12 O’Clock Marionette

I grabbed her chin and pressed down firmly, forcing her mouth open.

From the exposed roof of her mouth, I sensed a faintly coiled energy.@@novelbin@@

“What the—ugh, urk!”

As I gently scraped away the energy using divine power, black mana recoiled and shot out in protest.

A key, about the size of my middle finger, was drawn out from the roof of Qudil’s mouth.

It was an utterly grotesque sight.

There wasn’t any blood, but the visual itself was unsettling, and my hands felt unpleasantly grimy.

“…It’s not covered in spit, is it?”

I looked at the purple key with obvious distaste before tearing off a piece of Qudil’s shirt and vigorously wiping my hands.

At this rate, I really needed to start carrying a handkerchief.

“Hah… huff, ha… damn it… you found it.”

“Why the hell did you hide this in your mouth?”

“Ugh… well… if I embedded it under my skin, it would’ve been discovered too quickly…”

Then maybe she should have kept her mouth shut instead of showing off the inside of it so freely.

Unbelievable.

Qudil was nearly collapsing onto the ground, head bowed as she caught her breath, before slowly raising her face.

The blood vessels in her eyes had burst, turning the whites a ghastly red—she looked almost like a ghost.

Then she smirked.

“But tell me, priest, how did you know? Did His Highness tell you?”

“No. A prophecy book was offered at my god’s altar. I read it.”

“Well, I suppose that makes sense. Dragging the temple into this mess to catch the snake… His Highness has been rebellious lately.”

“If you weren’t going to listen, why ask?”

I had expected her not to believe me in the first place.

“What did His Highness whisper to you?”