<Episode 23>
"What did you talk about?"
The High Priestess asked me in a calm voice contrasting her sharp gaze.
[She's extremely angry. Furious that things didn't go her way, and that Dorothy acted on her own...... She thinks she needs to control her—wait, does she think Dorothy is her puppet? Why is she like that-]
Though her inner thoughts suggested otherwise.
"High Priestess! I, I came up with a way to approach the Emperor!"
I deliberately smiled brightly, speaking like a puppy wagging its tail for praise.
Staring at the High Priestess with very burdensome eyes was a bonus.
"A way? Is that why you requested the private audience?"
"Yes!"
"Did you perhaps uncover a weakness?"
"The Emperor has no such gaps...... No, I'm going to try to win his heart!"
"......What?"
A crack appeared on her smug face.
The frowning High Priestess was wordlessly telling me with her eyes, 'What nonsense is that?'
I pretended not to know, smiling shyly.
"Um, before, I ran into the Emperor at the Grand Temple."
I had deliberately not told the High Priestess about my first encounter with Theodore.
I only ever told her the 'necessary words' at each moment, based on my judgment.
"What? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Oh, you didn't know?"
"No."
"I thought you knew. There were so many eyes watching......"
She sighed, pressing her forehead at my shrinking voice.
'She really didn't know.'
Of course. Before the announcement, she must have kept my existence secret everywhere to maintain confidentiality.
Besides, my appearance wasn't memorable, so even witnesses wouldn't remember.
And during my entire conversation with Theodore, his terrifying aura kept everyone away.
'I was nervous, but it's a relief....... This method will work.'
This method was what I'd come up with after racking my brains on what lie to spin to the High Priestess when she asked what I'd done with Theodore.
A somewhat childish and hopeless method, but......
The 'I'll seduce the Emperor myself' operation!
From the High Priestess's perspective, it was something a commoner girl turned Saintess might think of, her greed growing with her gains.
No matter how I thought, nothing else fit.
The excuse I'd given the Marchioness—'I preached faith in God'—wouldn't work.
Taking the Emperor aside just to tell him to believe in God?
'The High Priestess doesn't want that from me...... It'll just make her dislike me.'
I couldn't lie about using divine powers to uncover a weakness and bargaining or threatening him.
The moment I said 'I uncovered and threatened with a weakness,' I'd have to tell her what it was.
Inventing a weakness is hard. Even if successful, I'd have to keep piling on lies to respond......
I lacked confidence for that.
So, better something childish.
"The day I came up from Demong, the Emperor I ran into at the Temple spoke to me."
"He probably did that to most women he encountered. He was looking for the Saintess, after all."
"But High Priestess. God said the Emperor showed interest in me."
"......Pardon?"
"Not suspicion—interest."
I grinned as I said it. Fall for it, fall for it. I chanted inwardly while watching the High Priestess.
I hadn't told her I couldn't use my powers before Theodore, so she had no way to know the 'God's' endorsement of his interest was fake. She'd surely believe it.
"......Really?"
Sure enough, the High Priestess's eyes shook violently.
Running into Theodore at the Temple without safeguards had been so scary then, but now it felt like heavenly luck.
No one else was there, so I could build it up as 'that happened then'!
"Yes, High Priestess. You know this power reveals everything! That's how I found your secret vault too—"
"Enough about that."
The surprised High Priestess quickly calmed at my ambush, shooting me a glare.
"So you took him out today? To check his feelings."
"Yes."
"And the result?"
"Hm...... His heart seemed a bit softened."
"Softened?"
The High Priestess looked at me like, 'What kind of expression is that?'
"If it's rigid, there's no flexibility. It has to be soft to fall for it! Isn't that what men are like?"
"Hm, that makes sense."
"His Majesty seems to have those feelings for me. Like he's starting to open his heart?"
"How can you be so sure?"
"During today's conversation. My name, age. Trivial things like hobbies and likes—it was all that."
"Trivial talk...... with the Emperor?"
Astonishment rose on her face. I nodded vigorously and continued.
"Yes. He listened to my stories without interrupting once. For that long time. If that's not interest, what is?"
['The Emperor...... didn't interrupt?']
Her inner voice and the look on her face as she stared at me speechlessly.
