Spring festival was about to begin at dawn and the capital of Northern empire had completely immersed into the festivities of their beloved season. A pleasant, warm, cozy atmosphere covered the city in its shimmery blanket. The market area bustled with joy and celebrations, a large crowd gathered at various shops selling unique artifacts, exotic fruits, beautiful jewelry and expensive clothes. Skies were dark but clear with no hazy clouds covering them, stars shone brightly blessing the Spring festival its glistening beauty.
"So pretty, " Arisa got down the carriage and looked around the busy market. They had reached the empire as the sun was setting down.
"General! Can we please take a look around the market? See! There are so many pretty ornaments in that shop!! I want to buy them!!" she pleaded the chief general with a cute smile.
"Your highness, let us first enter the palace and meet His majesty. We can visit the market anytime during our stay here, spring festival will start tomorrow so you could find prettier things here." Chief general requested Arisa.
"Sheesh… You're no different than my brother!! Always monitoring over me!! Well… At least let me walk to the palace! I'm not sitting in that carriage anymore, it's been seven days we're travelling! My legs are sore just by sitting down in that wooden log!!"
"Your highness, please don't act stubborn like this? You are the princess of Arishillin, how could you walk while entering the palace?"
"Then let me ride your horse, I'm not sitting inside the carriage!"
Adrestia was looking at this silly argument between Arisa and Chief general from a distance. She realized Arisa was in fact a child… at the verge of her twenties… she still had the child-like innocence and maybe that is why she was the chosen one… for the diamond core… the purity in her heart was the blessing from Goddess of purity. It was going to be the most difficult task to tempt her out of the influence of Astrea. Adrestia walked closer to Arisa and stepped in the heated argument,
"Let her ride the horse general, I'll walk the horse towards the palace."
"Min-ah but my horse doesn't allow anyone else to ride him!! He doesn't obey anyone except me…" General was on the verge of losing his mind because of Arisa's stubbornness.
"Not your horse, that one" Min pointed her index finger towards San who followed the carriage ever since they left the forest. She knew it was Daeshim's horse and was guarding his master all over the way to the palace.
"Who's horse is that?" Arisa looked confused while walking near San and caressed him gently.
"He looks abandoned and in need of a master, so Arisa… if you want we can adopt him… right General?" Adrestia smiled cunningly waiting for Daeshim's response who still pretended to lay unconsciously inside the carriage.
"Really? Can we adopt him? He's so pretty!!" Arisa was overjoyed to adopt her first pet horse.
San resisted her and stepped back looking at the carriage for his master to come and save him.
Suddenly a lady screamed in the fruit shop at a distance from where Arisa stood holding San's reins, which distracted everyone nearby. People rushed towards the shop causing Arisa to loosen her grip off reins, Min pulled Arisa towards the carriage and opened the door of the cabin.
"W-Where… did… he" Arisa stuttered
"He escaped", Adrestia said. Everything went according to what she had expected. She turned around and saw Daeshim riding the horse fleeing away towards the palace.
Arisa felt an unexplainable pain in her heart, as if Arin was the one hurting inside. She couldn't understand what was happening with Arin… and how that strange man was affecting her so much…
"General, lets head towards the palace, His majesty is waiting for us… we've wasted enough time along the way", Min's sharp gaze made Arisa feel guilty for her immature behavior.
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DAESHIM
I could sense the scared look in the eyes of palace servants as I jumped down San's back. My blue robe was tainted with blood, which made servants shiver in fear. I walked inside the Silent river palace, but a light tap on my back halted my feet. That familiar touch disgusted me, enough to throw up on that person.
"How have you been, Daeshim-ah?", First Prince Yang Daejeong stood behind me with that pretentious smile plastered over his face.
"What do you think?" I turned around, pushing his hands off my shoulders.
"Don't seem to be in a good situation"
"Yes, thanks to your mother. She should've let me stay in the forest"
"I know right, I've suggested her the same… but… your warrior skills are too good to let you stay in the forest like an animal… although you're no different than a wild beast, but you could become my greatest soldier and then again... my mother is too kind to abandon a concubine's child"
"Daejeong-ah, you see this blood dried on my robe? This blood belongs to that concubine and the emperor of this Northern empire, so wouldn't it be nice to act a bit maturely like a crown prince and bow down to your elder brother?"
"So, now are you finally claiming to belong to this noble bloodline?"
"I don't need to claim for a thing which has already been mine, I've learnt it from my father"
"What did you learn from him? Disciplining others?"
"No, trampling on others"
"Daeshim!! Don't forget with whom you're speaking!!" Daejeong's face burnt furiously.
"To a person who's about to get killed in next three days."
I couldn't stand his presence. Not even for a moment. I walked inside the Silent river taking long strides. I needed to be alone, in order to tolerate the next person I was about to meet next morning.
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Sun rays hit my face, forcing me to open my eyes and get out of the bed. I saw Seolhwa tying up the curtains in my sleeping chambers. She didn't speak a word, and quietly placed all of my clothes in front of the mirror.
"You will have to take your own bath and dress up yourself as all of the royal maids are scared to serve you."
"Seolhwa…"
"And your wound… I've applied some herbs and wiped the blood on your skin. It will recover in few days. The herbs are placed on your study table. Get ready, Father and Queen moth- I mean H-Her majesty is waiting to meet you in the royal court."
