She had proposed using the Saintess to the Emperor and Lucian, and she planned to use her too, but if the Saintess harbored ill intentions, that would be different.

“If you tried to use divine prophecy as an excuse to aim for the position of Crown Princess, threaten the imperial family’s safety, say anything harmful to the Empire, or try to ruin my plans for the original story’s happiness, you wouldn’t have left this place.”

Even the cruel Emperor hesitated to kill the Saintess because of the aftermath. But Adelia was ready to bear anything for the happiness of the original story.

Although she might have to give up her perfect revenge, the happiness of the original story was always most important.

Feeling Adelia’s sincerity and killing intent in her words, the Saintess wrapped her arms around herself.

“You were planning to kill me?”

“I said ‘if.’ You won’t die. Our goals overlap to some extent.”

She hadn’t expected much from the Saintess from the start. Someone who wanted the original story’s happiness. That was enough.

Of course, the Saintess still gave Adelia distrustful looks. It was natural not to easily trust someone who had bound her limbs and gagged her.

“And I did some investigation about you.”

“Investigation?”

“You’re surprisingly good at playing Saintess, huh? I heard you regularly do volunteer work, increased the budget for helping the poor, and are establishing new systems for the Holy Kingdom.”

The Saintess wasn’t just a nominal position, being as rare as she was. She was a true power holder with more authority than the Pope. When a Saintess appeared, the Pope’s influence actually decreased.

Since the Holy Kingdom’s income came mostly from donations, the budget was used transparently. The final decisions were naturally the Saintess’s responsibility.

Adelia had investigated the Saintess’s actions by comparing before and after her appearance.

For someone who claimed to have gone there just to survive, there were no problems with state administration. Rather, since the Saintess’s appearance, the Holy Kingdom was receiving more praise from people than before.

“I have to do what needs to be done as a saintess. Even though I came to this position running away from my terrible home, I won’t abandon my duties.”

Originally, the saintess’s main duties were healing people and purifying contaminated land. But since the current saintess wasn’t real, she couldn’t do those things.

She prevented disasters by pretending to have foresight and did her best at what she could do.

Compared to the priests who only knew about God, she had various experiences from her previous life and had lived a worldly life, so she had a more realistic perspective. Thanks to this, the Holy Kingdom was gradually changing in a good direction.

Even from Adelia’s view, the Saintess was fulfilling her duties.

“I like that mindset. It’s the most ideal form I had in mind.”

“How much of a trash did you think I was?”

“I didn’t know since I hadn’t met you. But now I can see you’re quite a decent person.”

She was very pleased with how the Saintess didn’t abandon her duties and maintained her dignity even in this situation. Adelia cleared away the other contracts, leaving only the first contract she had taken out.

“Read this. I’ve written down what I want and what you need.”

“Hmm……”

The Saintess picked up the contract with suspicious eyes.

The contract was quite thick and took a long time to read.

The Saintess read the document carefully in case there was any strange content. During that time, Adelia leisurely drank tea and finished the snacks placed in front of her.

Unlike the tension-filled Saintess, Adelia showed no signs of unease. Making ‘mmm’ sounds while savoring her tea, she couldn’t have been more relaxed.

The Saintess checked the contract until the very end, perhaps wanting to make up for her initial mistake of underestimating Adelia.

“Will you really lend me your power to make me appear as the real Saintess? How?”

“You can handle holy power, right? I’ll give you refined white magic stones, and you can use those.”

“How will you expand the exchange between the Holy Kingdom and the Empire?”

“Let’s start with trade between our guild first. The Holy Kingdom claims to be self-sufficient, but there are limits. As we trade, other forms of exchange will naturally increase.”

“Then what benefit do you get?”

“Everything I need is written in the back pages.”

Adelia tapped the back pages of the contract.

The contract consisted of two pages total—the front page summarizing the benefits exchanged between the Saintess and the Empire, and the back page containing the contract between the Saintess and Adelia.

While the first page was mainly filled with content the Emperor and Lucian wanted, mostly benefits for the Empire, the back page was a fairly equal trade.

