CH 174

“It’s this.” The item Eris gave me was a necklace with a familiar white jewel on it. In the jewel was divine power.

“Is this a divine item?”

“Yes.”

I examined the necklace closely. It looked like it changed colors at different angles, like an opal. It was clear and seemed to be full of clean atmosphere, and it felt great just looking at it. The divine item was actually as rare as its demonic counterpart. In a world where the demons were almost gone, it was only right that the divine items were almost gone as well.

“It was something I got a really long time ago.”

Eris’s eyes saddened as she said this. It was an item that hadn’t shown up in the original novel, so I didn’t know, but it had to be something she’d gotten from someone important.

Did she have someone else she liked?

That hadn’t been included in the original novel, either, but I didn’t know how she’d gotten involved with Ridrian and ended up liking him. Not that her lover necessarily had to be someone important.

But as I laid eyes on Eris for the first time in a week, I began to ask her questions.

“Eris, how is Dylan doing?” I wanted to know. “Are the attendees doing well?”

The house owner had left the house for a week with no notice. She’d been worried about the house, but also about whether the people were doing ok. Ridrian had kept on coming to the house at one point, which must have troubled them, and now the crusaders of Theres? I should give them a bonus when I returned.

“The attendees are doing well,” Eris replied. “Lina is worried about you, though. And only Dylan left the crusaders—everyone else returned to the temple. But they’re close by, so they’ll come at any notice.”

“There’s no way they left on their own terms. They must’ve fought the palace guards.”

“There was no physical fight. Just a lot of glaring.”

I suddenly remembered Ravis getting flustered and fighting Dylan. Wouldn’t he, as High Priest, care about me becoming the Saintess? Come to think of it, he’d agreed on me hiding the power. What was Ravis thinking?

Eris cleared her throat, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Iona,” she said, “you’re really not going to the temple, are you?”

“I’m not,” I assured her. “I don’t even know what this power is. And to call me a Saintess! The moment I acknowledge it is the moment I’ll probably want to forget about it for the rest of my life.”

I wasn’t jesting. A Saintess. It sounded like a savior from some old movie. If I was called that much longer, I just might throw myself off a building.

Eris said it like it was shameful. It was hard to tell if she was joking or not.

“Oh, my. Why, I think being a Saintess would fit you perfectly. You saved the people at the palace and the people in the capital from a tyrant, so you’re a Saintess. Who would fit the title more?”

“Please, don’t be like that, Eris.”

Why did this female lead like me so much? I just might die from shame soon.

***

“Is that him?”

Ridrian, who was sitting arrogantly on his throne, pointed with his chin. Raven, studying the emperor’s mood, took his time to reply.

“Yes.”

One of the High Priests stood anxiously before them. Was it because he had an important mission? He tried to look confident, but his legs trembled.

“A servant of Theres, Avas Lotuna. I meet Ridrian Ferid Lebrooks, the emperor and the first light of the great Ivant.”

What are they up to now?

The emperor seemed happy, as he’d been spending every night with Viscount Lesprey. The servants around them, as well as his subjects, had all begun to wonder whether they were serving the same emperor.

But this morning, young lady Deron, who the emperor didn’t seem like much, had come and caused a commotion, and now a person from the Theres group had visited with a subject that clearly annoyed the emperor.

Despite being a tyrant, he wouldn’t try to make the group his enemy, but Raven and Chancellor Ivan were standing by him, nervous about the whole situation.

As expected, Ridrian’s mood was the worst. The moment the Priest’s formality ended, he dove right into the subject.

“I remember requesting the Theres group to purify the entire capital,” he said. “When is that happening?”

He acted like he had no idea why they’d come and brought up another question. The second the emperor began speaking, the middle age priest flinched and cleared his throat.

“We chose not to take the request, as His Holiness the Pope didn’t think it was necessary.”

The emperor’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“What do you mean?’

“It is our judgment that the fragments of the miracle of light which pierced through the sky a few days ago were more than enough to purify the capital. It’s hard to purify that much, even if we brought in twenty High Priests together. Even His Holiness doubted he would be able to emit that much power all at once.”

“How can I trust that? There was no evidence, so how could that piece of light have had a purifying effect?”

“It was based on a report by Sir Dylan Lyn Fortis. If the pillar of light had enough power to instantly annihilate the demon, the demons would have been critically hit just getting touched by the pieces. The Pope trusts his judgment, so I think it should be enough evidence.”

As the High Priest spoke confidently, the memory of that emotionless, short-haired crusader flashed through Ridrian’s mind.

Damn kid. I let him guard Iona and he sells her off to the temple?

He ground his teeth together, opting for more aggression.

“I can’t check the facts right now,” he snapped. “Bring in evidence that could convince me. If not, I’ll request that half of the support fund be returned. I was funding in case something like this happened, but if you don’t do your duty, then this has to happen.”

“Your Majesty!” the High Priest exclaimed. “How do you expect me to prove God’s power?”

Submitting evidence of something that couldn’t be witnessed by the naked eye? The High Priest seemed flustered at the emperor’s odd request, but Ridrian didemn’t seem to care. He changed the subject.

“It seems the lazy High Priest didn’t come here merely for that matter. Tell me, why are you here?”