The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 162

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 9

“Rachel, remember this. You must steal everything and make it yours. You must not leave that bitch a way to survive, and you must not repeat the foolish mistakes that this mother made.”

Over the irritably muttered voice, her mother’s last words overlapped as she painfully gripped her wrist and scolded her.

“Remember this well, promise me you will never forget your mother’s words!”

Rachel’s mother was a shaman of the Shadeia tribe.

The goddess who descended upon the primordial continent needed a representative to convey her words to humans. So she chose one human, fed them her blood, and shared her omnipotence including prophecy and healing.

That human’s name was Shadeia.

The first ‘Saint’ that the Holy Kingdom seeks in mythology is merely an existence created in imitation of the primordial Shadeia.

Shadeia helped the goddess drive out the darkness and create a foundation for humans before closing her eyes.

And over several generations, her bloodline inherited the position of representative.

The representative was called by humans with the title ‘Shaman.’

The goddess’s blood, diluted over thousands of years, could no longer wield powerful omnipotence, but Shadeia continued the primordial bloodline nonetheless.

And when it reached the generation of Selene, Medeia’s mother, a revelation came to the shaman of that era.

[Venus has been covered by the mist of calamity. Only when the darkness bearing misfortune is driven away will complete light brightly illuminate the world.]

On the night when Venus’s orbit aligned with the Luminous Sanctuary as prophesied, the daughter of the current shaman gave birth to a child and left the world. The tribe named the child Selene and called her the ‘child of prophecy.’

Such Selene had a maid named Lilith. She was an orphan that the current shaman had taken in from the desert.

“To think she has the same age and birthday as our granddaughter. This must be a connection sent by the goddess.”

Lilith stayed by Selene’s side as a faithful maid and friend, and Selene also treated her like family.

However, she always had one question.

“I was also born in the Luminous Sanctuary, so why am I not the child of prophecy?”

The only difference between her and Selene, who shared the same age and birth time, was bloodline alone. The question soon became a desire and grew beyond control.

“Is it really… possible to defy prophecy?”

“My, the young maid doesn’t yet know the omnipotence of black magic. What do you think is the reason the goddess tried so hard to drive out the darkness? Because it’s powerful enough to make even gods fear it.”

To the extent that Lilith eventually sought out black mages and touched forbidden taboos she shouldn’t have.

“Trust us, we’ll make you the shaman of Shadeia.”

Finally, Lilith made her decision.

If prophecy didn’t choose her, she would seize it with her own hands.

“Sob sob, Lady Selene…! What should we do about this!”

She deceived Selene, carved black magic marks on her, and reported to the tribe that she had violated taboos.

“Black magic! Selene, how could you do this!”

In the cunning scheme, Selene had even her qualifications as a shaman questioned and was driven out of the tribe.

“The ‘child of prophecy’ wouldn’t dabble in something like black magic. Perhaps we misinterpreted the prophecy?”

“That girl who serves Selene also has the same birth time, could it be that the prophecy pointed not to Selene but…”

Thus Lilith succeeded in becoming the shaman of Shadeia.

But perhaps it was the goddess’s punishment for the tribe that failed to recognize the true representative. Consecutive disasters struck the Shadeia tribe.

Monster hordes attacked, and they were caught in floods and storms. The few who barely survived lost their lives to persecution by the Holy Kingdom.

Lilith, who was elevated to shaman in place of Selene, failed to foresee even one of these.

Eventually, the tribe was annihilated. Only then did they realize.

“Lilith is a fake! That’s why the goddess was angry!”

Fearing that her deeds would be discovered, Lilith abandoned the tribe and fled to the black mages.

And she learned.

That she had failed to steal even a bit of Selene’s fate.

“You know? Selene became the queen of Valdina.”

“What?”

Lilith despaired.

Her master, who received the damned goddess’s love, didn’t become miserable even after being driven from the tribe, but instead became more noble and happy.

Incomparably more so than Lilith, who had to wander underground following the black mages.

Lilith couldn’t bear it.

This wasn’t right. She had stolen her fate, so why was it unchanged?

Why was Selene still in bright light while she couldn’t escape this damp darkness?

“I should have killed her then…”

Only then did Lilith realize her mistake.

The reason she couldn’t manifest the goddess’s power despite obtaining the orbit that should have been Selene’s.

“I should have stolen that bitch’s life completely! Only then would Selene’s fate have become entirely mine!”

It was an eternal regret that she had focused only on becoming a shaman at the time and let Selene go.

Not long after, Selene lost her life to enemy forces.

But Lilith wasn’t happy at all.

Because Lilith, who failed to take her life directly, could no longer interfere with Selene’s fate.

“Don’t worry. There’s still a chance. The knot of causality you couldn’t complete can be shouldered by your daughter.”

This was an opportunity to achieve in her daughter’s generation the fate she could never grasp.

Selene and Lilith.

And their daughters, Medeia and Rachel.

In a life-and-death structure where one must steal or be stolen from, coexistence was impossible for either side.

“Rachel, don’t forget. To make that child’s orbit yours, you must steal everything—family, affection, achievements… everything. Even that child’s death!”

Until the moment she closed her eyes, Lilith entreated her daughter, hoping her daughter wouldn’t make the same foolish mistakes she did.

“Don’t worry, mother. I haven’t forgotten.”

Looking in the mirror, Rachel quietly murmured.

Hissss—

That’s when it happened.

The round pendant placed before her emitted heat. Rachel opened the pendant. The goddess’s sacred flame that should have been inside had turned black.

– Is the king still not done?

A rough metallic voice flowed from inside the pendant.

“Not yet. But the Agema are almost successful.”

Rachel answered. Her natural conversation with the pendant looked surprisingly familiar.

“I left marks, so once the brainwashing stabilizes, they’ll move as commanded.”

The holy power she had benevolently given to the knights was actually meant to leave black magic marks on them.

– Don’t carelessly expand the marks too much. You haven’t even approached the most important target, so don’t waste precious power.

Even at the news of successfully brainwashing the Agema, the voice from the pendant showed no joy. Instead, it urged Rachel not to overuse the fake holy power.

Brainwashing created with black magic was powerful but short-lived. It had the fatal flaw of weakening in effect if not periodically renewed.

This was why Rachel continued to hover around Peleus and the Agema even after arriving in Valdina.

– The Temple Knights will arrive soon. You’re not planning to leave empty-handed, are you? Do you know how many sacrifices it took to generate the wave?

Finally, Rachel couldn’t hold back and burst out in irritation.

“I know too. But what can I do when it’s not going my way?”

King Peleus of Valdina truly possessed sickeningly strong mental fortitude.

Even Diangel, the leader of the Royal Guard, had roughly fallen, but this ‘holy slaughterer’ gave absolutely no opening for black magic to penetrate him.

The king’s ice wall-like solid and towering guard never thinned.

Even though Rachel was the benefactor who saved his life.

‘Why on earth… this shouldn’t be happening…’

It was truly the first time that neither her salvation, good deeds, nor anything else worked.

Meanwhile, since arriving in Valdina, he wouldn’t even receive purification, so even attempts to leave marks were blocked.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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