Ivy collapsed to the floor as if she had fainted as soon as she finished her prophecy.

However, no one in the hall could move a muscle, and no one went to help her stand. Everyone was too stunned by what had just happened, and Helmut was completely frozen in his seat.

There was no one who could understand what had just happened. The prophecy, or rather the oracle, which the Saintess had recited was short. Since it was only about past events rather than the future, it was hard to call it a prophecy. In short, His Majesty conveyed the message that ‘an evil god had appeared in Hiveden and had been defeated by himself.’ No one was surprised about this part; the rumors had already spread. But the Saintess continued and said a few more words directly to the Pope. The message said that ‘the emperor is watching.’

Everyone in the hall wondered what His Majesty meant by telling the Pope that His Majesty was watching him. With the entire hall engulfed in silence, the only thing that could be heard were quiet whispers like the sound of falling leaves.

At that moment, a clapping sound suddenly came from somewhere in the hall. One of the nobles stood up with an admiring expression and clapped his hands. The applause soon spread like flames throughout the hall.

“Our Saintess!”

“Glory to His Majesty!”

Helmut looked around the hall with a dumbfounded face, then soon realized what these idiots were thinking about what had just happened; they believed that the incident was nothing more than a performance to celebrate the birth of a new Saintess.

The prophecy saying that His Majesty had appeared to kill the evil god and is watching his proxy sounded like a well put on show for the ceremony. To relieve the tension in the hall, the nobles quickly clapped. Although the nobles only considered it a show, they judged that the common civilians would be busy praising the new Saintess and the Pope—at least the clapping nobles believed so.

However, those who had been bestowed with His Majesty’s Grace had a different reaction from the nobles.

Helmut could tell what had just happened was definitely real from looking at the Priests who had been exchanging glances as well as the Templars and captains of the knight orders who were greatly agitated.

In fact, Helmut himself was more aware than anyone else that everything that happened was real. The Saintess had given a ‘real oracle.’

Of course, it wasn’t the first time for a Saintess to give a real oracle. But unlike in the past when only ambiguous and confusing words had been recited, it was the first time the oracle expressed a clear intention.

Helmut’s heart was beating like crazy.

‘What’s about to happen? Is His Majesty really coming back or what?’

Ivy, who had collapsed and fainted on the floor belatedly woke up to the sound of applause. Ivy was perplexed to see the crowd applauding her with admiration. While everyone was celebrating the birth of a new Saintess, Helmut had no choice but to bite his lips as he stared at Ivy.

***

As soon as Juan cut off the connection with the Saintess, he spurted out blood from his mouth. Blood sprayed over the magic tools organized to help Juan’s ritual of transferring his spirit.

“Juan!”

Anya quickly supported Juan and helped him spit out the rest of the blood. His blood had turned black, and it seemed like he had severe internal injuries. After a long while, Juan managed to barely regain some strength. Juan's face was pale, but he seemed to be in a good mood.

“Are you okay? You looked like you were in bad condition throughout the whole ritual,” Anya said.

“It’s not as easy as I thought it would be,” Juan answered.

Juan suffered from damage when he hadn’t even returned to his original body, and only used the Saintess’ body as an intermediate medium to speak. Juan had expected his body to be able to endure it since he had grown from a child’s body, but it seemed like it might take a long time to get used to his new body.

Although he failed to return to his original body, finding out that it was possible to connect to the Saintess’ body to move and talk was a great achievement alone.

‘What I want to know is why is the Saintess involved?’

It was unknown whether there were other barriers that blocked Juan from connecting to his original body, but he was hopeful for now.

“Anyway, we should be happy with our achievement. The emperor declared that he was the one who killed the evil god of Hiveden with his own voice using the body of the Saintess, who is known to be ‘the emperor’s mouth.’”

“Wow… I can’t believe that you really succeeded. But do you think people will believe that?”

