Despite having no intention of stalling, Elios tightly sealed his lips. After taking one deep breath, he spoke as if making a declaration.

“I hold the Holy Maiden in my heart.”

“……”

Ceres remained silent. Elios spoke once more, with greater certainty.

“I mean that I dare to love her.”

In truth, it was a feeling so deep that no words could adequately express it. Yet he somehow managed to express it simply with the word “love”.

Ceres knew that the Prince didn’t require any response from her. So she remained silent. Elios continued.

“I am fully aware of… my position and hers. I have not the slightest intention… of harboring desires beyond my station.”

This was a lie.

In reality, he desperately wished for Snow’s feelings to match his own.

That’s why his heart would resonate with excitement when she looked at him and her cheeks turned red. When he heard her tell him never to come again, his world turned yellow.

When he first thought that perhaps she had pushed him away not because she disliked him but to protect him, a small but intense joy selfishly settled in the corner of his heart.

“However, my confession to you about my feelings for the Holy Maiden is an explanation for why I, despite being a Prince, am requesting your help in this situation.”

Ceres immediately sensed something ominous in Elios’s words.

“What kind of ‘situation’ do you mean?”

Ceres asked.

Just then—

“Ceres. High Priest Patrick wishes to see you. He says it’s urgent.”

From outside the door, an ordinary priest announced High Priest Patrick’s visit. The timing was impeccable.

Elios immediately guessed why the High Priest had come to see Ceres. Ceres asked the Prince for his understanding and let High Priest Patrick in. The High Priest wore a very serious expression. His face already looked deathly pale due to the Saint’s disappearance, and now another layer of worry had been added.

“High Priest Patrick, what is the matter?”

“Ceres, someone has just arrived from the imperial palace.”

“From the imperial palace, you say?”

Ceres Martadia said this and briefly glanced at Elios. Elios stood awkwardly with his lips subtly tightened. It seemed that what Elios had been about to say was somehow related to the arrival of someone from the imperial palace.

High Priest Patrick relayed the news from the imperial palace to Ceres.

“His Majesty the Emperor was nearly assassinated.”

“What?!”

Ceres exclaimed in surprise. Today, Ceres Martadia was more shaken than she had ever been in her entire life.

“It happened more than half a day ago. It was no ordinary matter, so they are summoning all the nobles of the capital to the imperial palace to immediately establish countermeasures and identify the culprit. After gathering most of the nobles, they belatedly sent a messenger to the Grand Temple, but it seems the messenger lost his way due to the sudden worsening of the weather. He was rescued by an ordinary priest, just like the Prince earlier. But, well, that…”

High Priest Patrick trailed off, glancing furtively at Elios. Ceres urged him to continue. Since Patrick, like Ceres, was not one to mince words, he soon finished what he had to say.

“…His Majesty the Emperor is injured from the assassination attempt and is bedridden, and as the First Prince is also severely ill, the Second Prince, Prince Crusis, has personally summoned the nobles…”

The First Prince who was said to be severely ill had been found slumped over a horse’s back and was now standing right here, which was perplexing for High Priest Patrick.

Ceres and Elios briefly looked at each other. Elios gave a small nod. Seeing this, Ceres became certain. It was clear that Elios, despite being ill, had struggled to come to the temple because of something related to the Saint.

Of course, Ceres didn’t even think that the would-be assassin might be Saint Bernadette herself, but she briefly considered that the Saint might be somewhat involved in this matter. After all, hadn’t Elios just implied that he was acting against his duties “despite being a Prince”?

If that were true, this was no ordinary matter. It wasn’t just about the Saint. It might involve the entire temple.

“High Priest. How is the search for the Holy Maiden progressing?”

Ceres asked. High Priest Patrick momentarily lost his bearings when Ceres discussed the Saint’s disappearance in front of the Prince. The Saint’s disappearance was something to be kept hidden from outsiders. Especially from the imperial family.

However, quickly realizing that Elios seemed to know everything, he reported the current situation to Ceres.

“Since everyone returned to the temple when the blizzard intensified, we haven’t been able to resume the search. With visibility severely limited by the raging blizzard, if we went out recklessly without any clues or traces in this situation, even the priests might go missing.”

“I have a clue.”

Elios interjected into the conversation between the High Priest and Ceres. It was hard to tell whether his hot breath was due to fever or urgency. Elios supported himself by leaning on the desk.

