You Are the Black Apostle
“What on earth are you saying!”
That’s it!
Rachel finally felt like she could breathe again. Jerome, who had been watching with open displeasure, shot to his feet.
“What kind of nonsense is that, Duchess? The madness will not stop unless the Purification Ceremony is performed!”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking.”
Canna gently cut Jerome off.
“If anyone here has suffered from the madness within the last few days, please step forward.”
“……”
“That is what I asked.”
Yet the villagers remained silent.
Not a single person answered Canna. Their failure to deny it was as good as confirmation.
“One more question. Has anyone eaten rye recently?”
Of course they hadn’t.
She had asked precisely because she knew the answer would be no.
Every household in the village had received sea trout and all kinds of other seafood and expensive ingredients from her. After tasting delicacies they had never experienced except through their lord, who would bother searching for that tiresome rye?
‘So even though it sounds absurd, they’ll have no choice but to believe me.’
Canna steadied her breathing and spoke the truth that would cause an enormous stir.
“The madness in this village comes from the rye.”
“……”
Silence descended.
Even the eyes that had shown her goodwill now filled with doubt.
“Hahaha! Did everyone hear that?”
At that moment Jerome laughed openly in mockery.
“The madness comes from rye? My lady, my lord, did you hear? How long must we listen to this drivel?”
The knight who had been guarding Canna was absent in this moment. That was the only reason he dared speak so freely.
“You must drag her away at once, my lady! She is inciting the villagers with empty lies!”
Then it happened.
“D-don’t say such things!”
One of the villagers mustered his courage and shouted.
“Th-thanks to the Duchess sharing her food with us, I ate precious sea trout for the first time in my life! She is a good person!”
“Y-yes! Thanks to her we’ve finally escaped that wretched rye, yet you speak so harshly!”
“Do not treat her that way!”
As angry voices burst out one after another, Jerome’s mouth fell open. This was a reaction he had never even dreamed of.
‘What is this?’
Rachel, too, stared blankly down at the platform.
“She is a g-good person!”
“That’s right! Let’s listen to what she has to say!”
Several people, their voices trembling yet their eyes fiercely determined, stepped forward to take Canna’s side.
The villagers. The very people she had protected!
‘This can’t be happening.’
Rachel’s fingertips shook violently.
They were defending Canna over her, the saintess of this village? They were actually listening to Canna’s claims?
‘After everything I’ve done for this village!’
A sense of betrayal tore at her chest. Hot rage flooded over her reason.
Yes, that woman was indeed a Black Apostle. That was why she was bewitching people with her filthy tongue.
Hadn’t she tried the same with Rachel herself? She had lured these ignorant, benighted residents with food in order to spread evil!
Rachel glared at Canna.
From the very beginning the woman had felt ominous—no, she had radiated malevolence from the start. In this moment the dark energy pouring from her felt like it was strangling Rachel’s throat.
“Sir Jerome, seize the Duchess of Valentino!”
Whether by divine favor or not, her own guard knight was not here right now.
In this instant when no one stood to protect her.
This was the only chance she would have to purify the evil!
“The Black Apostle is the Duchess of Valentino!”
It was a command that struck like lightning. Her voice reached both Canna and the villagers. And then—
“What?”
An unfamiliar voice rang out at that moment.
Rachel turned her head. Their eyes met.
“What did you just say?”
It was a man with vivid scarlet hair. The moment their gazes locked she thought of Orsini, but it wasn’t him.
This man had far more refined features.
‘Could he be…’
The man—Kallen Addis—stared at her with piercing intensity.
“I asked what you just spouted.”
Canna had left for Pailon Island by imperial order. The moment Kallen heard the news, he had raced after her.
It had been his next planned destination anyway.
The Black Fog had appeared there, and Orsini had gone missing. It was the place he would have gone after finishing matters in Venecia.
Only, he had intended to rest for at least a day to recover from the journey.
Yet Kallen had not even set foot inside the house after dismounting. He simply could not.
‘Sister is on that dangerous island.’
The fragile Canna had been thrown into such a perilous place. And not only because of the Black Fog.
What kind of island was Pailon Island?
It was closed-off and outright hostile toward imperials. Kallen knew all too well that barbaric things happened there without a second thought.
And Canna was on that dangerous island.
‘I’m going insane.’
Kallen had not slept a wink the entire voyage to the island. Anxiety kept him awake.
‘What if something happens to Sister?’
She had only him. He was the one who had to protect her.
Yet right now he was not by Canna’s side.
