She got the shivers for no reason. When the conversation awkwardly stopped, Juliet opened her mouth.
“If we wait, my group will come to rescue me…”
Juliet’s words faded in strength.
The same anxiety as before resurfaced.
Will they really come looking for me?
Will even one person notice my absence and come looking for me?
As if reading Juliet’s thoughts, Hildegard suddenly said:
“It’s useless.”
“Why?”
Juliet, lost in thought, asked a bit angrily.
“Because your friends and family won’t notice that you’re gone.”
Juliet sensed the underlying meaning in Hildegard’s words.
It’s not simply that they won’t come to rescue, but they won’t even notice?
“…What do you mean?”
* * *
“Where on earth has she gone…”
As soon as Teo woke up in the morning, he began searching the terrarium.
He was certain that what he saw yesterday was definitely Juliet.
“Hey, you!”
However, Teo happened to spot a familiar silhouette and rushed over.
“Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you since yesterday?”
Teo was immediately angry.
It was a relief to him.
Teo wasn’t at the banquet hall where the commotion took place last night.
The wolf was injured, they said. Juliet had turned pale, they said.
He was worried and thought he should look for her.
However, while he was chasing after her, Juliet had seemingly vanished.
In any case, he was relieved now that he saw her.
He wasn’t sure why Juliet was coming out from the west building, the living area for the priests, rather than the east building, the lodging for the VIPs.
Teo looked up at the room Juliet just came out of.
This is the ritual preparation room, right?
“Teoharis Lebatan.”
“What?”
Did you just call my full name?
Teo was slightly taken aback.
Looking closer, Juliet seemed off today.
She looked unusually pale.
Her voice sounded weird, too.
“Teoharis.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t want to talk right now. Please leave me alone.”
“Oh… Okay.”
Teo’s expression also turned serious.
Bang.
The door closed right in front of him.
Juliet went back into the room she came out of.
Teo, in dismay, stared at the doorplate again.
Ritual preparation room?
“What’s with that attitude when I’m worried?”
Teo grumbled and was about to leave the place. At least he had seen her face and felt a bit relieved.
Creak creak creak.
“Huh?”
Teo was startled by the faint noise from beyond the door.
It was an irritating sound.
* * *
“A doll… you say?”
“That’s right.”
The story Hildegard shared was hard to believe.
“A doll that talks and moves like a living person. It’s hard to distinguish from a real person on the outside.”
Juliet just blinked her eyes.
During her 7 years staying in the North, she thought she had seen all sorts of bizarre creatures. She had never heard of such a doll.
‘I’ve seen dead bodies move…’
At least those didn’t talk.
“If not for that, why would the world think I’m dead?”
For the first time, Hildegard raised her voice in frustration.
That made sense.
Hildegard VIII, known as a strict pope, was believed to have died by assassination.
“But why go through… such troublesome actions?”
Juliet asked cautiously, but Hildegard grinned.
“Still curious why that guy kept me alive?”
“Yes.”
“It’s because I refused the succession.”
“Succession?”
Hildegard explained what succession was.
It was something like a memory magic left behind for the next pope when the previous one dies.
But of course, Sebastian, who deceitfully usurped the papacy, didn’t receive the necessary memories from Hildegard. He imprisoned her alive here and extracts the memories as he needs them, she explained.
It was hard to believe.
“He imprisoned me here and manipulated my will using my doll outside.”
“But how can you be sure? I mean-“
Sebastian might not have confessed to his crimes outside.
He manipulated the will with her doll. Juliet was curious about why she was so sure.
“How would you know?”
Hildegard smirked.
Ah.
For some reason, Juliet felt there was something eerie about that smile. And she realized something at that moment.
“Even after that incident, it happened again.”
After the death of Hildegard VIII was manipulated, there were others who were brought to this underground prison and met the same fate as her.
“That’s right. Just as you guessed.”
Hildegard sighed quietly.
“For many years, countless people have been brought here. Especially right after Sebastian falsely succeeded to the papacy.”
Suddenly, a faint cough echoed from the darkness behind them, startling Juliet.
“Is there another person imprisoned here now?”
“Perhaps, sometimes when we hear noises like that, we can only guess.”
Hildegard responded as if it was a common occurrence, but Juliet’s expression turned serious.
The surrounding underground cells of Hildegard were all empty. Given the faint sounds, how vast could this underground prison be?
Just how many people were imprisoned here?
Suddenly, Juliet remembered the disturbing rumors surrounding the new Pope. About the sudden disappearances of priests, and the unidentified disappearances happening recently in Lucerne.
‘It all fits now.’
Out of the blue, Juliet asked,
“But why don’t you ask me anything?”
Hildegard hadn’t even asked for Juliet’s name. However, Hildegard’s response was unexpected.
“You resemble Via.”
“Who’s that?”
Even as she asked, she had a hunch. Earlier, that madman had called her ‘Via’. Probably his lover or wife or something similar. It seemed a bit strange, considering priests dedicated their lives to celibacy. Nevertheless, who could understand the mind of a madman?
Juliet didn’t think much of it.
“You must have a locket necklace with your dress.”
“A necklace?”
Looking down at her chest, Juliet indeed found a necklace.
Juliet, unaware of its existence until now, pulled out an old-fashioned gold pendant. It was a type that could hold a portrait or a strand of hair. Unlike the other antiques in the house, this was genuine.
Opening it with a click, she asked:
“…Is this woman Via?”
Inside the locket was a finely drawn portrait of a woman.
“Yes, that’s Genovia. She was such a beautiful child.”
Genovia.
That was her name.
As Hildegard mentioned, Genovia, with her bashful smile, looked almost like Juliet’s lost twin, except for her violet eyes.
“In my life, I had never seen a child with such abundant divine power. If she had lived, she might have become a cardinal.”
Hildegard spoke with a heavy voice, but Juliet felt chills.
‘She really does look like me.’
“When I became a lower-ranked priest, my first assignment was managing an orphanage.”
Hildegard spoke of her youth, several decades ago.
Juliet recalled seeing the remains of a dilapidated building when she entered Lucerne.
“It’s the site of a big fire. The old building isn’t in use anymore.”
That must have been the orphanage. Sebastian and Genovia were both left there. It was common for poor parents to leave their children in the care of the church. If the child was blessed with divine power, even a commoner could rise to become a high-ranking priest.
“Genovia was an exceptionally gifted child, but then…”
One day, there was an unexplained fire. Many children died or were injured, and unfortunately, Genovia was one of them.
“Oh, I see.”
Juliet was half-listening as she carefully examined the walls of the underground prison with her lamp, looking for any potential escape clues. Regardless of a perpetrator’s backstory, a crime was still a crime.
However, Hildegard’s next statement left Juliet shocked.
“They were such close siblings.”
Juliet doubted her ears for a moment.
“What did you say?”
“Didn’t I mention? Genovia was Sebastian’s sister.”
“Shush.”
The noise continued.
Suddenly, Hildegard put her index finger to her lips, signaling silence.