Volume 1 - Prologue

(3rd person pov)

“It’s an oracle! It is God’s word!.”

A lively face and a confident voice.

In a sense, the owner of the arrogant voice was Horeom, the high priest of Florence, the continent’s most powerful country. 

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

Horeom, the High Priest, received the oracle directly from God!.

“Finally! After all, God has not abandoned Florence!.”

“It’s been a century, hasn’t it?” It is simply magnificent, Your Majesty!”

It was an oracle that arrived in Florence for the first time in 100 years.

But the Florentine emperor Orwen looked down at the murmuring priests indifferently.

He didn’t show a single sign of agitation, as if he had no interest in oracles. 

Horeom walked through the assembled priests, fluttering his spotless robe, and knelt before the Emperor.

Then, holding both hands together and closing their eyes, they spoke the words of God.

《The 158th year of the imperial calendar, with a dark moon and a red day. In the empire, the divine of light and darkness shall be born together.

This is a miracle that occurred thanks to the goddess of the dawn’s guidance. The light will bring the Florentine Empire infinite glory and riches, while the darkness will eat the light and finally bring the Florentine Empire to destruction! 》

“So, the High Priest is now.”

Orwen rose from his seat and walked towards Horeom, who was looking down at the floor.

The sound of his shoes walking down the stairs quietly enveloped the hall.

“You mean to say that child will destroy this country?”

Orwen, who finally arrived in front of him, said as he trampled the white robes that covered the floor.

“You’re so arrogant.”

“…”

“You’ve come to hear such a ridiculous thing as an oracle. Isn’t the high priest in charge of nothing?”

Orwen’s emerald eyes, which were staring down at him, grew frigid.

The sound of Orwen’s footsteps going past him grew further distant, and an unfamiliar smile appeared on Horeom’s dark face.

Because he was in a bad temper at the time, Orwen half-destroyed the temples built in Florence. In this way, the matter appeared to be closed.

“Hey, did you hear that?”

“You mean the story of the oracle?”

“Hey, about the Oracle! What have you heard?”

“I heard that the Emperor has destroyed all the Eastern Temples, saying it was nonsense.”

The empires, however, did not reject the absurd prophecies because they were lies, but were rather intrigued about the contents.

“Everything must be true!”

“I think so too.”

“Is it because of the child between the Empress and Cortisan?”

That time was when the prophecy was made.

That was because Rebecca Florence, the Empress of the Empire, and Cortisan, a commoner on that night, both gave birth to a child and possessed the Emperor’s blood.

“When the dark moon on a red day comes, everything will be revealed.”

“That’s right when that day comes.”

The prophecy of Florence, which would determine the rise and fall of the empire, swept across the continent.

So no one doesn’t know about it.

And the 158th year of the imperial calendar, the red day of the dark moon.

As prophesied, two-morning stars were born in the Empire at the same time without a single error.

One is Empress Rebecca, the child of the empress Princess ‘Ashtarte’ of Florence.

On the other hand was an illegitimate child, Princess Amaryllis.

“Isn’t it according to the high priest’s prophecy? After all, the oracle was true!”.

“There is no way the Empress’s baby is darkness. The illegitimate child of that lowly Cortisan must be darkness!”

“It’s a good thing the surname of Florence wasn’t given to the illegitimate princess.”

Princess Amaryllis did not inherit the surname of Florence because she was an illegitimate child.

Even before she could see the light of the world, she was called the ‘divine star of darkness’ in the prophecy because of her lowly-born mother and received bitter criticism from the people of the empire.

However, Princess Ashtarte was born after swallowing the weak empress.

As information spread that her hair color was dark, the situation turned like a flip-flop.

“You said her hair is black?”

“Don’t talk! Is it because I saw clearly with my own two eyes? It wasn’t just that black, it was black and ominous!.”

“Oh! I heard that she was born with the same appearance as Jerome, the demon of charm, right?”

“Oh my gosh, that’s terrible!”

The reason was so simple. This was because there was not a single person with black hair on this wide continent.

Because of this, Ashtarte was called ‘even darker’.

