After I died, my personal maid rebelled.

Tick, tick.

Dirty water droplets fell into shallow spots on the stone slab, scattering water stains and splashing upwards, watering the moss in the corner of the wall.

The stench of blood filled his nostrils, and the last image in his mind was Thorne standing on the roof, Paul and the other two not far away, and the sudden surge of earth beneath his feet...

What happened?

Why am I feeling so bad?

A chilly air swept through the room. Maria slowly opened her eyes and instinctively wrapped the blanket around herself tighter. She saw an unfamiliar ceiling and was about to get up when a sharp pain shot through her body.

She raised her hand in a daze and found that her arm was wrapped in bandages, and the blood on the white cloth had dried and turned dark red.

Oh, right, I was attacked, it was... Paul, he tried to kill me...

"what!"

Maria struggled to get up, beads of sweat forming on her forehead and nose. She fell off the bed, her expression a mixture of fear and bewilderment.

She then realized that she was actually in the underground prison of the Vatican. Her first memory of this place was when she was a child and accidentally came here to explore, only to encounter a group of mutilated prisoners.

The archbishop then guided her, and she learned a great deal about the techniques of healing magic here.

The marks left by fingernails on the wall from back then are still there, yet I ended up being the one imprisoned?

An incredulous look appeared in Maria's eyes. Had the Archbishop abandoned me too? I knew the most secrets, I was his most suitable successor…

Maria gripped the bed frame, her slender arms trembling, and struggled to her feet. She dared not gamble, perhaps she too had been living in someone else's lies.

The healing magic was activated, and green magic surrounded her, slowly seeping into her skin.

Tearing off the bandages, she had no time to recover; she needed to regain her mobility immediately and escape from here!

Blood dripped onto the ground. The nun, who had just stepped down with the tray, was horrified by the horrific scene. She dropped the tray and cried out in shock.

"Your Holiness, what are you doing?!"

Maria's face was contorted with rage, all traces of her former gentleness gone. "You locked me up here, and now you're asking me what I'm doing?"

The nun quickly lifted her skirt and ran down, grabbing the railing and kneeling in prayer.

"Your Excellency, please don't misunderstand. Your confinement here was not the archbishop's order, but the king's!"

"Everyone who participated in the fight last night, including Miss Luna and Mr. Hero, has been imprisoned. It was only because your injuries were too severe, Saintess, that you were allowed to be imprisoned in the Holy See. This was done to facilitate your treatment."

Upon hearing this, Maria paused in tearing the bandage, thought seriously for a moment, and then suddenly said, "I don't believe you unless you open the cell door."

"Alright, I'll open it right away, but please, Your Holiness, don't make things difficult for us. If you leave the Holy See, you might incur the King's wrath."

Seeing the nun deftly open the cell door, Maria finally put aside her suspicions, sat back on the bed, and silently breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon after, several nuns arrived, not only to re-treat her wounds but also to bring her a delicious meal, all of which were her favorite dishes.

Enjoying the nun's service, Maria calmed down. Thinking it over carefully, she realized that only Paul could have betrayed her. The reason was simple: after Paul went to the Northern Territory, he must have been misled by Eleanor.

He knew the outcome of his previous life, which allowed him to deduce the plot to murder him back then...

But doesn't he have any sense of loyalty or compassion at all? Everyone says he doesn't crave power, yet he's always showing off, putting on a show of being hardworking and selfless for whoever he's trying to impress!

Even though they weren't chosen as heroes, why are they always being trained and cared for by the archbishop every day?

From now on, the Papacy is under my control! I am the one who can lead the people out of suffering, I am the one who can defeat the Demon King and represent the will of the Goddess!

You betrayed me and got involved with those people in the Northern Territory. I just wanted you to leave as soon as possible, but you tried to take my life...

After the nuns had all left, Maria's gaze gradually darkened.

Tick, tick.

Blood dripped from between his clenched fists, and the stench of blood attracted a rustling sound.

Maria looked down and saw a group of rats sucking her blood. Watching them swarm at her feet, Maria chuckled and pinched the wound on her arm, causing a large amount of blood to flow down.

……

On the fifth day of my prison life, I realized it was already August.

In order to prevent the two sides from falling into another strange conflict, Frank followed Medivh's advice and prepared to send the Northern Territory delegation away safely as soon as the contract was completed, and then release the hero, the saint, and others.

As for compensation, the Northern Territories are masters of feigning poverty. Moreover, from a personal perspective, Frank didn't want Luna to be punished by Oswald, since she was his only connection to the Northern Territories.

With money from the national treasury to compensate the affected residents, and Medivh keeping an eye on the Vatican, Frank focused all his attention on the treaty with the Northern Territories.

Luna was being released from prison more and more frequently, and Paul couldn't understand why she always brought back a basket of snacks after each meeting.

