Looking at Sola's posture of completely abandoning her dignity, like a dog begging for mercy, a satisfied smile finally appeared on Kanjuro's face.
It was a cruel pleasure, the kind one felt witnessing an experimental subject collapse exactly according to the preset program.
"Very good, that's my good girl."
He chuckled softly, as if rewarding an obedient pet.
He delayed no longer. Using the transfer secret method recorded in the dark bible, with dark light swirling around his fingertips, he easily peeled the three command spells containing magical power and contracts from Kayneth's already cold severed hand, then precisely branded them onto the back of Sola's fair, slender hand.
A brief, burning sting like fire followed, but Sola seemed unable to feel the pain. She stared blankly at the new command spells on the back of her hand emitting a faint red glow. A near-manic light of joy erupted in her eyes, and tears welled up again, but this time they were tears of ecstasy.
She almost scrambled to pick up the nightgown scattered on the floor, threw it on haphazardly, and then bowed deeply to Kanjuro, her tone filled with indescribable gratitude: "Thank you! Lord Kanjuro! Thank you for fulfilling my wish!"
It was as if all the humiliation, struggle, pain, and betrayal of her soul she had just experienced became insignificant and vanished into thin air at this moment.
In her twisted perception, as long as she could ultimately achieve the "noble" goal of being with Diarmuid, she could endure the process or even selectively forget it. Her heart and eyes were now filled only with the illusory happiness of soon standing beside her "beloved."
This scene was fully witnessed by Jeanne, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines.
Her cool voice rang out in the room with a hint of imperceptible irony: "For an illusory goal, to even discard and twist one's final moral bottom line and true emotions at will. How can such a soul ever carry true happiness, even if she obtains what she craves?"
Kanjuro looked at Jeanne appreciatively, as if he had found a kindred spirit who could understand his wicked sense of humor: "Yes, you're right. She is destined... to never obtain happiness." His tone was flat, yet it carried a cruelty that saw through everything.
Jeanne pressed further with curiosity: "If that's the case, do you still intend to keep interfering? Even if you don't, with that knight Diarmuid's character, once he learns part of the truth (Kayneth's death and the eerie transfer of command spells), I'm afraid it will be very hard for him to accept Sola's feelings built upon betrayal and conspiracy, right?"
Kanjuro gave a playful smile, his gaze falling gently on Jeanne's face where holiness and depravity intertwined. The words he spoke, however, were chilling: "Yes, under normal circumstances, that's true. But I happen to like seeing someone who is already suffering through an agonizing love, and then stepping forward to... fiercely add fuel to the fire, making that despair burn even more intensely."
Hearing this, a very faint, nearly non-existent curve appeared at the corner of Jeanne's lips: "Then I shall look forward to it, Kanjuro..."
She shook her head, her eyes filled with a complex scrutiny. "I really understand you less and less. By doing these things that ordinary people would consider heinous, what do you... ultimately want to gain?"
Kanjuro seemed to think seriously for a moment, then shrugged, giving a seemingly casual yet hair-raising answer: "What I gain? It's probably... that just by seeing others suffer, struggle, and even collapse because of me, I feel heartfelt joy. What do you think of that reason?"
"As I thought," Jeanne shook her head inwardly, her tone unreadable—neither disappointed nor enlightened. "One cannot treat you as a normal 'human' being."
Kanjuro merely smiled indifferently at this evaluation, casually shoving his hands into his trench coat pockets. Together with Jeanne, like two observers detached from the world, they turned their gaze outside the room, quietly waiting for the next act of the 'good show' to begin.
Sola clutched her hand with the command spells tightly, as if holding the most precious treasure in the world. She couldn't wait to push open the door, almost running to find Diarmuid.
She finally found him in the living room of the hotel suite.
Diarmuid had already brought back Kayneth's cruelly dismembered remains, temporarily placing them on the sofa and covering them with a white cloth.
He knelt on one knee beside the body, head bowed. His golden hair hung down, obscuring his expression, but the heavy sadness, self-reproach, and almost tangible killing intent radiating from him filled the entire space.
Hearing footsteps, Diarmuid looked up. Seeing it was Sola, a flash of shame and helplessness before his mistress flickered in his eyes— "My apologies, Lady Sola, I failed to protect master Kayneth..."
But his words came to an abrupt halt.
As a Servant, he possessed a perception of magical energy and contracts far beyond that of ordinary people.
He saw clearly that the three bright red command spells that should have belonged to master Kayneth were now strikingly branded on the back of Sola's hand!
Almost simultaneously, his keen eyes noticed the empty sleeve on Kayneth's remains where the right hand was missing!
Shock, doubt, and an extremely ominous premonition instantly flooded Diarmuid.
"Lady Sola... the command spells on your hand... and master's hand..." His voice grew hoarse with shock, filled with incredulous questioning, "What exactly... is going on?!"
He stared fixedly at Sola, trying to find an answer on her face, while a storm raged in his heart.
The master's suspicious death, the bizarrely transferred command spells, the missing right hand... all of this, connected to Sola's sudden return, formed a dark and terrifying picture he didn't dare think about deeply.
"We are free!! My knight." Sola's face overflowed with a nearly frenzied joy, as if she had broken free from all shackles. She opened her arms and threw herself recklessly toward Diarmuid, wanting to fall into the embrace she had dreamed of.
Diarmuid's body jerked violently, as if touched by a venomous snake. Instead of welcoming her, he subconsciously took half a step back, avoiding her embrace.
He kept his head down, his voice suppressed with immense pain: "Lady Sola... please answer me... what exactly did you... do to master Kayneth?"
He could not believe that the master he had sworn his life to would die a violent death, and that the command spells would appear on Sola's hand in such a bizarre manner.
