CH 76

“Ah.”

Veronica turned her head away, clenching her fists instead of reaching out.

“No. Not now.”

Barom was dead and there was blood on his body, and Veronica’s divine power suddenly increased. Anybody would be suspicious.

Moreover, even drinking his blood would only increase her divine power the same as dripping water into a dry lake.

‘It works, but.’

In fact, it was almost non-existent.

‘There must be a way to apply it.’

Veronica remembered the orphanage at that moment.

When Count Chateau died, she said she would take responsibility for it instead. She will soon be assigned to the Great Temple at Fineta.

At that time, she would be formally appointed as the orphanage manager. There were also ten orphanages.

Things were going fun.

“I wish that day would come sooner.”

Veronica whispered and smiled broadly as if tearing her mouth open.

***

Tristan became half-jobless. He currently entrusted most of his authority to Lloyd. He hasn’t lost all his strength yet, and he hasn’t lost his sanity to the point of going crazy.

‘Actually, he has an excuse that he is losing his power, so maybe he’s living the jobless life he’s been wanting for a long time.’

Aria had reasonable doubts.

Tristan, who was lying at an angle, enjoying a glass of wine and picking grapes, looked drowsy and relaxed.

‘Not like some kind of Dionysus.’

He was enjoying heavenly paradise alone. No matter how powerful the devil may be, he was likely to despair as he was losing the power he had enjoyed.

She had to admit she was glad he looked happy.

“Father.”

“Daughter.”

Soon after, her title was settled as daughter. She wondered if she should tell him that when she becomes a daughter she will be their family line.

It didn’t matter that she wasn’t a real daughter anyway, and he called her whatever she wanted.

“I heard from Father that once the malice was completely gone, you would be plagued with madness.”

“Aren’t you dissatisfied that I’m not crazy?”

Tristan looked at her questioning face and smiled.

“Originally, I should be confined to a separate palace by now, but I don’t run rampant anymore. I think it’s thanks to your song.”

Thanks to the Siren’s song.

He didn’t go crazy because of the song? She wondered if it was like that.

‘Then…….’

From what Aria and Vincent found, there was no record of being addicted after hearing the Siren’s song and going crazy.

‘Even if there is a saying that the song was so beautiful that they lost their mind and were mesmerized for a while and then their ship crashed into a reef and sank to death.’

Of course, it was a tragic story, but wasn’t it distinctly different from being addicted to madness?

Considering the dire circumstances she had gone through before her death, there should have been at least one case in history where one died of madness from addiction to the Siren’s song.

‘But it is certain that only those who have listened to my songs for a long time in my past life were crazy.’

What was it? Aria made a strangely uncomfortable expression.

‘So it’s not true?’

Did someone deliberately frame her? If the Siren had lived in hiding all their lives, not widely known, and they took advantage of the fact that Aria, who was alone, didn’t know much about the Siren…….

‘But who?’

If they framed Aria and benefited from that, it was, in fact, something so obvious that she could see it.

As Aria became the sight of people all over the world, the benefit could be for the country, ‘Garcia.’

What if Garcia really conspired? After making all the established rulers who control the Empire go crazy, they start a war. And they blamed the Siren, who has more healing power than divine power, as a monster.

It’s a win-win situation because they can get the Fineta Empire and get rid of the Siren, which was a thorn in their eyes.

‘And the sign they made and put forward, that is, Saint Veronica as a hero.’

It was the perfect scenario.

Her heart was overflowing with suspicion.

But if that happened, everything that Aria had believed would fall apart. Because she thought that the saint who had burned with justice, had set out to save the Fineta Empire from the monster.

‘I thought she was a hero.’

But if Veronica only pretended to be a hero to win the Fineta Empire.

The nobles were crazy because of Aria. It was because of her that the Emperor became a tyrant, because of her the Empire declined and fell, and because of her the innocent people died.

All the tragedies of the past were actually…….

‘What if it was just a ploy?’

