Episode 118
When it came to divine power and gods, at this moment, there would be no one who knew better than Victoria. She could assert that much. However, the moment she received the pendant from Lillian, Victoria had a gut feeling that this premise might have been wrong until just over twenty years ago.
“Agnes, this girl, was more remarkable than I thought.”
Victoria had never met Agnes in person and only heard stories about her abilities, so she didn’t know exactly what powers Agnes possessed. Of course, knowing everything Agnes had gone through, Victoria didn’t think it would be easy to overlook.
A smile spread across Victoria’s lips.
“I never thought of such a method. It’s truly astonishing.”
“Why are you so impressed in this situation?”
“It seems Agnes could communicate directly with the gods.”
“…!”
At Victoria’s words, a fleeting realization passed over Lillian’s face.
From the past seen through the platinum chalice, Lillian had seen Agnes muttering to herself.
— I resent you. If this is my fate, I would rather not have been born at all…
It wasn’t just a simple muttering but a conversation. Seeing that scene, Lillian was convinced that Agnes had the ability to communicate with the gods.
“…I knew that. How did you not notice?”
“I figured it out when I saw this relic. There’s a difference between something made by humans and something made by gods.”
Saying so, Victoria handed the pendant to Lillian. Light emanated from her fingertips and penetrated the pendant. Soon, light began to flow through the circuits of the pendant. However, it was an unnatural form, as if something was missing.
“See here? It’s one-time use, so it’s destroyed now, but the form remains. Artifacts made by human divine power cannot sustain a destroyed circuit. Eventually, it means the gods intervened.”
“This could have been a processed existing relic.”
“There are no one-time use relics left.”
“…One-time use?”
Lillian confirmed that the pendant had indeed become a relic in the past through the platinum chalice.
However, at the present moment, or rather, every moment Lillian had known about the pendant, it was nothing more than an ordinary ornament without any divine power. She wondered what could have caused this.
“One-time use relics revert to ordinary items once destroyed. It’s not strange that you didn’t notice.”
Of course, if she had infused divine power into it, it would have been easy to detect, but Lillian had only recently learned that the pendant was a relic. There was no opportunity to infuse divine power into the pendant.
Lillian rubbed her confused head and murmured absentmindedly.
“I saw the duchess turn this pendant into a relic… I wonder how that was possible…”
“Gods helped. Literally.”
Victoria replied cheerfully, brushing her fingers over the circuit emitting light from the pendant.
“I have one more reason to be confident that the gods made this.”
“What is it?”
“This circuit is the same as the one engraved on the crystal you destroyed.”
The Luminous Tear that Lillian had destroyed.
It was a vessel for containing divine power and a medium for using powerful suggestions.
“Only the gods could create something like this. Perhaps this pendant was used as a vessel for containing divine power.”
“For divine power… Why?”
“It was for protection. Agnes must have known what fate awaited her daughter.”
She stored powerful divine power and intended to use it to protect her daughter.
“Divine power has a nature to flow into beings with weak life force. That’s how priests heal. Considering the capacity of this circuit, it could have easily saved a child on the brink of death.”
“But I was very healthy. I’ve been healthy since I was a child…”
“That’s why something interesting happened.”
Behind the veil, Victoria’s red lips stretched into a long smile.
“Remember? Divine power has a nature to flow into beings with weak life force. Then, did it have to be Agnes’s daughter?”
Agnes was a wise person. She put the pendant around her child’s neck, considering many variables.
For example, what if the child didn’t encounter a dire situation, or if she couldn’t keep the pendant forever.
Agnes’s pendant was excessively expensive, and it even had the insignia of Maynerd engraved on it.
While such an item would be good for proving one’s identity later, it was not something one could confidently say a child wrapped in swaddling clothes would continue to hold onto.
“So Agnes had to make the effects of this relic appear as soon as possible. Whether you used it or someone else did.”
At this point, Agnes decided to utilize the nature of divine power.
The nature of flowing into beings with weak life force.
“She made the weakest person around you take in the divine power.”
“…The weakest person.”
“Yes. You know the daughters of Moonlight can change faces, right?”
Powerful divine power could both save a dying child and change a person’s appearance.
“With this amount, it probably could have lasted for about ten years. Agnes must have been determined enough to put her own life on the line.”
In the end, Agnes weakened and inevitably died from divine power exhaustion, but at least the divine power of the pendant was maintained.
Agnes’s determination to protect the child with just one pendant.
“Now everything makes sense.”
Why Swan looked so much like Agnes.
And why the portrait claiming to have Swan’s face looked nothing like Agnes.
Victoria took Lillian’s hand and placed the pendant on top of it.
“Agnes deceived everyone to protect you.”
Even you, Lillian.
* * *
“…So, are you saying you were the real daughter of this house?”
“…I can’t believe it.”
“If you don’t believe it, what can you do? That woman, Victoria, said so herself.”
Although Theo replied bluntly, Lillian still had a dazed expression.
Of course, Theo was right. There was no doubt in Victoria’s explanation. No, it was more like everything she had found strange now made sense.
When the story of Lillian being the real daughter flowed out of Victoria’s mouth, Lillian reflexively refuted it.
“That can’t be true! I am—!”
“Why do you think that way? Isn’t the fact that you’re living here perfectly fine proof?”
“W-well….”
Of course, Lillian had also found that part puzzling. It was also one of the doubts Cedric had raised.
“…But I don’t resemble the Duchess. My father doesn’t either.”
“You could resemble other family members. The world is vast; isn’t it too simple to conclude just from resemblance? In life, you’re bound to encounter someone who looks like you; does that mean they’re family too?”
“But…”
As Lillian hesitated, Victoria let out a light sigh.
“Lillian Maynerd, it seems you’re having trouble accepting it, so let me tell you one secret.”
“…What is it?”
“My power wasn’t always this strong from the start. But do you know how I became strong? Or rather, why I became strong?”
Talking about birth and suddenly switching to talk about divine power?
Lillian looked at Victoria with a puzzled expression. The question was quickly answered.
“The total amount of divine power distributed to the daughters of Moonlight is fixed.”
“The total amount?”
“Yes. Regardless of how many there are, the total amount of divine power flowing through the Moonlight lineage remains the same. As the number of people decreases, the amount each person receives increases.”
Of course, not all daughters of Moonlight have the same amount of divine power, but it is natural that the amount given to one person is greater when there are fewer people to share it with.
“Whenever someone born of Moonlight dies, I… we can tell.”
Since the divine power had increased to the point where it was unrecognizable from before.
“And my power became stronger 22 years ago, and it hasn’t changed since then.”
No daughter of Moonlight had died since then.
