บท 9: 9: The Dreaded Eclipse - part 1

Elysia's body felt stiff after the bath. But she knew she could not show her tired face to anyone or they would make fun of her.

People already thought of Elysia as a disposable unit so she could not afford to make any more bad impressions on the people.

Especially on the royal family and retainers who were present during the ceremony.

Elysia could still feel the heavy stare of those golden eyes being aimed at her back. The crown prince had decided to attend today's ceremony and he had not stopped glaring at Elysia for even a single second.

The more he stared, the more Elysia felt like snapping back at him.

But she held her feelings inside. She needed to be a good girl and make today's ceremony successful.

Because as much as those golden eyes scared her, the ones belonging to Brother Yohan were even scarier.

"Hurry up, Elysia. You're wasting time by looking around. I thought you've done this before."

Brother Yohan was standing at Elysia's back, his eyes looking at Elysia do her part of the preparations.

The symbols needed to start the ceremony needed to be drawn with the help of divine energy. The more energy one had, the better these symbols will be received and the smoother this ceremony would run.

Brother Yohan had a decent amount of divine energy so he was able to finish his part with ease. He was much faster than the hear priest who was getting on in his age.

But unlike him, Elysia's small limbs could only go so fast and accurately. She was much slower than brother Yohan but her arms were not shaking much.

Her symbols were clear and filled with her divine energy.

"Let it go, Yohan. Elysia is still young so she should take her time to do this. You should go and make a last check over the other preparations."

Brother Yohan looked unhappy but he did not contradict the head priest's words. He chose to honor the orders he had been given and look around the ground.

No one paid much attention to this interaction since they were all too busy to look at the grand ceremonial sedan filled with offerings.

The gate to the divine world would open once the eclipse hit the summit and then these offerings would be given in exchange for the divine blessing.

"Elysia, good luck. I know you will be killing it today."

"Eve, I don't want to kill anything. And you should not be so close to the ceremonial stage."

Elysia quickly stopped Eve from touching the stage. Generally, there should have been no problem even if someone did touch the stage but Eve had broken the taboo just a while back.

Since there had been no such incident in the visions Elysia had seen, she was at a loss of what to expect.

Not to mention, the killer glare she was being aimed at by the crown prince made Elysia's instincts stand on edge.

She knew that it had been first-meeting love for the crown prince and Eve, but had he fallen for her this fast?

And did he have to be jealous of Elysia? It was not like she was close to Eve or even spending time with her.

"You don't want me here? Then I will go stand at the back to not disturb you."

"No, Eve, wait-" but the elder was gone before Elysia could explain to her that it was not Eve's fault but the ceremony requirements.

Elysia had not wanted to hurt Eve's feelings, nor made her feel rejected but sending Eve away had been a necessity.

"Are you done yet? The time of the eclipse is almost upon us."

"I am done. Should we wear our masks now to protect our face?"

Since the glare from the eclipse was potent if one looked at it directly, there were special masks designed for such occasions. Only the people performing the ceremony were allowed to wear those masks.

The rest of the followers were to be blindfolded to protect their eyes. Those were the rules of this ceremony.

Even Elysia, who had massive divine power, could not risk exposing her eyes to the eclipse directly at that time.

Only someone who had the eyes of a dragon would be alright if they looked at the sun during the eclipse.

'Maybe Eve would be alright as well since she's the female lead. Not that we will need to find this out.'

And Elysia was thankful for that. The sun was already starting to darken and the symbol on the ground were starting to shine brighter.

Everyone else was wearing their blindfold but Elysia's eyes moved toward the back.

'What is that idiot doing? Is she not going to wear her blindfold? Don't tell me, no one gave Eve one?'

Eve did not have anything in her hand and Elysia could see her panicked expression.

The idiot was even staring at the sun directly and she was going to go blind at this rate. Elysia needed to do something to prevent this from happening.

"Brother Yohan, Eve doesn't have a blindfold. I will go to her and give her one."

"What did you say?"

Brother Yohan looked shaken at Elysia's words but before he could do anything, Elysia took off. The ceremony had started and it no longer required Elysia's help to maintain itself.

Elysia quickly made her way to Eve but there was no blindfold near the pair. She had only one option left with her.

'I will not go blind if I keep my eyes closed.'

Elysia quickly unfastened her mask and pressed it against Eve's face.

