CH 52

It was around the end of the afternoon when the reception of the guests was over. However, soon after Terrence passed away, someone came to see her again.

Diane came to the temple to show her the finished design of the wedding dress. She rested in the bedroom for a while and then went back to the drawing room. As she entered the parlor, she saw Diane pressed close to the window.

She looked out as Diane ran to her window.

“Miss Diane? What are you doing there?”

For a moment, she hesitated to see what was happening outside the window.

“Ah, Princess.”

Diane turned to me with her welcome smile.

“I saw a cat by the window.”

“A cat?”

“It was a black cat, but it was outside the window and disappeared.”

At that, she approached the window and looked out. Outside the window, only a small snow-covered garden could be seen, but the cat was nowhere to be found.

“Is it the cat that lives in the temple?”

“Maybe.”

It’s such a large place, so it wouldn’t be strange to see one or two stray cats roaming around. She didn’t think people would care much if it didn’t enter the building.

“Oh right! I heard about things in the imperial palace. Are you okay?”

“As you can see, I am fine. Nothing happened to me.”

“I’m really glad you’re okay. Your mother was also very worried after hearing about the princess’s work.”

It seemed that the Duchess also sent Miss Diane to ask how she was doing.

“Your mother told me to deliver her gift to the princess.”

Diane pointed to a basket of flowers on the table. It was a basket filled with rare candies and snacks such as cookies and flowers.

“Tell him that things will work out, so don’t worry.”

She didn’t think it was necessary to go into detail, so she just explained it that way. Diane, noticing Eve’s discomfort, changed the subject to the dress.

“I have come to show you some designs of wedding dresses based on the drawings you made earlier.”

Then she showed her three sheets of paper with the shape and form of the dress drawn on them. She took the shape of the dress and drew lace and ruffles and other things around it, making it difficult to determine the exact shape. Without thinking, she looked around at the picture and answered.

“Everything looks fine to me. Please make Miss Diane look okay.”

Diane, who was flipping through her papers, recalled her words.

“Oh right. Have you ever heard of that?”

“Yes?”

“Princess Sorel and Prince Vilos had a big fight.”

“Is it so?”

“Yes, my father informed my mother in a letter.”

According to Diane’s story, Sorel had a big quarrel with Vilos over the execution of the captives.

“Because of that, Princess Sorel was placed on probation.”

“Sober?”

So, was she going to be locked up in the imperial palace like her? Diane nodded her head with a slightly worried look. She then whispered, lowering her voice as if she were telling a secret story.

“So I guess the two of them are in a bad mood right now.”

“I see.”

The quarrel between Sorel and Vilos was not surprising since it was in the original story. There’s no way Vilos, who has a bad temper like Eve, treated Sorel kindly as his sister. Besides, Sorel and Vilos were so different in their personalities that they disagreed on everything. In the first place, it happened after Sorel tried to stop Vilos from killing innocent people. Up to that point, it was identical to the original. However, there was one difference from the original. It is said that Sorel returned to the islam and became sober. The original Sorel stayed on the battlefield until this time. It’s the same fight with Vilos, but the Emperor didn’t put her on probation, but only gave Sorel a light reprimand not to fight her brother.

As an Emperor, it was natural. Sorel’s healing power was desperately needed on the battlefield. He couldn’t have punished her for a little quarrel between her brother and sister.

But now Sorel was returning to the Islands. While she was ordered to probate inside the imperial palace.

‘In the end, unlike the original story, Sorel ended up confined in the imperial palace because of me.’

As she moved to live, the original work was slightly twisted.

“Then are you staying here until the wedding?”

“I think so.”

Diane seemed to like that she was staying at the temple. It seemed like it’s comfortable because they could meet more easily than when she was in the imperial palace.

“I can see the Rastana Temple right here. It’s a holiday soon, and I think the night view will be great on that day.”

“Is that so?”

“On holidays, they hang full of lanterns here. Have you ever come to see it?”

