Flowers of Worship

 

Chapter 8

 

****

The bitter tone did not seem to belong to an 11 years old child. I don’t know whether he wants to be comforted or not, but I’m either way I’m not good at comforting someone. So I told him the truth instead of comforting him.

 

“Initially, mana holders usually like water. It’s one of the easiest forms of energy to handle, so as we swim we start learning how to control our mana.”

 

“Magic?” Eden peered up at me with his eyes wide open. What magic? His eyes seemed to ask, his face buried in his towel.

 

“Your Highness, I have mana, so I can identify another mana holder right away.” Eden probably had wanted to pretend not to have mana. His eyes grew when I said such implying that he didn’t need to hide.

 

“I-I have mana?!”

 

“…didn’t you know?”

 

“Me?”

 

He looked completely awestruck, he surprised me too. Why doesn’t he know? Mana is innate, from the moment we are born we already have magic. If you are a commoner like Sofia, you often find out later whether or not you have magic, because there is no one around you able to sense mana, but the story is different for  aristocrats. When a child is born in a noble family, the first thing done is calling in the priest to check if the child has magical powers. The birth of a child with mana is tantamount to securing a great source for the family. They are more likely to receive a title independently and will contribute much to the family, but even though he’s a prince, he didn’t know he had mana?

 

It’s a gift from heaven, is what most say but in reality it’s more twisted….

 

Mana is expressed from the moment of birth; however, in rare cases it is expressed laterally, those few are called the chosen. They are also expressed as being loved by creators, which is inevitable since they have a huge amount of mana, different from ordinary mana holders.

 

Magicians… How many are there now?

 

Great Masters of Magic have acquired fortunes, one died last year and one is now secluded, so it is impossible to know where he is or if he is alive. It’s so rare that the prince who disappeared is even the person who expressed the fortune. How much will the anti-imperial family faction covet this child, whose authenticity and magic are now added?

 

My head was pounding.

 

“So I can use mana too?” Eden asked me. His eyes are dawdling in anticipation.

 

“Magic is just a force, and you need technology to use it. To answer the question, you can write it. You have to learn.”

 

“I’ll learn!”

 

Eden hung on me. The towel that was covering his body fell off, but he didn’t mind. His face is asking me for an answer. When asked if he could learn, his face was so desperate as if he was trying to save his life.

 

“Operating mana is not as big as you think.”

 

“I don’t care!”

 

“Learning is pretty painful.”

 

I looked back at my growth period, saying it was painful. Was it painful? Rather than saying so, I think I was tired. There was too much to learn and too little time.

 

“It’s all right!” Eden shouted.

 

Eden hugged me and murmured, “Please. I have much pride in myself. Since I have revealed that he is a prince, I have never shown me that he is not a prince.

 

In fact, I never thought this child believed in me. He did not know what he was thinking, but his blue eyes often showed vigilance. He just has no choice but to catch me. Because I’m his only tool.

 

When he offered me the right of inheritance, I accepted his deal not to have the right of inheritance. It was because I suddenly remembered my father. Didn’t my father save him and put him in a stable to defend my inheritance? Maybe my father prepared him as a gift for me and as a legacy. I think this is the last will of my father. I couldn’t resist it because I thought so.

 

“Sarian…please.”

 

So this is something I can’t refuse. It’s not my job to teach him in the first place.

 

“I’ll look for a magician. Hastread castle is filled with them, so there are quite a few wizards. Perhaps you can find someone who can be your home teacher.”

 

I need to speed up my inheritance, but since I said I would provide Eden a home teacher, I didn’t say it because it’s a matter for me to solve, it’s not a matter for me to worry about.

 

Eden breathed quietly in what I said. I imagined the recent feelings of the child, who is about to cry, to the Prince, and now will become a great prince. His parents who thought they could meet one day have already died, and he has nowhere to go, and the only thing he can do is lean on the daughter of a man who has locked him up.

 

How hard and painful it is.

 

I dare not imagine. I’ve never put myself in that position.

