Moon Blessing Ritual

The mayor led us to the ritual zone, and as we were going down a public road, the people were also walking along with us. They couldn’t come close to me though, as the knights were keeping a tight perimeter.

“Look, she’s one of the princesses.”

“She looks so beautiful.”

“And is that the prince? Oh my, he’s so handsome!”

I could practically hear their chatter from here, and I was feeling a bit shy being praised like this. But I had to keep my composure and maintain my dignity as a princess. Still, there were a lot of people here, the entire townspeople must be here.

I hope I don’t mess it up.

I took a deep breath, which Alaric noticed.

“Feeling nervous, are we?” He grinned.

“Of course…”

“Well, I suggest you don’t think of the people that’s going to be watching you. Just focus on yourself, and pretend you’re in your little world.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be easy.” There was just no way I could disregard the hundreds or a thousand eyes watching over me.

“Well, it’s up to you how you do it.”

I nodded. “I’m going to be fine.”

“Good. Now then, wave your hand at the people.” He waved at the people with a smile.

I followed what he said and started waving at the people as we went.

Eventually, we arrived at the ritual zone. It was a wide-open area, and on the sides there were flowers lined up in a circular shape around the zone. They were all so colorful and varied that it almost hurt my eyes just looking at them. Was it because I was now used to the dark and grim colors back at the palace? Yeah, it could be.

“We are here, Your Highness.”

I nodded and took a step forward, Alaric keeping back. “You’ve done well with the decorations,” I said to the mayor.

“T-Thank you.”

“Now, stay clear.”

I walked to the center of the area. Seeing the great number of people watching me, I couldn’t help but feel extremely tense. Why couldn’t I just perform this alone? But of course no way that was going to happen. I was a high-profile person.

I took a deep breath.

Come on, I can do this. Just say the words and let out some magic.

I closed my hands and clasped my hands together. I concentrated and emanated a small amount of mana first. The pressure started to spread, waving my hair as if the wind was passing by.

“O divine hand shining in the night, being of the moon that lit up the darkness with its light, I call upon thee.”

As I said those words, I parted my hands and started slowly waving them in the air, using my mana to release crimson threads. The threads shifted in the air, gradually shaping into a symbol.

“May the stars of the cosmos give their blessings upon the soil like gentle rain, crown the nurtured fields with ripened grain.”

With the symbol now complete, I held out my palm forward, and the symbol disappeared into glowing dust spreading in the air. At the moment, I released more of my mana, and I sensed some strange force engulfing around me. It meant that the ritual was starting.

I conjured another set of crimson strings, forming them into a symbol.

“Shining moon, I pray to you. With your holy breath, blow away the hand of death. Bless the seeds and protect the roots, raise the stalk and color the fruits.”

I pushed the symbol forward, and like the one before, it broke into dust and scattered into the air. The emanating mana grew stronger. Another set of threads appeared.

“O Great Hand of the heavens, heed my prayer. Grant your faithful a harvest so rich and wide. Let hunger’s curse be turned aside.”

The symbol formed, and I pushed it forward, and it dissipated in the air.

“By your divine hand the harvest flows, and in your endless light may the bounty grow.”

I spread out my arms, and a vast number of crimson threads appeared and scattered in the air. The threads formed into symbols that started revolving around me, new and the old ones. An intense magical pulse spread out in all directions. I could hear the gasps of the people, they were both fearful and mesmerized.

I opened my eyes, and another pulse triggered. And for a moment, everything in the surroundings, even the sky, darkened. The people fell silent. I looked up and saw the sky gradually begin to shine. But instead of the clear blue sky and the shining sun, the sky was dark, the stars began to appear, and finally, the full moon.

“Why is the moon here?!” I heard one of the children ask.

“Be quiet.”

Indeed, it was amazing seeing it up personally. Basically, the local sky in this wide area was changed. And with the shine of the moon despite it being day, droplets of blue light fell from the sky. They fell on us, in this town, and on the surrounding lands. They should be dropping onto the soil and plants.

I looked at the flower decorations, the droplets falling on their petals. The people also held out their hands, amazed by what they were seeing.

“This is so beautiful!”

“Wow!”

As all of this was happening, I could feel my mana being continuously drained. The ritual was taking up a good amount of mana, any normal person could never cast something of this scale. Now, all that was left was to wait.

It should only last about a minute or two.

However, to my confusion, it still kept going after two minutes. I frowned in confusion. I couldn’t just move while the ritual was still in effect. And so I just waited and waited. And in a total of five minutes since the ritual took effect, it all finally came to an end. The symbols all disappeared, and the sky gradually returned to normal.

I looked around, nothing strange seemed to be happening.

My brother walked up behind me. “Avenelle, why didn’t you end the ritual sooner?”

I slowly turned towards him with a baffled expression. “I don’t know. It’s supposed to stop on its own, right? But it kept on longer than expected.”

“Huh… That’s strange…”

“I didn’t make a mistake, did I?”

He shook his head. “From what I saw, I don’t think you did.” He let out a sigh. “Well, as long as it all went well, it’s fine. Let’s think about that anomaly next time. Not really our job to mull our heads over magical anomalies.”

I slowly nodded. I walked off the ritual zone.

“That was incredible, Your Highness!” said the mayor. “It was so divine!” His eyes were shining with excitement.

“Your land and plants are nourished. You may expect a good harvest this year, and perhaps the next.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” He bowed his head. “Would you like to rest? You may rest in the town hall.”

“No need. We’re moving to the next destination.”

“... Very well. I understand.”

We made our way back to our carriage. After leaving this town, we would need to move to a different carriage while on the road, just to be safe.

“Have a safe trip, Your Highnesses.”

Me and Alaric got in our carriage.

“Aaw, Avenelle, did you see how many beautiful women there were? Why can’t we just stay here for now?”

“We might have to stay in the next town to sleep. However, you will not lie with anyone out there.”

“... Fine.” He crossed his arms.

***

The trip was a bit longer than I had hoped, but at least we managed to reach the next town. On the way, we finally encountered monsters. I didn’t see much of the fight because I was inside the carriage, but I thought I saw a bipedal, furred, clawed creature. However, the fight ended so quickly. Well, it was just one creature, so I imagined it would be quite easy to deal with it.

Alaric mentioned that monsters would usually avoid the roads and stay in their habitat. However, there were just those that ended up on the road accidentally. With that note, it would seem I really needed to worry about monsters after my escape.

Anyway, upon arriving at the next destination, I immediately went on to perform the ritual. The ritual went pretty well. However, like last time, the rain shower lasted around five minutes… I had no idea what was happening, but what was important was that it was working properly.

It was already late in the afternoon, and I was becoming exhausted after the trip and conducting the ritual. Therefore, I decided to sleep at night in this town. For the food, we were very careful about what would be served to us royals. So the servants we brought along were the ones to cook the food.

Very nice, at least the food would be very good.

At the dining hall of the building given to us, we were served the food. Clarissa was with them, and she herself put the plate in front of me.

“Thank you, Clarissa. It seems you’re doing well.”

“Yes, I am. Thank you for bringing me along, Princess. The adventure has been fun so far.”

“That’s good.”

I looked at the food, it looked pretty good.

Time to eat!