TGS - Chapter 58
Chapter 58: Before the Coming-of-Age Ceremony
The brief stop in Tannier City was but an interlude in the caravan's journey.
Travel always fosters growth. The people and scenery of different regions offer unique insights to everyone, and the Princess was not merely on a long trip. She saw it as a trial, and a journey to find potential allies.
The former was her primary goal, the latter secondary.
Or perhaps, the process of winning supporters for her future was, in itself, a form of trial.
By early November of that year, the caravan had completed most of its journey and stopped in a city in central Solancia that worshipped the River Goddess. They would be staying here for some time, as the Princess's eighteenth birthday was approaching.
She needed to hold her coming-of-age ceremony in the temple of the River Goddess.
Many of her traveling companions had little sense of the reality of this important, impending ritual.
Their superior was decisive and thorough in all matters. No matter how young she appeared, who would truly think of her as a girl who had yet to come of age? They had long since subconsciously ignored this fact.
But now, it turned out the Princess was only just having her coming-of-age ceremony, and their group would likely be observing it at the temple… It was a strange and indescribable feeling.
And what was even more bizarre was—
"It seems Lady Lorja is the one officiating the ceremony."
"You mean the one who's always inseparable from Her Highness the Princess?"
"That can't be right. Isn't it improper for a lady-in-waiting to officiate a coming-of-age ceremony? Shouldn't it be a priest from the temple here?"
A few caravan members were chatting idly outside a trading post that worked with their caravan.
As members of the escorted caravan, they knew a fair amount about the Princess and were aware of the blue-eyed lady-in-waiting who was always by her side. However, for a lady-in-waiting to be able to preside over even the coming-of-age ceremony inevitably raised questions.
"Her Highness the Princess is not one for foolishness. If you ask me, Lady Lorja must have a special status. Otherwise, if an ordinary lady-in-waiting stood before the divine statue to officiate the ceremony, who knows if it would displease the Goddess Lotus."
One of the caravan members had a sudden thought.
"I think so too," someone else agreed. "Have you ever seen that lady-in-waiting speak to anyone other than the Princess? Never! And look at her attitude toward the Princess—so natural. I don't believe that's how a lady-in-waiting should behave."
"I get it!" a third person exclaimed in realization.
"What have you figured out? Tell us."
The third person spoke in a mysterious, confident tone. "Lady Lorja must have been left to Her Highness by the late king. Otherwise, why would Her Highness trust her so much? I'm guessing her status as a lady-in-waiting is just a disguise. Maybe she's actually a priestess from Akhet, or the head lady-in-waiting of the court, or even a relative of the late queen. Otherwise, she wouldn't be qualified to officiate Her Highness's coming-of-age ceremony, right?"
The others nodded in agreement, finding his reasoning sound.
Just then, however, a deliberate, low cough came from behind them. At the sound, the men turned in a panic and saw Lena, the deputy commander, dressed in practical attire.
Lena was more like a personal guard than not and was usually by the Princess's side. Sure enough, they immediately saw the Princess herself.
"Your boss wants you inside to move goods."
Lena crossed her arms, a teasing smile on her face.
The Princess, meanwhile, glanced at the men from behind the dashing female officer, her long eyebrows slightly raised, her expression unreadable.
At her side, the "lady-in-waiting" who had been the center of their conversation remained impassive, not even casting a glance in their direction.
The caravan members looked at one another, no longer daring to gossip about the Princess's private affairs. They bowed their heads low and hurried into the trading post.
Lena shrugged. She actually sympathized with what the huddle of men had been saying.
She knew more than they did. For instance, that the lady-in-waiting named Lorja hadn't been a lady-in-waiting at all in the beginning, but a temple scribe.
When she followed the Princess into the border army corps, her identity became a cavalry soldier of the Royal Guard.
And now, on the road, she had transformed into a lady-in-waiting.
Both the Royal Guard and Lena were fiercely loyal to the Princess. They would never speak of these things that outsiders didn't know.
Even so, they couldn't help but let their minds wander, speculating about the origins of this young woman so deeply trusted by the Princess.
If she were merely a scribe the Princess had met in the Kadera temple, this level of affection and trust, which was startling even to onlookers, seemed excessive.
Therefore, Lena also believed that Lorja must have been someone the Princess knew from the court. Perhaps the late king had foreseen this and made arrangements in advance, or perhaps Lorja's loyalty was unwavering, and she had followed her all the way to Kadera…
In any case, Lorja was certainly a close, family-like figure to Her Highness. It was best to see it but not speak of it, to be respectful and not slight her.
"Lena," Alyuin said.
Lena snapped to attention. "Yes!"
"Our business here is concluded. You oversee the exchange of goods. We're going for a walk around the city and will be back before evening."
"Yes, Your Highness. Rest assured."
Lena watched the two figures walk away side by side and, for some reason, felt a momentary daze.
