Be Fascinated

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Chapter 27

Her body ached. Her corruption was perfect. It was not enough for her to have sex with him in earnest over and over again, so he even washed her dirty body by immersing her in the holy water. Philia thus committed blasphemy until the end.

She felt guilty about doing this, but when she did it to the end, she was strangely relieved.

At that moment, the door swung open without the person knocking. Philia flinched. Now that she had just washed her body, her body was covered only in a slip.

Maybe it was Claude? He couldn’t stand it so, did he come to hold her again? She was already exhausted. Even after washing her body and changing her clothes, it was hard enough. Philia’s body shrank and she lowered her head.

“Now stop… Please stop it.”

“…….”

“It’s enough today.”

She said in a crawling voice. Her legs were trembling.

“Miss Philia.”

The voice heard was female, not male. There was only one woman other than her. She raised her head and Bianca was standing there.

“…….”

Bianca looked at Philia with a shocked expression. She blushed and covered her body, but Bianca ran up to her and removed the bedsheets that had covered her body.

“What…”

The reddish marks left on her skin were clearly traces of an affair. Philia bowed her head. Showing this to other people, especially Bianca, was just shameful. Philia said quietly.

“Now do you know? You don’t have to worry about me.”

“…….”

“If you ask me if I was the one who did that in sincerity, yes, you are right.”

“…….”

“I slept there with the Grand Duke.”

Bianca chimed in at Philia’s blunt words. She looked at Philia, her eyes wide open. Philia would have looked exactly like Bianca if she was the saint. Besides, it’s an obscene blasphemy of a former saint.

“Does the Grand Duke love you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you love the Grand Duke?”

“I don’t know that either. I don’t have many options.”

Bianca looked speechless. Bianca bit her lips tightly.

“I’m not going to take your place. Because I am corrupt.”

As Philia whispered, Bianca shook her head.

“I had no intention of losing it. Just stay still.”

“…….”

“I’ll take care of the rest.”

“…….”

She seemed to understand why people followed Bianca. She had a different strength from Philia, who was always soft and indecisive.

As Philia lay down, Bianca looked down at her. Her face, which Philia had thought was tainted with disgust and contempt, showed different thoughts and emotions. She was struggling.

“I’m sorry for you.”

“…….”

“I had sick parents, a younger brother, and a younger sister who were about to be sold. I had no choice.”

Philia blinked slowly. So, the fake had taken the place of the fake. The hostility and anger that she had held for her had long since vanished.

“So, I…”

Bianca bit her lip. When Philia lifted her gaze and looked at her, she was weeping. Why are you crying? Philia opened her lips.

“Don’t cry. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“…….”

“That’s right. If he wanted, he would have brought someone other than you and pulled me out.”

“…….”

“It’s okay, don’t worry.”

She might have hated Bianca a bit if she’d rather been confident without guilt. But what would be left from a meaningless grudge against a person who was feeling so guilty?

That woman, too, was at the risk of being sold to another country, and she was rotting in this stuffy temple. Philia knew what Bianca had given up.

“You are so sweet.”

“…Please, I don’t like you that much. I hated you, too.”

“Because of you, I have a debt. I will pay off the debt someday.”

“…….”

“Again, I’m sorry. Take some rest. No one will disturb you tomorrow, no, today.”

Bianca said softly and stroked Philia’s head. There was no hostility in that touch, so Philia could sleep a little more comfortably.

Bianca watched as Philia fell asleep. From the first time she saw Philia, Bianca felt a sense of crisis. It was an instinctive intuition.

Even after she chased Philia out, Bianca was anxious to see Irik following her blindly.

She already knew that Philia was a fake. There was also circumstantial evidence that Philia was fake. Yet she wondered why she was anxious when she saw Philia.

Philia didn’t like her? It was Bianca who hated her.

Bianca trembled as she watched Philia’s miserable condition. A white, small face like a stone statue. Although she was the same age as Philia, there were times when she thought that she was envious of that innocent face that was innocent about the ways of the world. But that innocence became poison.

