Seongguk – Intersection

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“Wh-what? Why is my body…?”

Lena, suddenly sprawled on the floor, seemed unable to comprehend what was happening.

“Hehe! Are you alright?”

The Pope chuckled, slowly approaching Lena.

“W-wait, no…?”

Lena tried to push herself up from the floor with her arms, but—

-Thud.

She barely managed to lift herself before collapsing again.

Lena could clearly feel her limbs growing increasingly stiff.

Despite this, she continued to try to rise, pushing against the floor.

“…No. This can’t be happening!”

But with each attempt, Lena’s movements grew weaker.

It was like a fish caught by a fisherman, desperately thrashing to return to the water.

But the fish’s fate was sealed.

Soon, unable to move any further, the fish had to entrust its destiny solely to the fisherman’s judgment.

Lena, lying face down on the floor, twitching, was in exactly the same situation.

The Pope watched her ridiculous state with satisfaction.

‘The effect took longer to manifest than I expected, almost causing me trouble.’

The Pope had been sweating, fearing that Lena might leave.

But in the end, he had managed to stop her before things got too out of hand.

Approaching Lena, the Pope bent down to meet her eyes. He picked up the Recording Device that had fallen nearby.

“Lena, your deduction earlier was truly impressive. Even preparing a Recording Device to bring me down. But alas, it’s a pity. The tea you diligently drank to feign naivety has become your poison.”

“P-poison in the tea? But you couldn’t have known I discovered your purpose, so how did you prepare…?”

Lena, trying to understand the situation,

“Ha.”

Let out a hollow laugh, as if realizing something.

“Pope, you never intended to let me go, no matter how I reacted.”

The fact that the tea was poisoned from the start meant that the Pope had intended to poison her from the beginning.

“Indeed, the clever Lena understands the situation immediately. That’s right. Your answer was unimportant. I was going to make you leave the Hero Party one way or another.”

The Pope’s elaborate explanation to Lena was merely a ploy to buy time; regardless of her answer, he intended to manipulate the situation to his liking.

“I was fortunate. If I hadn’t tampered with the tea today, it might have been your victory, Lena. But in the end, it seems the Goddess smiled upon me, not you.”

Lena bit her lower lip hard, glaring at the Pope.

“To utter the Goddess’s name after doing something like this. You’re utterly insane. And I can’t believe you used such dangerous means without hesitation against a member of the Hero Party.”

“Don’t you know it well, Lena? I can’t achieve my goals if I’m picky about methods. Ah, don’t worry about the poison. It’s not potent enough to take your life. Just a temporary Paralysis of your limbs?”

“…How comforting.”

“As you’re experiencing firsthand, what you ingested is a poison for Mana users, so using mana is futile. Therefore, I don’t recommend struggling meaninglessly. You already know that this room is under Soundproofing magic, so shouting for help is pointless, right?”

There was no one to call for help, and no way to escape.

It was, quite literally, a hopeless situation.

Just as she thought she would be defeated by the Pope,

Something on the floor caught her eye.

Her last resort, prepared to call for help in case of danger.

It was the switch.

If she pressed it, Jade would surely rush to her rescue.

Lena cautiously glanced at the Pope.

“Hmm. What should I do with Lena…?”

Fortunately, he seemed so preoccupied with her that he hadn’t noticed the small switch.

Lena wanted to press the switch immediately, but with her paralyzed arms, even moving it by 1cm was difficult.

In the end, she had to stall for time until her barely moving arm could reach the switch.

“Are you confident you can handle the aftermath? Even if you kill me here, Jade will uncover the truth and bring you down.”

“So, now it’s ‘you’ instead of ‘Pope’? That hurts.”

“Then should I call you a bastard?”

“Hehe, Lena’s language has become quite harsh. Anyway, I am the Pope. There’s no way I would kill you. It would make things troublesome.”

Lena tried to distract the Pope with conversation, hoping to press the switch before he noticed.

A little time passed, and finally, Lena’s finger almost touched the switch—

-Snatch.

“No!”

Before Lena’s eyes, the Pope snatched away her last hope.

“Lena, I’m a bit disappointed this time. I could see you rolling your eyes so obviously. You should have been more composed. Perhaps you’re still too young, and your response to unexpected situations is lacking.”

“Please, give it back. Please…”

Lena pleaded, but there was no way the Pope would return the switch.

