In the dark archive, Angel was wandering through this place where she had first found the book about the mirror.
‘Where is it…’
Late at night, in a place where there was no sign of human presence at all, Angel was examining books one by one, relying on a single candle.
The temple, older than the Empire’s history, stored an enormous quantity of books incomparable to other places. Of course, most were books related to the gods and were difficult or entirely impossible to obtain outside.
The place where Angel was now was among them, a place that hadn’t been properly organized.
‘There might not be any records.’
The library that existed in the most secluded corner among the temple’s libraries. It was a place anyone could enter, but at the same time, a place people rarely visited.
A place where things gathered that didn’t have proper titles or whose contents weren’t properly interpreted, or had missing content in the middle. A place where notes and scribbles that were hard to call books had gathered.
Occasionally, valuable materials were found even among these shabby things, so they weren’t thrown away, but no one stepped forward with the thought of organizing them. Since important content was discovered very rarely, no one wanted to bother with the trouble.
‘I was the same.’
The first time she found a book related to the mirror here was truly by coincidence.
When Angel realized that the book she had casually picked up in the archive she’d entered without any particular thought was related to the mirror in the temple warehouse, she had thought of Rosetta.
‘I don’t know why I thought of him, though.’
Since two books had been bound together as one, she had thought that was everything about the mirror.
‘But there’s a possibility that’s not everything.’
The problem was that doing this work alone seemed like it would take too much time. Angel irritably closed the book.
‘If I just leave it alone, it will resolve itself.’
According to the records, if time passed, there was a high possibility that things would be arranged as desired even without Angel stepping forward.
Angel, who had been viewing the situation positively, soon shook her head. Angel wasn’t satisfied with that. She wanted to gain certainty that Rosetta Borealis would fall into ruin.
What if she just passed over this matter thinking it might happen, and things didn’t flow in the direction Angel expected?
‘No.’
She couldn’t understand herself why she disliked Rosetta Borealis so much, but Angel put strength into her hand again.
She wanted to gain certainty that the Emperor would definitely be ruined, and watch them being happy while waiting for that ending.
‘Right. I just need to confirm whether the dream really affects sending the outsider back to their original world. So let’s just search a little more.’
Angel put strength into her drowsy eyes. Most of the temple’s external affairs were handled by Angel, the Saintess, and therefore she was in a position where she couldn’t focus only on Rosetta. In the end, the only time left for Angel was late at night.
Angel was biting her lip and reaching out again when she dropped the candlestick she was holding.
‘Ah!’
Angel’s eyes widened. In that really brief moment, numerous thoughts flashed through Angel.
‘If I drop this here…’
Angel quickly scanned the floor beneath her. The books she had just been examining were spread on the floor below.
‘The fire will spread in an instant.’
Then she wouldn’t be able to hide her dealings with the Emperor from her superiors, and there would be problems with the books she hadn’t examined yet.
Angel quickly drew up her holy power. She wasn’t certain if she could block the fire with holy power, but she had to do something.
Just as Angel was about to draw up her holy power, another holy power intervened in the situation before hers. Angel looked at the owner of the quite refreshing holy power that had rushed up to below her neck.
‘Who is it?’
It was a man holding a small candle. A man with light brown hair stopped in front of Angel. Angel examined his face, relying on the flickering candlelight he was holding.
A man with skin a bit darker in contrast to his light brown hair. The man’s dry yellowish-green eyes rounded as they captured Angel.
“Saintess-nim?”
Angel opened her mouth while being cautious of the man.
“So you’re the High Priest…”
“I’m Root.”
Though she didn’t know his name, it was a face she’d seen occasionally. Of course, just because he was a familiar face and she now knew his name didn’t mean Angel let down her guard.
It was a very late hour without a single point of light. The fact that he had come to this library, which people rarely visited, at such a late hour was not a common occurrence.
Of course, the probability of something happening to Angel, the Saintess, in the temple was very low, but still, she couldn’t easily feel at ease. Angel asked while scanning Root up and down.
“Why are you here?”
Then Root answered with a laugh as if it were absurd.
“That’s what I should be saying to you. For now, though it’s nominal, I’m in charge of this library.”
In charge of the library?
Every priest had their own responsibilities. Angel was one of the people representing the temple, so she usually handled a lot of external work, but most priests each had a task within the temple.
