CH 2

The world is beautiful today, as well.

It’s been over half a year since I’ve interacted with anyone, so I suppose I am able to think so.

I used to live in Uranos Duke’s castle, a long time ago. Although I didn’t meet him often, my father was relatively kind, and my always-present mother, though somewhat ignorant of the world, was an elegant lady befitting of a duke’s wife.

My devout mother never failed to pray in the castle’s chapel. As a child, I found it boring but always followed her. After her prayer was finished, I asked her this question:

“Mother, why do you bother praying? Even if everyone prayed to stop the war that was about to start the other day, it still happened. Isn’t praying pointless?”

“Well, I will keep praying. Even if my prayers never come true and even if they are futile and senseless, I still believe they are not wasted.”

“I see. Haven’t you been deceived?”

“If that were the case, then wouldn’t everything have been pointless? That would be terribly sad. That is why we pray, so that we can have a hopeful world instead of a sad one.”

“I don’t really understand. If we don’t pray, it’s not like we become unhappy.”

“Yes, that’s right. How wonderful it would be if we didn’t have to pray in this world.”

Replied my mother, looking somewhere far away. Perhaps she was looking at her homeland beyond the mountains. She was probably worried about what had happened to Galanicia, which would have been involved in the war.

My mother always prayed and tried to protect me when my father’s heart started to drift away. That was the plan.

However, the day Galanicia fell into ruin, my mother threw herself off the castle wall and ended her life.

My mother’s heart was broken. The heart that had been held together by prayer, the heart that had been trying to protect her only daughter, was pushed into despair by the destruction of her homeland.

I know now that my mother repeatedly pleaded with my father to protect Galanicia, but he refused. At that time, I didn’t understand anything, but I learned later that my father had abandoned Galanicia to protect Uranos Principality. He used his queen’s homeland as a shield for his own country.

No matter how hard my mother tried, how many times she begged not to abandon her homeland, or how much she prayed for Galanicia, it didn’t matter.

Her prayers went unanswered. My father abandoned her.

Under my father’s command, I was sent to the remote monastery under the pretext of atoning for my mother’s dishonorable deeds of breaking a taboo. Since he had also neglected and abandoned me, he did not want anyone connected to Galanisia to be nearby. However, he could not kill me, so he sent me to a place out of sight. That’s where I am now.

In this desolate place, as a child, I cried and screamed. I lamented every day, asking why I had to be in such a place and begging for my mother’s return. The only person in the monastery was the strict Yorgia, a senior nun who raised me. Whenever I complained, I was punished, and I was even deprived of meals if I neglected prayers. At times, she even left me alone in a small hut in the forest used for practice.

But even so, Yorgia did not abandon me. She raised me as a nun, and even taught me academic skills.

As she approached death, she said to me, “You can live anywhere you want, whether you stay in this monastery or escape to a faraway land. Live as you please, for you have the ability to do so.”

I took care of Yorgia and buried her in the small graveyard of the monastery. Thanks to the passing travelers who helped, the burial could be carried out smoothly. I thought to myself that good things sometimes happen in life.

But from then on, nothing good happened. I barricaded myself in the deserted monastery until the food supplies ran out. When the stock became depleted, I would head to the village, get money from the church, and bring food back to the monastery to barricade myself again.

Surely, I would spend the rest of my life living in the monastery until I got old and died, just like Yorgia did.

No one came to bother me. There was no joy or sadness, just meaningless prayers to hold onto my life until the end.

The memories of my life as a princess were useless; they only served as a hindrance. I had disposed of my childhood memories.

I was just a nun in a remote area, and I would never live again as Eleni Uranos Galanis. That’s what I thought.

Styx Kingdom, the largest religious state on the continent.

The innermost part of the temple of the main god, Styx—the holy land, Arche of Apeiron.

The high priest who came out from there delivered a prophecy to the Styx King.

“Prince Athanasios Cypnimus, the most intelligent young man in the Styx Kingdom, shall marry the virtuous maiden Eleni Galanis, who resides in the Uranos Principality, as his wife.”

Upon receiving this prophecy, the devout Styx King immediately dispatched an envoy to Uranos Principality to search for Eleni Galanis, who was to become the wife of Prince Athanasios. Of course, the envoy came to Duke Uranos. And, of course, Duke Uranos had an idea. It was the name of the daughter he abandoned ten years ago.

As a mere principality, it was impossible to oppose the immense authority of the religious country, Styx Kingdom, which was the most powerful on the continent. However, looking at it from a different perspective, a member of the Uranos family, with an unattainable noble bloodline, would marry into the Styx royal family, creating a connection. If all went well, the future Styx King might have Uranos blood flowing through his veins.

There was no way to miss this opportunity. Duke Uranos detained the envoy and urgently called back Eleni from the remote monastery.