CH 230.1

The old man flinched at the word ‘Anika’ as he clamped his mouth into a tight shut. As a citizen of the Holy City, the subject regarding Sang-je was considered as a taboo. It was rigidly forbidden to criticize or condemn Sang-je, who served God’s will, under any circumstances. The same went for Anika, as their presence was deemed to be linked to the god’s will.

“Why do you ask such a thing?”

“I believe I’ve told you that my aunt used to live somewhere nearby from here around that specific time of period. And I’ve heard in passing that an incident concerning Anika, which had caused quite a commotion, had taken place around the same time. So, I wondered if maybe it could help me in finding my aunt.”

The man had slyly convinced the old man with his skillful words and succeeded in easing the aroused vigilance altogether. Reluctantly, the old man opened his mouth again when the man further offered him a handsome amount of compensation.

“Let’s see. Twenty years back? Umm…then there should be nothing else but this one incident. The birth of two Anikas.”

“I believe it’s something which happened a few years after the birth of two Anikas.”

“A few years after that…”

After a moment of contemplation, the old man murmured to himself in a low tone, ‘Could it be about that then?’.

“Do you remember what happened? From what I’ve heard, they said the incident had caused quite a stir in the city.”

“Umm, you’re right indeed. The whole Holy City was practically turned upside down when someone or a bunch of lunatics had kidnapped two Anikas.”

“Truly? Both of them?”

“I can’t quite remember if it was the both of them or it was only one of them. Nevertheless, it surely caused quite a commotion as the knights had begun to search through the whole city after the kidnappers. They’d even made this far and searched every nook and cranny of the street.”

“Then, had the kidnapped Anikas safely returned to their homes?”

“I bet they did. If not, they wouldn’t be alive by now. I’ve never heard anything about one of them being dead after that.”

The old man did not seem to know much of its details. However, with all of the leads he gathered so far, the man had now got a better picture on how he’ll further investigate the very incident.

The man was indeed Rodrigo’s hired informant. He began to conduct a secret investigation as he traveled from place to place while being awfully cautious as to not arouse any suspicion.

***

As every citizen of the Holy City was considered altogether equal under the law and Sang-je, there weren’t specific titles which insinuated the hierarchy of the society such as a commoner and the nobles.

However, the hierarchy system still prevailed in the Holy City. So those who were affluent, along with those who had a high influential power in the society, had created a social circle which was strictly limited to their own kinds. And among all the privileged members of the circle, only a handful of them came from the prestigious families of the Holy City.

Such renowned families were known for their rich histories and the name itself implied their predominant position in the Holy City.

For instance, of all the scholars who had made remarkable achievements throughout history, many of them do come from the Ditheo family. Their intellectual abilities must run in the family as many of their descendants had also come to prominence in academia. As a result, the name ‘Ditheo’ was now a common phrase used by the people in the Holy City to describe someone with a bright mind.

Moreover, every renowned family shared a common feature, as Anika was likely to be born as a lineal descendant of such families with high chances.

For such reasons, people of the Holy City only regarded those families as the true bluebloods of the society.

There was no doubt in saying that the Arse family was the most sophisticated blue bloods in the Holy City. The Arses were known to have great artistic talents. Various artists and novelists who were known to have greatly influenced the generations of their age had mostly come from the Arse family.

Such remarkable achievements made by the Arses were one of the greatest glories of the citizens of the Holy City. More so, the Arses was also known for their generosity as donating their amassed wealth back to the society was one of their noble family traditions, which naturally earned them all the admiration and respect from the people.

Furthermore, this family had earned further reputation from the birth of Anika in their family about twenty-three years ago.

It was when everyone was gravely concerned for not having a single birth of Anika for as long as ten years that an unprecedented birth of two Anikas happened in the same year, on the very same day.

Such a coincidental blessing had soon become the talk of the whole city, all the more because of the dramatic contrast in their birth. While one of them was from a humble family, the other was indeed the daughter of the lord from the most prestigious families of the Holy City.

Just until then, everyone sympathized deeply with Flora. If Flora had been the only Anika who was born on that day, she would’ve been bound to receive all the attention and love from everyone just like any other Anikas. However, all because of Anika Jin, who’d been born with a silver spoon in her mouth on the very same day as Flora, people pitied Flora for she was to be compared to Jin in every way as they grew up.

Truly, Anika Flora seemed to have always paled in comparison to Anika Jin while they were growing up. However, what everyone was really interested about was their Ramita. And it was when both Flora and Jin had fully come of age that an unexpected result had changed everything henceforth.

Anika Flora’s Ramita was deemed to exceed those of Anika Roxy’s, who was known to possess the strongest Ramita throughout history. Once that was known to the public, everyone began to cheer only for Anika Flora.