Chapter 449: THE THORNY PATH

TO BE HONEST, Neoma thought it was a little creepy to see Yule in that state.

Could it be that his fake eyes were…

“I thought I told you not to call me by a weird pet name, Lord Yule,” Nero complained, frowning- interrupting her thought process. “Please, just call me by my name normally, thank you very much.”

The Moon God just laughed.

But it was different from Yule’s usual jolly laughter.

“Lord Yule, what happened to your eyes?” Neoma asked worriedly. “Did you cry blood or…”

“My eyes were poked out.”

…..

She gasped softly, accidentally squeezing Nero’s hand a little too tightly.

My hunch was right.

“I’m fine since my eyes were fake anyway,” the Moon God said. “You haven’t forgotten that my real eyes were stolen a long time ago, have you?”

Right.

And I was supposed to look for them.

“What kind of being could poke out your fake eyes, Lord Yule?” Nero asked carefully. “We thought you were sleeping.”

“I woke up a little later after the Cosmic Tree did,” Yule explained. “I tried to give the Cosmic Tree a message, but the Darkness that came out of nowhere blocked my vision and took my eyes.”

“Lord Yule, are you saying that Darkness has already reached the Upper World?” she asked.

“That’s correct, and Darkness has been silently yet effectively hunting down gods with the ability to defeat it,” the Moon God said. “I recently lost contact with the Sun Goddess. I’m guessing she’s being chased by Darkness, too.”

“Oh… that sounds troublesome.”

“Ne-Ne, my fake eyes have the power to see through the future that’s related to you,” Yule said. “But now that my fake eyes have been taken away from me, I can no longer guide you. My vision, from now on, will be constantly clouded by Darkness.”

“Don’t worry about me, Lord Yule- I can manage,” she said in order to console the god. “Just please take care of yourself more.”

“Neoma de Moonasterio, your life will be easier if you let the new saint be born as the saint.”

She got goosebumps when Yule called her full name in a serious voice.

“The new saint’s divine power would be the greatest out of all the saints born in the world yet,” the Moon God said. “After all, I poured a huge amount of divine power in him. I was afraid that the Darkness might steal my divine power next, so I used the new saint as a vessel.”

She bit her bottom lip. “I can’t give up on Brigitte unnie, Lord Yule. Why do you choose Non-mana users if you know they’d die during childbirth?”

“Mana-users can’t carry saints in their wombs because the saints’ divine power would be poisonous to them,” Yule explained. “Only a select few could have both Mana and divine power- just like you, the de Moonasterios.”

She was still confused. “But why would the divine power become poisonous to Mana-users?”

“Because if Mana-user gets pregnant with the child destined to become the saint, the child’s divine power would purify any kind of energy different from it- like their mother’s Mana. And once Mana is purified inside a person’s body, the “dead” Mana would turn into toxins. Then it would eventually poison the baby in the womb,” the Moon God explained. “However, a Non-Mana user’s physical body is like an empty vessel. Thus, the saint would safely grow inside their womb without a problem.”

“Then why would the mothers who delivered the saints die during delivery?” she asked, her curiosity not satiated yet.

“While the saint is growing inside his mother’s womb, his divine power flows throughout the mother’s entire body to protect her from any harm. After all, the mother needs to be safe in order for the saint to be born safely,” Yule explained again. “But once the saint is born, the divine power in the mother’s body would disappear… along with the mother’s life force.”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “Excuse me?”

“The saint’s divine power is alive and it needs nutrients in order to get strong,” the Moon God said. “Since the divine power is using the mother’s body as its host instead of the fetus, it eats the mother’s life force.”

“That’s terrible, Lord Yule,” she complained. “How could you let those innocent mothers die for that reason?”

“Neoma de Moonasterio, sacrifices are needed to make sometimes,” Yule said gently. “This world needs the saint’s existence.”

She bit her bottom lip hard until she tasted blood in her mouth. “Papa Boss said he could prevent that from happening. Do you know how Papa Boss plans to do that?”

“Nikolai de Moonasterio is probably thinking of extracting the divine power from Brigitte Griffiths’s body,” Yule said. “It was the theory that Dominic Zavaroni came up with in the past because he didn’t want his successors to blame themselves for their mothers’ death as he did. He probably shared his theory with your father before.”

The former saint is really kind.

“Extract the baby saint’s divine power?” she asked with furrowed brows. “Then he won’t be a saint anymore.”

Is that why Papa Boss said earlier that the baby just doesn’t have to be the saint? 𝘰𝑣𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“Nikolai de Moonasterio asked for the Black Witch, didn’t he?”

“Yes, Father did,” Nero said a little too eagerly. “What does Father intend to make Miss Dahlia do?”

“Do you know why the Black Witches were shunned by the empire?”

“No,” she and her twin brother answered at the same time.

Well, it was practically a taboo to talk about the Black Witches.

“The Black Witches were banned from the empire because the old Royal Family were scared of them,” Yule informed them. “After all, the Black Witches could steal any kind of divine power- including Moonglow.”

She gasped softly.

Nero, on the other hand, squeezed her hand gently. “I see. Father would order Miss Dahlia to extract the new saint’s divine power from Queen Brigitte’s body.”

“Correct,” the Moon God said. “The Black Witch, Dahlia, could extract the divine power from Brigitte Griffiths’ body. But…”

Okay, that made her nervous. “But what, Lord Yule?”

“Once the divine power is extracted from its current host, it would be impossible to contain it,” the Moon God warned them. “The new saint’s divine power would explode and scatter.”

“Scatter?” she asked, surprised. “Then if we want to make the baby saint be recognized as the saint, we have to gather the scattered pieces of his divine power?”

