Don’T Get Caught By Your Husband! [EN]: Chapter 113

Don’t Get Caught by Your Husband! 113. The Last Struggle (3)

#113. The Last Struggle (3)

2024.06.04.

Escalion, who had been touching his briefly swollen arm, turned and approached the Pope, who had collapsed in front of the mirror.

The Pope grinned up at him.

“If I’m lucky… I’ll be reborn as the first saint. That’s a new drug I developed recently… I haven’t been able to verify its effects.”

“That won’t happen.”

Escalion bent down, raised his arm high, and slammed his fist into the Pope’s face.

With the sound of something breaking, the Pope’s face snapped to the side.

Then again, and again, Escalion continued to punch him.

The dull thudding didn’t stop.

The Pope was already slumped like a doll, but Escalion didn’t stop.

“……!”

At that moment, Escalion, who had been standing upright, staggered greatly and collapsed forward.

As if waiting for that moment, the Pope, his face covered in blood, spat out with a cackling laugh.

“Ugh… Is the drug… finally kicking in? I wonder… which part of you will you give to God? Which part will you give up… to receive divine power?”

“You crazy bastard…”

Escalion, kneeling on one knee and catching his breath as if dizzy, grabbed him by the collar.

He mustered his last strength, lifted the Pope up, and threw him into the cracked mirror.

Crash……!

The mirror shattered with a loud crash as the Pope’s body collided with it.

Fragments flew in all directions, grazing Belladona’s arms, shoulders, cheeks, and forehead, causing minor injuries.

The Pope collapsed to the floor, writhing and groaning in pain.

And in front of him, Escalion collapsed, his remaining knee slamming against the floor.

“Escalion!”

Belladona quickly ran to him and caught him as he collapsed.

Escalion frowned as if dizzy and gasped for breath.

“Ugh…….”

“Oh, no…….”

Belladona pulled Escalion, whose face was growing paler, into her arms and muttered softly.

Could it be, like this…? As she thought of the terrible possibility, tears welled up in her eyes.

No, this can’t be happening… Belladona shook her head and began to mutter.

“Where, where’s the antidote? You must have made an antidote for this kind of drug……!”

“…….”

“Escalion, please come to your senses! Escalion! Is anyone here? Please, someone help us!”

Belladona shouted, looking towards the entrance of the chapel.

But perhaps because no one was passing by the old chapel located deep inside, there was no response.

She quickly turned her head and looked around, and the situation was even worse.

Cardinal Nicholas and the Master of the Magic Tower had disappeared somewhere, and a little further away, Scarlet was lying unconscious, staring at the ceiling.

Belladona lowered her tearful gaze again.

Escalion, whose breathing had become very faint, had closed his eyes as if dead.

Seeing that, she felt her heart sink.

Belladona carefully laid him down in her arms. She had to go outside immediately and ask the knights for help.

“……!”

At that moment, someone grabbed her ankle as she was about to get up.

Startled, she turned her head and saw the Pope crawling on his arms and grabbing her.

Seeing him like a tenacious bug, she felt an unbearable resentment surge up.

“Let go!”

Belladona shouted, trying to pull his hand away.

But perhaps because the Pope’s hands and wrists were covered in blood, her hand kept slipping as she tried to pull him off.

“Heh heh heh…….”

He lifted his head sharply, his face buried in the floor, and croaked in a hoarse voice.

“Belladona…….”

Belladona groped behind her.

Her trembling fingertips grasped a heavy candlestick rolling on the floor.

“Let go of me!”

As she raised it high, her arms trembled uncontrollably.

The Pope looked up at her with a distorted smile.

“Are you going to strike me down? Do you think you can… do that?”

“…….”

“Belladona… you know this. A saint, a person of God… can never do anything that harms people…….”

He didn’t know that she wasn’t a saint.

Belladona pursed her lips and turned her head.

The entrance to the chapel was in sight. To save Escalion, who had lost consciousness, time was of the essence.

“Save me, Belladona…….”

The Pope groaned and tightened his grip on her ankle.

Belladona took a breath and slammed the candlestick down on his hand.

“Let go of my hand!”

“Ugh……!”

He groaned as he was hit squarely on the back of his hand, and released Belladona. She took the opportunity to get up.

Hurry… hurry……!

However, when she reached the entrance of the chapel, she felt something strange.

Startled, she turned her head and saw the Pope climbing onto Escalion’s body on the platform, strangling his neck.

That crazy bastard……!

Belladona hurried back, grabbed his shoulder, and punched him.

“Stop it!”

“Heh heh heh…….”

