A Dog's Resolve
However, Orsini didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“I will go. But only after I take Canna Addis back.”
“Did you not understand what I said?”
At the Holy Spirit’s words, Orsini sneered coldly.
“It seems the Holy Spirit is the one who can’t understand. Have your ears gone dull after living so long?”
“How dare you insult the Holy Spirit!”
The enforcers drew their swords in unison. Insulting the Holy Spirit was the most heinous form of blasphemy imaginable.
“Well then. Sending Alexandro his son’s head as a gift doesn’t sound so bad.”
Just as he once did to me, the Holy Spirit muttered indifferently.
“Cut off Orsini Addis’s head and send it to the Addis ducal house.”
They’re really putting on a show. Canna watched the scene with detached boredom.
At this point, she probably should have been the one screaming “Stop it!” but she felt no such urge.
Not even a little.
Whether Orsini lived or died was his own fate.
She truly meant it. She had already decided to stay here, at least for now. She hadn’t asked for help, nor did she want it.
So even if he dies, it has nothing to do with me.
Goodbye. Safe travels, Orsini. She offered a silent farewell in her heart and turned her head away.
But in the very next moment, Canna realized she had been completely mistaken.
“Tsk. Like father, like son, I suppose…”
The Holy Spirit clicked his tongue softly. His tone suggested he had half-expected this.
In the blink of an eye, the enforcers surrounding Orsini collapsed. They fell like puppets whose strings had been cut all at once.
And the next instant, Orsini shot forward like a bullet. He moved so fast that Canna only realized what had happened after he had already snatched her by the waist.
“Ah!”
He was too fast, and Canna hadn’t braced herself for that speed. Her neck snapped back violently, and a scream tore from her throat.
“Are you stupid? Hold on tighter, will you?”
The scolding came from right beside her ear. Heat flared up inside her in an instant.
“Who asked you to save me? Put me down!”
She meant every word, but Orsini seemed to take it as nothing more than a tantrum and didn’t even bother replying. Instead, he tightened his grip, pinning her firmly against him with one arm.
“Let go! I’m staying at the Great Temple!”
“Shut up and stay still, you idiot!”
“Put me down! Put me down right now!”
As she shouted and mercilessly yanked at his hair, she saw it.
Orsini’s sword catching an enforcer’s incoming blade, shattering it, then driving forward to slice the man clean in half.
Her stomach churned. Canna bit her lip hard. She couldn’t bear to watch anymore and buried her face in his shoulder. She even stopped pulling his hair.
She didn’t know anymore. Do whatever you want.
“I’ll be waiting, Canna!”
Surprisingly, the Holy Spirit did not step forward himself. He simply watched with his hands clasped behind his back as Orsini fled with Canna in his arms, calling out loudly.
“I’ll be waiting for you!”
“Finally, I can catch my breath.”
How many hours had passed since then?
After a mad dash of escape, Orsini had successfully broken out of the Great Temple. He fled deep into the forest. Only then did he stop for the first time.
“Put me down.”
Orsini set Canna down. She couldn’t stand properly and collapsed onto the ground. For hours she had been shaken violently in an unstable position. She felt dizzy. Like she might throw up.
“Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?”
Canna glared at him with fierce eyes. In truth, Orsini looked far worse off.
He was covered in blood.
Most of it belonged to others, but some of it was his own. She had seen one of the enforcers slash his back with a sword.
“What are you doing?”
“What?”
“I never asked you to help me. Why are you acting on your own?”
Orsini’s face froze over with terrifying coldness. He dropped to one knee so their eyes were level.
“Hey, you damn woman. Instead of saying thank you, you’re asking why I acted on my own? Is that what you want to say?”
“Did you really think I’d thank you?”
Canna stared straight into his eyes. She laughed coldly.
“Did you actually believe I would thank you?”
She hadn’t said a single word asking for help. Yet here he was, injured like this, saving her without permission.
And of all people, it was Orsini.
Why?
“Don’t waste your effort, Orsini. It’s disgusting.”
Orsini clenched his teeth hard. Humiliation, shame, and rage surged through him, making his eyelids tremble.
Even when his sword had cut into him, his expression hadn’t changed.
Yet one word from Canna was enough to shake him to the core.
“I had no intention of running away. I planned to stay at the Great Temple. You saw the Holy Spirit too, didn’t you? You know what I am.”
Canna paused for a moment, then spat the words out as if vomiting them.
“I am not an Addis.”
Now that she had said it aloud, she was absolutely certain.
Alexandro Addis. She had no connection to him whatsoever.
Back then, in her father’s secret room, Canna had pointed at the Holy Spirit’s portrait and asked if this person was her parent.
“If that’s what you believe, then so be it.”
Canna, who knew Alexandro’s way of speaking all too well, had understood that it was an affirmation.
At the time, she had assumed it was about her mother. Never had she imagined it was her father.
Of course, Alexandro must have known about her misunderstanding. He had known and deliberately let her believe it. He had toyed with her.
How amusing it must have been for him.