But a High Priest in charge of this library where these worthless books gathered?
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
A High Priest, unlike an ordinary priest, was someone who possessed powerful holy power.
Of course, there were those who became High Priests because they were of noble origin, but Angel had identified all those people by name. So this person whose name Angel didn’t know had become a High Priest because of powerful holy power, not because of their original social status.
Even if he wasn’t of noble origin, he was still a High Priest. There was no way such a trivial duty would be assigned to a High Priest. Angel asked with a face full of suspicion.
“You’re in charge of this place? I haven’t heard that a High Priest is in charge of a place like this.”
At Angel’s words, Root’s eyes widened as he stared at Angel. As Angel frowned, the man asked with a small laugh.
“You don’t know?”
“What?”
Root continued nonchalantly.
“Where else is there such an easy job as being in charge of a library no one visits? Even if I don’t bother examining it, no one knows I’m not working.”
In other words, this was the perfect place to slack off. She wasn’t unaware that there were priests who weren’t devout. Just as there were people like Angel who devoted themselves to the gods and the temple, there were bound to be lazy and indulgent ones as well.
She hadn’t particularly heard bad rumors about this man, but listening to what he was saying now, it seemed he wasn’t such a diligent person.
Angel said reproachfully.
“You sure say such things in front of me.”
It wasn’t appropriate to say in front of Angel, the Saintess. At Angel’s criticism, Root asked with a smile.
“Are you going to report me?”
Though he was asking playfully, it was a subtle tone. To report Root’s unfaithfulness now, Angel would have to explain why she had come out to the library alone at such a late hour.
Angel still hadn’t talked about how she’d returned to the temple as if being chased out, nor had she informed the elders that something might go wrong with the mirror.
‘It will be revealed someday, but I was planning to keep my mouth shut for a while.’
But even so, this didn’t become blackmail material. Even if it was revealed that there had been friction with the Emperor, she would at most receive some reprimand, but her dignity wouldn’t fall significantly.
‘Because on the surface, all my actions were well-intentioned.’
Since Angel had burned the second book she’d seen, no one knew that Angel had gifted the mirror to Rosetta with malicious intent.
Therefore, Angel found the kind of threat the man had thrown laughable. Angel asked sharply.
“You don’t usually come, so what brings you here?”
If he’d chosen this job to slack off, why was he wandering around here at such a late hour? Why did he suddenly appear at this exact time when Angel was here?
Root shrugged his shoulders and answered.
“I was passing by and saw a small light. I came in wondering who had such deep scholarly passion.”
She examined his face to see if he was being sarcastic, but there was no particular sign of that. Angel let out a small sigh.
What was she even doing? It seemed like she was getting angry for no reason over something that was nothing. She was sharpening her edge unnecessarily because she was on edge.
‘I don’t have time to waste like this.’
Angel was a busy person and didn’t have the luxury to fight with a High Priest she normally had no connection with.
“Why don’t you go back now that you’ve seen?”
Then Root pointed at the candle on the floor with its wick cut off.
“But didn’t such an accident just happen?”
At Root’s point, Angel looked down at the floor again and caught sight of the thin, cleanly cut wick. Before the candle fell to the floor, he had cut off the wick and extinguished the fire.
‘His ability isn’t bad. No, it’s remarkable.’
Especially if one’s holy power was powerful enough to become a High Priest, delicate utilization would inevitably be that much more difficult. Angel looked at Root with a curious gaze and said.
“…You handle holy power extremely delicately.”
“I’m receiving praise from the Saintess-nim. It will be something to boast about.”
“I’ll apologize for today’s matter. I acknowledge that something big almost happened.”
At Angel’s words, the man nodded and answered.
“Yes, so please go back now for today. You must have been very surprised. After all, I am nominally in charge of this place.”
The man gestured at the books fallen on the floor. He was saying that he would stay and organize the books, so Angel should leave first.
The messily scattered books seemed like they would take quite a while to organize. Since it was something she’d done herself, she thought about helping the man in front of her, but Angel just nodded.
Normally, considering her reputation, she would absolutely not leave the scene like this, but Angel just left. Somehow, it didn’t seem like this man would particularly spread bad rumors about Angel.
‘And who would believe the words of a High Priest who isn’t even of noble origin?’
