[Vol. 4] Bonus Chapter 96.1

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I was in Arashi's chamber and was making tea for him. He was wearing his glasses and was looking through a scroll. He looked so focused that he didn't answer when I called him to have tea.

"The tea is getting cold..." I said again as he looked up from his paper.

He asked, "Bianka, are you sure that you went inside the goddess's chamber by that secret passage you have mentioned?"

I nodded.

I clearly remembered that there was a door that opened by pressing the wall.

He had asked me the exact location and I told them everything I knew.

Arashi leant back, taking off his glasses and looked at distance as if he was thinking about something.

I slid the tea pot before him and he took it. He sipped on it and we heard a knock.

"Come inside, Hiroshi." Arashi said.

Hiroshi came inside and behind him entered, three others. They were all working under Hiroshi to search through the cave.

Apparently, Arashi had sent his men to search the whole cave again to see if they had missed any secret passages along the way.

"Yes, Hiroshi?" Arashi asked.

Hiroshi came forward and said, "My prince, I had sent one one hundred men to search each and every corners of the cave."

Arashi asked, "And?"

"There is no such passage, I'm afraid."

I looked at him with wide eyes as I intervened. "But there was! I was tired and I leant back and suddenly the wall went up!"

I added, "It was a secret passage directly toward that chamber!"

Hiroshi shook his head. "We have even pressed every walls but there wasn't anything like that."

One of the men from behind him said, "Yes and we even searched the womb of the cave where you had arrived. We wanted to make sure if there was any passage upward that we might haven't seen yet." He shook his head, "But there wasn't anything like that."

Another man added, "The whole womb was a treasure womb so the whole chamber was made to protect it so nothing can go outside or come inside of it. Even the ventilation system was made with careful measurements. I am afraid, a grown up woman or a man wouldn't fit there."

I was awestruck by their discovery as my gaze moved toward Arashi. I was confused but more than me, he was confused.

Arashi asked, "Then how did she enter?"

He added, "As your report says here, there were more than fifty traps to reach the goddess's chamber yet other than two or three, the rest were never activated."

Hiroshi nodded, "Yes, your Highness. Kairo and Hans's men destroyed them and they were the ones to arrive first there to activate the traps."

Arashi again went into his deep thoughts. "And you checked everything?"

Hiroshi nodded. "Every inch of it. It took us a week to search everything again but there was no extra passage."

It was a shock to me because I wasn't that forgetful nor my eyes had deceived me. I was tired but that wouldn't make me forget the way.

Hiroshi looked at me for a while then to Arashi and said, "May I say something weird?"

Arashi nodded.

"Do you think..." He was hesitant but said, "it was a work of the goddess herself?"

Arashi gave him a look. But I was a bit frozen in my place, my tea was getting cold.

"You think something supernatural happened?" Arashi asked.

Hiroshi shrugged. It was weird for a qualified and educated man like him telling it was a work of supernatural powers. But I felt a little shiver on my spine. Was it really the work of the goddess?

Would it be possible?

"But there are no explanation of how did she manage to get into the chamber..." Hiroshi said, "Out of curiosity, I went there to check myself but as they said, the chamber is protected by careful measurements from every side. It is impossible to enter unless from the doors of it."

Arashi's face changed to a grim one and even if he didn't want to believe, even he was quite for a while. The men who stood behind Hiroshi stiffened because right there we all felt a chill.

I looked at Arashi as he asked, "But how and why?"

Hiroshi said, "Maybe because...even the goddess didn't want anymore cruelty inside her home?"

And everyone looked at me as I blinked at them, my hands and feet frozen cold with the thought and my face pale.

I asked, my voice drying and shaking, "T—then, the cave certainly is alive...? An—and the goddess is a—alive there...?"

The atmosphere around us became cold and we all went dead silent. For a while we didn't say anything. Because there was no secret passage at all.

I gulped and asked as my whole body has started to shake, "Can—can you stay with me everyday at night from now on?"

Arashi asked, "What about my grandmother finding about us?"

"I don't care!" I hissed, "I can't stay alone what if...what if..."

Hiroshi finished my question with deadly serious voice, "the goddess come and took over my body?"

I nodded frantically because I was the only one who managed to get inside. Why would she do that to me? What about the other princesses? Why didn't she do it for them? And why now? Why me?

My mind was fogged with questions and I felt scared. Real scared. Why every supernatural things had to do with me?!

Maybe...I was cursed...! Was I?!

My tears were about to spill from the corners of my eyes as I said, "I...I want to go back to Godoyama!"

"But there are dead bodies buried beneath our house..." Arashi said and I froze...

Then there was no other place where I could go and live peacefully!

After that incident, we never told about this to anyone. We never discussed it among us and I never went to the cave again or near it.

The temple had lost its rights to hold the goddess's cave so it was now under the Wansai emperor's property. They could use the cave's routes but Arashi said it was better to leave the goddess alone.

For many years, everyone has been using her home for their own selfish reasons. It was time to leave her or maybe she would become angry...

And from that day, I began to trust the goddess of Wansai.

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25th November, 22
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