It might have been a speculation. Aria didn’t know if that was just to comfort herself that she did nothing wrong.

‘But what if it’s true?’

If that was true, it wasn’t the time for Aria to be so laid back now. Just keeping her secret wasn’t enough.

If the Holy Empire’s intention was to destroy the Fineta Empire, war would break out with or without the Siren.

‘I was wrong.’

Once she changed the direction of her thoughts, she kept thinking only of that case. However, even if Garcia was really the subject of the conspiracy, there were doubts.

The question was, how did they drive people crazy?

‘They can’t make people crazy by using divine power borrowed from the power of God.’

It was then.

Tristan tapped and touched Aria’s nose, who was in deep thought.

“Want some grapes?”

It wasn’t that useful though.

At that moment, Aria recalled the power most closely related to madness.

‘The devil’s malice…….’

A devil in the Holy Empire? But it couldn’t be.

Because they hated to fall into the devil’s temptation and be corrupted than to die.

‘They, who started foaming bubbles in their mouth just by looking at the devil’s evildoers, ask the devil for help?’

She can’t even imagine.

‘And after calling the devil, they’ve been watching Valentine more closely than anyone else.’

What in the world?

“Can Father imagine Garcia getting involved with the devil?”

“Can you imagine me getting involved with an angel?”

Not at all. Aria was convinced of Tristan’s answer and drew her conclusions.

‘Then it wasn’t the Pope’s judgment, but someone acted arbitrarily.’

Who…….

In the end, her doubts were back to square one.

“Here, ah.”

Aria thought as she reflexively chewed the grapes that Tristan had carefully peeled and put in her mouth.

‘Actually, it is not that there was not a single person suspected now.’

In fact, there were many suspects. Quite a number of Garcia’s priests that Aria has known through her past life.

‘And…… Veronica.’

At this point, Aria had no choice but to think of Veronica’s necklace again.

For some reason, she thought there must have been a hint there.

***

It started raining from the sky. But Aria took her umbrella regardless of whether it was raining or not.

“Where are you going in this weather?”

Maronnier said anxiously and held the umbrella in Aria’s hand.

Aria gave a brief thank you with a thank-you card, and then she rushed to the training hall. She cut the escort after promising Cloud that she would never leave the castle.

‘I need to meet Gabriel right now.’

She will be able to meet him in the prayer room by simply waiting for Gabriel to come. But she didn’t have the patience to sit still until then.

‘The thing I feared the most was, undoubtedly, that Lloyd would go crazy for the song I sang.’

But maybe, it wouldn’t happen.

How can she stay still? There is no such thing as peace of mind.

Aria wanted to see Gabriel right away and she wanted to confirm that there was someone else who framed her.

‘As expected.’

She thought he would be here. Aria saw him training alone in the corner of the training hall, even on a rainy day, while being hit by the rain defenselessly.

‘How many times did he practice?’

The way he continued the sword dance seemed more natural than breathing.

The neatly cut, pure white silver hair soaked up a lot of rainwater, and he followed the quick movements to shake the water in all directions.

Since when has he been like that?

The chest of the young man, who still had a youthful face, shook violently as if he was holding his breath.

It was indistinguishable whether it was raindrops or sweat drops flowing down the chin.

“…!”

But it was that moment.

Gabriel’s hand suddenly slipped. He found Aria looking at him with an umbrella belatedly.

“Grand Princess?”

Without even a single gap, the sharp figure was shattered in an instant.

‘…… Ugh!’

He even cut off his finger with his sword. It was an incredibly stupid mistake for Gabriel. He looked down in dismay at his finger pouring out blood.

Aria walked over to him.

“What brings you here…”

At that time, Aria’s lips were fluttering.

“Yes?”

He staggered unlike Lloyd, who was able to read the shape of her mouth. Aria moved her lips a few more times, then sighed and reached out her hand.

Then she raised his large, trembling hand to examine the wound.