CHAPTER 234: THE MOON GODDESS’ HIDDEN INTENTION

"We apologize for this, Your Majesty." One of the priests bowed his head repeatedly before Edmund and Primrose. "The structure of this temple is extremely old, so sometimes, stones fall from above."

The sound of the massive rock hitting the ground had been so loud that everyone around the temple heard it almost instantly.

Several holy priests who had been deep in prayer inside the private chamber stopped immediately and rushed toward the main hall.

It seemed this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Even though they looked alarmed, the priests appeared to follow some kind of protocol, as if they had dealt with this kind of emergency before.

At first, they didn’t realize the identities of Edmund and Primrose, but Edmund decided to reveal who they were just to find out how many people had already been injured in this supposedly sacred place.

Primrose could see the stunned look on all their faces when they realized they had nearly witnessed the death of the Queen of Noctvaris.

"How long has this been happening?" Edmund asked, his tone firm.

The priest—who looked like a middle-aged man (though Primrose guessed he was probably close to five hundred years old)—replied in a low voice, "It’s been going on for quite some time ... maybe the last thirty years."

A vein visibly popped on Edmund’s forehead as he processed the priest’s answer. "It’s been that long, and yet none of you ever reported this to the palace?!"

[At the very least, they should have reported it to the previous king. But even now, after I’ve taken over the throne, I’ve never once heard anything about this temple falling apart.]

The priest lowered his head even further. "We ... we were afraid that if we started any reconstruction, it would damage the sacredness of this temple."

Primrose quietly sipped her tea, watching her husband’s expression shift from serious to furious.

She was quite sure that Edmund wouldn’t be this angry if she hadn’t almost died earlier.

"That’s your biggest concern?" Edmund asked, his voice lowering dangerously. He didn’t need to be loud because his tone alone was enough to make people freeze.

Still, Primrose couldn’t help but find it ... kind of hot. Alright, maybe really hot.

"We deeply apologize, Your Majesty," the priests said in unison, bowing again. "But since no one has died from it yet, we didn’t think it was an urgent matter."

One of the priests quietly thought to himself, [Even one visitor was hit by two falling rocks a few months ago ... and he’s still alive.]

Primrose narrowed her eyes slightly. She wanted to be angry, but at the same time, it kind of made sense.

After all, beasts didn’t die so easily from something like falling rocks.

Now she was convinced the Moon Goddess had dropped that stone directly over her head as a message: Fix. Her. Temple. Immediately.

"Were you planning to wait until my wife died before doing something about this place?" Edmund snapped. He stood up and began pacing in front of them, clearly trying to hold himself back from saying something much harsher.

"You’re lucky the stone didn’t hit her."

He stopped walking and fixed the priests with a sharp glare. "Otherwise, I would’ve had you all removed from this temple for hiding such a dangerous issue, and for making the victims swear to keep it from me."

Four of the priests immediately fell to their knees before him. "Your Majesty, please have mercy!" one of them cried. "We have dedicated almost our entire lives to this temple. If you banish us from here and strip us of our priesthood, we would rather die!"

"Please, Your Majesty! You may sentence us to death if you wish, but don’t take away our pride, joy, and our devotion to the Moon Goddess!"

Primrose was truly impressed by how loyal and devoted these priests were.

Back in her hometown, she had often come across priests who wore holy masks but had rotten hearts underneath. B

ut these priests ... they were different. They meant every word.

More than that, she was touched by how genuinely pure their hearts were.

Even in their thoughts, not a single one of them blamed her for what happened. If anything, they blamed themselves.

[His Majesty is right ... This is our fault for neglecting something so serious.]

[I thought it wasn’t a big deal since no one had died ... but if Her Majesty had been killed because of our carelessness, then we deserve death!]

[How could I have been so foolish? Why was I more afraid of ruining the temple’s holiness than of protecting the lives within it?]

[I didn’t know Her Majesty would visit this temple, but honestly, I should’ve reported this the moment I learned His Majesty was marrying a human!]

How could they have such pure hearts?

While many humans painted beasts as ruthless monsters who tore their prey to shreds, these werewolves and lycans serving as priests were kinder and more sincere than any priest she had ever met in the human kingdom.

Therefore, banishing them would be a terrible loss for the temple.

"Husband," Primrose finally spoke, gently setting down her teacup and looking at Edmund with soft eyes. "Don’t be too harsh on our holy priests. After all ... they only wanted to protect the sacredness of this place."

Though she didn’t want to add more pressure to their already panicked minds, Primrose couldn’t resist saying one last thing, just to see their reaction when she said, "The Moon Goddess spoke to me today, so maybe she would be disappointed if I ended up banishing her most devoted servants from her home."

The oldest priest—Elarion Moonveil—looked so flabbergasted that his whole body turned to jelly.

He collapsed forward, and his face would have slammed into the floor if the other priests hadn’t rushed to grab his arms in time.

"Reverend Father!" The priest with dark brown hair held Elarion’s chest to keep him from falling again. "Please, be careful! It’ll take you a long time to recover if you get hurt!"