Everyone's quiet. No one tried to talk after my brothers told everyone about the info they gathered from interrogating the traitors. Of course, they kept quiet about the fact that I was there last night. Otherwise, Dad would be upset.
"First, let's talk about unsealing Ali's divinity," Wait, why are we going to talk about that? I mean, I would be glad if my divine core is unsealed, but shouldn't we focus on the matters at hand?
"Dad, why do we need to focus on that?" I asked.
"Well, the Astra is leaving soon, so we need to take care of your divine core before they depart," Hmm...it makes sense. I also need to train my divine mana too, so it'll be good to unseal it sooner.
"The Princess...have a divine core?" Ziel asked. Oh, right, he wasn't there when we talked about it. His widened eyes and slightly parted lips shows how surprised he must've been.
"Well, that's the case," Asher answered. The young knight blinked for a couple of times. It looks like he's really amazed by that.
"T-then, Your Highness is the second human to have a divinity next to the 77th Duchess?" And I nod at him. He then smiled at me—and boy was he this cute!?
"That's amazing, Your Highness!" He praised, and I can't help but just smile and place my hand on my heart. I feel like my heart will explode because of that smile.
"Tsk. Anyways, I think it should be done before we leave..." Asher said, annoyingly. What's wrong with him? The thought of unsealing my mana is a pain for his ass, huh?
"Or maybe not...?" He mumbled, but I think I was the only one who heard that, because it was the same time when Dad spoke.
"Alright. We should start. Last night, the Astra informed me about the situation of the barrier. It is made by dark magic, and the barrier sucks out the life force of the people within,"
"What!?"
"Pardon...?"
Of couse, their reaction would be the same as mine last night. It's normal to respond like that knowing that our people are suffering within that place for how many years.
"And this barrier is created four years ago. That means there are already numerous people that died," Dad added.
"Then, the population is lesser now than before," Brother Dae spoke, and Dad sighed, as if to disagree with his words.
"The problem is...they have a way of keeping their population grow for the barrier," What? How? No, what the heck, how do they do that? Reviving can't be their way, right?
"Hmm, it has something to do with the dark magic as well," Asher added. This is getting a lot more complicated, and we have no way of investigating that place.
"Astra, since you're a great magician. Can you guess how they can do such thing?" Brother Aeli asked. My family may know a lot about the dark magic, but it's not as much as Asher's knowledge about it.
"Yeah...I'm guessing that they are contracted to a demon. Specifically, the Demon King—Virexon," No, that's definitely not a guess.
"You guessed...huh?" Brother Heli asked, he's suspecting that Asher already know about it.
"Say, Astra. The one who possessed the first son of the Baron, Carlix Florian. Was it merely a black magician or the demon king itself?" So, that's what happened to the Baron's son! I heard he's already recuperating after what happened. The second son of the Baron, who he was planning to marry with the Duke's adoptive daughter is only ten years old, and I heard that he's a weak and fragile boy.
Hmm, since it was just their father who betrayed us, I think I can talk to Dad to give them a lesser punishment. Taking away their title and possessions would be too much for the two and the Baroness, her sons are still young.
"Hah ~ well, yes...however, since the body is weaker, he could only use one-third of his power," I gulped and tilt my head as I blink for a couple of times.
T-that was only one-third of his power? He surpassed both Brother Caelus and Ziel during that battle in Aethereia and that was only one-third of his power?!
"Come to think of it...I think I heard him mentioning another demon while reading his mind, so it's most likely that he's not alone," What?!
Now, instead of black magicians we are actually fighting literal demons, huh?
This is giving me goosebumps.
"To think that we are going to deal with demons..." Brother Heli shook his head in disbelief.
"We need to release Athalia, too," Asher, Your Divine Highness, that is so random and so straightforward.
Athalia is believed to be the dark magician that cursed the entire generation of Odilia. That's why the reaction of my family and Ziel towards Asher right now is like that. They are glaring at him, with a hint of confusion and curiosity.