“It doesn’t matter if they believe it or not. The Church will have no choice but to act like they believe it. At least they won’t barge into Hiveden and interrogate about the recent incident. They would look like they lacked faith in their own beliefs if they did.”

“As expected! You are amazing, Juan!” Anya said as she hugged Juan tightly, not caring about being covered in his blood.

Juan pushed Anya away and made eye contact with Opert, who had been assisting him in his ritual to transfer his spirit. Unlike Anya who had only learned the practical side of magic, as a scholar, Opert knew exactly which magic Juan used. The way Juan handled and delicately controlled his mana, recited spells and made use of various magical items were excellent enough to be the textbook for magicians to refer to.

Opert inadvertently recalled an old story—the god of magic was the Mana God Manenen McLeir, and his remains were buried beneath the magic tower even now, and His Majesty had absorbed Mananen McLeir’s heart. Opert thought that it would be reasonable to refer to His Majesty as the Mana God.

‘Is he actually the emperor himself?’

If anyone saw the way Juan performed magic, they would have no choice but to acknowledge that he was indeed the emperor. Furthermore, Juan didn’t simply control the consciousness of the medium; he was also able to make them move.

Opert suddenly felt a chill. He couldn’t even imagine how powerful Juan would be once he began to actively use the magic of spirit transfer.

“Opert.”

“Huh? Oh, yes!”

Juan wiped the blood around his mouth and stood up.

“I have something to discuss with you privately. You’re the only person I can talk to about this right now since this was my first time doing this as well. Could you help me?”

When Juan reached out his hand, Opert blankly stared at his hand.

‘Someone who is no different from the god of magic is in need of my knowledge?’

Opert’s previous concerns about Juan’s overwhelming power immediately left his mind. Opert decided to disregard his own concerns of Juan abusing his power for wrong intentions—it was more important to Opert that the flow and distribution of knowledge that had been halted ever since the start of the eternal rule began to flow once again.

“I’d be more than happy to help!”

“You’re eager to help all of a sudden. It’s nothing too serious, but my spirit got transferred to the Saintess’ body instead of my original body during the ritual. It felt as if I was blocked from connecting to my body. I’m not sure what happened because I’ve never heard of such a case before. Do you know anything about it?”

“The Saintess you say… Hm, I’m not too sure either. I don’t have much knowledge about spirit transfer, but it is possible that the Church did something to intervene. The existence known as the ‘Saintess’ only appeared after the start of the eternal rule anyway. If the Pope really did do something, then maybe…”

Opert suddenly stopped moving.

“Maybe he put a barrier of some sort on His Majesty’s body.”

“A barrier?” Juan asked.

“Yes. A Saintess would function as the barrier to prevent anything other than pure power from entering His Majesty’s body. It could be a good thing since it can prevent evil spirits from entering or controlling His Majesty’s body. But if there was a negative intention…”

Opert’s eyes glanced at Juan.

“It could be that the Pope is trying to stop His Majesty’s soul from returning to his own body.”

“That’s a possibility.”

Juan recalled the scene he saw and felt through Ivy’s body—a scene where countless nobles and Priests watched the appearance of a new Saintess while they held their breath. If the Pope had been using Saintesses as barriers, Ivy’s existence was likely to be decently significant within the Church. Juan wondered what would happen if she broke free from the Pope’s control.

“Hm. What do you think will happen if I broke through the barrier by force?”

“It will definitely be risky. She might die. But the bigger problem is that the barrier might not break even if the Saintess dies. In the worst case scenario, that weak connection you have between your body and His Majesty’s body might end up breaking.”

“So what should we do?”

“Why don’t we practice and get your body used to the ritual while maintaining the weak connection for as long as possible? Maybe we’ll find a way once we get used to the magic of spirit transfer.”

“Alright. It seems like that’s our only way.”

***

Helmut lit an incense after washing his face. As the scent of the incense filled the room, Helmut felt dizzy and his body loosened. He had often used this type of incense when he was still young.

