“You must already know, Saint, that I have a wife,” Hart spoke in a polite tone.
His calm demeanor, without a hint of agitation, made Yenna’s insides churn.
“A wife? Your Highness, I thought you were alone…”
Could he possibly be talking about that woman who died? Yenna’s face twisted in disbelief.
Hart continued, “In both my heart and my public life, there is no room for anyone else. It has always been that way and always will be.”
A kind rejection like this felt even more cruel.
Yenna, who had boasted to Prache that she could win Hart over, felt her world crumble. To lose to someone who wasn’t even alive! How could Yenna accept it?
The man before her was certainly beautiful. She had never seen anyone so handsome in her life. But this wasn’t the reason she wanted him.
‘I wanted to reach the pinnacle of this world.’
If she was going to be a ‘Saint’ in this ‘other world,’ a position like this should be a given. She didn’t want to live and die an ordinary life because of obstacles, similar to her previous life.
That’s why she set her sights on Prache and Hart.
‘But getting a seat next to Prache seems impossible.’
This is why she shifted her focus to Hart, who was also a human like her. The Temple wanted her to marry Patrick, but Yenna had other plans.
‘Anyone can see that Hart is the one destined to be Emperor.’
No matter how much Hart and the Grand Temple had been at odds in the past, feelings could be mended.
‘If Hart and I are together, surely any lingering resentment can be resolved.’
It was Yenna’s misconception that was born from not understanding how deep the animosity between the Grand Temple and Hart ran. She should have stopped pursuing it, but Yenna had no intention of doing so.
She looked at Hart with a darkened expression.
“I heard that Lady Hanelope’s biological mother was a woman of unknown origin.”
A flash of anger momentarily crossed Hart’s face. He seemed utterly irritated by Yenna’s presence.
Yenna flinched, noticing Hart. But thinking she mistook his reaction, Yenna spoke again, “Wouldn’t it be better for the Princess to have a mother who could be more helpful?”
Pffft!
Yenna was taken aback again. Hart, now cold as ice, sneered at her, sending chills down her spine. His sharp expression was strangely so beautiful that Yenna was momentarily entranced.
“Are you proposing a deal with me?”
“Yes…” Yenna answered as if in a trance.
Hart’s smile deepened, “And why should I accept such a deal?”
“As I said, for the Lady’s sake…”
“It’s not as if your origins are any less uncertain.”
Hart’s smile vanished as if it had never existed.
Yenna snapped back to reality, “I—I’m a Saint. How could you compare me to a mere commoner? Even if you loved your former wife, how can you turn blind to reality?”
“Well. The reason you’re revered here is that we don’t know what kind of person you were in your former world. That mystery is what adds value to you as a saint. You should know that ‘Saint.’”
Yenna froze for a moment as Hart had hit the nail on the head.
However, she quickly regained her composure and asked nonchalantly, “Are you saying I was worthless in my previous world?”
“That’s not possible for me to know.”
“Fortunately, in my original world, I was born into the upper class and was a respected scholar. I was the only daughter cherished by my parents.”
“How strange…” Hart gazed sharply at Yenna, “If you were so happy, then why don’t you have any desire to return?”
“!”
“Well, whatever you were ‘truly’ in the other world doesn’t matter. Here, what people believe becomes the truth.”
Yenna, who had been rendered speechless by the shock, suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
Hart was warning her right now. He could make people believe that Yenna was a useless person in her original world.
‘Just for insulting some lowly woman, he dared to…!’
Yanna could only boil with anger. But revealing her true feelings and ruining her relationship with Hart now was not an option.
‘I still have one more card to play.’
He would have no choice but to accept me this time.
‘Once he accepts me, I’ll make sure he grovels at my feet.’
Yenna forced a smile, “You won’t be able to. Soon, Your Highness will need me.”
Hart turned away as if he had no interest in listening further.
“For Lady Hanelope’s sake, you’ll want to keep me close. Unfortunately, it seems the Princess is about to do something foolish.”
“…”
“She’s going to a place she shouldn’t go, doing things she shouldn’t do, all because of greed.”
“What?” Hart turned back to Yenna.
When Hanelope’s name came up, Hart’s face showed a hint of agitation.
“God has told me. The Lady needs help right now.”