“That’s right,” Yule confirmed. “But even I do not know what form would a broken divine power take. Are you confident that you’d be able to find and collect them all, Ne-Ne?”

“It’s not about whether I’m confident or not,” she said. “I just have to do it. After all, it’s better than letting Brigitte unnie die.”

“You have to find and collect all the broken pieces at all cost, Ne-Ne,” the Moon God said, almost pleading with her. “If the pieces fall into the hands of the wrong people, you know what would happen.”

She nodded firmly. “I know, so I won’t let it happen, Lord Yule.”

“Do you still want to take the risk instead of letting the new saint be born with his divine power intact?” Yule asked again, as if he was still hoping for her to change her mind. “Neoma de Moonasterio, are you sure about taking the thorny path instead of the easy one?”

“Yes, my lord.”

The Moon God turned to her twin brother. “Nero de Moonasterio, if your twin sister walks on the thorny path, you’ll have no choice but to walk the same path as her because your destinies are tied together.”

Ouch.

Way to make me feel guilty, Lord Yule.

“I wouldn’t have it in any other way, Lord Yule,” Nero said without missing a heartbeat, then he turned to her. “I won’t let Neoma walk on the thorny path alone.”

Aww, she was touched.

She selfishly made the decision to save her Brigitte unnie without consulting Nero. And yet, here he was- declaring his will to walk the same thorny path as her.

Neoma smiled and squeezed Nero’s hand. “Thank you, dongsaeng-ah.”

***

DAHLIA let out a gasp, then she got up while catching her breath.

The Stars had shown her a glimpse of the future.

Queen Brigitte’s fate has changed.

And she would be a part of that change.

The Stars warned her, though.

If she decided to help the de Moonasterios, her life would change drastically as well. Moreover, her identity as a Black Witch would be revealed earlier than expected. It would be the price she had to pay if she got involved.

To be honest, she was scared of that kind of future.

But her admiration and respect for Princess Neoma overwhelmed her fear.

“Princess Neoma chose to walk the thorny path to save one person,” Dahlia whispered to herself. “I won’t regret following that kind of person.”

***

“LORD YULE, before you return us to our parents, I have a question,” Neoma said when she sensed Yule was about to send them back. “You know Calyx Dalton, right?”

Yule didn’t respond right away, but she took his silence as ‘yes.’

“Is he our father’s son?” Nero asked. “We know that he’s a de Moonasterio, but we don’t know who his parents are.”

“If I tell you I do not know where the child came from, would you believe me?”

“No,” she and Nero said at the same time.

“It’s the truth, children,” Yule said solemnly. “The crows have successfully hidden the child from me. But I can confirm one thing- he is a de Moonasterio, no doubt.”

…..

She felt a sense of dread.

The crows will definitely use Calyx Drayton to steal the throne from us.

“As I said earlier, my vision has already been blocked by Darkness,” the Moon God continued. “I cannot answer your questions regarding that child.”

Nero let out a frustrated sigh. “I guess our problem will be solved if we just kill them all.”

As expected of her formerly psycho twin brother.

His psycho gene is still alive and kicking.

“Lord Yule, if I find your real eyes, would you be able to see again?” she asked carefully. “See, as in SEE, everything like you used to?”

“That’s correct,” the Moon God confirmed. “My real eyes couldn’t be blocked by Darkness, after all.”

Then she should find it as soon as possible.

“I’m sorry, Lord Yule,” she said. To be honest, she was really feeling guilty about the Moon God’s eyes. “You’ve already told me from a long time ago that I need to find your real eyes. But I don’t even know where to look for it.”

“You don’t have to apologize for that, Neoma,” Nero said. “If Lord Yule himself doesn’t know where his real eyes are, he shouldn’t expect you to find it right away. Moreover, you’ve gone through a lot of things with minimum help from Lord Yule and his representatives.”

She could only smile awkwardly at the Moon God.

I could totally see Nero as the douchebag type of lawyer- excellent, but douchy.

“You’re not wrong, Nero,” Yule said, accepting Nero’s harsh words. “Ne-Ne, you don’t have to apologize to me. You’ll find my eyes when the time is right. You’re already doing a splendid job.”

Her smile turned genuine because she enjoyed getting praised. “Thank you, Lord Yule.”

“And even though you’ve chosen the thorny path, I can still see you claiming the throne for yourself,” Yule said, but his smile was sad. “The only difference is in the last vision I saw, you were sitting on a bloody throne.”

Bloody throne.

It meant that the fight for the throne would really be deadly.

“Don’t worry, Neoma,” Nero assured her. “I’ll clean the throne for you once the time comes.”

Now Neoma couldn’t say that she really didn’t want to be the empress.

***

YULE LIED.

The thorny path that he mentioned earlier wasn’t meant for Neoma to walk, but he didn’t have the heart to tell the truth.

“Lord Yule, why didn’t you tell them the truth?” Manu, who appeared beside him, asked. “Why didn’t you tell the twins that Neoma’s choice would make Nero walk the thorny path in her stead?”

Yes, the thorny path was meant for Nero- and Nero alone.

“Nero is the one who’s destined to suffer from his beloved twin sister’s choice,” Yule said, then he paused for a moment. “But I believe in Neoma- I believe that she can also change her twin brother’s future.”

Thus, Yule didn’t feel the need to tell the royal twins about something that wouldn’t happen, anyway…

… hopefully.

***

WHEN NEOMA opened her eyes, she was greeted by a strange sight.

“Nero, am I still dreaming?” Neoma asked while rubbing her eyes with her hands. “This is a dream, isn’t it?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Nero, who was sitting beside her while looking at the same view with a deadpan look on his face, said. “Father is really kneeling in front of Mother.”

And their Papa Boss looked like he was about to cry.

***

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