The Emperor showed an unexpected reaction to Adelia’s words. He raised his eyebrows, blinked, and made a small sound of “Oh.”

“I thought it would take quite some time, but it seems not.”

“I believe I said I would see you tomorrow morning. I don’t say one thing and do another. Gina, could you bring that?”

As Adelia reached back with her hand, Gina handed over the book she had been carrying. Adelia held it with both hands, showing the cover clearly, and smiled arrogantly as if boasting.

“That book is evi… Well, sit down first. Everyone else, you may leave. I’ll call you again later, so prepare the documents I mentioned.”

The Emperor trailed off and closed his mouth. He sat up straight. He lowered the glasses he was wearing, rubbed the bridge of his nose with both hands, then put his glasses back on before continuing.

At the Emperor’s command, they bowed politely and left the room. They didn’t forget to greet Lucian and Adelia as well.

Adelia’s lips curled up slightly at their courteous attitude.

“Everyone out.”

Once his people had left, the Emperor returned to his usual sensitive state. At his sharp words, the court officials left the room without a moment’s hesitation.

Adelia initially thought they were quick when she gave orders, but at the Emperor’s command, they acted as if they would die if they disobeyed.

With everyone gone, only the three of them remained in the empty room.

Adelia took a seat to the left of the Emperor, who was sitting in the highest seat, and Lucian sat in his original seat next to her.

“I’ll prepare first.”

“Go ahead.”

After asking the Emperor’s permission, Adelia enveloped the entire room with the same defensive magic as before. While the story of their contract marriage had been leaked to a few close confidants, it was better to keep the story of the saintess completely secret.

For the people of the empire, faith was like conscience. Something held in a corner of the heart, sometimes forgotten, sometimes prioritized over other things.

It was also faith that led them to believe that while one might keep their mouth shut in front of people, it was natural to become loose-lipped before God. There was a possibility that, entranced by faith, secrets might be leaked somewhere, so it was right for the three of them, who held no such faith, to talk.

Adelia nodded to the Emperor, signaling that the isolation from the outside was complete.

“So this book is the evidence you mentioned?”

“To be precise, it’s one of the pieces of evidence.”

Adelia flipped through the book she had brought and opened it to the passage she had found in advance. Everyone watched quietly as the pages fluttered by. She found the page and pushed the book between the Emperor and the Crown Prince for easy reading.

“From here to here is the evidence.”

Adelia tapped the book with her hand. Lucian, who had been looking down reading the text, raised his head with narrowed eyes and a wrinkled nose. The Emperor was also frowning, wondering what kind of evidence this was.

Adelia, as though she had expected this, spoke up before any sharp criticism could come in.

“Think about it carefully. The warm golden aura, the statement about not getting wounded. Doesn’t it sound familiar?”

A moment of silence fell. The Emperor and Lucian simultaneously frowned and looked back at the book Adelia had opened.

Thinking that the power of the saintess and white magic were the same, it was a paragraph without a single wrong word.

Adelia looked at them straight on. Her unwavering, upright gaze was enough to inspire trust. Lucian furrowed his brow and met Adelia’s gaze.

“Are you saying that the power of the saintess is white magic?”

“Yes, that’s right. Some white mages lived hiding their identities, living as these beings called saintesses.”

Adelia presented a few more pieces of evidence she had found. She calmly explained the similarities between saintesses and white mages while flipping through the book.

It was only when she had almost exhausted her prepared material that the confused looks disappeared from the Emperor and Crown Prince’s faces.

The evidence Adelia presented was all so valid that it couldn’t be denied. If there was a problem, it was that all the evidence originated from books, making it difficult to convince everyone.

For everyone to understand that the saintess was fake, it would be best for Adelia to demonstrate the power of the saintess.

“Then can you use the power of the saintess?”

“Of course.”

Adelia fidgeted for a moment, then created a new silver crystal like the one she had made earlier. She placed it on the table with a thud.

“What is… this?”

“This is a crystal made by extracting only the healing and purification abilities from white magic. It looks like a pearl, doesn’t it?”

“Just a moment, the saintess’s symbol, the pearl necklace, wasn’t actually pearls?”

