In an instant, Ivy grabbed my hair.

“Let go of this!”

I tried to resist, but Ivy’s rough movement made me fall to the floor again.

My whole body was already hurting, and I felt an indescribable great pain in my back where I hit.

It hurt so much that tears welled up in my eyes without me realizing it.

Still, I didn’t want to show weakness to Ivy, so I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to endure it.

At that moment, Ivy climbed on top of my stomach, breathing heavily.

“Don’t run your mouth carelessly. A witch? I am the Great Saint.”

Ivy’s eyes twisted fiercely.

My whole body hurt from her weight on top of me, but I opened my closed eyes and looked directly at Ivy.

“You stole my power and took that position. You’re not the real Great Saint.”

“No! I’m the real one! Everything of yours was originally mine!”

I let out a mocking laugh.

“How can you think my healing power is yours? Aren’t you seriously mistaken about something?”

“What?”

I looked at Ivy with cold eyes, despising her like an insect.

“You’re a witch. A fraudulent witch who stole what’s mine and deceived people.”

“…”

“That elegant dress you’re wearing, that luxurious necklace, those expensive earrings. They were actually meant for me, but you took them.”

I don’t know if she was upset at being called a witch or a fraud, but Ivy quickly fell for the provocation I deliberately spat out.

The corners of her lips drooped downward strangely, and black blood vessels began to rise in the whites of Ivy’s eyes.

It was a terribly disgusting sight.

“Damn you, Latieana. You stupid, filthy wench! I won’t let this slide anymore.”

It wasn’t easy to face Ivy as her face transformed into one that looked like she was about to vomit.

But I had no intention of letting Ivy off the hook anymore either.

Because regardless of whether I come to the temple or not, Ivy is someone who shouldn’t be in this position.

Last time I was flustered, but not today.

I didn’t bother trying to pull my arm free from her grip and just stared at Ivy.

Her eyes had turned completely black with the whites gone, and black mist was slowly rising from inside Ivy’s dress at the chest.

“Ivy, can you handle this?”

“What?”

“If you kill me now, everyone will know what you’ve done. What will you say to the people in the temple?”

“…”

“Will you say you brought a friend you pretended to love and care for like family, stole their power, and killed them? What about Prince Killian who brought me here? Will you say you killed me after he went to the trouble of bringing me?”

Ivy’s eyes widened in surprise at my words, as if she hadn’t thought that far.

But that was only for a moment, and then Ivy looked down at me like a pitiful animal abandoned on the street.

“What nonsense are you talking about, Latieana?”

Pfft. Ivy burst out laughing as if it was ridiculous, pulling up the corners of her mouth sharply.

“Do you think His Highness Killian would care about you?”

“What?”

“You’re nothing here. No one cares about your existence. He only brought you here because you’re my friend, at my request. How delusional are you to think you’re important enough to get attention? No one cares whether you live or die.”

Giggle giggle, Ivy kept grinding her teeth in satisfaction as she spoke.

It was an unpleasant laugh that made me think it was bizarre.

“So even if you die here right now in any way, His Highness Killian won’t blame me. He’ll just think that the friend of the Great Saint he brought has died, and that I’ll be sad because of it.”

“…”

“He cares for me very much, you see.”

“…”

It wasn’t wrong. That’s how it actually was.

– Forget what’s not important.

When I was found as a mummy in the original story, Killian had said those words.

In a temple where Saint candidates kept dying, the death of one insignificant person was nothing.

Killian had no interest in anyone other than Ivy.

Ivy smiled as if she had already grasped victory, as if she had taken everything from me.

After mocking me like that for a moment, she opened her glossy pink lips.

“In the end, you’re nothing. Just an orphan wench who could die right now and it wouldn’t matter. You and I are different. We’ve been different until now, and we’ll live different lives in the future.”

Ivy grabbed my arm.

“You just need to be used by me until you die. When I take your power completely today, I’ll become the real thing.”

The black mist that had risen from her chest was now spreading along her arm to the tips of my fingers.

At this rate, I would soon have my power stolen by Ivy and turn into a mummy like last time. But.

“Fine, take it.”

I relaxed my body.

“What?”

Ivy stopped all her actions at my response, which was different from before.

“I said take it.”

I smiled at her even more.

“But if I die now, you’ll soon lose that Great Saint position too.”

Ivy flinched and let go of my arm.

