Tina denied reality as if she had lost her soul, crawling towards Alberto when no one stood up for her.
“Sir Michael! This is unlike what you promised. You promised me Elium’s wealth and honor…”
“YOU DIRTY FAKE SAINT!”
Alberto took the cup from the table and pushed it towards her gaping lips, holding her chin without anyone being able to stop him.
“HOW DARE YOU DECEIVE ME AND THE QUEEN!”
The tea from the cup flowed through her lips.
“SIR MICHAEL!”
Kyle roared and charged at Alberto, dragging him down.
However, the glass cup had already shattered to pieces when it hit the ground. And Tina, Tiago’s fake saint who had already drunk it to some extent, grabbed her neck with her hands.
“Ugh, urk…”
My brows furrowed.
She may be an exceptional accomplice in this scheme, but seeing someone die before me was not my pleasure.
The White Sand flower got its name not because of its color, but because it could kill a living being in a hundred seconds.
“DRAG HER OUT!”
The door opened in response to the Emperor’s thunderous cry, and knights came in. Then they started dragging out the dying fake saint.
Alberto, whose complexion had turned reddish, bowed deeply to the Emperor.
“Your Majesty, I didn’t know the saint I brought from the temple was a fake. I sincerely apologize.”
In a fit of rage, the Emperor yelled at Michael,
“What an absurd disrespect you have shown. AND YOU’RE EVEN ACCUSING THE TEMPLE OF SUCH FOLLY?!”
With a stiff face, the Queen kept her mouth shut.
It was amusing to see how her hands flinched whenever the Emperor shouted.
“COME ON, GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES BEFORE THE SAINTESS AND ASK FOR HER FORGIVENESS!”
Alberto’s face showed bewilderment as the Emperor’s words rang out, and I turned the end of my lips upward.
He gritted his teeth and knelt before me.
As the Emperor could not let the pregnant Queen bow and ask for forgiveness, he decided to place the blame on Alberto.
“My apologies for the disrespect I have shown you, Saintess.”
I leaned slightly forward and made eye contact with him.
‘He was a madman who hit someone with his horse, and he just killed a woman.’
He has harmed numerous people on countless occasions.
“Sir Michael.”
I patted his cheek with my hand.
In the eyes of others, it would look like a simple pat on the cheek. But, with Ciel’s blessing, he must have felt a shock similar to being slapped on the face.
“……!”
His eyes widened.
I still smiled and whispered to him,
“The God of Benevolence had just asked me to deliver it to you.”
I stood up and smiled lightly.
“Please be careful from now on.”
The chat window glistened in front of me.
[Oman, the God of Benevolence, nods in satisfaction]
Well, I’m not lying.
I then heard the Emperor’s trembling voice,
“Today’s event was very disgraceful to you and the temple.”
I said to the Emperor with a slight bow,
“I am the one at fault that they misunderstood me because I’m weak.”
[Monde, the God of Art, pays tribute to your acting skills]
The Emperor paused for a moment before opening his mouth again,
“You are, indeed, the spiritual leader of Elium and the empire. And…”
As he stood next to Kyle, he put his hand on his shoulder.
“Please continue to keep in touch with my son.”
Kyle’s eyebrows twitched at the Emperor’s words.
I gave an awkward smile as the Emperor continued to speak,
“I don’t know what to say in this situation, but if the Saintess is close enough to my son to write a proposal letter, then you’re always welcome in the imperial family.”
Kyle broke the brief silence that ensued, not knowing how to respond to it,
“Your Majesty, the Saintess seems tired today, so I’ll see her off.”
The Emperor gave a nod.
“All right, go ahead. And.”
The Emperor continued with an awkward smile,
“As a thank you for coming here, I will give the Saintess the royal treasures, so please wait a moment.”
It seemed to be a gift to make up for today’s disrespect.
‘The price of White Rotunia’s roots should be fully compensated.’
I shifted my gaze to the Queen.
She held her stomach firmly and stared at me with a harsh gaze.
