PRKE 41

CHAPTER 41……………………………

In the painting he pointed to, humans of similar size were facing each other.

“Do you think the blue group and the red group are different tribes?”

“Yes. Is the concept of ‘tribe’ strange for Liorsa, since it’s one nation?”

I nodded.

“An empire is a country made up of various desert tribes. Each has its own symbol—eagle, wolf, scorpion—but there’s one thing they have in common.”

“The sun and fire.”

“Exactly. The desert believes in the sun and fire, just like your kingdom believes in water.”

“Then…”

I looked at the notebook’s drawing again.

“So, the blue humans would be the kingdom, and the red humans could be seen as ancient humans of the empire.”

It seemed the kingdom and empire had a bad relationship even in the past.

I pointed to another drawing.

“What about this large circle enclosing people above?”

The people inside the circle weren’t facing off, nor were they in attack stances. On the contrary, their mingling seemed peaceful.

Red humans turning their backs to the grasslands. Rain falling on vegetation. Blue humans joyfully receiving the rain. Waterdrop tattoos appearing across their bodies.

The drawing itself was simple, but its meaning was not easy to understand.

Silence filled the room, as no one spoke.

“This is strange.”

It wasn’t until quite some time later that Giovanni tilted his head.

“What’s strange?”

“The royal family of Liorsa calls the desert a cursed land.”

A land where life cannot take root.

That the desert was cursed was a widely accepted fact in Liorsa.

It wasn’t without reason that they looked down on the empire’s people as barbarians.

“Because survival is difficult.”

“That’s not the only reason.”

“Pardon?”

“They say it’s because it’s a place where sinners reside.”

“Sinners?”

“The desert wasn’t always so barren. Long ago, there were vast grasslands.”

“A theologian from the kingdom said something similar. Even if not as vast as the kingdom’s lands, the desert was once green too.”

“Yes. Shamans said we suffer trials because we are sinners. They didn’t specify what sin exactly.”

He gazed at the painting, his eyes heavy with thought.

“What if they were punished by water for the sin of harming a god?”

Giovanni’s low words sent chills down my spine. I reflexively looked at the drawing.

A clear scene of cannibalism.

“Could it be that this painting means…”

Giovanni chuckled lightly, a trace of emptiness in his expression.

“Could it be that our land really was cursed?”

Back in my room, I opened the notebook, putting off other tasks.

“This drawing could mean that?”

The red human in the painting caught my eye. The more I looked, the stranger it felt.

‘The mythic age was over a thousand years ago. No one remembers that era, so everything is speculation.’

No one knew the truth. Perhaps only the emotions persisted, unforgotten.

I shivered at the thought of kingdom people despising the empire as barbarians.

‘Honestly, it’s terrifying.’

A people who devoured a god…

Still, I didn’t regret working with Giovanni. Then or now, this was my best choice.

I tried to calm myself and turned the pages of the notebook. My hand froze on the last drawing.

A man stood in the rain with his hand raised. It seemed he was summoning rain like the current priests of Liorsa.

Giovanni passed over it without comment, but I was stunned.

A human who could call the rain—but looking closely, the rain’s flow was strange.

The raindrops curved unnaturally.

“He’s not summoning rain. He’s absorbing it.”

Saying it aloud made me certain.

Someone with abilities like mine existed in the mythic age.

I had heard that the blessings over Liorsa were not lost, but inherited eternally.

Even now, the priests of Liorsa had inherited that power.

‘That power came from the gods.’

Then what happened to the god devoured by the desert people?

Was it gone after blessing the people of water?

‘Something’s off. It doesn’t add up.’

I felt the same unease I had during my conversation with Giovanni.

‘Why don’t the theologians reveal this?’

The murals visible to ordinary people today show only peaceful mythic-era scenes.

From the reactions of Hubert and other theologians, they didn’t seem to consider these newly discovered murals special.

‘Afraid it will confuse people?’

I couldn’t find the answer, but one thing was clear.

The mythology taught to kingdom children, and the history I remembered, never mentioned a god being devoured.

<In ancient times, when humans lived alongside gods,

ordinary people could speak to gods and request rain directly.

