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“Do you recognize who it is?”
The Empress said to Anais. Anais scratched the magic tool hanging around her neck with her fingertips, but it was useless.
“It’s the High Priest of the Goddess Julias.”
Goddess Julias was the god of healing, and the master of the temple where Saintess Lilith lived.
Anais knew that the original story was wrong. In the original work, the overarching plot never changed for Kylian, but for the other main characters, it did change.
Just as Lewarren, who became a petty thief in the back alley, was meant to go to the temple later, but he should have entered the temple earlier.
As soon as Lilith was born, she received an oracle that she was a saintess and was raised in the temple. The fact that she was kidnapped and dragged around like a slave and then returned was also different from the original work.
“Release the bind over her voice.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Anais was horrified by the Empress smiling at her. Because she couldn’t figure out why the Empress had bought the High Priest.
Eventually, when Captain Lacey released the magic tool from Anais’s neck, her voice was freed.
Anais touched the spot where the magic tool had been with her hand. She didn’t know it, but it left a red mark on the spot. She unconsciously touched it with her hand and lowered her hand due to the soreness.
Kylian looked unconsciously at Anais’s movement. Suddenly, the thought of the scars left on her body made him feel bad.
“Take off those restraints too.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
It was the knights who brought him. The knights released all of the restraints of High Priest Raviel with Captain Lacey’s gesture.
“Huuuh
!”
In an instant, the restraints all over his body were released one after another. They didn’t take it off slowly, nor did they take it off gently. Maybe that’s why he was groaning in pain.
“Greet Her Majesty.”
“Let go!”
Captain Lacey pressed down his foot on High Priest Raviel’s back.
“Ack!”
Then, as he knelt down, his face fell flat to the floor.
“Greet Her Majesty.”
“I told you it hurts!”
“Greet. Her.”
“Ugh
!”
The captain violently pushed him down and then looked at Kylian. Kylian wasn’t interested in that at all. Why the hell did his wife ask him to get the high priest, he didn’t even know.
“Oh, bring that too.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
It was not impossible to know who the Empress was talking about, but Anais did not know how this ominous situation had come about, so she continued to look around.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, Your Majesty.”
“What are you thinking?”
“My best friend, Lilith, seems to be dissatisfied with needing the vitality of the sacrifice I bought.”
“It is not, Wife.”
Kylian looked straight at the Empress’s face. The Empress then stroked his cheek, finding him lovely. Kylian had a hard time thinking as he briefly lost his reason because she had touched him first.
“Your Majesty is the only one thinking so.”
“No. Who looks at my wife like that? Those people
.”
“The High Priest of Death says that dedicating one person a year is enough for Goddess Julias is enough.”
“I see.”
“Let go! Let me go!”
Upon hearing the Empress’ words, High Priest Raviel turned white and shouted.
“Lady Anais! Aren’t you ashamed! How can you be so shameless!”
“Oh my.”
The Empress reacted slowly, perhaps finding it strange that he had called her Anais.
“It’s not me who is shameless, High Priest.”
“Lady Anais! What the hell are you living this life for! You are already dead!”
“Hahaha. Who’s talking?”
High Priest Raviel’s cracked voice sounded like he hadn’t been able to drink water for a while. Maybe that’s why his pitiful voice filled the audience room and disturbed the real Anais.
“What would a trash like you do living?”
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“Lady Anais!”
The Empress was really smiling. However, unlike her usual smile, she was smiling coldly this time.
“This is something I consulted with the High Priest of Death to avoid causing concern to His Majesty. That High Priest hid well like a worm.”
“Lady Anais!”
“Do you know how many paladins and priests have been sacrificed because of you?”
“That’s because of you, Lady Anais! If only I hadn’t tried to save you
!”
Kylian was confused because he did not know why the Empress was so hostile to High Priest Raviel. He wondered if it was because her memory came back and she only remembered the time when he cared for Lilith.
But he had no intention of stopping his wife. He regretted every time he arrogantly judged Anais and distanced himself from her.