Canna let out a small, bitter laugh. Strangely, she couldn’t stop laughing. She didn’t know how much of what the Holy Spirit had said was truth and how much was lies.
But there was one thing she could be certain of.
“Alexandro Addis is not my father.”
That much was the truth.
“Orsini, we are not siblings either. I don’t share a single drop of blood with the Addis family.”
Then why had she been raised as an Addis daughter?
The claim that Alexandro had raised her like livestock, that he hated Seon-hui—those might be true as well.
It made sense, didn’t it?
All this time, she had suffered in the Addis household as if she were being tortured. Perhaps she had been the one receiving the hatred Alexandro felt toward Seon-hui in her place.
It was then that a cold sensation struck the back of her hand.
That was the beginning. Raindrops began to fall one by one, then quickly turned into a downpour. Canna’s body was instantly soaked through.
This was the worst.
It was miserable.
“So I’m not going. You go alone.”
“…Where will you go?”
“That’s none of your business.”
She didn’t know. She truly didn’t know.
She still wasn’t sure where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do.
The only thing she knew for certain was this:
Her world had shattered into pieces. That was why she needed time to gather herself.
Canna fought back a wave of dizziness. She staggered to her feet. Then she looked down at Orsini, who was still kneeling.
“So you should go back to Addis by yourself.”
Raindrops poured down Orsini’s cheeks. They washed away the blood. He opened his mouth.
“I won’t.”
For some reason, Canna had expected him to say that.
She had known he would refuse.
She had known he wouldn’t let her go so easily.
That must have been why he had gone through all that trouble to drag her out of the Great Temple.
The memory of his solid arms holding her tightly like a treasure amid a storm of slashing blades made her stomach churn. She couldn’t hold back the curse.
“You disgusting bastard.”
“Yeah. Say whatever you want.”
When he smiled, lifting the corner of his mouth, her insides flipped violently. He was smiling?
“Don’t smile.”
She stomped down hard on his thigh. It was as hard as stone, so she twisted her heel and ground it in roughly.
“Don’t you dare smile, Orsini.”
Canna grabbed his sharp jaw and yanked it upward.
“I hate it when you smile.”
Hatred surged violently within her.
She wanted to hurt him. She wanted to tear that relaxed smile off his face. And Canna quickly found the way to do it.
“You actually want my forgiveness, don’t you?”
At that moment, the jaw in her grip tensed.
Canna let out a mocking laugh.
She had suspected it, but to think it was true. What a truly despicable hope.
“You shameless bastard.”
More. More. More.
She wanted to hurt him.
She wanted to give him pain so intense that it could never be erased—just like what he had done to her. Pain so strong that even after ten years, he would never be able to forget it.
“Then you should have just died back there.”
And it was laughably easy.
“Who knows? If you had died trying to protect me, I might have felt a little pity.”
A few words were all it took.
Canna felt a cruel pleasure at the pain that filled Orsini’s eyes. It was so easy. Easier than twisting a child’s wrist.
“So if you get another chance, just die.”
Canna shoved his jaw away. She stepped back and turned around. She didn’t know where this place was, but she intended to go anywhere.
Anywhere without the Addis name.
“Hey.”
But he grabbed her shoulder and spun her back around.
“Calm down and listen to me.”
Orsini tried to persuade her in a calm voice. It was painfully obvious to Canna how hard he was working to stay composed.
“I’m coming with you.”
“What?”
“It’s dangerous for you to go alone.”
Canna couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. Dangerous? That kind of concern was coming from Orsini’s mouth?
“To me, you are the most dangerous person. Who knows when you might strangle me or hit me if things don’t go your way?”
“That time…”
Orsini’s voice cracked. Even in the pouring rain, his agitation was plain to see.
“That time, I…”
“Shut up.”
Canna cut him off coldly.
“I don’t want to hear anything. Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Canna.”
“Don’t say my name!”
When she shouted as if having a seizure, Orsini’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“Just call me filth like you used to. Be violent like before.”
The more he spoke, the more his mask cracked. His true feelings were exposed. His face was stained only with rage and resentment.
“You have to remain trash forever. Don’t you dare try to become something else now.”
A deep resignation lingered on Orsini’s face. It soon twisted into mockery.
“Fine. Hate me as much as you want. Say whatever you like. But you’re not going alone.”
“Who are you to give me permission?”
“If I say no, then no. It’s dangerous.”
Her rage exploded in an instant. It felt like her eyes were burning with fury. How dare Orsini—of all people—worry about her. How dare he!
“My lady.”
At that moment, a low voice rang out.
Canna turned her head. And in that instant, she doubted her own eyes.
In the pouring rain, a black-robed priest stood silently.
He swept back his soaked hair. Water droplets ran down his forehead and shattered at the tip of his chin.
“…Raphael.”
The sight of him made Canna’s mind go completely blank. The fire of rage that had been burning in her chest turned to ash in an instant. She felt dazed.
“Do you require assistance?”
His deeply sunken eyes glanced at Orsini’s grip. At the hand clutching Canna’s shoulder with obsessive strength.
“If so, give the order. I will obey.”