~Chapter 29~
“Rose, ah.”
Aster speared a small piece of steak with his fork and held it out to Rose.
His tone was blunt, like he didn’t care, but—
So that’s why he was cutting the steak into tiny pieces earlier.
Floria realized he’d been unusually quiet because he was focused on cutting.
Maybe he was thinking about Rose’s small mouth, or maybe he was just bad at cutting meat—but either way, he cut it into pieces and now offered one to her.
Chomp—Rose obediently ate the piece he gave her.
Even though it was small, her cheeks puffed up full. She chewed for a long time before finally swallowing.
She looked so proud—like a squirrel that had just cracked open a hidden nut.
Floria smiled fondly at her.
Of course, Aster was the same. His golden eyes narrowed naturally as they followed Rose’s every move.
Still, his voice stayed dry, as if he’d read somewhere that “girls like it when you take care of them coldly.”
“Here, Rose. Try this too.”
“Huh? Broccoli? I don’t like vegetables…”
Aster had thought she’d eat anything he gave her without question, but this time he froze, fork paused halfway.
Floria, meanwhile, watched with great interest, like she was reading a story unfold.
Well, what’s he going to do now?
Rose was a picky eater. She only really liked meat, and even then she could only eat a few pieces before saying she was full. Among vegetables, she hated broccoli the most.
“…”
Clearly, Aster had never been rejected like this before. He held the fork with broccoli on it for a long time, thinking.
Then he finally said:
“If you don’t eat this, you won’t grow tall. What will you do if you’re still this small when you’re an adult?”
It was his awkward way of saying he was worried about her picky eating.
But Rose froze in shock.
“Your Highness… do you dislike me because I’m small?”
“…What?”
Aster, who had been trying to act calm, panicked again. He mumbled to himself, embarrassed—“It’s not that, I don’t dislike you for being small…”
“If it’s Your Highness’s order, then I’ll eat it…”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
But Rose had already made up her mind. She opened her mouth as wide as she could, eyes squeezed shut.
She hated broccoli so much her body shook, and even with her mouth open, it looked like she could barely fit half of it inside.
Aster, flustered, couldn’t bring himself to either feed her the broccoli or tell her to stop.
Why don’t you just confess to her already?
Floria hid a smirk.
Rose, with no malice at all, was effortlessly throwing Aster into chaos—and it was hilarious.
“Floria, are you listening?”
“…Ah, yes, Your Grace.”
Rose’s eyes teared up as she nibbled the broccoli, while Aster scrambled helplessly.
But Floria had to turn away—Caspar’s calm, serious voice pulled her attention back.
Even though she wanted to keep watching the little drama, she sighed and shifted her gaze.
Caspar had been talking to her this whole time.
“Ten years ago, the High Priest of Elio Temple secretly used donation money from believers to buy jewels. The Emperor himself found out.”
“…”
“And he once promoted someone with no holy power at all to High Priest rank, giving them a massive salary. There was some outrage, but it quickly disappeared. If that comes to light again, the whole Empire will be shaken.”
Caspar, without touching his food, recited detail after detail of corruption—specifically, the High Priest’s corruption.
The High Priest… was like that?
In the original story, there had never been any mention of such scandals.
If anything, the temple where the heroine lived had been portrayed as pure and noble.
Oh… it did say once, very briefly, that when Rose became Saintess, the High Priest had been replaced.
Maybe that was because his corruption had been exposed back then.
To think that man—who looked so holy—was doing this all along.
And that same man had offered her the position of Saintess. Obviously, he had his own agenda.
It had been the right choice to tell him she’d “think about it.”
But now Floria remembered—the High Priest’s fingers had always been covered in dazzling rings.
“All those rings were bribes,” Caspar said flatly. “If we dig deeper, we’ll find plenty of nobles involved.”
So they were all bribes…
Floria nodded blankly, embarrassed that she had once thought the rings were just symbols of holiness.
But then another question struck her.
Why was Caspar suddenly investigating this? And how did he even know? More importantly—
Why is he telling me?
“Um, Your Grace.”
“What is it?”
“I’m… a priestess of Elio Temple, you know.”
“I know.”
“Then is it really okay for you to be telling me about the temple’s corruption?”
That’s right. She was a priestess of Elio Temple!
If this scandal became public, it wouldn’t just be the High Priest dragged down—the whole temple could fall with him, including innocent priests.
Of course, ordinary priests like me wouldn’t really be involved…
But once public opinion turned, the temple would collapse quickly.
And I’m the one people are calling Saintess right now.
Even without meaning to, her influence was growing. She appeared in newspapers often, and people flocked to her for confessions.
Donations had already skyrocketed—just one month’s offerings, inspired by her, had surpassed all of last year’s. (That, too, she had learned from Caspar.)
So if this corruption came out, people might accuse her of being on the High Priest’s side and destroy her reputation.
She tried to gather her thoughts to explain—but Caspar spoke first.
“You’re worried you’ll be dragged down with the High Priest if this comes out.”
“…Yes.”
Once again, he read her thoughts perfectly. Did he have some power to read minds?
Caspar placed a stack of papers—probably the report detailing the corruption—on the table. He crossed his arms.
“Floria. You’ve heard that the annex prayer room is where High Priests and nobles go, right?”
“Yes.”
Why bring that up now?
“Have you ever actually seen anyone go in there, other than me?”
“…!”
Floria’s mind went blank for a moment.
“Sure, maybe occasionally. But recently, thanks to Shade, most people avoid the annex anyway.”
She thought about it. Other than Rose’s guardian priest, she hadn’t seen anyone come or go.
She’d walked those halls plenty of times, even at night, and had never once seen a noble or high priest there.
Caspar leaned on the table with his chin.
“Have you ever considered that maybe the difference between regular priests and high priests isn’t really holy power?”
“…”
She was speechless.
Even though she remembered the original story well, it had almost nothing about high priests.
That was because the original focused on Rose and Aster’s romance, not on the temple’s structure.
Even Shade’s words echoed in her head: “Why would I steal this tiny scrap of power now, when I’ve already tasted something far greater?”
Maybe he hadn’t been mocking her weak holy power, but comparing it to the much greater power he’d stolen from Rose.
Caspar pushed the report toward her.
“There’s a way to expose the corruption without putting yourself in danger.”
He looked her straight in the eyes.
“From now on, I’ll give you one of these reports every time we meet. They’ll help you.”
His golden eyes shone so brightly that they almost looked the same as Aster’s.
