Chapter 73 — In which they bring light (6)

Saffra stood up.

“I have something to check.”

Then, without waiting for Mimosa’s reply, she left the room.

Moving down the corridor, Saffra had an uncomfortable feeling of electricity caressing her spine.

She did her best to suppress that feeling, and all the thoughts that came with it.

Instead, she barged into the room without even knocking.

“… Young Lady?”

Citrie, who was participating in an extreme rare ceremony of taking a break, and was reading the latest issue of the technological magazine, raised his head and blinked in confusion.

Saffra closed the door, grabbed the chair and sat down in front of him.

“Was your father ever interested in mystical arts or gods?”

At the mention of his father, Citrie’s face, which resembled a bit a cat stuck in a very high place he can’t climb down from, immediately turned serious.

He frowned, as he recalled.

“He was a little. I remember seeing him reading a book about Gemma’s folk tales and mystical customs. He was also very curious about divine beasts, astronomy and mystical geography. Even in deserts.”

“Hmm…”

Saffra nodded slowly and then stood up.

“Thank you. That’s very useful information.”

She turned to leave, but paused at the door.

“Ah, if my ladies-in-waiting try to murder you, because I visited you late in the evening, send your finger or something. I’ll recognize it immediately and come to help.”

“… Young Lady, how about you come to my aid before I resort to cutting off my finger?”

She glanced back at him once.

“Actually, now that I think about it, you will be fine even if you’re kidnapped. No need to send a finger. I’ll just receive a body.”

And then she left as suddenly as she appeared.

Citrie returned to his ‘stuck in a high place’ cat expression.

*-*-*

‘Divine Beast Princess went missing?’

That was unexpected.

Amara restrained himself from crossing his arms and tapping on them with his fingers as he fell into short contemplation.

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Since ancient times, the common practice when establishing a nation or dynasty was to use a divine as the reason for jurisdiction to rule.

Whether it was a legend about how the first people were led to their new land by their god, through miracles and mysterious events.

Or how the dynasty progenitor was an incarnation of god, who descended on this land.

If done right, the nation or dynasty could enjoy unique perks that came from strong beliefs and links to the spiritual world.

The Gemma Republic was no different.

Facing many natural cataclysms, their beliefs naturally centered on the nature and evolved into Five Elements system.

Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.

And five divine beasts representing them.

By keeping the balance between those five elements and the divine beasts keeping the peace with each other, they were able to divert the disasters that struck the land, and to prosper.

… But it didn’t take long before that peace collapsed.

‘… The phoenix royal family, which represented fire, betrayed Gemma and joined Sidus. And the wolves' royal family, which represented earth, soon followed them.’

The balance was broken and Gemma faced disaster after disaster.

The only ones who were left, the great cats, who represented metal, the tree spirits, who represented wood, and dragons, who represented water, did everything in their power to prevent their nation from collapsing.

And the result of it were deals that should never have been made.

Those deals had offsprings.

And the offsprings came to be called ‘divine beasts' princes/princesses’.

Even though Gemma no longer had ‘royalty’, and was rather led by the council with the heads of old families at its top, the princes and princesses served an important role as a spiritual symbol and assurance that no disaster would strike the nation.

‘… But now one of those symbols disappeared.’

There should be at least three… No.

Amara heard that the tree spirits isolated themselves over the passing years, and no one was sure of their status. Though, that of course could just be propaganda.

But there should be at least one dragon and one cat offspring running around.

That would explain why Amara didn’t hear anything about it until now.

If both of them disappeared, it would be impossible to hide it and Gemma would fall into chaos.

But if they don’t find the missing princess quickly, the things could become very troublesome.

If compared to Luminere, it was as if one of the throne rulers suddenly vanished.

Even if the state management could be done without them, because the other state big-heads and institutions had more than enough power to take care of that by themselves (or rather for themselves), there would be unrest.

Ignoring the tension between the states themselves, if the populous finds out and panics, or Luminere’s enemies use that moment to strike, or the Throne goes crazy because it was empty for too long, the catastrophe and collapse were sure to follow.

The Gemma’s officials had to be very anxious to find the princess.

‘That sums up the Gemma’s situation… but it would look different from Purplus’ perspective.’

Amara looked up at head priest Rasin, who was sitting across from him with a smile plastered on his lips.

“The Gemma’s envoy was sent away.”

Amara made a simple statement, but Rasin took it as an request for explanation, which he gladly did.

“Indeed. They came here so openly, everyone had to see them, right? And no one knows yet that the princess went missing. If we let them see your excellency, some unpleasant rumors may spread. I told them that if they wish for our help, they should keep the deal hush-hush.”

Amara nodded.

Even if it was his decision to make, he would do the same.

‘Because in the current situation, it would look like we’re preparing to repeat Rubrun’s incident.’

50 years ago, Gemma held hands with Rubrun and attacked Flavun.

The wounds after this war were still fresh.

It was only natural that everyone was on guard against a similar incident.

‘But if they have to take the backdoors to get to me, then they will have to deal with Rasin first… In other words, they’re going to be ripped off.’

That was probably what Rasin wanted.

The divine beast princess was an entity closely connected to the divine. The Saint who dealt with all what’s divine was their best shot in finding her.

And the more desperate they are to find her, the more they would be willing to sacrifice.

Rasin was informing Amara about this situation to make sure that the bait, aka. the Saint, knows what actions he should take if Gemma decides to use some less orthodox methods.

“I understand.”

Amara nodded his head and Rasin smiled gently as if he was satisfied.

He probably wouldn’t make that expression if he knew that what Amara meant by ‘understanding’ was adding another objective in his growing plan of ruining Rasin.

After Rasin wished him goodnight and left, Amara sat down again and fell into thoughts.

There were many things that bothered him about this conversation.

First.

It was strange that from all nights to visit Amara, Rasin chose the one when Amara had the highest possibility of sneaking out.

‘If I wasn’t prepared, I would have been caught.’

He knew that Rasin was suspicious of him, but it was too coincidental that he chose this particular night and not any other.

Did someone expect Amara to move today?

He thought of a few possibilities, but as he lacked any evidence, he put them aside for now.

Second.

It didn’t seem like Rasin wanted to cause a war.

At least he didn’t seem to want to use Gemma for it.

And yet he made no movements or mentions about the stolen ancient artifact that could become a wedge of war if used correctly.

And his attempt to use Seven as a scapegoat to raise people’s anger was concerning.

‘Perhaps the goal is a war… but not with our neighbors.’

Third.

Where is the little head?

Amara was certain that it was the little head who slowed down Rasin with some trick.

But what happened afterwards?

Rasin didn’t mention little head at all.

Was little head alright?

Amara spent the entire night without a wink of sleep, worrying about the little brother that surely didn’t exist.

*~*~*