“…What?”
Confused, Logan blinked.
But the Duke ignored him.
Instead, he took a step forward.
The knights, standing in tight formation, parted swiftly to clear his path.
He walked—straight to the wall.
Where the framed inscription hung.
‘Right! The ancient text…!’
It was the only remaining evidence that could confirm Logan’s identity as a heretic.
‘It would’ve been even better if the blasphemous painting was still intact…’
But if we hadn’t ripped that painting apart, we never would have discovered this hidden writing in the first place.
Strictly speaking, using the ancient language didn’t automatically label someone a heretic.
But hiding it—beneath a disturbing painting—now that was suspicious.
“Y-Your Grace! That…!”
Logan, still kneeling, staggered to his feet, his voice rising in alarm.
But the Duke didn’t care.
His gaze locked onto the inscription as he slowly read aloud:
“…A believer of Erea.”
And at last, the long-awaited translation of the ancient text began to unfold.
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