The naming ceremony, also known as blessing ceremony, is an important tradition passed on throughout the generations where newborn babies are taken to the cathedral of stars to get the blessings from the god, not the supposed gods like dragons but instead real gods.
As recorded in the ancient historical books, there existed many true gods in the past. They ruled over the whole universe with their unfathomable divine might. But then suddenly, the number of the true gods dwindled until only seven of them remained.
The goddess of stars, Asteria.
The goddess of earth, Gaia.
The god of wind, Zephyr.
The god of light, Lucius.
The god of death, Ragnarok.
The goddess of life, Anastasia.
And lastly, the supreme god, Zeus.
The goddess of stars, Asteria is worshipped as the divine messenger who works as a link connecting the world of mortals to the world of Gods. Almost all the living beings in the mortal world worshipped her no matter which god they preferred themselves because of her status as a divine messenger as well as the overseer of the world.
Such as the holy church, one of the strongest nations, who follow the teachings of the god of light, yet they also worship the goddess of stars, Asteria.
In the ceremony, the goddess would give a suitable name to the newborn babies. If the goddess liked the soul of the baby then she would give out her blessing to the child as protection. Any child who was blessed by her protection were guaranteed to become a blessed one after they grew up. But the goddess only gave out her blessings once in a while with no patterns so it was a rare occurrence.
The number of people blessed by the goddess in the Avilion kingdom didn't even reach ten even after including those from the past.
...
The cathedral of stars of the Avilion kingdom was situated in the eastern part of the capital city, Arion, occupying almost half of the land. In the cathedral, no one was barred from entry whether they be a noble or a commoner, as the goddess didn't want any discrimination in her place.
A luxurious black carriage stopped in front of the cathedral. A middle-aged butler with a monocle on his left eye got off of the coach's seat and opened the carriage door for the personages sitting inside.
A handsome man got out of the carriage. The man was tall with broad shoulders and tight muscles packed with strength but didn't look too muscular. The gentle wind ruffled his short bluish grey hair and his deep blue eyes looked sharp and cold. But his current good mood could be seen clearly within those eyes and his usually pursed lips were slightly curved at the edges in an almost negligible manner.
Donned in a black formal attire with golden intricate designs and numerous buttons and strings, his tall figure looked very imposing, just like a sharp sheathed sword.
He was none other than the Duke Callisto, Johann Von Ricardo Callisto, the head of the house of Callisto and the only tier 6 Sword king of Avilion kingdom.
Johann stood at the side and reached out his hand towards the carriage as a fair hand was placed on his. With his support, a gorgeous lady stepped out of the carriage followed by a wet-nurse, who was holding onto a newborn baby swaddled in soft blue cloth.
The graceful lady was also dressed in a complicated formal dark blue dress with her frost white hair tied up into a bun with some strands resting on her fair cheeks. She only wore an intricate necklace made of precious gems and a pair of tear-drop design earrings matching with her dress as accessories. She was the Duchess, Violette Von Fressia Callisto.
And the baby held in the wet-nurse's arms was, obviously, the recently reincarnated Shizuki Ken!
Shizuki was long awakened from her sleep in the middle of the 1 hour long journey from the Callisto manor to the cathedral of stars. Seeing how she really wasn't dreaming and that she was really reincarnated into a baby, her previous sense of denial and disbelief was shattered with the punch given by the reality.
After all the inner turmoil, she felt too tired of it so she just gave up worrying about something that was beyond her control and decided to go with the flow. Now that she had become a baby, at least she didn't have to work and earn money to make a living and constantly worry about how to pay her rent for the next month.
But then she was puzzled with various questions that kept popping in her mind. Such as, why were the people around her dressed in such expensive looking gorgeous western dresses?
With the look of the interior and the light rocking as well as the sounds of horses' hooves clip-clopping on the road coming from outside, she could tell that they were inside a horse carriage. But with how technologically developed the world was, there was close to no need to ride on a horse carriage to travel, unless it was only a props for filming a movie.
But then again, there were no cameras nor anyone shouting out commands of 'action!' or 'cut!' so this just made her more confused.
Just where did I get sent into? It couldn't be that I time travelled to the past, right?
Shaking her imaginary head inside her mind, she abruptly stiffened after a moment.
It...it couldn't be...,right?
And the current scene in front of her just proved her nonchalant guess true which almost made her pop her eyes out in amazement and shock.
Many people with western looks and various hair colours in different attires which separated the nobles, priests and the commoners were coming in and out of the cathedral. Many carriages were parked at the side and the servants from the families who owned the carriages were looking after them.
There were no smoke-emitting vehicles, no airplanes, no electricity poles and wires, no people busy with their phones and no polluted air. The sky wasn't covered by dull gray clouds, instead it was clear with no clouds, with birds flying across cheerfully in groups.
The most eye-catching was still the cathedral which was very different from the pure white cathedrals she had seen in the Internet before. The cathedral was very large with pointed small towers adjoined into one big, tall building. The whole building was made of shiny, black and blue marble-like stones which shone like the night sky and a big star shaped structure was shining on top of the tallest pointy roof. She couldn't tell what it was made of to be able to shine so brightly even in daytime.
All the factors proved that she really wasn't in the world that she came from. It was a completely different world in a different timeline!
I actually time travelled into the past?! Much worse, as a baby too?! F*ck this sh*t, I'd rather be sent to heaven or hell!
Full of despair and panic, Shizuki felt a massive headache assaulting her from the stress given by the numerous shocks she got in the same day. But then suddenly, her mind calmed down by itself, almost miraculously which stunned her.
'What happened?' Shizuki was greatly puzzled.
