Chapter 3
I went straight to the Pope.
“Your Holiness, you grew up in the slums too, didn’t you?”
Of course, I came in secret.
“So why did you do something so cruel to people who came from the same place as you?”
The Pope looked at me with wide eyes, clearly shocked.
He had green hair like the leaves of a tree, the feature his followers praised as beautiful and holy. His jewel-like opal eyes shone a golden yellow.
Back when I first saw him, I thought we were alike.
Just as I had been poor on Earth, he had also grown up in poverty here. And we both had jewel-like eyes.
It had been a huge misunderstanding.
At the very least, I never tormented the poor and powerless.
But this man…
He had secretly worked with the underworld, kidnapping poor people with no one to protect them, selling them into slavery, and making a fortune behind the scenes.
I hadn’t originally intended to kill him.
…But I guess I was angrier than I thought.
I had forced his thorn-covered crown onto his head upside down.
Realizing that every movement drove the thorns deeper into his flesh, the Pope remained perfectly still.
“Did you really need that much money?”
He already had more wealth than anyone could ever spend.
“How much more did you want?”
Human trafficking had only been the beginning.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what happened after people were sold on the black market.
“You… to me…”
A sudden wave of dizziness interrupted my words.
This feels like finding out that a celebrity everyone admires is actually a complete monster.
Even in this world filled with villains, I had believed someone still stood on the side of justice.
The Pope and his Holy Knights had devoted themselves to charity and good deeds.
Even after my third life had been destroyed by a single sentence from him…
I hadn’t hated him.
But this bastard…
Now everything was different.
I finally knew that the mysterious powerful people who had kidnapped me and treated me like a toy during my third life…
…had all belonged to the criminal underworld outside the law.
I had survived because House Stelshernin had trained me through countless cruel lessons since childhood.
I had built up resistance to torture.
To pain.
To cruelty.
But the starving poor…
Those children…
They must have been sacrificed over and over simply because they were born poor.
“Why aren’t you smiling? Isn’t this fun? Smile.”
Fragments of my third life flashed through my mind.
“After all these poison experiments, you’re still alive.”
How many times had I vomited in disgust?
“Tia, you really were made to be played with.”
“I’m not your toy.”
“If you keep talking back, I’ll break you.”
I hadn’t even been treated like a human being.
And now I knew…
The people behind all of it had been working with the Pope.
I reached for the documents he had been reading.
“Y-You… heretic…”
Until now he had remained silent.
But the moment I tried to take the papers, he finally resisted, gripping them tightly.
Even though speaking caused the thorns of the inverted crown to dig deeper into his neck.
I pulled harder.
He trembled, refusing to let go.
“W-Witch…!”
It was a meaningless struggle.
The documents soon ended up in my hands.
Anger surged inside me.
But I didn’t even need to punish him.
The crown was already doing that for me.
“Urgh…!”
As I watched him writhe in pain, I searched through the papers.
Is there something even more important hidden here?
Only one phrase immediately caught my eye.
Divine Relics.
That’s… from the founding legend.
According to the legend of the High Kendora Empire’s founding,
the first Emperor gathered the Seven Divine Relics and offered them to the god Renocas.
Pleased by the offering, Renocas granted the Emperor one wish.
“Create a nation for me.”
And so the Empire was born.
After granting the wish, all seven Divine Relics were said to have been destroyed.
Then why is he researching how to find them?
I paused.
“Don’t tell me…”
“All that money you’ve been collecting… was to search for the Divine Relics?”
The Pope froze.
Even his breathing stopped.
I studied his face.
“…!”
His bloodshot eyes were answer enough.
I decided to test him.
“So… they were never destroyed.”
“That information… must never… be known…”
“I see.”
“Someone is trying to gather all seven Divine Relics and make another wish.”
“And one of those people… is you.”
Everything finally made sense.
“So they really can grant wishes…”
According to the legend,
the god Renocas would grant any wish.
“Make me the strongest person alive.”
“Grant me eternal life.”
“Heal my daughter’s disability.”
If those wishes were possible…
Then what about this one?
“Make me someone beyond the reach of the law.”
The Pope desperately tried to hide the truth.
But his reaction only convinced me even more.
If the world learned the Divine Relics had never been destroyed…
…it would completely overturn the Empire’s founding legend.
That legend was the very foundation supporting both the Imperial Family and the Holy Church.
Both political power and religion had hidden the truth.
