Ikanel immediately recognized that the person standing before him was Saint Bernadette, whom the temple cherished so dearly. As Emperor, he had attended her coming-of-age ceremony and occasionally seen her bestowing blessings and reciting prayers during worship ceremonies.

However, beyond recognizing who the woman standing before him was, he couldn’t understand anything else. How was the Saint, who had refused meetings claiming poor health, now standing before him? How had she reached the Emperor after breaking through all the palace security, in a situation where not a single window was open? If he hadn’t seen wrong, hadn’t she emerged from a small piece of ice? Was this also some kind of miracle performed as a Saint?

And why did she greet him as if she had known him for a long time?

“Saint Bernadette.”

Ikanel called the Saint’s name with great caution. The Saint gazed at him with a calm, unwavering face. But a fierce whirlwind began to swirl around her. The papers on the desk flew in the wind, and the office instantly became a mess.

“Despite all my requests for a meeting, you didn’t even send a handwritten letter, yet how have you come to visit so abruptly without any proper procedure?”

Ikanel kept his guard up while trying to maintain a calm voice. His eyes scanned the office to locate his sword. It was placed on the wall behind the Saint. The Saint’s eyes were unfocused. Ikanel sensed that she was in an unusual state.

The Saint opened her mouth.

“Ikanel Riman Akelan.”

Once again, Saint Bernadette called his name as if they were well acquainted.

“Even as a Saint, you cannot dare to call the Emperor’s name without proper address.”

“Don’t call me a Saint. I am no Saint.”

Indeed, she was not in her right mind.

The Emperor reminded the Saint of her identity.

“You are Saint Bernadette. The Saint who ended Akelan’s One Year Calamity and recently performed a miracle in Ovillision.”

Huh, the Saint smiled with a frown, as if sad.

“How interesting. Even you call me a Saint. You, who was one of the first people in the empire to call me a witch.”

At that moment, goosebumps rose on Ikanel’s arms.

Her manner of speaking was familiar. There was only one person he had ever called a witch.

“You are a Saint. I have never called you a witch.”

“…Don’t you recognize me?”

The Saint’s eyes were still cloudy and unfocused. He thought that the resurgent calamity might be directly related to the current Saint.

“Ikanel. Do you remember the day we first met? At the Grand Temple on a drizzly day.”

“The Saint did not leave Santarium until her coming-of-age ceremony, so I first saw you at the ceremony. I remember the sky was perfectly clear that day.”

“Pfft” the Saint snorted.

“No, it was definitely a day when rain was falling steadily. I was walking alone in the temple, and you rudely climbed over the wall of the Grand Temple. You quickly covered my mouth when I was about to scream in surprise.”

Ikanel’s eyes widened. He clearly remembered climbing over the Grand Temple wall as Crown Prince and being discovered by a woman. The woman had tried to scream, and Ikanel had covered her mouth. So that woman was…

“…Freia Nigritia?”

Ikanel finally uttered that name. The Saint smiled with a distorted face.

“After you learned my identity and left, I felt like I was constantly having a nightmare. Because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t change my family. I thought if I hadn’t been born as a daughter of Nigritia, but in some farming household instead, I would have been several times happier than now. I never once thought I was happy to be a daughter of Nigritia.”

The Saint wore a truly sad expression.

“I was having a nightmare. But after you drank the tea I prepared and collapsed vomiting blood, my life truly became hell.”

Ikanel stared at the Saint with a bewildered face.

“I was confined to the mansion. My father tried to cut me down with a sword for falling into your scheme and putting the family in danger. My brother stood in my father’s way, and the household members openly cursed me whenever I passed by.”

“Wait.”

Ikanel finally rose awkwardly from his seat.

“What are you saying? Falling into my scheme…?”

The Saint continued her interrupted speech without answering Ikanel’s question.

“It might have been fine if it had ended there. Not many days later, a punitive force came from the imperial palace, burned down the mansion, mercilessly cut down the household members, and your eyes were as cold as if they would freeze…”

The Saint was telling a story that only Freia herself could know.

“F-reia? Is it really you?”

Ikanel approached the Saint gradually with trembling outstretched hands. The Saint, with a cold expression, raised one arm and swung it carelessly. Sharp ice crystals flew from somewhere and attacked Ikanel. He stopped in his tracks. Various parts of Ikanel’s clothes were stained red with blood. Ikanel gritted his teeth and suppressed the groan that was about to escape.