While she was dealing with the shock she got, they were already inside the cathedral. After going around the long, winding corridors with various exotic religious paintings and statues of gods, they finally stopped in front of a huge, golden door with complicated designs of gods and unknown archaic symbols embedded on it.
There were two strict-looking knights guarding the door who then bowed to the personages before them respectfully and pushed open the door to let them in. After they got inside, the guards then closed the door, resuming their posts again.
The golden door led to the forbidden area of the cathedral which was only open to few people of high status and renown. It was the core of the cathedral of stars, the holy prayer domain where the high-level priests communicated with the goddess Asteria.
Normally, the people unqualified to enter this place were sent to the other prayer room to proceed with the naming ceremony or other purposes. Only those with qualifications were able to enter this forbidden core place to hold a naming ceremony or other such important events.
Although the goddess forbade discrimination, the rules still had to be made to not let others abuse these facilties thus such requirements were made. No one would dispute over this with people of higher statuses unless they were tired of living.
The holy prayer domain was an isolated space which looked like a room filled with star-like small dots of lights twinkling around them. Although it was completely dark like a night sky, they could still see clearly. The frightening might of a god could be seen with this clearly which could only be described as; unfathomable.
In the centre of the room, a tall stone statue of a goddess holding onto a crystallised heart, the size of a big boulder, with a faint glow, in her hands, stood, glowing in a bluish hue. It was the statue of the Asteria and the crystallised heart was none other than the divine artifact left by the guardian dragon, Zysyss, the dragon's heart! No one could've guessed that the divine artifact, the priceless national treasure was actually protected by the goddess herself!
Shizuki looked around the strange room, dazed. She had only been lost in her thoughts for a while but when she got to her senses, she actually found that the surroundings had suddenly changed into a dark space-like room! The goddess' statue looked even more conspicuous in the empty, dark room. There was also some kind of invisible pressure emitting from it which was almost close to become tangible in the air. This feeling baffled the already speechless Shizuki.
In front of the statue, a group of people stood in a respective distance from it. There was an elderly man in his fifties in a blue and gold attire of someone of high status in the cathedral. Besides him were two more priest and a priestess standing with their head lowered as if they were praying.
Meanwhile, there were two personages in luxurious formal attires which symbolised their high status. What differed them from the rest was their dignified aura of rulers who stood at the top of hundreds of thousands of people and the eye-catching crowns on top of their heads which clearly showed their identities.
They were the rulers of the Avilion kingdom, The most respected and revered figure of the country, the royal majesties!
Shizuki also understood a thing or two after seeing many strange things around her till now and it was very easy to guess the identity of the group of people before her with the obvious clues given by their appearances. She was now even more puzzled and slightly annoyed for not being able to get a clear answer to the numerous popping inside her head.
Johann and Violette walked towards the statue. Because only selected few were allowed in, the wet-nurse was ordered to stay outside and so the one holding onto her was Johann who didn't want to let his wife tire herself in her current state. Though he was very nervous and awkward when holding onto her which only made Shizuki feel even more annoyed.
I'm a BABY! Not a sack of rice!
They both then stopped and bowed respectfully at the royal couple as they greeted them, "Greetings, your majesties. We apologise for not being able to receive you and making you wait here for so long."
The King was a middle-aged man who looked around Johann's age with long, bright golden hair tied into a loose and attractive braid behind his back. He was a bit shorter than Johann in height but his strong aura didn't lose to him even a bit. His golden eyes were exceptionally warm and gentle when he looked at the couple before him like looking at his closest kins instead of his subjects.
"You can let go of the formalities while we are outside of court, Johann, Vio. Today is such a happy occasion so we don't have to ruin it with such unnecessary politeness between us close friends." said the King with a slightly teasing smile on his face. His previous dignified face seemed to fade away in an instant and instead was taken over by a mischievous look.
This change of face looked so natural that even the spectators who weren't very familiar with them such as Shizuki and the other three people from the cathedral felt that it wasn't anything surprising at all which only gave them more surprise after they had such a thought instead.
"That's right. Such courtesy isn't needed between us. It's already a pain to deal with those cunning bastards every time with a fake polite smile plastered in their face while hiding their real schemes behind their mask. If I had to do the same with my closest friends outside of the court, then I might as well quit being a queen and live in seclusion researching on magic instead."
The Queen made an irritated face when she thought about the faces of those people in the court, her sudden vulgar words made the priests flinch slightly while the Callisto couple were unaffected. They were already used to her and knew her very well so they weren't surprised at all.
"Eh? Dear, you can't possibly be thinking of leaving me here all alone, right? What if those wolves in human's skins tried to eat me alive after you left?" The king made a disheartened face when he heard his wife's words which earned him a look of disdain and a jab on his shoulder by his wife and the shocked looks from the priests who were trying to lower their presence at the moment.
Violette let out a gentle laugh at their usual bickering while Johann just smiled gently, his gaze warmer than before.
Shizuki was quite surprised at their closeness. Although she couldn't understand them, she could still tell from their interactions that they were very close and seeing how the most respected figures of a kingdom were acting like small children, she knew that they trusted each other enough to show their true selves in each other's presence. Although...there were still outsiders here.
"So? Won't you introduce us to our little niece? I'm dying to see her already!" Isabella said with an eager look in her eyes that were staring at the small baby awkwardly held in Johann's arms. Arthur also followed her action and shifted his eyes from Johann to the baby with glowing eyes.
Looking at them so excited, Johann and Violette exchanged glances with helplessness in their eyes. They even wondered if the baby was actually theirs instead.
Just when Johann was about to say something, a sudden change appeared on the goddess statue!