Chapter 92 [End]
The blue flames of the fireplace danced, and gradually, the aroma of roasted chestnuts filled the room.
The armchair occasionally made a slight noise, and Mela was fast asleep in it.
The cashmere shawl slipped off her body, and most of the blanket that had been covering her knees fell to the ground.
It was only when a sound came from outside the tightly closed window that Mela was awakened from her sleep.
Mela rubbed her sleepy eyes; it turned out that Silas had been locked out of the window.
Silas hadn't expected that even though it had deliberately left a crack in the window before sneaking out, it would find it tightly shut when it flew back, and it couldn't open it no matter what it did. Helpless, it could only keep pecking at the window, trying to wake the soundly sleeping Mela.
Fortunately, before Silas could do much, Mela was woken up by the noise it made.
Mela pulled up the blanket and tossed it onto the armchair, then tugged at her cashmere shawl before going to open the window and let Silas in.
Along with Silas, a biting winter wind rushed into the house, shivering Mela and completely dispelling her drowsy feeling.
"Hey, Mela, why did you drop Lex's letter on the floor again?"
Silas was about to settle comfortably into his chair and eat roasted chestnuts when his gaze inadvertently swept across the room and he noticed a letter lying quietly on the floor.
Even if Silas didn't know what was written in the letter, the envelope itself was exquisitely sprinkled with fine gold powder and outlined with gorgeous patterns, clearly a Lex signature item.
"Hmm? This must be a new letter he delivered, it's not something I deliberately dropped on the ground."
If Silas hadn't mentioned it, Mela wouldn't have noticed the letter on the ground.
After all, the whole house was a mess, and there was almost no place to put your feet down.
Mela stepped over the crookedly stacked towers of books, picked up the letter on the ground, opened it, and began to read it quickly.
"What did Lex say in the letter?" Silas asked curiously.
Speaking of which, it and Mela have been back from the royal city for several months now. During this time, Lex would occasionally write letters with news that he thought Mela would be interested in, so even if Mela was lazy, she would still pick up a pen and write back to him.
“I have some good news,” Mela flicked the letter, “Laod is no longer the Pope, and he will soon be hanged. Yuriel will be very happy to know this.”
Back then, Mela specifically sought out Yuriel to subtly inquire about her and Erica's future plans.
Given Erica's obsession with revenge, Mela was prepared to have Yuriel try to persuade her, but to her surprise, Yuriel told her that she and Erica were not planning to stay.
“My aunt said she wouldn’t stop seeking revenge on that man, but she would never involve my safety. So, at least this time, she decided to give up for the time being.”
Yuriel looked past Mela at the clusters of blooming roses behind her and felt that the sunlight today was a bit too dazzling, so much so that she couldn't help but lower her head and not dare to look Mela in the eye.
It was only after hearing Erica's decision with her own ears that Yuriel realized that Erica, from the very beginning, intended to choose Mela to help while keeping her out of the picture.
Between Mela and Yuriel, it's clear that in Erica's heart, Yuriel is the more important one, so important that she doesn't want her to put herself in danger.
Upon learning the truth, Yuriel naturally questioned Erica, only to receive Erica's dismissive reply: "Because you are Erin's only child, you must live."
Unable to refute Erica, Yuriel slammed the door and stormed out, overwhelmed by immense guilt.
However, she then chose to cowardly hide away, using taking care of Erica as an excuse to avoid meeting Mela.
It wasn't until today, when Mela cornered her at the door, that Yuriel realized this was the first time she had faced Mela face-to-face since arriving at the mansion.
“Actually, you don’t need to feel guilty towards me because of Erica. Erica is Erica, and you are you, aren’t you?” Mela realized the reason from Yuriel’s evasive attitude and patted her shoulder casually.
“If you had known about this beforehand, would you have stopped Erica?” Mela asked.
“Of course I would,” Yuriel replied without hesitation. “I hate him, but his life is not worth trading yours for his.”
“So—” Mela drawled, smiling as she stared at Yuriel, “Stop carrying this mess of guilt. You were never the one who made the choice to use me.”
“However, you can go back and tell Erica that if she only wants Laod to pay with his life, she doesn’t need to do it herself,” Mela added.
"What do you mean?" Yuriel was completely confused.
Could it be that someone else also wants Laod dead?
This is not surprising at all.
But Yuriel had already heard from the coachman named Hans that shortly after the king's funeral, the church finally elected a new pope, Laod.
Because of the incident at the funeral, Laod was always surrounded by guards, protecting him so much that not even a fly could get close.
Yuriel found it hard to imagine who could successfully strike at Laod at this time.
