"Ugh... cough cough... cough cough cough..."

Celitia coughed several more times.

Her head throbbed with pain, her chest felt stuffy and panicked, and her whole body lacked strength.

Yet there was also a strange energy filling her body's circuits, making Celitia feel extremely uncomfortable.

Hearing the girl's painful coughing, Bren tried to struggle again.

The moment he moved, his neck was gripped tightly once more.

"...help... spare... please..."

Bren raised both hands in surrender, and only then did Celitia loosen her grip slightly.

"Be honest and confess properly, and I won't kill you."

Barely suppressing her body's discomfort, Celitia asked in a low voice, "What exactly was in the gift you had Charlotte deliver to Sophia?"

Bren's face, which had been flushed red from being choked, suddenly turned deathly pale.

Why would Celitia know about this?

Could the commotion that occurred back then have been caused by her?

It was fine if Celitia knew, but regarding the details of that ribbon incident, Bren absolutely could not admit to it.

"That gift was just an ordinary hair ribbon," Bren said stubbornly. "It was something I carefully selected as a gift for Her Highness the Princess—ah!!"

Before he could finish speaking, Bren suddenly screamed in agony.

His raised right hand had its joint dislocated, bending at a strange angle and hanging limply.

Celitia had very efficiently dislocated his wrist joint.

Bren was in so much pain that tears and snot streamed down his face.

This woman was actually so ruthless and vicious!

From the first time he saw her at Cassia Cathedral, when his lustful intentions failed and he was poisoned instead, he should have known!

How could his head have been so unclear that he provoked her again!!

Bren regretted it so much his intestines nearly snapped, but there was no way to turn back time.

"You need to think carefully. A dislocated wrist can still be reconnected, but if I cut off your entire arm, there would be no way to recover."

Hearing Bren's screams, Celitia once again felt a violent impulse rising uncontrollably from her chest.

"I'll talk! I'll tell you!!" Bren was already scared out of his mind. "Someone told me that as long as I could deliver that ribbon to Princess Sophia, it would make Her Highness fall in love with me!"

"Fall in love?"

This sounded too ridiculous, and Celitia couldn't help but want to laugh.

But halfway through laughing, she couldn't laugh anymore.

"That hair ribbon, or possibly the entire box, contains some kind of mysterious power."

Celitia coughed lowly. "My current state is all thanks to it."

"Wh-what state?" Bren was confused.

"Think carefully," Celitia didn't answer. "Who gave you this thing? Have you been afflicted by some kind of spell?"

"That mysterious woman was... was..."

Bren couldn't recall. "As for whether I've been cursed..."

As he tried to remember, it seemed like a black aura emanated from Bren's body and quickly disappeared into the air.

His brain felt like it had been struck by a heavy hammer, and Bren suddenly snapped awake, his face alternating between red and white.

Finding a way to deliver the ribbon to Sophia would win Sophia's devotion?

How could he have believed such childish words at the time?

It was as if something had clouded his mind.

Celitia stared at him: "Remember now?"

Bren fearfully recalled everything, spilling it all out like beans from a bamboo tube:

"A mysterious woman, yes, it was a mysterious woman whose face I couldn't see clearly. She gave me this ribbon! She told me that as long as I found a way to give it to Sophia, I could get what I wanted. Including that Charlotte girl you mentioned, it was also that mysterious woman who told me to meet her at a specified time and place to cooperate with her."

At this point, Bren shouted out, both frightened and regretful:

"I was used! This was definitely a conspiracy between that mysterious woman and that Charlotte!!"

His voice trembled, full of pleading, "You're a victim, and I'm a victim too, so you should let me go now and let us talk properly—"

Celitia pressed further: "Continue. Who exactly is this mysterious woman?"

"I really don't know!" Bren shouted loudly. "If I knew her identity, would I still call her a mysterious woman?"

"Then what about the time and place you met this mysterious woman? Tell me all the details you know."

"That should have been three days ago..."

As Bren was speaking, gradually his voice stopped, his eyes staring straight at Celitia, almost unable to speak.

"Ugh...!"

Celitia felt as if her mind had been struck hard by a heavy hammer again, and her chest erupted with intense twisting pain.

Her remaining consciousness still firmly suppressed Bren on the ground.

As if seeing something extremely terrifying, Bren's face showed extreme fear:

"...spare me... please..."

"What?"

Celitia clearly hadn't done anything.

She could only watch helplessly as black aura emerged from her fingertips, staining Bren's neck with black spots one after another.

Those black spots spread at an unimaginable speed, covering Bren's entire body within a few breaths.

Bren's agonized appearance felt somewhat familiar to Celitia.

Back at the Herbert estate, when she suddenly saw Kassy falling from the sky, she had looked the same way.

The difference was that this time the black spots were much more terrifying than before, having almost completely devoured Bren.

"...spare me... please..."

Bren was still making his final struggle.

As the last patch of skin was stained black, Bren's entire body seemed to be dissolving, ultimately turning into a pool of black water that merged into the shadow on the ground.

The living person who had been right in front of her just disappeared like that, as if he had never existed.

Celitia's mind went completely blank.

What was happening?

Bren had turned into a black shadow and disappeared?

Was this caused by the mysterious power within her?

A pitch-black pill fell from Bren's tightly clenched left hand and rolled onto the ground.

All of Bren's belongings, whether clothes, accessories, or other items he carried, had vanished.

Only this so-called pill had somehow remained.

Celitia instinctively bent down, planning to pick up the pill.

The moment her fingertips touched the pill, deep purple mysterious runes appeared on its surface, and the entire thing cracked apart, turning into flying black shadows that also disappeared.

Alarm bells rang loudly in Celitia's heart.

This was definitely not some ordinary pill.

Just now, Celitia had detected traces of dark magic similar to curses on it.

Damn, she'd fallen into the trap!

An indescribable burning sensation surged from within her body, as if flames were fiercely scorching her.