My Wonderful Second Life

Chapter 24- The Blessings

The past few days were uneventful, but they allowed me to find out more about "The First Blessing". Not a difficult task as it was general knowledge at the Empire.

So in sum, there are three blessings in the Sun Empire.

"The First Blessing", which opened a small path to the Goddess and her Holy power, and was performed when the person was a child.

"The Second Blessing" was performed when one reached adulthood, opening the path further and allowing one to use the Holy powers freely. The range of those depending on the bond one had with the Goddess. Along with that, the blessing also enhanced your luck and your prospects in life, having deeper protection from the Goddess against evil.

"The Third Blessing" was to bless one's marriage and family life. It bounded one's soul to their partner and gathered luck to their offspring.

While everyone did "The First Blessing", not all did the others. The second being the most restrictive and only available to the powerful or people who had shown great promise in their connection with the Goddess powers on their first blessing.

In general, the more close to the Goddess the priest was, the more effective their blessings would be.

So, as I expected already, only the children which belonged to nobility or rich families would have a blessing of a priest on a higher hierarchy. The commoner children had to do them in groups and with their local priest.

Both me and Jenni would do it alone with the High Priestess. An honor bestowed only to the direct descendants of the Emperor or, in our case, descendants of the High Priestess herself. As her niece's we had the privilege of royalty.

I found all this strange and confusing. Nothing of it had been told in the book, except for "The Third Blessing" which wasn't called that, instead was named "The Bless of the Soulmates". Both we were practically the same and both had horrible names. Still, it was a shift on the original story I knew.

Was it due to my presence? How could be changed just because of me? I would understand relationships changing because of me, but why would this rooted culture be any different because of me? Or was it something else? Could it have not been mentioned because it meant nothing to the story?

So many questions... and so little way to have answers...

And so, I passed my days thinking of what it all meant, getting several theories but no way to prove them either.

Then the day came when the Duke announced we would have to do our blessings. He seemed angry but resigned, which I found odd on him.

From what I understood "The First Blessing" was perceived as an important event in the Empire and the honor of The High Priestess blessing you was of great importance and pride. Or it should be.

The Duke, however, treated it way differently from what I would have expected of an overly attached father. I was thinking of him behaving more on the lines of crazy sugar additive, instead, I got grumpy, ask no questions vibes.

Such was his mood that even the servants and aides were surprised by it. In the end, the most excited for it were Fanny and Jenni, who took care of the preparations with help of the main maid and the Duke's aide.

The preparations took some days to be finished. Not much was to prepare as the dresses and gifts had already been done long ago... the most work went to adjust the delicate dresses and organize the gifts.

And so the day came, and we dressed our white flowing gowns, filled with pink and white fresh daisies. Each of us with a crown of roses, Jenni blue, and mine pink. While these dresses were less stuffy and provided us more movement, the long tail did bring some challenges.