Chapter 229 (1)

Eugene tried to recall everything she had heard from Gemma yesterday as she hadn’t had the alone time to think them through before. But as there still were a few days of marching left before they could finally reach the Holy City, there should be plenty of time for her to sort out her thoughts.

Eugene was glad that they had made a stop at the Slan Kingdom as she had unexpectedly gained insights on exclusive information from her encounter with Anika Gemma.

‘So, it’s common for the queens to spend more than half of a year in the Holy City?’

Gemma had told her as if it was only natural for her to leave for Holy City after she gave birth to the child.

[At first, I would most likely come and go between the city and the kingdom. But someday, by the time the child is ready to ascend the throne, I’ll settle down in the Holy City for good.]

Surely there was nothing unusual about the royals to pay their regular visits to the Holy City. Some of the kings even spent the whole dry season in the Holy City. The Desert King was the rare exception as he never seemed to leave his kingdom if there wasn’t any particular reason.

Every king still would return to their kingdom before the active period would start. But unlike the kings, queens practically stayed away from the kingdom regardless of the seasons, according to what Gemma had said.

‘But Marianne had never mentioned that to me before.’

Marianne must have not felt inclined to tell her about such conventions of the queens. Somehow, she felt like she could understand Marianne, who would have wanted to keep the matter in the dark as long as it wasn’t asked.

Then, Eugene recalled Kasser’s mother, who was known to stay in the Holy City.

‘As I was told that it’s been long since the former queen’s presence was absent in the Hashi Kingdom, she must’ve left the kingdom even before her son rose to the throne. She must have her reasons for leaving. Nevertheless, it seems like every queen will eventually return to the Holy City someday in the future.’

It was quite a shame that she couldn’t have pried more into Gemma as to get more answers to her questions. Eugene had taken a caution as to not arouse any suspicion from Gemma, in a worry that she might start a rumor that would eventually reach Sang-je’s ears.

There still were two things which Eugene couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Firstly, it was the conflict between the two energies.

‘Discomfort?’

According to Gemma, every Anika was supposed to feel some kind of repulsion around their king husband’s presence. And that was the reason why Jin Anika, who possessed a strong Ramita couldn’t possibly marry a king. The stronger their Ramita, the more it will conflict with the king’s energy.

However, Eugene still couldn’t understand what kind of repulsion Gemma was speaking of.

‘The Praz he possesses is very strong indeed. And so is my Ramita. Then, how come our energies don’t conflict with each other? Could it be because I’m not the rightful owner of this body?’

Still, the conflict between a king’s Praz and an Anika’s Ramita, distinctively contradicted what Aldrit had told them about before.

‘It is only Anikas who could bear a child of a king. If so, how come their energy conflicts with each other? They surely need to be intimate for Anika to get pregnant. It just doesn’t add up.’

But what confused her the most was Gemma’s statement as she had told Eugene that she had clearly felt the repulsion herself. She didn’t seem like she was mistaken, as her description about how it makes her skin ‘crawl’, was fairly specific.

Secondly, it was the way Gemma perceived the whole marriage with the king as some kind of sacrifice.

Somehow, Gemma regarded her pregnancy like she was carrying an ‘heir’ of the kingdom instead of the thought of becoming a mother of her own ‘child’. She considered the pregnancy as a self-sacrifice instead of a blessing.

[I’ll most likely be ruined after giving birth to this baby.]

Gemma said as she embraced her belly with her hands.

[….ruined? Well, delivering a baby wouldn’t be easy for sure, but.]

[I’ll literally be ruined. Think about carrying a Praz which is likely to conflict with my Ramita for almost ten whole months. There’s a slim chance my body won’t be ruined. I’ve heard that one will suffer from all sorts of aftereffects following the delivery.]

Although Eugene had thought inwardly that the aftereffects were quite inevitable to every woman after delivering a baby, she’d held her tongue as she was unsure of the intensity of the aftereffects that Anikas would suffer from giving birth.

[His Holiness had told me that I could return to the Holy City once I have this baby. He’d also promised that I’ll be given sufficient reward to compensate for my sacred yet painful sacrifice.]

There was something strange about Sang-je’s ingenious remarks.

‘Am I just being paranoid, or does it sound as if he actually wants her to be back in the Holy City?’