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?’
The way Gemma described her pregnancy as a sacred yet painful sacrifice was equally ambiguous as well. Although it wasn’t entirely wrong, it somehow didn’t sound quite right. They sounded as if the happiness of Anika in the course of marriage and pregnancy was entirely ignored, while they were described only as painful tasks which Anikas desperately wish to be liberated from.
‘Come to think of it, there’s no other way for Anika to leave the Holy City other than by marriage with the king.’
Sang-je seemed to be making sure that even the married Anika was returned to the city in the end. It was almost as if he was not allowing any Anika to leave beyond his control!
‘Sang-je… the more I learn of him, the more I find him cunning. It’s actually not the Anikas who should be much obliged by him, as it rather seems like Sang-je is the one who’s obsessed with them.’
Eugene steeled herself for her coming encounter with Sang-je as it strongly occurred to her that she mustn’t let her guard down around him.
‘I wonder if Gemma is feeling alright today. She must be exhausted as I dragged her along throughout the whole banquet yesterday. I’ve heard that one must be extra careful during the early stages of pregnancy.’
As yesterday’s banquet was the first ever social gathering she ever attended, Eugene had practically used Gemma as her shield and never left her side throughout the night as she was feeling pretty nervous. Although Gemma didn’t seem to have forced a smile on her face, yet, there was no way of knowing her true feelings.
‘She didn’t seem like a bad person on the whole, as she seemed good-natured.’
Eugene wondered if she should make another stop at the Slan Kingdom on her way back to the Hashi Kingdom, just to deliver some news from the Holy City to Gemma. By that time, she figured that she would be able to see Gemma’s baby bump then.
“Ah…”
The monthly period had just ended for Eugene not long ago. However, she realized that she had felt something unusual about it when her menstruation started this month.
Just until last month, she was rather relieved to find out she was menstruating. But this time, she dismayed about it.
Eugene carefully stroked her stomach with her hand. The mere thought of having their baby growing inside her was enough to make her heart flutter.
Although she couldn’t quite say she was ready to become a mother of a child, she knew that she was more than ready to gladly welcome the baby if she ever gets pregnant. Eugen blissfully smiled as she imagined an image of a boy who would most likely have blue eyes and hair, in the spitting image of his father.
With that, she was dumbfounded by her changed mindset. She no longer just plainly wished to survive in this world. Instead, she truly wanted to become a rightful member of the society and live raising a child in this very world.
***
Somewhere remote, as one travels farther away from the center of the Holy City leads to the discovery of an old street which was built a fairly long time ago. In a good way, one would regard the street as full of its history and traditions. But truth to be told, it was nothing but a stagnant place which had been long since forgotten by most people.
Most people who lived there were poor and not many of them seemed like they were educated. Those who were born and raised here, all lived and died without ever leaving the street.
On such a street, a stranger appeared out of nowhere. And as he started to snoop around the place, the residents all had their eyes on his strange visitor.
“I’m here to look for my aunt who used to live nearby. I would be most grateful if you could help me.”
But as the man greeted amiably while passing along a few small gifts, the residents had soon lowered their guards down around him. All the more, the residents had later scramble to spill out whatever information they have as the man paid for all sorts of information he could gather.
The man had fussily complimented an old man, who claimed that he’d lived his whole life in the very street, after asking him some questions.
“I’m truly amazed by your good memory.”
“People have regarded me as a prodigy when I was very young.”
“Then I guess you must remember even those events which happened a very long time ago?”
“Surely, I do. Ask me anything. There is nothing I don’t know about.”
“Then, do you know anything about an incident concerning Anika, which had turned the whole Holy City upside down about twenty years ago?”