“What kind of nonsense is that? That’s your heart, and my heart is my heart!”

“There’s no such thing as your heart here.”

What? Excuse me? No!

Edan completely ignored me as I let out an awkward laugh in bewilderment.

“I’d like to go with you, but I’ll be busy for a while. There’s a lot to do if I don’t want to have a marriage someone dislikes. Don’t feel upset, I’ll see you in the evening.”

“I’m not upset at all. Am I a child?”

Edan has to do Edan’s work. Just like I have to do my work.

I’m not naive enough to feel upset about this and ask him to come with me.

As I waved my hand telling him not to worry, Edan grabbed the carriage door frame, leaning his upper body inside.

“And Lati.”

“Yes?”

“No seducing outside.”

I widened my eyes and asked back.

“When did I ever seduce you?”

“You were staring at my face intensely earlier.”

That’s seduction? I was just looking at you?

As I blinked in disbelief, Edan lightly pressed his lips against mine.

“Be moderately pretty.”

Edan chuckled and turned away.

“Depart.”

Edan, who gave the order in a low voice, walked towards the castle with large strides. He quickly disappeared from view, and Ruben, who was taking care of the knights escorting the carriage, got on with Maxiem.

“Huh? Lady Latieana. Why does your complexion look like that? Has your fever not gone down yet? You look a bit red.”

I shook my head while patting my bright red cheeks with both hands.

“It’s nothing. I’m just hot.”

“What? In this weather? It’s chilly though? Ah! Did the Grand Duke say something to you just now?”

“It’s nothing, Maxiem.”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing. Should I give you some medicine?”

Stop it! I can’t say my face is red because I’m so happy from the kiss!

The oblivious Maxiem urged me on while rolling his innocent eyes back and forth, and Ruben, who couldn’t stand it anymore, kicked his shoe.

“Priest.”

“Yes?”

“You’re quite oblivious.”

Maxiem froze on the spot.

Having heard this before from Edan as well, he seemed quite shocked.

The carriage headed outside the Grand Duke’s castle where the portal was located, with Maxiem, who had his forehead pressed against the window.

“We’ll be there soon after crossing the bridge. When we arrive, even if the knights stay outside, I will follow you inside to escort you.”

“Thank you, Sir Ruben.”

“Not at all.”

“But to have so many knights, it’s amazing. I wonder if I’m wasting manpower unnecessarily since they won’t be able to go inside.”

Although not an ability user, Ruben is an incredible swordsman. With an ordinary human body, he fights monsters as Edan’s right-hand man. As one of the few highly skilled swordsmen, honestly, Ruben alone would be enough to escort me.

“There are far more knights in the North than Lady Latieana thinks. Losing this many doesn’t make a noticeable difference. And this is a kind of show of force.”

Show of force?

“Until now, it was difficult to protect Lady Latieana like this because of overlapping situations, but now things are different.”

I focused on Ruben’s words.

“The Grand Duke not killing the witch and leaving her be until now wasn’t because it was difficult to deal with. It was obvious that if the witch disappeared, the Imperial Family and the Temple would demand Lady Latieana be handed over as they are now, so he was using her for the time being. If the witch’s attempts to harm Lady Latieana hadn’t become too severe, he probably would have used her as much as he could.

Separately from that, when Lord Hillstain and Duke Dante touched Lady Latieana, he was quite angry… But it was all within the range that the Grand Duke could handle anyway.”

That’s right. If it had been revealed that I was the Great Saint, this moment would have come much sooner.

Unlike Saint candidates, the Great Saint would be oppressed by the Imperial Family and Temple and forced to use her power.

Just as I wanted to hide as much as possible, not wanting to reveal my power, Edan might have felt the same way.

“Now that things have turned out this way, there’s no need for that anymore. It’s better to let the world know that the Grand Duke is firmly protecting Lady Latieana.”

Just then, the carriage that had passed through the portal came to a stop. Ruben, who confirmed the Temple building beyond the window, opened the carriage door and went out first.

“It also means that from now on, whoever touches Lady Latieana will be killed by the Grand Duke himself.”

A chill swirled in Ruben’s eyes as he spoke.

While moving inside the carriage, the atmosphere wasn’t this sharp, but the moment I stepped out of the carriage and set foot on the ground, his eyes had completely changed to those of a knight.

The entrance of the pure white Temple building.

The white building, fully bathed in the sunlight pouring down on this particularly good day, was dazzlingly bright.

“Welcome!”

As the large Temple doors opened, the High Priest and others greeted me.

As we entered the garden, the High Priest came forward and bowed his head to me.

“Welcome, Great Saint.”

I looked at him with an openly crumpled expression.

They’re calling me the Great Saint when they haven’t even confirmed my power accurately. Unbelievable.