A kind smile spread across Yenna’s alluring face. But her dark eyes were filled with a vile satisfaction.
Hart closed his eyes silently, then slowly reopened them, “If what you say is true, lead me to where Hanelope is immediately.”
He didn’t get excited, nor did he refute her words in anger.
‘Is he too stunned to be angry?’
Yenna let it go and led Hart. After all, once he reached ‘that place’ and saw Hanelope, whatever his current feelings were, he would have no choice but to take her hand.
As expected, many people were gathered in front of the ‘ruins of the Grouser’s Temple.’
Nobles who came to greet the Pope and commoners who came to pray. Priests and employees of the Grand Temple were here too.
“Was she really trying to steal the relic?”
“That’s why she got caught in the trap. It must have been set to catch relic thieves, right?”
“Oh my! Why would someone so wealthy and of such high status…?”
Hearing the murmuring of the crowd, it seemed Hanelope had indeed fallen into the trap as planned.
Prache’s temple had destroyed the Grouser Temple and built theirs on the site. The location was too good to pass up.
The Temple of Grouser was mostly destroyed, leaving only the central part.
‘And even that center was left with just the foundation; all the buildings were removed.’
It was left that way to lure out the incarnation of Grouser.
Before Grouser was sealed away, he had left his incarnation in the world.
‘But the temple set up a barrier to keep everyone else at bay.’
Today, they temporarily lifted that barrier. It wasn’t to lure Grouser but to lure Hanelope. To deceive her, they created a fake altar that didn’t exist.
‘Along with the Three Gods, Hanelope must also be searching for Grouser.’
The moment Hanelope believed, she had discovered the Temple of Grouser and stepped into that space…
‘White threads, like spider webs, would shoot out from both sides and capture the intruder.’
At that moment, the employees of the Grand Temple would gather people here.
Then, the plan was to publicly announce that Princess Hanelope had been caught trying to sneak into a room where the Grand Temple’s treasures were hidden.
‘Prache disapproved of this plan, thinking that Yenna would fail.’
But he was wrong.
“It seems that Princess Hanelope got into trouble while coveting the treasures of the Grand Temple.”
Yenna said to Hart, who was frowning and biting his lip.
“Don’t worry, I’ll defend the Lady.”
Yenna spoke to Hart, who remained silent. Then, she proudly squeezed through the crowd.
Hanelope was tightly bound by white, web-like threads.
She was wrapped up so tightly from head to toe that only her nose was visible, making her face unrecognizable.
But the employee of the Grand Temple had already shouted that the criminal, now tightly bound, was Hanelope.
“Saint!”
The warm-faced employee called out to Yenna as if she had found her savior.
This was all according to the predetermined script.
She was the woman who had followed Yenna’s orders to lead her here.
“What happened?”
“Lady Hanelope tried to sneak into the secret room where His Holiness the Pope’s relics are stored and got caught.”
“Oh dear. Didn’t I tell her she wasn’t allowed in there?”
“Of course, I warned her to be careful. I told her not to touch anything in that room. But…”
The employee looked into the corridor. Various treasures glittered, dazzling the eyes of onlookers.
All of them were fake, of course.
“Someone with so much wealth and status, yet still so greedy.”
“What a disgrace….” People murmured.
Hart’s face turned ashen.
Everything was going according to Yenna’s plan.
She smiled sweetly and said, “Surely, the Princess didn’t do this out of greed? It must have been a mistake, right?”
As Yenna said this, she pressed a button inside the corridor.
Then the web-like white threads slowly unraveled.
With that, the figure entangled in the threads collapsed to the ground.
“Pwah!”
“!”
The one trapped in the snare wasn’t Hanelope. It was a young priest.
“What? It’s not Princess Hanelope?”
“On what grounds did the Saint make such a claim?”
The crowd was visibly shocked.
Yenna was just as stunned.
“H-how did this happen…?”
“I- I was just cleaning up in here. I saw a corridor I hadn’t noticed before, and I was curious… Hic!”
The young priest, frightened, burst into tears.
Yenna quickly looked around in panic.
It was then.
“Princess Hanelope!”
A noblewoman shouted as she looked toward the back of the crowd and everyone’s gaze followed.
“What’s going on? Why is everyone gathered here?”
There stood Hanelope, looking completely bewildered.
