“Ah, it’s already gone. I also wanted to see more.”
Yvette, who brought a basket of snacks and bread, belatedly expressed her regret. The shaman had already disappeared.
“A real shaman. No, of course, there is one outstanding shaman in the empire. Still, there’s something really fascinating about a Trinidad shaman. Someone like me would wonder whether or not to see it at least once in her life.”
As Yvette muttered in frustration, Lasilia patted the back of her hand.
“If I had known that would happen, I would have told you to wait a little.”
“Oh my, why should I complain? No, no. These are my heartfelt words, Your Majesty. Because Her Majesty the Empress treats me so kindly, I feel like I keep getting more scheming. I will be careful in the future.”
Yvette, who was startled, didn’t feel so awkward anymore.
“But it’s okay. The princess knows that I was not born into the royal family.”
“Aww, what do you mean! You are His Majesty’s only companion, so of course she is Her Majesty!”
Yvette, who had a straight face, still seemed to be in a good mood, looked shyly and asked.
“But really… Uh, um… So, relax… No, no, relax. It’s not surprising. Still, a little intimately… No, I think this is too rude. Ah, then what should I say?”
“The word ‘intimate’ sounds good. To be friendly. I like that too.”
“Okay… really… I can’t believe I’ve heard things like that all my life. I can’t believe it.”
Yvette held the hand of Lasilia, who was patting hers, and rubbed her cheek.
“Is it really okay for me to do something like this? …Actually, I’ve been a bit envious of Ren.”
“As long as it’s not too often.”
“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress. I’ll try my best to endure it. But really, it feels so good to hold her hand like this. It’s warm and soft… Ah, isn’t it okay if I say something like this?”
Yvette smiled shyly and let go of her hand.
“Beep.”
Then Fifi flew into her sleepy eyes from her bedroom. There were various places where Fifi slept, and one of them was the center drawer of the dresser in Lasilia’s bedroom. Lasilia emptied a drawer and filled it with soft cloth to make Pipi’s bed.
“I’m sleepy so I’m asking you to sleep.”
Lasilia took Pipi and she spoke to Yvette.
“Ah, you seem sleepy all day today. If you can’t see me, I’m sure you’re sleeping.”
“Beep.”
“They said it was hard today because they used a lot of energy.”
“Aha. I see.”
She said as Lasilia stroked Pipi’s head, her eyes half closed.
“Then do you want to sleep in bed first? I have to wash and change clothes.”
“Beep.”
She said to come quickly and Pipi went back to the bedroom. He must be sleeping, lying in the middle of the bed with that small body.
“Then I will prepare water for washing and pajamas, Your Majesty.”
Yvette quickly stood up.
“Okay, thank you.”
“Hey, don’t say anything.”
* * *
Since there was no need to hide the markings, bathroom maintenance had become much easier. Since they had traveled a long way in the carriage today, Lasilia took a dip in the bathtub. Yvette said that new soap had arrived and she was excited to soap it. The smell of clean soap coming from the warm water was fragrant to her nose.
Lasilia lay down in the bathtub and lazily laid her head back.
‘It’s extravagant.’
It was a luxury she had never dreamed of when she was a prophetess. Of course, there was no bathtub, so she washed with water drawn from a well inside the temple. It was a luxury for her to wash herself alone at the temple. Together with the dream keepers, they all washed in cold water. It was okay in the summer, but in the winter, it brought tears to her eyes every time she washed it. It was because the cold water hurt her skin.
She suddenly felt strange.
‘If you think about it, the temple was quite rich. Why did she take it for granted that she didn’t have a bathtub?’
If you were to pick the place with the most wealth in Dell’arta after the royal family, it would be the temple. Thanks to the priests with healing powers, money continued to flow into the temple. Even to her, it looked like a business. Lasilia, who had never understood this since she was young, had quite an argument with the high priest. But there was not much the seer could do, as she was locked in her closet and most of her daily routine consisted of dreaming. She prayed for a prophecy to come down about the temple’s healing powers, but it never happened.
‘I’m a little angry.’
Although she was a seer, there was nothing Lasilia could do. There was nothing she could have. The temple only locked Lasilia in her room and made her dream. It was the high priest who actually used her prophecy to make money.
‘Why didn’t I think at the time that I was trapped in it?’
Her answer was simple. Because she didn’t know. For as long as Lasilia could remember, she has been a prophetess herself. She’s been like that since she was very young.
‘But how did I become a prophet?’
Lasilia closed her eyes and traced her memories. But no matter what, the beginning of her memory was that windowless alcove called the Prophet’s Room. They said she was very young and was always afraid of dark rooms when she was left alone. So, she desperately missed someone who left her for a while and went somewhere. So when he comes back…
“…nanny.”
