The Game

Looking at that familiar face, the Dragon Saintess’s eyes held no strong emotions.

She was currently wondering what her “red dragon attendant with clear stupidity in her eyes” would think if she heard the Archbishop’s words just now.

Would it be anger, incomprehension, or sadness at being betrayed?

These were normal reactions. However, Aurelia had already experienced all of this in her childhood. She merely stared at the other party with extreme calmness, her eyes seeming to contain no emotion other than serenity.

The Saintess of the dignified Dragon God Cult being persuaded to abdicate by the most important Archbishop in the entire church was an utterly shocking event for any church. However, in the context of the Dragon Tribe, it seemed remarkably ordinary.

But that wasn’t the point…

Upon hearing the other party tell her to abdicate, Aurelia didn’t even have time for other emotions to rise, because her first priority was to control her facial muscles to prevent an involuntary sneer.

With just this one sentence, she could judge that the Archbishop before her was not the Hodmogh she knew. That old man’s age surpassed even the Dragon King’s; the wisdom accumulated over years would not allow him to utter such idiotic words.

Moreover, the few short sentences were riddled with holes. It could only mean that those with ulterior motives, who now sought to slander the Saintess, were being so careless in their clandestine work?

Firstly, looking back at previous Saintesses, every Saintess had to personally go to the Dragon God Sacred Land to communicate with the Dragon God, and she was the most special case among all Saintesses.

She could disregard spatial location and communicate with the Dragon God through her dragon soul anytime, anywhere.

If the Dragon God was the choice of time, but not that one.

If Lord Dragon God was a real choice, he couldn’t be completely unaware. Lord Dragon God’s temperament and the entire Great Dragon Divine Dynasty were intimately familiar to Aurelia.

Lord Dragon God himself did not like to interfere in mortal affairs. Agreeing to the Great Dragon Divine Dynasty electing a Saintess each term was merely to preserve his last channel of connection with his dragon descendants.

After all, if the Dragon God fell into a deep sleep, he might not even know if a certain Dragon Divine Dynasty had been annihilated.

Secondly, Lord Dragon God was currently not in the Dragon God Sacred Land at all. He had left his divine realm for other places. Even she, as the Saintess, did not know his whereabouts. So, which deity’s response did this Archbishop and Delphina receive?

Was it another mysterious prank, or a disguise by an evil god?

Stop kidding. Although the Dragon God slept all day and disliked war, one could tell from the explosive combat power of the Dragon Tribe on the Seraphis Continent that this seemingly harmless Dragon God was not someone to be trifled with lightly.

He was just too lazy to fight, not incapable of fighting.

Which evil god would be so mad as to go to the Dragon God’s divine realm to play tricks?

These were all extremely obvious flaws. Although some of them were due to her own highly unique abilities, Aurelia believed that with the Archbishop’s wisdom, even if he conspired with other forces to overthrow her, such low-level mistakes would not appear in his words.

No matter what, she could now be certain that the person before her was not the true Archbishop. And at present, she had just returned to the Great Dragon Divine Dynasty and had not yet grasped the specific situation within it.

Who overtly opposed her, and who supported her? And secretly, what other unseen enemies were there?

These were all extremely important pieces of information. Before clarifying them, it was not the time to alert the enemy.

Moreover, her body… also could not allow for any accidents now.

Thus, Aurelia lowered her gaze slightly, suppressing the emotions in her heart.

“Does His Grace the Archbishop mean that he believes I am unworthy of my position?”

“Your Highness the Saintess, it is not that this old man does not support you, but that your current self is indeed not suited for this position. If Your Highness the Saintess does not heed my advice and insists on going your own way, then according to the joint condemnation of the various nobles led by Lady Elizabeth, this old man will have no choice but to initiate a Dragon God Trial.”

As he spoke, the Archbishop took out a stack of documents from his robe pocket. He handed the thick bundle of papers to the girl. The Dragon Saintess took them, opened them, and after merely a few glances, her eyes burned with an unconcealable fury.

“Absurd! Utter slander!”

Aurelia furiously slammed the stack of documents onto the table, the rage in her eyes seemingly about to burn the “key evidence” on the table to ashes.

The Archbishop had only given her a set of copied documents; the originals would certainly not be entrusted to her. But even that copied set was filled with various crimes, big and small, attributed to her, each crime accompanied by detailed key evidence.

The evidence was so detailed, the logic so meticulous. If her enemies used this indictment to slander her, and she had no reasonable means to counter it, she wouldn’t be able to clear her name even if she jumped into the Yellow River.

The Archbishop rubbed his withered hand, his smile still serene.

But such a serene smile, in Aurelia’s eyes at this moment, was a definite threat. His giving her these copied documents was nothing more than telling her that even if she didn’t agree to abdicate, with his identity as Archbishop combined with the joint names of many nobles, false evidence could be made to seem true.

However, if a Dragon God Trial were truly initiated, false would still be false. Even if this false evidence was meticulously fabricated, in the eyes of a deity it would…

‘Wait!’ Her thoughts suddenly jolted at this moment, and the Dragon Saintess’s pupils sharply contracted.

The flaws in those previous remarks might not have been flaws after all. She had just been inwardly mocking this fake Archbishop for not even knowing that the Dragon God wasn’t in the Dragon God Sacred Land, otherwise he wouldn’t have said such foolish words about Delphina receiving a response.

But now it seemed the other party wasn’t ignorant; they knew, and that’s why they dared to do this. Because Lord Dragon God wasn’t present, they could execute this plan.

If the Dragon God wasn’t present, a Dragon God Trial would naturally not bring down the Eye of the Dragon God. Without the absolute truthfulness of the Eye of the Dragon God, they couldn’t discern the authenticity of the materials accusing her of crimes, and this was precisely what they needed.

These people dared to be so audacious as to impersonate the Archbishop, so there was no reason to believe they wouldn’t dare impersonate the Dragon God. Moreover, a Dragon God Trial wasn’t a true descent of the Dragon God. The core of the trial was merely the Eye of the Dragon God, formed by the convergence of Dragon God’s power.

The Eye of the Dragon God had the ability to discern truth from falsehood. What if they fabricated a fake Eye of the Dragon God?

The greatest characteristic of the Eye of the Dragon God was its incredibly strong divine nature. But divine nature was not exclusive to the Dragon God. If a fake Eye of the Dragon God were created using the divine power of other deities, then it could absolutely pass off as real.

The worst-case scenario right now was if she didn’t admit these crimes, the Archbishop, along with the dozen or so jointly named nobles, would initiate a Dragon God Trial. And at this moment, the Dragon God was not home, so their fabricated Eye of the Dragon God would become their best shield for their falsehoods.

By then, under the “Eye of the Dragon God,” the fabricated materials would be declared true, baseless accusations would become facts in their mouths, and Delphina receiving a response from the Dragon God would merely be a matter of their words.

Ultimately, she would be forced to resign from her position as Saintess, and Delphina would succeed as the new Saintess. Everything would fall into place naturally.

This elaborate scheme had been set up before her arrival, and all they had to do was wait for her to return and personally jump into the trap!