The people in the temple were shocked to see the transformed Alicia. She had certainly been very young. But for some reason, Alicia had aged like an old woman about to die, having lost all her powerful holy power.

“Wasn’t she the right hand of High Priest Sinax, who was close to the tyrant? She’s been punished for selling her holy power for money all this time.”

“How can you say such things? Was there anyone as virtuous as Lady Alicia?”

The few remaining people in the palace temple were divided between those who pointed fingers at Alicia and those who sympathized with her. But Alicia didn’t care what people said about her. She just locked herself in her room and prayed.

Moreover, the Grand Temple’s response to her was strange. Usually, priestesses who lost their holy power were demoted to ordinary priestesses and sent to small temples in the provinces. But the Grand Temple neither took away her position as senior priestess nor ordered her to move.

Occasionally, letters came from Juul and Jael at the distant temple, but Alicia replied just once at first and didn’t accept letters afterward. Thus, Alicia was gradually forgotten among people. Only the young maid who brought her meals remembered her.

But one spring day, an unexpected figure suddenly came looking for her. The people of the palace temple exchanged glances while bowing their heads almost to the floor.

* * *

Seeing the emperor who appeared as if ready to kill someone, the temple people trembled with fear. But Roshan advanced without paying any attention to them.

The cleric guiding the emperor had difficulty keeping up with his fast pace and long strides. He almost ran. Eventually, even he fell behind, panting for breath.

“Where is she?”

“Th-this way, Your Majesty the Emperor.”

Finally, Roshan reached his destination. He flung open the door of a secluded room in the temple without knocking. The clerics retreated far back, frightened by his force.

Bang.

The wooden door opened as if about to break, revealing a dusty interior. Roshan walked inside without hesitation. Soon his footsteps reached a small prayer room within.

A small wooden goddess statue was enshrined in a space barely large enough for two people. Roshan looked at it and then lowered his gaze. An old priestess was prostrated below the small altar where the goddess statue sat.

“……Your Highness. No, I should call you Your Majesty the Emperor now.”

The elderly priestess, Alicia, rose and turned as she spoke. Roshan looked at her ash-gray hair and the many wrinkles on her hands, then at her face, which no longer wore a blindfold.

Her eyes, closed with the flesh fused together, combined with her skeletal body to create an eerie atmosphere. The priestess who had once looked sacred now resembled a witch from a fairy tale.

“What did you do?”

Roshan addressed her as if about to draw his sword. His voice, which made one’s knees weak, was soaked with k*lling intent.

“How did you save her then?”

Alicia was now completely blind. Having lost every bit of her holy power, she also lost her sight, which she had seen through the goddess’s mercy.

But even so, Alicia could tell. The man before her, the emperor whom everyone looked up to, was trembling with fear, even turning blue. She knew that the man called the angel of death on the battlefield was now in a fragile state, about to break.

“Not a single useful being among those called the goddess’s servants you believe in.”

Using the power of the red leaf from the Rubeo sacred tree, Roshan barely saved Yerena, who had been waiting for death, by mobilizing clerics and priestesses. He made her breathe and her heart beat, though weak.

But that was all. Whenever those serving the Goddess of Light withdrew their holy power even slightly, dark death once again shrouded Yerena’s body. Therefore, under the fierce emperor’s command, clerics and priestesses had to squeeze out their holy power.

‘I can’t, can’t do any more. Quickly!’

When two priestesses reached their limit, three waiting clerics stepped in and used their holy power. When the clerics, in turn, reached their limit, another group of priestesses took over their duty. Thus, those with strong holy power worked in groups of two or three, while those below them worked in groups of four to seven.

Even this was only possible because of the large number of holy power users Roshan had brought to the palace. But even that was now reaching its limit. The red dragon’s hatred grew stronger, and the servants of light were rapidly tiring. It was clear they couldn’t indefinitely sustain Yerena’s life.

Yerena’s death was only a matter of time.

If possible, Roshan intended to bring all the holy power users in the Empire, or even search the entire continent and drag them in, to keep Yerena alive.

Shouting that he needed to find a way, he remembered that Alicia had taken some of his power by drawing blood from his hand when she saved Yerena before. Roshan stabbed his hand with a sword, drew blood, and shouted for them to do something with it. But no one knew how to use the goddess’s power mixed in the emperor’s blood.

Seeing the clerics and priestesses trembling with fear at the sight of him bleeding, Roshan thought it fortunate he hadn’t killed Alicia and ran.