In the 158th year of the imperial calendar, the rumors spreading from tail to tail, whether true or not, made the continent fluctuate once again.

“How can such an ominous color black like exist in Florence ?”

“I can’t take it anymore! Princess Ashtrate must be the darkness! The darkness that will destroy Florence!”

“I wish his Majesty would make a decision as soon as possible without hearing prophecies in vain.”

“Princess Amaryllis, who was born with the same hair color as his Majesty, was not able to inherit the name of Florence, so how sad it is…”

“The castle of Florence should have been passed down to Princess Amaryllis!”

All of them were busy talking about the color of Princess Ashtarte’s hair as ominous.

It was also regrettable that the beautiful silver-haired princess did not inherit the name of Florence.

No one dared to worry about the safety of Princess Ashtarte, or even worry about the future she would spend in the Imperial Palace.

However, for Princess Ashtarte, who was attracting public attention, it was just for two minutes.

Of course, the people of the continent, as well as the people of the imperial family, didn’t know the secret hidden even in their dreams…

It was the fact that she was a ‘reincarnated person’ who was reborn after a miserable past life.

***

(Ashtarte pov)

The previous life of Ashtarte, who had no name, was neither happy nor great at all.

It was the beginning of misfortune when she was sold here and there by her mother’s hands and then bought as a slave to the Viscount.

Viscount and his children were very fond of Ashtarte.

Of course, explaining that they liked her was never a good thing.

It was as if they had just been given the right toy at the right time. They treated her with the same attitude as the slaves.

But now and then, they’d crack a joke that was so bad that it was frowned upon.

Leaving snakes in her little bedroom, or shoving her up the stairs to the second floor.

They even poured boiling water over her head while she was working in the garden.

“Ahaha! What are we going to play next, bro?”

“That’s right. The slave’s reaction these days isn’t very cool…”

“Oh my! That’s why I told you to do something a little more provocative!”

In the end, she got rat poison inside the hardened rye bread, which was her only meal of the day.

‘I never imagined that it would be the last food of my life.’

Hungry, Ashtarte couldn’t even eat the rye bread for one meal.

One second felt like an eternity, and the passing of time did not give her any rest.

‘It hurts, it hurts so much.’

It wasn’t the first time the Viscount’s children had played pranks on her meals.

When the torture began after eating rye bread, Ashtarte thought it was simply another bad prank they had planned.

So, if you endure this pain for a little while, your day will start without any problems.

But Ashtarte had an instant intuition.

That this is not going to get better with patience.

In the stifling pain that didn’t even allow her to lose consciousness, Ashtarte waited for this pain to end as soon as possible.

Ashtarte was still in pain after three sunrises and sunsets.

“Please… is anybody there?”

No one was looking for Ashtarte throughout those three days, no matter how short or long they were.

“Help me…”

Blood was dripping between her fingernails as she scratched the wooden floor with her fingernails.

She closed her eyes and opened them, but her vision was still black, and her whole body was hot as if on fire.

“Mom…”

‘I couldn’t move anymore due to the severe pain, and as I collapsed on the rotten wooden floor, another wave of pain came over me.’

I felt something was forcefully pulling me from deep inside my body.

As if to spit it out, the body was doing it naturally.

“Uhhh!”

She didn’t even have the strength to cover her mouth with her hands, so something that spit from her mouth fell violently to the floor. Dark red blood soaked the wooden floor and splattered everywhere.

‘Does such dark blood exist in the human body?’

Ashtarte smiled sadly and lay down.

‘Oh, God. I want to die.’

However, even at the moment when she vomited blood painfully and closed her eyes, Ashtarte did not resent or hate anyone.

Is it the mother who sold her away, or the viscount who bought her? Or maybe they are the children of the Viscount who made her die so painfully.

Because she couldn’t even find an object of resentment to express this raw feeling.

She thought in her vision slowly darkening.

‘In my next life, I want to meet a family who loves me… And I have to love my family and protect them with all my heart.’

She closed her eyes, dreaming of such a vain wish that would never come true.

It was the last wish in my short past life, in which I got nothing and received nothing.