“What do you mean?”

This was my chance. I pushed away the weakened Ivy and got up.

“My healing power is at rock bottom right now.”

I smiled brightly at Ivy’s deeply furrowed face.

Of course, it’s a lie.

My condition is at its best right now. If Ivy takes all my power now, she will surely become the perfect Great Saint like in the original story.

That absolutely can’t happen, and I needed to buy time. Because Maxium is in the temple.

I need to buy even a little time, wait for an opening to escape, and ask Maxium for help.

“You can’t recover healing power on your own, right? That’s why you kept absorbing my power, isn’t it?”

“…”

It was just a shot in the dark, but judging by Ivy’s reaction, it seems to be true.

In the original story, Latieana became a mummy after healing the knights with special abilities without having a chance to recover, but that wasn’t actually the case.

Ivy, who had absorbed her power before coming to the temple, waited for Latieana to recover and then took her power when she was perfectly energized.

“Don’t lie! Where did you use that healing power…”

Ivy’s mouth closed as she was speaking.

“Don’t tell me, you used it on Prince Edan?”

“Why do you think I couldn’t have? Even you, a fake, are living well using my power.”

“You crazy…! Latieana!”

Ivy collapsed on the spot, crying out my name, then clutched her head.

It was quite a sight to see Ivy in such confusion. That’s because unless you’re the person involved, you can’t gauge how much healing power someone else has left. Ivy might not believe my words and absorb the power anyway, but if what I said is true, she won’t be able to get the perfect healing power.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

The mention of using healing power on Edan added credibility to my lie. Everyone knows that Edan needs the strongest healing power more than anyone else.

“So that day… That’s why it happened. Damn it! That’s why Prince Edan…!”

Ivy muttered to herself, her face turning red and blue as she breathed roughly.

It looked like she might rush at me again at any moment, unable to contain her rising anger.

I quickly got up and moved a couple of steps away from Ivy.

“Latieana. You… I’m going to kill you.”

That’s when it happened.

The door burst open and Killian appeared.

“Great Saint…”

Killian entered the room without hesitation along with his attendant, but then furrowed his brow.

He seemed to be assessing the situation for a moment, surprised by the sight of Ivy clutching her head painfully on the floor and my disheveled appearance.

I had been looking at Killian when the door suddenly opened, but quickly turned my head back towards Ivy.

Ivy had already returned to her normal appearance.

The black mist surrounding her, the black blood vessels that had crawled up her hands, the eyes that had turned completely black without whites – everything was back in place.

“K-Killian, Your Highness!”

Ivy, dressed in a white dress, looked at Killian with a pitiful expression.

Then she weakly got up and walked towards him.

“What’s going on here?”

Killian’s gaze fixed on me.

From the looks of the situation, it seemed like Ivy had suffered some terrible act and I was the one who had done something wrong.

“I didn’t do anything.”

The black hair I had seen at the palace was neatly pushed back over his forehead.

Though his image was a bit different because of that, it was indeed Killian who had knocked me out and brought me here.

“Great Saint, you explain.”

Killian asked Ivy in a soothing tone, not even listening to what I said.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just felt a little hurt…”

Ivy had become a completely different person from when we were alone.

She shrank her delicate shoulders and wiped her tearless eyes with the back of her hand as if she had been crying.

“It seems Latieana didn’t really want to see me.”

“…”

At those words, Killian’s gaze turned to me again.

“She said she wanted to leave the temple… So I felt a little hurt.”

I never said such a thing! You’re one hell of an actor!

“She said she wants to leave the temple?”

Killian nodded to his attendant, repeating Ivy’s words as if pondering them.

At that signal, the attendant approached me and held out a piece of paper. As I looked at the paper quizzically, Killian spoke.

“Sign it.”

It was an ordinary white paper with a few short sentences written on it.

Sign it?

I looked down at the paper even more suspiciously.

Killian, who had been waiting, jerked his chin towards the attendant again.

The attendant quickly forced the paper and pen into my hands.

“Read it. If someone worthy of becoming a Saint candidate has entered the temple, shouldn’t they do their job?”

I reluctantly unfolded the paper.

It was a pledge to follow the laws of the temple as a Saint candidate and do my best for the empire’s special ability users.

Sign this…? Am I crazy? If I sign this, I won’t be able to leave the temple anymore.

Because legally, I would become part of the temple.

“I refuse.”