“What?” Carlisle didn’t understand what she meant at first.

He’d heard every word clearly, but the meaning they conveyed when put together made his brain short-circuit for a moment.

The Saintess was inviting him to her room? The words were so bold that he wondered if he’d heard wrong.

Aside from her flushed cheeks, Sherry seemed fairly calm. “I said, come hide at my place. If you’re still worried, you can… go to my room. It’s usually pretty safe there, and hardly anyone ever comes to bother me.”

“Th-this doesn’t seem right.”

“You don’t want to? Then…I don’t know where else I could keep you safe.” She lowered her head, her downcast eyes drifting to the floor. Her little hands unconsciously cupped her cheeks, as if she were trying to cool them with her palms.

“N-no, that’s not it! How could I refuse Liya’s invitation?” Seeing the girl look a little sad, Carlisle hurried to explain.

Liya was inviting him to her home, setting aside the difference between men and women, all so he could escape the guards. How could he let his mind wander when she was only trying to help?

“Still, why do you trust me so much? Aren’t you afraid I’m a bad guy?” he asked curiously.

If he remembered right, he’d made a pretty bad impression on the girl the last few times they’d met.

Groping her chest, an indirect kiss…

Neither was something a decent person would do.

Could it really be as the Ghostling said—that he’d broken through the Saintess’s peaceful heart and made her fall in love with him?

At his question, the girl slowly lifted her head. The sunset glow was reflected in her golden eyes, and the evening light lent her silver hair a touch of worldly warmth.

Their eyes met, and Carlisle felt as if he’d fallen into a sweet, dreamy haven of tenderness. His heart skipped a beat.

“I trust you,” Sherry said softly, as gently as a goodnight whispered at bedtime.

Carlisle froze. Immersed in the girl’s faint, elegant fragrance, he gazed at her warm smile bathed in the sunset’s glow.

Something stirred in his heart. In that moment, just like the passersby, he thought the girl was the most perfect person in the world.

…

After sneaking from place to place along the way, he finally followed Sherry out of the church and into the residential district, reaching the Saintess’s home.

When he opened the door, a different fragrance wafted into his nose. The furnishings weren’t exactly simple, but neither were they overly luxurious. The leather sofa had a few faint, inconspicuous creases, suggesting that the owner often sat there to rest.

The only slightly strange thing was how little the place felt like a young girl’s home.

“You can sit here for now.” Sherry led him to the sofa and motioned for him to sit. Then she went to a cabinet and opened one of its drawers.

Clunk—

As the drawer slid open, the glass bottles clinked together with a pleasant chime.

“Do you have any antidote on you?” she asked Carlisle.

“No. I never carry anything like that.”

In all his years of experience, he’d hardly ever had to worry about being poisoned, so naturally he didn’t carry antidotes around with him.

Besides, most of those potions weren’t very effective. They could only suppress the poison for a little while.

Sherry took a potion with a green glow from the drawer and walked over to him. “I have a few ordinary antidotes here. They might suppress the poison in your body a little.”

She set it on the table in front of the sofa, then slowly slid it toward him.

“Thanks.” Carlisle nodded, picked up the potion and examined it for a few seconds, then set it back down.

Sherry’s eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly. Then, in a joking tone, she said, “Of course, if you don’t trust me, you don’t have to drink it.”

“How could I not trust you? If Liya isn’t trustworthy, then no one in the world is.” Carlisle smiled. Though he said that, he still had no intention of drinking the potion. “I’ll wait until the poison takes effect. Something about this seems off.”

It had been a while since he parted ways with Witch Sherry, yet his body had remained perfectly normal all this time. He couldn’t help starting to doubt the potion’s effects.

Knowing she couldn’t talk him into drinking the antidote, Sherry went to the mirror to straighten her long hair and clerical robe, then returned to the front door.

“I have something to do, so I’ll be going.”

“Okay. I’ll wait for you to come back.”

“Mm.” Sherry gave Carlisle a breathtaking glance over her shoulder, brushed a silver strand behind her ear, and cheerfully opened the door before leaving the house.

Clutching his pounding heart, Carlisle stared at the door the girl had gently closed behind her and sank into thought for a long while.

“Ghostling.”

“What?”

“I think I’ve been poisoned again.”

“Huh? What kind of poison?”

“Liya’s love poison.”

…

After leaving her home, Sherry put on a dress and transformed into the Witch.

She passed by the church. Instead of looking for Ackerman, she went straight to the guards on patrol.

She chuckled to herself, then hurried over and feigned alarm. “Mr. Guard! Mr. Guard! I just saw the wanted criminal who stole a clerical robe!”

“Huh?” At the mention of the wanted criminal, the guards instantly grew alert.

The spear-wielding captain glanced around. Seeing no sign of the fugitive, he demanded, “Where is he?!”

“He’s taken Lady Liya hostage and hidden himself in her home!”

“What?!”

The guards were thrown into a panic at her words.

Taking the Saintess hostage was a serious crime! And this Saintess was kind-hearted, Ayideen’s most cherished treasure—the one everyone wanted to protect. Failing to catch the wanted criminal was already the guards’ fault. If anything happened to the Saintess on top of that, they’d be overwhelmed with guilt.

Whether the report was true or not, they had to go check.

“It’s absolutely true! If we’re any later, I’m afraid something will happen to Lady Liya!”

“What? Quick! Get the guys who are still resting! We’re going to rescue Lady Liya!” The captain threw up an arm and called out. He sent some of the guards to gather the others, while he led the rest straight to Liya’s home.

“Oh, be careful, Mr. Guards! If you make too much noise, Carlisle— I mean, the wanted criminal might notice!” Seeing how quickly they moved, Sherry hurriedly added the warning.

If Carlisle heard the guards coming, he’d probably slip out of the house first. Then they wouldn’t catch him.

That’d be a real loss.

“Thanks for the warning. We’ll be quiet!” A reply drifted over from a distance, and the captain promptly vanished down the road leading to the church.

Sherry knew all too well that when it came to anything involving Liya, these excitable men always lost their usual sense.

After congratulating herself heartily in her mind, she remembered Carlisle, who’d refused to drink the potion.

“Hmph! He actually dared not to drink it? What an ungrateful fool!”

The potion she’d given him earlier wasn’t a real antidote. It was a poison that would slowly sap a person’s strength. If he’d drunk it, he’d soon have started feeling exhausted all over, gradually losing the ability to move.

And when the poison took effect, Carlisle would never suspect that Saintess Liya had poisoned him. He’d only think the Witch’s potion was making him so tired.

With the guards on their way, catching the wanted criminal who’d stolen a clerical robe and harassed the Saintess in her home would be a piece of cake.

The Church would surely hand down a severe sentence!

That had been the plan, but Carlisle’s refusal to drink the potion had thrown in quite a few complications.

Still, no matter what changed, she refused to believe Carlisle could make it through the guards’ search unscathed!