Chapter 31: Chapter 30: The Passage of Time – Interlude 3; Fighting Against the Force of Fate Part 2
** Roe Scheherazade POV **
During my childhood, I had a very happy life and a wonderful family even though I never met my mother since she died giving birth to me, but I had a wonderful father who made up for it and despite being very busy with his royal duties, he always had time for my brother and me. I also had my aunt Lumia who was a mother figure to me.
Then there was my older brother Austin Scheherazade, his best friend Kamil Rossi, and his twin sister Leya Rossi from the noble Rossi family whose parents, uncle Andres and aunt Lumia, were very close friends with my dad. Austin, Kamil, and Leya were 10 years older than me and therefore spoiled me a lot as their younger sister.
Our families were so close that our parents decided to unite them through marriage. My brother Austin was engaged to the eldest daughter of the Rossi house, Leya Rossi, Kamil's older twin sister. In this way, our families joined when they married and my family expanded.
Kamil and Leya, like Austin, were always my older siblings. Being the youngest of the group, they pampered and took great care of me. During that period of time I was very happy, no, not just me, all of us were.
But our happiness came to an end shortly after I turned 15 years old. That year we received terrible news, the empire to which our kingdom was subordinate along with several other kingdoms, fell to an alien invasion. The most devastating thing is that the Supreme Deity whom everyone in Paradise venerates as our god was defeated by the deity of the invading alien army. The kingdoms were filled with fear and our kingdom was no exception. The empire and the Supreme Deity were the most powerful forces in our world, if they were defeated, then the future of our kingdoms would be no different from their fate.
When we thought all was lost, hope appeared, the Seven Deities forgotten by history, the Seven Goddesses not worshipped corresponding to the Seven Sins that were born with the birth of our world; Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia.
They made themselves present and offered us their blessing and protection in exchange for venerating them, and thanks to this we were able to glimpse a ray of hope.
The kingdoms agreed to venerate the forgotten deities and in return, they gave their Oath to each member of the royal families, a powerful artifact with the power to grant a divine wish. They also summoned forces from another world to help us fight against the alien invasion, the Earthlings as they call themselves, humans from another world who with the blessings of the deities began to rise in power at a tremendous rate, and we could see hope when we only had despair.
With the Earthlings on our side, the kingdoms could not stand idly by, the kings of the other kingdoms including my father took the initiative and united their armies to march and fight together with any force that still survived from the empire and tried to repel the invasion.
It was all in vain. Many allied armies fell in the war, two kings also, my father and the king of Eva were the unfortunate ones.
The survivors returned defeated and with their spirits at their lowest point. My Scheherazade kingdom was in mourning for the death of my father and a large part of the army. The head of the Rossi family, uncle Andres Rossi, the father of Kamil and Leya, also died.
How I wished I could use my Royal Oath to revive my father, but one of the many restrictions of the Oaths is that they cannot be used to revive a person who has been granted one, so members of the royal families cannot use their Royal Oaths to revive each other.
Kamil assumed the role of head of the noble Rossi house and my brother Austin assumed the position of King of Scheherazade, and Leya, his wife, assumed the position of queen.
A few months later, Kamil and Leya's mother, aunt Lumia, died, which was a hard blow for everyone because since both families were almost one, she was the closest thing to a maternal figure I had and was like a second mother to my brother Austin, and not to mention for Kamil and Leya to whom she was their mother, she died of depression from the death of her husband, uncle Andres.
I offered to use my Royal Oath to revive aunt Lumia, she is not part of the royal family and I know the Royal Oath would work, but Leya told me we should not be selfish, the Oaths were the promise of the gods and they had tremendous power and were given to us with the trust that we would use them for the good of Paradise and not our selfishness. We are nobility and royalty and our duty is to serve the kingdom and Paradise.
My brother Austin also scolded me and told me that both dad and uncle Andres gave their lives to defend the kingdom and that if we use the Royal Oaths for selfish reasons we would only tarnish their memories. Aunt died of sadness, and reviving her would not change that, she would continue to be sad about uncle's death.
That day I locked myself in my room angry, I could not understand why they scolded me, all I wanted was for our family to be as it was before. If we could not use them on dad because of the restrictions, at least uncle Andres and aunt Lumia could be revived, but even Leya and Kamil who were their children did not agree.
So two years passed, two years that helped to calm the pain and close the wounds a little. During this time, our forces recovered a little and the Earthlings who kept arriving also grew in numbers and gained strength and joined in groups.
One of the Earthling groups that began to gain fame and influence was called Sinyoung. Its leader, Yun Seojin is quite an old but very active gentleman and has made a great effort to establish a good relationship with our family. His group has accepted many orders and tasks from my brother and thanks to that, gained quite a bit of influence.
A few months later we were victims of a new attack by the aliens who we now know are called Parasites. They again moved their armies and pointed their weapons in our direction. My older brother Austin and Kamil went to war along with the other kingdoms and the Earthlings, the battle was fierce and lasted several months.
Unlike the first encounter where the casualties were nearing a hundred percent and where our armies lost miserably, this time it was not the case and in fact our armies managed to push back the Parasite army. But not everything was due to our power, but by a new group that also rose to fight against the Parasites, the Federation, a new group formed by the alliance of beast men, fairies, dwarves, and a new alien race called fallen angels.