Instead, he held the switch between his fingers and waved it in front of her eyes.

“This is a switch. Judging by how desperately you reached for it, does pressing this signal the Hero? Then the Hero will come running to save you. Quite a cute last resort, but even that’s been thwarted. Do you perhaps have anything else prepared? It was fascinating how you kept pulling things out like a peddler.”

“….”

Lena simply stared blankly, saying nothing.

“Oh dear. It seems our wise Lena has reached her end here.”

The Pope grabbed Lena’s cheeks with one hand and lifted her face. He met her eyes.

“Lena, are you perhaps very scared? You have a truly wonderful expression right now.”

Until now, Lena had been trying to maintain her composure, but now her eyes were filled with terror, shaking wildly.

“…Yes. I’m scared. But no matter what you do to me, the outcome won’t change. As I said before, Jade will end you.”

“Oh my. Your tone has completely changed now.”

“Shut up. I want to shut your mouth right now.”

Now, Lena had completely abandoned any pretense of respect for the Pope.

The person in front of her was nothing more than an ugly monster wearing the mask of the Pope.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you’re in my hands.”

The Pope didn’t particularly care about that point either.

Such formalities were no longer important.

“By the way, the Hero… What can a naive and weak Hero possibly do? He will become my loyal dog and move as I command.”

“Don’t underestimate Jade. Do you think Jade is such a fool? Do you think he’ll immediately forget me and fall for the Saintess if I disappear according to your plan? But the bond between Jade and me cannot be severed by the shallow tricks of trash like you.”

“We’ll see about that.”

With those words, the Pope left Lena and began to walk back towards the desk.

“Originally, I was going to just rough you up a little and send you on your way. But I should reward you for pushing me this far.”

The Pope rummaged through the desk drawer and pulled something out.

In the Pope’s hand was a small box.

The Pope poured Divine Power into the box, and with a click, it opened.

-Slide.

The Pope took out a gray cube from inside the box.

“Do you perhaps know what this is?”

“Wh-what is that? What are you doing…?”

“This is an Artifact. You should be honored. It was originally used on The Saintess.”

The Pope, holding the Artifact, began to approach Lena.

To Lena, he looked like the Grim Reaper.

“Get that away from me!”

Feeling a sense of foreboding, Lena tried to do something, but she couldn’t do anything while lying on the floor.

The Artifact was thrust in front of Lena’s eyes.

“Don’t worry. It will only hurt a little.”

“No. Please, Jade help— Kyaaaaaa!”

**

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

“!!”

Jade’s eyes snapped open at the loud banging.

Bright sunlight streaming through the window was piercing his eyes.

“…What was I doing?”

He didn’t remember lying down to sleep.

Jade was still a bit dazed from sleep.

As he slowly retraced his memories, his last recollection was waiting for Lena to return.

He had finished dealing with the envoys and tried to wait for Lena in his room, but he had quickly fallen asleep.

“Haa…”

Jade sighed and rubbed his head.

He must have been incredibly tired.

Dealing with seasoned diplomats who had been through thick and thin was something he never wanted to do again.

‘Did Lena see me asleep and just go back?’

If so, he would feel really bad.

The conversation with the Pope couldn’t have lasted for hours, so Lena was probably in her room.

-Slide.

Jade took the switch out of his pocket.

‘Fortunately, there was no need to use this.’

He had been very worried about Lena, but since the switch hadn’t gone off, it was clear that nothing had happened.

Even if he had fallen asleep, he would have immediately noticed if the switch had gone off.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Ugh?!”

Suddenly, someone was banging on the door hard enough to break it down.

“Ha, you startled me. Come to think of it, the sound that woke me up earlier must have been this…. Are they looking for me with something important?”

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be banging on the door like this.

Thinking it was something urgent, Jade quickly opened the door.

-Creak.

“Jade!”

“Annie?”

Annie had a very urgent expression on her face as Jade opened the door.

“Why didn’t you answer no matter how much I knocked! I’ve been looking for you since earlier.”

“Sorry. I guess I was too tired last night.”

“Anyway, that’s not important. Something really bad has happened.”

“Calm down and explain slowly. What is it?”

It didn’t seem like anything too terrible could have happened overnight.

Jade, thinking it was nothing serious, was stopped in his tracks by Annie’s next words.

“Lena has been captured by the Holy Knights.”

“…What?”

“Also… on suspicion of trying to assassinate the Pope.”