He could not protect her from whatever might befall her.
What if she was being beaten again like before?
What if she was cut by a sword? What if she was pushed into a pond…?
Just imagining it made his fingertips tremble. Yet all Kallen could do was urge the captain to sail faster.
“Can’t we go any faster?”
Crash!
Rough waves slammed into the ship. The vessel tilted sharply and wooden crates slid across the deck, smashing into the railing.
“Aaaagh!”
“Everyone hold on! Grab the ropes!”
The sailors screamed, but Kallen stood firm.
“The wind is helping us. Increase our speed.”
“Lord Kallen! We shouldn’t have set sail at all today! Can’t you see this torrential rain?”
“Torrential rain? You’re exaggerating. This is nothing more than a drizzle.”
Kallen ignored the captain’s desperate cries.
“We’re capsizing! The ship is turning over!”
“Drop anchor now!”
“Pull the ropes!”
While the sailors scrambled across the deck, Kallen stood at the prow, gazing into the distance.
‘Sister Canna, are you safe?’
Behind him unfolded utter chaos and crisis, yet his eyes held a distant, almost dreamy light.
It was good he had assigned her a guard. Claude Azel was a knight Kallen himself acknowledged—one of the top five talents in the Addis Order of Knights, said to be the greatest in the Western Continent.
Had Claude not gone with her, Kallen would probably be swimming across the sea by now.
‘Claude Azel, I’m counting on you.’
By the time they reached the island the torrential rain had stopped and the storm clouds had vanished. And there he met Orsini.
“Brother Orsini?”
Had he known Kallen was coming?
He sat casually atop one of the wooden crates stacked at the harbor. For someone who had gone missing, his appearance was far too nonchalant.
“You’re here?”
“Yes. Are you unharmed?”
“As you can see. You didn’t bring any knights, did you?”
“No. As you instructed, I came alone.”
Kallen had many questions.
Why he had told him not to bring knights, what had happened to the bodies of the knights who had been wiped out, what the Black Fog was like.
But instead—
“What about Sister?”
“……”
The question that flew out immediately made Orsini’s eyes narrow strangely.
“Where is Sister?”
“The plaza. She was summoned for the Purification Ceremony.”
“……Purification Ceremony?”
The words carried an ominous weight. Orsini scoffed at Kallen’s unease.
“Yes. They said they’d hang her upside down from a tree and burn her at the stake.”
“……!”
The moment he heard those words, Kallen broke into a mad sprint.
And the instant he reached the plaza, he witnessed the insane scene of someone daring to label Canna a Black Apostle.
“I asked what you just said.”
Kallen leaped down from his horse and strode forward with long, purposeful steps.
His gaze was fixed on the woman atop the platform—Rachel.
Jerome hurriedly moved to block his path.
“Stand back.”
“This lady is the daughter of Baron Dale. She is the daughter of the lord of Pailon Island.”
“Baron’s daughter?”
One corner of Kallen’s mouth twisted crookedly.
“A mere baron’s daughter dares to call the mistress of House Valentino a Black Apostle?”
“But—!”
“Sir Jerome, step back.”
Rachel spoke calmly at that moment. She stepped in front of Jerome and faced Kallen directly.
“You are Sir Kallen Addis, correct? It is an honor to meet you.”
“You had better explain this matter very carefully, my lady.”
Or else you will lose a great deal, Kallen warned.
“Sir Kallen, I trust you are well aware of what happens on this island. Every year the madness spread by the Black Apostles returns, and each time I have used this Purification Ceremony to…”
“So.”
Kallen cut Rachel off without mercy.
There was no need to hear more. He could not bear to listen.
“So you are saying my sister is a Black Apostle?”
“That is correct.”
“If you cannot prove it, you will have to offer your neck, my lady.”
Jerome answered in her stead.
“My lady is the noble saintess who purifies this island.”
Kallen shot Jerome a sharp glare. Jerome staunchly defended Rachel.
“If the Duchess of Valentino is proven to be a Black Apostle, Sir Kallen, you will have to apologize for the rudeness of insulting our saintess…!”
At that moment, Kallen lifted his entire scabbard and slammed it into Jerome’s solar plexus.
“……!”
Jerome couldn’t even scream. He simply collapsed backward. He had fainted.
Rachel rushed to catch him.
“Sir Kallen! What is the meaning of this!”
“To dare speak such things before a descendant of the holy knights.”
Kallen looked down at them with more arrogance than ever before.
“I have simply punished the impudence of misusing the name of a saintess.”