“El?”

Snow sensed something strange and called El’s name. But there was no answer. Snow raised her head.

El was looking at Snow. But his expression was so unfamiliar to Snow. It was a face she had never seen on anyone before. A face that looked like he might cry, or might smile as usual, or like he was desperately wanting something from her.

Snow unconsciously held her breath. Strangely, her heart was pounding.

At that moment, they heard footsteps coming into the alley from outside. It was High Priest Verdus. Elios released his hold on Snow.

“Have you properly said your goodbyes?”

High Priest Verdus asked. Snow and Elios stood slightly apart from each other and said nothing. Behind High Priest Verdus appeared the girl and the two men.

In the end, they had to part without having a chance to properly say goodbye. Even though High Priest Verdus had turned a blind eye to their meeting, they couldn’t openly promise another meeting in front of him.

Elios could only watch with a hollow expression as Snow left with him. High Priest Verdus had apparently come here on horseback, just as Elios and Snow had. He procured a carriage, tied up the horse he had ridden, then loaded Snow and the girl into the carriage. Before Elios could say anything, the priest gave a respectful formal bow and departed. Everything happened so quickly that Elios lost Snow in the blink of an eye.

After she flowed away from his hands like grains of sand, his reason returned. The two men stood before him with bowed heads, awaiting his command. They were knights from the Astal Order.

He had thought he needed guards because he felt uneasy about going out alone with Snow. Whether considering her identity or his own status. And if he needed someone who would fully obey his commands, someone who wouldn’t betray him, then knights who had sworn loyalty to Elios were most suitable. Elios had chosen two knights from the Astal Order.

“I need an explanation.”

“Ask us, Your Highness.”

“Was that priest truly there by coincidence at the moment when the miracle occurred at Oblivion?”

Something seemed off. He didn’t think the priest would have forgotten the face of the first prince to whom he had personally given his blessing. Yet he treated Elios like someone he was meeting for the first time. Moreover, it was hard to imagine that he, as a priest who always strives to maintain peace of mind in service to the divine, would have any reason to hurry to Oblivion on horseback.

Decisively, the horse that High Priest Verdus was handling didn’t seem to be his own. It was evident that the horse had been handled by someone other than him. He might have borrowed someone else’s horse, or perhaps hastily stolen it on the spot.

“No, Your Highness. The High Priest was following the two of you.”

The answer was somewhat as expected.

The two knights had been waiting for Elios to appear around Oblivion. But shortly after Elios’s horse appeared, that priest, Verdus, arrived at the same place on another horse with a slight time difference.

The two knights hadn’t recognized Verdus as a priest of Amir since he wasn’t wearing priestly robes. They just found it a bit strange that someone who could ride a horse, likely a nobleman, would be heading to Oblivion, which was mainly used by commoners.

However, it didn’t take long for the knights to sense something suspicious about High Priest Verdus. Verdus neither met any patients he knew inside Oblivion nor sought treatment himself. He was merely quietly observing Snow and Elios.

The knights exchanged glances and slowly, silently approached the priest. Just as the two knights were about to subdue him, High Priest Verdus, as if already aware of their approach, put his index finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture. And then the saint performed a miracle.

The two knights knelt before Elios.

“It was our fault. We should have noticed and subdued him before he entered Oblivion.”

No, it was the priest who was unusual, being so skilled at riding a horse. It was understandable that the two knights hadn’t suspected him at first. Oblivion was always overflowing with visitors. It was impossible to be wary of each one of them. Moreover….

“Though it was decades ago, High Priest Verdus was originally a knight.”

At Elios’s words, the two knights from the Astal Order looked somewhat surprised. That meant he had devoted himself to the divine after becoming an adult. It was hard to believe that he had risen to the position of High Priest despite becoming a priest at a late age. Then again, the determination of priestly positions serving the goddess Amir was peculiar beyond compare; even the current Ceres had risen directly from an ordinary priest to above all priests at a very young age.

Actually, such matters weren’t very important to the current situation. If Verdus had been a knight, it made some sense that Elios hadn’t noticed being followed at all. He would have followed his lord while suppressing his sound, maintaining a safe distance to avoid detection, and staying as calm as possible.

