The video that the Black Fangs spread across the Empire.

After watching it, Lucy was filled with doubts and immediately set off towards the Grand Temple.

However, the scene of Lucy bursting through the temple doors, declaring her intent to investigate what was truly happening, never came to pass.

“What am I supposed to do…?”

She simply lingered around the vicinity of the temple, heaving a deep sigh out of frustration.

In hindsight, it was the obvious outcome.

The Grand Temple wasn’t exactly a place anyone could just walk into, and the Empire was in an uproar over the matters related to the Black Fangs.

In this situation, there was no way the Empire, which was already in turmoil, would let an apprentice knight with no real authority enter the Grand Temple.

And Lucy wasn’t strong enough to ignore the heavily guarded entrance and barge in, either.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t find a solution.

Should she just turn back…?

‘No. I can’t retreat here.’

She had to confirm it.

She needed to know if the children were really doing okay.

The thirty children Lucy had delivered to the Holy Church, along with the others that her fellow knights had rescued as part of their duties.

The doubt that arose from seeing the video of the Black Fangs’ commander.

The eerie feeling that the Holy Church might be using the children for something sinister—it gnawed at her, and she couldn’t leave until she had answers.

Just as Lucy was pacing back and forth, struggling with what to do—

“...Huh?”

Her face flushed with surprise.

She had just caught a fleeting glimpse of a familiar face—a girl from the sibling pair she had once handed over to the Holy Church.

Given the situation, there was no time for hesitation.

Lucy immediately took off, chasing in the direction the girl had disappeared.

The scenery blurred past her as she sped ahead.

The girl, barely within reach, continued to slip out of Lucy’s grasp, darting off toward an unknown destination.

At the end of the unexpected chase, Lucy found herself standing in front of a dead-end wall.

‘Where could she have gone?’

Panicked, she quickly scanned her surroundings. But the girl was nowhere to be seen.

This was beyond strange.

There was no way the girl could have escaped from here.

Yet she had vanished like a ghost.

No—if she really thought about it, the strangeness didn’t end there.

Lucy was considered a promising young knight, with enough potential that she could manipulate magic to some extent.

She had gathered magic into her legs to chase the girl at top speed.

But she still couldn’t catch her.

It was something that defied all reason.

It made no sense that a child could run faster than Lucy.

‘Am I just seeing things?’

That thought crossed her mind, but it didn’t sit right.

Sure, she’d been under a lot of stress lately, but she wasn’t at the point of having hallucinations.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with an answer.

Exhausted, Lucy naturally leaned against the wall... and felt something strange.

It should have been just an ordinary wall.

But something was sticking out.

Almost like a doorknob.

Lucy touched the worn brick wall again.

It was certain.

This was an illusion created by magic.

Someone had carefully set up an enchantment here to conceal a passage.

But for what purpose?

Where did this passage lead?

Could that child have been guiding her here all along?

No, come to think of it—who was that child in the first place?

Lucy’s mind swirled with questions.

She couldn’t wrap her head around the situation.

But… what she had to do right now was clear.

Swallowing nervously, Lucy opened the door and stepped into the unknown space beyond.

*****

She descended a long staircase leading underground and continued walking down a damp, unsettling passageway.

The further she went, the more bewildered she became.

When she thought back on it, that secret passage had been oddly close to the Grand Temple. She hadn’t considered it until now.

If she wasn’t mistaken about the direction... this place should be beneath the Grand Temple itself.

“This is...”

Finally, she arrived at her destination.

What greeted Lucy was a space that felt entirely out of place.

Even more so because it was impossible to tell what it had been used for.

It wasn’t a place where people could have lived—no sunlight reached here, and there wasn’t even any lighting. This space was not designed for human habitation.

Yet, scattered across the floor were gospels and prayer books.

There were more than she had expected.

As if a large number of people had once lived here.

But if that was the case, where had those people gone? With that question in mind, Lucy began searching the area.

The more she searched, the deeper her confusion grew.

‘Why on earth is something like this here?’

With sheer force, Lucy pried open the closed door, revealing a room filled with strange magic tech devices.

Tools that seemed to be used for cutting things apart.

Magitech machines that looked like they compressed something into a liquid.

“A slaughterhouse?”

That thought naturally crossed her mind.

As she observed the machines more closely, she noticed the blood and bits of flesh stuck in them.

Lucy didn’t know much about magic tech, but it was clear these machines were used for something like that.

A place used for slaughtering meat...

‘...That doesn’t make any sense, does it?’

