“Oh. They can’t say they’re just visiting Shenencia, so they must want to see me.”

I was taken aback. A visit from the temple.

I knew they would come someday, but it was sooner than I expected.

‘Perhaps they found out about our separate meeting at the Tower, so they want to contact us from the temple.’

The temple was more friendly to me than the Tower. They didn’t try to forcefully take Shenencia, they just let things happen naturally.

Every time we visited, Shasha seemed happy, and they always handed her some carefully selected snacks. But that was not their real intention.

They wanted to study her. A person born with both sacred and magical power did not exist anywhere else. The temple had openly stated this.

‘Still better than the Tower that schemed behind the scenes.’

Neither the Tower nor the Temple pleased me.

“Well, so it is.”

“Why ask now, when you didn’t at the Tower?”

“The Tower had a legitimate reason for apologizing, the temple doesn’t.”

I was lost for words; it was too accurate.

“That’s true.”

“Just wanting to see doesn’t qualify as a reason.”

“Um…”

“If you don’t want to see them, you don’t have to. I can stop it this time, but I don’t know about later.”

“I’ll see them.”

Knowing that avoiding them wasn’t an option, I nodded.

“Good decision.”

“I thought you said you could prevent it.”

“Avoiding it once or twice won’t solve anything. You need to confront what they want, and what you want, for this to end.”

“Yes.”

I wonder what they will ask for. Will they, like the previous Tower Lord, demand that Shenencia be sent away? Or will it be something else?

Regardless, there is no chance I will send Shenencia away.

‘Come to think of it, it’s strange. The new Tower Lord doesn’t seem to care about Shasha.’

The last time we met, he clearly came just to see me, and wanted only to speak with me. It was very different from how others tried to mingle with Shasha.
It was then. The Emperor, who had been speaking all along, slowly nodded his head, his face brightening as if he had thought of something amusing.

“In neither the tower nor the temple did they deign to set foot in the palace, standing stiff-necked like scholars, but since you and Shanensia came, they’ve been shamelessly contacting us to come.”

“Is that… good?”

“It’s interesting. Don’t you think so, Bella? Even when called upon by emperors generation after generation, they did not come. They wished not to infringe upon their own domains, believing they possessed authority equal to the imperial power. Indeed, the empire has maintained a balance between the imperial authority, the temple, and the tower. But now they’re the ones reaching out to come.”

“It is interesting.”

As he said, there was a tense rivalry among the empire’s three ruling strata.

That was also why they were overly obsessed with Shanensia.

The Tower, even if this was not about the current Tower Lord, had lost public sentiment for raising the price of magical instruments excessively. The number of wizards supporting the Tower was dwindling by the day, leaving it without a future.

In the Temple, they had to forcibly seat a strong individual as the next Saintess since one had not appeared. Both places were without a future, which is why they wanted Shanensia.

‘The only place that doesn’t need Shanensia is this imperial palace.’

For generations, emperors had kept those two places in check and wanted to break the balance of power.

The Tower and the Temple. They were excessively arrogant, and so whenever either of them made a mistake, they were the first to rush over and dig into their errors.

That’s how they needed to seize their weaknesses.

Given the situation, Leandro’s response was quite understandable.

“It has become very interesting. At first, I thought I was helping you, Bella, but now I see that you’ve been a great help to me in many ways.”

“That’s good to hear.”

It was then. Shanensia, who had been wandering around the library, came running toward me.

“Sis!”

“Hmm?”

“I want to go back now!”

“Why? Did you get bored?”

Shanensia vigorously shook her head. If she wasn’t bored, then why did she want to go back? Just when I was watching her, puzzled, Lurdello was slowly walking towards us, his arms dropped to the ground.

It seemed Lurdello hadn’t slept well during his nap time earlier.

It wasn’t that Shanensia had woken him up using him as a pillow; he had been awake from before that, it seemed.

“Ahh, shall we call it a day then? We can come back, right?”

“Yes! Emperor, is it okay? Can Lurdello and Sis come again next time?”