Don’T Get Caught By Your Husband! [EN]: Chapter 80

Don’t Get Caught by Your Husband! Chapter 80. It’s Been a While (80/130)

#80. It’s Been a While

May 19, 2024

“Saintess, here is your meal for today.”

Rosie’s voice was heard.

Belladonna, lying in bed, had only her hair sticking out from under the blanket, remaining curled up.

She didn’t have the energy to respond to her voice.

“…I’ll leave it on the bedside table.”

Rosie, entering the room, glanced at the silent bed and slowly placed the tray she was carrying on the bedside table.

As she was about to leave the room, Rosie turned her head once more to look at her, who had no reaction.

‘It’s been days since she’s eaten properly…’

“Saintess, please eat at least a little today. At this rate, your body will really suffer.”

“……”

Belladonna, curled up under the blanket, still didn’t answer.

Rosie hesitated and opened her mouth.

“Shall I tell the Pope directly? That you’re really not in a condition to go to the confessional today…”

Only then did Belladonna squirm under the blanket.

She extended a slender wrist from under the blanket and waved it from side to side. It was a gesture meaning she was okay.

“But…”

As Belladonna pulled her hand back into the blanket, Rosie couldn’t say anything more about it.

“Then please, at least eat enough. The believers are very worried that you seem to be getting thinner and thinner.”

Rosie looked down at Belladonna, who still didn’t show her face, and then turned and left the room.

Left alone in the room, Belladonna, who had been curled up under the blanket, revealed herself.

She turned her head to the bedside table and looked at the meal Rosie had brought, then turned her head again.

She still didn’t have much of an appetite.

‘I’m dizzy…’

As soon as she sat up, she steadied her spinning head and got up from her seat.

Standing in front of the mirror, she carefully examined her face, neck, arms, hands, and insteps that were exposed outside her clothes.

After confirming that there were no noticeable injuries, Belladonna sighed and slumped back down in place.

“……”

It had been several weeks since the periodic assaults began.

After the birthday celebration, whenever she acted in a way that displeased the Pope or fell out of his favor, she was invariably subjected to violence.

Each time, she almost recovered from the external wounds with her own healing power, but she couldn’t come to her senses properly for several days.

It was because she had overexerted herself by pouring her divine power into the believers during the event, and also poured it into herself, who had been injured, using a lot of life force.

‘In the end, can’t I escape Astagne?’

Fearing that fact, Belladonna began to be uncooperative with the Pope.

In the confessional, she no longer focused on the believers, and during the Pope’s worship services, she would often space out or think about other things.

Even when she met priests while walking around the Papal Palace, she didn’t smile.

She thought that if she did this, she would become unnecessary and be sent back to Gribalta…

Instead, those things only provoked Pope Pronanse’s anger.

<.......>

But even while being beaten by the Pope, Belladonna did not return to her old self.

She knew too well what would happen if she went back to the way she was before.

She simply endured the beatings in silence, returned to her room, used her divine power to heal her painful wounds, and endured by playing the role of the Saintess again the next day.

‘Perhaps it’s because I’ve been using so much divine power, but my healing abilities aren’t what they used to be.’

Belladonna lifted her skirt and looked at her thighs while sitting on the floor. Red, thick scars that had not yet healed were scattered haphazardly on her white skin.

She had been using divine power almost every day, and it felt like her body was getting worse, so she had left the wounds hidden by her clothes like this for a long time.

It was painful to be hit in the same spot again, but it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.

‘I should slowly look around the Papal Palace again…’

Belladonna recalled the two keys she had not yet unlocked.

While she couldn’t return to Gribalta, she should have followed in the footsteps of the Saintess here, but she was sad that she couldn’t because she was sick.

‘Escalion…’

It had already been over two months since she couldn’t return to Gribalta after the birthday celebration.

Will he think I didn’t keep my promise? Will he think I lied again? Maybe… will he hardly think of me anymore?

She hated all of it.

Belladonna sat still, biting her lower lip, and then got up.

As she tried to stand up, the wounds hidden under her clothes screamed painfully at the same time, but there was nothing she could do.

She staggered and moved towards the tray on the bedside table that Rosie had placed.

‘I have to eat. I have to eat to have the strength to do something.’

She thought that physical strength was the first thing she needed, whether it was finding the traces of the Saintess or finding a way to return to Gribalta.

Belladonna forcibly picked up the utensils and stuffed the soggy food into her mouth.

* * *

“So, in the end, I promised to hand over all my assets to that woman.”

“……”

Belladonna pretended to focus on the noble man in front of her and subtly moved her gaze.

“But everything was a promise made while drunk!”

