After running desperately through the hallways, I finally found some Templars patrolling. At first, they thought I was injured due to my distress and the blood on my body.
Even though I was having difficulty breathing from running nonstop, I was able to explain to them, and they quickly went to my room. I stood in place to catch my breath.
"I-I need to go see if he's okay," I say after regaining my breath. When I start to run, I'm held back by the hand and gently pressed against the wall.
"Well, well, look what I've caught," It's Alehandro's brother, Yurian, he says with a "seductive" smile while holding me without much force.
"M-Mr. Yurian, please let me go now, I need to go see Alehandro," After Alehandro's lectures, I know Yurian can't just touch me. Yurian, still with a small smile, lets me go.
I start running to go see Alehandro. I don't know if he's really okay or if he's dying, I need to help however I can, he mustn't die in any way.
"Goodbye, little traitor," Yurian says a farewell that makes me freeze in place. I turn to him in shock, my face showing total disbelief.
"W-What?" I ask, just to make sure I didn't hear it wrong. I'm almost certain he called me a traitor.
"I said, Goodbye, little traitor," He repeats, still without removing the smile from his face, letting the words wander in the air, words that are problematic and have far too much seriousness.
"...I-I don't know what you're talking about," I deny knowing what he's talking about by calling me a little traitor. I can't believe he really knows about my plans with Alehandro.
"Yes...you may not know, but I'm sure the Pope will, and I'm going to tell him today," Yurian says as he turns and takes slow steps down the hallway.
"NO...w-wait...let's talk," He caught me, I don't know how he discovered my plans with Alehandro, but he did, and now I can't change that.
'How did he find out? I didn't make any noticeable actions, and I'm sure Alehandro didn't draw much attention either...' I decide to try to fix this mess.
"C-Can we talk a little?" I ask, fearing he might refuse. Although going to see Alehandro is important, this matter is more important.
'I need to know how much he really knows...I-I hope he doesn't have much knowledge about the matter,' I think as I take a deep breath.
"Of course, how about we go to my room?" Yurian says in a malicious tone. I take a deep breath again and inhale, I start following him, the smell of blood on my clothes bothers me, and my hands are still trembling, but I must be strong.
If the Pope finds out, it's all over for both me and Alehandro. I follow him in complete silence through the empty hallways until we reach a door that Yurian opens and leaves open.
'I can't let the Pope find out...' If the Pope finds out, he's sure to find a way to kill me.
I enter and see the luxurious room, full of pure gold accessories and ornaments, while there are several paintings that appear to be valuable hanging on the wall.
"You can sit down, Miss Saint," He says, pointing to a chair. I sit down in silence and wait for him to say something.
I won't start the dialogue because I don't know how much he knows. If I start talking, I might say things he doesn't know, and that will only worsen my already bad situation.
Yurian opens a drawer and takes out two glasses and a bottle of light purple wine. He opens the seal of the bottle and smells it deeply. The bottle's seal is made of a mixture of silver and gold, and the wine seems to have a strong aroma.
"This is very good, it was produced using one of the best techniques in the world and was aged for 200 years. It's basically a relic," He says as he starts pouring the wine into the glasses.
"I-If it's so valuable, why waste it on me?" I say to him, making it clear that he should stop beating around the bush and tell me what he wants from me. I don't need to know about wines or anything else.
"Waste?!" He asks with feigned astonishment, his performance is deliberately poorly made, with a pinch of sarcasm.
"It would never be a waste to share wine with a saint, especially a saint who is a beautiful woman," I can only look at him and think how disgusting it is to be flirted with like this.
"...I-I can't drink...y-you know how it is, right? I'm a saint..." I say, avoiding having to drink anything served by this guy. I don't believe he's drugged, after all, he opened the seal in front of me and even served the wine for himself and drank it, all of this was done in my presence.
"And why not, Miss Saint? You're of age, and there's no rule that says a saint can't drink," He says as he hands me the glass. It's so annoying how he's right about that.
'The smell is good...' I take a small sip of the wine, which has a strong flavor and a high alcohol content. It's not quite what I expected, in fact, it's completely different from what I expected, given what he said about the wine.
It's good, but it's at the level of a medium to high-quality wine at most. For me, coming from the modern world, this wine doesn't even come close to the ones I've drunk before in my life as a man.
In this case, the flavor is good, but the production technique is somewhat inadequate, which has impaired the flavor and texture. The way it was stored also wasn't good, causing the flavor not to be as pronounced as it could have been.
Also, based on the flavor, I think this type of wine is better served very cold.
"It's wonderful..." I make a false compliment. At most, this is just good, but in this world, I'm a commoner, and technically I've never tasted wine before, so complimenting is the right choice.
"Hahaha, yes, it's very good..." He says as he drinks the wine in his glass, savoring the flavor slowly.
"Mr. Yurian...could you...continue the subject? I-I need to see Alehandro," I say to him to get him to hurry up with this instead of just dragging it out.
"Of course, Miss Saint," He says as he places the wine glass on the table next to him.
"What I want is this, stay on my side," He says without really explaining much.
"Y-Your side in what? I'm not sure what you're asking of me," I say, trying to conceal what I know as much as possible.
"I'm talking about your scheme daring with my brother," He says with a greedy smile.
"Do you think I haven't been keeping an eye on you, Miss Saint? It was a really great plan to gain influence through the act of helping the commoners, while my brother was searching for clues of corruption."
'He knows practically everything.' The boat sank with me and Alehandro inside before we even started sailing.
"You don't need to act, Miss Saint, I have enough proof on the matter," He says when I was about to start talking.
"...what do you want..." I ask without much enthusiasm about all this.
"I haven't told the Pope yet, and what I want is simple, Miss Saint, I want you to leave my brother," He says in a gloomy tone, dropping the facade he used earlier.
"I want you to go through with your plan and, in the end, betray my brother and let him take all the blame...or...play the heroine and I'll tell everything to the Pope," He says in a clear threat.
"!!!"
'The plan will fail...I should warn Alehandro...b-but...' I don't want to die. If I just betray Alehandro, nothing will happen to me.
But is this really what I should do? I'm in this cursed situation precisely because I committed a betrayal, what guarantees that I won't get even more screwed.
"C-Can I think about it calmly?" I ask, trying to gain some time advantage.
"I'll give you a month, Miss Saint, that's the time you have to think about whether you'll be on my side or if you'll betray my brother," Yurian says as he once again takes the wine glass and starts drinking.
'1 month...' a dilemma, the plan was supposed to occur in a month according to Alehandro's prediction, so it becomes even more difficult to really choose one of the two options.
"You can leave now," When he says that, I practically run out of the room. I don't know what to do, my current altruistic mind says I shouldn't betray Alehandro, but my naturally selfish and cowardly self asks me to get out of this sinking ship.
I run through the corridors to my room, my mind a mess. I don't know if I should betray Alehandro or not.
When I get to my room, I see Alehandro lying in the place where I left him. He seems to have been treated already and is sleeping.
I walk over to him and sit next to him. I need to think, what do I do? And what will I do to try to survive?
"Alehandro...what should I do..." I murmur as I bite my lips. Why does everything have to be so difficult?
I take a deep breath and look up at the ceiling, trying to forget the problems. I still have a month to think about my answer, I'm sure I can come up with something somehow.