Even when the revelation signifying the Saint’s birth came, she did not leave the Grand Temple but simply appointed High Priest Patrick as her representative to handle everything. Ceres held the greatest authority in the temple, but simultaneously, she was the least free person there.

Ceres briefly turned her gaze to the outside world where the blizzard was raging. The scene outside the window hardly seemed of this world. It would be more believable if someone called it hell. It was like looking at a painting of the underworld.

Ceres recalled the Goddess’s revelation that she had memorized by heart.

Her breath is my breath,
Her smile is my smile,
Her anguish is my anguish.

The Goddess’s will is the Saint’s will. The Goddess had said so. Ceres had never prevented the Saint from doing what she wanted. When she was trembling the night before her coming-of-age ceremony, Ceres told her she could postpone it if she wished; she helped arrange her meeting with the First Prince; and when she wanted to leave the Grand Temple to see the outside world, Ceres supported her despite the risks.

The Saint had always been a wondrous child. She was so righteous and upright, as if the Goddess herself had incarnated, that her intentions were always as righteous and upright as she was.

But now, what was the Saint’s will? Did the Saint truly want this? This hell?

No, whether it was truly the Saint’s will or not, right now she just wanted her to return safely. Martadia, like the faithless Priest Arianne, prayed and prayed to Goddess.

‘Mother, I am doubting you. It is an unforgivable sin. I am willing to step down from my position as Ceres immediately. But please protect the Holy Maiden. Hold her in your vast embrace and shield her firmly from the cold blizzard. Make the confusion, darkness, and snowstorm retreat, and bring calm and peace.’

Martadia recalled her last memory of the Saint. She had looked terribly confused.

When the Saint said she couldn’t speak about anything, Martadia accepted it. That too was the Saint’s will. She had only advised that if the small lady wanted to lighten her burden, she could do so anytime, because she pitied her for trying to shoulder everything alone. She had said she wanted to be of even slight help to the Saint.

But now she regretted how she had acted then.

She should have asked more questions. She should have earnestly inquired about what the Saint truly wanted. The Saint had mentioned dreams related to the deceased Nigritia lady. Since she had begun to show confusion from that point, there must be some deep connection.

Freia Nigritia. A person now called a witch. The calamity had arrived, and even those who knew about the connection between the Saint and the weather were no longer certain whether this was the witch’s curse or simply weather changed by the Saint’s influence. Curse. Miracle. Saint. Witch. Freia. What was the relationship?

Just as she was thinking this, a priest hurriedly entered Ceres’s room. He informed Ceres about Prince Elios’s rescue. Without hesitation, Ceres immediately ordered that the Prince be brought to her room.

♣ ♣ ♣

Riding a horse for a long time in a blizzard while having a fever so severe that one could barely stand was practically suicidal.

The strong, biting wind made his head spin and his body sway repeatedly. Elios could not possibly keep himself upright and slumped over on the horse’s back. After traveling for quite some time while holding onto the horse’s neck, his eyes began to droop. He thought he might really lose consciousness. To avoid collapsing, he forced his closed eyes wide open.

…Though he had certainly been riding on horseback, he opened his eyes in a white bed. The air touching his body was warm and cozy.

Only then did he realize that he had indeed collapsed. What about Snow? What had happened to Snow?

Elios hastily rose from the bed. His vision turned black. He staggered and sat back down. The soft bed sank slightly under Elios’s weight.

“It would be better for you to rest a bit longer.”

A voice was heard. Elios was not alone. A middle-aged woman in white priestly robes stood beside the bed.

“Ceres?”

It was Ceres Martadia.

Elios looked around. A room furnished only with essential furniture. A clean scent. A white bed. It was somewhat similar to Snow’s room. But it was a place he had never seen before.

“Where am I?”

“The Grand Temple. My room.”

“Ah,” Elios let out a short exclamation. As he had traveled on horseback, the weather had gotten progressively worse. It had already been so bad that one would think it couldn’t get any worse, but it had intensified further. And riding on horseback made the wind even fiercer. Since he couldn’t gain any speed even on horseback, he thought he should have left the horse behind and walked alone.

He had already lost all sense of direction. It felt like he was helplessly walking through an entirely white world. He thought he might not make it to the temple. That made him suddenly afraid.