Sola's embrace met only air, and the smile on her face stiffened slightly, but it was quickly replaced by the excitement of being favored by 'fate'. She said softly, even with a hint of showing off: "I didn't do anything, I just... obtained the masterless command spells after his death.
Look, Diarmuid, the contract is now established. You are mine! We no longer have to be restricted by anyone!"
"You betrayed him!!!"
Diarmuid snapped his head up, eyes burning with a fury that reached his core and unbelievable grief, his voice like the low roar of a wounded lion.
No matter how many faults Kayneth had, he was the master Diarmuid had sworn his loyalty to!
"Betrayal?" Sola acted as if she had heard something ridiculous. She took a step forward, gazing affectionately into Diarmuid's pain-filled eyes. "You should be able to feel it, Diarmuid!
You remember too, don't you? I am Gráinne!
In our past life, we were lovers deeply in love. It was those damned rules and engagements that separated us!
We have reunited in this life; this is the guidance of fate. No one can stop us from being together anymore!"
She tried to use the bonds of their past life to rationalize the betrayal of this life.
Diarmuid looked at her blankly. That face, overlapping with the Princess Gráinne in his memories, shook his soul, tearing his heart apart.
He turned his head away in pain, squeezing the words out from between his teeth: "Yes... I remember. But precisely because I remember, I can't... I, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, swear in this world that I will never betray my lord again! This is my atonement for my own sins!"
The color drained from Sola's face instantly, but she still didn't give up, trying to approach him again, her voice seductive: "Stop talking about that! Listen to my command, we are leaving this place right now! As long as we join forces to obtain the Holy Grail, we can realize any wish, and we can be together forever and ever! Isn't that what we both desire?"
However, what answered her was Diarmuid's decisive push.
He forcefully pushed away Sola's delicate body as she tried to wrap herself around him, the force making Sola stumble back several steps.
"I'm sorry. I cannot do that."
Diarmuid straightened his back. Though his eyes were bloodshot with struggle, his gaze became sharp and firm once more.
"Now, please tell me the truth—who exactly murdered Lord Kayneth?!"
The St. Demon-Slaying Red Rose in his hand snapped up. The spear tip was not pointed directly at Sola, but his solemn posture already made his stance clear—before the knight's code, even the beloved of a past life could not be tolerated if they acted unrighteously.
Sola was completely stunned. She looked incredulously at the spear tip that once protected her, now pointed at her in questioning. Immense loss and grievance instantly overwhelmed her.
"You... have you forgotten everything? We were so in love in our past life, we would betray everything for each other! Why must you stick to this damned loyalty in this life?!" Her voice carried a sob, her heart breaking.
Diarmuid shook his head slowly, every word sounding as if carved out with all his strength: "I... it is precisely because I cannot forget that I cannot repeat the same mistake. I cannot forget the shame and pain of betraying a vow as a knight! I will never... commit the same error again!"
This was his repentance for the sins of his past life and his adherence to his beliefs in this one.
Sola stood there despondently, tears falling from her eyes like broken pearls. Feeling Diarmuid's cold, iron-like rejection, she felt her entire world collapsing.
At that moment, the shadows in the corner of the room twisted, and two figures accompanied by a suffocating dark aura slowly manifested.
Diarmuid looked up sharply, his pupils contracting—it was Kanjuro and Jeanne!
"Could it be you...!?" Diarmuid understood instantly. Recalling how he had been easily injured by Kanjuro's bizarre Black Magic earlier and the fate of master Kayneth being cruelly dismembered, all clues pointed to this unfathomable man!
Endless killing intent and fury instantly surged into his heart.
However, before he could act, Kanjuro's voice, so gentle it was hair-raising, rang out like a snake's tongue, accurately piercing the most vulnerable spot of everyone present:
"Oh dear, my dear Sola, look at your pitiful state."
Kanjuro shook his head, his tone full of hypocritical pity. "For this man, you even willingly offered your most precious body to me, but what about him? He doesn't understand your 'deep' affection at all. Why bother?"
The moment those words were spoken!
Diarmuid felt as if he had been struck by lightning, snapping his gaze toward Sola!
He had vaguely sensed an ominous aura of Black Magic on Sola earlier, originating from the same source as Kanjuro. Hearing these explicit words, that aura seemed to turn into physical filth, making him instantly understand the meaning of the word 'offered'!
Boundless pain, desecrated anger, and the shock that Sola would actually make such a deal with an enemy caused the veins on his forehead to bulge, and his eyes instantly became bloodshot!
"You... you all...!"
He was on the verge of losing his sanity, his long spear humming with extreme anger. But his remaining knightly instincts made him immediately try to shield Sola behind him—even if she might no longer be 'pure', even if she might have been involved with the enemy, at this moment, he still could not watch her be humiliated to her face.
As for Sola, after hearing Kanjuro mercilessly expose that humiliating deal, she first froze in place. Then, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, she erupted into a piercing scream, pouring all her resentment and fear toward Kanjuro:
"Kanjuro!! It's all you! You're the one who ruined me!! You forced me!!"
She wept bitterly, trying to distance herself from this sordid deal and pushing all the responsibility onto Kanjuro, as if this could maintain the last shred of dignity before Diarmuid.
Facing this accusation, Kanjuro only sighed helplessly, his expression as if he had suffered a great grievance. But his next words were like the sharpest dagger, completely flaying all of Sola's disguises and pinning her to the pillar of shame:
"Sigh, Sola, it hurts my feelings when you say that."
He spread his hands, his tone carrying a wicked playfulness. "Clearly, when we were in bed, you... 'loved' me quite a lot, didn't you? That fiery passion was almost more than even I could handle. Why is it all my fault now?"
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