“It’s probably an item made by weaving these together. If they used white magic directly, it would reveal that they’re a white mage, and extracting the ability each time would be slow and cumbersome. By making it into a crystal form like this, they can use it immediately.”

Adelia said she would demonstrate the power herself and tightly grasped the crystal in one hand.

There were no injured people here, but there was an injured chair. The Emperor’s chair, which was replaced once a day, had its armrest crushed again today.

Conveniently, the left armrest was terribly broken. Adelia placed her hand on it and used her power.

Unlike the dazzling golden white magic, a silver aura that felt holy swirled around her hand. The crystal held in her other hand gradually became smaller as she used more power.

After a moment, the armrest completely regained its original form. The residual energy swirled around the Emperor. The Emperor reached out and touched the residue. The sensation he felt on his fingertips was different from white magic.

The Emperor spoke with certainty.

“It’s clear that you possess the saintess’s power, so the person currently in the position of saintess is indeed a fake.”

“Because there’s only one white mage in the world.”

This confirmed it. The saintess was definitely fake. The question was why she was pretending to be the saintess, but that could only be answered by asking her directly.

Adelia let out a sigh of relief. Her worry about being asked about the essence of the power if they delved deeper was unnecessary. The imperial family wasn’t interested in the secrets of the world. They didn’t care unless there was a possibility of being harmed by that secret.

While Adelia was feeling relieved that they accepted it more easily than expected, the Emperor muttered softly.

“No wonder. The rumor that the current saintess’s abilities were different from previous generations of saintesses was true.”

“Do you know something? I was just wondering how she became a saintess without any abilities.”

Adelia didn’t miss this and pressed for more information. Unlike them who were uninterested in the world, she was very interested in worldly affairs. Especially regarding the saintess, the more information, the better.

The Emperor looked at Adelia with narrowed eyes. He seemed to hesitate for a very brief moment before speaking.

“The Holy Kingdom is so closed off that there’s little information. The accuracy is low too.”

“I know that.”

“This is information we obtained before the saintess appeared. A girl came claiming she knew the future.”

“The future?”

Adelia’s eyes widened in surprise.

The future? Even magic that could solve everything didn’t have anything related to time. Reversing, slowing, or accelerating time was the realm of gods.

Saying one knew the future meant encroaching on the divine realm, which could be interpreted as being close to a god.

“Her hair color was the same as the current saintess, so I guess it might be the same person. And a few days later, they announced that the saintess had appeared.”

“Ah… So does that mean the divine revelation they received at the temple was about the future?”

“It might be. Don’t be too sure since it’s not accurate.”

The Emperor gestured dismissively. The number of shadows sent to the Holy Kingdom was very small, and no one could access such high-level information. Although they somehow obtained this information, it was nothing more than unconfirmable gossip.

Adelia couldn’t easily dismiss it. Her unwavering eyes sank coldly.

‘It’s not that she knows the future, but that she knows the original story.’

This confirmed the hypothesis that the saintess was a transmigrator.

“Now that we’re certain the saintess is fake, what do you plan to do?”

Adelia asked the Emperor.

With the evidence, they could either expose the saintess or keep her in place and use her. Although she left the choice to them, Adelia had her own preference.

As the Crown Princess and the Master of the Eileen Merchant Guild, it would be more beneficial to use the saintess like a puppet.

It was an excellent opportunity to expand the empire’s influence to the closed-off Holy Kingdom and broaden the guild’s reach.

“It’s better to blackmail than reveal the truth.”

The Emperor’s thoughts weren’t much different from Adelia’s. Normally, he would prefer to bring her down and kill her, but their opponent was not ordinary.

Even if she was fake, she was still the saintess for now. A saintess known and believed by the whole country.

If they revealed that she was a fake saintess, the entire continent would fall into chaos.

The prestige of the Holy Kingdom, which had installed a fake saintess, would naturally fall, and the reputation of the empire, where the fake saintess came from, would fall as well. Moreover, the betrayal that the empire’s people who believed in the saintess would feel is indescribable.

Even if it was troublesome, blackmailing and persuading her to use her would be less burdensome.