She didn’t care how passionately the man in front of her was speaking.

Belladonna had been looking at the old drawer in the confessional, which had been bothering her for some reason.

‘How long has that been there?’

“So, is there no way to undo this, this contract?”

‘As far as I remember, there are only a few books, old candles, and an unknown cloth handkerchief in there. But is that really all?’

“Excuse me? Saintess?”

“……”

“Saintess!”

At the man’s voice, which had risen intolerably, Belladonna finally raised the corners of her lips.

‘Oh, dear, this person was talking!’

“…Are you saying there’s no way? Are you saying I should think of it as paying a high price for forbidden love?”

‘Nod, nod!’ Belladonna nodded at the answer the man had come to on his own.

“I understand, this must also be a punishment I have to endure…”

After speaking, the man got up from his seat with a sullen face.

As soon as he greeted Belladonna and left the confessional, the priest who had been waiting outside poked his head in.

“Saintess, may I bring in the next believer?”

‘Um, not yet!’ Belladonna waved her palm to mean wait for a moment.

At her answer, the priest nodded and went outside. It was a short break.

Belladonna jumped up from her seat and went to the old drawer, squatting down. ‘For some reason, it seems very suspicious and strange today?’

She opened the drawer and carefully examined the inside.

‘There’s no way there would be such a useless drawer in the confessional…?’

‘……Ha!’

Belladonna tilted her head and smiled faintly as she discovered something inside.

Looking inside the drawer, she saw that a small door was hidden behind it.

‘Really? Have I been looking for the wrong place all this time, leaving this right in front of my eyes?’

Belladonna sat down for a moment with her shoulders drooping, then rummaged through her pockets and inserted the larger of the two keys she had brought into the doorknob hole.

The key seemed to have found its match, fitting properly with a cheerful sound and turning to the right.

‘Oh my god…’

With a very futile and empty feeling, Belladonna hung her head and sighed.

‘Silly me… Shouldn’t I have looked at the confessional before anywhere else!’

She felt the joy and emptiness that washed over her at the same time while bowing her head for a while, then slowly raised her head and looked inside the opened door.

‘What is this?’

In the dark inside, there was a small vial.

Taking it out, she looked down at the potion bottle, which was only the size of her finger, and opened the cork stopper that was tightly blocking the entrance.

The lid opened with a small pop!

‘Surely it’s not poison, is it?’

Belladonna didn’t easily look inside or smell it, but kept it at a distance and watched it warily.

‘I should ask Fabion to investigate this next time I see him!’

After finishing her thoughts, she carefully closed the cork stopper again and kept the vial safely in her pocket.

She had been feeling mentally and physically exhausted, so there hadn’t been much progress, but she was glad that there was at least some small gain.

“Saintess, is it okay now?”

As soon as she returned to her seat, the priest opened the door again and poked his head in.

Belladonna nodded and straightened her clothes.

For the first time in a long time, she felt a sense of vitality returning.

* * *

After meeting all the believers who had been scheduled for today and going out of the confessional, she saw the priestesses of the Papal Palace rushing somewhere.

‘Why is the Papal Palace so chaotic today?’

Belladonna looked at their backs as they did so, then diligently moved towards her destination.

She wanted to go back to her room quickly and rest, and she also wanted to take a closer look at the potion bottle she had found earlier.

And above all, the biggest reason was that she didn’t want to run into the Pope for no reason.

“Saintess!!”

At that moment, she heard a voice calling for her from somewhere.

Belladonna felt her heart sink and widened her eyes.

‘Is the Pope looking for me again?’

Soon, Rosie, who was gasping for breath, appeared in front of her and shouted, pointing in the direction the priestesses had been rushing to.

“He’s here!”

‘What? Who? The Pope?’

“H, he, he’s here now, Saintess! He’s looking for you!”

‘So, the Pope?’

Belladonna looked at Rosie with a pale face.

‘Why is that old man doing this again…! I didn’t do anything to upset him today? Is he going to call me in all the time now and beat me up?’

“Quickly! Go see him!”

‘No way!’

Belladonna frowned and stepped back.

It would be a bigger problem if she ran into the Pope and he found the potion hidden in her pocket.

‘Even if I get hit, I have to hide the potion in my room first…’

Thud.

At that moment, something hard like a wall touched her back as she continued to step back.

And she saw Rosie, who was looking at her, looking up in surprise. ‘Why? What, what is it…?’

In that moment, unable to turn her body easily due to an unknown sense of tension, a very familiar voice landed from above her head.

“It’s been a while.”

The moment she heard the low, calm baritone, Belladonna reflexively turned her body.

Sharp golden eyes that she had missed so much were in front of her.