The Temple was shrouded in a hazy mist.
Perhaps because it was situated atop a high mountain, the Temple was frequently blanketed in fog or clouds.
Beyond the central temple, where believers who had paid their tithes offered prayers or attended mass, and the east and west wings, which were restricted to high-ranking priests, gardens were cultivated throughout the grounds.
The Temple’s gardens were famous for their beauty. The concentration of divine power in these gardens was so intense that they were difficult for ordinary believers to endure. They could do little more than catch a glimpse of that beauty as they passed by the garden’s perimeter.
"They say some people even feel headaches or dizziness."
Listening to Anella’s whispered words, Ria felt a surge of tension and, without realizing it, clenched her fists and lowered her head.
The ritual to prove one’s lineage took place in the central temple.
In the central temple, candles lined the walls, centered around a massive altar where a statue of the Goddess stood.
The faint light filtering through the windows hit the stained glass, scattering and shimmering.
The quiet, solemn atmosphere made Ria freeze with tension. She bit her dry lips.
Duke Ignis and Cassius stood side by side on either side of Ria.
Duke Ignis’s expression was as cold and rational as ever, while Cassius, as if trying to ease her tension, placed a large hand on Ria’s shoulder and patted it gently.
"My child, it might sting for a moment, but it’s nothing. Compared to when I fought the snow tigers of the Northern Mountains... well, perhaps..."
Ria couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his clumsy attempt at encouragement.
Perhaps because his encouragement hit the mark, her heart strangely began to settle.
"I will be right here by your side, just as I am now."
His gruff words, spoken with such care, warmed Ria’s heart.
"Come now, let’s finish this quickly and go home to eat some thick, buttered steak."
Cassius said, smiling playfully at Ria.
Home.
Ria loved the resonance of that word.
Perhaps she had been a little excited, thinking that she, too, would finally have a home.
Soon, the Archbishop presiding over the ritual stepped out in front of the altar.
He was an elderly-looking priest, holding a small, shimmering silver bowl in one hand.
Inside the bowl was the holy water to be used for the ritual.
The ritual began with the Archbishop’s solemn voice offering prayers to the Goddess Ayla.
Duke Ignis and Young Duke Cassius stepped forward to the altar in unison, standing before it with calm expressions.
The Duke reached out first, taking the sharp dagger placed on the altar.
He pricked his fingertip and let a few drops of red blood fall into the silver bowl containing the holy water.
A moment later, Cassius did the same. Within the clear, rippling holy water, the two drops of blood sought each other out, weaving together into one and slowly dissolving.
"This is the lineage of Tenebris bestowed by the Goddess."
The Archbishop declared in a low voice.
Next was Ria’s turn.
As instructed beforehand, Ria followed the priest’s guidance and walked toward the central altar.
A group of priests, dressed in pure white robes with navy blue wave patterns embroidered on their hoods and sleeves, stood surrounding the altar, waiting for her.
Ria approached the altar with trembling steps, one by one. The priests began to chant prayers in low voices.
When she reached out her hand over the silver bowl held by a priest, he took out an intricately crafted blade and carefully made a small cut on her fingertip. Ria’s blood fell drop by drop into the silver bowl, mingling with the holy water infused with the blood of Tenebris.
As Ria’s blood fell into the holy water, a soft light began to bloom from within the bowl. Everyone’s gaze turned toward the silver bowl.
It was a light that appeared only when blood of the same lineage mingled. It was proof of the harmony and order brought by the Goddess.
Ria’s heart began to pound.
However, the light soon lost its strength and faded away.
The blood inside the silver bowl remained strangely misaligned, never mixing.
Unlike the blood of Ignis and Cassius, which had naturally accepted one another, Ria’s drops of blood merely hovered around the edges.
A low groan escaped the lips of the Archbishop holding the silver bowl.
Ria stared at the wound on her hand.
She did not possess the blood of Tenebris.
The anxiety that had only resided in the depths of her heart slowly began to rear its head.
The Archbishop’s brow furrowed.
The holy water reacted exactly as it had when the boy had come just before.
That boy’s blood, too, had failed to mingle with the Tenebris blood and had remained separate, just like this.
Unable to hide his bewilderment at seeing the same result twice, the Archbishop peered into the silver bowl again and again.
But the result did not change.
Blood that did not mix meant that the lineage did not match.
Ria’s face turned pale.
Duke Ignis hardened his expression, and Cassius, too, frowned.
"I knew it."
Amidst the bewildered crowd, a small but clear voice rang out.
Leonic was watching Ria with cold eyes, his arms crossed.
"The crime of daring to deceive the Ducal house shall not be forgiven."
