Until The Real One Shows Up

A few days have passed since then.

The aristocrats who supported Avelin quietly had their heads down, unlike before.

It was partly because of Wilhelm’s affectionate appearance with Anastasia at his birthday banquet, but other rumors were more of a blow.

“Well, it seems that the Emperor has been living in the Empress’ Palace for the past few days.”

Until then, there was a lot of bad talk about the relationship between the Emperor and his wife.

That was also the part where Avelin’s supporters had the greatest expectation.

Even if two people love each other, they can’t get along at night, so it probably was not going to last long.

But somehow, after three years of marriage, it was only now that the two of them started having fun playing with fire.

It was embarrassing not only to those who supported Avelin, but also to those who supported the Empress, including the Duke of Barantes. Good or bad, regardless.

“I think the fact that Her Majesty the Empress left for a while played a role, didn’t it?”

Everyone was just guessing.

In any case, it seemed that Avelin had been sitting on a cushion of thorns for the past few days due to such a situation.

“Hell, I can’t put another curse on her for fear of being reflected by the divine power…!”

Avelin frowned slightly and burst out in anger. If she failed again this time, she would die before the devil can take her body.

“What is reflecting the curse?”

To say that she is the real woman of the oracle, there was already a precedent for the royal family to be damaged by black magic.

So there must have been another cause, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

In any case, she couldn’t be so frustrated that she couldn’t do this or that.

“How is there no way? Come up with something!”

[Well. I thought I had done all I needed to do by returning you.]

“Are you going to leave your hands like that? Weren’t you on my side? It turns out that Anastasia is a spy!”

[How can you speak such blasphemy? I don’t want to share the air with anything related to Rosenia.]

“Then think about it!”

Avelin, who had been bursting with vigor, then burst out laughing and turned her head away.

“Ha, yes. I’m holding on to you who can’t help, so I’d better go see my father. We need to come up with a solution together.”

[Well… Don’t you trust him too much?]

“What do you mean? Are you keeping my father in check now?”

[The priest of Rosenia? I am the Count of Hell after all? Funny. In the end, you are that person’s…]

“Shut up if you won’t help.”

Quickly shutting her demon’s mouth, Avelin summoned her maids and prepared them to go out. Soon, Avelin’s carriage departed.

~~~~

At that time, Lyell was locked in the prayer room and praying.

“Goddess, please give me an answer…”

It was a repetition of his life for several days.

To be precise, since Wilhelm’s birthday, and today was the fifth day. It was the last day I made an appointment with Anastasia.

He had to send the message that he was going to see Anastasia tomorrow morning by this evening.

If he missed this opportunity, he would have to wait in fear for the end that would come one day. What is the difference between this and that?

The wisest way was to reveal the whole truth to Anastasia and reduce the sentence a little bit.

Even though he knew it in his head, there was a fact that made Lyell hesitate… 

‘If Avelin’s existence is revealed, I will never live in Rosenberg again.’

His position, which is still strong, created a lingering attachment. It was really foolish, but he couldn’t help it.

Even if Hell was predestined, it would be rare for anyone to claim without hesitation to go to a lesser purgatory right now.

As a result, Lyell was constantly begging his goddess to expedite her decision.

“High Priest.”

A small voice came from outside. The soundproofing of the prayer room was kept close to perfect by the divine power, so Lyell went out without surprise.

“What happened?”

“I’m sorry. However, the news is that Lady Hazel is coming here now.”

“… Ah.”

Lyell struggled to swallow his displeasure. At the same time, he made a decision that he had been putting off so much.

“I have something to say to the Empress, so please send her a message saying that I will see her tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, High Priest. Lady Hazel…”

 “Tell me when she arrives.”

‘How can you be so selfish? Acting like all my time is yours.’

He didn’t like it from the beginning. To be precise, from the time she came to see him as his daughter.

~~~~

Three months ago.

“It’s been a while since you’ve been conscious, but I’m sorry for coming to see you like this.”

Even in front of a woman who would be considered lovely by anyone, Lyell, who had just died and came back to life, only faced Avelin with an expressionless face.

“What do you have to say to me?”

“You must remember a priest named Daisy.”

At the name he had not heard in a very long time, Lyell swallowed his breath.

Avelin smiled and handed Lyell something of hers.

“And I am her daughter.”

It was an unfamiliar locket necklace. When Lyell opened the inside, there was a small painted portrait of Daisy.

… It was definitely hers.

“When she passed away, she told me that my father was the High Priest.”

Lyell’s expression hardened with embarrassment.

Daisy was a former priestess of the temple, whom he had been close to since she came from a fallen aristocracy and had much in common with him.

Eventually, one day, when he broke the priest’s taboo and shared a relationship with her, she disappeared.

But Lyell wasn’t sad. Rather, he thought that his sins had disappeared with her disappearance, so he quickly forgot her with joy.

‘She was living with a child.’

If so, her disappearance 21 years ago was something he could understand. This is because if a priest is found to be pregnant, normal life cannot be expected in Rosenberg.