"I already mentioned before. Athalia is not our enemy..." Asher took a deep breath and lean on the back of his seat.
"I don't plan to reveal this yet, but we really need that person's help. And she's the only one who knew about the plan, and the real reason of cursing the Odilia Family. Only her and Fel knew about it," Wait a freaking minute—then, does this mean that the 'plan' Asher mentioned to me before includes this curse?!
"I'm quite confused, Astra," Dad spoke.
"Well...alright. If there are Astras, there's a Selene," Oh, I know about this. Is it not yet known in the world about that?
"You know there used to be five Gods in this world, right?" And all of us nodded, including me, yes. Pretending to not have an idea about it at all.
"Creo is the God of Creation, Moira is the Goddess of Fate, Deo is the God of Prophecy. And there are two more. Azrael, the God of Death, and Aisha, the Goddess of Life. If the remaining three Gods have their own incarnations in this world—what do you think of the two banished Gods?" Yes, surprised face as they come to realize what Asher is trying to say.
"This means that the God of Death and the Goddess of Life have incarnations, too?" Ziel asked, and Asher nod his head.
"The Fourth Astra, Aisha's incarnation, was cursed and exiled from this world. While the Selene, Azrael's incarnation—more like daughter, is well...where do you think is she?"
"Sealed beneath the graveyard behind the Cathedral," I ended, and Asher smiled at me. Of course I already know about it after all, but I can'f let them know about that, so let's just pretend I realized it by listening to Asher explain things.
"Then..."
"The Demon King possessed someone close to Fel during their time, and Athalia found out about this. She warned Fel, but Fel already knew about that—thus they made a plan to defeat the Demon King, and prevent him from stealing Fel's divine mana. However, only the two of them knew about it, the three remaining Astras are not informed about their plans, we only know thaf the curse is related to it. Athalia was almost executed because of the Demon King, but Ley arrived in time to save her. As an incarnation of the God of Death, she was allowed to take someone's life to bring it back within Aisha's arms, but she refused to do that. When she was saved, she simply asked Ley to seal her until the next human with divine mana is born. We have no idea what their plan is, so we need to wake Athalia up—she has been sleeping for far too long," Then, the history written in the Odilia Book and Ciera Book are not true at all?
"Astra...this person you're referring to that Virexon possessed, could it be...The 66th Emperor, Aeron Osiris de Ciera?" What?! Isn't that Felicia's lover?! I looked at Dad and he's serious about his question! How would he even think of that?
"Correct. Looks like the Emperor know something," seriously...?
"Well, we took care of him before. But it seems like he came back for revenge, and well...his main goal is definitely our little Princess," I flinched, and feel chills down my spine.
Dang it.
I remember what happened two years ago. That was the Demon King's work! Not a simple dark magician but the Demon King! That's why Mom said that the black lady is only 'his' arms!
Ahhh! This is getting more scary!
"But, that means he continued to rule the empire despite being possessed?" Brother Heli asked.
"The Emperor was still there, but he cannot defy Virexon. He tried to convince us to kill him instead to remove the demon inside his body," What...
"You killed the Emperor?" I asked, Asher chuckled.
"If we did, we'll be punished. No matter what happen, that body still belong to a human—we tried to push back the demon from his body, and we were successful in doing so. However, just the day after we removed Virexon from his body, he died. We saw him hanging within his room," He died from suicide?
"Suicide...?"
"Yes. He left us a letter, saying that if he don't kill himself, Virexon will come back and the empire will be in danger. After all, it takes a week before we can send Virexon back to his realm,"
The Emperor, Aeron Osiris de Ciera is a brave and strong human. I'm sure it must've been difficult for him to end his own life, but he decided to do it in order to protect his empire.
He's a valiant Emperor. It must've been difficult for the 67th Emperor to move on from that before he or she can take over his or her father's death.
"..."
None of us tried to talk after Asher explained that.
