Chapter 39
Even after the Grand Consecration had completely ended, the atmosphere inside the temple remained unsettled for a long time.
The ceremony, which had proceeded under the name of mercy and blessing until just moments ago, had been completely overturned at the very end.
Everyone could clearly see who had tried to test the Saintess’s power and who had calculated the value of someone’s blood under the guise of mercy, even if no one said it aloud.
Elise slowly made her way toward a garden where there were relatively few people.
A priest then approached her and conveyed the emperor’s order.
“His Majesty requests that you come to the Imperial Palace shortly.”
It was exactly what she had expected.
Elise gave a small smile.
“All right.”
That was her answer, but she did not head straight to the secret audience chamber.
Instead, Elise made her way toward a small, closed prayer room behind the temple.
When the temple had first been built, high-ranking clergy other than herself had used it for private meetings with people. But now, it was a place almost no one visited.
Creak—
The door to the prayer room opened.
Light passing through the old stained-glass windows cast faint patterns across the floor.
And in the very center stood someone who had already been waiting.
“It’s been a while.”
The person greeting her with a smile was none other than Dalia.
The woman who had seemed endlessly gentle just moments ago was now wearing an entirely different expression.
Her back was straight, her gaze precise, and even her presence seemed deliberately subdued.
There was a sharpness about her that no ordinary woman could possess.
Elise observed her for a moment before quietly speaking.
“I thought you would be waiting for me.”
Dalia’s lips slowly curved upward.
“I knew you would come too.”
“Should I call you Headmistress?”
“Then should I call you Saintess?”
She slowly approached Elise.
“Were you really worthy of being called a Saintess?”
Then the corners of Dalia’s eyes curved gently.
“Elise.”
At those words, Elise’s gaze turned cold.
It was only natural that Dalia knew about her past.
After all, she was the very person who raised children and sent them to the assassin organization known as Johnny Walker.
But Elise also knew one thing about Dalia.
“Of course. I also know your other name, Headmistress.”
Elise stepped toward her as well.
“No one else knows, do they? Your true identity.”
Dalia’s eyes trembled slightly at those words.
“Captain.”
The air inside the prayer room sank into an almost imperceptible silence.
Dalia was not surprised.
She simply remained silent for a moment before letting out a deeper smile.
“Oh my.”
She slowly took another step closer.
“Not many people know that.”
Killing intent seeped into Dalia’s eyes.
Elise quietly swallowed.
Naturally, she had not known this until she experienced her prophetic dreams.
But among the fragments of the future that had flashed before her like visions, Elise had been able to see this woman’s true face for the first time.
Why were those people…?
Dalia, who had appeared at the burning ceremony, and the assassins of Johnny Walker.
Strangely enough, at the very moment the flames had erupted, they had been fighting against the emperor’s forces.
And from that sight, Elise had realized something.
Dalia was by no means an ordinary orphanage director, and Johnny Walker was not simply an ordinary assassin organization.
If I hadn’t seen the future, I wouldn’t have known either. That Johnny Walker wasn’t merely an assassin organization.
Then again, when Elise had been there, she had only been a low-ranking member. There was no way she could have known the details.
Elise spoke calmly.
“I didn’t know when I was a child. I thought it was simply a mad group of assassins. But after spending time here, I realized something.”
Since she couldn’t tell Dalia that she had seen the future, Elise came up with an excuse.
“Everyone Johnny Walker targeted was either a noble aligned with the emperor or some damn villain who tormented other people.”
“I see.”
Her voice was gentle, but beneath it lay an old hatred.
“That splendid palace has always been built by trampling on people like us. The abandoned, the nameless, those without families or anyone to protect them. The imperial family always pretended to keep their hands clean while secretly devouring the lives of those at the very bottom.”
Dalia’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“That’s why I can’t stand watching people like that prosper.”
Her gaze soon shifted toward Elise.
“You seem to be getting used in the same way, don’t you?”
Their eyes met in the air.
“Is that why you helped me?”
“That was part of it.”
Dalia tilted her head.
“More than anything, though, I liked your eyes. Those eyes you have when you look at the emperor. They aren’t the eyes of someone who simply hates him.”
She spoke each syllable clearly.
“They were the eyes of someone who had decided… to destroy him completely.”
A brief silence followed.
Elise did not bother denying it.
Nor did she intend to.
Her hatred for Eshit had already seeped into her body like blood.
That arrogant, selfish emperor treated her as nothing more than an object called the Saintess. He approached her with a kind face only when he needed something, demanding her blood and divine power.
And now he was trying to take complete control of her.
Hadn’t all of that already been exposed for everyone to see?
Everything about him was so disgusting that it made her feel sick.
“Yes.”
Elise answered quietly.
“I’m going to bring Eshit down.”
Dalia’s eyes curved in satisfaction.
“Good. Then I’ll help you too.”
Her words sounded light, but their meaning was anything but.
The fact that the leader of Johnny Walker was willing to act meant Elise had gained an extremely powerful ally.
But even then, a corner of Elise’s heart remained heavy.
She remembered the pale faces of the children who had entered the Grand Consecration.
Those abandoned-looking eyes.
The traces of people who had learned how to survive far too young.
After thinking for a moment, she slowly opened her lips.
“I have one condition.”
Dalia’s eyebrow rose slightly.
“A condition?”
“Don’t force children who have lost their parents… to be used anymore.”
Elise’s voice was low but firm.
“Just because they were abandoned, just because they have nowhere else to go… don’t turn them into tools for someone else’s revenge. If you truly hate the imperial family, then you shouldn’t imitate the very things they did.”
At those words, Dalia slowly blinked, as though she had just been struck hard in the back of the head.
The prayer room fell silent.
A distant bell rang outside, but even its sound could not break the silence.
After a long while, Dalia slowly asked,
“That’s your condition?”
“Yes.”
Elise answered without hesitation.
“If you make that promise, I’ll give you what you want as well.”
She pulled a folded sheet of paper from inside her sleeve.
It was an old piece of parchment.
But the moment Dalia recognized what it was, her eyes visibly trembled for the first time.
Though it appeared ordinary at first glance, it was none other than a map marking the locations of hidden passages, secret stairways, and sealed doors within the Imperial Palace.
