The Sand Bride - Chapter 85

Gamore had Sha, the god of water, grace, and love, as his spouse, and their descendants were the current royal family. Following Gharyam’s tradition of taking ancestral and parental names as surnames, the descendants of the gods Gamore and Sha, the royal family, bore the surname Sha Gamore. In ancient Gharyam, it meant “those who know no fear.”

But Greta, one of those very descendants, believed that the blunder of those two gods, who were worshipped as Gharyam’s twin deities and royal ancestors, lay precisely in that. Iron rusts in water, victory corrupts grace, and love cannot bloom from fear. Look at this contradictory mess. Greta laughed coldly.

“That is my fear.”

Confessing a shame that should not be shown as a king, or even as a king’s child, Greta bitterly acknowledged reality. Yes. There are no such things as those who know no fear. It’s an impossible feat for humans. Attempting to achieve that feat, which is impossible as a human, has led to this disaster.

Hemor, who knew no fear of others, destroyed herself with it, and her destruction became Hakan’s fear. Due to that fear, Hakan would have desperately tried to prevent the destruction of Karzhen, his idol, in his own way. But Greta’s fear was that they would continue living.

If they were destroyed, she could bury and forget them deeply with their graves, but if they lived vividly by her side, she would surely never be freed from her fear—her bloodline and the shackles that came with it.

That cannot be. Greta smiled faintly. To her faithful servant, her ally,

“Verach. You’ll do it, won’t you?”

To her love, she urged a vow.

Verach finally nodded. Greta smiled with satisfaction and bid farewell to Verach.

The massive door, wider than three people with outstretched arms, burst open and the Aldana priests rushed in. Greta, who had been lying stretched out on the bed drinking wine from a glass, leisurely raised her upper body like someone who had expected this.

The highest-ranking Aldana priest stepped forward as a representative and solemnly opened his mouth.

“Lord Greta, our king. You are—”

“I know, so shut that mouth of yours. It’s noisy.”

But Greta, who had brutally cut off the Aldana priest’s grand speech, rose from her seat. The glass in her hand was already empty. Crash. She threw the glass to the floor and turned her body gracefully.

“Unless my brother told you to cut off my head right away.”

Then I’ll shut my mouth, so either way it’ll be quiet. Greta, who had snorted, walked toward the open door. Even if the end was death, being dragged away was something only prey would suffer, and predators go of their own accord—an attitude befitting her policy.

It was only natural. There had never been a moment when she wasn’t a predator. Even if it was only half.

‘Rather, starve to death.’

Greta, surrounded by Aldana priests and imprisoned in the temple, cast her eyes downward darkly. Rather than poisoned meat, I’ll clear it away myself, so starve to death, Karzhen Sha Gamore.

Thus I will be freed from my fear, and only then will I truly be able to become Greta Sha Gamore.

* * *

During Gharyam’s conquest wars in history, the stone roads built using slaves and materials from defeated nations connected the capital and other major cities like cracks in shattered glass. The major cities were not connected to each other, and only the massive stone roads split into seven from the capital remained steadfast through the ages, making the movement of not only goods but also people far faster than traveling over sand.

Verach, who chose Greta as king when she was around ten years old, was the heir of a family with deep history, and his ancestors had served the royal family even when the stone roads were being built.

Those massive roads could be easily used from the capital Marunus to any city by rolling gear-like connecting links, but cities other than the capital could not use the roads to any other city except the capital.

This was to prevent possible rebellions. With the Kemut people’s stamina and physical abilities, urgent communications like messengers were no problem at all, but when moving armies, sand significantly slowed down movement speed.

In other words, if Karzhen was pursuing them, he should be behind the camp by now. However, on the surface that should have been clear between the massive stones lining both sides and the paved road, armored soldiers were approaching as dense as a thicket. They were Gharyam’s soldiers.

Originally, they shouldn’t have been here. No, having any soldiers here wasn’t part of the plan.

Verach stopped advancing in bewilderment. Cold sweat seeped out behind his armor, on his bare back. When he saw the advance camp that should have departed earlier and already been in a city near the border waiting for him and his unit in the sand, his face turned pale.

Verach, who had placated and sent away a soldier who asked with a confused face whether the schedule had changed, not knowing anything about the situation, gave a signal to Bianca and Esther, who had noticed and stopped following from behind. Bianca quickly understood and quietly left the camp while holding Esther’s hand.

Thanks to following at the rear, the soldiers didn’t even notice that Bianca and Esther were gradually moving away from them. They were only focused on the allies approaching from ahead.

When Verach and the soldiers were immobilized, Bianca and Esther lost their way. To cross the sand to another city would mean getting lost, and if they went forward or backward where the soldiers were coming, they would inevitably be caught.

First, Bianca and Esther, who had left the stone road, removed their now-useless armor. Looking down at the armor that had fallen silently onto the sand, Bianca was anxiously biting her lips when Esther grasped her hesitating hand.

“Let’s take a different path, Bianca.”

“But Esther, we don’t know the way.”

“We might find it.”

“Esther.”

Esther was now pulling Bianca along as she walked. Before this, it had always been Bianca’s role to lead, but in that moment, Esther was leading Bianca.

As her resolute footsteps continued, footprints were deeply imprinted in the sand. But rather than positive hope, there was somehow an ominousness like a final struggle filling the footprints, so when Bianca stopped following, Esther also stopped walking.

“Bianca, I am…….”

A shallow wind blew. Between the cloth wrapped around her hair, a few strands of Esther’s hair that had escaped looked like grains of sand slipping through cracks each time they swayed in the breeze. Bianca swallowed with her dry throat.