# 23
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“Okay.”
Upon his immediate answer without hesitation, Dana burst out laughing lightly.
“Aren’t you going to ask where exactly?”
“I will follow you wherever you choose, Senpai.”
Dana took his blindingly loyal act as a joke.
But Edwin was sincerely and infinitely serious.
It wasn't just a matter of 'following' for him, but wherever Dana went, he would follow her without hesitation.
Dana, who did not know what was going on in his dark, obsessive head,
She smiled at him brightly.
“Let's go to the temple.”
"To the temple? Why…?"
Before he could finish his question, he realized.
At the same moment, lights of joy burned in his head like stars.
“…Let’s get a marriage certificate?”
“Yes, I told you before, I want to marry you as soon as possible.”
In the Empire, submitting a marriage certificate required three signatures:
The bride, the groom, and the priest who witnesses their union.
Dana continued, saying.
“It's still daytime, if we leave now we'll arrive in plenty of time.”
“…So, today we will become a couple.”
Edwin said in a stunned voice, unable to believe what he was hearing.
Is it possible for him to experience this amount of happiness?
The feeling was so joyful that he almost lost balance.
Dana reached out and caught his stray hand.
“Let's go to the square to ride a carriage. The nearest temple from here is on the outskirts of the capital.”
She was walking at a fast pace when she suddenly stopped, as if she remembered something.
“Now I remember, isn’t the Empire Founding Festival coming soon?”
“Is that a problem?”
“I heard that priests stay at the Imperial Palace during the festival to bestow blessings there.”
If they are not so lucky, they may not find a priest today.
But Edwin would not accept that.
Both legally and heavenly, he had to make Dana his wife today.
After a moment of thought, he smiled broadly and said.
“Senpai.”
"they?"
“The nearest temple…isn’t it the Imperial Palace Temple?”
There was a temple inside the palace itf,
It was built to strengthen the relationship between the Empire and the Holy State.
Some high-ranking priests from the Holy State were staying there to pray for the peace of the empire.
“True, but the priests there are only there for the imperial family.”
“Why is that?”
“Because they are arrogant.”
That is, they do not care about common people or small nobles, just being in the palace makes them look down on others.
However, they were given a huge budget to hold blessing rituals on the emperor's birthday.
But where does all that money go?
A wry smile appeared on Edwin's lips.
“Let's go to the Imperial Palace Temple.”
"What?"
“Is it possible for someone who represents God to distinguish between people?”
He approached her and extended his arm.
"What is this?"
“The couple walks arm in arm, right?”
“Come on quickly.”
As Dana lightly held his arm, a satisfied smile appeared on Edwin's lips.
They looked like true lovers, a sight that satisfied his vanity perfectly.
***
The temple is an equal sacred place before the deity throughout the continent.
Everyone from the common people to the highest nobility enters it.
But the Imperial Palace Temple was an exception. The priests there knew the faces of members of the imperial family and great nobles by heart.
They saw their job as giving blessings ‘only to those who deserve it’.
For this reason, one of the priests looked with contempt at the two visitors who seemed like simple employees whose rank he did not know.
Where do they think they came from?
One of the priests approached them with a sarcastic smile.
"What's going on? What do you two want?"
“We came to get a marriage certificate.”
Edwin smiled softly, but the priest felt vaguely confused, as if he saw a face he knew.
'It's like he looks like someone...'
But this feeling did not matter to him. He said with clear sarcasm.
“This is no place for such requests.”
“Such requests? What do you mean by that?”
“Hmm, how do I explain this...”
The priest looked Dana and Edwin up and down with scrutiny.
He said hesitantly.
“We only serve people of high standing…”
“So, in short, it means I'm a petty person.”
Edwin replied calmly, and the priest smiled lightly without a word.
A smile that clearly says: “You understood well, now please leave.”
It was natural for the priests not to recognize Third Prince Edwin.
First, he spent a long time in the North.
Secondly, he absolutely hated attending blessing rituals.
He used the excuse every time to stay behind, so no priest dared to visit him in person.
The famous story of ‘the third prince who burned the beard of the high priest’ was known to everyone.