“Even so…”
“Your crimes can never be forgiven.”
“After your death, every one of your sins will be exposed.”
“And history will remember you as nothing more than a filthy criminal.”
“…!”
So that was it.
He treasured his reputation above everything else.
His entire body shook violently.
Meanwhile…
I spent an entire lifetime enduring pain that tore my flesh apart.
Luxurious clothes.
Luxurious food.
Magnificent buildings.
The love and respect of countless people.
He had possessed all of that…
Yet he still chose to exploit the poor for his own greed.
That was his unforgivable sin.
“You called me a heretic.”
“You called me a witch.”
“But those are the words you should be hearing.”
“You committed evil in the name of God.”
I gently held his trembling shoulders.
He was already dying.
There was no point struggling anymore.
Once every week,
the Pope secluded himself, claiming he was meeting privately with the god Renocas.
No one was allowed to disturb him on that day.
It would be a long time before anyone discovered what had happened.
I leaned close to his ear and whispered,
“Even God has abandoned you now.”
He couldn’t even scream anymore.
A moment later…
His body collapsed onto the floor.
Thud.
I calmly brushed my hair back.
I wasn’t the sentimental type.
But…
It did feel like revenge.
The chain connecting me to my third life ends here.
Perhaps it wasn’t enough for all the innocent victims who had died.
Still…
I’ll anonymously send evidence of all the Pope’s crimes and hidden wealth to both the Holy Church and the Imperial Palace.
For a while, the Church would be consumed by the Pope’s death.
But once they read the report…
They would have no choice but to deal with the scandal.
Rather than hunting me down,
they would be forced to return the Pope’s stolen wealth and rescue the victims.
After all…
The Imperial Family would know the truth.
And the Church wouldn’t dare provoke them.
At least the entire Church hasn’t become corrupt yet.
I opened the window.
Grabbing the invisible wire I had attached to the clock tower outside, I slipped out before carefully closing the window again.
Then I took out the magical barrier papers that prevented assassins from entering and carefully put them back exactly as they had been.
The Pope’s room was nearly thirty stories above the ground.
Everyone assumed no one could possibly reach it.
That was his mistake.
I wasn’t an ordinary person.
I climbed lightly to the top of the clock tower.
Behind the giant clock face was just enough room for one person to hide.
There, I untied my hair and let it fall over my shoulders before pulling a dress over my assassin’s clothes.
Finding out the Divine Relics still exist…
That was an unexpected reward.
Deep in thought, I calmly walked through the first-floor corridor toward the exit of the Holy Church.
Then someone stepped down from a carriage.
House Osbaldun of Blood?
In my first life,
House Stelshernin had eventually become nothing more than a servant to House Catobleta.
But House Osbaldun of Blood had resisted until the very end…
…and was completely wiped out.
The family’s crest fluttered proudly on the carriage.
So that’s Ahak…
The legitimate heir of House Osbaldun.
The only member of that family who follows the principle of never killing.
I recognized him immediately by his eyes.
Every member of House Osbaldun had one distinctive trait.
The moment they killed even a single person…
Their eyes turned completely crimson.
But this young man—
who looked about my age—
still had soft pink eyes.
That meant…
He had never killed anyone.
His black hair, dark enough to swallow every other color, looked calm and elegant.
“…”
For a brief moment,
our eyes met across the open space.
I couldn’t look away.
It wasn’t simply because his eyes were beautiful.
Their outer color was pink…
But the pupils at their center were completely black.
The contrast was strangely overwhelming.
He was tall.
Broad-shouldered.
His entire presence was powerful.
There was nothing gentle or comforting about him.
He simply possessed an overwhelming aura.
Still…
In this world overflowing with murderers…
Here stood someone who had never taken a single life.
And I knew his future.
Those spotless white hands…
would remain unstained by blood until the very end.
Then he would die…
along with the destruction of his entire family.
I’m getting too sentimental.
This time,
I looked away first.
Ahak began walking down the corridor toward me.
I was already nearing the opposite end.
As we passed one another,
a surprisingly fresh scent drifted past me.
I should have kept walking.
Our paths should have crossed only once…
and ended there.
Instead—
Someone grabbed my wrist.
“…?”
I looked up silently.
Ahak was staring down at me,
his hand firmly wrapped around my wrist.
I instinctively twisted my arm to break free.
But the more I struggled…
the tighter his grip became.