The gods, pleased by humans’ closeness and devotion, generously bestowed water. As a result, the land became moist, and the seeds of life sprouted.

In time, the gods returned to their own realm, leaving humans with the gift of a fertile land blessed by the gods…

《Learning Kingdom History Through Pictures》 Chapter 7: Mythic Age>

Soon, the temple excavation was completed, and Hubert returned. Seeing him relieved, I felt, for some reason, that the temple now held no murals.

It was the day Hubert would report on the Western Temple to the palace.

I watched the waiting carriage and tried to gather my thoughts.

Just before Hubert boarded, Aris approached him freely and kissed his cheek.

“Have a safe trip, Hubert.”

Her cheeks flushed like a fairy.

When Hubert gently stroked her head, her blush deepened slightly.

Even seeing that, I had no particular thoughts.

Then I felt eyes on me and blinked. Hubert was watching.

“Take care.”

“I will, Ig. Keep the house well while I’m gone.”

He kissed my cheek.

Aris immediately pouted. Normally, I might tease her by pretending to be close to Hubert, but today, my mind was too tangled to bother.

Soon, the carriage with Hubert began to roll down the road.

In the king’s private office, Hubert met the king alone as a representative of the theologians involved in the excavation.

“Well done, Count. Was there any trouble during the work? Any rebels causing problems again?”

In Liorsa, where gods are closely tied to daily life, religious matters were sensitive, so Hubert often met the king privately.

Noticing the king’s irritation at the mention of rebels, Hubert chose his words carefully.

“None, Your Majesty.”

“Good. Any requests?”

“There was a request to open another previously unopened temple.”

“Absolutely not. People spout heretical claims like ‘there is no true god’ or ‘the history books must be corrected.’ And theologians say heretical things too, tsk tsk.”

The king clicked his tongue sharply.

“What if they make trouble after seeing the murals? Nothing inside has been leaked, right?”

Hubert nodded at the sharp gaze.

“All those who entered this temple were our people. The murals were already copied and then destroyed.”

“Good. Finish it cleanly. Move anything sensitive to the records archive.”

The royal records archive stored sacred objects and sensitive documents found in temples, and no one could enter without the king’s permission.

“Understood.”

Hubert Lorens was one of the few who could access the archive.

Clack, clack.

Even servants were barred from entry, so his footsteps echoed in the dusty, dark archive.

The Lorens family, with neither vast estates nor many businesses, was recognized in society due to the king’s favor.

Most believed it was the royal family’s reward for advancing and preserving the kingdom’s history and theology. They weren’t wrong.

Hubert’s noble title was now accompanied by the additional role of archive custodian.

He inspected the archive to ensure the records were well preserved.

Some had theologians’ annotations, but many were just stored, their meaning unknown. Even the interpreted ones couldn’t be verified.

These were tales from over a thousand years ago, from the mythic age. Even if misinterpreted, who could claim otherwise?

‘The empire is cursed. And the ancient humans who once lived with them were divided; that curse has not ended.’

His gaze landed on a wall to the right. A painting showed people screaming on land where water had dried and fish had died.

The suffering was vivid and chilling.

Though they had no marks or colors to indicate rank, Hubert and the other theologians were sure they were desert people.

His eyes moved to the bottom of the painting. Ancient characters were scrawled.

<The descendants of sun and fire will break the strong magic!>

The meaning of this phrase sparked debate among theologians. Most agreed that the “strong magic” referred to Liorsa’s water blessing, and the “descendants of sun and fire” were the empire’s people.

At one time, the fear that an imperial invasion would destroy everything dominated academia.

Fortunately—or unfortunately—imperial people had never caused problems in the kingdom. But they could not be completely trusted.

This was the first visit of a pure-blooded royal from the empire.

Cold contempt appeared in Hubert’s green eyes.

‘Barbarians expelled from the temple of water.’

Meanwhile, in the kingdom, some had inherited the gods’ power.

Priests.

Their presence was proof that the kingdom was a blessed land.

‘Our family has Aris. She isn’t officially on the family registry yet, but that’s not a big deal.’