What I Gained by Giving My Body - Chapter 2.9

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“Our poor Princess…… what are we to do. Sob, sob…….”

“Stop crying! The princess is enduring this with dignity—how can lowly people like us afford to grieve?”

“Ye—yes, but…… to our pure and beautiful Princess, in tha—that way…… no matter if he is a god, this is……!”

This dream again. Caitlyn blinked several times. It seemed she was continuing the previous dream about the pagan princess.

‘It’s strange.’

But Caitlyn didn’t even have the luxury to think it over. It was because Helenus had entered the room.

“Shall we talk for a moment, Cassandra?”

Her body rose of its own accord and walked in the same direction as Helenus. Caitlyn thought to herself that it would undoubtedly be a nagging session, but the owner of this body was following along submissively, seemingly unaware.

They walked for a long while and arrived at a massive marble temple decorated with gold. The temple, carved high from marble, was several times the height of a man. Its intricacy could not be compared to a church, but its grandeur and magnificence were by no means inferior. The still air wrapped around Caitlyn’s body. Suddenly, Helenus spoke.

“……Enough is enough, Cathy. Are you not even afraid of the gods’ wrath?”

The one who heard those words was no longer Caitlyn. From the mouth of the Princess of Troy, Cassandra, a voice flowed out—clear, vivid, like a diamond flashing in the sunlight.

“If I were afraid, would I have used such a method?”

“Just why……!”

Helenus tore at his own hair.

“Cathy, no matter how much you didn’t want to get married, to insult Phoebus Apollo like that……! You heard it from me. What happens to the unbelievers.”

“Those are all just old stories.”

Cassandra shook her head, her eyes rolling.

“Do you really believe that?”

“Of course I do.”

Helenus gripped Cassandra’s shoulders tight. Cassandra frowned and protested.

“It hurts!”

“Cathy.”

He continued in a serious voice.

“I saw him with these two eyes. He was radiant…… yet dangerous. He is not someone to be trifled with.”

“Ha!”

Cassandra mocked him loudly.

“How could what you saw while being drunk on wine and inhaling opium smoke be real?”

Helenus gasped and covered her mouth.

“How could you say such a thing!”

Cassandra twisted her body and escaped from Helenus’s grasp. Her gripped shoulders tingled, but it wasn’t to the point of pain.

“Think carefully, Helenus. If the gods truly existed, they should grant us something given how diligently we offer sacrifices. Yet, all they do is appear before your drunken eyes? Isn’t that strange?”

“……Qu—quiet.”

Helenus stammered, but Cassandra didn’t care at all.

“What was he doing when the plague went around last year? What about when the earthquake happened before that? It was the same when the flood came and half the castle was submerged.”

“Get out.”

Helenus’s face turned bright red. If the opponent had been a mere commoner instead of Cassandra, he would have long since handed down a punishment.

“I said, get out!”

“What a temper.”

Cassandra stomped her feet and walked outside. Helenus did not stop her. It would be a more accurate expression to say he knew it was useless to stop her. He must have been fully aware of the fact that no matter what he said, he could not persuade Cassandra.

Cassandra tilted her head back and looked straight at the sun. The bright light poured directly into her eyes. A hollow laugh, ha, escaped her mouth.

“He should worry about himself first…….”

Cassandra did not return to her quarters. She didn’t want to spend even a single minute or second with the foolish maids who were crying because they thought she had truly been violated by Apollo. But who could she blame when it was a rumor she had spread because she wanted to?

She left the castle and climbed the hill. It was a cloudless day, and not a single breeze blew, making it a sweltering day for spring. Soon, beads of sweat began to form on her white forehead. Cassandra roughly wiped the sweat with the back of her hand and found a spot in the shade under a tree to sit. As she lay on the grass where fresh shoots were sprouting green, the refreshing scent of grass tickled her nose.

‘……Did I go too far.’

Of all her many family members, the only person who was on her side was Helenus. He was also the only one who tried to understand her. Perhaps she had personally driven away the only person who took her side.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

Anyway, Helenus had no intention of stopping her marriage, just like the rest of her family. The only person who could stop the bleak future was Cassandra herself. Therefore, Cassandra did not regret in the slightest spreading the false rumor that Apollo had r***d her.

‘Even so, if the rumors keep growing, they will eventually have to recognize me as a priestess.’

Cassandra was confident she could perform that ‘prophecy’—the essential quality of a priestess—very well. If she saw swallows flying low and ants moving in a line, she could just say a great storm was coming. If a storm didn’t actually rage and it only ended with a few drops of rain, she could just say it was thanks to the priestess and priests diligently offering sacrifices.

This too could not be called the life she truly wanted, but it was the only alternative to the fate currently looming before her.

‘To marry and spend over a decade giving birth and giving birth again like my mother…… I can’t do that.’

Cassandra, who had been lost in thought for a long while, suddenly stood up, startled by the heat hitting her. It wasn’t just mere sunlight; her body instinctively shrank back at the heat that descended upon her like a hot fireball. Standing in her spot, Cassandra’s eyes widened.

She expected to see flames terrifyingly engulfing the trees and grass, but what entered her sight was a man slowly approaching her. For a moment, her breath caught. Brilliant blonde hair falling to his shoulders, red eyes that seemed to flicker with flames, a perfect body that looked as if the numerous statues seen in the temple had come to life and were moving…….

Cassandra instinctively knew the man’s identity. It was Apollo, the god whose existence she had so consistently denied.

She closed her eyes. It would be useless even if she ran away. By what means could she oppose the god who carried the intense light of the sun with him? Soon, as if Apollo had drawn near, she felt a scorching heat right in front of her nose.

“Kill me, then.”