Chapter 348: The Queen Of Purity
Luca’s pen stopped moving. He looked up from his notebook, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Hold on." He said slowly. "So she’s just...born like that? From ashes? No pregnancy? No nine months of carrying a baby?"
"No pushing and screaming and—"
"Nothing like that, Hero."
Nyx shook her head, a small smile playing at her lips.
"The Queen is not born the way we are. She is chosen by the gods and delivered to her people in that sacred manner. It’s why the Centaurs revere her so deeply—she is literally a gift from the divine."
Lulu, who had been listening with wide, sparkling eyes, suddenly clutched her mother’s arm in a surge of anxious realization.
"Wait, wait, hold on!" She exclaimed, her voice trembling with sudden worry.
"Does that mean I was born that way too? Did I just pop out of some ashes one day!?"
Leona’s laughter rang out soft and affectionate. She reached down, gently stroking her daughter’s hair before poking her nose with playful tenderness.
"Of course not, my sweet girl. You came into this world the old-fashioned way."
Her eyes twinkled with warmth.
"I pushed and labored for two long, stubborn hours because you simply refused to leave at first. You were quite the handful even then."
Lulu’s expression melted into one of heartfelt gratitude, her eyes growing misty.
"Thank you so much for all that effort, Mother! I know it must have been incredibly difficult...but I’m so grateful you brought me here."
She gazed up at Leona with fierce determination.
"When my own time comes, I’ll do the same! No matter how much it hurts, I’ll give birth to a strong, healthy child. I promise you that!"
Leona’s smile deepened, touched beyond words.
"You will be a wonderful mother, Lulu. I have no doubt."
Luna, who had remained quietly attentive until now, spoke up with thoughtful calm.
"Technically, me and Lulu weren’t born in the usual manner either."
"We were...placed into Mother’s belly through the Spirit of the Forest."
All eyes turned to Leona, who suddenly found the floor fascinating, her cheeks blooming with a faint blush.
"I-It’s true." She admitted softly. "In that regard, we’re not so different from the Centaur Queen."
"Just...with a few extra steps involved."
Nyx quickly steered the conversation back on track.
"Nonetheless, the reason the Queen is chosen in such a manner is because of the sacred role she possesses."
Luca leaned forward, his interest piqued. "And what role would that be?"
Nyx’s expression grew serious, her eyes taking on a look of deep respect.
"The Queen is the guardian of purity." She explained with reverence. "She travels across the entire continent, purifying any sort of curses, dark energy, or corruption that has taken root in the land."
She paused, gathering her thoughts.
"Sometimes, stagnant mana can accumulate in certain places."
She continued with a hint of gloom.
"It becomes infected, almost like a wound that refuses to heal."
"Just living in those areas can be a burden, a strain on your body that slowly wears you down. The plants and animals in those places wither and die."
"Sometimes, the entire area just has a bad aura, a sense of wrongness that you can feel in your bones."
Leona nodded in agreement.
"And that’s where the Queen of the Centaurs arrives. She has the ability to purify those areas, to cleanse them of all corruption."
"Using her divine power, she can clear any cursed energy and restore the land to its natural state."
Luca was writing furiously, his pen flying across the page.
"She’s essentially a mobile purification station." He muttered. "That’s incredible."
Luna listened quietly for a moment before her eyes lit up with recognition.
"Oh! Are you talking about the incident with the lake three decades ago?"
"Exactly." Nyx said, turning to Luca so he would understand the history. "Back then, a group of male elves tried to cast an forbidden, high-tier spell and botched it completely."
"They turned the entire lake blood-red. It was toxic, completely impossible to drink from or even bathe in."
She scowled at the memory.
"We were at our wits’ end. But then, out of nowhere, the water cleared up in a single night. Everyone was baffled."
Leona nodded thoughtfully.
"It was the previous Centaur Queen, Matilda. She happened to be passing through our borders, saw the state of the lake, and purified it without uttering a single word before moving on."
"She’s also the one we have to thank for your safety, Leona."
Nyx added, her jaw tightening as her voice dropped into a low, venomous register.
"Without the divine protection blessing she granted you back then, that worm Julius would have laid his hands on you much sooner."
"I can only imagine what horrors would have occurred if she hadn’t intervened."
The atmosphere in the room instantly plummeted, turning suffocatingly heavy at the mention of the elven traitor.
Before the mood could sour completely, Luca flashed a relaxed, confident smile.
"Hey, it’s alright. Nothing like that happened."
"Besides, Julius is currently suffering more than enough for what he did."
Leona, Lulu, and Luna exchanged puzzled glances.
They knew Julius was being punished, but they had never been told the exact, gruesome details of his current state.
Nyx, however, had a front-row seat to the aftermath.
Her face paled slightly, and a flash of genuine dread crossed her features.
Seeing the terrifyingly sharp Nyx look that unsettled, the other three women instantly realized it was a subject best left uninvestigated.
Hastily clearing her throat to dispel the chill in the room, Nyx spoke in a solemn tone.
"Unfortunately, Queen Matilda passed away about twenty four years ago."
A quiet, respectful silence blanketed the office.
"But it wasn’t a tragic end." Nyx softened, a small smile returning to her lips. "She simply passed from old age, having lived a long, accomplished life. She did so much for this continent."
"She truly did." Leona murmured, her eyes full of gratitude.
