Chapter 117 : 065. New Fate -1 (Part One)
Tina was the thirtieth offspring of Aslan’s king, Rahamma. She was also a child not birthed out of love but for the purpose of ‘experimentation’.
-So, it’s a female.
Rahamma, who was sitting on the throne, frowned and looked down at Tina.
Almost twenty years after the child’s birth did he finally decide to lay his eyes on the girl.
Due to the Elves’ special trait, her growth was slow and her outer appearance remained as a young child. When Rahamma saw her figure, he slowly shook his head.
He seemed to be deeply disappointed.
-And so, what about her Necromancy?
He wasn’t even remotely interested in his daughter.
As a female, she not only had no claim to the throne of the kingdom, but she was also a carrier of Elven blood. That alone made her a target for ostracism and even slavery.
However, to the school of Necromancy which required the sacrifice of one’s lifespan as an energy source, an Elf’s lengthy life would serve as a truly wonderful weapon to have.
She inherited the blood of Rahamma, who was blessed with the greatest, most powerful demonic energy reserve out of all the kings in history. That alone should serve as proof of her talent being top-class.
Unfortunately…
-How pathetic!
The king’s enraged voice made Tina flinch in fear.
While standing among the ten skeletons she summoned through Necromancy, she timidly looked up at Rahamma sitting on the throne.
The king’s expression was clearly distorted. It was without a doubt, filled with rage.
-To think that she’s worse than a regular Necromancer! Is she really one of my bloodline?!
-Y-your majesty, how could that be? Please take a look! She summoned ten undead!
Necromancer Damon, who had been charged with raising Tina, tried to shield her.
-A regular Necromancer can summon twelve skeletons. And yet… to think that a child of mine can only produce so little?!
-Your majesty, the blood of an Elf flows in Lady Tina’s veins. As such, her growth will be slow. H-however, if she’s given a little more time to mature, then…
-When will that be? How long do we have to wait? Ten years? Twenty? Don’t make me laugh. We need weapons to invade the Theocratic Empire right now.
Rahamma was the most ambitious out of all the kings in Aslan’s history.
He desired to acquire the verdant lands beyond the border, and thirsted for a chance to leave behind a historical accomplishment that would be acknowledged as the greatest of all time.
To a man like this, his own children were nothing more than disposable tools to support the throne.
-I have no need for such a slave. Discard her at once! If the feudal lords find out about her, this pathetic sight would incite backlash from them instead.
-T-that is…!
Damon stared at Tina with shocked eyes.
Rahamma tutted while observing Damon’s reaction.
-We are currently in need for healthy, young slaves with plenty of lifespan remaining, so this is actually good. Send her away to the Black Order. She should serve as a good lab rat for them. She will either end up as their food source, or become an excellent research material for magic.
-B-but your majesty, this doesn’t make any sense. How can such a thing be…!
-And you, Damon, will take the responsibility for failing to train this Elf properly. Men! Extinguish the demonic energy reserves in these two and send them away as slaves. Since Nasus is planning to do something, you two shall sacrifice yourselves for the glory of Aslan.
Rahamma glanced at Tina and spoke in a disinterested tone of voice.
-This is for the sake of Aslan. Take it as an honour, Dark Elf.
The father she was meeting for the first time in her life turned out to be the kind of a man who didn’t even call his daughter by her name even until the end.
That was all she remembered about the king of Aslan, Rahamma.
**
“Lady Tina… Lady Tina?”
Tina faintly opened her eyelids.
She was currently lying on top of a wooden bed located inside the dimly-lit and sealed-off room. Her eyes took in the sight of someone looking at her from above.
It was a middle-aged man probably in his early to mid fifties. Although bald, he still gave off a benevolent impression. The man in question was Damon, the person who had been looking after Tina ever since her birth.
“It’s time to wake up, my lady. You need to get prepared.”
“Got it. Thanks for waking me up.”
She smiled gently at Damon’s urging before standing up on the bed.
Soon after that, slaves entered her room. They used wet towels to clean her body, and once they were done, Damon combed her hair.
She put on the cleanest set of robes currently found stored within the temple of the Black Order. While wearing the lengthy robe that was dragging along on the ground, she headed outside the room with a coarse-looking staff held in her hand.
The first thing that greeted her once she left the room was a wide hallway.
The interior of the temple was designed so that from the ground floor up to the second floor were residential rooms, while the third floor up till the top floor were used as prisons.
The holy water was still present on the floor and made one think of a pristine lake. All sorts of vegetation had sprouted out around the edges of the water. Young slave children were joyfully playing around within the lake’s surface that went up to their ankles. They discovered Tina and jumped up in surprise before quickly approaching her.
