Chapter 40

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 40

Chapter Title: The Crown I'll Take from You

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Giliphos had also written down the location where the two were last sighted in the outskirts slum.

"Your Highness, shall I go and bring this Theo back for you?"

Medea shook her head.

Theo had harbored a deep grudge against Baldina even in her previous life. If he learned Neril was affiliated with the royal family, he might bolt.

Besides, Medea hadn't yet decided Theo's fate.

He was at the heart of the rebels, so it would be right to eliminate him preemptively. But on a personal level, it was as good as her having killed him. So how should she settle that grudge?

"I'll have to go myself."

She needed to see him with her own eyes to make a judgment.

Whether to spare him... or erase him.

The Asylum District that Giliphos mentioned was one of the royal capital's infamous slums.

"This way..."

"..."

Neril, once nobility though fallen, had never been driven to rock bottom. The slums were a first for her.

As she stepped down from the carriage, Neril unconsciously brought a hand to her nose.

A nose-stinging stench wafted from the uneven street corners everywhere.

Somewhere in the alleys, screams of agony echoed.

Quarrels over food rang out here and there.

"It's wretched, Your Highness."

Neril shook her head.

Medea replied with pity in her eyes.

"Yes, a revolt could erupt anytime, anywhere. Cleaning it all up will fall to Peleus once he returns."

The two walked through streets where both people and buildings could crumble at any moment.

Even in disguise, their refined air didn't blend into the impoverished slum, drawing eyes.

Neril kept her hand near the scabbard at her waist, ready to draw her sword at any instant—hypervigilant.

"Hey, miss, how about a fortune before you go?"

So when someone called out to Medea at the alley corner, she nearly drew her blade.

Neril spotted it was a small old woman shrouded in a robe and sheathed her sword.

A tattered mat held a few cracked beads and a begging bowl.

At first glance, the old woman seemed little more than a beggar.

"Let me read your future, miss. I'm the oldest tree in this land, weathered and wise—you won't regret it."

The old woman reached out with a raspy voice.

"No thank you. I already know mine."

Medea, living her second life, had no need for it.

She signaled Neril to toss the old woman a few coins and turned away.

"That's exactly why you need it. A reborn life means a changed fortune, doesn't it?"

Wrinkled fingers beneath frayed robe sleeves rolled a few crystal beads with a clatter.

Medea's steps halted. She slowly turned back.

"Wise choice."

The old woman cackled as Medea sat before her.

Clatter. Clatter.

The beads rolled under her wrinkled hand.

"Oh dear, oh dear. This life won't be easy either. Chaos blocks your path, still veiling your holiness and trying to steal your light."

The beads on the mat showed an asymmetrical pattern.

But the old woman grinned, unconcerned.

"There's a falling giant star. A pitch-black one. That star will cleave the chaos barring your way."

Medea cut in.

"Whatever it is, I don't need it."

A giant star or whatever—who was she to lean on someone else again?

Entrusting her life to another's hands was what Medea rejected most in this second life.

"Slimy things will drag at your feet again. They'll devour you to fatten themselves."

"If they devour me a second time, then that's as far as my ability goes. But I'm confident."

The old woman clicked her tongue.

"Tsk, it'll be tough. Why not make it easy this time?"

Medea just smiled silently.

"Ever heard of Dawn's Dewdrop?"

"Dawn's... Dewdrop?"

"That mystical elixir holding the goddess's power erases everything in this world. Illness, memories, even fate itself. That dewdrop will save the great star."

The old woman paused, then continued.

"Miss, heaven cherishes you dearly. It watches over you, filling the skies with starlight to push back the twelve signs and turn back time."

Suddenly, blood trickled from the old woman's mouth. Her small robed back swayed.

"Your body carries the blood of once the continent's wisest and the goddess's oracle. Thus, under these heavens, you alone can find that dewdrop—"

The old woman swallowed a rising clot and smiled.

"Oh my, heaven warns this old soul."

Medea caught the collapsing woman in her arms.

"You should see a physician. Neril—"

The ancient robe reeked, but Medea wiped the blood trail without care.

"Your kind heart remains unchanged, miss. This old one still has someone waiting. My reading ends here—go your way."

The old woman stubbornly refused Medea's help. To the last, she gripped her hand and pleaded.

"Don't dismiss this old one's words, miss."

After that eerie encounter, as Medea rounded the alley, she stopped.

'Something's off.'

How did that old woman know she was living a second life?

"Neril, go back to that spot and bring the old woman to me."

She needed to ask more closely.

But Neril, following the order back to the alley, returned empty-handed.

Her face showed bewilderment at the traces vanished like a midsummer night's dream.

"No one was there. Whether she left or vanished, the whole alley felt strangely empty."

In a residential area of Asylum District.

"Saya, there you are."

Neighbor Aunt Angela, sweeping her yard, greeted Saya.

"Yes. I cleaned up trash and got paid."

She clutched black bread procured early that dawn, heading home.

"You came alone? It's dangerous—should've come with Juni."

Aunt Angela fretted, brows drooping.

"Human traffickers are rampant lately. With no food, now they're snatching people to sell."

Saya knew well the grim rumors swirling the alleys.

"I've got Juni's dad, so it's fine for me, but you live alone—I'm truly worried. It'd be better if Theo were there..."

Aunt Angela eyed Saya with concern.

A ramshackle hut wasn't safe for a young girl alone.

"They set up a soldiers' village near the walls. Your father was a retired soldier, right? Go there at least. This place is too dangerous."

She chattered on about how clean and safe the soldiers' village was.

"Just prove your name and status—they take in whole families. Rumors say even imposters are popping up, so hurry and move there. It'll be far safer than here, anyway."

As Saya hesitated without replying, Aunt Angela offered kindly.

"Worried Theo won't find you when he returns? I can pass word you went there."

"Thank you, but I prefer it here. I'll head in first. Got to go out again soon."

Sensing the aunt's eyes flick to the bread in her arms despite the warm concern, Saya bowed quickly.

Once home, Saya sighed.

"Soldiers' village... I'd go if I could. But with Theo beating an imperial soldier and fleeing, how?"

If Theo returned and his crimes surfaced, he'd go straight to prison.

"What am I supposed to do..."

A single tear rolled down the little girl's cheek.

Their mother died birthing the siblings, their retired father struggled with wounds and poverty before passing.

Left alone in the world, the brother and sister had to survive somehow.

Theo went scavenging for food and clashed with someone trying to steal it, getting dragged off by guards.

Then he beat the guard captain who took a bribe and tried to punish him unfairly.

That night, Theo vanished. Leaving just a note.