In such weather, regardless of whether he reached the temple or not, his life was in danger. But that seemed so distant that it hardly registered. More urgently and importantly to Elios was everything related to Snow.

Yet he had lost consciousness and woken up in the temple. Could there be any greater fortune? No, how much time had passed now? Elios immediately looked at the clock on one side of the room. It was late evening. He had left the imperial palace around 2 PM.

He didn’t know how he had arrived here or how long it had taken to get here. In any case, considering that he had collapsed and just now opened his eyes, not much time could have passed. Nevertheless, Elios was urgent. He was worried about Snow.

“How did you come to be alone on that snowy field?”

“I was on my way to the Grand Temple. Ceres, hasn’t the Holy Maiden disappeared?”

Ceres asked, and Elios immediately got to the point. There was no time for pleasantries.

Ceres blinked. Though she didn’t show it, she was shaken. The priests had all changed into secular clothing to prevent the news of the Saint’s disappearance from leaking outside. With the blizzard making it impossible to see even a foot ahead and hardly anyone venturing outside, it would have been difficult for anyone outside the temple to notice that the Saint had disappeared.

She already knew through High Priest Verdus that he had visited yesterday, but that was before the Saint disappeared.

“Did the Holy Maiden perhaps go to the Prince?”

Her speech quickened slightly.

“Your Highness. We are currently searching for the Saint. But we haven’t found even a trace of her yet. If you could tell us what you know, the Grand Temple would remember it as a lifelong debt of gratitude.”

Elios had never seen this flowing-water-like woman so anxious. Ceres Martadia seemed even more urgent than Elios himself.

Elios had directly heard Snow say, “Elios. I won’t die.” She had actually fallen from the top of the castle and disappeared without a trace. But Ceres didn’t know that.

If the priests were uncertain about Snow’s well-being, then the Grand Temple must have been completely paralyzed with worry about Snow for these past two days.

“Yes. I met the Holy Maiden today.”

“Was she… safe?”

To the question asked with a slightly trembling voice, Elios smiled darkly.

“Yes, she was safe. She’s probably still safe now.”

“Oh, Amir.”

Ceres sank to the floor with a sigh. The Saint was safe. Just knowing that made her feel as if she herself had returned from death.

But Ceres soon noticed a subtle discrepancy. Despite Elios’s confidence that the Saint was safe, his expression remained darkly downcast.

Elios had not yet decided how much of the truth to reveal. Even if the Nigritia ducal family had truly been contemplating rebellion, Freia had died unjustly innocent. The imperial family had solidified its position by sacrificing her. It was a terrible thing.

But should Elios rashly tell the truth to Ceres?

The empire faced an existential crisis due to the calamity that had arrived. What would happen if he revealed that Snow was Freia’s reincarnation, and that Freia was actually innocent? As Elios had discussed with Crusis earlier, the temple might move to separate and become independent. If that happened, Akelan, the Holy Empire, would lose both its legitimacy and identity. In fact, more than losing legitimacy or identity itself, the aftermath that would follow was terrifying.

Both during the One Year Calamity and now, various countries bordering Akelan were eagerly looking for opportunities to invade. The reasons they didn’t easily attack Akelan were, first, fear of the empire’s retaliation once the calamity ended; second, since their borders touched, they couldn’t completely escape the calamity either; and finally, because Akelan held the legitimacy of being a “Holy Empire.”

An Akelan that lost its legitimacy would be helplessly plundered, crushed under the calamity. Countless citizens would fall to enemy blades, and the foundation of the country would collapse. This was a massive and serious problem. Elios loathed himself to death for being unable to proudly reveal the truth, but he had no choice.

So Elios had organized what to say to Ceres while riding through the blizzard. He couldn’t tell everything.

For instance, to protect Snow from accusations of attempting to assassinate the Emperor, Elios had to reveal to Ceres that Snow had strangled the Emperor. However, digging into why Snow hated his father so much would lead to the sensitive truth that the imperial family had framed Freia and ultimately branded her a witch. This was not something he could easily tell Ceres, the head of the temple.

Elios was daring to act against his position as the Emperor’s eldest son to protect Snow. Though he didn’t realize it, even this alone was excessively dangerous and reckless.

Elios stood up from his seat. Despite Ceres’s attempts to stop him, he finally stood firmly on both feet. The ground seemed to undulate like a fl*id. But Elios stood firm.

“Ceres. I think you may already know this, but…”