Her dark complexion suits her very well.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
He can only escort me to the carriage, but Kyle had the nerve to get into the carriage. And he also said he would take me to the temple.
I didn’t say no because he seemed to have something to say.
Right when I had been staring at the landscape for a long time.
“I have something to tell you.”
His low voice echoed inside the carriage.
Looking at the scenery of the passing streets, I answered indifferently,
“Don’t ask me how I knew which one is the tea made from Rotunia. It’s a trade secret.”
Outside, the sun was slowly setting.
“I have no way of knowing. Whether you were determined to deceive Reyhas.”
His piercing eyes reached me.
“Or what kind of intentions Reyhas has to dare to trick me.”
His voice was threatening.
“Or if you’re really a fake saint, even that.”
“Whether I’m a fake or not, the important thing is that I’ve been helping Your Highness from the beginning.”
I replied with a shrug.
Some of the main reasons they made Ariel a fake saint was that she was stupid, incapable of betraying them, and didn’t have any family to go back to.
Given their particular righteousness, there is a risk that priestesses endowed with divine powers will one day force them to confess their secret.
Ariel, on the other hand, was a conscientious, pious, and mundane person.
But now, no one sees me as the old Ariel.
I maintained my composure while looking at him and said clearly,
“I will never bite, so rest assured.”
At my insistence of harmlessness, he twisted his lips bitterly. There was a deep curiosity in his red eyes.
“Do you expect me to believe you?”
Keeping my cool, I smiled slightly and made a joke,
“It’s up to Your Highness what you think of me, but it’s not good to worry about something else when you already know who the enemy is.”
Then I looked out the window again.
‘Today’s performance seems to have unintentionally piqued Kyle’s interest.’
The carriage made its way into the temple.
His low voice rang in my ears as I was about to leave him sitting crookedly behind me,
“Ariel.”
I paused and turned around, and he grabbed my wrist.
His glimmering eyes, redder than the setting sun, were right in front of me. He suddenly came close and bowed his upper body toward me.
“My offer for you to come to the palace is not valid as of this day, but I intend to find you often.”
My gaze lingered on him awkwardly.
No… Why?
“Whether you’re fake or real.”
I locked my gaze on his shadow on the floor. A low voice lodged in my ears,
“Now it’s clear that we have the same enemy.”
When I remembered the Queen’s ferocious expression, my mind became jumbled with the realization that this would not end here.
“To be honest, Your Highness is to blame. I wanted to live quietly.”
Kyle whispered to me, who spoke as if I was grumbling,
“How shameless. You should have turned down the High Priest’s offer in the first place if you wanted to live a quiet life.”
I wasn’t the one who accepted the offer, but I didn’t have anything to say about it.
“Whoever you are, know one thing.”
His intense red eyes were staring at me.
His lips moved again,
“All the lives of those in the same boat as me are mine.”
His voice was brimming with arrogant confidence.
“No one should dare harm my person without my permission.”
Perhaps I was surprised by his sudden approach, my heart raced and my mind became complicated.
I’m ‘his person’.
I must have entered Kyle’s boundary with this incident.
I avoided his gaze and said,
“I can take care of my body even without Your Highness’s protection. So you don’t have to worry about it.”
I was fortunate to be recognized as an ‘ally’, but I don’t want to shorten my life by growing closer with him.
“You know it’s too late to draw a line.”
His piercing red eyes were locked on me for a long time.
“And did you know that that attitude stimulates me even more?”
I don’t know what to say.
I kept my mouth shut while avoiding his gaze.
The carriage door soon opened a long time later.
“I’ll come to find you in the temple soon.”
I turned and slipped out of the carriage, and Dwayne closed the door of the carriage again.
I took a step forward after a while. Unintentionally, my peaceful daily life was getting more and more cracked.
“Saintess, what about these treasures?”
Dwayne asked me, looking at the treasures in the carriage that followed.
“His Majesty personally gave them to me.”
It would be well over 10,000 francs if I sold it without his knowledge.
“Please move them to my room.”
“Alright.”
The sun was setting in the west, and it was now getting darker and darker.