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Thump!
Hela quickly held on to the desk upon feeling a sudden vibration. The vibration lasted for a long time, yet it wasn’t too intense. Hela was worried that the restored buildings might collapse and her efforts would be wasted, but the vibration itself seemed to be limited to within the Imperial Palace.
“Is it an earthquake?” Hela asked.
“No. It seems like some sort of magic is being used to exert a huge force from underground,” Anya answered as she looked under her feet. Despite the intense vibration, her body did not shake at all.
Hela frowned upon hearing Anya’s answer.
“The underground?”
Hela had already heard the news that Juan sent a search party down into the underground structure below the capital to rescue the Saintess and the Captain of the Imperial Guards. She had also heard a report stating that the search party had finished the search and came out of the underground just now and then Juan decided to head underground. However, she didn’t know what Juan was doing in the underground.
“I should call Sina and ask her what the heck His Majesty is up to again. I hope he hasn’t kept more Golems below Torra.”
“I think that’s a real possibility,” Anya answered with a smile.
As someone who has been looking for Golems for a long time, Anya seemed to like Torra very much, since there were Golems everywhere she looked.
“So, Hela. Why did you call for me?” Anya asked.
Hela looked at Anya in silence. Anya’s position in Juan’s army was ambiguous. She was one of the key forces and clearly a massive contributor, but her ability to deal with the dead and the undead made it difficult to grant her an official position publicly.
Fearful rumors about Anya had already spread all throughout the empire here and there through the Imperial Army. Of course, Juan did not care about such rumors at all.
However, it was a different case entirely for Heretia and Hela who were temporarily in charge of the internal affairs of the empire. Even Anya was aware of such a fact.
“Well, it’s not a big deal. I just had a few concerns about what His Majesty was up to these days,” Hela said.
“If His Majesty has done something, it must have been done with for a reason.”
“Of course,” Hela smiled. “But there are times when the people fail to understand the deep meaning behind His Majesty’s will—just like the unfair treatment you are getting.”
“But I’m content with my current position as it is now.”
Anya’s words were sincere, and Hela was well aware of her sincerity.
“I know you are, but it is a clear fact that you should be treated much better considering the contribution you made regardless of whether you’re satisfied with it or not.”
“I’m satisfied as long as I can be His Majesty’s sword. It doesn’t matter if His Majesty decides to cut humans or rotten meat with that sword.”
“The same is true for me, Anya,” Hela answered carefully “But I do not want to be a sword that attacks its owner, even if that’s what the owner wants.”
“Of course that’s
”
Anya was about to answer with a frown, but she closed her mouth.
Hela remained silent for a moment while stirring the tea inside her cup. The sound of the stirrer scratching the side of the cup was the only thing heard amidst the silence for a while.
“I don’t think His Majesty will make the wrong choice. But that doesn’t mean His Majesty will make a choice that is favorable to himself. What if His Majesty ends up sacrificing himself to save someone?”
“It’s something that won’t happen, but it’s also something that should never happen.”
“But what if it must happen in the end?”
“Then I will sacrifice my life for His Majesty’s life,” Anya tapped her chest.
There was no hesitation in her answer, but Hela shook her head.
“I’m not saying that you should sacrifice yourself for His Majesty. I’m saying that we should be sprinkling flowers on the path His Majesty chooses to walk on, even if His Majesty says that he will step up to walk on a muddy mess. Or we can even throw ourselves to let him step on us instead.”
“I would be more than happy to do so.”
Hela stared at Anya in silence. Hela hadn’t known Anya for a long time, but her loyalty and capability seemed unquestionable. Above all, the fear that residents of Torra had toward her was good enough.
After considering all this, Hela opened her mouth.
“You must already know about what His Majesty did in the meeting at the House of Peers.”
“I heard that His Majesty killed one of the useless bastards.”
“Yes, and that only happened because it was necessary.”
Anya looked at Hela for a moment and nodded.
“If they can’t be truly loyal in their lifetime, they might become loyal in the afterlife.”
***
Juan shook off the melted rock fragments that were glowing red and climbed up the stairs. His armor which was made up of Kelegrenon’s bones remained a pristine white color without the slightest bit of soot.
Sina and Haild stepped away from Juan with a fed-up look due to the terrible heat emanating from Juan.
Juan had stopped emanating heat from his body a long time ago, but his heated armor was still giving off an intense amount of heat.
“How are the Saintess and the Captain of the Imperial Guards doing?” Juan asked.
“The Saintess has fainted and the Captain of the Imperial Guards took her to a Priest,” Haild answered.
“Hmm. I did overwork her body, but I didn’t think it was to the extent of fainting
 I guess I’ll have to postpone my conversation with her.”
Sina looked down at the stairs where Juan walked out from. Intense heat was also pouring out from the stairs connecting the Imperial Palace and the underground structure.
“What did you do down there?” Sina asked.
“I crushed it to make sure it can never be used again. I completely melted it and turned it into a rock so that it can’t be restored. Now, the well water in the Imperial Palace will be hot for a while,” Juan answered.
“Was it okay to do that? I think we should have looked more closely into it.”
“I completely understood the structure itself. Now that I know the purpose of the structure and how to use it, I can figure out any other similar structures. I’ve also seen enough of the rest of the traces. That’s good enough.”
Sina nodded, since there was no one here who was more knowledgeable than Juan when it came to magic.
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“Then what are you going to do now?”
Juan seemed to contemplate for a while, then soon nodded his head.
“I have changed my mind. Let’s go visit the Saintess.”
