"I can't resist temptation. That is my curse."
To be the future wife of the Grand Master of the Temple means a life of status, riches, and stability. It means you no longer have to pretend to be a boy, doing criminal acts to take care of your ailin...
Hoseok chewed the inside of his cheek as he thought about the question. The Grand Master waited, sipping hot tea as he formed his response.
"Y/N's not foolish," Hoseok finally replied. "It's true that she doesn't know scriptures as much as I had anticipated, but regardless, she has a different type of intelligence."
"In what way?"
The Grand Master's tea cup gently clicked against the table. Hoseok ran his finger a couple of times down his nose.
"She can see the darkness in people," he replied. "She... she sees darkness everywhere. Even in herself. And what's more interesting is that she seems to understand it."
His hand fell on top of the table. He tapped his fingers restlessly.
A woman who could see and understand darkness. Most likely because she was part of it. Submerged in it. Bound by it. That had to be the truth. He would have not dreamed of her arms bound by snakes if it were false.
In the back of his mind, he knew that this meant there were truths to her that would be hard for him to swallow; not because he was cleaner or more holy by any means, but because sooner or later, the truth would tarnish the image he had created of her. It would be difficult for him to let go of the way he saw her now.
But she would have the same issue when she found out that he was a half-blood.
"Do you wish to tell her before or after the wedding?" the Grand Master asked.
Hoseok raised his eyebrow in question. "Are you saying you approve of the marriage?"
The Grand Master took a long sip of her tea, staring deep into the cup with old eyes.
"You're sure that the Goddess has chosen her?" the Grand Master asked.
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"With every part of my being."
To his surprise, the Grand Master smiled.
"It's good to see you finally certain about something after the last year of spiritual tossing and turning you have done," she said. "I had feared that your faith was slipping."
Hoseok gave a long exhale, the weight of the large bird of his dreams still on his shoulders.
"I've lost faith only in myself," he replied.
"You were never supposed to believe in yourself. You are not a deity. You are simply supposed to find your weaknesses and fix them to the best of your abilities."
His fingers tapped restlessly again, filling up the silence.
"Can I really rule like this?" Hoseok asked quietly. "What if I end up like my father?"
The wrinkles around the Grand Master's eyes deepened at the mention of her son, the years of history and agony suddenly on her face.
"Not every half-blood becomes a monster," she said eventually. "Some soften their temptations, and grow into old age without the chaos of always giving in." She then sighed. "The problem is not your daemon, but your youth. Because you are young, your temptations are strong. It won't be until you suffer more consequences that the temptations will lessen."
