Chapter 143
“Has something happened to the High Priest?”
Euclid looked down at the priest as he asked. The priest, still looking troubled, furrowed his brows.
“I am not certain.”
“Is he ill? If so, I can send an imperial physician.”
“That would be an honor, however His Holiness seems to be in good condition. He appeared well when I saw him not long ago. It is just that…”
“Just that?”
When the priest lowered his voice, Euclid tilted his head. After checking that no one was nearby, the priest whispered.
“He seemed frightened of something. He kept trembling.”
Euclid and Sylaria exchanged glances at the priest’s words.
The High Priest was the one in the Empire closest to the heavens. Reaching that position required long years of training. Only those who had reached a certain spiritual state through decades of prayer and discipline could become High Priest.
So what could possibly frighten such a man.
‘Trembling? Why?’
Sylaria knit her brows. Nothing came to mind right away.
“Thank you for telling us. Please say that we will visit again another day.”
When Sylaria spoke, Euclid nodded as well. The priest bowed deeply, and the two left the central hall.
The High Priest’s sudden strange behavior was concerning, but staying here longer would gain them nothing. It would be better to return to the palace quickly and investigate.
“……”
The priest who had spoken with the Crown Prince let out a small sigh as he watched him leave. Then he hurried into the temple’s labyrinthine corridors.
Reaching a hallway lined with white doors, the priest stopped before one of them. At his knock, the door slowly opened.
“As you commanded, I have sent His Highness the Crown Prince away, High Priest.”
“Thank you.”
After delivering his report, the priest once again departed in quick steps down the corridor. Linder locked the door as soon as the priest left.
“Haa…”
Linder’s wrinkled hands trembled. Looking around at his simple quarters with only a bed and a desk, he clasped his hands together as if in prayer.
Whose hand should he take. The Empress’s, or the Crown Prince’s.
It was an important question even in worldly matters, and it was Linder’s greatest concern as well.
The Crown Prince had been expanding his power rapidly of late. But there was no guarantee that momentum would last. And he certainly was not as persistent as the Empress.
If he refused the Crown Prince’s request, that would be the end of it. Euclid was not the sort of person to harbor grudges for being turned down.
But the Empress was different. If he ignored her warnings, the result would be his ruin. More than that, his very life rested in her hands. Linder remembered the Empress’s visit to the temple with the Second Prince not long ago.
‘Did you truly think I would not know how long you have been embezzling the temple’s budget?’
The Empress’s clear voice seemed to echo in his ears. She had threatened to expose all his misconduct if he did not comply with her demands.
As the High Priest, Linder could not afford to lose the reputation he had built over decades. Kneeling to the Empress was his only choice.
“God Almighty, look upon your foolish servant.”
Linder knelt before his bed and prayed earnestly. He prayed that just as the gods had turned a blind eye to decades of his misdeeds, they would also understand his silence this time.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the Emperor’s bedchamber.
Cressida looked down at the Emperor’s face as he lay on the bed. His eyes were closed, unaware that the Empress and a physician stood beside him. He also did not notice that the blanket had been pulled back from his lower body and his trousers rolled up to the knee.
“We shall begin, Your Majesty the Empress.”
The physician took out a thick, sharp needle from his medical bag. When Cressida gave him a small nod, he inserted the needle into the Emperor’s calf with a tense expression.
A hose attached to the end of the needle led to a large golden vial. The physician drew the Emperor’s blood until the container, similar in size to a chilled water jug, was nearly full.
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