Chapter 108: Wedding Ceremony (6)

"They will come to accept it." Honestly, I did not want to do so, but... I felt the need to use the countermeasures that I had prepared while I was in the opened door state. "Because I will die in the hands of a terrifying enemy that no one would be able to stop."

In all honesty, there weren't many organizations that were enemies of the Union. This was unsurprising, since the Union was a universal organization that was founded upon the intention of fighting against the beings of the outside world. We were all affiliated with the Union, so it was hard to consider anyone an enemy.

There were nations within the Union that were hostile to each other, just like the relationship between the Leonhardt Empire and the Tekea Federation. However, even so, all those forces were bound together under the name of the Union.

This was because Noblesse, an organization of transcendental species born with great power, as well as Elohim, an organization of transcendents who had acquired supreme power through endless training and effort, were enforcing the most basic of rules throughout the Union. In other words, the Union was the largest and strongest force in the Great Universe.

'It’s just an indication of how terrifying the power of Legion is,’ I thought to myself. Once again, there weren't many organizations that could be considered an enemy for the Union. In fact, they were a force that basically dominated over the universe. However, there were terrifying forces in the vast Great Universe that even the Union could not go against recklessly. They were called the three Great Adversaries. They were the Mechanical life form, Legion; the Space Monster, Grotesque; The Great Pirates, Basara.

Among them, the Basara were terrifying beings. They terrorized others due to their enormous size, rather than their sheer strength or fighting power. It was unclear whether they could be distinguished as an enemy, so only the Legion and Grotesque were capable of confronting the Union with their actual power. Those two Great Adversaries could withstand the pressure of the Union, even though they were overwhelmingly disadvantageous in size, because of the Untouchables—transcendental existences that protected those two powers.

"A terrifying enemy that no one would be able to stop?"

"That's right. An enemy like Adam."

"...Are you crazy?" Celestia looked at me like I was a psychopathic patient.

"What do you mean crazy?"

“How else do you expect me to react to you saying that you would take advantage of Adam, a monster-like Untouchable who possessed the status of a First-Tier God? If he was determined, he could spread terror throughout the entire Great Universe. And you are planning to bring in that God of Destruction-like guy just because you want to relinquish the throne?" Celestia raised an eyebrow.

Adam was the First Legion. He was one of the few beings who possessed the status of a First-Tier God in the Physical Realm, where most of the Gods had left. This was the reason why he was an existence who remained way above me, despite my opening the door.

I had a High-rank Divine Spirit, a High-rank Status of God and a Low-rank Divinity, while he did not share my abnormal form. He perfectly amassed the status of a First-Tier God, and he was an existence that was equivalent to having a Great Divinity. However, it didn't matter, since this was not a matter of power…

"Mmmhmm."

"...Mmhmm? You're going to leave it at that?"

"That's all. Don't worry about it too much. It's a matter that I will handle on my own." I felt sorry, but I couldn't offer Celestia any further details. I couldn’t tell her about what I could do, to what extent I could do those things, and what kind of potential I really did have… 'This is the extent of our relationship.' I maintained a pretty close relationship with Celestia and somehow got married, but even so, we didn't cross any lines.

Yes, I would admit that…I was captivated by Celestia. Even though she was literally a bomb-like woman who possessed all the factors I hated, Celestia caught my attention with her star-like qualities. It was as if she descended from heaven. Perhaps I, who was drunk on the Status of God, had turned the tables for her because my true feelings were revealed like a drunk man who finally acted on his inner feelings.

"Hmmm... I see." Celestia had a strange look on her face, as if she read my thoughts. It was a strange expression that was hard to describe, like she was happy and disappointed at the same time. Regardless of the look on her face, I left her alone and walked into the villa.

Whoooosh-- Activating the function that was installed in the villa, my wet body quickly dried up. I placed my hand on the wall located on one side of the living room, and the refrigerator opened up in an instant. I got myself a cool drink before asking, "Do you want something to drink?"

