Chapter 14. Is she sacrificed?
***
It happened so fast, Trisha didn't know what happened next. All she remembered was that she was deafened by screams coming from all directions. She herself didn't even have time to scream.
The next thing she knew, the wolf had bitten her and was running up the mountain. She felt like she was going to be swallowed in one bite by its huge mouth, and she thought she would lose consciousness again.
Will I live?
Maybe... If it wasn't going to bring back to its lair and eat her alive.
She realized that the lamu god was biting her firmly between its sharp teeth, but carefully, without bruising her. She was terrified, but she could only cling to a thin thread of hope and beg.
Please.
Please don't kill me.
She had to stay alive. If she died, Aaron would die. She couldn't die like this, she prayed and prayed and prayed.
Lamu.
She had heard that it wouldn’t appear in front of people very often, but why now?
When she saw it in person, she realized that the painting wasn't exaggerated, but rather downsized. It wasn't bigger than ten soldiers put together, it was bigger than ten big bears put together. It was just a small mountain peak, and it was huge.
She couldn't help but be afraid of what was going to happen to her. The snow flurries whizzing past at a terrifying speed made her heart race, but she gritted her teeth to keep her wits about her.
****
The place where the altar was located was in shambles.
The Princesses’s companions bumped, slipped, and fell, injuring themselves as they fled. It was like a great storm had swept through.
The high priest and others gathered here stared in disbelief at the place where Lamu had disappeared. Everyone was stunned that Lamu had bitten the princess of Izef and disappeared in an instant.
"Strange. This has never happened before.”
Everyone was thinking the same thing. It was strange that Lamu appeared in front of the crowd in broad daylight, but to bite someone was unheard of, so the shock was beyond imagination. They were confused as to how to interpret it and how to handle it.
Kalos was also shocked.
Lamu god rarely appeared in public. It had never directly harmed people unless it was in an emergency to protect the current king. It was their god, so it didn't make sense.
The most puzzling thing was….
The Lamu God didn't hesitate in the midst of all these people and charged straight for the Princess of Isef. As if it had already set its sights on her.
Why?
It couldn't possibly know the Princess of Izef, and even if it did, why would it show up like this, as if it had been waiting for her, and take her for some reason.
The more he thought about it, the more tangled and complicated it became.
Kalos cast his gaze to the boars he had stacked for the god Lamu. They were still there.
After the original sacrifice, everyone retreated, and at night, the Ramu god ate these boars. He had never seen it himself. It was just a procedure passed down from generation to generation.
But this time, instead of those boars, it bit a maiden. He had never heard of the Lamu God eating people, but he had been concerned about the strange sound of its cries lately.
Something had happened to Lamu, and the princess had been the offering.
Was she dead, or did it kill her, or what happened to her?
In the midst of his confusion, his concern for her prevailed.
It would be more accurate to say that he hoped she was still alive rather than pitying her for being sacrificed. Even though she was the daughter of the enemy, it would be normal not to want her to die like this. So it's normal to worry about her.
Someone was sobbing, a young maid who had followed the princess. She was terrified and trembling, calling out for her master.
The maid's cries were falling heavily on this mess.
***
It was noisy again today.
It had been three days since the princess of Izef was sacrificed.
The maids of Izef were crying out for her body. At the altar, the maids who hadn't even followed them clamored for more.
"Yes. Queen Catherine will not stand for the loss of her daughter, so I will not report her dead without hard evidence. Queen Catherine will want hard evidence, and she'll go on a rampage over it.”
That would be enough incentive to rebel against Kalos. So the maids want to be sure the princess was dead before they report it. They wouldn’t bat an eye at the idea of rebellion.
The castle has been turned upside down since the day the princess was taken from the altar. This was also troubling, as the princess was already believed to be dead and fear of Lamu was spreading rapidly.
This fear of the gods was something that unsettled the position of royalty, especially a ruling king.
"Your Majesty, there is nothing we can do about it now."
Dalton, the treasurer, whose mind worked faster than anyone else's, was at a loss for a quick solution. Who else could come up with a solution in this situation?
Right now, several ministers were gathered in the king’s office to discuss the situation.
"I understand your request to find the body of the princess, but it's not something we can do when no one knows where the god Lamu is hiding."
"Even if we did know, we wouldn't dare to go near the Lamu."
"That's right, we'll just have to wait it out."
Just wait for it to pass. To wait for her to be sacrificed and forgotten by everyone.
"It is more urgent that we allay the fears of the god Lamu."
Everyone agreed. It was unfortunate that a princess from another country had been sacrificed, but the stability of their own country came first. The ministers put their heads together and began to discuss a solution.
They were all right. It was the right thing to do.
But Kalos had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind.
The mood in the castle had settled heavily, and he couldn't help but notice that it had become somber for a while.
The meeting was adjourned, and he was left alone with his thoughts. Even more disturbing was the empty feeling of the courtyard he now looked down upon.
The princess had come out of nowhere. The sight of her in the corner of his eye was so disturbing.
He had ordered the priest to perform a ritual to honor her soul tomorrow, so that was the end of the matter.
As Kalos slowly turned away from the window, he couldn't help but feel unhappy.
***
The next morning.
For the first time in days, there was a line of people heading to the altar. At the head of the line, soldiers and escorted knights checked the icy roads.
The overnight snowfall had made the road slippery, and there was more snow on the mountain.
As the men moved up, he could see the vibrations knocking snowballs off the trees and rocks and onto the sides of the crest. More snow had accumulated overnight than on any other day. It was impossible to survive even a single day in a place like this.
Kalos's heart was still heavy as he walked with Victor and the others up the path to the altar. He had seen many soldiers sacrificed and killed in the wars, so this heaviness was not because the princess had been sacrificed, but because she had been sacrificed to the god Ramu.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Suddenly, an urgent voice came from ahead.
One of the escort knights who had arrived at the altar earlier was running down, calling urgently for Kalos.
It was strange, then, that the line of soldiers had stopped in their tracks. Something had happened up there.
"What's going on?"
The knight who had come running up the hill stuttered, as if startled by something.
"There... Up there... that Princess ...."
That was all Kalos needed to hear.
The princess? Up there? Alive or dead?
He had to see for himself. He sprinted past the line of soldiers, his white breath flowing from between his lips.
Ah!
Oh, no.
When he finally reached the top of the altar, Kalos couldn't believe his eyes.
There, beyond the altar, just below the cliff, was the Princess.
There she stood. He blinked several times and looked again, but there she was.
It was the Princess of Izef.
She was alive.
She stood as still as if nothing had happened. There, in the recesses of the cliff, she stood, unmoving, staring at him.
He had to go check it out. See if she's really the princess, or if she's just standing there for some reason.
Kalos pushed past the gathered soldiers and began to creep toward her.
How she's here, what's been going on? There were so many questions he wanted to ask once he was sure she was real.
But when he was almost to her.
Rumble.
Suddenly, above his head, he heard the sound of danger, and in an instant, huge snowballs began tumbling down the cliff. An avalanche.
Your Majesty!
Above the urgent cries of the High priest and the knights, Kalos instinctively launched himself toward the princess.
***
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