She left the sleeping chambers. I knew that she was pissed off from my yesterday's behavior. But that wasn't the thing I was worried off, I was worried about the guests that would be present in the royal court today.
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Prince Daeshim entered the royal court dressed up in his golden embroidered blue velvet robes, completely armed with the silver dagger tied to his waist and Lëishëng sword in his hands. His long deep brown hairs were tightly tied into a half bun where situated the silver hairpin with the emblem of his Seventh Prince status, while rest of his hair fell loosely below his waist and a single long fringe rested over his forehead. He walked majestically in front of the Emperor and Queen of the Northern Empire, stood in a firm posture and bowed to pay them the respects.
"Good to see you back Prince Daeshim, we hope all these years living a minimal life in the forest have changed your heart and made you a righteous, honest and trustworthy person.", said the Yang emperor with a heavy heart.
He loved his son, in fact Daeshim was his most beloved son but Daeshim's hatred for his father since childhood grew bigger each day. The distance between Father and son increased to an immeasurable extent when Prince Daejeong was announced as the official crown prince of Yang Empire.
"Prince Daeshim, I've forgiven you long back and this moment is the happiest for me to have my son back in the empire. Our military, is waiting for their leader. As said before, you will have the entire control over the military once our Crown Prince Daejeong sits on this throne. But as of today you will be the in charge of our military." Queen Sunhyang announced in the royal court.
Daeshim smiled at the collective sighs of courtiers that echoed inside the huge hall. He knew that none of them wanted him to be there, none of them wanted Daeshim to have any sort of control over the kingdom and handing over the entire military force to him was like a greatest nightmare of their lives. He knew that once the Spring festival was over, they were going to rebel against this decision by the Emperor.
"Prince Daeshim, now it's time to meet our royal guests for this spring festival." said the emperor while standing up from his throne and turning to his right side he extended his arm, "This is King of Arishillin, King Ariho, we have established deep ties of friendship with land of Arishillin under the blessings of Goddess Astrea and also helped each other throughout all these years on the battleground. Today he is here for the Spring festival week with his younger sister Princess Arisa. I'm handing over this greatest responsibility to you, Daeshim, to take care of and guide them throughout their stay in our Empire."
Daeshim bowed before his father to show the acceptance of the duty and then turned towards Ariho to bow again, Ariho bowed down to Daeshim and smiled at him warmly. Daeshim in return pretended to smile as he never was interested in these unwanted guests. But he was definitely more interested in Arisa, he knew something was different in her… not just her beauty… she had an strong aura surrounding her… a halo of bright energy around her body as if there were some other worldly energies protecting her from the negative entities… he sensed it since the moment of their first meet… he knew that there was something in Arishillin being kept as secret and that secret was related to Princess Arisa.
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ADRESTIA
The current happenings around me was not at all favorable. I could sense the mixed waves of negative energy moreover, evil entities in Yang empire. I could've easily handled them, but what worried me the most was the change in behavior of Arisa. She had continuously changing moods, she talked to herself all day long, she was completely lost in her own mind. I couldn't tempt her into my energies anymore as she spent most of her time sitting inside her sleeping chambers and these strong desires around me was making me weak… the most shocking phenomenon…. I was supposed to get fueled with people's desires… but an surprisingly opposite thing was happening right now… It's been only a day inside Yang empire and I desperately wanted to leave this place as there was something very disastrous about to take place in this land.
"Min, where is Arisa? I haven't seen her since last night", Ariho entered the palace. Prince Daeshim followed him inside.
The sudden surge of desires was taking over my spiritual soul as he walked closer. I stared deep into his eyes and it was… dark… darkness filled his heart… he was surely under some kind of evil influence… this was not just a normal human being…
"Min!!! I'm asking where is Arisa?" Ariho shouted at me.
"She-she is resting inside her chambers"
"Why are you girls so lost these days…", Ariho went inside the chambers to find his sister.
Daeshim stared back at me cunningly, "Surprised? Oh, I thought you were much clever… You knew my identity since the start, right?"
This man was not at all aware of who he was talking to, and his evil desires were unbearable for me to control myself.
"No, your highness if only I knew who you were, I wouldn't stop Princess to let you inside our carriage", I managed to speak nicely.
"So, are you going to tell this incident to your King Ariho?", he asked tilting his face and staring at me with his eyes wide open, smiling like a maniac.
"It depends on what Princess Arisa decides"
Arisa entered the hall following Ariho. The surprise on her face after seeing Daeshim was so bad that for the very first time I wanted her to shout and tell Ariho the truth about Daeshim. She back and forth stared at me and Daeshim. I nodded to her to speak up, but as she looked at Daeshim there was a sudden change in her expression… she didn't seem like Arisa… no… she wasn't Arisa… I know this look… I've seen it somewhere… this face did not belong to Arisa… wait… what the hell is happening in this world? There was some other soul in her body… which I knew, but still I couldn't identify… but…
"Good to see you Prince Daeshim, thanks for having me and my orabeoni as guests for this year's Spring festival", Arisa smiled at him gently.
I could sense the shock in Daeshim's eyes too, which he hardly controlled to not bring to his face as Arisa had protected him in that instance from getting exposed. He pretended to smile back at her and left the palace immediately.
I need to find out what was going on. There was something happening behind my back…. And now that I know Arisa wasn't the only one in her body, I need to know who was that other soul sitting inside her.. Without my permission… I could sense the big power behind this… It was definitely Astrea… It has to be none other than the great Goddess of Purity!!