Sister-in-law of the Heroine in a Childcare Novel - Chapter 77

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 77

To be precise, I didn’t summon him myself. But still—the Castrain Family calls upon a High Priest this often? Is that really all right? Since both parties seem satisfied, I suppose it doesn’t matter?
“If I may ask, where are you allocating that budget…?”
“The aristocratic faction priests like Marjid charge exorbitant fees each time they perform a treatment, and donations pour in abundantly. But we go out on healing missions, so we never have anything left over! Ha ha ha!”
Illian laughed heartily, but listening to him, I felt an odd sting in my eyes. This is what it must be like for a headmaster scraping together food for starving children….
“Ah, yes. You have my respect….”
“By the way, it seems Princess Titania finds yourself entangled in quite a number of affairs.”
Illian clicked his tongue sympathetically. I laughed awkwardly in response.
I never imagined I’d see the High Priest’s face this often.
Ha, barely brought back from the brink of death, and just the other day I had to go meet Raymond wrapped in bandages because I couldn’t even find a proper priest to attend to me.
“Well, I came on an errand. Cronen won’t know I was here. What do you intend to do with this Holy Relic?”
Illian withdrew a Holy Relic from his breast and asked. The “relic” in question was a sphere of peculiar beauty—orange and purple swirled together in mysterious hues, gleaming softly.
“Well, how to put it… I heard that with false Holy Relics, if living blood or flesh drips on them, the situation worsens, but they’re affected normally by other things. So I had them set a fire in an inner chamber.”
I calmly recounted the plan.
“True Holy Relics don’t burn so easily in flames, but the false one did. There’s no way to openly present it at the Dedication Ceremony. Rather than us switching it directly, I wanted to force them to find a replacement and switch it themselves.”
“Ah, I see. But isn’t there still a possibility they’d acquire a convincing counterfeit?”
“Despite being a priest yourself, sir, you seem to have precious little faith in the Southern Temple priests, don’t you? Would they really cast the Dedication Ceremony aside so carelessly? I might think they could, but you’re a priest too….”
“The thing is, this power we call Divine Power—or more precisely, Holy Power—isn’t something we possess because we believe purely in the divine and are chosen by divinity to receive it, is it?”
Illian dropped a bomb casually, in that warm voice of his. My pupils dilated at the shock.
“…I’m sorry?”
“It’s a conclusion you inevitably reach if you carefully study and interpret the Temple’s ancient texts. Everyone simply pretends not to know, though….”
Illian’s explanation was as follows:
The Temple had always claimed that Holy Power—more precisely, the Healing Power priests display—was evidence of those chosen by divinity.
But the truth was different.
The highest leaders of most Temples have known this truth passed down through long ages. Or rather, they had already figured it out.
The power they call “Holy Power” is merely a form of the Earth’s power—”Healing Power”—and the Temple has never directly communicated with divinity even once.
Every act of cultivation and prayer to heighten Holy Power merely served to develop that Healing Power.
And that the First Sacred Emperor Adriana, reported to have been chosen by the divine, was merely a twin sister replacing the erased hero Gloriana.
In other words, Holy Power was merely a fragment of a divine force garbed in respectability—nothing more.
Resisting Magic Beasts was identical with other divine powers, and to be strictly accurate, it ranked below the imperial family’s Light Power.
Of course, those who learned the truth mostly tried to bury it. They could not easily accept this reality. Since the imperial family itself couldn’t use Light Power and treated the past as non-existent, they easily aligned with that narrative and erased the past.
So whenever ancient research contradicting the Temple’s interpretation surfaced, they suppressed it.
They labeled it heresy, siding with darkness, collaboration with Magic Beasts—and oppressed it.
The imperial family was equally desperate to feign ignorance of the past. A perfect match.
“So, this might sound absurd, but… you’re aware that the Castrain Family collects Weapons of Divine Power?”
I reflexively scanned the room. Barbara’s eyes wavered as she cleared away dessert plates. I opened my mouth in panic.