With a basket slung over her arm, her hair styled in twin braids by the palace maids, and a small cloak made by the royal family draped over her shoulders, her mouth stuffed full, Luna returned to her loyal cell amidst the respectful greetings of her attendants.

"I reckon it's almost over, Paul. You should come back to the Northern Territory with us then. I'll find you a nice place to be buried in a while."

When Luna's voice reached their ears, Thorne and Nicole next door were completely dumbfounded. Wait, are the people from the Northern Territory really that good at chatting?

Paul, who was teaching Lisa to play chess to pass the time, merely nodded slightly. The archbishop had murderous intent towards him, and Maria had also been injured by Lisa. Even if he wanted revenge, he had no chance.

It would be better to return to the Northern Territory and contribute to the new life that the people there are about to begin. As for whether he can get revenge, that depends on whether the Duke will go south in the future.

"Luna, where did you get that cloak?" Lisa bit her finger, racking her brains for her next move, and noticed Luna's new outfit when she looked up.

"His Majesty gave it to me, saying that there have been frequent flu outbreaks in the capital recently, and that I should be careful not to catch a cold."

As she spoke, Luna leaned forward mysteriously, lifted the cloth under the basket, and whispered, "I had the old count and the maids bring this in for me."

She grinned mischievously and pointed to the cell next door, "We'll give them one when they're not looking."

Paul took out the flashbang and chuckled speechlessly. Why is it this thing again?

He observed the narrow and dimly lit environment around him for a while, and could only say that the scene after the flashbang was released was too beautiful for him to bear.

So Paul quickly moved away from the two sly, grinning little guys and sat down in the corner with his back to them.

Lisa was still giving technical guidance behind her. To avoid accidental injury, she removed the knife and fork and quickly made a time-delay device using an iron tip and thin rope.

Finally, she solemnly handed the flashbang to Luna, then came to Paul's side, bowed her head, and closed her eyes tightly.

Luna first pressed her ear against the wall to confirm the breathing of the three people next door. Then she crouched down, quietly reached her hand out over the railing, and gently rolled the iron ball out.

The iron ball rolled on the uneven stone slab, and was bounced up by the iron tip with a bang. Luna's eyes widened, and with a clang, the flashbang fell precisely into the drainage hole.

amount……

A beam of intense light shot out from the hole, instantly brightening the cell by several degrees, startling Thorne and Nicole in the next cell. Even some of the cracks in the stone slabs emitted white light.

Nicole quickly identified the culprit. She had no intention of communicating with the enemy, but this time she simply couldn't resist.

She stood up and walked forward, about to say a few words, when she saw Thorne suddenly looking at the ground warily.

The stone slabs beneath my feet seemed to be vibrating, and a sound was rapidly gathering beneath the ground, growing louder and louder!

"What's going on?" Nicole frowned, but no one answered her question.

At this moment, deep beneath the entire royal city, in those abandoned underground passages, pipes, and drainage systems, the disturbed mutated rats, contaminated with bone meal, went berserk and swept through their population.

Ten mice lead a hundred, a thousand mice lead ten thousand. Driven by them, ordinary mice can only run and crowd together to move forward in a certain direction.

On the street, those with keen senses—adventures, mages, and elite soldiers—all stopped in their tracks. Their expressions were grave as they lowered their heads, sensing the ripples beneath the ground and the immense force of some kind of torrent!

At the ferry crossing a few miles from the royal city, alchemists, as always, were testing the river's water quality, squatting by the riverbank analyzing the reasons for the continuous increase in magic energy.

Holding the glass, the young alchemist was about to collect some river water when a rat suddenly bumped into his arm.

"Huh!"

He was so frightened that he fell backward, frantically shaking his arms and throwing the mouse away along with the cup.

However, before he could even catch his breath, one rat after another appeared from nowhere and jumped into the river, surging onto the surface like dumplings in a frenzy.

They huddled together, drifting with the river, squeaking and chirping incessantly, and for a moment the river was covered in their fur.

To the alchemist's horrified gaze, the rats, upon contact with water, were as if they had fallen into acid, their fur and flesh rapidly detaching!

Especially some rats that were noticeably larger and whose limbs were convulsing wildly, had blood that turned a dark green color and gradually pooled together in a blackish-red mixture.

It's coming! What is it that's coming?!

Alchemists are also half-magicians. Although they couldn't recognize what this strange ritual was, they knew that these frenzied rats were summoning something!

They practically scrambled and rolled backward as they fled, going against the seemingly endless tide of rats, their instincts driving them to scream shrilly.

Medivh held a sword in one hand and a staff in the other. When he used his flight magic to arrive above the ferry, the river was already filled with black and red, the current was surging, and rats were still flowing into it.

A stench and the aura of immortal magic assaulted the senses, just as Medivh had always feared; this calamity had finally descended upon the Central District.