The Anais he knew, his wife, often had different intentions from what was on the outside. Outwardly cold-blooded, like a villain who acts as the imperial family’s pawn.
But in reality, she was a person warmer than anyone else, and she was on the side of the weak more than anyone else. That’s why he had no intention of stopping her just because she acted like this. If, after wandering for a while, she would recall the old days when she found her place.
“Your subordinates die like that, but you run away to live.”
“That
!”
“You have no shame.”
“If only Lady Anais hadn’t been saved in the first place
!”
“Oh, are you cursing Her Majesty right now?”
“That, that
!”
High Priest Raviel looked pale as he looked at Kylian. Kylian then took his eyes off his wife for a second and looked at Raviel. Nothing was revealed in Kylian’s expression.
“Then do you think it would have been different for Lady Anais? You were just afraid!”
The Empress stopped her forced laughter and glared at him completely coldly as Raviel said that.
“With you, I can get the divine power of the best three bishops. Three best bishops can replace thirty intermediate priests. And if there are thirty intermediate priests, it’s a huge amount of divine power that can be combined with all the priests below it.”
“

.”
“If you had voluntarily cooperated in saving me, would all the priests of the Temple of Goddess Julias die like that?”
The Empress’s words were quite reasonable. However, it was wrong from the beginning. Why would someone else have to sacrifice in order to save one Anais? Anais, unable to understand the circumstances, looked at the Empress and then at the high priest.
“The saint’s divine power
.”
“I don’t want to use her anymore. Her body had become such a piece of garbage that she could not even recover anymore.”
“

.”
Even in this situation, Raviel lowered his head as his face blushed in shame. Feeling impudent in encouraging her to use Lilith’s divine power instead of his.
Raviel thought that the Emperor was wrong for trying to save Anais. But if he says it openly, he won’t be let go.
He could predict what the Empress would do to him. It was clear that she was trying to preserve her body by sucking out the divine power and vitality.
Rather than provoking Kylian, he thought it would be better to talk to the Empress, so he decided to stay that way. He initially wanted to persuade the Empress to accept her own death. However, the Empress who had just returned was acting like a different person from the Anais that he had known before.
Even if one were to wake up again, people had an inherent personality. Because it’s like the engraving in their soul.
“I don’t think the present Empress is the Anais I used to know.”
Raviel was suspicious of her identity based on her words, actions, and attitude toward him. The original Anais was not a person who could live while doing this.
That’s why he pointed out that part of her and said it. But now, Anais was acting as if nothing was wrong even though she had done countless unreasonable things. It was impossible unless there was someone else inside Anais’ shell. Before becoming the High Priest, Raviel had traveled around the battlefield with Anais.
“Oh, Lilith. Did you know that the High Priest would come here?”
“
No.”
“Then how can you say the same nonsense as if the two of you were in cahoots?”
The Empress asked Anais as if questioning her. Anais that became Lilith. She didn’t know how to act in this situation.
She knew that High Priest Raviel was a bad person. He was never one who became the High Priest for the sake of sacrifice as he seemed on the outside. He was someone who was only interested in preserving his own life, and he hadn’t helped when Lilith and Anais were kidnapped in the past.
Anais’ father, Duke Percival, was the one who begged Anais’ captors. On the other hand, when Lilith was kidnapped and disappeared, High Priest Raviel just stood by.
The temple had a lot of money. In particular, the temple of healing, the Temple of Goddess Julias, was in the surplus every year, unlike most temples that suffer from deficits. They even donated the surplus money to the imperial palace.
Even though the money the kidnappers threatened with the saintess’s life and demanded that they be given would have been only a small amount. The paladins were not allowed to move, and they did not negotiate with the kidnappers.
It was Kylian who saved Lilith. Because Anais cared for Lilith, Duke Percival provided the ransom money and allowed him to bait them.
“Your Majesty. Please allow me. Let me test that fake!”
Raviel shouted as if he was gambling. However, the gamble paid off. High Priest Raviel realized that the soul and body did not match when he saw the different colors of the light coming from Anais’s body and the light seen from her eyes.