 

***

 

Autumn is the season of harvest, but it is also the season to prepare for the winter.

 

“In the past few winters, there have been no starvation or death in Hastread.” Rostov said. He glanced at me and my knights, then shrugged his shoulders and added, “We are blessed. We haven’t had many colds in years.”

 

In other words, when his father was the lord, there was no starvation or famine. Rostov acted as if he were comparing me to my father, but is forced to recite an excuse after receiving the fierce gaze of my knights.

 

“What about this winter?” But Leon, who was already offended, asked with his arms crossed. 

 

“So what do you want to say?” Rostov muttered, “Maybe it will be cold though…” on his face, without hiding his embarrassing expression. Chris frowned.

 

“It’s winter, of course, so it’s cold, Your Holiness. How cold do you think the temple will be?”

 

“That’s…” Rostov hesitated. Chris’s remark was a subtle sarcasm in which the temple expected winter to be so cold, or how much he expected my ability to be compared to my father.

 

“My Lord.” Sophia’s eyes were furiously raised. Oh, I don’t see any signs… “You must have a short tongue. Do you want me to make it long?”

 

“Sophie!”

 

Sophia shrugged her shoulders when I yelled. Sophia follows me. Her loyalty is very high. It’s a grateful thing, but sometimes her sky-high loyalty causes problems.

 

Rostov’s eyes grew because of the threat to his tongue. Rostov, who is born into an aristocratic family and became a priest after being confirmed of his divine power, is probably the kind of bully-like threat he has never heard of before.

 

“What?”

 

Rostov opened his eyes wide. His brown eyes trembled like a leaf from insult to severe his tongue. But he turned his eyes away when Sophia got up. He looked at me as if he felt that it is impossible to fight against Sophia, who is a rune blade user. Looking at the protesting gaze made me laugh.

 

“Lady!”

 

Rostov flew into a rage when I laughed. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I couldn’t help it.

 

“Rothy.”

 

His face turned redder when I called Rostov’s nickname after a long time. He seemed to think I was trying to placate him. I put my chin on and asked what I really wanted to know.

 

“Why do you think I’m the only and best person here?”

 

“Huh…?”

 

Rostov’s eyes were as dark as a toad as if he didn’t understand what she meant.

 

“Are other people scared and I’m less scared?”

 

“Lady.”

 

“I’m your master. Shouldn’t I be the scariest?”

 

“…….”

 

“And I have to be the scariest person here. Because I killed the most people.”

 

When I grinned, Rostov’s eyes were filled with fear.

 

Rostov was my magic teacher when I was young. As a priest, I learned how to handle water. Many people who saw me when I was young think this way. They still call me a six-year-old girl, girl, and misunderstand that they can do what they want in front of me.

 

I knew Rostov was secretly thinking about it, but he didn’t have to fix him because he didn’t really need it. I didn’t stay in Hastred most of the time. I am the sword of the king, and I went wherever the king wanted and killed his enemies. It didn’t matter who the king was. For me, whether it is the current king or the previous king, it is just the fulfillment of the order, or, to be exact, the fulfillment of the contract. The Knights of the Hastread were, to be exact, on a long-term contract with the Kingdom of Grossland. After all, what is important to me is the Knights of the Hastread.

 

But if necessary, I didn’t mind cutting the head of the magic teacher who taught me when I was young.

 

“Do you understand, Rothy?”

 

“……I understand, I did, miss.”

 

“Your Grace. Call me Your Excellency, Rothy. I’ll be the duke.”

 

Rostov’s eyes shook wildly as she smiled and said that. He shook his head and nodded.

 

“Yes, yes, Your Excellency.”

 

I leave one of my childhood memories like this again.

 

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I still vividly remember the first time I killed a person.

 

At that time I was surprised to have killed a person. I was rather surprised that I didn’t care about killing people. The moment of killing seemed to pass very slowly, but it was just actually a split of seconds. Her life was fleeting. It felt very dirty to see the light of life fading away, but what is even more unpleasant is a world where she should never show that dirty feeling.