Grant Me Your Grace

Nevertheless, Dahlia kissed the statue of the goddess with reverence.

“Grant me grace.”

The greeting, which could only be addressed to a Nuit goddess, was a faithful vow to entrust my fate entirely to her.

After finishing her prayer, she began to walk slowly around the temple. The temple was only slightly larger than the Princess’s palace, so it wasn’t exactly a large place.

There was barely enough room for her to roam.

But it was a freedom Dahlia cherished.

Ever since her divine powers manifested, she had been strictly forbidden to have any contact with outsiders. As a result, she was confined to the Princess’s palace.

[The manifestation of her divine powers is a test from the Nuit Goddess for the nation of Bahran. For the sake of your brother, nay, for the sake of all the people of this land, this secret must be kept to the very end.]

The Emperor’s command stands as law.

Only since completing the ceremony at thirteen had I been allowed to travel to and from the temple on cloudless nights like today.

The sight of the vast expanse of the sky outside the stifling palace was enough to make Dahlia feel like she could breathe again.

It was an irony that the goddess’s divine powers could make life almost cursed, but only in her space could she find freedom.

“Meow—”

“Rayrion!”

Just then, the stray cat Rayrion appeared. White as cotton wool, she was an odd-eyed cat with a yellow left eye and a blue right eye.

Rayrion meowed and rubbed her head against Dahlia as if to ask why she hadn’t come to her before. Dahlia stroked the adorable feline affectionately.

“Have the priests been taking care of you? I’ve missed you so much, too, but everyone was at the temple so late that I couldn’t come. I’m sorry.”

Dahlia held out the treats she had packed ahead of time to Rayrion. Luckily, she ate the snack with gusto.

Dahlia watched as Rayrion devoured the snack in a frenzy, and then she spoke up.

“Rayrion, have you seen the gift of the gods? A beautiful man with red eyes. They say he is a gift from the goddess Nuit for the nation of Bahran. Isn’t it amazing?”

But Rayrion only licked Dahlia’s hand, as if checking for more treats. Dahlia petted it and smiled wistfully.

“You roam free here, so I’m sure you must have seen him once.”

“Nyeoww—”

“What kind of man is he, that godsend? If I could only meet him once…”

And that was then.

“Grrr!”

Suddenly, Rayrion puffed himself up with a vicious snarl. Then, startled by something, she scurried away.

“Uh, Rayrion!”

Panicked, Dahlia ran after him.

“What are you doing? Come back here!”

Plop, plop, plop—

Low footsteps cut through the silent night air. Startled, Dahlia reflexively lifted her robe and looked in the direction of the sound.

Black hair as lustrous as the desert night sky, white skin that glowed even in the darkness of the moonlit night, a body as firm yet lean as the work of a skilled mason.

And eyes that glowed like flames.

“Greetings, Your Highness.”

‘Hissin.’

The man, a gift from the gods, appeared before Dahlia.

His unexpected appearance caused her to stumble backward. Her hand came up reflexively, fumbling for the black silk veil.

It was an instinctive reaction to the fact that she was facing a stranger. It was forbidden by law in the Bahranian Empire to see a woman without the Emperor’s permission.

Since the manifestation of the divine power, anyone who saw the princess without the emperor’s permission was punished severely, regardless of the reason.

The punishments ranged from three generations in prison to exile from the country. They were to be punished for merely seeing her face up close.

The most severe punishment was beheading. The child was only eleven years old. For the crime of daring to kiss the hand of the Princess at her coming-of-age ceremony, Dahlia was plagued by nightmares for some time and refused to see even the courtiers. 

‘My very existence seemed to be a source of sin.’

Dahlia looked around quickly. Fortunately for her, no one else was in sight.

‘Let’s go back. I don’t want to cause a fuss.’

With that, she hastily turned onto her feet.

At that moment, the man called out to her once more.

“You have come to see me, Your Highness.”

His voice was like a heavy weight on her heart.

The voice stopped Dahlia in her tracks. She’d thought she’d misheard him earlier, but he’d called her ‘Your Highness’ just the same.

And ‘you’ve come’. It was as if he had known she was coming.

Squinting, Dahlia slowly turned around. The gift of the gods stared back at her with a gentle smile that resembled moonlight.

His beauty was so otherworldly that she could have sworn she was dreaming, and she stared at him, forgetting that she should run.

The gift of the gods that confronted her was indeed beautiful, to say the least. The harmonious face was on the border of a boy and a man, but the body was firm enough to fulfill the divine will.

His low voice was as powerful and sweet as the resonance of the heavens, and there was nothing in his gesture or gaze that was not noble.

But what exalted the gift of the gods above all else were the red eyes.

Redder than any gemstone in the world, they were so deep and clear that one could stare into them and be taken away.

Those eyes are the heart of a goddess.

Just when Dahlia thought she had let her guard down, the man took a step toward her. She took a reflexive step backward, and he halted again.

“I see you don’t want me to approach.”

The man raised his hands in a reassuring gesture.

Then he took a step back, indicating that he would not approach.

Just a step. The tension in her chest eased slightly at the slight distance.

Dahlia turned to him, her eyes as sharp as Rayrion’s.

“How… how do you know me?”

Her voice trembled slightly at the end. Then the godsend gave a gentle smile.

“Because I came here on the day of the coming-of-age ceremony of the one and only princess of the Empire of Bahran.”

Dahlia’s mind instantly recalled Maksru. The moment she’d locked eyes with him.

He had appeared in a blinding flash of light, and he had been staring right at her. As if he already knew who she was.

‘It can’t be…’

A vague sense of anticipation for the gods rose.

“Besides, here in Bahran, only royalty is allowed to wear a diamond.”

With a click, the diamond headpiece on Dahlia’s head emitted a clear sound.

He was right, only the imperial family could wear jewelry made of diamond in Bahran. It was believed that diamonds were a rare mineral and that the goddesses favored them.

Dahlia absentmindedly covered the glittering diamond on her forehead, then nodded in resignation.

“You’ve learned a lot in a short time.”

The man’s mouth curved a little wider.

“I’ve gotten to know everything about Bahran.”

Surely he meant to say that he’d learned about the customs and culture of the Bahran nation.

Perhaps it was the intensity of his gaze, but his words sounded strangely different to Dahlia.

As if saying that Dahlia was everything to Bahran.

“I greet you again.”

The godsend knelt on one knee and held out his right hand to Dahlia, placing it once on his chest and once on his forehead.

It was a subordinate’s greeting, precisely according to the imperial court etiquette of the Bahranian nation.

“Hissin.”

‘My soul and body belong to thee.’

“This is my name.”

The red eyes of Hissin, a gift from the gods, turned to Dahlia over his hand, and she swallowed hard as she met his searing, straight gaze.

The pain in her chest intensified as she met the man’s eyes.

Looking away first, Dahlia pressed down hard on her chest. Amidst the throbbing pain, she felt a strange sensation, as if a large stone had fallen on her chest.

Feeling discomfort, or maybe it’s the wariness that hasn’t dissipated.

‘Maybe… it’s reverence.’

The man before her was a gift from the goddess Nuit, sent to the nation of Bahran by the goddess herself, so it was only natural to feel overwhelmed and afraid.

She felt such a heavy twinge that doubting him seemed blasphemous.

“Won’t you accept?”

Dahlia realized in hindsight that she hadn’t yet returned his greeting.

Taking the hand that was offered to her, Dahlia touched it once to her forehead and once to her chest. This, too, was the greeting of a superior, according to imperial court etiquette.

“The Princess, I am Dahlia Bahran.”

‘I take you, soul and body.’