Chapter 84
It was a place he’d only heard about in stories.
A fantastical realm said to be crafted by fairies with their enigmatic powers.
Though woven from illusions, everything that happened here was utterly real.
There were tales of those entranced by the dreamlike haze of this illusory domain, forever unable to return to the waking world.
But Itar didn’t care.
He’d be fine with being trapped here for the rest of his life.
Amid a grotesque chessboard overflowing with broken toys and shattered dolls.
“Huff, pant… This is… the Lady Enchantress’s illusory domain…!”
The fact that the domain had unfolded meant Lichesia was here too.
Itar, who had been gasping like a dog, suddenly felt an immense surge of pain.
“Aaaargh!”
The pure white chains that had vanished upon entering the domain now bound his body once more.
Tighter than before.
Trembling in agony, Itar glared ahead.
That damned heretic inquisitor had entered the domain with him.
‘Damn it. The Lady Enchantress invited only me into her domain!’
When he’d made contact with the butterfly, he’d been bound by that bastard’s strange chains.
That must be why they’d been pulled into the domain together.
As he writhed, chained and flailing, a melodious voice rang out.
“Fresh prey has come calling?”
Dozens of blossoms burst into bloom in the empty air.
The enchantress appeared alongside the flowers, axe in hand, lounging with her legs crossed atop the floral mound.
“Ahh, Lady Enchantress…!”
Seeing her after so long, she was beautiful enough to bring tears to his eyes.
The moment his gaze met those ruby eyes, framed by cat-like lashes tilted impishly upward, Itar was utterly entranced.
She looked at his spellbound expression and chuckled softly.
Her luscious golden hair swayed lightly with the sound of her laughter.
Itar’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees on the ground.
He couldn’t bear the ecstasy.
Yet those eyes, which he’d thought would hold him forever, turned elsewhere.
“…Why are you here, Hailon?”
Lichesia asked, looking at the heretic inquisitor.
The inquisitor, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
“Have I come to a place I shouldn’t have?”
“You’ve come to a place uninvited.”
It seemed Lichesia hadn’t anticipated the inquisitor entering her domain either.
Itar had hoped she’d tear off his head with one of her infamous man-eating flowers.
But for some reason, the atmosphere between the inquisitor and the enchantress felt oddly charged.
“…Me?”
“Yes, you.”
After exchanging those brief but subtly nuanced words, they stared intently at each other.
Their gazes intertwined like vines, thick with emotions dripping viscously.
In that moment, Itar was a complete outsider.
Unable to endure the feeling of exclusion, he cried out.
“Lady Enchantress!”
She stroked her axe and smiled sweetly.
Having successfully reclaimed her attention, Itar shouted.
“Please marry me! No matter who you are, no matter what you do to me, I love you. I’ll pledge my eternal loyalty to you.”
At his fervent declaration of love, Lichesia burst into laughter.
After laughing heartily for a while, she swung her axe.
In the blink of an eye, Lichesia was right before him.
Her face, seen this close, was almost too intoxicating.
“This works out perfectly.”
She smirked down at Itar, who gasped in a sharp breath.
“Contacting an enchantress, attempting to assault a heretic inquisitor’s private residence…”
Singing the words like a tune, she turned to the inquisitor and said something unbelievable.
“Wouldn’t this be enough to get him thrown into the Holy Empire’s interrogation chamber, Hailon?”
Hailon entering the domain with him had been unexpected.
Since Itar was wrapped in the holy relic, the Chains of Condemnation, he’d been dragged along.
It wasn’t a bad turn of events.
Chesha’s plan had been to toss Itar into the interrogation chamber anyway, ensuring he couldn’t emerge until the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly.
Previously, when Hailon had hauled Itar there, he hadn’t been able to interrogate him properly because Itar hadn’t committed any real wrongdoing.
At worst, he’d only been chasing the enchantress, with barely any actual contact.
So Chesha intended to fabricate some charges.
“Watch closely, Hailon.”
She extended her hand.
To carve a massive mark of prey right across Itar’s chest.
“He’s entered the domain, and I’ll etch my marks all over him. That should make it easy to lock him up as a heretic…”
Her fingertips were just about to touch his chest.
“Stop.”
Chesha flinched in surprise at the firm grip seizing her wrist.
“Don’t do it.”
The sharp command felt unfamiliar.
While she hesitated, he spun her around.
Facing each other, Hailon glared at her with icy eyes.
“Do you mark just anyone like that?”
“…What?”
She had marked anyone and everyone.
The mark of prey—she’d stamped it haphazardly countless times before.
Hailon had seen the marks she left behind plenty of times.
Yet now he was stopping her as if it were some profoundly special act.
“Don’t touch that scum. Just feed him to your flowers.”
Then, on his own accord, he swung the chains and hurled Itar into the mound of flowers where Chesha had been sitting moments ago.
Itar screamed.
His upper body buried in the flowers, only his lower half protruded, kicking wildly.
Thorny vines crept sinuously toward him, ready to devour.
His exposed legs twitched in spasms from the sharp thorns’ pain.
But since he’d been swallowed by the flower, not even his screams could be heard anymore.
Chesha hadn’t ordered it to kill him, so it was just holding his head in its maw…
Still, trapped in utter darkness where nothing could be heard or seen, it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.
“…Excuse me, Mr. Inquisitor?”
She was dumbfounded by his audacity in using her man-eating flowers without permission in her own domain.
Hailon paid it no mind.
Instead, with a clinking sound, he wrapped the chains tightly around them.
Binding his arm to Chesha’s.
Startled by this slightly unusual behavior, she looked up at him.
His blue eyes appeared as coldly composed as ever.
But that was only on the surface.
He tilted his head down at her and said.
“I’ll help you.”
“…?”
“I’ll hide you in my private residence until your safety is fully secured. If you tell me who’s pursuing you right now…”
It was strange to hear him speak at such length and speed, so unlike Hailon.
Chesha gently chided him in a low voice.
“You can’t help me.”
“……”
“If you want to help, just drag that guy to the interrogation chamber and torment him until he cries his eyes out.”
With the fact that he’d entered the domain and bearing the enchantress’s mark, it’d be straightforward to brand him a heretic, but since Hailon was frothing in refusal, there was nothing she could do.
Hailon stared at Chesha in silence for a long moment.
“Lichesia.”
His low voice pronounced the enchantress’s name in a chillingly exquisite way.
“Am I no longer your prey?”
Chesha couldn’t answer immediately.
It reminded her of the conversation they’d had while lying side by side in bed.
“We were never anything.”
“If I had to say, I’d be her prey. Your mother was a predator, after all.”
Hailon seemed unaware that Chesha regarded him as somewhat special.
So she felt a slight—very slight—desire to become something different with him.
Something more evolved than just prey…
Not knowing what that was, she pondered for a moment, and it seemed to be misinterpreted.
As if their relationship had already ended.
“Starting and ending it all on your whim.”
His muttered voice was somehow murky.
A slow ripple spread across his once serene and pure blue eyes.
A languid yet intense wave.
Something deep within him was shifting.
Chesha gazed at the sight in a daze.
Then, without realizing, she whispered his name.
“Hailon…”
For a fleeting moment, she thought his trembling eyes were beautiful.
And when she came to her senses.
Their lips were pressed together.