Thanks to the intervention of the Federation and the united armies of the human kingdoms, we were able to repel the attack, but there were still casualties and among them my brother Austin was one of them.
When Kamil returned badly wounded with the news, it was too hard a blow for Leya and me. While Kamil was recovering from his injuries, Leya had to bear the entire burden of the kingdom on her shoulders, as she was the queen and the head of the Rossi family since Kamil was not in a condition to fulfill his duties. I joined in and helped with everything I could to alleviate the workload, but it was difficult.
Leya was not eating or resting properly, working day and night. At first, I thought she did it to distract herself and forget the pain like me, but then I realized that was not it; she was stronger than me and said that if my father, her father, and Austin gave their lives for the kingdom, she would too.
She exhausted all her strength stabilizing the kingdom and moving it forward, but the effort was not without cost. The long days of work and poor nutrition reduced her health, and she fell ill. We called the best priests of the kingdom to heal her, but they could do nothing. I wanted to use my Royal Oath to heal her because she used hers to solve the kingdom's cultivation problems, but she refused, saying the Royal Oath should be used in a time of crisis for the kingdom and not for a selfish reason.
I told her that she was necessary for the kingdom, that it was not a selfish reason, but she told me that the kingdom was already stable, that it no longer needed her, and while we worked together, I had done a good job. With the kingdom stable, I could manage it, and I had to save my Oath for a true moment of crisis.
Once again, I felt powerless and angry. I could not help but wonder many times why my family could not be more selfish? Why did they give everything for the kingdom? Why did they leave me alone?
A few months later, Kamil finally recovered from his injuries. We were the only ones left of our families.
I was forced to assume the position of Queen of Scheherazade, and thanks to Leya's efforts, the kingdom was stable and easy to manage. So, I was in power for two years. When my 19th birthday arrived, the royal family's advisors were pressuring me to marry, that it was my duty as the last member of the royalty to find a partner and ensure offspring so that the royal family would not end.
I really did not want to, even though since my youth I was taught that someday I would have to marry for the benefit of the kingdom in a political marriage, it was always my dream to meet a knight in shining armor who would steal me from my family and take me on his horse to the forest where we would live happily ever after like in the stories aunt Lumia used to tell me.
It is a pity that they were just that, stories, fantasy tales that only serve to put children to sleep, reality can be crueler than we imagine. In just four years, I went from being a young girl who dreams of children's tales to a woman who lost almost her entire family and is forced to face the responsibilities of her position.
But by the irony of life, while I was telling my problems to brother Kamil, I realized he was also suffering from the same fate, as the last member of his noble house and being much older than me, they are forcing him to marry too. But unlike me, his problems are different, he does have a woman he loves, but she is from a common family, so his family advisors do not want to recognize her.
So an idea occurred to me, I remember reading it in a novel, where two noble friends pretend to marry to evade their family responsibilities and secretly have their true partners who are of common origin, thus deceiving the world while fulfilling their dreams. I know it was just another fantasy story and reality is not that simple. But I could not dismiss the allure of the idea.
So I suggested the idea to brother Kamil, and he said it would not be fair to me, that he is a man and that being the case, he could take his beloved as a concubine, but in my case, when I fall in love with someone, I could only keep it a secret, and that was if any man would accept a married woman.
That is the world we live in, where men can have wives and concubines, but women cannot. And if they do, they are seen as the lowest class of harlots.
But I told him that I prefer to pretend to be married to him even if I am alone all my life, rather than being forced to marry a stranger whom I do not love. And to ensure the issue of heirs, that the first of his children with his girlfriend be the heir to the Rossi house, while the second of his children with his girlfriend we would pretend is mine so that he can be named the heir to the throne.
In the end, Kamil agreed and with that, we announced our engagement in the coming months.
A few months after announcing our engagement, an Earthling came to visit the palace; he is one of the few Earthlings who are very well-known and respected by us Paradisiacs. He is Jang Maldong, an Earthling of very advanced age but who has an experience for teaching and training others like no one else. He took on the role of reinforcing the training styles of the armies of several kingdoms including mine, which greatly strengthened our soldiers and what earned him even more of our respect is that he never asked for any compensation for his help unlike most Earthlings.
I received him in a personal audience and was surprised by the reason for his visit. Apparently, he was leaving me a letter on behalf of the Seven Goddesses of Paradise. After he handed me the letter he withdrew saying that with that he completed his mission, when I wanted to give him compensation for spending his valuable time on such a humble mission as delivering a message, he told me it was not necessary, that he did it to help and that if that letter really helped in some way that was his true compensation.
Thanks to Earthlings like Mr. Jang, we Paradisiacs tolerate the others who are only moved by greed, because we know that not everyone is like that.
I could only thank him and say goodbye, then my attention fell on the letter in my hands, it is duly sealed by the power of the deities and the seal was only broken when I passed the Royal Oath over it showing its authenticity.
At that moment I never imagined that that letter would be the one that would open the way to fulfill my fairy tale dreams, but that would only happen a few years later.
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