Chapter 21
Olga returned to the Lumines lands around sunset. The moment she arrived, Lydia came scampering out to meet her.
“Grandmother!”
She too had turned twenty this year, and was the same age as Asteria. Lydia’s violet eyes were bright with energy. Olga smiled, the wrinkles deepening around her eyes.
“You went to the palace today, didn’t you? What was it like?”
Lydia was endlessly curious by nature. Olga had not seen much of her during those earlier years, occupied as she was raising Asteria in the White Tower. But since returning to clan territory two years ago, she had found Lydia to be the darling granddaughter always at her side.
“The Imperial Palace is the same as it always is.”
“Oh, that’s no fun at all. Is everything in the palace really made of gold?”
“Of course not. It is certainly grand and magnificent, but… today I only visited the White Tower.”
“The White Tower? That’s where the current Saintess lives, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“What is the Saintess like?”
“A child born under a star of destiny.”
“She’s the same age as me, isn’t she?”
Olga nodded.
She had offered Asteria to the imperial family in order to protect Lydia. But when she considered the star under which Lydia herself had been born, she could not entirely put her worries to rest.
Lydia was far too curious about the outside world, and she had a love of finery and adornment quite unlike the Lumines way. Had someone like her become the Saintess, it would have been no surprise if she had swiftly fallen to the status of the Emperor’s concubine.
Once more, Olga assured herself she had made the right choice.
“What is the Saintess like? Is she incredibly beautiful?”
“She is beautiful, but in a pitiful situation.”
“Why? She holds a noble position, one that allows her to meet the Emperor himself.”
“That is not quite how it is.”
Lydia was particularly fascinated by the Saintess, likely because they were the same age.
It was only natural for her to wonder why Asteria had been chosen and not her.
“If you could just win the Emperor’s favor, wouldn’t you have the whole world in your hands?”
“Hush, you must not say such things.”
The Orbien imperial house regarded the Saintess as nothing more than a w***e. The present Emperor did not yet know that, of course, but there was no telling how long the secret would be kept.
“Every Saintess has met a wretched end. It is a noble sacrifice made for the Lumines clan.”
“But isn’t that also up to the Emperor’s will?”
“Nothing in this world lasts forever.”
The Saintess Evangeline who was coveted by the late Emperor Franz had been forced to accept Isadora’s poison after Franz died and Isadora ascended to Empress Dowager. That poison must have been steeped in the hatred of a woman whose husband had been stolen from her..
“No one is born under a star of fate as cruel as the Saintess’s.”
“Well, that’s up to how you live your life, isn’t it? The stars don’t decide everything.”
“You are still young, you don’t understand.”
Lydia pouted.
Olga still treated her like a child, even though she had turned twenty. Being confined to these lands by Lumines custom was stifling enough. Being treated like a child on top of it only made the frustration worse.
“I know plenty by now. Mother even said that I’m old enough to be married.”
In the Lumines clan, eighteen was considered the age of adulthood. By that measure, Lydia’s marriage was already overdue, and this was entirely because of Olga, the clan Elder, and her wishes.
“But I don’t want to marry Peter.”
“Lydia.”
“Ive known him since we were little, so I can’t feel anything for him beyond what I’d feel for a brother.”
Lydia whined.
“Marrying Peter and living my whole life without ever setting foot outside this land is just too dreary.”
“That is the promise of our Lumines clan.”
“The White Tower is very close by, isn’t it?”
“It is, but it is not a place you should concern yourself with.”
Lydia was dying of curiosity about the White Tower. She wanted to know how beautiful the current Saintess truly was and what kind of noble sacred power she possessed.
She wondered what could possibly be so different about Asteria that she was revered as the Saintess and allowed to live in the palace, while Lydia was stuck in this tedious existence.
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