“I don’t want to.”

Upon hearing Noktavius’s request to become the exclusive priestess of the empress, Arvian immediately refused.

“Why should I become the exclusive… no, the empress’s exclusive? I am meant to be the next high priest.”

“Do you think you can say that knowing it’s not possible unless I nominate you?”

Receiving Noktavius’s intense gaze, Arvian glanced at Ermeldin.

Ermeldin, standing a little behind Noktavius, had a face filled with bitterness.

“I won’t be the high priest. If you wanted to live as someone’s exclusive, you should never have thought of becoming a priest in the first place.”

Arvian, with mischief on her pretty face, turned away with a clenched fist.

“She’ll die without you.”

“People are supposed to die eventually, aren’t they? And the empress seemed almost like she wanted to die of frustration, didn’t she?”

In response to Arvian’s words, Ermeldin glared at her with a silent frown.

“Yeah. People eventually die. Without you, the empress will probably pass away within a few months.”

“What?”

Even Ermeldin, who had been listening from behind, widened her eyes in surprise at this unexpected story.

“Don’t lie! She’s been living quite well without me, hasn’t she?”

Still, hearing that she would die soon, Arvian’s voice began to tremble ever so slightly.

“If you don’t believe it, then leave, right?”

Noktavius, seeming resigned, tried to turn away, but Ermeldin blocked him with her whole body.

“No! If she’ll die in a few months, what should I do if you just leave?”

“But you can’t force her to go with you, can you?”

“Sigh.”

Everything went wrong.

Ermeldin thought that if Arvian became the exclusive priestess, Noktavius would at least say, “I don’t care about you!” But everything went wrong.

To refuse so decisively and immediately!

“Just help for a few months. I’ll do my best to get out of the palace as soon as possible. Just help me until then.”

Ermeldin bowed deeply to Arvian, gently asking for her help.

Only then did Arvian smile contentedly and pat Ermeldin’s head.

“All right. Let me go with you, especially. You have to tell me a lot about the places you’ve been.”

Henry, who received a letter sent by the high priest Noktavius, was bewildered.

“If there is a priest, Louise is already there. Why an exclusive priest?”

At Henry’s question, Viscount Halstein also tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“That’s true. Sending the next high priest as an exclusive priest… What on earth is he thinking?”

The feud between the Françoise family and the sect was not a recent development.

Therefore, Henry couldn’t easily believe the report that Arvian had saved her during the attack.

To save a witch’s life even though they were trying to kill her from the church’s side.

And not only that but to follow her to the palace, even as an exclusive priest.

Henry wanted to refuse Arvian’s move to the palace, but he couldn’t.

Although Trivian was strictly separated by religion, the empress’s approval as an exclusive priestess was required to inherit the imperial authority.

To fully inherit the imperial authority, it was necessary to publicly declare that the priestess was the 7th god who manifested herself for the people.

Of course, Henry also ascended to the throne with Noktavius’s declaration.

For generations, high priests used this position to interfere significantly in Trivian Empire’s central politics.

Some priests even had residences near the palace.

But fortunately for Henry, the current high priest Noktavius showed no particular interest in politics.

However, his authority was absolute.
Having been officially appointed as the high priest’s successor, he inherited the priest’s position, surpassing Henri, who was born as a bastard, and had both the favor of the people and nobility.

“Is he aiming to enter the central government through the empress?”

“If he had the intention, he could have done it anytime. But now, he’s joining hands with the empress, the enemy of the sect. It doesn’t quite add up.”

“Since Ermont became a greater common enemy, they might have temporarily joined forces. According to the escaped girl, she’s definitely preparing a large-scale curse.”

“Sigh. It’s troublesome. Anyway, it would have been better if the Duke and his son were dealt with at once.”

Although the Duke and his son were the father and brother of his wife, it wasn’t important to Henri.

He had banished even his birth mother heartlessly and killed numerous half-brothers.

“For now, accept it. There’s no plausible reason to refuse.”

Ermeldin’s influence was gradually growing.

Not only did she sway public opinion, but now she was also trying to align with the sect.

Henri felt a heavy sense of guilt towards Ermeldin, but that didn’t mean he would easily let her go.

The witch had to bear the sins of killing her own kin and disappear as ashes.

A role in which she alone bore all the guilt and the consequences of her sins.

To explain, even if the explanation was a crime committed by the deposed former empress, who clung to the emperor for the sake of the successor who would be born someday.