The Pope tightened his grip on Escalion’s neck with mad eyes.

Escalion’s face, with his eyes closed, was turning redder and redder.

“I’ll do whatever you want, so please let him go……!”

But the Pope didn’t seem to be listening to Belladona anymore.

His eyes were growing more and more insane. The thick veins on the back of his hand, strangling his neck, turned red.

At this rate, Escalion could really lose his life.

“Let him go!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Belladona closed her eyes tightly, raised the candlestick, and slammed it down on the back of the Pope’s head.

With the sound of something dull hitting, the Pope, who had been sitting upright on top of Escalion, slowly fell to the side.

With a thud, silence fell in an instant. Now, there was no sound in the chapel.

There was no cowardly laughter, no groans, no sounds of exertion.

Belladona gasped for breath.

Looking down with fearful eyes, she saw the floor beneath the Pope, who had fallen to the ground, gradually turning red with blood.

“……!”

Belladona was startled and slumped down. Her whole body trembled.

“……Ugh.”

Tears welled up involuntarily.

Was it because of the horror of the situation, the guilt of finally killing someone, or the fear of losing Escalion, who was gradually losing consciousness? So many sobs kept escaping.

Perhaps all of those were the reasons.

‘I, I have to get up…….’

Forcing herself to come to her senses, Belladona stood up, supporting herself on the floor. But her legs kept giving way.

Belladona put strength into her staggering legs and barely managed to stand up.

She had to open the tightly closed chapel door and get outside as soon as possible.

Just a little further and the Imperial Knights…… or maybe the Griblatta Knights are closer…….

Belladona staggered off the platform with trembling legs.

Perhaps because her vision was constantly shaking, the entrance to the chapel seemed to be spinning.

Hurry… hurry……! Belladona clenched her jaw and stumbled forward, step by step.

At that moment, the motionless chapel door suddenly burst open on its own.

“This way!”

The voices of knights were heard. Along with the loud noise, the cool night air rushed in all at once.

Belladona watched with dazed eyes as the Imperial Knights swarmed in.

All of this somehow felt very unreal.

“We found them! The Pope is here!”

The knights, who had confirmed the scene inside the chapel, paused slightly in surprise before moving again.

Some of them rushed to the Pope to check his breathing, and some rushed towards Belladona.

One of the knights who approached Belladona supported her and asked.

“Saintess, are you alright?”

“P, please save Escalion. He was hit by an unknown drug and lost consciousness. Th, there might be an antidote somewhere…….”

Belladona said, raising her trembling hand and pointing to Escalion in the back.

“Understood.”

“S, Scarlet too… She’s been unconscious since earlier. She’s been imprisoned for a long time, so…….”

“Saintess, don’t worry. We’ll take care of everything from here on out.”

Felix, the commander of the knights, who had come closer, said to Belladona, who was stammering.

“The Pope is dead!”

At that moment, someone among the knights who were checking the Pope in the back shouted.

Hearing his voice, Felix’s gaze moved to Belladona’s hand, which was tightly gripping the blood-stained candlestick.

“…….”

Belladona was still clutching the candlestick without even knowing what she was holding.

Perhaps because she didn’t release the strength in her hand, the sharp and elaborate carvings of the candlestick kept digging into her hand.

Felix, staring silently at the bloody object, slowly opened his mouth.

“……Escort the Saintess to a safe place.”

* * *

Silence fell in the reception room of the Papal Palace.

Belladona, sitting on an old chair in one corner of the reception room, pulled the blanket Hazel had brought up to her shoulders and lowered her head.

Even though it wasn’t cold, she kept feeling chilled to the bone.

In her anxious state, she couldn’t relax.

At that moment, the door burst open and hurried footsteps were heard.

Belladona raised her head sharply and asked the person entering.

“How is Escalion?”

Graham, with a complicated expression, approached Belladona and said.

“It seems his life has been saved for now. Emergency treatment has been done, but they are having difficulty detoxifying him because they don’t know the ingredients of the drug.”

“…….”

“Don’t worry, Madam. He’s a strong guy anyway…….”

Belladona let out a trembling breath and lowered her head again.

Those words were not very comforting.

The drug that the Pope injected into him was an unverified drug.

There’s no way he can be okay after being hit with a drug that damages the body…….

Hazel, looking down at Belladona with a pitiful face, opened her mouth in her place.

“How is Scarlet?”

“Fortunately, Scarlet wasn’t seriously injured. She shows some malnutrition and accumulated fatigue, but it’s at a level where she can recover quickly.”

Hazel, who let out a sigh of relief, asked again.

“The Pope is…….”