Chapter 166

Riena’s voice was low, audible only to Arcia.

The guards beside Riena, and even the more distant soldiers, seemed not to notice her calling Arcia a “fake.”

“This room is still in use by me.”

Arcia responded coolly, refusing to fall for the low-level provocation.

“If you have business, wait your turn.”

“Hmm, that won’t do.”

A faintly bitter smile appeared at the corner of Riena’s mouth.

“You didn’t get permission from the High Priest. I did. So by rights, I have priority here. Should we ask the High Priest? I’m sure he’s arriving soon.”

The High Priest would never side with Arcia.

Recently, he had been furious that Arcia, his own puppet, had unilaterally suggested the Saintess verification before so many people.

If he hadn’t been observed, he might have locked her up to prevent any further reckless actions.

“Besides, according to the guards, quite a bit of time passed after you went in. Surely your business is finished by now?”

“…Not yet. Wait.”

At that moment, Riena’s expression changed drastically.

“Why are you acting like this? As if hiding something inside?”

Arcia’s heart plummeted.

Idel was in there. Her consciousness, meeting the goddess, was not present in this room.

“If this woman goes in now, she will definitely discover Idel’s presence…!”

In principle, anyone other than the High Priest or the Saintess entering without explicit permission violated the temple’s rules.

Arcia’s role as the Saintess’ aide technically fell under the same rules, but the guards had looked the other way.

Yet Riena, with her cunning, would surely make a problem of it. If it became known that a non-priest had broken the law, the temple would be thrown into chaos.

If Idel’s status as the true Saintess were revealed, it would resolve the situation—but that was not what she wanted.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Arcia said desperately, pretending ignorance to fulfill Idel’s wish.

“In any case, I’ll be staying here longer, so if you really need to use it, come back in thirty minutes…”

“Why did you suddenly send the aide who was always by your side to prison?”

Riena was referring to Hersiso.

“You think I wouldn’t notice? How many times have you met Idel?”

Riena’s crimson eyes blazed.

“You’re interfering with me again. Again! I will never forgive you!”

The hatred in her tone was clearly directed not at Arcia, but at someone else.

“Step aside!”

“Ugh!”

Then, Riena shoved Arcia violently aside and threw the door wide open.

But the room inside was empty.

“…Huh?”

Riena, unable to help herself, ran inside and looked around.

“Where did you hide them!”

Even after searching behind pillars and under the water fountain, not a single ant was found.

Moments later, Riena approached Arcia with a furious expression.

“Just watch. Even if you side with someone else, I will never lose. Because I am loved by the goddess.”

She then grabbed Arcia’s hand.

“Ugh.”

The pressure of divine power radiating through the grasp forced Arcia to one knee.

It was immense—surpassing even the amount Arcia had built up over a lifetime of devoted service to the goddess Miela.

Divine power stems from faith.

No matter how high-ranking or devout a priest is, there comes a moment when they question, “Does a god truly exist? If so, is that god good?”

How many can witness the righteous suffering and the wicked prospering, yet never feel doubt toward their god?

But Riena’s divine power was formidable, as though she had never doubted the existence of a god or the god’s benevolence.

“Even Idel, another Saintess, didn’t seem to have such deep faith… How can this one believe so purely and unwaveringly?”

Arcia wondered at the source of Riena’s faith and how long it could possibly endure.

Having seen countless priests, Arcia knew: the purer and younger the priest, the greater the shock when they encounter the world’s and temple’s injustice.

After waiting for Arcia to move away from the inner sanctum, I appeared before her.

“Arcia.”

“Idel!”

Arcia’s face brightened at seeing me.

“So you used that artifact after all.”

I smiled and tapped my waist. Under the priest robes, she could feel the leather belt.

“Works well, right?”

The belt, one of Kaise’s inventions, was made from the hide of a monster.

It wasn’t particularly strong, but the monster was difficult to catch—and the belt could render its wearer invisible at will.

Kaise had focused on this trait and, after extensive experiments, created the artifact to make the wearer a transparent human—for a maximum of 20 minutes.

It did have a major drawback: as it was made from monster hide, magical energy seeped into the wearer.

Fortunately, I had abundant divine power and had learned from the divine creature how to control it, so I could suppress the magical energy appropriately.

“Once I regained composure, Arcia was gone, and things outside were chaotic. So I used the belt.”

Then, as Riena threw the door wide open and entered, I slipped out through the gap.

Arcia smiled faintly and whispered, “Well… actually…” She then told me what had happened with Riena.

“Huh, divine power. That seems to be Riena’s advantage.”

Riena’s thinking was simple.

If Arcia entered the Saintess verification, her victory was guaranteed. Even if I opened the door, Riena’s superior divine power would prevail.

Until now, the temple had always maintained that there could only be one Saintess, so the sudden appearance of two was unlikely to be accepted.

One of us would probably be accused of opening the door by trickery or deceiving the people.

“And if there’s no other reason, the temple will choose the one with the greater divine power.”

Just in case, I extended my hand to Arcia and asked her to gauge my divine power.

As I radiated divine energy, sweat formed on Arcia’s brow.

“An immense amount of divine power. But…”

“Not as much as Riena?”

“I’m afraid so. Just by a hair, though.”

Even with the power I had received from Terence, I still couldn’t surpass Riena.

“Well, it can’t be helped.”

I didn’t really trust the goddess Miela, but Riena’s faith was unshakable. Likely born from her delusion that the goddess adored her.

“It’s fine!”

I reassured Arcia, whose expression had darkened.

“Divine power isn’t everything. We’ll stick to our plan.”

From the start, I had no intention of directly confronting Riena in a divine power duel.

Time passed quickly. Arcia and I practiced outdoors as planned.

Because the High Priest had suddenly withdrawn his attention from Arcia, she was able to leave without difficulty.

“About ten minutes after Riena entered the room with the verification door, the High Priest emerged with a bewildered expression,” Arcia relayed from information obtained from the guards.

The guards had pressured Riena, saying it was nearly time for them to leave, so she couldn’t stay long in the room.

However, judging by how the High Priest then repeatedly asked to have a meal with Riena, she had clearly opened the verification door.

Moreover, the High Priest, not wanting Morton Cardinal to take the opportunity, likely wanted to form a connection with the true Saintess while he could.

In short, he had abandoned Arcia and sided with Riena.

Arcia, rather than feeling upset, prepared for the Saintess verification with a relieved expression.

Thus, the long-awaited day had finally arrived.

The plaza in front of the Grand Temple was packed with people from across the empire.

It was the first time since possessing Idel’s body that I had seen such a crowd.

“Well, if not now, when will I witness a Saintess opening the verification door?”

While important national events like the emperor’s coronation occurred with each change of ruler, the Saintess verification was a first in imperial history.

Thanks to Arcia’s three-day preparation period, the crowd was manageable. If it had been longer, the number of people would have doubled.

“Be quiet! The verification is about to begin!”

A priest’s voice, imbued with divine power, echoed through the plaza, and the crowd quieted slightly.

On the grand platform at the end of the square, two figures stood.

Riena and Arcia.

Behind them, a cloth-covered structure bulged. When the cloth was removed, the verification door was revealed.

The priest in charge spoke again.

“The order has been fairly determined by lot. Riena will have the first chance to open the door.”

Unlike last time, Riena approached in elegant, pristine white attire.

“Oh, goddess Miela, show everyone here that you chose me! Grant me the courage and strength to save them!”

She prayed loudly, then placed her hand on the handle.

Riena turned the handle. One second, two seconds, three seconds… time passed.