The High Priestess's shock was evident.
And rightly so. Theodore had no history of listening to anyone's words to the end, especially not trivial chatter.
It was already famous—no one had fully conversed with the Emperor at council meetings, noble gatherings, or banquets.
Theodore, unwilling to go down in history as a tyrant, endured only his mother's, Marquis Arland's, and the Marchioness's stories. Even then, he'd storm out at unpleasant words.
Well, I understood.
More support for the Temple, take an Empress......
Everyone harped on the two topics he hated most.
"......Then, Saintess. You made the Emperor."
The High Priestess swallowed hard.
"Melt?"
"I had no idea I'd be his type. But His Majesty seems to be just another man after all."
'Just another man.'
It was an explanation at the eye level of the High Priestess, practically the incarnation of desire burning with lust.
"Indeed......!"
Sure enough, flames of desire flickered in the High Priestess's eyes.
I could see the calculations whirring in her head.
'She fell for it.'
I sighed inwardly in relief.
I'd roughly averted the crisis.
What if this reached Theodore? No, if he accepted my alliance proposal, I'd have to tell him myself.
'......Scary.'
Would he try to kill me......?
Recalling the killing intent in his blue eyes sent shivers down my spine.
At the same time, I thought I needed to become even more invaluable to ride on the same boat as that terrifying man.
A scary person is reliable when they're on your side.
* * *
Emperor's chief aide Isaac kept his mouth firmly shut, rolling only his eyes.
One wrong gulp, and his lord might devour him.
Thus, Isaac didn't shift his posture once during the bumpy carriage ride back to the Imperial Palace.
Theodore, seated across from him, had his long legs crossed, gazing out the window.
The sculpture-like handsome man lost in thought looked unreal, as if carved by an artist.
Isaac admired his lord's beauty while inwardly grumbling, 'That face with that temper—such a mismatch.'
"Tch."
"Gasp."
As if reading Isaac's thoughts, Theodore clicked his tongue. Startled, Isaac inhaled sharply.
At the sound, Theodore turned to Isaac. Meeting his eyes in such moments never boded well.
Isaac thought, 'I shouldn't have breathed.'
"Why so startled, Isaac?"
"N-No. I was worried if something unpleasant happened."
"And that startled you?"
"While worrying, you clicked your tongue as if truly displeased, so I was surprised my guess was right......!"
"Doesn't add up."
Theodore frowned. Isaac wanted to cry. He couldn't admit jumping at the 'tch' while badmouthing him.
"Were you badmouthing me?"
"Pardon?! No, Your Majesty! How could I dare—"
"Then fine."
He terrified his subordinate to the brink, then casually ended the topic.
'My lord, but so infuriating.'
Unaware of Isaac's thoughts, Theodore was deep in thought.
It irked him.
That woman.
And himself, for letting her words shake his emotions so.
The Temple causing the plague wasn't surprising. The Temple he knew was capable of such madness.
But it was baseless hearsay without evidence. And from the Temple's own Saintess, no less.
How could he believe it?
Yet he was wondering 'what if.'
This displeasure was intense.
Even when he'd sent Isaac to scout the Saintess's reappearance announcement and realized he'd missed her right before his eyes, it hadn't irked him this much.
'I was pretty angry then too.'
Then she won the people's hearts with relief efforts and elevated the Temple's status. Her mere existence grated on him.
And what was that earlier?
In that hostile atmosphere, she pulled him out at a timing like saving him......
'You're curious, aren't you?'
'What?'
'That's why you granted my private audience, right? Besides, a Saintess wanting to dismantle the Maelta Church. How intriguing? Isn't it too entertaining?'
Curious?
'Really. Outrageous......'
Yes, of course he was.
The suddenly appearing Saintess. The one who'd deceived him. She'd declared and executed relief efforts alone—something the High Priestess wouldn't dare—clearly outmaneuvering her.
And today, the woman who'd looked terrified upon seeing him,
Requested a private audience?
Of course he'd be curious.
'Strange woman.'
Theodore sighed deeply. His insides boiled.
Perhaps his irritation stemmed from not being able to read the Saintess.
Usually, he saw right through people, but her......
'Can't read her at all.'
Thoughts of the Saintess kept swirling in his mind.
