CH 193

After getting off the carriage, instead of being led directly to the stage, she was led to a hall near the stage. The waiting room she was currently in was also used by all the past princesses before they danced. It was so lavishly decorated it would not lose to any of the rooms in the Imperial Palace. Maybe because of that, the patterns on the curtain seemed a little outdated and the cushions on the floor looked strangely tacky but Rebecca immediately explained.  

“Please excuse the room, it had been vacant for a long time.”

She was trying to say that they didn’t have any reason to redecorate the room. Before Ashley, there had not been princesses for too long. Because a saintess had been taking her place. Ashley was suddenly struck with a thought. There were a total of 7 princes in the Empire. However, until the 7th child was born, there had been no princesses. That was a little strange to her. Thinking it might be time for her to perform soon, she shook her head.

‘Well, this is a world inside a novel.’

Wasn’t this a fictional world someone had created? If that were the case, she could understand this abnormality. More importantly, this was a world where a mysterious divinity existed. Still, with a thorn now pricking the corner of her mind, Ashley continued listening to Rebecca’s explanation. 

“When the sun sets, HIs Highness, the Crown Prince will arrive. Then, under his lead, you’ll head to the stage.”

Explaining it once more whilst she combed Ashley’s hair, Rebecca reminded Ashley that the templars had already taken care of all the preparations and all she needed to do was to move accordingly. The girl nodded as she recalled what she had learnt for the past few days. To be ready in time for the completion of the stage, she also had to rehearse on the stage. Just when she was recalling all the dance moves and reviewing the steps again in her head…

Bang!

“P-Princess! There’s been a problem!”

The rude man who just barged in was none other than a Templar of Vulcanus. He was the 2nd strongest templar after Rex, their representative. Even Rebecca, who had initially been frowning at his untimely rudeness, changed her expression at his urgency. 

“What happened?”

“Gasp. Could the princess come too? There won’t be much of a difference but… Could you both come with me for a while?”

He glanced towards the hallway before whispering. There had been a lot of maids and knights stationed along the hallway–most were brought by the aristocrats who were also staying there. In other words, he was worried that word would spread about their problem. 

“Rebecca.”

Ashley glanced outside the window. The sun was going to set soon. Was there only two hours left before the performance started? When the sun sets, Castor will be here. She should return before he arrives. Rebecca seemed to be thinking the same thing before nodding at her. 

With Rebecca’s help, Ashley stepped out into the hallway and saw so many people she got dizzy. Soon, she followed after the Templar of Vulcanus. In the room she was led to, there were the templars sent by the Duke of Aventa, the rest of the Templars of Vulcanus and Rex. 

“Princess!”

As soon as Rex spotted Ashley, he sprinted towards her. That was when Ashley quickly noticed. His expression looked no different from the Templar of Vulcanus who came to fetch her urgently.

“There’s been a problem.”

“What’s going on?”

Ashley calmly asked. And whilst she did so, she slowly scanned the room. This was the room in which all the divinity devices that were used for the stage equipment were kept. Most of the devices needed on the stage should have already been installed. If so, the tools here… were for Amor.

“We don’t have time. Rex. hurry and explain things.”

Just as she thought, the devices that were being used on the stage had already been installed. [Tools of Divinity] could only be used by templars because upon usage, it uses up divinity. Of all the known tools, the stage where the [Primo Salvatio] was performed used up the most divinity and could only be controlled by the strong. In this case, strong templars referred to highly-ranked templars and in Ashley’s case, Amor decided to take charge. 

“As you know, the 4th Prince is not here right now. Which is why we are using this divinity device to transfer his divinity. Through this device, the 4th Prince was planning on creating mirages on the stage. But something strange happened. Uhm, until yesterday, we confirmed that the device was still working but… it broke.”

“It broke?”

“Yes, we also don’t know what happened…”

Distressed, Rex bit his lips hard. All the templars in the room sighed whilst looking at the shattered crystal. Even from Ashley’s point of view, she could tell that the shattered crystal was unfixable. Ashley shut her eyes slowly. 

Was there anyone who could fix this? 

In order for the princess’ [Primo Salvatio] to be spectacular enough, a powerful templar was needed to pull the strings. Long ago, the stage was used by the heirs to the throne to show off their divine devices gifted by the Lord of the Gods. (1)

A stage where the stronger the templar’s divinity was, the more spectacular the mirage they would form. But now, it was more like a play performed by the princess. Still, only the Imperial Family was allowed to perform it. And Ashley was going to be on that stage. 

‘The princesses before me were all templars but I’m definitely not one.’

There was nowhere to turn. The situation was dire but she couldn’t think of a way out. And it was not only Ashley, Rebecca and the rest of the templars also looked distressed.

“What about Fleon?”

“Well, the prince went to call for the deputy Head Templar of Vulcanus. I wonder how he will help us…”

“Are you talking about Fleon’s uncle? He’ll be too late…”

That man wouldn’t even be able to reach the capital in time. The Blessed Land of Vulcanus was too remote and distant. As they all contemplated, someone brought her a communication crystal. That person must have been too restless to just stand around and had contacted someone else. A familiar voice could be heard behind the static noise coming from the crystal. 

“Ashley.”

It was Amor. 

“I heard what happened.”

“Yes. What should we do?”

Ashley smiled bitterly at Amor’s momentary silence.

“Brother, I guess the Goddess of Luck is frowning upon me again.”

