TCMED 26

Chapter 26

At those words, I caught my breath.

“Does the temple know about this?”

Only then did I realize why the Crown Prince had gone out of his way to summon me here.

It was because I was no one other than the Saint’s assistant.

More precisely, because I was a newbie who had only been working for a few months, unlike the other assistants—easy to probe.

“……”

For a moment, I thought about the Crown Prince as I had “read” him. In the novel, his position had an ambiguous quality to it.

The Crown Prince was the empire’s sole heir, but that “sole” often became his shackle. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t solve every problem, and his once-favorable reputation gradually declined.

If not for that claim, the current crack outbreak might actually have been a boon for him. A stage had been set where he could bring every powerful institution under his control and prove his capabilities.

Also, opportunely, a scapegoat had now appeared to be torn apart by public opinion in his place.

Ethan.

Ethan, who had failed to save the newspaper owner’s grandson and, as a result of the man’s grudge, had seen his public evaluation worsen.

Recently, if you looked at the newspapers, the Crown Prince was making excellent use of this.

*’Asking if I know about the existence of those claiming this entire situation is due to the imperial family’s lack of virtue……’*

I knew. Because I’d read it in the novel.

But I couldn’t honestly tell anyone about the knowledge I’d gained this way.

“I am merely a priest, so I am not well informed.”

“Not merely a priest—you are the Saint’s assistant.”

“Even as the Saint’s assistant, I have nothing to say. Because the temple has not heard these rumors.”

In fact, at this point in time, those rumors were still being treated as conspiracy theories not worth paying attention to.

“If so, suppose you have heard them and answer. After all, you have now heard them through me, haven’t you?”

The Crown Prince leaned back lazily against the seatback and curved his eyes prettily.

I suppressed a hollow laugh.

Ah, right. I fully understood—since the Saint’s greenhorn assistant had come, he intended to pin down the temple’s stance.

After a moment’s hesitation, I slowly opened my mouth.

“The Temple of Mitteb is……”

By any measure, I was not someone who could represent the temple, so being asked questions like this was truly difficult.

In times like this, the only option was to faithfully relay what I’d once heard from a follower of Mitteb.

“Simply a shelter for the sick. That is the temple’s only role, so we have no other recourse regarding such complicated matters.”

“……”

“As has always been the case throughout history.”

It was helpful that the Mitteb Church had always taken a lukewarm stance on political issues.

I met the Crown Prince’s eyes squarely and smiled a priestly smile.

“So if you ever require prayer regarding this matter, please feel free to visit the temple at any time.”

I emphasized the word “prayer.”

At that, the Crown Prince’s smoothly running tongue fortunately stopped working as well. It seemed I had answered adequately.

*’Now if you have nothing more to say, stop probing and just send me home……!’*

But just as I relaxed.

“Thetis.”

The Crown Prince called my name precisely.

What I needed to note here was that this was my first private audience with the Crown Prince, and I had never once introduced myself to him.

“……was it?”

“……Yes.”

The Crown Prince curved his eyes like a fox.

“Your reputation on the field is high.”

“I merely did what needed to be done.”

“Is that all? When I look into the temple’s well-received projects since the crack incident, your name comes up frequently.”

“It wasn’t done by me alone—”

*Clap!*

The Crown Prince lightly clapped his palms together.

“The name of the one who suddenly appeared as the Saint’s assistant a few months ago, that is.”

I desperately tried to keep my expression from stiffening.

About a month ago, I’d gone out for dinner with the Saint’s assistants. At that time, due to a serving staff’s mistake, Rohan ended up drinking an incredibly strong wine. Completely drunk, he suddenly grabbed me and sobbed loudly.

Johan and Deborah, watching him, had similar expressions—I was truly flustered.

So the very next day, I requested a meeting with Ion and asked him: what exactly was the “backstory” he’d given me when he appointed me as his assistant?

Originally I’d planned to just let it slide, assuming he’d handled it well enough, but after witnessing the assistants’ strange reactions, I couldn’t.

*<……Do you really want to know?>*

And what I heard then was absolutely absurd.

Do you remember that before becoming the Saint, Ion had been a young disciple at a remote monastery? Without my knowledge, I had become Ion’s fellow disciple at that monastery—someone who had set out on the pilgrim’s path before him and gone missing.

And that wasn’t all.

There was also an outrageous rumor that as a young child, I had been washed ashore by the waves and lost all my memories from the aftermath, and the person who found me gave me the name “Thetis” and raised me.

Anyway, the final touch to my backstory was that young Ion, during his nationwide tour, had reunited in Eshet with an old friend he’d thought was dead, and brought that friend—who had lost their new family to the cracks—on as his assistant.

I truly hadn’t known Ion had this kind of talent for storytelling.

“……”

First, I calmed myself down. Ion had perfectly organized my identity on paper as well. Even if the Crown Prince felt something off about my existence, he probably wouldn’t have found solid evidence.

“That is……”

“It simply means your talent is excellent. Isn’t that so?”

Scary!

“So I’d like to make you a proposal.”

“A proposal……?”

“How would you like to take exclusive charge of His Majesty the Emperor, who is currently bedridden?”

“……”

I was struck speechless. I was truly on the verge of tears at this point.

What on earth is the Emperor doing here now……

“I apologize for speaking out of turn, Your Highness. But holy power is not omnipotent.”

It was true that holy power was highly versatile, but it didn’t work on all illnesses. The Emperor, who had been ill for a long time, would probably be difficult to cure even with holy power.

“I know that well.”

But the Crown Prince didn’t seem at all concerned by my indirect refusal.

“However, I too need someone to rely on. You just said it yourself—if I need prayer, I should visit at any time.”

“But I already have someone I serve.”

“It’s not about having you stationed at the palace. Only that you visit periodically.”

I paused for a moment to think. What was the Crown Prince’s true intention?

First, the obvious reason was to stabilize his own power by using the temple, which had a good public image.

As he’d bluntly stated earlier, there were factions seeking to hold the imperial family accountable for the cracks. Right now they were on the fringes, but in the novel, they became mainstream through a series of events. The Crown Prince, with his keen intuition, had judged that they couldn’t be ignored.

And the second, less certain reason was……

“……Have you sent an official request to the temple regarding this?”

The Crown Prince had been searching for the person who sent him a note just before the cracks appeared.

It seemed the Crown Prince still suspected that the sender was within the temple.

“No, this is my first time proposing it to you.”

And he seemed to think that person was me—the one who had suddenly appeared as the Saint’s assistant.

So what attitude should I take here?

I straightened my posture, like a naive assistant who was flustered by the major proposal but trying to remain composed.

“……This is a greatly honorable proposal.”

For a moment, pleasure flickered across his face at my answer.

But that was highly calculated acting.

The Crown Prince I knew was not someone particularly attached to his blood relatives. If he were truly desperate, he would have requested an exclusive imperial priest long ago.

“Then, since I have no authority to decide, I ask that you please send a request to the temple.”

For now, this was the best I could do.

“I shall. Through this, I hope the relationship between the imperial family and the temple grows even stronger.”

I pulled up the corners of my mouth to match the Crown Prince.

“Now.”

Neither he nor I had anything more to say.

The Crown Prince rose from his seat first, signaling the end of the conversation.

“Then I shall await a positive response.”