Ironically, as always, his wound disappeared instantly through the goddess’s power. Confirming this, Roshan cursed the goddess. Instead of healing him, she should save her. If she would bestow that supposedly great power on him, she should also tell him how to save Yerena.

“Save her.”

“……”

“No, save her.”

Begging Alicia, Roshan felt around his waist. But only an empty scabbard remained.

Roshan took out a dagger from his bosom. And without hesitation, he plunged it into his left hand. The deeply embedded dagger pierced through the back of his hand and tore through his palm. But as if he felt no pain, he merely extended his bleeding hand to Alicia.

As the smell of blood spread instantly through the air, Alicia frowned and opened her mouth. The old woman’s voice scratched Roshan’s ears.

“I cannot. I no longer have even the strength to draw upon Your Majesty’s power.”

A body that had completely lost its holy power and was just an empty shell. Alicia stroked the back of her wrinkled hand.

“Then teach someone else. There are dozens who can use holy power in the palace. Teach them the method.”

“It’s difficult. The miracle then was achieved by using the curse that remained in the princess as a medium. Now that the curse has disappeared and the princess has opened her eyes, even that is impossible.”

Despair shadowed Roshan’s face. He dropped his bleeding hand. His knees bent involuntarily, and his body crumbled.

‘……Goddess.’

The princess who chose s*icide with the sacred tree’s leaf and the invader trying to save her. Though she couldn’t see, Alicia knew not only the current situation but also what expression the man before her wore. It was one of the scenes the goddess had shown her before she completely lost her sight.

‘I am grateful for allowing this final dagger.’

Alicia lowered her head and slowly bowed. And with her hands joined as if in prayer, she whispered the dagger that would be salvation for Roshan but would turn into despair for Yerena.

“Your Majesty should have one more option. That which I left in Sir Frederick’s possession.”

Roshan also remembered the existence of the pure white water that Alicia mentioned. It was certainly something that could save a dying person. But whether it would work for Yerena now was questionable.

“Yerena has no wounds. She’s neither poisoned nor injured. So that……”

“Do you really think the princess has no wounds?”

Alicia cut off the words of the most august emperor, asking. The princess’s body was certainly clean without a single wound. But for some reason, Roshan couldn’t answer the priestess’s question.

“You don’t have much time to consider. That sacred tree’s leaf is the most terrible curse and poison to the Sedas royal family.”

Roshan’s heart sank and began to beat rapidly. The priestess was right. He should quickly try that first.

But it was strange. Somehow, he was reluctant. Though he thought he couldn’t let her die, his hand wouldn’t readily reach for the vial deep in his bosom.

‘Stop it! Please stop pretending to be that person……’

The image of the princess crying out against the deception he had created was still vivid. Her face, agonized as she begged him to kill her, seemed right before his eyes.

Was it the right choice? To deceive her once more with that….. Roshan bit his lip until it bled.

‘No. I can’t let her die.’

It didn’t take him long to think. The man rose. Clang. The emperor threw away the dagger embedded in his hand. Then he turned and disappeared.

His speed, filled with the blessing of the Goddess of Light, was inhuman. Even the sound of his footsteps was instantly erased.

However, Alicia remained in the same position for a long time after the emperor disappeared, then touched the floor. The emperor’s blood was all over her hands. Alicia smiled bitterly at the sensation of the cooled blood and muttered to herself.

“……Now it truly ends.”

The avenger’s end approached. Alicia stood and offered a final prayer to the goddess statue. She had chosen the worst path among those the goddess had shown. But in return, she could deliver the greatest revenge.

“I have accomplished everything.”

With her head raised toward the ceiling, she spread her hands wide and spoke. She had told the emperor that the princess’s curse had completely disappeared, but well. Alicia knew that the blind mage’s curse toward the Sedas princess was not yet over.

“But princess. Your successor will be created by mixing with the blind mage’s blood, so the princesses of Sedas will now completely throw off the chains of the curse.”

The blind priestess who had seen the princess’s distant future shed tears with a face full of guilt. She bent her body and placed her arms and legs on the ground like a four-legged beast.

As she groped the floor with her hands, the dagger that had pierced the emperor’s hand soon touched her fingers. Alicia gripped it tightly with both hands, unfazed by the cuts it left on her fingers.

“Goddess. Have mercy on this sinful one.”

The priestess, still kneeling, aimed at her own heart. And not long after, the body of the blind priestess was discovered by a young maid who came to bring her a meal.