Leonic lashed out in a cold voice, as if she were despicable. It was clear contempt and anger.
But Ria could say nothing.
Since she had failed the Temple’s bloodline verification, no excuse would work.
"Ria..."
Beside Leonic, Anella was looking at Ria, not knowing what to do.
Ria let out a sigh.
"Your Grace. Young Duke. It was not my intention to deceive the Ducal house. I only sought out the Duke’s estate after seeing the crest engraved on my mother’s pendant."
The Duke looked down at Ria silently, without a word. His heart felt complicated.
In just over a month, he had been humiliated at the Temple twice.
It was not an entirely unexpected result.
His own heart had been frozen, knowingly or unknowingly, by the incident from a short while ago.
Even so, it was not as if he hadn't held a sliver of hope.
It was true that her eyes and smile, which so resembled his daughter’s, had shaken him. Hadn't Marian also said there was nothing suspicious about the child?
However, the Temple does not lie.
In the end, this child, too, was nothing more than a liar who had deceived Tenebris.
Why.
Why must a child with eyes so identical to Leila’s...
How could she make a mockery of my house again?
The Duke let out a long sigh.
"I will make sure to repay the kindness I received, which was far more than I deserved. If you allow it, I will work at the Duke’s estate and pay off my debt with my wages."
"What are you talking about! Why would you have to work, child!"
While Ria, the person involved, was calm, Cassius instead flew into a rage. His eyes shimmered with anger and despair, as if he could not possibly accept the result.
Eleanor gently took Cassius’s arm, stopping him.
The word of the Temple was absolute.
Even the Emperor could not defy the will of the Goddess.
If Cassius showed even the slightest sign of defying the Goddess’s will now, there was no telling what kind of trouble might befall the Ducal house later.
Just then, the doors of the Temple opened, and a priest quietly revealed himself.
At the jarring sound of the doors opening, everyone’s gaze naturally turned in that direction.
The priest’s footsteps echoed through the Temple, as quiet yet sharp as a wind cutting through the hall, and the air inside the Temple, already thick with tension, grew even tighter.
He walked lightly across the corridor and removed the hood that had been covering his head.
His hair was as white as moonlight, and his eyes were golden, shining like the sun.
More surprising than his features, which were as precise as a well-carved sculpture, was the strange aura he exuded.
His eyes, shining beneath long, straight lashes, revealed no emotion, yet the curve of his lips created a mysterious impression.
He walked slowly toward the altar.
No one stopped him.
The Archbishop’s gaze fell upon him.
Yet even the Archbishop allowed him to wander through the central temple as he pleased.
The priests gathered in the Temple cleared a path for him.
The young priest stared slowly at the holy water on the altar.
His expression stiffened slightly.
"Archbishop! Who on earth is this person to interrupt and interfere in the middle of a sacred ritual!"
Cassius shouted in a dissatisfied voice.
The Archbishop hesitated, looking somewhat flustered.
"I really didn't want to have a physical confrontation in this sacred place, but—"
"That person is!"
The Archbishop cut off his words, seemingly panicked by the sight of Cassius rolling up his sleeves.
"That person... no, that child is... well, he is... a novice priest, yes, a novice priest. Who joined recently."
At the Archbishop’s haphazard answer, one of Cassius’s eyebrows twitched upward.
"A novice priest? How dare a mere novice priest..."
"His divine power is higher than anyone else’s in the Temple!!!"
The Archbishop, forgetting his dignity, shouted without even taking a breath.
At the unexpected answer, Cassius’s eyes widened.
The novice priest standing next to Ria had a sculpted profile that shimmered.
He doesn't look very old, yet his divine power is high; how impressive. So that’s why the Archbishop cherishes him so much, even though he’s a novice priest.
Novice priest or not, the fact that he was under someone’s protection was something Ria could only envy.
Especially now, when she had nowhere left to go, having been revealed as not being of the Tenebris bloodline.
The corners of the young priest’s mouth, who was ‘higher in divine power than anyone else in the Temple,’ curled up slightly.
"Hmm. It seems I must correct a mistake."
"A mistake?"
At the young priest’s words, Duke Ignis looked up sharply.
"Did you just say a mistake?"
His voice was grave and imposing.
"Is it a mistake to have thought this child was Leila’s daughter?"
"Is it a mistake to have tried to embrace her as a member of Tenebris?"
Ignis unleashed his aura in an instant.
The sheer pressure he radiated was enough to drain the strength from any ordinary person just by having to answer him.
But at that moment, the smile vanished from the young priest’s lips, and he opened his mouth quietly, his expression turning grave.
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