"…Blue Star."

"Hmm? Isn't that alcohol?"

"I can drink alcohol if I want to. How old do you think I am?" As Celestia gave that response, I laughed at the sight of her squinting her eyes. I reached my hand out to the wall again, opening the refrigerator to grab a bottle of blue liquid. The control persona who managed the villa passed us the drink we wanted.

Glug glug glug! Celestia snatched the bottle I handed over and downed the alcohol. The fact that she was holding onto a bottle that cost as much as a decent house was probably not an important matter right now.

"You're going to be out of breath." I laughed and drank the fruit juice I had chosen.

Before I knew it, Celestia had drank nearly half the bottle of Blue Star and stared at me with a calm expression. "Do you know about my mother?"

"Just vaguely. I don't know the exact details." In the opened door state, I grasped everything about her with my information control ability, which was similar to the All-Knowing ability. However, all that knowledge and information would disappear like grains of sand falling through the gaps of my fingers when the door closed once again. Hence, there wasn’t much information left in my “hands.” After all, although the power of God was mighty, the human brain could only absorb an extremely limited amount of information.

The experience was like a dream. Upon waking up in the morning, it was possible to remember the dreams you had the day before, but only the image of it would generally remain. For example, if it was a nightmare such as being chased by something, eating something delicious, a sudden appearance of a pretty woman, it would all remain in mere vague memory. In a similar way, my current situation made me uncertain of my fragmentary memories. I couldn’t even remember all the shapes of the buildings I saw.

Therefore, I could have given the coordinators some important information, but I did not have a full grasp of the whole situation. It was then necessary for me to listen to their explanations while I was in my current state, simply in order to know the exact circumstances.

"You know that I don't have any background, right?"

"To be exact, I heard that you didn't have a household," I responded.

"Well, that's the same thing." Celestia was smirking and, just like she said, she didn’t have anything like a household. This was because her biological mother was a kind of prostitute who served the former Emperor at a price. "The public knew her as a commoner woman. My father, who went out for a while, fell into a forbidden love with a woman who worked in a flower shop... That was how it was advertised."

In other words, to the citizens of the Empire, Celestia's mother was an ordinary woman who was neither a royal nor a noble. However, to the other royals and nobles, her mother was a prostitute who sold her body for a price.

"But it's not like that?"

"Of course. Think about it. Why would my father, who was the Crown Prince at that time, take up the political pressure of getting involved with a prostitute? The better choice would have been to choose between a maid-of-honor or a noblewoman from one of the noble households, and bring her to his bedroom."

This was baffling to me, discovering the ‘fact’ that Celestia’s mother status as a prostitute was not true, even though this was the secret being kept between only the royals and nobles. It seemed that Celestia's mother had an identity that couldn't be disclosed to the public, so she hid the truth twice over.

"Then who was she?"

"A genetically-modified battle life form. So, if I had to explain it in words... She was a Chimera.” Celestia finally revealed that her mother was one of the experiments made for the sake of creating the Shadow Corps, a military force operating directly under the Imperial family. Her mother was created by mixing various superior and transcendental species such as the Noblesse, and even the genes of the demi-humans. Her mother was an existence that was completed through a subsequent rigorous training process.

However, the problem was that her mother was a failure. She added, "Compared to the other Chimeras, my mother had an inferior performance. She couldn’t properly speak the language, and her fighting capabilities were half of what the others could do. Furthermore, even her intelligence was low. She was a scrap product that couldn't even be used as a servant."

“Isn't it normal for her to be discarded, then? Did security issues prevent that from happening?”

"That's the normal thing to do, but... It didn't turn out that way. My mother was very beautiful." Celestia revealed that her mother’s beauty led her to being used for another purpose in the Imperial family. All she had was a beautiful appearance, so whatever happened next seemed to be the natural course of action. It was during this period that Celestia's mother was known as a prostitute to the royals and nobles.

"Then the former Emperor too?"

