Don’t Concern Yourself With That Book

Auresia smiled wordlessly. Her unsettled look from earlier was nowhere to be seen.

“I have the same curse as Castor inflicted on me.”

The curse that forced me to repeat my deaths, the one that caused me to die over and over again so many times. That was weird. I never thought I would be saying this now. Did I want to grow closer to her? That couldn’t be.

“I see. Did the beginning of your regressions start with Castor?”

I nodded slowly. Shrouded in shadows, Auresia’s face seemed tinged with sadness for just a moment. But as she approached me again, I seemed to have been mistaken as her expression was as calm and unchanging as ever.

“But you won’t change like those golden eyes.”

Auresia took off her shawl before placing it on my shoulders and spoke. Was Auresia referring to Castor or the emperor when she spoke about ‘those golden eyes’?

“I am a Templar of Death.”

Auresia adjusted the shawl before slowly backing away. I still couldn’t come to terms with the fact that she was my mother and it wasn’t as if she was very sweet to me either.

“It must be thanks to the powers you’ve inherited from me that protected you from going insane.”

Though she gave birth to me, Auresia never loved me. At least I could tell that those eyes that were capturing me in their gaze were not filled with love. And I could tell only because I had borne witness to a certain someone’s love-filled gaze so many times now. Maybe what she had done so far for me had just been a whim or perhaps because she had a sense of responsibility. But it was alright. Even though I might not have been born out of love, I had received a flood of love nonetheless.

Auresia had gifted me people who loved me even when I pushed them away to wallow in my own grief and despair and even when I remained indifferent to their love.

“I knew you were an heir but I didn’t know you were strong enough to receive the curse.”

Auresia didn’t seem to have expected this either. But she looked at me sadly for a moment as if she felt a little responsible. From her expression, it seemed as if she found me too much to hold but too important to abandon at the same time.

“Isn’t his love so dreadful?”

Auresia cried out slowly. Who was she talking about? Castor? But the emotions laced in her words sounded more like hatred.

“I’m talking about the love from the man with golden eyes.”

The feelings felt rotten. Auresia looked down before smiling slightly. But I could tell she sounded indescribably apologetic. As I watched her closely, the diary I was holding suddenly caught my eye. Slowly, I raised my arm and handed it to Auresia.

“This is yours, right?”

Auresia picked up the diary before perusing through it slowly. Interestingly enough, it looked like Auresia could read it. Until now, everyone had been flipping through the pages as if they could only see empty pages. She read the words carefully till the final pages of the diary before returning the diary to me.

“Pardon me, but this is not mine.”

“Impossible! I found it in your room!”

“Didn’t someone else place it there?”

I pressed my lips together. I couldn’t deny that that was a possibility. But who else could own the diary other than Auresia? My confusion only heightened.

The moon sank beneath some distant mountains. As dawn was about to fall and morning was about to start, I could see the bright tendrils of the sun’s rays from a distance. Morning was coming. And what a long night that was. I pulled the diary into my embrace. Auresia then added one more thing.

“But in that notebook, I could feel divinity in every page. And that divinity feels both like mine and the ‘Power of the Lords’. Though any unseeing eye would only sense the ‘Power of the Lords’.”

Still, she tilted her head before glancing at the diary again.

“But it’s strange.”

Questions seemed to contort her elegant expression.

“Who else in this world would have the same combination of these powers if not you?”

1. 1. Crossroad of Night and Day

We left the garden I met Auresia in and returned to the stele. As I did not know the way back, Auresia accompanied me.

“Don’t think of the Templars of Chaos as your enemy.”

“The Templars of Chaos?”

Auresia nodded as I handed her the shawl. If she was talking about the Templars of Chaos I knew, I recall briefly hearing about them in theology classes and from Dane.

“Aren’t they the biggest enemy of the Imperial Family? Their goal was to kill every member of the Imperial family.”

“They are not enemies of the Imperial Family but rather of the current emperor.”

Auresia brushed through the shawl once before slipping it slowly over her shoulders. The soft red shawl looked very good on her. She looked up at me elegantly. I could tell what she was feeling at first glance.

“All the templars who are against the current emperor are referred to as the Templars of Chaos. And they’re being careful about how to term them such that my family’s or my own name would not be mentioned.”

Was it some sort of scarlet letter? I read something similar before in a history book. Many dictators from history would create a common enemy before starting wars. There were no wars now but creating a common enemy was also a way for the Empire to maintain peace in the populace. Though this kind of peace was more like oppression.

“Child, do you know the story behind the First Emperor?”

“How could I not?”

“Seeing you and Castor reminded me of them.”

The forest surrounding the stele was really dark. Only the lamp Auresia was carrying cast a dim light around us. Even though the moon hanging above us in the sky was so bright, the foliage was so thick even its moonlight couldn’t reach us.

“Did you know? The First Emperor was a woman.”

She whispered slowly as if she was telling me a secret. The shock struck me like lightning. No history or theology books mentioned the First Emperor’s gender.

I blinked my widened eyes because I thought it was only a matter of fact that the First Emperor would be a man. A woman couldn’t be the emperor, could she? But the First Emperor was a woman?

