Ch.415Clarity Under the Moonlight. Lake Ariel (2)

She was beautiful.

Maria Taylor, the companion of the Master of Fervor.

It would not be an exaggeration to call her a woman of unparalleled beauty. She was truly worthy of being the companion to the Master of Humanity—she was beautiful beyond words.

Even though her skin had frozen from a cold more bitter than any ice, even though she had grown haggard from the countless children lost within herself and within the darkness, even though she had become emaciated through endless human conflicts and the great calamity known as the Age of Eclipse. Still, she remained beautiful.

However, there was another woman who glared at her venomously.

“Break the curse.”

Raisha Walker. The companion of the Master of Humanity.

Unfortunately, her beauty could only be described as significantly inferior compared to Maria’s. Of course, she too was beautiful, but only by human standards. It was physically and supernaturally impossible to surpass Maria, who had already ascended to the realm of divinity, in terms of aesthetic standards.

Even if this place existed nowhere in the world.

“You know I cannot do that.”

“You cast it, didn’t you? And yet you say you can’t break it? Or is it that you won’t break it?”

Maria’s eyes were filled with grief and sorrow as she looked at her. How could Maria not understand? She knew to her very bones that if a woman cannot bear a child with the seed of her beloved, then the very concept of being a woman becomes meaningless.

Maria and Saburo hadn’t even held a wedding ceremony. Their different surnames were evidence of this.

In the human world beneath the sky, the land of eternal war, they dressed it up with frivolous talk about dedicating themselves to humanity, even sparing the time for a wedding ceremony. But the truth that could not be forgotten through the ages was far more cruel.

It should have been a perfect day. It should have been the day she became his, and he became hers. Had the bad news of monsters breaking through the defense line not arrived, her husband would have received her—the most beautiful woman in the world, who should have been at her most beautiful on that day—as his bride in her wedding dress.

And that day never came again. They weren’t even given time to complete the legal paperwork. Only the hollow and sorrowful compound word “common-law marriage” defined their relationship.

“I’m disgusted by your ugly jealousy…! Why do you look at me like that? You’re the one who cast the curse… You’ll lift it when I complete the pilgrimage? Don’t make me laugh! My body and soul belong to Him! You have no right to do this to me!”

“You are my successor. Do you truly believe I placed this restriction on you out of mere jealousy?”

“Then what is it? Why should I feel shame every time my husband, who stands above all others, looks at my womb? Do you know the humiliation of being diagnosed as infertile by a mere machine?”

Despite her agitation, Raisha refrained from mentioning Maria’s miscarried and stillborn children. At least in that regard, she deserved unconditional sympathy.

“No divine offspring has ever been born in this human world. The bloodline of the old imperial family has already thinned, and there are limits to traits passed down to adopted children rather than biological ones.”

“…”

“The imperial family became corrupt just by bestowing blessings on completely different bloodlines. Emperors who rose to positions second only to the sun deified themselves as if they were the sun itself and treated their own people as if they were a different race. And that was during the empire’s golden age. Even at the pinnacle of human technology, when the human spirit burned brightest, they couldn’t prevent divinity from eroding their humanity.”

“Humanity…”

Raisha’s expression changed rapidly.

From anger to calm, then from calm to fear.

She knew it too. Just a year ago, the Walker couple had suffered tremendously from the loss of their humanity. Even though it lasted only a few months, they had nearly succumbed to madness—how strong would the mental fortitude need to be for mere humans, especially emperors with unchecked absolute power?

“A child born between the sun and moon… whether daughter or son. It would surely be a being that would shake this world to its foundations. Your husband’s position is already precarious… A body with immense power but ultimately just an individual… Having thousands or tens of thousands of followers… No. That makes it even more dangerous. Would a child born with divinity… truly possess compassion for humans?”

All gods were once human. But few gods remember this.

That is why the constellations above do not intervene in the human world. As beings who have ascended to greater existence, they do not even consider involving themselves in the trivial matters of the inferior world below.

Of course, the other half of the reason is that they too are protecting the world from the two-dimensional horrors that seek to plunge the universe into chaos, but even if the human world were to perish, the stars would not descend.

“The sun drives humans to madness. Fanaticism based on the belief in one’s own righteousness is the greatest flaw of fervor. And the moon turns humans into slaves. Helplessness. Despair. And submersion. The defeatist spirit of wanting to settle for the current situation is my dark side. What happens when these two combine?”

“…The Age of Eclipse.”

“Exactly. The human spirit, rendered incapable of independent thought, will become more worthless than a dying candle flame. Soldiers seized by fanaticism and madness will raise the sun’s banner and slaughter nonbelievers. Women who have lost the will to stand on their own will offer their chastity to greedy men. And humans crushed under divinity will become not people but slaves, showing only unconditional obedience.”

When the sun and moon combine, an eclipse occurs. This was as inevitable as one plus one equals two.

Of course, this is merely theoretical reasoning. Without the birth of a divine child to prove this theory, there is no way to confirm that her theory is correct.

But one cannot say she is wrong either. The tragedy that has unfolded over 50,000 years already serves as evidence supporting her theory.

It’s a rumor commonly heard among ordinary people: “A family had a child who was born mentally unsound, and eventually the household was completely ruined.”

“That’s… no… it can’t be… that’s just your opinion…”

“If it were merely my opinion, I would cheer three times. But remember your husband’s character. Remember that he slaughtered tens of thousands from his homeland without any remorse. And that thousands of them died under torture so cruel one fears to even speak of it. Just a few weeks ago, your husband ground rebels to death while they were still alive. Could a child born of such a man’s seed… truly be born with a normal mind?”

“…”

Raisha wept.

Sadly, because what Maria said was true. Victor was clearly a person with severe mental issues.

As soon as he became an adventurer, he beat a woman who had been rude to him to death, and even before that, he had stalked a family for three days and brutally murdered them for the reason that they had laid hands on him. No matter how much she loved him, it was impossible to defend such a man.

Whether it was an innate problem or acquired damage, it was all meaningless now. Who could dare to read the mind of light and fire? No medicine could prevent it from withering and burning.

“What I placed upon you is indeed a curse. How could I not know that it is something you could never accept?”

Maria rose from her seat and slowly approached Raisha. Her eyes, cold as ice, began to gather frost that enveloped Raisha’s wet skin.

“One who takes the sun as a companion must endure pain. Whether it’s your husband or mine, they are those who inflict pain rather than those who soothe it. So we must become their mercy and warmth. Even if it means freezing and extinguishing that light and fire…”

Raisha silently wiped away her tears.

She couldn’t be blamed for being blinded by love. After all, she had fallen in love with Victor for his good qualities.

But if she had known her husband was a sociopathic murderer… if she had known the child born from her womb could become a psychopathic dictator… would she still have fallen in love with Victor then?

Raisha continued to cry. Not because she resented her fate.

She wept because she couldn’t properly answer the above question, and because her love for her husband—which she had thought would be eternal and immortal—had begun to waver.