"I bet you used some kind of trick to cheat past the first exam, no commoner would be able to do that"
Now that sounds like a development which will happen, and jesus fuck has it happened too many times before
Reading through these comments, I felt I'd add my personal take on the guard. The guard is taken to frame the whole thing on because the empire knows it's the church but can't just prosecute the church. Thus the guard is taken so that in the big picture there's a scapegoat.
As a lot of people pointed out, the author/illustrator of this one kinda just fucked up and turned a good series to shit. If you notice that the character style changes, and suddenly becomes worse. Yep. its the sad truth, your eyes do not deceive you.