“It’s Miss Princess!”
“Miss Princess!”
A couple of children gifted her with a bunch of flowers.
“Thank you.”
Tina smiled and patted them on their heads.
The older slaves were filling up buckets with the holy water and carrying it elsewhere.
In the middle of the temple’s hallway stood a huge altar.
Even though it was still an early morning, the slaves were already filled with vitality. All the Necromancers that worked as their prison guards were dead by now, meaning that they could freely step outside the prison and walk around as they pleased.
Another important fact was that the various illnesses tormenting them had been completely cured, and there were plenty of food reserves stored within the temple as well.
The slaves here ranged from young children all the way to old people; not just adult human men and women, but even other demi-human species as well.
Since these slaves used to have different professions, the life inside the temple didn’t prove to be too difficult. Even the barren land outside saw the gradual spread of deep-rooted vegetation. Perhaps due to the effect of the holy water, the soil became so fertile that one could even start farming right away too.
“Everyone, please gather around. It’s time to offer our prayers!”
Once Damon called out, the slaves started gathering around.
They were now wearing the robes previously used by the Black Order. After gathering in front of the altar, they began offering their prayers.
“Lady Tina, please hurry with your prayers as well…”
Tina nodded, and then climbed up on the altar’s staircase.
After reaching the top, her eyes took on the sight of a boy sitting on a sloppily-constructed wooden throne.
Amon’s skull adorned the boy’s head while a grimoire rested on his knees. A staff was propped up against the throne’s side.
He was still slumbering away with his head leaning to the side. For this boy, the children freed from slavery placed decorations of flowers all around him.
Tina gently smiled at this sight and prayed at the sleeping boy.
It had already been three months since the Black Order had disappeared. Their ‘Lord Angel’ hadn’t woken up from his slumber after killing the grim reaper.
According to Damon, who had examined the angel’s body, the boy had gotten very weak from the intense battle. It was a type of divinity exhaustion that would turn normal human beings into cripples, or even outright kill them.
-However, the story is different with our Lord Angel. Now look, my lady. Although faint, he’s already starting to regain his spent divinity. Hence, I posit that he will keep slumbering until his full recovery.
While recalling what Damon had told her, Tina ended her prayer and looked up at the boy. The symbol of the devil, a mountain goat’s skull was covering his head, but rather than invoking fear, he came off as more benevolent than anything else all thanks to the decoration of flowers perched on top of said skull.
“I pray for your speedy awakening.”
Tina placed the flowers she got from the children on top of the skull after saying those words. Damon, who was watching her from some steps behind, smiled in satisfaction.
He then quietly glanced at his own hand.
‘My body’s been fully regenerated. Indeed, this much alone can already be seen as a miracle. However…’
His body, which no longer possessed any demonic energy, had experienced a transformation. He looked at his staff before lightly tapping it on the altar’s surface.
A little amount of divinity gathered before spreading out.
“…”
Damon became speechless from this sight. He lost his demonic energy and became a cripple. But somehow, his body changed so much that he could now use divinity.
At the start, he was planning to gather demonic energy once more, but even before he had a chance to notice it, divinity had filled him up instead.
‘…This is troublesome. All I know are spells related to Necromancy and dark magic, so to be suddenly forced to deal with divinity…’
He had basically changed his job from a Necromancer to a Priest. It was true that he had converted his religion, but he still couldn’t make any headway at explaining why this completely opposing power came to dwell inside him now.
The case should be the same with Lady Tina as well.
What a strange, profound, and mysterious feeling this was.
‘Still…’
All thanks to the angel, they were able to survive.
Neither he nor Tina wanted to live the rest of their lives as slaves and lab rats. It would be nice to live a quiet and peaceful life in this place.
‘But if not…’
Damon looked at the slumbering boy. As he used to be a Necromancer himself, his discernment regarding this sort of thing was still functioning properly. That boy currently possessed three relics of Amon.
No, wait – he was the archangel in the appearance of a human boy, wasn’t he?
What if he really was the son of the gods, an existence that descended to this world in order to save Lady Tina?
‘…In that case, Lady Tina can become the queen.’
A smile floated up on Damon’s lips.
He took care of her ever since she was a toddler, even going as far as changing her diapers. The other nobles never cared for her station and constantly looked down on her. Sometimes, they even dared to directly insult her.
And yet, Lady Tina endured it all and came this far. Now, they had an opportunity to exact their revenge on all those who looked down on her.
The sheer joy from the thought of a child, practically his daughter at this point after raising her all this time, becoming the next king, greatly re-energised Damon.
He lightly coughed to clear his throat and approached Tina.
“My lady, let us get going. It’s almost time for breakfast.”