Half of the contract content was about the play they would perform at today’s banquet.

“Do we really have to do such troublesome things?”

“Don’t you need this too? It explains why you couldn’t use the Saintess’s power at first. Of course, I need it too.”

Adelia’s plan was this:

To completely sever the connection between Adelia and the Guild Master being the same person, she needed to show that Adelia wasn’t a white mage.

Since white magic was publicly known as magic, she thought no one would suspect her of being a white mage if she became someone associated with holy power.

“Isn’t it a good setting that God accidentally didn’t give power when sending the Saintess, so I was sent as the medium?”

“That’s cringy. This isn’t a novel……”

“Seems you forgot, but we’re transmigrators. This is actually the world of a novel.”

“Tch….. So I just need to say what’s written here as a divine prophecy?”

“That’s obviously necessary. Convincing the priests is your job.”

[Due to humans’ negative emotions, the Saintess’s power was locked away, so a key is needed. When the Saintess meets the key, she will finally become the true Saintess. There is a sea around the brilliant blessing, and the pearl there is the key. Find the powerful key.]

They created a fake prophecy based on previous prophecies.

It was a prophecy that mixed appropriate metaphorical expressions, wasn’t too obvious, but clearly pointed to Adelia.

The Saintess read the prophecy she had written and tilted her head.

“Who made this? The brilliant blessing seems to refer to the imperial family….. but what’s with the sea and pearl?”

“Someone said my eyes are like the sea and my hair is like pearls.”

“Well….. I guess so.”

The Saintess stared at Adelia with narrowed eyes.

Eyes like the sea, hair like pearls. It was a common metaphor, but looking at Adelia made any desire to mock disappear.

Her eyes set in her snow-white face shone as refreshingly as if the sea itself had been transplanted there, and her glossy hair was silver like pearls. Plus, the beauty that made everything plausible.

Even more elaborate praise would have been believable.

‘This is a bit embarrassing…..’

Adelia sipped her tea while avoiding the Saintess’s gaze. The meaning in that staring gaze was obvious without looking.

Even she thought it was a rather self-absorbed prophecy.

‘It’s not like I made it alone…..’

Adelia was only good at writing things like documents and reports, but terrible at such metaphorical expressions.

This prophecy was created together when she told her plans to the Emperor and Lucian. Though they based it on other prophecies they had researched in advance, the biggest issue was how to express Adelia.

They needed expressions that pointed to Adelia without being too obvious or too vague.

While Adelia was struggling, Lucian chimed in.

— How about this? There is a sea around the brilliant blessing, and the pearl there is the key.

— Um….. What’s the sea and what’s the pearl?

— Your eyes resemble the sea, and your silver hair shines like pearls.

‘Even thinking about it again strains my heart.’

Though Lucian probably said it without any special meaning, Adelia clutched her heart watching him.

To say such things so calmly with his stoic face while they were having a serious discussion…

“Guilty human……”

This was Lucian’s fault even if she fell completely for it. Fortunately, Adelia, whose standards had risen while staying in the imperial palace, barely managed to maintain her reason.

When Adelia unconsciously muttered quietly, the Saintess, who had been focusing on the contract, raised her head with many question marks on her face.

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Nothing. Anyway, have you finished reading the contract?”

“Well….. I have, but I’m curious about something.”

“What is it?”

Adelia gestured with her chin as if saying to ask anything.

“I understand pretending to get the Saintess’s power. But why do you need this play?”

It was quite a sharp question. There were better ways to establish connections with the Holy Kingdom, and there seemed to be nothing for Adelia to gain for it to be for the Saintess’s sake.

Adelia closed her mouth to choose her words. Only after deciding the Saintess didn’t need to know the detailed circumstances did she open her mouth.

“Just know that I need to completely sever the connection between Adelia and the white mage.”

“Well….. fine.”

Though the Saintess found something suspicious, she didn’t ask further. When Adelia, who had been freely sharing other stories, held back her words, it seemed like something she shouldn’t know.