As I just coldly stared down at him without answering, the High Priest slightly raised his head and smiled brightly.

“Have you recovered? You look to be in good condition.”

Wow. He’s really as detestable as Ivy.

Acting as if he doesn’t know anything about sending urging and threatening letters to the Grand Duke’s castle every day, and now pretending to be concerned?

No conscience.

“High Priest.”

“Yes.”

“Did you get a hole in your heart?”

“…Pardon?”

I swiftly passed by the High Priest’s side.

Even without being told where to go, it was obvious where to head.

Because the line of priests standing at attention was all facing one direction.

It was a building with an entrance in the middle of the widest wall. The knights of the North waited at the Temple entrance, and I walked non-stop to the central building with Ruben. Though it looked far to the eye, walking through the garden felt particularly short.

I took a deep breath inwardly before heading into the building.

Alright. It’s okay. I can do well. If I don’t come to the Temple, the Imperial Family will direct all their arrows at Edan.

They somehow silenced Hillstain and Dante, but Killian knows.

And Killian will absolutely not listen to my request like the other two.

Rather, he’ll try to torment Edan more using me as an excuse.

I have to face it. Because I can’t be a burden to Edan. Because Edan can’t be harmed.

“This way.”

The building, which was all white from walls to corridors, became quite a sight as we went deeper inside.

Gold-plated borders began to stand out, and when we arrived at the deepest and largest space, the interior was completely covered in gold.

The building visible from the outside was about 3 stories high, but in the middle of it stood a tall oval glass dome.

We arrived right in the center of that dome.

I blankly looked up at the high ceiling that could only be seen by completely tilting my head back. The enormous space, which seemed to be at least 5 stories high, was entirely made of glass.

The glass didn’t let the sunlight pass through completely, but sparkled like crystal.

And in the center of that space was a circular fountain that looked like a well with a small stream of water springing up.

“This is where we make the potion.”

“Here?”

The High Priest, who had quickly followed me, pointed to the center of the fountain and added an explanation.

“When the Great Saints put their power here, the color of the water stream changes. It may look like there’s nothing, but it’s blocked by an invisible magic barrier, so normally only the Great Saint can go up to the fountain. We only go to draw water when making the medicine.”

I nodded. The holy water looked like ordinary water for now.

But when I put my power in, the color would change.

“Lady Latieana. Please put your hand here.”

The High Priest immediately held out an artifact to measure healing power to me. He seemed to be fidgeting nervously, perhaps afraid I might run away or change my mind.

“Alright.”

I reached out my hand towards the artifact without hesitation.

The bright pink light gauging the magnitude of power filled the space and extended beyond the corridor we had walked through. The healing power shone dazzlingly, reaching and even exceeding the ceiling.

I wasn’t very surprised since I had already measured it with the artifact Maxiem brought in the magician’s secret space. As I removed my hand and the light faded, I calmly scanned the surroundings. The High Priest and others were all shocked and astonished.

“My, my goodness!”

It seems my power’s light was amazingly strong enough to be surprising even though I wasn’t in perfect condition.

After that, things went smoothly.

All the other priests bowed deeply to me, and the High Priest cast aside all his half-believing doubts.

“I’ve never seen power of this magnitude before! We must inform the Imperial Family at once!”

What?

Thud. I grabbed the shoulder of the High Priest as he was turning away.

“High Priest. Let’s talk for a moment.”

After everyone else withdrew, I remained in the space with Ruben and the High Priest.

The High Priest pounded his chest and raised his voice at me.

“I really don’t understand. What on earth is the problem!”

“The problem is that you’re trying to report me to the Imperial Family.”

“Report…! This is something that must be reported, of course!”

His face turned red and blue, but whether he felt frustrated or not was none of my concern.

The High Priest twitched his white eyebrows and corn-like beard as if feeling wronged.

“You don’t want to quickly put me in the Great Saint position to cover up that the Temple was deceived by a witch, do you?”

“…!”

I hit the nail on the head.

“Of course, the Imperial Family was deceived together, but basically the Temple bears the responsibility for the Great Saint, right? While it’s possible to cover it up now since the incident happened not long ago, if the Great Saint position remains empty for a long time, words will eventually leak out, and it would be troublesome if rumors spread among the nobles.”

I slowly blinked and looked at the fountain.

“Then you won’t be able to sell those expensive and ineffective pills anymore. Right?”

Because it doesn’t make sense to claim they manufactured pills containing the Great Saint’s healing power when there is no Great Saint.

The High Priest who greatly benefited from Ivy. He must have received praise for finding a Great Saint with tremendous power, and besides other things, the pills must have been a big source of income.

Even just guessing with the information I roughly know, the High Priest was in quite a difficult situation.

Watching the water droplets falling from the fountain, I calmly waited for his response.

How will he react? Persuasion? Pleading? Or threats?