They believed that Athalia was the one who cursed our entire family and they hated her for it. However, it turned out she's actually the one who's helping our ancestor.
But, seriously, why do they need to curse us?!
"And I think...we should talk to Athalia first before we unseal the Princess' divine core. It's just, I have a bad feeling about unsealing her divine core without knowing why it is sealed. All I know is that Iliana and Ley decided to seal it. I have no idea why," Asher sighed and shook his head.
"Seriously, they're always leaving us out of the picture, so annoying," Asher mumbled, running his fingers through his hair. Well, being unaware of many situations when you want to help so badly really is annoying.
"We'll release the Selene tomorrow," Dad spoke, which made Asher smile.
"Great," he nod his head once and sighed in relief.
"Seriously, where did they even got the idea to make Selene a black magician?" Asher mumbled, shaking his head while recalling his past, I think?
"Anyway, now that we're done talking about the Princess' curse and Ali, we should talk about the departure," All of us looks at him, just staying still without saying anything.
"Oh...well, Ali is also Athalia's nickname,"
Wait—
Wait a minute!
I remember some bad dreams! Don't tell me, that dream I had before when I was in someone else's body, that was the Selene, Athalia?! Then, when she was about to get executed, someone yelled and stopped it, that must have been my Godmother, Ashley!
No, first of all why did I dreamed about that? Then the guy that visited her in the prison was...Virexon?
I feel shivers down my spine.
"Actually, two of them have that nickname. It's quite famous, I guess?" Really? Then the banished and cursed incarnation of Aisha must have those three letters in her name, too?
"Wow, having the same nickname with two of the God's incarnation, Ali is really amazing!" Brother Aeli spoke, smiling at me. I don't get why my other two brothers agreed to him. This is merely a coincidence though.
"Let's continue. After talking to Ali—nevermind, let's call her Lia. So, well after talking to her about the divine mana and the curse, we should be able to depart," Asher spoke.
"I plan to go there with the Young Master first, we're teleporting after all. You can send the knights after us, Your Majesty," Dad just nodded his head. I feel like there's a lot of revelation that my Dad felt like staying quiet.
"Ah, wait. Princess did you tell them about your dream?" Wait, Ziel's here!
"Dream?" Ziel asked. He's probably confused about Asher's randomness.
"Ahh—well, it's...maybe Asher should tell you. Anyway, I dreamed about the entity again and Asher was right, it was 'that' creature. However, he's in human form when I met him, and he brought me to the place where he's being sealed. There's a huge cage, a huge cage for the size of a human, he's as tall as Daddy. And he told me that by calling his real name I'll be able to release him," I explained. Ziel is so confused, and I feel bad for leaving him out in the darkness. But, I don't know how I'll be able to explain to him the existence of the evil dragon.
"His real name? Is it not his real name?" Asher shook his head.
"I also plan to ask Lia if she know about it. I think we can talk to Ley as well once we unsealed the Selene," Asher spoke.
Everything's so complicated.
"Asher. Your plan once you get to the kingdom, what is it?" I asked, because he never said anything about it at all!
He smirked at me.
"Pretend to be an innocent kid, invade the palace walls, and visit the King's memories?"
This jerk. He looks proud of his plans.
"That seems dangerous, Your Divine Highness," I cockes a brow. Did he forgot he's bringing Ziel with him.
"It's not. Altering people's memories is easy," goodness gracious, he's planning to alter everyone's mind?
"Well, it's your plan. We'll trust you to take care of the kingdom, then," Dad heaved a sigh and shake his head. It looks like a lot of thoughts have entered his mind.
"Right. Are we done with the meeting?" Asher asked as he stood up.
I don't really know what he's planning to do once he got in the kingdom. But, I trust him to do his job well.
This is Asher after all.
"Yes. Let's all meet tomorrow in front of the Cathedral. I'll talk to Kiernan too,"
Dad ended the meeting after we agreed to it.
I can't wait to see what the Selene looks like.
And I can't wait to know why I am freaking cursed!
***