"Keep your eyes closed for now and everything will be alright. Stay here and do not look up at all costs."

Since Elysia was a little taller than Eve, she could block the sun out. Her eyes were closed as well but she could still feel the burn of the eclipse.

It was clear to her that her eyes would sustain some damage even if she did not go blind completely.

"Elysia? What are you doing here?"

"Taking care of you. Why did you not take a blindfold with you if you were going to be here? Did not one tell you about it?"

"No,"

Of course, no one told Eve. the only person except Elysia who talked with her was busy in the preparations.

"Hurry up and let's hide in a safe place. The ceremony is about to be over anyway."

Elysia tugged on Eve toward a safer zone. The ceremony had progressed quite far and nothing had happened.

It seemed like the vision Elysia had was not going to come true since she had changed a lot of things already.

But the bad feeling Elysia was having was still making her worry.

"What are you doing, exposing yourself like this? You will go blind if you look at the sun now."

Small hands covered Elysia's eyes but not fully. She recognized the person speaking behind her back but she did not want to believe who it was.

'Why? Why is he here? Did he see me talk with Eve and decided to investigate? Or, is he here to take revenge?'

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Eve was brave to speak up like this. This fearlessness of hers was something that had attracted Adam in her visions.

He would take his hands off Elysia's face any second now and pay attention to Eve. Elysia could easily escape once they were both occupied with each other.

Only, it did not happen. Elysia held her breath but the small hands did not let her go. Instead, his grip tightened just a little more over Elysia's eyes.

"What I chose to do with my future wife is none of your business. You are the one who is being a nuisance and coming between us right now."

"Huh? What did you say? I did nothing. In fact, Elysia chose to come to me out of her wishes. She likes me more than you."

"That is only because she had not spent much time with me yet. Once she does, she will see that I am much better than you."

"Oh, is that so? But, didn't you get slapped by Elysia before? See, she doesn't like you at all so you should let her go."

Elysia was feeling a little dizzy from the constant push and pull. The protagonists were fighting over her like she was a toy doll.

Why were those two fightings? Was this some new kind of way to pull each other's 'pigtails'?

"Stop it. Stop pulling me or you'll break my arms. We should head toward the resting area to get me a new mask. I know the priests keep some in case of an emergency."

Elysia's words instantly made the other two let go of her arm. It was getting numb so it was nice to have some blood circulating through her arms again.

"Y-Your highness, can your live your hand from my eyes? I won't be able to walk like this."

"I don't want to. Besides, if I let go now then you will go blind for sure."

As much as Elysia hated to admit it, the crown prince was right. It was only because of the dragon essence in his body.

"Hey, if you're going to be like that then I want to help out as well. Elysia, I'll lead you to the tent. Here, hold my hand."

Eve didn't give Elysia a choice in that matter. She decided to pull her arm and drag her along toward the other side of the camp.

Elysia was being dragged between the two bodies like a doll. She didn't have any control over her moments but the trio somehow made their way toward the tent.

But before the trio could reach their tent, something heavy clashed against the tent and caused it to break down.

At the same time, chaos broke out in the clearing. Pained cries could be heard all over the place.

"W-What is going on? Eve? Anyone?"

"T-The gate opened but it's not the divine gate. The gate is connected to the demon world. We are under attack."

It was not Eve who answered, but the crown prince who did. He sounded shaken as well and Elysia didn't even want to think what he was seeing to make him sound like this.

"I-I need to go. I need to find Yohan before he is killed. Stay here because I will be back soon."

Eve, the brave idiot she was, decided to head toward the chaos and Elysia knew she could not allow that to happen.

"Eve, wait. Don't be an idiot. Eve, come back here."

Elysia quickly shook Adam's hands off her face and ran toward Eve. She looked up at the huge shadow looming over her and Eve and instantly covered the elder girl.

Behind the monster, the last rays of the eclipse reached Elysia's eyes and they burned.

Adam was being held back by some smaller monster and his retainers had reached him to protect him.

And Elysia was sure that she was going to die today. Her death was staring her right in the face.

And the familiar voice of her future self reached her ears.

'This is your punishment for trying to change the course of destiny. You should not have tried to change the future in this way. All that awaits you is despair and guilt for breaking the taboo.'

It almost felt like her initial vision but with a major change. She had not been the one to summon these monsters, the broken Taboo was.