“They said that the Lord of Gods did what he did out of an obsessive love. The symbol of the Lord of the Gods became a pair of golden eyes.”

Auresia reached out to me slowly before pointing at my cheek.

“The First Emperor had also been trapped in this huge Imperial Palace.”

However, our skin never touched and her finger, which was slightly bent, hovered in the air. In the end, her finger never came into contact with my cheek. She smiled as softly as an orchid shaking in the wind.

“It was ‘death’ that allowed the First Emperor to leave the palace.”

She spoke with deep remorse in her eyes. I was reminded of what Auresia had lost. Her family, her relatives, her friends and her last love. She had lost everything she loved.

“May you leave this cruel palace because of love. I hope to see you walking down a path different from that of the First Emperor.”

“Because of love?”

“Sometimes it’s love that brings about miracles. It exerts a greater power than any amount of divinity could ever muster. Even if it might sound like some pipe dream.”

I did think it was a pipe dream.

“I’m just saying that I hope love will be accompanying you in the ending you reach.”

The woman who had lost her love was asking me to search for my own. I recalled the blessing I received from the lips that gently brushed against my forehead. A kiss from a templar was considered a blessing. Though it was dark, I could clearly see Auresia’s eyes because of how close we were. With a broad smile, she retreated.

“When you return, look for the God and Templars of Death.”

***

“That’s taboo.”

Soricks responded stiffly. I had rarely heard his voice being this low indicating how serious he considered it to be.

“Why is the God of Death taboo?”

“That’s–”

“No. Soricks, you don’t need to tell me if you’re having that much trouble saying it.”

“Sigh, thank you.”

Glancing somewhere else, I murmured.

“I’ll look it up in the library.”

Of course, I made sure I said that loud enough so that he would hear me. Glancing at Soricks, I spotted his distress. To his side, I spotted Meta grabbing his stomach and cackling as he struggled to mutter, ‘The princess is amazing’.

“I’m just letting you know. I’m busy with the Coming-of-Age Ceremony anyway.”

“But–”

“What are you worried about? You said you already dealt with the surveillance.”

Soricks rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly before muttering, “Still, you shouldn’t be saying these things. Just getting rid of the surveillance is not enough.” He sighed slowly before continuing, “You cannot spread whatever I am about to say anywhere else, Princess.”

“Alright.”

I nodded seriously and stiffly but Soricks still looked unconvinced so I gave him my oath.

“Officially, the Templars of Death refer to the Templars of Snow and the Sea.”

“Right.”

“But, in fact, they used to refer to the followers of the 2nd God, the god that followed after the Lord of the Gods in authority, the God of Death. According to the myths, they were brothers. While the older brother, the Lord of the Gods, ruled the overworld, the younger brother, the God of Death ruled the dead and the underworld.”

I was flustered by the sudden talk about mythology but I nodded slowly.

“And the gods that descended onto Kaltanias can be divided into two types. They were either gods of the overworld or gods of the underworld. You can think of it as a kind of faction that they belong to. And we can see this distinction today as well. How? The answer is in their ‘eyes’.”

“Eyes”

“Yes. Princess, have you ever noticed how templars’ eyes change when they use their divinity?”

“Yes.”

“They change into two possible colours. It’s either gold or purple.”

“You’re right.”

Come to think of it, Soricks was right. When the templars around me used their powers, their eye colour would change. Unlike Castor and Meta whose eyes turned golden when they used their powers, Soricks and Hernan’s eyes would turn purple.

“The gold colour indicates that the god is in the faction belonging to the Lord of the Gods and purple to the faction of the Lord of Death, or also known as the gods of the underworld. I might be talking about gods belonging to the overworld or the underworld but the colour doesn’t really indicate their superiority. Rather, the ranking is determined by their amount of divinity.”

“But why would talking about the God of Death be taboo?”

“Because, a long time ago, the Templars of Death had staged a rebellion. And since then, they have been referred to with a different term. You’ve probably heard of the ‘Templars of Chaos’.”

I blinked at the name I never expected to pop up before nodding slowly. So, that meant, the first Templars of Chaos were the Templars of Death and now that term was being used to refer to all those who were against the emperor? This must be it. Soricks spoke with a slight squint in his eyes as if he was proud of me for listening to him so intently.

“They have the same goals. To restore their gods who have been restrained by the Lord of the Gods and to establish their own successor as the emperor. They also wish for the extermination of all the descendants of the Lord of the Gods. They are dangerous people who can shake the foundation of the Empire.”

“I see. By the way, Soricks. The God of Death had been imprisoned?”

“That’s…”

He averted his gaze as if organising his thoughts. Soricks stopped scratching his cheek for a moment before saying.

“History never recorded it in detail but here’s what I think happened. It was said that the Lord of the Gods, the First Emperor and the God of Death had lived in great harmony back in the beginning of the Empire. But one day, he disappeared. It was said that he suddenly took up and left.”

“Suddenly?”

T/N:

I missed last week’s wednesday and friday uploads so this week’s monday and wednesday will be double updates!