Ikanel would occasionally dismiss all guards except Mihail when he had something to think about deeply. This was precisely such a situation. Coincidentally, the Saint appeared while Mihail was temporarily absent on the Emperor’s orders. Of course, he hadn’t dismissed the knights patrolling the corridor, so they would hear and rush in the moment Ikanel shouted, but he wanted to avoid people gathering and this situation becoming known outside.

Though it was an era where imperial authority preceded religious authority, the temple still received the deep admiration of the people. With the birth of a Saint, it could no longer be said that religious authority simply lagged behind imperial authority.

A confrontation between the Saint and the Emperor would mean a confrontation between the temple and imperial authority. Since the Saint had abruptly invaded the Emperor’s private space while not in her right mind, Ikanel was cautious and did not immediately try to capture her. However, this was only the case until the Saint directly attacked Ikanel. The Emperor’s safety took precedence over everything else. The moment the Emperor’s body was wounded, it was not the imperial family but the temple that was cornered.

Nevertheless, Ikanel did not want to escalate matters further. If this woman was truly Freia Nigritia… Though it was nonsensical, the moment he considered it, his mind went blank.

“What do you mean by scheme? I really don’t…”

Ikanel stammered. He had never once devised any scheme targeting Freia. The Saint snorted.

“If deliberately drinking poison and collapsing to gain justification for attacking Nigritia isn’t called a scheme, then what is a scheme?”

“…What did you say?”

Something is strange, Ikanel thought. No. The poison was definitely put in by Freia. He drank the tea Freia had handed him and collapsed. But the Saint with Freia’s eyes was saying that Ikanel had poisoned the tea, and drinking it was Ikanel’s own will.

“I poisoned it? I really…”

It was then. The Saint who had hurled ice crystals at Ikanel suddenly began to tremble with a very bewildered expression.

“Ah, Y-Your Majesty, I…”

It was a completely different atmosphere from when she had called him Ikanel earlier. Ikanel sensed something odd and took another step toward the Saint. This time, instead of throwing ice shards, the Saint trembled and stepped back several paces. The papers that had been flying about noisily settled on the floor. The whirlwind that had been swirling around her stopped. The Saint that the Emperor had known was a gentle and quiet person, and now she finally matched that image.

“Saint. Were you possessed by the ghost of Freia Nigritia?”

Ikanel muttered as if sighing. The Saint trembled violently, stared directly at Ikanel, and then, as if she had finally come to her senses, bowed her head in greeting and observed proper etiquette.

“I, Bernadette, Saint of Amir, am in the presence of Your Imperial Majesty, the heart of Akelan…”

It was a very late greeting, but there was no one here to mind such things. Ikanel, with his disheveled appearance, responded to the Saint’s greeting.

“I behold the Saint beloved by Amir.”

The Saint rolled her eyes this way and that, not knowing what to do. Only then did Ikanel properly observe the Saint’s appearance. The Saint was wearing just a single layer of priestly robe, and the white, thin fabric was clearly not suitable outdoor attire for this weather. What had happened to her? And just now, acting as if she were Freia…

“Saint.”

“Your Majesty.”

The two called each other simultaneously.

“You may speak first.”

“Y-Your Majesty, please speak first.”

The Saint stammered and barely managed to speak. Ikanel saw that the Saint had clenched her fist tightly. It seemed as if she was suppressing something.

“Outside, a blizzard is raging, and the imperial palace is tightly closed. The windows of this room are firmly locked to prevent wind from entering, and the corridor outside the door is always strictly monitored by knights. How did you come here?”

Ikanel looked directly at the Saint. The Saint avoided his eyes and awkwardly bowed her head. He had clearly seen her emerge from a small piece of ice with his own eyes, but it was impossible to believe.

“I…”

Snow opened her mouth, thinking that she should answer the Emperor’s question regardless. But what could she say?

‘I thought I needed to kill you to end the calamity, so I just thought I should come to you, then a whirlwind blew, and when I opened my eyes, I was here.’

She couldn’t say that.

“…I’m not sure either. I just opened my eyes and found myself here.”

Snow vaguely evaded the question. The Emperor asked a more important question than how Snow had appeared here.

“Did you just now… act as if you were Freia Nigritia?”

The moment she heard the name Freia Nigritia, Snow’s consciousness shook violently. Snow held her head with her hand and staggered severely. Her other self, Freia, was noisily whining.