“I came here to find the Saint. I have a clue, but I thought it would be nearly impossible for me to search the snowy fields alone to find her. So I sought the help of the Grand Temple. I knew you would be more proactive than anyone in finding the Holy Maiden.”

“Why would Your Highness want to find the Holy Maiden…?”

High Priest Patrick asked curiously. Come to think of it, when the Saint had asked about the genealogy of nobles, he had found it strange that she seemed to know Prince Elios.

Were they acquainted with each other? The strait-laced High Priest Patrick couldn’t even dare to imagine that the Prince might have disguised himself as a priest to visit the Saint’s room.

Elios, frowning with worry about Snow, said to High Priest Patrick:

“If we remain like this, the Holy Maiden will be in danger. We must find her somehow.”

This time, Ceres expressed doubt.

“Your Highness clearly said that the Saint would be safe. Then why do you say she will be in danger?”

From Ceres’s perspective, the safety of the Saint and the temple was most important. The Prince clearly seemed to know something. And revealing it was something that went against his position as Prince.

Ceres saw it correctly. For Elios to first reveal to the temple, rather than to the nobility, that it was the Saint who had strangled the Emperor’s neck, and to act to somehow save the Saint, was completely contrary to his position.

Regardless of whatever circumstances Snow might have had.

If he were truly the heir to the Empire of Akelan, he should have stood at the center of the nobility and viewed this incident from there. Hiding that the Saint was the culprit was not for his father or the empire. It was for the Saint. At the very least, he shouldn’t have come to the temple himself. Elios should have rallied the nobles and sent Crusis or Lord Callisto instead.

“The empire’s knights and soldiers might move to capture the Holy Maiden.”

Elios had delegated all his authority to Crusis, who should have been his greatest rival in the succession dispute. It was no exaggeration to say that he was now acting solely for Snow, turning his back on the imperial family and nobility.

When Elios said this much, both Ceres Martadia and High Priest Patrick finally assumed the worst scenario. They stood frozen like ice, thinking, “Surely not.” Elios, breathing hotly from his fever, drove the final nail into their assumption.

“The one who attempted to assassinate His Majesty the Emperor was none other than the Holy Maiden.”

The moment he decided to act with the temple, Elios completely let go of the throne. He only decided to maintain the minimum standards as the Emperor’s son.

Elios asked Ceres and High Priest Patrick to ensure there were no other listening ears. After visually confirming that there was no one in the corridor outside the room, he began to speak.

Elios truthfully disclosed most of what he knew.

That the Saint had suddenly appeared in the Emperor’s office located high in the castle; that she identified herself with Freia and tried to assassinate the Emperor by strangling him; that all the guards in the corridor had collapsed and fallen asleep as if poisoned.

That she had said with her own mouth, “If I die now, no one will be able to stop the calamity. I won’t die.” And that in the end, she threw herself out of the window and disappeared without a trace.

Mentioning what he had discovered through his investigation, Elios said there was clearly some connection between the Saint and the witch. This was also a thought Ceres had previously held. That’s why she more readily agreed with the Prince’s words.

Elios did not mention at all what Freia had experienced at the hands of the imperial family during her lifetime. However, Ceres and the High Priest didn’t even consider that. Even without knowing what kind of relationship Freia had with the Emperor or how she had been framed, there were sufficient grounds for her to hate the Emperor.

Ikanel, during his time as Crown Prince, had collapsed after drinking from a cup handed by Freia, which ultimately became the beginning of the ducal family’s extermination; he had led the hunt for traitors, and decisively gave the final order to behead Duke Nigritia and young Lord Ian Nigritia in the burning mansion.

In the end, Elios could not reveal the truth before High Priest Patrick and Ceres Martadia. He hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether revealing the truth or keeping silent was the right thing to do. Truly, no matter how much he thought about it, he just couldn’t tell.

The country had so terribly destroyed one individual. This was something that should not be buried.

But if this old matter were to be made public now, the empire might be shaken to its roots. Because it was deeply related to the Saint.

Yes, it was related to Snow. That’s why Elios felt an even deeper sense of guilt. As long as he couldn’t speak about the truth, he wondered if he had the right to face Snow.

In fact, he still couldn’t fully grasp that Snow was Freia. Elios thought of the two figures separately.

But if Snow had Freia’s memories, then Elios, who was trying to hide the truth, might be a terrible existence to Snow.