“Oh, my name is Avelin.”

Lyell burst into laughter.

Avelin was Daisy’s favorite name. So much that she had used it for the dog that was kept at the temple.

“And now I am living as the adopted daughter of the Hazel family.”

Suddenly, she became the adopted daughter of the Hazel family. Avelin smiled brightly at Lyell’s embarrassed expression.

“I will tell you that later. Actually, I was going to visit my father last year, but he was lying in bed after being struck by lightning, so I changed the order of things a bit.”

“So, why did you come to me now?”

“I need some cooperation.”

And then the woman, his own daughter, ordered him boldly to manipulate the oracle.

Naturally, Lyell jumped.

“Are you telling me, now the High Priest, to manipulate the will of the goddess? Isn’t the young lady afraid of a new punishment?”

“Well…”

Lyell’s eyebrows twitched up at the voice that was unsure.

“Rather than that, I think I would be more afraid to end my life in shame at the stake with my father when it turns out that I am my father’s child?”

“Are you threatening me now?”

“You know.”

Avelin shrugged her shoulders and answered calmly.

“But it’s also a deal. If you cooperate with me, the father’s position won’t be announced without any threat until the day I die. I promise you.”

“Yeah, of course…”

“No. If you don’t stand by me, I’m going to expose my father’s infidelity to the world right now. You don’t want to give up everything you’ve built up, do you?”

That made Lyell’s hair stand on end.

Everything he built up so far… to give it up…

‘I got here… How dare she threaten me!’

Fortunately, he was gifted with enormous divine power, but it was by no means an easy journey to rise from a commoner to the position of High Priest.

He had to prove his qualities by enduring the disapproving gaze of the high-ranking aristocratic priests, and he struggled to win this position through unremitting efforts.

‘I can never let it go. Never…!’

“It looks like you have made a decision.”

Seeing the High Priest’s face shaken with desire, Avelin smiled and clapped her hands as if she expected it.

“Come on, let’s move quickly. I’m in a bit of a hurry. I need that mighty divine power of my father.”

~~~~

For some reason, the woman who was his daughter knew all the secret circumstances of the temple, which only the priest could know.

“I know you can use your divine power to move the sign on the queen’s shoulder to me.”

No, she knew what even priests didn’t know.

When Lyell opened his mouth and made an expression asking how she knew it, Aveline smiled and replied.

“Don’t try to figure out too much. You’ll get hurt.”

“It’s only up to a month in effect.”

“I’ll take care of it after that, so please do so for now.”

What the hell was she up to? Words that would astonish him followed.

“Oh, come to think of it, I don’t think the sign alone is enough to convince the new oracle. I have to be sacred in front of other people to be sure.”

“That’s nonsense. How can you show divine power when you are not born with it?”

“Why doesn’t it make sense? There’s a pearl of the Goddess.”

“What? How can you…”

“I told you. Don’t try to know too much.”

Lyell looked at Avelin with a stunned look.

The pearl of the Goddess.

It was given by the Goddess Rosenia to Luciano, the first High Priest, in recognition of his contribution to the founding of the country, and not only the priests but also the Emperor did not know its existence.

Only when the High Priest handed it over to his successor, did he reveal his existence, and even he did not know it when he was a priest.

As Avelin said, the main function of the goddess’s pearl was the sharing of divine power.

If one had the pearl of the Goddess, one could use it as if it were their own by sharing the divine power of its master, the High Priest. Of course, the High Priest’s divine power was consumed.

However, in the first place, the holy relic was an object with strong symbolic meaning. Because its existence itself was top secret, there was no need for others to use it.

‘Even the pearls of the Goddess… How do you know everything?’

One thing was certain. His daughter was extraordinary.

In the end, Lyell knelt helplessly in front of her, and had been living as her puppet to this day.

Besides, for some reason, seeing that the Goddess’s sign on Avelin’s shoulder remained the same even after a month had passed, Lyell’s fear grew even greater.

‘If the truth is revealed, will this puppet life end…’

Lyell helplessly entered his office. He saw a piece of mail lying on his desk.

She came from abroad, so she had a unique seal stamped on her that was not normally seen. Lyell immediately recognized its identity.

Three months ago, Avelin appeared and requested a paternity test from a well-known company in a distant foreign country.

It was the only country in the continent that could reveal paternity by magic, and it was always in demand thanks to the thorough guarantee of the identity of the client, and Lyell waited fairly and received the result.

Lyell opened the envelope without thinking. There were no special expectations for requesting a paternity test.

It was because she knew very detailed information about Daisy that she would not have known unless she was close.

This was just for confirmation. Just in case, even if, it couldn’t be, but because of some suspicion that he might be fooled by her pranks.

But even so, the extraordinariness that Avelin has shown so far was hard to ignore.

‘The result will be obvious, but…’

 But eventually, Lyell’s face as he unfolded the paper inside the envelope contorted in astonishment.

~~~~

The next morning, Anastasia, who was waiting for Lyell, received shocking news.

“The High Priest is said to have died, Your Majesty.”