"No, he didn't do the same. My father, who had generally believed in abstinence, looked at my mother with disgust. He couldn’t stand the fact that she was being used by the royals to satisfy their urges. The problem came up one day, when my mother was being used like that...because Cheong Won appeared before her."

The Keeper of the Bloodline, Jwa Ja, had momentarily stopped by the Imperial Castle because he had some matters to attend to. However, he noticed that some sort of mutated factor had formed inside Celestia’s mother. He was able to figure out that she was not a failure, but a being that possessed a very unique potential.

"I see. Jwa Ja approached Angelos III and forced him to marry her, even though he was unwilling to do so,” I speculated. Cheong Won was the Keeper of the Bloodline of the Leonhardt's Imperial family, so I heard that not even the Imperial family could recklessly ignore his opinion. Also, this particular matter involved the descendents of the Imperial family, which was the very aspect he supervised.

However, Celestia shook her head and said, “If… If that had taken place instead, it would have been a great relief.”

"Then?"

"It's the other way around. All the Princes competed to take possession of her."

"…Because she was a valuable existence who could carry on the Godly bloodline?”

"That's right." Celestia nodded.

As long as Leonhardt, the First Emperor, was dead, the fall of the Imperial family could be anticipated. What made the royals special was the fact that they could carry on the Godly bloodline, which was precisely the problem.

"The Godly bloodline cannot be passed down with just anyone. It was hard to see the future ahead, and even if one were to succeed in seeing the future affairs, it would gradually become more and more vague... Follow me." Celestia drank whatever remained of the Blue Star and moved to a room that was on one corner of the villa. I obediently followed behind her. Wiiiiingggg--- Chiiikingggg! As she operated the wall that was on one side, the floor opened up and revealed a set of stairs. At the end of the stairs was a Magic Circle that was shining in a blue hue.

"What is this?"

"It's a place that the royals would definitely know. It's my first time here, actually."

Wooooom! As we stood on the Magic Circle, the background changed abruptly. Before I knew it, Celestia and I were teleported to the middle of a flower garden that was glowing in a golden light.

"…This is pretty cool,” I said and looked around. Everything was shining in a golden light here. Golden flowers were blooming everywhere, as if they were woven from golden threads.

"You know what these are, right?"

"Of course." I smiled at Celestia's question. That's right. These golden roses were familiar to me, because it was the flower that Celestia had given to me upon her proposal of marriage. The only difference back then was that I only received a few stalks of roses, while I was now surrounded by tens of thousands of stalks here. "Is it the Golden Rose of Detalt?"

"That's correct," Celestia answered calmly and headed to the middle of the flower garden. There was a huge throne that was occupied by a dazzling blonde-haired man. With his hands on his chin and a flattering hairstyle of long golden hair, he was a man that felt like the sun. Even though the man seemed asleep with both eyes tightly shut, I could clearly feel his presence. He looked like a masterpiece sculpted by a master. He was so beautiful that I unknowingly stared at him for a long time.

"To be honest, I was surprised that the Dukes asked us to come here. This place is a very meaningful place for the Leonhardt Imperial family,” Celestia commented.

While she spoke, I continued looking at the seated man on the throne. He was a man who exuded a tremendous presence, but remained unmoving despite our arrival. "Is he the First Emperor?"

"That's right. He's the First Emperor, as well as a being called the Lightking. He's the beginning of all the myths and tragedies... Huh?" Celestia, who was giving an explanation with an exaggerated look of an opera singer, stopped talking. I also froze. She asked, "Just now... Didn't he move?"

"...He moved." With a look of disbelief, I looked at Leonhardt, who had his eyes closed. It was then…

Flashhh! Emperor Leonhardt suddenly opened his eyes wide. However, this unexpected event was not as happy as an Emperor who awoke from his slumber. Kkiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkk-------! Along with the horrendous groan, Emperor Leonhardt's head turned towards us with a flash. His jet-black eyes, which seemed dyed pitch-black by ink, were staring at us with a ferocious Aura.