The Evil God Summoned by the Saintess-Chapter 63 - 61: So Easy to Fool?

Benovia Ist, the youngest princess of the Ista Kingdom, only fifteen years old, was sent to the Holy Court to participate in the selection for the Holy Daughter.

This is something the Ista Royal Family must do every generation, because Ista is the stronghold of the Holy Court; the Royal Family is constrained by the Holy Court, and the very existence of the Royal Family is just the result of the Holy Court compromising, pressured by both internal factions and the Four Great Empires.

One of the terms of compromise is that the emperor’s daughter must join the selection for the Holy Court Saintess each generation.

Benovia didn’t really understand why the Holy Court did this—plenty of princesses became Holy Daughters, but what was the point, really?

She didn’t want to participate in the selection at all, but she had no choice—father’s order couldn’t be defied.

Since she had to join, she might as well put in a little effort.

"I heard Miss Xilia took on another commission. So diligent! I wonder what she gained from it this time."

As a candidate, Benovia was forbidden from seeking out information about other candidates, but idle gossip still managed to find its way to her ears.

At this moment, she was kneeling on a grass mat, gazing at the statue in front of her.

The statue’s identity was indiscernible, quite vague.

Benovia herself had no idea whose image the statue represented.

She only knew that the person who gifted the statue was very mysterious, but what they did didn’t resemble anything heretical at all.

No matter which God it was, it was surely a righteous one. Offering a bit of worship couldn’t hurt, really.

Looking at the statue, Benovia suddenly laughed, "Hehe, as the Holy Court Saintess, I’m praying to another god’s statue. If the Holy Master and my father found out, I wonder what they’d say?"

She shook her head. "But no one will ever know."

"Don’t be so sure of that."

A voice suddenly interrupted.

"Who?"

Benovia immediately spun around and flicked her hand, summoning a magic puppet from her ring.

"Just a passing magic puppet. Greetings, Princess Benovia."

Rose leaned against the wall, looking at the girl before him.

Benovia was a year younger than Hilia, and among all the Holy Daughter candidates, she was possibly the most low-key—no one even knew she was the Ista Royal Family’s emperor’s daughter.

Even Doris, who loved hopping about, didn’t know. Yet this mysterious figure, who only appeared through a magic puppet, did know.

Hearing Rose outright point out her identity, Benovia withdrew the magic puppet and asked warily, "Hello. May I ask who you are?"

Other than the Royal Family and the Holy Court’s higher-ups, only one other group knew her identity.

The way Rose was acting, he was nothing like anyone from the Royal Family or Holy Court—then there was only one possibility...

"Who I am isn’t important. I’m here to tell you something."

Rose looked toward the statue inside the house.

This house was purpose-built by Benovia just to place this non–Holy Court god’s statue.

As it happened, it was very close to the Divine Magic Academy, so every time Rose scanned the surrounding area, he could vaguely sense some power of faith coming from the statue, which made him notice this girl.

And even more coincidentally, this girl was a Holy Daughter candidate with a hidden identity—she was actually the little princess of Ista Empire, where the Holy Court was located, secretly joining the selection for Holy Daughter.

She came here every day, bathed and changed, to worship this statue, but her devotion wasn’t flowing to the Holy Court at all.

This meant it was not a statue of any deity worshipped in the Holy Court.

It probably wasn’t any God at all, more likely just an object for her to pin her thoughts on, which is why a stray wisp of power of faith had gathered on the statue.

This was getting interesting.

A grand candidate for Holy Daughter, not believing in the Holy Court’s gods, secretly finding a little room to worship some unknown god—honestly, she was about as bad as Hilia, the foolish Holy Daughter who actually summoned an Evil God.

No wonder the Holy Court had fallen to the point of splintering into four empires.

When not even the Saintesses believed in the gods, what hope was there for anyone else?

So, Rose had sought out Benovia.

He intended to use Benovia to test whether it was possible to make her summon him, and establish a spiritual link just like Hilia had.

To stay as true to the test as possible, the choice of candidate was strictly limited to those officially "Holy Daughter candidates."

But none of the other candidates had been at the Divine Magic Academy lately—only this princess was here.

Well, not really; she was loafing about just outside the academy.

What a joke—she didn’t even attend classes.

In the midst of these thoughts, Rose turned toward the statue inside the house and said slowly, "There’s another way to use this statue."

Benovia’s eyes flashed. "So you’re with the Hiro Association after all." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

So the statue did originate from the Hiro Association. No wonder.

Rose understood immediately.

The Hiro Association loved giving out statues, but never told anyone which god the statue depicted.

Rose liked that kind of approach.

He could attach his own spiritual power to the statue, then trick Benovia into copying Hilia’s actions.

So that’s what he did.

Rose neither denied nor admitted to being from the Hiro Association—he simply recited the procedure Hilia had used, sounding as mechanical as a robot.

Benovia didn’t hesitate. She followed Rose’s instructions, stood on tiptoe, and touched her forefinger to the statue’s forehead—the thing was huge, practically life-sized, not at all like those palm-sized ones from Beia Village.

The Holy Light spread over her and the statue, while Rose had already quietly projected his spiritual power into the statue.

In that instant, he immediately sensed the girl’s thoughts.

"I wish to sit on the throne in place of my father. I wish everyone could have bread and meat at every meal. I wish I could recreate the happiness of the legendary golden age, a thousand years ago. I wish..."

Uh...

Rose felt a little embarrassed.

That first ambition was rather filial, but taken with the rest, pretty reasonable.

Are all Holy Daughters really this down-to-earth?

If he remembered right, Hilia’s very first wish he’d caught was to eliminate the nobles and see true equality for all.

But that first idea flickered past quickly, and she switched to another, then finally chose a wish with the "lowest cost"—helping her build a magic puppet to pass the final exam.

Thinking of Hilia, Rose let the thought go and focused on sensing Benovia’s beliefs, attempting to establish a spiritual connection with her.

Before long, Benovia took her hand away, opened her eyes, and muttered in confusion, "I feel like I made some kind of connection just now?"

Rose didn’t answer, since the connection was with him, but it was so faint, nowhere near as strong as what he’d gotten with Hilia—he couldn’t speak to her, let alone project his spiritual power to sense the surroundings.

And even that weak connection was only due to his deliberate efforts.

In the Sealed Land, Rose halted his assault on the Sealing Array, shook his head, and sighed.

"This faint thread of connection only exists because I forcibly broke through the seal’s barrier. It doesn’t even compare to what happened with Hilia. That means there’s no point in attacking the array."

A bit regretful, but not willing to give up yet.

Rose poured all his spiritual power into the Sealing Array, shaking the entire sealed ground to its foundations, the earth itself crumbling apart.

The Sealing Array trembled on the verge of collapse, but still held firm to the end—he could only forcibly widen a pitifully narrow spiritual passage.

"Still a long way from reaching the level where I could descend into the spiritual space,"

Rose sighed again.

Just then, Benovia’s voice came to his ears through the magic puppet.

"I felt it—that faint connection... Is this the God of the Hiro Association? Good! From now on, I’ll do this every day, until my wish comes true!"