The blonde hair, which had lost the color, was wet from having not dried out properly. Did she have a fever, or were her cheeks just red? How much did the man rub her lips for her lips to also swell up as though they were bloodstained.

Her skinny body was in a terrible state. There were red marks all over her body. Especially the bite marks left on her chest… The man must have indulged in her white flesh and rushed to satisfy his lust like a beast.

Bianca knew that it was this woman who Claude wanted. She didn’t think much. It was rather clear what he wanted, so she was relieved. If he wanted her, at least he wouldn’t disturb Bianca.

Philia had no power, and she was a woman who literally followed the will of the temple. Perhaps if she went on like this, she would’ve married a savage. Or she would have continued this cramped life of hers. She thought Philia was better off going to Claude.

But, how is this any different from human trafficking now? She could not believe Philia’s miserable appearance.

He was not a normal man, she thought. But apart from that, he was a complete madman.

She never, ever wanted something like this. Bianca bit her lip and stepped out into the hallway.

“Miss Bianca!”

“Don’t say anything.”

She quietly ordered her people to dispose of the traces of an affair from the sanctuary, but the news seemed to have leaked. If they talk like that, would she be able to do anything more than rush Claude to order? Claude would kill everyone who’d offend him.

“I’m telling you again. Don’t say anything.”

Bianca said firmly. Why on earth did that mad Grand Duke do that with Philia in the sanctuary? There was going to be an official event in the sanctuary tomorrow.

Bianca moved on to make sure the cleanup was done. Then, Bianca saw Irik walking like a ghost in the hallway.

Hmm?

Dark green eyes were as calm as the sea in winter. He had his hair down, which was usually neatly raised. As he walked helplessly with his back bent, his large body looked shabby and dwarfed.

“High Priest Irik?”

Irik looked at Bianca. For a moment, Bianca was startled. The high priest, who was blind and faithful, was as clean and calm as the water that cried only to God, and now there was a sharp murderous energy in the eyes of the High Priest.

With his head down as though his thin neck was broken, he staggered.

Bianca covered her mouth, wanting to scream. Her heart was pounding. But Irik looked at her face, lifted the corners of his mouth, and walked back over the hallway.

Goosebumps rose. Cold sweat ran down her back. Maybe she saw it wrong?

Bianca looked back at the sanctuary and she thought about what Irik had done earlier.

Then Bianca felt something incompatible and looked back. She saw something different in her eyes than when she came in.

The holy water that flowed from the statue of a baby angel with the harp on its back was shining white. This… Bianca clenched her teeth. Bianca never put her hand in this flowing holy water. When she dipped her hands like Philia, she dipped her hands in a completely different fountain. Judging from what was left in the water, it must have been from those who had occluded in the sanctuary.

“No way… Instead of soaking in the holy water for a while, she bathed here, too?”

Bianca clenched her teeth when she saw it, and sweared in an unusual way.

“The oracle wasn’t fake?”

The Bible of Proverbs was obviously not fake… It was clear what the sparkling white holy water meant.

“Crazy, damn it.”

Why did God always put her to the test? Bianca shouted at the statue of the saint.

“What the hell do you want?”

The hesitation was short-lived. Because Bianca could never come down from this position. Her face was filled with guilt.

When she woke up, the sun was already setting. She was tormented by him all night and she barely slept at dawn, so it was only natural. She slept as if dead, and Philia got up and put on her clothes.

The only clothes in the temple were holy clothes.

When she put on the robes again, she found it funny. Philia thought about what would happen to her. Whatever she did, she’d be taken back to Claude. She gave up her own personal affairs.

Philia looked into the room. It was definitely a place that had been like a home to her, but now this place felt unfamiliar.

She opened the door and stepped outside. She had no intentions or anything, but her feet moved.

Not long after she left, she found Irik. His head was bowed. His brown hair, which was always neatly turned, now covered his face, making it difficult to see his expression. At the disheveled appearance, Philia had a puzzled expression.

At that moment, Irik raised his head. Philia flinched. Irik’s face was blank. Its empty eyes were gloomy, like a corpse with open eyes.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────