The Priests were worried that the incense would paralyze the brain and cause addiction, but Helmut thought it was much better than washing his face every thirty minutes.

Helmut’s obsessive compulsion had subsided, but since a few days ago when he appointed the new Saintess, the symptoms had returned. He still couldn’t forget the voice that echoed out of the Saintess’ body which resounded through the entire hall. That voice wasn’t one that belonged to a woman. Although it sounded young, it was definitely a man’s voice.

‘That wasn’t His Majesty’s voice.’

Helmut had met His Majesty in person before, and he remembered His Majesty’s voice, atmosphere, and accent that resonated on the battlefield with his whole body. Because of that reason, Helmut couldn’t be sure whether or not the voice belonged to His Majesty. The words that Ivy shouted seemed to be His Majesty’s voice, but at the same time, it was the voice of someone completely different. Helmut felt more and more confused.

“Hey, you.”

“Yes, your Holiness.”

The new Priestess who had been standing in a tense position answered Helmut while she straightened her back.

“Bring me the Saintess.”

“At… this hour, Your Holiness?”

It was in the middle of the night, when the sun had not even risen yet. It was clear that the Saintess would be still asleep as it was too early for a dawn prayer.

However, Helmut didn’t repeat his command. He directly picked up the wash basin and threw it at the Priestess. The wash basin missed the Priestess and crashed into a wall and shattered into pieces. The Priestess didn’t hesitate to hastily run out of the room to call for the Saintess.

Helmut chewed his fingernails while waiting for Ivy. He didn’t know what to do about the situation—stories about Ivy’s ceremony had already spread throughout the holy city of Torra, and even the nobles were fond of Ivy, who seemed plain but extraordinary. It was only natural since she spoke on His Majesty’s behalf from her first appointment ceremony. While not a lot of people seriously believed that the prophecy that she had recited was real, everyone was fond of her anyway.

The bigger problem was the rumors that had been spreading within the Church. Although Helmut was making sure that no one spoke of it, the Priests and Knights were clearly agitated. Even the captain of the Order of the White Lotus, who used to look down on the Saintess, bowed his head politely in front of her after that incident.

“Shit, shit, shit…”

Helmut was placed in a situation where he couldn’t do anything. A Saintess who was liked and respected by people was not suitable to be a puppet that Helmut could control according to his wishes.

At that moment, Helmut heard a knock.

“Come in!”

The door opened, and Ivy carefully entered the room with a scared expression. She was only wearing a jacket on top of her pajamas as if she had run to Helmut’s room as soon as she woke up.

Helmut felt like he was going crazy—Ivy’s reaction was exactly the one he wanted from a Saintess. However, that silly coward had now become the most dangerous bomb stuck in Helmut’s hand.

Helmut beckoned her to come near him, and Ivy made a timid face at Helmut’s ferocious eyes. Ivy slowly approached Helmut with cautious steps.

Helmut suppressed his boiling anger and beckoned.

“...Make yourself comfortable and sit down. How have you been recently?”

“I-I’ve been still adjusting, Your Holiness.”

“Don’t be too nervous and feel free to tell me everything. Things must have changed a lot from before when you had only been a Priestess. The position of the Saintess is an honorable one. It’s normally a position that someone with a low status such as yourself couldn’t even hope to reach in an entire lifetime.”

Ivy had no choice but to sit down on the couch and undergo Helmut’s interrogation. Ivy was forced to answer Helmut’s persistent questions.

“I definitely feel that the way other people treat me has changed after I became the Saintess. I feel strange seeing my fellow Priests, who used to be my friends and the Templars who used to ignore me, lower their bodies to bow down to me…”

Helmut gritted his teeth at her words. Not being able to notice, Ivy continued her words.

“Oh, and… I’ve been forgetting things a lot more frequently, like the time I lost my memory during the ceremony. Did my predecessors go through the same thing by any chance?”