“Those are such sensitive matters—not to discuss in a place like this!”
“Well, with Princess Titania’s existence, the Castrain Family is already at odds with Empress Cleo. Her Majesty won’t take issue with this fact.”
Why did I go to such lengths to hide things from Barbara when I visited the Hecate Tavern, when I was kidnapped? Because I didn’t want to trap her between me and the Castrain Family’s deeply entangled affairs!
I stared at him in silent distress. Yet Illian regarded me with remarkable serenity.
“The moment Barbara began following Princess Titania, she couldn’t extract herself. Especially now that multiple incidents have already occurred and the Princess has resolved to act. In fact, telling her the truth will be more helpful.”
I bit my lip hard.
“…What exactly are you trying to tell me by revealing that?”
“There are five Weapons of Divine Power in total, by my count.”
Illian’s explanation aligned roughly with what I already knew.
Since the First Emperor’s era, five Weapons of Divine Power are widely documented.
The Weapon of Fire—Flambeau’s Wrath.
The Weapon of Wind—Chloris’s Pendant.
The Weapon of Earth—Dagda’s Iron Staff.
The Weapon of Water—Oceanus’s Wave.
And the Weapon of Light—Gloriana’s Mantle.
A weapon imbued with divine power could only be used by those capable of wielding that divine power. However, not everyone born with such power could use the weapon.
Typically, the weapon had to choose its master. Just as Flambeau’s Wrath chose Lisianthus, enabling him to wield that blade.
That was the fundamental principle.
Yet Illian’s next words carried an unusual inflection.
“I suspect Dagda’s Iron Staff is enshrined in the Central Temple. Moreover, I believe Dagda’s Iron Staff doesn’t choose a specific individual as master, but rather lends its power to all who fulfill certain conditions.”
“Can you explain what you mean by that?”
“Well, where should I begin… Do you know that weapons imbued with divine power don’t all take the same form and possess the same abilities?”
“Yes, I know that much, but…?”
“In ‘Gloriana’s Mantle,’ the ‘Gloriana’ referred to was actually the First Holy Saint and Sacred Emperor. However, the imperial family—not the Temple—was said to originally possess Light Power. Rather intriguing, isn’t it?”
Well, I suppose that is strange….
I recalled the name “Gloriana” from the book I’d retrieved at the Imperial Archive. The First Holy Saint, not of imperial blood, yet a Weapon of Light bore her name?
Still, couldn’t they have simply borrowed the name for its symbolic value?
As my mind grew complicated with many thoughts, Illian smiled warmly and continued.
“And those outside the Temple don’t often know this, but not all priests can wield Healing Power. Every trainee priest undergoes a lengthy procedure at the Central Temple to become an ordained priest, and only after that procedure ends do a select few become capable of using Healing Power. Rather absurd when you think about it, isn’t it? Did the Central Temple receive some special divine blessing? If a priest were truly devout and virtuous, shouldn’t they be able to use Holy Power without going through such procedures?”
Confronted with these inflammatory statements, I could only gape silently.
“Therefore, my suspicion is this: Dagda’s Iron Staff—the Weapon of Earth—grants those with the necessary aptitude a blessing to manifest Healing Power, provided certain conditions are met. And I believe the Central Temple has hidden Dagda’s Iron Staff inside a divine statue or among the Holy Relics. In other words, without Dagda’s Iron Staff, priests couldn’t actually use Healing Power or Holy Power or anything else, could they?”
At these successive bombshell revelations, I held my breath.
“Y-you’re really telling me about such a… monumentally important matter so casually?”
“That’s because Princess Titania has worn Gloriana’s Mantle before. And the Princess wields a magnificent blade against Magic Beasts as well. Besides, the Temple’s power is so entrenched that even if such a story spread, few would readily believe it. Though I suspect the successive Sacred Emperors have long suspected this truth and maintained their silence.”
“…….”
In other words.
To summarize: the Temple has been running an elaborate con on the empire all this time.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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