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When someone with a stronger divine power than anyone else collapsed, the entire temple shook.
The unprecedented situation flustered the high priests.
For a long time, the temple had remained neutral, living by their own standardized codes.
There was no nation arrogant enough to cast out Coventina, the one true god.
Divine power had always been absolutely necessary for any human, and prophecies had always been important.
This had become even more solidified over the past hundred years since Merlin rose to the position of high priest.
To those who moved by faith, the laws of the Holy Nation were absolute.
Having never experienced invasion before, they now pleaded with Morgana as if begging for their lives.
“What exactly happened, Lady Morgana? How did the Saint suddenly lose consciousness?”
Morgana casually adjusted her hold on Excalibur, as if nothing had happened.
“She merely lost consciousness for a moment due to overwhelming divine power. She’ll be back soon.”
“But this never happened when Lady Nimue entered the prayer room…”
As a high priest wiped away cold sweat, a familiar voice echoed behind him.
“Exactly. The Saint has never lost consciousness before.”
Even amidst the chaos, Merlin approached calmly.
At a certain distance, the holy knights stepped forward to block her path.
“…Though the trial has not yet begun, do not break the rules.”
Unbothered, Merlin took a step to the side. He didn’t actually try to get past the holy knights, so his upright figure was clearly visible between them.
“So, something disrespectful happened in the prayer room—enough to shock the Saint, right?”
‘What nonsense.’
Morgana let out a dry laugh and replied with a bright smile.
“You saw me go into the prayer room, didn’t you?”
“Do you think I don’t know what the prayer room is like?”
“You said you’ve never been inside.”
“You don’t need to go in to know. Even with ancient texts, you won’t find a case like this in any holy scripture.”
So, you were planning to toy with the ancient texts, huh?
Morgana, who had been provoking with her big rolling eyes while pretending to be clueless, cupped one cheek with her hand.
“Oh, then I suppose the High Priest must have fainted when he came to Avalon…”
She even added a pitiful frown for extra effect.
When Merlin clenched his teeth, the high priests asked again, as if they didn’t understand.
“That’s what we want to know. What exactly happened in Avalon? We only heard vague talk of corruption, but no one has told us the specifics.”
“We only suddenly received word that Avalon would reject the temple’s blessing…”
It seemed that being stuck in the neutral region had also slowed the spread of rumors.
Most of the people who spread news quickly were nobles and their attendants. However, those who had actually seen the demons were mostly knights.
Knights who were bound to be loyal to their lords and keep their mouths shut.
‘The trial is going to be quite a show.’
Morgana shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Ask Lady Nimue when she wakes up.”
Before she could hear a response, Morgana quickly turned her body and ran off into the garden. She looked around busily to find the statue Igraine had described.
The buildings of the vast Holy Nation were covered in carvings on every wall, all meant to elevate their grandeur.
“Wow… How many sculptors did they burn through to make all this?”
One wall was filled entirely with carvings—people, angels, water, flowers, trees, even the sky.
All sorts of elements were tangled together, and it took a great deal of focus just to distinguish them.
‘It’s like a giant hidden picture puzzle.’
Morgana walked with her head tilted back and finally spotted the cat dancing along the edge of the sanctuary’s roof.
“The cat is on the sanctuary roof.”
Muttering that to herself, Morgana carefully examined the other buildings. She checked everything—columns, windows, even the back of the sanctuary where people rarely went—but couldn’t find any more carvings.
In a hurry, Morgana grabbed a passing priest.
“Excuse me, but do you happen to know where the rabbit statue is?”
“A statue? We don’t keep a specific statue like that…”
The priest shook his head, and he didn’t seem to be lying.
But Igraine definitely said she saw a rabbit.
‘Mother was a commoner. She wouldn’t have gone to restricted places like the prayer room or the main building…’
Suddenly, Morgana remembered the time she first visited—when Tristan clung to the priest’s ankle. He had entered the Garden of Water without an invitation.
So, at the very least, it had to be somewhere in the garden.
Morgana walked to the center of the garden and stood tall.
‘What can be seen from here?’
The long building where the banquet hall and the priests’ reception room were located.
Next to that was the building for trainee priests.
The building across from it was the guest quarters.
And in the corner stood the main building… She had looked up for so long that her neck started to ache.
Morgana thumped her shoulders with her fists and plopped down onto the garden fountain.
The stone fountain resembled a bench quite well.
“Stone…?”
Morgana quickly turned her head and stared at the fountain.
Because of the flowing water like a curtain, the skeletal structure of the fountain wasn’t clearly visible. She reached through the flowing water, and it parted with a soft splash.
Behind it, a stone statue carved with flowers appeared.
“Ugh, that’s not it.”
She flicked the water off her hand with a sigh.
Just then, she noticed another fountain across from her.
“…Right. There isn’t just one fountain.”
Morgana sprang to her feet and went to check the stream of the other fountain.
In the garden, there were three small fountains surrounding one large central fountain.
The large one was definitely not it—it had a sculpture of a water jug pouring out water.
The second one wasn’t right either.
And so, the last fountain. She placed her hand through the stream, and as the water parted…
Inside it was a stone statue shaped like a rabbit holding up a bowl of water.
“Found it!”
The rabbit was at the third fountain.
The last one left was the magpie. By now, she was sick and tired of looking at the temple’s statues. She had seen them so many times, she could probably recreate them like copy and paste if asked to draw them.
But nowhere, absolutely nowhere, was there a statue shaped like a bird.
The fountains were no exception.
“Is there even a magpie at all?”
The sky was already starting to turn yellow with the setting sun.
Quite a bit of time had passed.
Morgana realized she had been wandering around the Holy Nation for longer than she thought. There was still no news of Nimue waking up.
Morgana lightly tapped the sword she was holding with the tip of her foot.
“Excal.”
The noisy voice that usually responded was silent.
Even that, in its own way, left her with a strange sense of emptiness.
It had been so loud and annoying when it was around.
Come to think of it, she had hardly ever spent time with anyone else. Before the possession, she had been alone. After becoming Morgana, she’d been on the run from the start.
The mansion, the guards, even Arthur—everyone had somewhere they could return to.
Morgana was nothing more than a temporary stop in their journey.
“Still, you weren’t so bad.”
As she muttered those words with a light nudge, something suddenly dropped from the sky and splattered on the blade of the sword.
It was bird droppings.
“Ugh, what is this!”
Startled, Morgana shielded her head and glanced up.
A black bird was soaring leisurely through the sky.
The bird circled round and round before landing on the highest point of the temple. It wasn’t a statue—just an ordinary tower made by neatly stacking stones.
“Oh, come on. I’ve been going crazy trying to find your statue, and now this!”
‘Wait a second!’
Morgana, who had been jumping up and down while pointing at the tower, suddenly froze.
Igraine had clearly said…
‘You know, the temple buildings are really fancy. There’s even a rabbit and a cat statue? They’re pretty cute.’
Not once did she ever describe the magpie as a statue.
Even on the stone tablet in the prayer room, there was no mention of it being a statue.
“Huh…?”
She had definitely been thinking about it all wrong.
Morgana tugged on the arm of a nearby holy knight standing guard and pointed to the top of the tower.
“Excuse me, is there a bird that lives up there?”
“Ah, I wouldn’t say it lives there exactly… But since Caledonian Forest is nearby, birds tend to gather here. It is the highest spot, after all.”
“They’re always there, right?”
“Well, as far as I’ve been stationed at the temple, there’s never been a time when they weren’t. There are always new magpies nesting up there.”
Ah, found it.
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