Elios realized why he had been able to reach the Santarium so easily every time.

Even if no one in the empire would dare harm the saint, and even if the temple had more defensive vulnerabilities compared to the imperial palace due to various considerations, the Santarium was the saint’s residence. It couldn’t possibly be without sentries keeping watch through the night.

Yet Elios had met Snow without difficulty and had even been able to take her out. He could try to rationalize that once when he was young he had been lucky, and when he first met her at eighteen, the weather had been so terrible that most of the sentries had gone inside the building.

There hadn’t been a complete absence of obstacles in sneaking into the Santarium. Even today, he had to hide several times to avoid encountering other priests, or pretend to be an ordinary person who had entered the Santarium and gotten lost. But still, it had been too easy.

He had pushed aside thoughts about whether it was acceptable for the saint’s surroundings to be so lax, being preoccupied with meeting Snow. He now realized that someone high up in the temple had been turning a blind eye to his meetings with Snow.

Could it be High Priest Verdus? No. No matter how much of a High Priest he was, he wouldn’t have the authority to withdraw the guards protecting the Santarium. There was only one person in the temple who could withdraw the Santarium’s guards and assign a High Priest to follow Snow.

‘Ceres Martadia knows about our meetings.’

Elios concluded.

♣ ♣ ♣

The saint had performed a miracle.

Those who witnessed the moment of the miracle with their own eyes said that her gentle smile was like the goddess statue enshrined in the temple had been brought to life, causing everyone to prostrate themselves before her, and her voice spread gently through the narrow, dry space with a distant resonance like an angel’s song. They didn’t fail to mention that her tears rose and circled around her as soon as they fell to the ground, and an otherworldly sweet fragrance vibrated throughout the entire building.

The perception of Saint Bernadette had changed. Until just recently, she had been like a loftily shining star that one shouldn’t even dare to think of looking up at, much like the emperor of the empire. But that very star had descended to the world and personally cared for the sick with her own two hands. She had opened a path for not only the noble but also the lowly and humble to reach her.

The number of people wanting to see the saint even once grew exponentially, and the temple changed its worship ceremony from once every ten days to once every five days. This allowed more people to see the saint’s face.

♣ ♣ ♣

“Watch out!”

“…!”

Elios inhaled sharply and opened his eyes wide. The practice sword that had been lunging toward him stopped precariously right between his eyebrows.

“Your Highness!”

Lord Callisto shouted as he withdrew the training sword that had been pointed at Elios’s face. Elios shook his head vigorously and replied.

“I made a mistake. I was thinking about something else for a moment. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Callisto stared at his young lord for a while without saying anything. Elios was still unable to concentrate on training.

“Let’s end here for today.”

Lord Callisto said. Elios was about to say he could continue, but recognizing his own state, he lowered the practice sword that had been pointed at his mentor.

For the past few days, Elios had not been able to properly concentrate on either sword training or the Grand Duke’s lectures on governance. The frequency of his blank stares had increased, and though his father, the emperor, had scolded him for it, he couldn’t even remember what was said because he had been lost in other thoughts.

It was almost a month since he had last seen Snow, being led away in a carriage by High Priest Verdus. During that time, time had flowed like an arrow, and it was now approaching mid-February.

Having learned that Ceres had been turning a blind eye to their meetings all along, he couldn’t rashly go to meet Snow. If Ceres were to try to use this politically, the situation would become very troublesome.

Snow is a saint dedicated to the divine. For a saint to have private meetings with an outside man. Moreover, for that person to be a prince with the surname Akelan. It could be a great disgrace to both the saint and the prince.

Elios knew this fact but couldn’t stop. He had never properly thought about the practical issue of whether he could take her as his empress or concubine. He just purely liked her.

How could he have been so naive? Both Elios and Snow were people bound to their positions. Although emotions don’t always go as people wish, Elios should have been more careful.

This incident made him properly think about what it meant that he had taken the saint into his heart. Could he be satisfied just looking at Snow for the rest of his life? When he eventually ascends to the throne as emperor and selects a woman from a powerful family to become his empress. Then, could he occasionally visit the temple and look at Snow standing in her position as saint without any emotion? Could he completely let go of his lingering feelings for her?

No.

He couldn’t.