Since then, the priests tremble whenever they learn that the prince will visit the palace.
At that moment, High Priest Lohas appeared from afar,
It seemed that he had come here in preparation for the upcoming Empire Founding Festival.
Edwin glanced at him, then muttered to the priest standing before him.
“Do you think the high priest also shares this opinion?”
“A... A... How dare you mention the name of the high priest with your tongue?!”
The priest said it with great emotion, but Edwin only responded with a calm smile, while his eyes turned bright red like fire.
The priest shuddered from the intensity of the awe that emanated from him. He had never felt such a threat in his life before.
Edwin gently took Dana's hand and sat her on the nearby bench.
“Senpai, I'll go check on a little thing and be right back.”
“Where exactly?”
“I just want to check if we can get a marriage certificate here.”
Then Dana gave the priest standing in front of her a sharp look and said:
“I doubt it. All I have to do is look at this arrogant person in front of me to understand.”
“True, but it's worth at least checking.”
The priest's face turned red with anger after she publicly insulted him.
While Edwin continued with a calm smile.
“I'll be back soon. Until I get back, enjoy looking at the flowers, senpai.”
Then he left with steady and fast steps towards the chief priest.
“How dare this boy approach the High Priest?!”
The priest tried to stop him, but Edwin's strength easily pushed him to the ground.
Edwin said loudly, intending for Dana to hear him.
“Oh, it looks like you tripped over yourf, watch out.”
His tone was full of coldness and deliberate insolence.
The priest laughed lightly, astonished at his impudence, but Dana bent down and asked the fallen man.
“Weapons are forbidden here, right?”
“Right, are you afraid that something might happen to that man?”
“No, that's not what I meant...”
Dana looked at him coldly and said.
“I meant for you to worry about yourf, because I can't guarantee what I might do to you.”
The priest shuddered and pretended to cough to hide his fear, but Dana did not try to take back her words.
Edwin, the gentle boy she had sworn to protect, was the only reason she could put up with this insolence.
***
The life of High Priest Lohas was quiet and luxurious.
From his birth, he possessed extraordinary sacred power and innate intelligence, which made him quickly rise to the rank of priest.
Then to the position of high priest while he was still a young man.
His words were considered sacred, and all his movements were filled with dignity and dignity.
Therefore, Lohas believed that everyone looked up to him, and was even convinced that they should do so.
But his first — and last — exam came suddenly. An exam he will not forget until the day he dies.
That day was the day of the Foundation Festival, the day on which blessings were given to the imperial family and dignitaries.
Lohas did not see his blessing as long at all, but rather he thought that listening to it was a blessing for those who attended it.
“...God loves all human beings, which is why He has bestowed blessings and good things on this earth...”
“Boring.”
'...Huh? What is this? Who dared to say that?'
He had never heard anything like this in his life. He thought he was delusional, so he quickly shook his head and continued.
“…When I was seventeen, I possessed spiritual strength that surpassed all of my peers...”
“This is not a blessing, but a narcissistic show.”
Another vote! Same cold tone!
Is he a demon? Is this an experiment sent by God to test him?
Lohas swallowed hard as he continued.
“...I've almost reached the middle of the pond, and now I'm going to talk about...”
At the same moment he said that, his beard caught fire!
“Kyaaaah!!”
Oh, my God! He's really the devil!
Lohas shouted at the top of his lungs, the little flame dancing at the tips of his beard as if it were deliberately taunting him.
The sleeping priests rushed around him and grabbed holy water to sprinkle on him.
But before they could touch it, the fire went out on its own.
As if whoever lit it just wanted to scare him.
Lohas collapsed to his knees, trembling.
In the midst of his confusion, he heard the Emperor's angry voice.
“Edwin! If you don’t stop immediately, I will have no mercy on you this time!”
Edwin? The third prince?
The child whom he himf had blessed on the day of his birth, and who was said to have been born with the ability to control fire...
Then, Lohas's eyes met the boy's eyes, eyes devilishly calm, as if they were looking into his soul.
And now, after many years,
That child—the devil himf—was approaching him again.
Lohas froze, unable to speak.