The next round of testing began with Anna and her mother. They placed their hands on the cross, and after a full minute, there was no change at all.
Seeing this, Brenda's mood remained calm. After all, her intel had already said that the deadman's ambush had failed against those two. But on the surface, she still put on a look of disbelief.
"Did you really place your hands on it?"
"Of course." Anthea instinctively moved Anna behind her, staring warily at Brenda. Even though she had now become an Extraordinary, her decades of life as a commoner still made her instinctively fearful of nobles.
"Keep your hands there for a full minute. Don't try any tricks — I'll be watching."
The two subconsciously glanced at Hel. Hel was about to stop Brenda, but the knight beside her, Pablo, reached out and stopped her.
"Count Heim," he said, "since Duke Mandrake has raised an objection, for fairness' sake, shouldn't you allow her reasonable request?"
"…Fine. But I hope my people will not be treated unfairly. "Hel's tone was sharp as she glared at him. Pablo laughed awkwardly and quickly assured, "That's only fair."
Yet in the brief moment Hel was stopped, Brenda had already seized Anthea's hand and slammed it down hard on the cross.
"I think I'm owed an explanation, Knight Pablo."
Seeing this, Hel's face grew darker. Behind her, the four Bloodlust Elves had already nocked arrows to their bows, ready to fire at the slightest provocation.
"Uh… well…"Pablo smiled awkwardly. Even he hadn't expected Brenda to act so rashly. Among the three factions present, she was clearly the weakest — yet the most brazen. Was she really not afraid to die?
He glanced at the tense Sister Pamela beside him and could only call out: "Duke Mandrake, please do not disrupt the examination. No amount of reckless behavior will make the relic glow."
Chastised, Brenda stepped back a bit, though she didn't move far from the cross. She had already expected that the mother and daughter would pass the test cleanly. Her real purpose was just to find a pretext to get close enough to the relic. Once the two true targets came forward, she would be close enough to strike.
But when Melanie placed her hand on the cross and a full minute passed with no reaction, a chill crept into Brenda's heart.
The one who had gone after Melanie was an old assassin from the Caramel family —someone who should never fail at something as trivial as poisoning. How could that have gone wrong?
"The Caramels really are useless," Brenda cursed inwardly. She could only think of one possibility —that the assassin had betrayed her to save his own skin. After all, he was just a merchant guild captain, not a true deadman that the Caramels had spent decades cultivating. It was natural for a man like that to value his own life over anyone else's.
Still, Lily would definitely not fail.
Brenda watched Lily step slowly toward the cross, a twisted smile of excitement forming on her lips. Finally — she was going to drag Hel down from her pedestal.
Even if it didn't cost Hel her life, the scandal alone would strip her of her noble title. The thought of Hel falling from grace, penniless and despised, filled Brenda with a sick joy.
"My people saw you drenched in that wretch's blood with their own eyes," she sneered. "Let's see you talk your way out of this."
But Brenda also knew that celebrating early was bad luck. Even if Lily was exposed as a witch, she needed to die first before the accusation could stick.
So Brenda quietly shifted her position, her hand slipping into her sleeve. A jeweled dagger slid smoothly into her palm. She gripped it tightly.
And just as Lily's hand brushed against the cross—Brenda whipped the dagger out and lunged at Lily's back.
"You damn witch — die!" she shouted.
But instead of the sweet sound of blade meeting flesh, what followed was the sharp crack of impact —
A long, black-stockinged leg, ending in a small foot clad in a metal-plated boot, struck her squarely in the chest.
With a bang, Brenda was sent flying backward, crashing heavily at the feet of Knight Pablo.
He looked down at her crumpled form, twitching slightly at the corner of his eye. And beside him came a voice, smooth and mocking:
"Knight Pablo, I believe the results are clear now. Neither the people of Heim City nor my own subordinatesshow any trace connected to witches. So… can we conclude who was slandering whom?"
"This…"
"It's impossible!" Brenda shrieked, forcing herself up from the ground, pointing at Hel furiously. "She's the witch! What are you all doing? Are you just going to let this bastard go unpunished?"
But when her gaze slid toward Lily —and the girl's calm hand resting on the unlit cross —her words caught in her throat.
Her pupils shrank in disbelief. That damned relic wasn't glowing.
Impossible! Had her men lied to her? Had Clint's self-destruction failed to splash Lily at all?
Was this whole thing a trap —a snare Hel had set for her from the start?
Brenda swallowed hard. Her reason told her she should retreat now, admit her intelligence was mistaken, and cut her losses. But her emotions refused to let Hel —her half-brother — walk away unscathed.
Why should she, the one who sacrificed everything for Mandrake territory, be reduced to a royal slave, while that bastard basked in the Church's favor?
Rage twisted her face.
"I see it now!" she screamed. "You knew the Holy Inquisition would come, so you hid the witch beforehand! Otherwise, how could every person in this city test clean?
You claim I slandered you? Fine —then where's your proof? If I supposedly used witch's blood to frame you, then where's the person tainted with that blood?"