She had watched the Princess grow from a girl with lingering childishness into the person she was today, and she was used to the sight of those two walking closely together. Before, it had always looked like an elder with a young girl, or an older sister with a younger one. They were just as intimate now, but that natural, cozy feeling had inexplicably vanished.
"They couldn't have had a fight, could they? It doesn't look like it."
Lena tapped her chin, completely baffled. In the end, she could only blame it on her own eyes, chalking it up to some strange and bizarre feeling.
In this secondary city, where the Goddess of the Yilu River was the primary object of worship, symbols of the Snowtu flower and the blue heron were everywhere: prayer plaques hanging at shop entrances, blue heron statues at intersections, amulets worn by passersby…
Some were exquisite and lifelike, others crude and barely recognizable in shape, but they were all equally vibrant.
Outside a public garden not far away, a child had lost his amulet and was crying his eyes out.
His parent, frazzled, tried to console him, also pained by the loss of the amulet. For most people, an amulet was their most valuable piece of jewelry.
Lotus passed by, and with a slight flick of her finger.
The amulet, which had fallen into the crack between two paving stones, suddenly vanished. In the blink of an eye, it reappeared on the edge of a fountain at the garden entrance.
The parent happened to look up and paused. "Look, is that your amulet over there?"
The child ran over to look and, through his tears, broke into a smile. "It's mine, it's mine! Mommy, look, this corner is where I bit it before!"
The parent had just breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the Goddess Lotus for her blessing—" But hearing the second half of the sentence, she was suddenly furious. "You just can't let me have a moment's peace, can you? Daring to bite your amulet, that's disrespectful to the goddess, you know?"
Lotus withdrew her gaze and walked past calmly. The mother and child would never know that the amulet's recovery had anything to do with a certain deity passing by.
Sometimes, Lotus would use her divine power to intervene in such small matters.
It could be considered a casual response to a believer's wish, or a kind of experiment, but she was not in a hurry to find the answer.
Other deities had long since summarized whether divine power could be used and under what circumstances. She was now exploring it for herself, and she would naturally be able to verify her findings when she later traveled to the Kingdom of the Gods for the divine banquet.
"You seem to enjoy helping out whenever you can," Alyuin remarked at her side.
Lotus smiled. "They are my believers, after all."
As she said this, they happened to pass a small shop selling local woven goods. Alyuin stopped there, her gaze sweeping over the items before settling on a hair ribbon embroidered with a Snowtu flower in silver thread.
Alyuin picked it up, examined it carefully, and paid the shopkeeper.
Then she turned and placed it in Lotus's hand.
The Princess mouthed the words: "Today's offering."
Lotus had just picked up a waist ornament to examine it. Hearing this, she couldn't help but smile. She held up the ornament and mouthed back slowly: "Then, today's divine gift?"
"I'll graciously accept it," the Princess said aloud, though her movements were very gentle as she took it.
The shopkeeper looked back and forth in confusion, completely failing to understand the silent game these two young ladies, who looked like nobles or daughters of wealthy merchants, were playing.
But that didn't matter. As long as he got paid.
The shopkeeper smiled and added two transactions to his ledger.
Their stroll ended near the rear city gate.
According to the urban planning of this era, the farther an area was from the city center, the less important it was considered. This seemingly ordinary path near the gate connected to the slums, the road to the most despised class of people besides slaves.
Almost every city had such a neglected corner.
During her travels, Alyuin had always made a conscious effort to see as much as she could, as comprehensively as possible.
She had, of course, explored such places before, without Lotus. She had returned looking thoughtful and had subsequently visited a few more times.
Lotus was actually quite curious about her views on the poor and on slaves, but the Princess never mentioned it, so Lotus never asked.
It was not an easy question to answer.
When they returned to their temporary residence in the city, it was just at the cusp of evening, in time for dinner.
After dinner, Lotus returned to her room, undid her outer robe, and looked down at the hair ribbon Alyuin had bought.
For convenience, she had tied it around her wrist at the time. Now she could try it on properly.
Facing a bronze mirror on the table, Lotus gathered her long hair and tied it loosely with the ribbon. She looked at her reflection, and after a moment's thought, she closed her eyes.
The reflection in the mirror gradually changed. Black hair turned silver-white, and subtle changes altered her facial features. When she opened her eyes again, it was Lotus's original appearance.
"It really does suit silver hair better," Lotus murmured to herself, a slight smile touching her lips a moment later.
Whether they called it an offering or a divine gift, it was essentially just a small, casual present.
To see an interesting little trinket and have one's first instinct be to pick out a suitable one to give away, while at the same time being the recipient of gifts from that person—this was something that would have been hard for the Lotus of the past to imagine.
Speaking of gifts…
Her thoughts naturally jumped to the coming-of-age ceremony in a few days, and the gift she had long been preparing.
She had originally planned to have a messenger bring it, but to be safe, it might be better to create an avatar and retrieve it herself.
And that raised a question.
—How exactly does one create an avatar?
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