Chapter 20
“Did he try to take you?”
After a moment’s deliberation, Asteria nodded.
“But when I told him that losing my virginity would mean losing my sacred power, he did not force himself on me.”
“You must continue to guard your virtue. You have not forgotten my teachings, have you?”
“Of course not. Besides, His Majesty has already gone through the imperial wedding.”
Olga’s heart was heavy. Every past Emperor had had an Empress, yet they had all coveted the Saintess of the Lumines without the slightest compunction. Why else would there be a saying that the Saintess was the Emperor’s personal w***e?
But Asteria did not yet know of such things. Olga, fearing for her fate, had deliberately kept it all from her.
“My child, you were born under a very special star of destiny.”
Asteria had heard those words since she was small.
“That star may sometimes drive you down a cruel path. But when you reach the end of its trajectory, you will find happiness at last.”
“Yes. I keep that close to my heart.”
“Now that the imperial wedding has taken place, you must be even more cautious around the Emperor.”
“Yes.”
Asteria hesitated a moment before speaking.
“At the end of my dream, the Empress strangled me. She said I had stolen what was hers.”
Olga let out a short sigh.
“By its very nature, the position of Empress compels its holder to resent the Saintess. That is why you must be all the more careful in your conduct.”
“…Yes.”
But neither Asteria nor Olga could defy Lucian’s commands.
In the end, everything rested in Lucian’s hands. That, too, was part of the star of destiny Asteria had been born under.
“I also heard that the previous Saintess took her own life.”
Asteria’s violet eyes brimmed with bewilderment.
“Why did she?”
Olga knew the truth. When the Emperor violated the Saintess, and that Emperor died, the Saintess lost all her power.
When that happened, the Empress, who had spent years seething and building resentment in silence, would ascend to the rank of Empress Dowager and exact her vengeance by ordering the Saintess poisoned. It was a custom repeated across generations. Truly, a cruel practice.
“Only she herself would know the answer to that.”
Olga had kept many things hidden from Asteria over the years. All of it was because the star of destiny she had been born under was exceptionally special.
And so, she could not tell her the truth now.
“But always be wary of the Empress Dowager.”
“Why?”
“She despises our Lumines clan.”
The Lumines clan offered a Saintess to the Emperor in exchange for the autonomy to live as a self-governing community on their own territory.
In a sense, the Saintess was nothing more than a sacrifice the clan offered so that they could continue to live in their own way.
“Then, what should I do?”
“Just read the stars and dream your dreams, as I taught you. That will be enough.”
Asteria nodded slowly.
That was no different from how it had always been. The only difference now was that Lucian came to see her in person.
“Have you given the Emperor a prophecy?”
“Yes. I shared a few things with him.”
“Did he believe you?”
“Yes.”
Then Asteria would be safe for the time being, or so Olga believed. If the Emperor trusted in her sacred power, he would not easily violate the Saintess.
But Lucian already harbored a desire for Asteria. As it had been across generations, the men of Orbien were drawn to the Saintess of the Lumines as if by fate itself.
The depths of that obsession and craving were beyond words. And so, the present peace might one day shatter.
“Even so, you must not let your guard down. You must never lose your virginity.”
“Yes. I will remember.”
Olga nodded kindly. To an outsider, they would have looked like nothing more than a grandmother with her granddaughter. But inwardly, Olga carried a heavy guilt toward Asteria.
It was Olga, in truth, who had selected the next Saintess. At the time, there had been another girl in the Lumines clan born the same year as Asteria, but that child had been Olga’s own granddaughter.
In other words, she had offered Asteria, born under a special star of destiny, to the Orbien imperial house in order to protect her own flesh and blood.
Asteria knew nothing of this.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.