As if reading her thoughts, Aslan spoke next.
“No. I… I didn’t wish for this. So, open your eyes.”
But Hestia couldn’t hear the rest of his words clearly.
She could only guess that he kept repeating the request to open her eyes.
Exhausted, Hestia no longer wanted to obey.
As she weakly shook her head, Aslan, who was holding her, spoke more desperately.
“…Please. I will… so please.”
His voice broke off intermittently.
Hestia realized that death, with its scythe, was stepping closer.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t afraid or terrified.
‘I can finally rest.’
She almost looked forward to it.
Hestia’s lips curved gently upwards.
‘Can I cry now?’
Her eyes slowly closed.
Only after the last thread of light connecting her to the world was swallowed by darkness did a tear, long held back, slide down Hestia’s cheek.
“Princess! Open your eyes…!”
She felt the sensation of a thick hand wiping her hot tears, but that was all.
Thud, her hand fell powerlessly.
And… Hestia’s violet eyes closed forever in eternity.
Birds chirping are heard.
With her eyes closed, Hestia thought,
‘You said I wasn’t your child, but you still pitied me. You allowed me to rest in the land of eternity.’
That should be something to be grateful for.
She inhaled lightly and slowly lifted her eyelids.
“……Huh?”
At that moment, realizing what she was seeing, Hestia’s brows furrowed like thin paper.
The ceiling painted with cherubs blowing trumpets.
The multiple layers of white curtains hanging softly in curves on the bedposts.
All were familiar sights she saw every morning upon waking up.
“What’s going on here?”
She couldn’t get up from the bed, just staring blankly at the ceiling.
Even after closing and reopening her eyes several times, nothing changed.
“Did they recreate life on the eternal land? That’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”
She knew it made no sense but said it anyway, thinking it was less absurd.
At that moment, two knocks came from outside her door.
A sound all too familiar to Hestia.
Unable to respond in disbelief, two more knocks followed after a pause.
“……Come in.”
Finally, she permitted entrance in a faint voice, and the door quietly opened.
“Sister, are you awake?”
In the palace, Angela was her maid, and in the temple, apprentice priestess Nasia tended to Hestia’s minor needs.
Only after seeing Nasia’s face did Hestia prop herself up on her elbows.
She still felt as if she was wandering in a dream, looking dazedly at Nasia.
“Nasia?”
“Yes, Sister? Do you need anything?”
The response came back.
Hestia couldn’t reply again.
Shocked and frozen, she didn’t react, prompting Nasia to approach her with concern.
“Sister, are you alright? Are you feeling unwell?”
Nasia even reached out to check her temperature.
The moment the apprentice priestess’s small hand touched her forehead, Hestia felt a shiver run through her body.
The moment skin touched skin, Hestia felt the sensation too vividly.
That’s when she realized all this wasn’t an illusion or imagination, but reality.
Nasia looked at her strangely, her gaze lingering.
Hestia, thinking to first escape this situation, forced a smile and shook her head.
“Ah, no, I’m fine. Just that today, I’m not waking up well.”
At this, Nasia grinned and nodded emphatically.
“Days like that happen! Almost every day for me is a problem though!”
Nasia then turned around. Watching her approach the window for ventilation, Hestia took a deep breath.
‘How can this be?’
Externally she appeared calm, but internally she was in turmoil.
‘I was vomiting blood profusely… I felt I had reached death.’
The pain that constricted her body until the last moment, like a bramble noose, still felt vivid.
The sensation had disappeared as if it were a lie.
‘As if time has been reversed…’
At that thought, Hestia paused.
‘Wait. Time… reversed?’
Even as she repeated this thought internally, she felt breathless.
She needed to verify.
Hestia quickly controlled her breathing, not to reveal her agitation, and asked Nasia in the calmest voice possible.
“Nasia, what’s the date today?”
“Today? It’s March 11th, 1099! Exactly one year since Saint Anetha came to our temple.”
March 11th, 1099.
Upon hearing this response from Nasia, Hestia felt as if ice-cold water was being poured over her head.
She swallowed and held her breath involuntarily.
‘Anetha’s one-year anniversary…’
Hestia took a deep breath, closing her eyes tightly.
She was trying to hide her disturbed emotions, but it was in vain. Her eyelashes trembled noticeably.
Unconsciously, her mind went back to the day she first met Anetha.
Two years before her death, in 1098 of the Elsword Kingdom.
A woman appeared in Elsword’s grand temple.
Her name was Anetha.
“I have come with a revelation from God.”
She claimed boldly to be another saint of Elsword.
This shocked everyone – the high priest, the clergy, the citizens of Elsword, and even Hestia herself.
‘A new saint…?’
It was unbelievable.
After all, the saint of Elsword was Hestia Elsword, her.
At the age of 12, ten years ago, she received a divine revelation.
“You are to be my representative. Go forth to uphold my faith. This is your duty and glory. Plant and nurture faith where it is lacking. That too shall be your golden glory.”
She was anointed a saint and had lived in the temple ever since.
For ten years.
But after that, Hestia never heard the voice of God again.
No matter how fervent her prayers, there was never a response.
Two saints in one era were unprecedented in Elsword history. There had always been only one saint per century, and sometimes none at all in some eras.
But suddenly, a new saint?
Everyone found it hard to believe, but they couldn’t dismiss Anetha’s claim as false.
Because she demonstrated it in front of everyone.
She was enveloped in divine radiance, and where she passed, green grass and small wildflowers bloomed abundantly.
“She is a true saint!”
The high priests were the first to kneel at Anetha’s feet.
Then others followed suit, bowing their heads at her feet in adoration.
Only Hestia and Anetha stood.
Hestia stared blankly at her, while Anetha smiled leisurely.
Subsequently, a room within the temple was prepared for Anetha, and she immediately started functioning as a saint. She seemed so natural, as if she had always been doing this.
As the word ‘genuine’ began to precede Anetha’s name, Hestia felt increasingly perplexed.
If Anetha was the real one, then what about her? She couldn’t free herself from this thought.
‘Really… am I a fake?’
Then what about the voice she heard in her youth, the holy power that surely existed within her, though meager?
‘Is this also a trial bestowed by God?’
Hestia genuinely didn’t know.
Thus, she increasingly doubted even the purpose of her own existence.
Yet, despite her numerous questions, God still didn’t heed her voice, and thus she never found her answers.
It was agonizing. Why did she lack the power that Anetha so abundantly possessed?
‘Is it because I failed to uphold God’s dignity? Is my capacity so insufficient that I couldn’t fulfill the tasks God set for me? Is that why he sent a new saint?’
A saint in name only.
Until her dying moment, Hestia couldn’t find a description that suited her better.
Her place in the world kept shrinking.
In Elsword, where two saints appeared, some considered it a divine blessing, but most viewed it as a harbinger of misfortune and calamity, especially given the already troubled state surrounding Elsword.
“Perhaps, with one’s power being insufficient, God sent another to aid,” was the common speculation.
Male lead says he’s pregnant — and it’s female lead’s child
Something seems a bit off about this world.
Wang Zhao thought as she watched a pregnant man walking towards her…
Intro
Female lead finds herself in a world where the men who possess the ability to bear children.
As she navigates this unfamiliar reality, she is caught off guard by the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, who reveals that he is pregnant.
Is this truly her boyfriend?
Why can’t she recall any details about their time together?
She begins to doubt whether the child her boyfriend is carrying is even hers.
Is there a hidden reason behind her amnesia, or could it be a side effect of her sudden arrival in this strange new world?
Just when it seems the protagonist’s life couldn’t become any more entangled, her ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance, raising questions about the protagonist’s past.
__________
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