“Yeah sure…”

Come to think of it, there was a scene like that in the original work. There was a scene where Eve makes a lantern for her and prays for love with the Grand Duke.

“I came to see you. There were times when I came to light a lamp.”

On the feast day of Rastana, the name of a loved one is written inside a flower-shaped lantern and brought to this temple. Like the brilliant light that illuminates the night sky, it was a wish for a beautiful love to come. If you already have a lover, you want their love to be beautiful forever.

“I have been here once before 2 years ago. I was in good shape then, just like now.”

Then it seemed that she couldn’t come because she was sick last year. She remembered clearly the wisdom she had seen in the Duke’s mansion. She had foreknowledge that in the spring of one year Diane would die. Of course, the future could change, so it was too early to give up hope. However, she had never seen a different future, even though she tried to see Diane’s new vision every time she met her.

“Shall we watch together this year?”

She made a cautious proposal, hiding her regret.

“Really?”

“Yes, I will be here anyway.”

All she had to do was invite her to come over for the evening, which Diane was delighted with.

“Maybe we can have dinner together and look at the lanterns. Because the temple is right there…”

That was when she said that. Suddenly, an unfamiliar light flashed in front of her eyes. What, what? A strange light shone from the purple necklace around her neck. She quickly untied the necklace and examined it. A brilliant light emanated from within the purple jewel. The light flashed for an instant, like sunlight reflecting off it, but disappeared the moment she touched it.

“Princess, what is that jewel?”

Diane, too, surprised by the twinkling light, she asked.

“I don’t know either. They say that Grand Duchesses have inherited it from generation to generation.”

Inside the amethyst-like purple jewel, there were still strange patterns vaguely engraved. She kept wearing it around her neck, wondering if it was a jewel with some special power. Nothing has happened so far, but when she came to the temple, strange changes continue to occur.

‘When I put this on and came to the temple, I felt something like a spark.’

She thought it was static electricity, but now she saw it’s not.

“Is it something magical?”

“Well.”

Could it be that there was something inside? She looked at the necklace with a sullen look. However, there was no change in the purple crystal, as if it had never been illuminated.

* * *

“Both of you did a good job packing things up.”

After Diane had gone, she called Nell and Chloe over at the end of the evening, and she said,

“Nell gets off early, and today, Chloe, let’s say you stand on watch.”

At night, one or two maids take turns sleeping near the hostess’s bedroom. When they were in the imperial palace, the ladies-in-waiting decided their turn, but since there were only Nell and Chloe here, the two took turns staying in the side room.

“Yes, Princess.”

After packing up, the three of them sat down to have dinner together. Grilled quail with sweet sauce, buttered salmon meuniere, parmentier with minced potatoes and meat. She thought that the food of the temple would be mainly vegetarian food, but it is more luxurious than she thought.

“This is a meal prepared specially for the princess by the chef of Daeshinjeon.”

The priestess who brought the food looked at her with a very nervous face. Then it was. There was no way he would eat this kind of food in a temple.

It must have been a meal that she prepared separately because she was worried that she would be disrespectful.

“It is really delicious. Thank you.”

The priestess let out a sigh of her relief and went outside. After she finished eating, she soaked herself in warm water and took a bath. Since this was a temple, the bathrooms were not as luxurious as those of the imperial palace, but they had their own assortment.

She took a bath in a juniper-wood bathtub and relieved her fatigue. After taking a bath, she was about to go outside when she saw a door next to her. There was a small door next to the passageway between the bathroom and the bedroom.

“What is this place?”

“It looks like a space used for storage.”

“Storage?”

She opened the door out of curiosity. A narrow rectangular room appeared. It was too narrow for people to enter and stay. Was it a space designed to store things or luggage?

She looked around and was about to close the door, but she saw a string hanging from the ceiling. When she looked up, there was a rectangular wooden board on the ceiling, with a thin rope hanging down in the middle. What was that? Why was there a string like that?