Her face filled with confusion as she thought about it. It was only natural.

Why would a slaughterhouse exist in a place like this? There was a limit to how much something could defy logic.

But then, why were these machines here? With the blood and flesh, it was clear they were used to cut and process ‘meat.’

“......”

Cold sweat ran down Lucy’s back. Her face turned pale, as if she were about to collapse.

The reason was simple.

A horrifying thought had crossed her mind. A deeply unsettling one.

But...

‘N-no, that can’t be right… can it?’

It had to be her imagination.

She was letting her thoughts spiral too much.

After all, that would be an extreme assumption, even for her.

In her time as a knight, she had dealt with countless criminals, punishing them for their wrongdoings, but none had ever committed something so heinous.

Even evil has its limits.

For the Holy Church, a place that served God, to commit such acts? Even conspiracy theorists wouldn’t believe such wild stories.

Lucy calmed her pounding heart for a while, but the uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away, no matter how much time passed.

Nervously biting her nails, Lucy paced around.

And then...

“...!”

The girl’s face appeared before her again.

The same girl who had led her here.

For some reason, the girl had shown herself in front of Lucy once more.

“W-wait! Hold on!”

Lucy shouted at the girl as quickly as she could. But, like before, the girl ignored her and sprinted off somewhere.

Again, at an incredibly fast speed.

Lucy tried desperately to chase after her, but… she failed.

As always, the girl vanished as if she had evaporated into thin air.

All that greeted the panting Lucy was a black door.

[Contaminated Materials Storage]

A strange name for a room.

A sense of foreboding washed over her.

But she couldn’t turn back now. Taking a deep breath, Lucy opened the door.

The moment she opened the door, nausea hit her.

Her head spun.

A sharp, intense pain shot through her eyes.

A chilling energy filled the air.

There, in the room, was a black, ominous liquid being stored.

But that wasn’t what made Lucy feel sick.

She saw something terrible.

Something she shouldn’t be seeing.

It was as if hundreds…

No, thousands of human souls were twisted and fused into one grotesque mass, right before her eyes.

And it was exuding a horrifying curse.

This was dangerous.

This was definitely dangerous.

Lucy had no control over her ability to see souls.

At any moment, the influence of that thing could distort her mind or body.

Just as Lucy desperately tried to hold onto her fading consciousness and escape this place—

[Unnie.]

A voice called out.

It was the voice of the girl who had led Lucy here.

Only then did Lucy finally realize the girl’s true nature.

Why had she been able to move faster than Lucy? Why had she been able to appear and disappear so mysteriously?

There was only one answer.

The girl wasn’t a living human.

The girl’s soul silently reached out its hand toward Lucy.

Her eyes were filled with a swirl of emotions as she looked at Lucy.

Why was it?

It was clear that running away was the right choice here.

Everything in this place was suspicious and dangerous. Threats to her life were everywhere.

So, fleeing would be the right decision.

And yet...

Despite knowing that, she felt like she couldn’t ignore it. Like she couldn’t turn away from this.

Lucy… took the girl’s hand.

And the memories of what the girl had gone through flooded into Lucy’s mind.

How the girl had wandered through the slums, met Lucy, and become close after sharing various conversations.

How she had been led by Lucy’s hand and delivered to the Holy Church.

And then…

Everything that had happened afterward.

Once Lucy understood it all, she looked at the girl again.

But this time… she couldn’t say anything.

Because Lucy had seen it.

The girl’s limbs being cut off, while she was still alive, for not singing the hymn properly.

The girl being forced to tear open her own brother’s body, all because they claimed she didn’t sincerely revere God.

Lucy couldn’t bring herself to say she was sorry after witnessing such horrors.

It would be shameless to ask for forgiveness after seeing such atrocities.

And then, the girl spoke to her.

She said she was full of resentment.

Resentment toward those who had committed such atrocities and still had the audacity to praise God.

With those words, the girl became part of that tangled mass of souls.

No—she had likely been a part of that soul mass from the beginning.

The thing the Holy Church called “contaminated material.”

The cursed souls of children, left behind after their divine powers had been extracted.

They were the ones who had called Lucy here.

To make the sinners pay for their crimes.

Lucy’s head spun.

She couldn’t think straight.

Her legs began to move on their own, without her will.

With unfocused eyes, Lucy gazed at the black liquid.

The voices of the children echoed in her ears.

They were calling out to her.

Asking her for help.

And Lucy… did what she had to do.

The blue-haired girl slowly sank into the ominous black liquid.

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