Sigh!
Lasilia shook her body and the water in her bathtub overflowed. Lasilia, who had been submerged in water, urgently raised her body.
“I had a nanny.”
She called her Nanny. She was a nanny, not a dreamkeeper.
“The nanny… She was in the temple? Then…”
How could someone who was not a priest live in a temple?
“No, that goes for me too.”
She was a child. It was when she could barely speak. The nanny held the child, who could not even pronounce his own name properly, and taught her letters.
-Even if it’s difficult, you have to learn it. If I leave, there might be no one to teach you how to write.
The nanny’s voice came to mind.
-Not just letters. They won’t teach you how to eat properly or how to walk. You have no choice but to learn everything yourself. For that, you need to know letters.
The more she traced her memories, the paler Lasilia complexion became. It was full of things that made no sense. Why did the child live in a temple? She herself was not a seer when she had a nanny. It was natural. A child who couldn’t even speak properly couldn’t have made a prophecy. The nanny was also not a dreamkeeper. If he had been a dream keeper, she would not have been called a nanny.
“One day, the nanny disappeared… yes. And I think I started dreaming after that.”
She had a dream and told it to someone. She remembered the high priest pushing himself back and forth with a puzzled look on his face. From then on, Lasilia became a prophet. From the beginning, they said that she was a prophet and that she did not stay in the temple.
“Then does the Prophet’s Room make sense?”
There were no windows and no mirrors. It was always dark inside her room. She didn’t even have a bathroom or bathtub. The high priest dismissed such a room as being because a prophet should not be deceived by what he sees.
“That’s not true. Because I was in the Prophet’s room even before I became a Prophet.”
She was trapped. Without realizing she was trapped. She didn’t even know why her nanny disappeared one day. What the nanny said was in some ways right, and in some ways it was wrong. After Lasilia became a prophet, the priests began to teach her various things. It was knowledge about the overall history and geography of the continent, the situation in each country, the genealogy of the Dell’arta royal family, and the noble families. They said that these were things she must know in order to prophesy. However, as the nanny said, they did not teach basic things such as how to handle dishes, how to wash one’s body, how to care for long hair, and how to get better when sick. Lasilia’s life was left to her dream keepers. She ate the meals brought by the dream keepers and wore the clothes they brought her.
The meals were meager and the clothes were shabby. And she always fell asleep in a dark room. Dreamkeepers burned incense in a corner of the room. There was always smoke in the room. She didn’t know at the time that it was strange. It was only now that she found out.
“What happened…? Where did I come from?”
It was the moment when Lasilia narrowed her eyes, chasing an answer that was unknown to her memory.
Slurp.
A small whirlpool appeared in the bathtub water, which was bubbling with soap bubbles.
“…!”
Lasilia was startled and raised her body. The whirlpool, which was spinning as if it would swallow up all the water, stayed that way. Not a single drop of water in the bathtub overflowed. It was as if the space had been cut out and made into another dimension. Someone’s voice was heard from within the ominously dark purple whirlpool.
-Do you want to know?
“…”
Her throat got clogged. She wanted to scream, but couldn’t. Lasilia looked at the whirlpool as if she was about to be sucked in.
[————————————————————]
-I’ll tell you. Where did you come from?
Who was he? Starting with that. Who was he to say such things? Could she say that?
-You flow from the basest and ugliest selfishness of humankind.
What… Called?
-You coveted something that a human body should not have. And it’s kept hidden by that humble magic power.
What was he talking about? What did she covet?
-That greed will soon come at a cost.
What a price. What price?
-You can’t have him. The power you wielded will be broken, and he, freed from your bondage, will bring you an end.
Who was he? What on earth was bondage? What kind of greed did she do?
-Then I will take your body away. I will bury you in eternal darkness where you will never be able to set foot on earth again. So that not even he or even God can bring you back to life.
What was he talking about? What was he? What was he to do such a thing?
“…You can’t!”
Lasilia resisted his words as they penetrated her mind. As she struggled to drive the words away, her voice came out later.
Pow! Splash!
The moment Lasilia screamed, the vortex disappeared.
“Ha, ha…”
Lasilia clutched her chest and gasped for air. Her hands were shaking. She wasn’t hurt, but she felt terrible. She felt as if she had dipped one foot into the eternal darkness that the whirlpool spoke of.
“The end is… What the hell?”
Lasilia muttered, ignoring the tearing pain in her throat. At that time, something suddenly occurred to her.
-If this is love. I don’t need it.
It was the cold golden eyes that looked at herself as she died. It was her own end that God had shown her.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
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