“I don’t know his plans either, but even if it’s not now, Laod’s reign as pope won’t last long,” Mela said with unusual certainty.
he?
Although Yuriel didn't know who "he" was in Mela's words, since Mela had said it, it certainly wasn't just a casual remark to comfort her.
She believed in Mela.
As autumn passed, snow fell softly on the earth, covering everything in a clean white coat.
Even the bright red blood that flowed out was quickly covered up by the thick snow.
Lex was released from prison.
The biting winter wind swept across his handsome profile, making Lex's expression appear even colder.
“Now that Raold is dead, it’s time for the Gardner family to make their move,” Lex said casually to Chelge, who had followed behind him.
"We've already sent people to keep an eye on them. I never expected they were involved in the freshman baptism back then."
As Cherge opened his mouth to speak, a wisp of white mist drifted out, only to quickly dissipate into the wind.
“They want a king who is willing to obey the Pope, and of course they prefer the naive Severi to me, who has been raised by Fernando,” Lex said indifferently.
The plan to ensure Severi's legitimate succession, and to work with Elijah to eliminate Lex, was clearly a perfect scheme.
No one expected that Lex would survive despite being pursued by a large number of enemies.
Of course, without Mela, Füssen might have really succeeded.
The thought that Füssen planned to deal with Lex first, then Elijah and Nurenger IX, and then install the young Severi as king, teaching him to trust the Pope wholeheartedly, while the Pope was none other than Laod, chosen by Füssen, made Cherge feel a pang of jealousy.
By then, apart from the person sitting on the throne still bearing the surname Nurengel, the people who truly controlled the entire kingdom would have long since become Fursen and the Gardner family behind him.
It's worth noting that Fursen was a staunch neutral in his early years. Who would have thought he was a venomous snake that had been lurking for years, ready to open his mouth and reveal his fangs at any moment?
However, after dealing with the Gardner family, he still had to purge the church from top to bottom, and Cherk felt a heavy weight on his shoulders, full of tasks.
He just didn't understand why Lex was in such a hurry, unable to wait for a gradual approach, insisting on resolving everything before spring arrived.
If Lex could hear the doubt in Cherge's heart, he would surely tell him it was because of Mela.
Ever since hearing Mela recount her experience of rescuing Yuriel in Golden Oak, Lex, driven by a minor sense of skepticism, couldn't help but send someone to Golden Oak to investigate.
Then, to everyone's surprise, it was discovered that this matter was actually inextricably linked to Mela herself.
It can even be traced back to Hall.
Howard, Hall's brother, came to the door and kidnapped his wife Joanne because he heard from a knight he was on good terms with that the lord was looking for someone connected to the witch who lived in the Dark Forest.
Howard suddenly remembered that his brother's wife seemed to have always had a young face, and that their village was very close to the Dark Forest where the witch lived.
Howard then told the knight he was on good terms with that Joanne might be in cahoots with the witch, and the two agreed to kidnap Joanne first. If they could bring her to Lord Salle, they might just get lucky and win Lord Salle's reward.
Although Mela ultimately ruined the whole thing, what if nothing unexpected had happened?
That is, Joanne and Hall were captured together, and in order to rescue Joanne, Hall had to go against his conscience, carry the sleeping potion given to him by Count Salle, and try to drug Meera and take her away.
The reason Count Salle wanted to capture Mella was because of his cooperation with Bishop Ebna.
As for Bishop Ebner's idea, it was even simpler. He somehow found out that Laod had been secretly searching for the witch all these years, and thought that since there happened to be a witch living in the Dark Forest, it would be perfect to offer her to Laod.
However, the appearance of Yuriel later directly caused Bishop Ebner to change his target.
After a period of effort, Yuriel was finally imprisoned in the church's dungeon.
However, because Yuriel was like a wild horse, in order to tame her and to prevent her from trying to escape, Bishop Ebner had no choice but to let Yuriel experience physical torture first.
Everything, after going around in circles, got involved with Mela, only to be completely ruined by her. Even after capturing Laod and the others, Lex was still not at ease.
Instead of constantly targeting witches with wicked schemes, why not thoroughly cleanse the church and let the truly pure people step forward to wholeheartedly serve their faith?
Especially something like this, doing something that could potentially hurt Mela.
The snowflakes continued to fall, melting into spots of water on the thick cloak.
Lex mounted his horse and accidentally touched the protrusion on his index finger, where he wore a power ring, symbolizing the king's supreme power.
This also means that, if he wanted, no one could disturb Mela's peaceful life in the Dark Forest.
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