"But the cycle continues." Nyx said brightly. "The moment she dissolved, her daughter was born."
"Now, the new queen is traveling the continent, ensuring the land remains free of corruption."
Luca quickly noted all this down, his pen moving across the page with practiced efficiency.
Then he paused, a thought occurring to him.
"Even though the Queen is at the top of the food chain." He said slowly. "It seems like she has most of the burden."
"She’s constantly traveling, constantly purifying, constantly working."
He looked up at Nyx and Leona with a curious expression.
"So what exactly are the other members of the race doing? You mentioned that they were some sort of knights?"
Leona nodded, taking over the explanation.
"Yes. Every single other member of the Centaur race is a knight. They are raised from birth to be warriors, protectors, and servants of the Crown."
She continued, describing the values they held dear.
"Honor is everything to them."
"They would never break an oath, never turn their back on someone in need, never abandon their duties no matter the cost."
"Self-sacrifice is also considered the highest virtue." Nyx added.
"They would sooner die than allow someone innocent to be harmed."
Luca was fascinated. "So they’re basically those ultimate paladins."
"Exactly." Leona nodded with respect. "Every single virtue you associate with knighthood, they embody. They are honest, brave, loyal, and selfless."
"They never give up, never surrender, never compromise their values."
"And most of all." She continued, her voice taking on a reverent tone. "They protect the Queen at all costs."
"Not just from intruders who might threaten the realm, but also when the Queen travels around the continent. She’s always surrounded by at least half of the entire knightly order."
Hearing the mention of the monsters roaming outside the safety of the barriers, Lulu shivered slightly and pressed herself closer to her mother’s side.
"The Queen also has another blessing." Leona added like she just remembered.
"She doesn’t need to wait until the Eclipsar’s Truce period, when the monsters calm down."
"She can actually move around on her own without any care at all."
Luca blinked in surprise. "Wait, so she can just wander around safely all the time? While everyone else has to hide behind barriers?"
"Exactly." Nyx confirmed. "It’s one of the many gifts the gods have bestowed upon her."
Luca let out a low whistle. "That’s nice. It’s almost like she has a visa to every single country out there and doesn’t have to go to the immigration office and wait."
Everyone stared at him with blank expressions.
"What’s a visa?" Lulu asked.
"What’s an immigration office?" Luna added.
Luca waved his hand dismissively. "Forget it. Just a human thing. Keep going."
Nyx cleared her throat and continued.
"Despite that blessing, dangers could still lurk around. There are always chances of something going wrong."
"That’s why half of the members are always following her around to guarantee her safety."
Leona leaned back, tapping her chin as she pondered the Centaurs’ core nature.
"And if I had to sum up the personality of the Centaur women in a single word..."
She paused, exchanging a look with Nyx before concluding firmly.
"Stubborn."
"Stubborn?" Luca repeated, a slow smirk spreading across his face.
"Incredibly so." Leona emphasized. "They adhere to their moral codes without a single shred of flexibility."
"They place their queen and their duty above their own lives, their families, and their personal desires."
"If you are looking for a race with unbreakable willpower and unyielding discipline, the Centaurs take the prize. They are utterly uncompromising."
She then looked at Luca with a flicker of genuine anxiety.
"Which is exactly why this sudden, informal message is so alarming."
"Normally, they would send a highly detailed, officially sealed diplomatic letter outlining the precise agenda of the visit, in accordance with proper knightly etiquette."
"But this..." She bit her lips in nervousness. "This feels entirely out of character for them. Something strange is going on."
"Don’t sweat it." Luca casually waved his hand, completely unbothered by the warning.
"Whatever they’re planning, I can handle it. I’m just thrilled to finally get an invitation out of this forest."
He leaned over Nyx’s desk, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"So, tell me about their leaders. What are their personalities like?"
But then stopped himself mid-sentence, shaking his head with a laugh.
"Actually, scratch that. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. It feels a bit underhanded to gather intel beforehand."
"I’d rather just meet them face-to-face and find out for myself."
Nyx and Leona exchanged a cryptic, knowing glance. A silent understanding passed between them before Nyx let out a soft sigh.
"Alright, Hero. I won’t ruin the surprise." Nyx teased, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "But let me at least give you a tiny warning so you aren’t completely blindsided."
"Obviously, the Queen is at the absolute peak of their society. The entire female population is fiercely, blindly loyal to her. As for her personality..."
She turned to Lulu, a mischievous glint in her eye.
"She’s almost just like my adorable niece over here."
Before Lulu could react, Nyx reached out and grabbed her chubby cheeks, pulling them gently.
"Wait, Auntie Nyx, stop it!" Lulu protested, her words muffled. "You can’t do that! I’m not a child anymore! I’m actually—I’m going to be a mother myself!"
"She’s kind of like Lulu..."
Nyx continued, ignoring Lulu’s protests before hesitantly saying,
"...but with half the brain that Lulu has."
Luca and Luna looked at each other in confusion.
Lulu was...well, Lulu. She was sweet and kind and adorable, but she wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.
If the Queen was even half as simple-minded as Lulu...
One could already imagine how dumb she was going to be.
—
Author’s Note: To anyone who’s worried about how the intimacy with centaurs will be like, I can assure you it won’t have any weird elements like you think.
I’m building it in a way that it doesn’t go in a strange route and is most definitely normal.
