A Not So Villainous Girl [UNDER REVISION - HIATUS]

Chapter 26: Called To The Palace (Part 2)

My eyes widened at the content of the silver box shown. On top of a velvety red pillow placed a diamond blue necklace along with two golden bracelets next to it.

The queen chuckled lightly at my reaction, "This is a part of our gift for you, dear saintess."

What was this for? A gift?  

Now one thing for sure that if I ask the queen what this enchanting looking necklace and bracelets were for, that would make me sound as if I was ungrateful. Not accepting a gift that was already prepared by the royal family would be very rude of me. But the way the color of the blue diamonds glittering under the bright light of the room, beautiful and graceful - one would be hypnotized to reach for the jewelries for a closer look to admire its beauty. 

However, this made me question the gift itself. The queen said this was a part of the gift for the saintess, does that mean there were other things to give to me in the future as well? The idea of gifting the saintess countless things before the ceremony of the purification ritual was even prepared, sends something loose in the thought process. 

Suspicious. 

I realized by now ever since the story of the previous saintess buried in my head, it wasn't able to let me follow everything freely as I thought it would be. Suspecting the royal family would be a big trouble for anyone yet there was an uncomfortable feeling inside my chest if I ever suspect the current royal family doing something of the similar to the previous saintess. By now I realized I was starting to have doubts. Is this right?

The queen reacted with amusement to my silence as I stared at the jewelries with a surprise on my face before she ordered the female servant to put the jewelries on me. 

"Please accept this generous gift, lady Saintess." The female servant whispered near me before she gently picked up the necklace in her hands before she turn to me and placed the jewelry around my neck. I didn't have the words or effort to retort in process because there was this lingering fear and discomfort of rejecting the gift. 

Now that the bracelets and the necklace was on me, I gave my gratitude to the royal family before me. "Thank you for your kindness, your majesties."

Both king and queen smiled in satisfaction and warm expressions at my words before the king started to speak again. 

"I'm afraid we can only give you this small offering for now. As the Dawn Era is coming closer in the passing days, I'm pointing the ceremony to be officially performed this week."

I nodded in understanding. Even though I thought the ceremony would take in at least a few months away, I didn't realize that I'd do it sooner.

"Overmorrow, Lady Frost will be performing the purification ritual for the ceremony along with the wizards and witches from the Royal Institution of Magic. Rest assured that the preparation for the ceremony will be taken care of. Sir Avery Lockwood will be guiding you through the process as well before the ritual starts. Please learn well for the ceremony."

I nodded as I gave my understanding. "Yes, your majesty."

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After the meet with the majesties, they guide to another room in the castle. For the preparation of the ceremony, I was told to meet Sir Lockwood to learn for the preparation process as well as meeting the rest of the witches and wizards who were participating in the upcoming ritual. 

I was a little bit surprised by the order of the king that I had to do the ceremony in the day after tomorrow. Even though the Dawn Era isn't as bad as the original game in the kingdom, but there were already so many people in the population impacted by this miasma spread in the edges of the kingdom. Especially in the South where the largest forest territory resided, many villagers near the area was heavily impacted by the miasma coming from there. So I understand why they told me to do the ceremony sooner. 

My mother held my hand throughout the entire walk in the hallways. Even though my parents' expressions were polite, I could see the worry in their eyes as they walked beside me in the castle. I recognised that they were very worried about me and how this ceremony was going to happen so soon and that they had no control over what would happen to me for the ceremony. There were little things that they could do to protect me as the saintess but they would do anything because I'm still their daughter. 

But it had to be done and I think they understand that. That is why they didn't say anything throughout this entire thing and that made me a little anxious since I can't do anything to really make them not worry about me. 

We all walked to a room that was near the library. As we enter the room altogether, there were already several members of the group as well as the familiar face of Sir Lockwood waiting inside the room as they were all seated around a large round table, waiting for my appearance. 

In a matter of seconds, everyone stood up from their seats. Watching me with the stillness in their eyes, recognizing the seriousness in everyone's faces - I prayed that I'd do this well. 

Sir Lockwood greeted my parents with polite gesture as my parents returned the greeting. Afterwards the old wizard shifted his eyes on to me, smiling as he greeted me. "Welcome, lady saintess."

"Sir Lockwood." I greeted back with a slight curt and nodded as a greeting to the rest of the members around the table. 

"It's good to see you, dear. Please, have a seat." 

As soon as my parents and I sat down on our respective places, the rest of the members in the room also sat down.