“……Bartholomew Diart, you are truly out of your mind!”

The emperor forcibly swallowed the question of how he knew he was a heretic, then widened both eyes.

If his identity was completely exposed in a place where not only nobles but also commoners had gathered, it would be the end.

“Guards, arrest these people immediately for the crime of insulting the emperor!”

The emperor deliberately used rougher speech than usual to create intimidation.

But not only Bartholomew, but also the Diart family lined up behind him didn’t even blink an eye.

Their unwavering dignified attitude confused both the public and the emperor and high priestess.

What did they know, or what did they have to be so rigid?

The emperor gritted his teeth and raised his voice toward the knights.

“What are you doing! Drag them out immediately—!”

“Stop.”

But before the knights could even reach the Diart family, another dignified voice stopped them.

The owner of that voice was none other than the empress sitting in the seat of honor beside the altar.

She slowly rose from her seat and looked around the crowd as she spoke.

“Lord Diart’s words are true. The emperor and high priestess are heretics and deceivers who have fooled countless people!”

The empress had discussed today’s events with the Diart ducal family before stepping forward, and people became even more agitated than before.

“I’m not dreaming right now, am I?”

“His Majesty the emperor and the high priestess are really heretics?”

“Lord Diart said it, and now Her Majesty the empress has said the same thing!”

Cold sweat ran down the spines of the emperor and Morphina as they looked down at the murmuring crowd.

Such a scene wasn’t in their plans. They were about to be thwarted before they could properly unfold their intentions.

“Empress, are you insane?!”

The emperor exchanged glances with Morphina, contorted his face and glared at the empress.

“Or have you decided to join hands with Diart to drive me out?”

He sarcastically tried to frame them as traitors. The empress responded calmly to this.

“According to imperial law, heretics, regardless of who they are, have their status, titles, property, and honor all confiscated.”

The empress’s words were calmer and more resonant than the emperor’s emotionally mixed and uneven speech, making them more convincing to the ears.

“So it wasn’t us who drove out Your Majesty, but the heresy.”

“Empress!”

The emperor approached the empress as if he could no longer bear it. Then she shouted for all the people to see.

“More than ten years ago! The Duke and Duchess of Celsior at that time wanted to meet me!”

The empress stood facing the emperor without fear and continued speaking clearly.

“They had investigated heretics for a long time and obtained the Rudenian registry. But under threat from heretics, they temporarily entrusted the registry to Diane Diart.”

At those words, the emperor’s expression wavered for a moment. The registry that he had turned Celsior upside down looking for but couldn’t find was ultimately in Diart’s hands.

He struggled desperately not to show his dismayed expression.

“But Diane tragically lost her life, and while the registry’s whereabouts became unclear, the heretics joined hands with Howard Dempsey to eliminate the duke and duchess.”

“So what does that matter? What does it have to do with me……!”

“We found the registry, Your Majesty.”

The emperor’s attempt to shamelessly deny it was blocked all too simply by the empress.

“Diane Diart’s daughter, Count Shailyn Sharofe, found it and brought it.”

“That’s impossible—!”

Finally losing his composure, the emperor shouted without realizing it. Morphina bit her lower lip hard.

“The heretics’ registry contains not only your name, Gregory, but also Morphina’s and the young head priest’s names.”

At the facts the empress revealed without hesitation, screams and sighs erupted from all directions.

“My goodness!”

“His Majesty and the high priestess were really heretics!”

“Booo!”

People began to extend their hands one by one to jeer. Since they were faithful enough to attend the prayer meeting, their backlash was even fiercer.

“Heretics get out!”

“Get the hell out of the temple!”

Even some nobles who had been forced to come were shocked by the emperor and high priestess’s true identities and didn’t stop this.

Perhaps they were gauging which of the two, emperor or empress, they should side with.

As the situation rapidly flowed in an unfavorable direction for him, the emperor furrowed his eyebrows and desperately tried to find a breakthrough.

“How do we know that registry is real?! Someone might have fabricated it to frame me and the high priestess!”

At that moment, Linus, who had been sitting quietly the whole time, opened his mouth.

“There is evidence that part of the Central Temple colluded with heretics under the high priestess’s orders to conduct inhumane experiments on apprentice priests.”

Slowly rising and approaching his mother’s side, he looked straight at his father and delivered a blow.

“The purpose was to create a host to summon the demon, Rudvalt.”

“……!”

The emperor and Morphina’s faces turned pale, not knowing they had been discovered even that far.

The end was right in front of them.

Both of them felt parched at the thought that everything they had planned for decades might turn to nothing.

“And there is also testimony that you and the high priestess have been having an affair for decades.”

When the emperor first met the high priestess as crown prince, he was already married to the current empress.

Yet he had an illegitimate child with Morphina.

Even before Linus.

“I confirmed that the priest Your Majesty always took around instead of an attendant is also a heretic.”

Linus drove in the wedge. The emperor opened his eyes in surprise and frantically looked around.

But the attendant-priest he always took with him was truly nowhere to be seen.

Because Linus had captured and interrogated him during the preparation for the grand prayer meeting, then imprisoned him.

“You are finished.”

The emperor had always been tormented by the ominous premonition that his eldest son would chase him out and seize the throne.

And Linus intended to make what his father feared into reality.

“You will pay the price for betraying everyone and believing in an evil existence.”

Linus’s words echoed through the square like a death sentence.

Raviel stood in the back, watching this scene with an expressionless face.

Soon his lips drew a faint arc. It was an ominously sinister smile.

***

The eastern chapel had several priests walking around nearby.

Carl and I hid behind pillars watching them, then entered when they briefly left their posts.

“What if it’s not here either?”

“Then we’re screwed.”

Carl replied matter-of-factly. But his eyes were also rolling busily, showing his own urgency.

We decided to divide the chapel in half and search separately.

I took the right side, Carl took the left.

Since this was the last location, we looked more carefully than before. If it wasn’t here either, we’d be at a loss for where to find the holy sword.

I lay flat on the floor to look under chairs and stomped around with my feet to see if there were any secret spaces.

But no matter how much we searched, the holy sword was nowhere to be seen.

‘D*mn, are we really screwed?’

Exhausted, I sprawled on a chair. Carl, who sat next to me, lowered his head and stared down at me intently.

This guy looks really handsome even from this angle looking up.

“You look like a really soft, spread-out marshmallow right now.”

“……That’s an insult, right? It’s an insult, right?”

“No, I mean you’re cute.”

When I narrowed my eyes and looked at him suspiciously, Carl chuckled.

Really, do you think I’ll fall for it when you smile so coolly like that?

……I think I might be falling for it.

“But what do we do now? Should we just go back empty-handed?”

“If we can’t find it after searching, there’s nothing we can do. Actually, if we round them all up before they summon the demon, we don’t really need the holy sword.”

“That’s true.”

Exposing the emperor and high priestess at the grand prayer meeting would surely be an unexpected blow from their perspective.

So we could relax a little but…….

‘Why am I so anxious? I have a feeling something bad is going to happen.’

My intuition, which had been right only a handful of times in my life, kept sending warnings.

That this wasn’t the time to be doing this.

That I absolutely had to find the holy sword.

‘I may not know about other things, but my ominous hunches are incredibly accurate.’

Carl had no idea about my complicated inner thoughts and poked my cheek playfully.

Just as I reached out to pinch his cheek in return—-

Knock knock.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the chapel door. Startled, I bolted upright and looked toward the entrance.

What? Who is it? Did they find out we’re inside?

Carl quickly pulled me behind him and opened his eyes sharply in a state of alert.

Creak.

Soon the door opened and the person who appeared was—