“The Saintess? But she is unconscious at the moment and
”
“I can still find out about her constitution even if she’s unconscious. I also have something to ask the Captain of the Imperial Guards. Oh, Sina. Go and answer Hela’s questions, since she will definitely ask what the hell happened in the underground structure. Haild, you come with me.”
Haild and Sina were perplexed by the different orders given to them.
At that moment, Sina saw Hela approaching them from a distance.
In the meantime, Juan quickly headed to the place where he could feel the Saintess’ presence.
***
The place Juan visited was quite familiar to him—it was the living quarters for the members of the Imperial Guards. Juan recalled the appearance of this place from a long time ago.
Winoa Weaver, the former Captain of the Imperial Guards, had never neglected his duty even though he mocked himself by saying that his position was the funniest and most useless position in the empire. The same was true of Winoa Weaver’s subordinates.
The members of the Imperial Guards were also the ones who had been fighting next to Juan for the longest time among Juan’s army. Everything they learned was taught by Juan, including how to properly wield a sword. Most of them were refugees and from the lower classes, but they were more proud of themselves than anyone else.
But now, all that remained in the Imperial Guard’s living quarters was an empty silence. Juan had heard that there were still a few members of the Imperial Guards including Lenly Loen. However, their actual duty was no different from that of a janitor or a corpse cleaner.
When Juan returned to the Imperial Palace, only the corpses of the Imperial Guards who had long been killed were found. It seemed like they had been murdered while fighting against the Pope to protect the emperor’s body from being taken away when the Pope invaded the Imperial Palace without permission.
There was no face that Juan could recognize, and the only one who survived in the end was Lenly Loen.
“Your Majesty.”
Lenly stood up from his seat as soon as Juan entered. In front of him was Ivy lying in bed with a pale face. She didn’t seem to be in a good condition, but was still breathing.
“How is she doing?” Juan asked.
“She is suffering from muscle pain and exhaustion, but she is fine other than that,” Lenly answered in a quiet voice.
“Then she should get better once she recuperates for a while. She will recover faster by taking a simple rest than getting treated by a healing Grace, so let’s do that. Meanwhile, I want to briefly examine the Saintess’ physical condition,” Juan nodded.
“Her physical condition?”
“Yes. To find out about how she was able to recite those prophecies about me.”
Lenly nodded upon hearing Juan’s words.
Any ordinary fanatic would say that His Majesty’s will affected some special people, but Juan did not believe in such things. He believed that there must be a reason why only the Saintess, who didn’t even have any connection to him, was able to make prophecies about him. Furthermore, Ivy was even preventing Juan from transferring his spirit into his original body.
‘I do want to know if killing the Saintess would allow me to transfer my spirit back into my original body, but
’
But that was difficult to do since he had already built a relationship with the Saintess and the Saintess was quite close to Lenly Loen. Above all, the Saintess was innocent and had not committed any sins.
When Lenly took a step back, Juan grabbed Ivy’s wrist. Her wrist was so thin and pale that it seemed like it could break at any moment. Juan wondered how such a weak woman was able to last a week in that underground structure.
Juan felt apologetic toward her, but he put aside his feelings for now and quietly scanned her soul.
After scanning through Ivy’s soul, Juan tilted his head.
“Huh?”
“Is there any problem, Your Majesty?” Lenly asked in a slightly impatient voice.
Juan could feel that Lenly’s voice was full of concern for Ivy.
“No, it’s not like that. Just give me a minute.”
Juan looked through Ivy’s soul once again just in case he was mistaken. He took a closer look this time, but the result was the same.
Then, Juan put down Ivy’s wrist in confusion.
‘There’s signs of another spirit transfer.’
Ivy was an ordinary human, both physically and mentally. Her constitution was so ordinary that it was a shame to call her a Saintess. Such was only natural for all the Saintesses as they were nothing but the Pope’s puppets, but the traces left in her soul were different.
Every time a spirit transfer was performed, some traces were inevitably left behind in one’s soul. But Ivy had more than one trace besides the traces from Juan’s spirit transfers.
‘That means that the prophecies that she made so far were
’
This meant that someone else had also made prophecies through Ivy’s body, just like Juan had.
Juan had initially thought that his several transfers might have added some extra traces, but the more he checked, the more his suspicions became clear.
‘But who would do such a thing?’
Spirit transfer had the highest level of difficulty in magic and very few were able to perform it. Juan suspected Dane for a moment. Spirit transfer was not something Dane specialized in, but there were enough reasons to doubt him. Yet there were too many discrepancies between the Saintess’ prophecy and Dane’s actions.
‘I don’t know who it was, but they tried to use the Church.’
Juan decided to find and meet other surviving Saintesses for now. It would have been nice to have been able to confirm why he couldn’t transfer his spirit into his original body, but that continued to remain a mystery. But the suspicion about someone else leaving a trace in the Saintess’ soul, and that being related to the reason why he couldn’t transfer his spirit into his original body was reasonable.
Upon seeing Juan take his hand off of Ivy’s wrist, Lenly opened his mouth.
“Are you done, Your Majesty?”
“Yes,” Juan let out a long sigh.
In the end, he failed to find out about his original body once again.
“I want to meet other surviving Saintesses too. If you don’t mind, I would like you to find out the whereabouts of the former Saintesses.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, I will look into it.”
“Oh, also.”
Juan reached his hand out and placed it before Lenly’s eyes.
Lenly flinched as he felt the heat from Juan’s hand.
“Do you usually train your senses? You were able to move around without any problems considering that your eyes were injured pretty badly.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I tend to train my senses on a regular basis. And my eyes aren’t completely destroyed, so I can still roughly see the outlines of things. I think it will heal if a healing Grace is used.”
“Let me help you a little bit.”