The Beloved Fake Saint

chapter 75

“After I collapsed while repairing the gate at first, when I looked for the gate again, it was the same size.”

“Ah… The priests would have done their best to keep it.”

“To say that, I understand that the priests dispatched here have already run out of divine power. The second dispatched priests haven’t even arrived yet.”

I could see him break out in a cold sweat at my words.

“Besides, during the days I was down, there weren’t even any priests guarding the mine. The lord’s castle delivers the priest’s shift schedule, yet no priest has ever been to the mine. There are only eyewitness accounts of the lord’s soldiers guarding the mine.”

“That… That is…”

The lord’s expression was somehow awkward.

Is there a secret temple belonging to Ares?

Normally, a middle-ranking priest has the power of ten lower-ranking priests, and a senior priest has the power of ten middle-ranking priests.

The high-ranking priests have greater divine power than senior priests, but there are less than ten of them in the Empire.

A total of four high-ranking priests came to Ares and Reihausd was one of them, yet all four, including him, were now immobile. It was because they were all injured just like Reihausd.

In order to maintain the gate for a few days in a state where all the priests’ spiritual strength is exhausted, it would require the divine power of a high-ranking priest, or perhaps a senior priest comparable to that of a high-ranking priest…

I couldn’t find such a priest on the list.

“I can’t help it if it’s hard to answer.”

I ate some more food and got up.

Naturally, the music stopped and all eyes were on me.

“I really enjoyed the food you served. But I think I should get going now. I don’t think I’ll be able to digest it.”

At my words, the lord and his retainers jumped to their feet.

“S-… Saintess!”

“I have no intention of asking difficult questions. However, from Elium, I risked my life to come to Ares’ aid, and I feel very bad at the thought that the lord is hiding an important secret.”

The faces of the vassals and the lord were stained with bewilderment.

Soon after, the lord got up from his seat, approached me, and knelt down on his knees.

“What the Saintess thinks… It’s absolutely not that Ares has saved the power of a temple.”

“Hmm…”

“If I speak out, the people of Ares may suffer great damage, so as a lord, please be considerate of what I can’t bear to tell you.”

There was a sense of urgency in his trembling voice.

Because of this, I was able to deduce that some high-ranking priest came to help, and he had threatened the lord not to reveal what he had done.