The Villain is Being Suspiciously Kind

Citrina climbed into the pitch-black carriage. Arte Pianan sat across from her. The carriage windows were also blacked out like a shroud.
There was a deathly silence in the carriage, and Citrina had no way of telling how much time passed.
She couldn’t even hear Gemma.
There were enemies everywhere. Instead of burying her face in her hands and wiping away her tears, she decided to talk.

“You said you were going to the Imperial Investigation Office, right?”
“Yes.”

Despite the snippy answer, Citrina didn’t give up and asked one more time.

“Am I charged with murder?”
“Not yet, Lady Citrina Foluin.”

He kept glancing nervously at the watch on his wrist. Facial expressions lie from time to time, but the body language that accompanies the expressions is different. This told her he was running out of time.
Was he trying to move her and fabricate the evidence?
If that was his aim, it was a cliche-like development.
Citrina stared at Arte Pianan, pondering. But what if he had a different goal?
Citrina’s mind flashed through several different scenarios, but one thing was certain.
She had to survive and make it to the time Arte Pianan was waiting for.
The carriage seemed to be traveling over a bumpy hillside. She couldn’t see outside, but she could feel it. And there were no dirt roads on the way to the palace. Citrina instinctively sensed that fact.
Where was she headed?
Citrina remembered the ancient words on her wrist.

“Lady Citrina Foluin, will you allow me to blindfold you?”

It was worded as a question, but she could only give one answer.
Arte Pianan deftly pulled out a black blindfold. Citrina knew as a practitioner of elementism. This…was a type of bondage tool. [T.L. Note. Citrina, you don’t need elementism to know that…]

“Yes. Because I’m innocent.”
“Innocent….”

Arte Pianan’s hand brushed a circle around Citrina’s forehead.
She got goosebumps as if snake scales were slithering against her skin.
Citrina soon felt her vision darken.

‘I have to summon Gemma without a medium.’

Without the medium of the pendant, the summoning ritual would be complicated. But spirits were creatures that were sensitive to their contractor’s emotions and senses.
Citrina believed in herself and Gemma. Besides, her wrists were burning.
When they stepped out of the carriage and went inside, the blindfold was removed. In its place were mana restraints that looked like handcuffs on both wrists.

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‘I don’t have any mana in my body anyway.’

But saying that would only make her more miserable, so Citrina persevered.

“Please excuse me, Lady Citrina.”
“You already regard me as a sinner.”
“Don’t all without faith in God have original sin?”

It was an irrelevant answer.
Citrina carefully picked out the keywords one by one.
Since talking about God and original sin, not a word had been spoken about Countess Badil.
She chose her words carefully.

“I see you believe in God.”
“Of course I do. Doesn’t Lady Citrina believe in God?”
“…What answer are you expecting?”

Arte Pianan’s gaze was clouded. Citrina felt a sense of deja vu. It was exactly what Countess Badil said.

‘Now I know for sure.’

It was devotees to God that had led her to this place.
Her sister, the paladin Elaina, Countess Badil and Arte Pianan who had a terrible longing for God, and the paladin’s leader who hated elementism, Genfiros.

“What kind of answer do you expect?”

And then things went from bad to worse.
As if she had provoked him, Arte grabbed Citrina’s chin. His grip was strong enough to make her jaw twitch, but she didn’t look down.

“What do you think of God, Lady Citrina Foluin?”

Citrina took a shallow breath. Arte was looking deep into her eyes, smiling.

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“Arte-nim, can I ask you a question?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“How long have you been a knight?”
“Ten years now.”

Arte Pianan’s face showed pride in his knighthood.

“By the way…I see you have a new sword.”

The white scabbard jutted out. Like the inscription on Citrina’s wrist, his scabbard was engraved with something like a logo. It had been bothering her ever since…
Arte Pianan was a member of the Order of the Lance. At the time when he had informed Citrina about the ball, he had a dwarven sword.
So why did he unexpectedly have a paladin’s sword?

“Isn’t it very beautiful? God has graced me with it.”

He smiled as he spoke. Citrina was embarrassed by how innocent and friendly he appeared at this moment.
Earlier in the carriage, Arte Pianan checked his watch constantly.
Compulsively.
But now that he was here, what he was doing was straightforward.

‘You’re deliberately killing time.’

It was a room with no clock and no windows. In this place, only two people remained. She couldn’t tell what was outside the room, but a knight would be guarding it, and her chair was connected to the mana restraint device.

“You better not think of trying to escape, Lady Citrina Foluin.”

Arte sneered as if he had read her thoughts.
But Citrina had no intention of escaping here immediately.

‘I still have something to look into.’

If she was correct, someone would enter this room soon. Citrina glared provocatively at Arte.

“A great messenger of God will come soon.”

A messenger of God would be the Pope, a Cardinal, or a paladin if they stayed in the Petrosha Empire.

“A messenger of God…I’m looking forward to it.”
“I’m sure Lady Citrina will be impressed by them too, once she hears the story.”
“Perhaps so.”

Citrina slowly took in the room’s interior with an expressionless face. The halogen lights flickered, and the flowers in the vases were fresh.
She glanced at the flowers in the vase.

‘There’s a tulip, and it’s damp.’

Tulips weren’t in season right now.
These were yellow tulips, a rare sight in the capital.
‘The only place yellow tulips are grown is in the greenhouses of noble families.’
This was most likely Countess Badil’s country house. And Citrina’s charge was that she had murdered Countess Badil.

‘This is…quite a dangerous situation.’

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If her guess is correct, Countess Badil was alive and well until Citrina was taken away. And the moment Citrina arrived at the country house, Badil’s life was in danger.

‘They’re trying to frame me for murder.’

Things weren’t looking good, but there was still time to turn things around.
In a crisis, the first thing to come to mind was Desian’s face.
It was serious.
Citrina clenched and unclenched her hands. Still, she could think of some ways to use her powers to survive.

“Maybe….”

Arte approached directly in front of the chair Citrina sat on while staring at her.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

Arte’s vivid smile was visible. Citrina calmly spoke of despair.

“If it’s a question of life and death, then I’m not comfortable.”
“Are you discouraged?”
“If you’d like, I’m discouraged.”

Citrina’s voice was weak.
Yet, Arte lacked the absolute tolerance that is characteristic of a truly devout person. Nevertheless, he was also human, and having her tied up seemed to relieve some of the tension.

‘I won’t give up.’

Citrina recalled the coordinates of exactly where this location was. There was some confusion with her memory.

‘When will Gemma get here?’

The inside of her wrist pulsed with pain. It was a signal of sorts. Citrina began carefully managing her facial expression.
Already Gemma seemed to have realized her predicament. Without any summoning ritual, Gemma was flying toward her as fast as she could.

“You should stop expecting someone to come for you.”
“Yes. I didn’t expect it because time has stopped here.”
“So you know.”

It was a space where time had stopped.
She glared at the water that refused to fall from the vase. She felt it since everything in this space had stopped moving.
The water pooling on the tulips should flow downward according to the laws of gravity. But the droplets of water clinging to the tulips didn’t fall.

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‘They were thorough. A spiritist who needs a medium in a room where time has stopped can’t use their power.’

But they should have done more research on Citrina.
She no longer needed a medium.
It was then.
Suddenly, someone appeared in the room. He hadn’t been lying when he said God’s messenger was coming.

“… Elaina?”

It was Elaina, dressed in a pious priest’s robe instead of a paladin’s uniform.

“Big sister, long time no see?”