She resisted clenching her teeth. Filled with resent, she wondered why did such unfortunate things only happen to her? But as always, she had to calm herself down. Now, she was no longer affected by this level of misfortune. Ever since the diary appeared in her life, hasn’t her misfortune always overwhelmed her? Just when Ashley recalled the past when she would slowly approach the gates to the underworld, she was strangely captured by a mysterious feeling. 

‘What just happened?’

It felt like her heart was sinking from the anxiety. Being trapped by those sticky feelings weighing her down felt unpleasant. She quickly shook her head. 

In the meantime, Amor was talking to Rex who was in charge. Altogether, the ones in charge of her stage were Amor, Rex, Dane and Rebecca. They were in charge of supplying divinity, stage equipment, manpower and decorations respectively. And Dane, who was currently not here, was directing his people outside the hall. 

“Ashley, are you listening?”

“Yes.”

“Hearing it from this Templar of Vulcanus, it seems like the device is now beyond repair and that there is nothing else they can do to supply my divinity to somewhere outside the Imperial Palace. It’s not that it won’t reach you but it won’t help much because it would be too weak.”

His words made Ashley’s face grimace. Was there really no other way? Many thoughts came to her mind before disappearing. Ashley opened her closed eyes before looking at Rebecca. 

‘I told her I was going to show her the best stage I could.’

The show could go on without the device but it would be nothing like the stage the people of the Empire had been used to seeing for the past thousand years. If she were to think of the worst case scenario, she would get criticised, ridiculed and even cursed at if she performed without divinity.

“… It’s not impossible.”

At that moment, everyone’s gaze turned to the small crystal. Amor’s words felt like a communal from the heavens above. A little nervous, Ashley lifted the crystal. 

“Do you remember the blessing? The one I gave you.”

“Yes.”

“The divinity transfer device is able to send my divinity to the stage directly and it also allows the Templars of Vulcanus to use them. Blessings are no different. Your body that’s filled with my divinity is already filled with strength.”

Amor kept silent for a while before continuing to explain. His voice was heavy and slow for some reason. 

“The ‘bracelet’ I gave you, using ‘yourself’ as the medium”

That was what he suggested. He was saying that he could only transfer divinity into the stage through Ashley’s body because they were already connected through the blessings he had granted him. And when she asked Rex, who had been next to her, for his confirmation, he nodded firmly. 

“It is theoretically possible…” He nodded thoughtfully. 

“In fact, married templars often share their divinity with each other…”

Rex seemed to have something more to say but he quickly stopped himself after taking one glance at the crystal. Looking away from Rex, she grabbed her wrist tightly. 

“If we use that method, can I perform the [Primo Salvatio] as scheduled?”

“We can. But there is a fatal flaw to that plan.”

“And what is that?”

“That you’ll have to manipulate the divinity yourself. Of course, I can help you through the bracelet but there is a limit. So, you’ll have to put the divinity to work yourself on stage.”

If they were to use this method, Amor would only be able to help her to some extent. In other words, Ashley would have to put the divinity into use herself while dancing. Ashley stared at the bracelet Amor gave her. It was a good thing she was wearing it. She only brought it here because she had been disappointed that Amor could not be here with her. 

“I’m not a templar. Can I still use divinity?”

“If you have a tool that can store divinity, you can use it temporarily but you can use your own divinity. But the problem is how. You’ve never used your divinity even once before. It’ll be too much for you to channel that much at once. It’ll need training. Will you be able to do it?

“I’ll have to.”

“… I thought you would say that.”

However, unlike her confident exclamation, she felt hopeless. The sun was setting, the performance was just around the corner and she had to face such a daunting task.

“If only there was someone there who can help you…”

This wasn’t the time for this. Her throat was burning from the anger and resentment she was suppressing but, as always, she didn’t have the time to vent. Even though she felt burdened, overwhelmed and hurt, she had to push forward. Sitting still was not going to change anything. Ashley gritted her teeth. 

“Who can teach me about divinity?”

Everyone here was a templar anyway. She thought that as long as she could do something, she could pull it off. She recalled how empowered she felt the day she submitted her project on the day of the deadline and also the day before her CSATs. However, those who were cornered cannot display such supernatural powers so easily. She was praying that she could be granted a super powerful buff, the likes of which would only go to main characters, just this once. 

“Why isn’t anyone answering?”

It was at this moment that she noticed something strange in the atmosphere. Then, she turned around. The second she saw the man standing a few steps away, she froze.

“Something interesting always happens when I’m not here.”

“… Brother.”

‘Why was he here?’

It was Castor. She quickly glanced at the others’ expressions. Even Rebecca and the other templars seem to be thinking the same thing. Ashley hurriedly lowered her head.

“I greet my brother.”

“Enough with the greetings.”

Castor grinned.

‘We aren’t close enough to do that, are we?’

She whispered to herself. Taking a few steps forward, he took the crystal from her hands. 

“This child didn’t let you in on a much faster method.”

“A faster method…?”

“Ashley, I’m a templar too. Isn’t the point of a patronus to hold the princess’ hand and help her use her full potential? At least that’s what I heard.”

He slowly smiled before brushing his hand against her shoulders. The contact between their bare skin left goosebumps in their wake. 

T/N:

(1): I don’t think divine devices is accurate here but the word I’m translating it from 신기/神机 basically means divine mechanism or holy gifts. Which both sound weird so I’m using ‘divine devices’ which is NOT the same as the devices that templars use to store/transfer divinity.