Chapter 161: Princess of Denial

Obviously, many things that were confusing about this. When exactly was this in the past? Who was this Final Empress? How did she disappear if she was so powerful? Where did all these various races disappear off to? The Cobfolk? The Myrmi? The Undines, the Griffins, and the Colossi? What were those?

But even pondering about it all day long, Evin wasn't able to guess at the answers. It wasn't like she knew everything about these visions. If she was asked if she knew even one tenth of these past two lives, her answer would be a resounding no.

'But they were very interesting...'

And at least there was something she could do as she waited for the Princess to call for her. Even if it negatively affected her mental health greatly, she wanted to see the things that these two lives had to offer. 

So most of her time when she wasn't deciphering her visions, she would be lying on her bed, waiting for them. Just like today. But her plans were destined to be ruined, as she heard someone knock on the door.

"The Princess awaits you," a servant's voice came from behind the door.

'Fuck...' Evin thought in her head, as she prepared herself.

After hastily getting ready, Evin followed behind the servant through the grandly decorated halls, enjoying the feeling of sunshine on her skin. Aside from the few time she went to get someone, Evin never really went outside the house that was given to her, so it was a relatively refreshing experience for her.

Eventually she reached a huge, windowless five-story building. There wasn't much to say about its architectural structure, as there really weren't a lot of features on it. Evin could probably compare it to a white cube with a door. It was completely built out of a very sturdy-looking white block, but Evin wasn't very knowledgeable about this subject so she could only speculate the origins of this material.

"The Princess awaits you on the second floor," the servant said in a small voice and opened the front door of the building.

Evin entered, and found that the inside of this weird building contained a very unknown… yet also familiar interior. A smoothened white marble floor that reflected Evin's own reflection, glowing objects on ceilings that illuminated the surroundings, clean white pillars that were scattered in random places… plus, the simplicity and the whiteness of this building was completely different than any other palace or mansion that she came upon, all of which were riddled with the most detailed and precise decorations one could create. Compared to them, this place could almost be called empty.

But after thinking about the matter a bit, Evin realized why she found them so familiar. They were very similar to the things she saw on the world called Earth in her visions. This discovery shocked her a bit, but she didn't dawdle on it too much.

Her abnormal calmness was seemingly taking over.

Evin stopped herself from gawking, and resolutely looked at the spiral stairs that went upstairs and the rays of light that shone down from its top. Shaking her head, she took the stairs and squinted her eyes, as she found herself in a wide room with an almost excessive amount of light.

After a few breaths, Evin was able to see her surroundings a bit better, and her eyes finally landed on a woman who was sitting behind a large table, curiously gazing at a set of glass containers filled with various botanical specimens.

The Princess of Denial was a very simple looking woman. She could almost be called a teenage girl from a passing glance with her small stature and her round face which still had some of her baby-fat, which gave some justice to her title of Princess... 

But her long, half-graying dark hair messily running down to her shoulders plus her dark circles under her eyes gave the Princess an air of haggardness and decay. And to top it all off, she only wore a simple white night gown, which showed just how much she didn't care about taking care of her appearance.

Evin never imagined the Princess to look so simple and almost… boring. 

But thinking about it a bit, Evin didn't really know how she imagined the Princess would look like. A sharp faced woman who donned a raiment made from the skin and bones of her enemies, constantly radiating the stench of blood? 

Probably not what she would imagine, but regardless, the dangerous aura she emitted was the same both in Evin's imagination and reality. 

In any case, Evin didn't wish to disturb the Princess as the latter was focusing on some specimen on the table. Seemed to be some sort of a dark blue seed, which emitted a pale blue light. Somehow, this seed gave Evin an eerily familiar feeling of dread and death.

As she was thinking of why she found the seed so familiar, the silence was broken by someone completely unexpected to Evin. 

"Princess, I am ready to serve and follow you for all eternity," without herself meaning to, Evin loudly uttered some random words she wasn't even thinking about.

Evin was a bit startled by this sudden action of hers, but supposed that a meeting with the princess would definitely be an important enough event to be played out without her control. At this point, Evin was used to it, and just wondered how 'she' would play this out. 

The Princess' scrutinizing gaze fell on Evin's figure for a brief moment and a disgusted expression appeared on her face.

"What the hell is wrong with your soul?" the Princess asked suddenly. 

It seemed like a simple question, but these simple words set off a storm that began to rage inside Evin. She felt like the Princess did something terribly wrong, or perhaps she said something that shouldn't be said. It felt like Evin's whole existence was being questioned. 

Evin tried to say something, but it just didn't seem possible. It was like fate did not allow her to say anything else.

"Princess, I will follow you for all eternity," Evin repeated her words like a broken record. 

"How come you have two souls, one corrupted and dead, while the other old and withered, like some sort of rotting black apple?" the Princess asked again. 

A tear dropped from Evin's eyes. She tried to speak something, but her throat was choked and her voice cracked. 

'Please! Help me!' she wanted to scream, but there was only one thing she could say.

"Princess, I wi…" she began speaking, before her mind was pulled into a sudden vision.

Evin found herself sitting inside a dark cavern, with some child-like being made of darkness speaking of some story while sitting alongside a fox-like monster which had huge tentacles swaying about above its body.

"... The Heroes of that time could probably defeat her if they joined forces, but the mysteriousness of the Empress and the relatively small lands of Von did not allow for such an outcome to come true," the Dark thing was speaking.

From the contents, Evin could tell that they were talking about the mysterious final Empress.

'Wait... Von, and the Heroes? The Fourteen Heroes?' Evin thought with confusion.