9: Exiled Lord — Chapter 9 – Winter!
The Goddess’s Blessing 9: Exiled Lord — Chapter 9 – Winter!
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She had gone from malnourished to borderline healthy, but the real change was in her awakening status: pending.
Which meant that with an Awakening Crystal as a catalyst, Field could get a Chosen One right now.
“My lord, is something the matter?” Ashina fidgeted nervously with her hands.
Ten days of meat had done wonders for Ashina’s opinion of Field.
Before she was captured, her life had been miserable, scrounging for wild grass every day just to survive.
Now she’d stumbled into the care of some bizarre noble and found herself eating fish and meat daily.
Maybe that’s just wolf life.
Surprises everywhere.
“What is this?” “An Awakening Crystal.
Cost me sixty gold coins.” Field winced.
He only had five hundred total.
“Every year on Awakening Day, the Empire uses these things to find Chosen Ones.
One crystal can test nearly a thousand people.” “Ah?
You seriously think I’m a Chosen One?” Ashina stared at him.
“My lord…
let’s not joke around.” “Close your eyes and feel with your heart.
I have received divine instruction.” Field made that up entirely on the spot.
He set the crystal orb in front of her.
“You have nothing to worry about.” Ashina didn’t believe for a second that she was a Chosen One.
But she didn’t want to disappoint him either.
These past days together had shown her that Field was a different kind of noble, at least where she was concerned.
He treated her well.
She touched the crystal.
The instant her hands made contact, countless motes of blue starlight erupted outward, swirling and converging into the translucent silhouette of a goddess, elegant and coldly serene.
“The Goddess of Winter!” The demi-human slaves recognized her immediately.
This was their faith.
“She governs ice and snow — Ashina is the Goddess of Winter’s Chosen One!” THUMP.
THUMP.
They dropped to their knees in waves, trembling, as if they wanted to tear out their own hearts as offerings.
Field had never seen anything like this.
He was so shaken that sweat poured down his back.
This was a genuine divine miracle.
The blue starlight twisted into strange runes.
Ashina reached out instinctively, and the radiance began to contract, flowing toward her hand until it inscribed itself across her knuckles.
Her body changed at the same moment.
She grew taller.
Her legs became full and perfectly shaped.
Her features sharpened, every angle falling into place.
Her beauty had jumped by a third, maybe more.
Forceful.
Disdainful.
Alluring.
The magnetism was completely effortless.
“I actually became a Chosen One.” Ashina’s mouth hung open.
“My lord, how did you do this?” She stared at him with undisguised awe.
And with good reason.
The emergence of a Chosen One couldn’t be predicted by anyone.
Even the Empress of the Holy Griffin Empire had a perfectly ordinary daughter.
That was just how it worked.
The other slaves were equally stunned.
They were all slaves here, how had a few days under the lord’s roof turned Ashina into a Chosen One?
They’d known what kind of treatment she was getting.
Some had assumed Field was simply grooming a pet.
Nobody had expected him to produce an actual Chosen One.
A Chosen One was the will of the gods.
So Field, they reasoned, must be someone the gods favored.
Their reverence for him multiplied on the spot.
“A trivial matter.” Field waved his hand as if this sort of thing happened all the time, then strode to face the group.
“Now — does anyone still have doubts about our journey north?
Anyone still opposed to my development plan?” The crowd looked at each other.
Not a word.
“Trust me,” Field announced.
“Do your jobs well, complete my tasks, and I will give you your freedom.
More than that — I will give you a life where you never go hungry again.” “Please allow me to form a contract with you.” Ashina spoke up first.
Field had promised before that he’d make her a Chosen One and use that power to develop the Nightfall Territory.
She was simply holding him to it.
Field smiled like a man who had planned all of this from the beginning.
“It was always destined.” The contract itself was simple.
Ashina channeled the power stored in her rune mark, formed a link with Field, and it was done.
With the Chosen One contract sealed, Field then produced the Slave Contract.
The slave mark had already been washed away by the Chosen One’s purification, that was just what it did, but Field went through the formal motions anyway.
He tore the Slave Contract apart in front of everyone and declared Ashina a free citizen of the Nightfall Territory.
Ashina smiled, warm and bright.
She raised one hand, and the runes shifted, pulling something enormous through the void.
Half the group stumbled backward.
“What is that?” Field said, blinking.
“A Dragon Wolf.” Ashina smoothed her hair, the picture of composure.
“A mount from the goddess, I think.
Also, I seem to have mastered a number of combat techniques.” Becoming a Chosen One could grant all kinds of unusual treasures.
Even if a Chosen One died, the treasures survived them.
The Rose Family’s sixth-order Divine Lance was proof of that, it had belonged to the Chosen One called Blood Rose, killed in battle long ago.
The family name itself came from her.
Field opened Ashina’s panel.
Name: Ashina Level: First-Order Chosen One Class: Wolf Rider Divine Skill: Spear of Freezing Piercing Legion Skill: Howling Charge (cavalry under command gain +100% impact force) Her combat strength had shot up to a different tier entirely.
Her Dragon Wolf mount alone could hold its own against a third-order Aura Knight.
Field’s boldness swelled the moment he saw those numbers.
His stepmother, his brother, they could wait.
Sooner or later, he’d grind all of them into the ground.
He smiled.
“Now then.
Let’s go take a look at the barracks and armory.” As they neared the city wall, Field spotted scattered skull icons on his minimap.
They were moving.
“Corrupted Monsters in the area.” He drew his sword with a clean ring of steel.
“Helping the local lord eliminate corruption is an obligation every Imperial noble is meant to fulfill.” He lit the Mist-Repelling Lamp he’d bought from the Church.
Sacred light bloomed outward, dissolving the gray fog in every direction.
No risk of the slaves breathing in the Death Haze and dying on him.
“I can feel a Chosen One’s power in that lamp.” Ashina nodded toward the golden lantern in his hand.
Field blinked.
“No question.
Which is exactly why the Church charges twenty-five gold coins per lamp.
Thirty-day lifespan.
Pure robbery, and I can’t even figure out how they make the things.” Inside the pass, he kept the group together.
No wandering.
These were conscripted slaves, not trained soldiers, and a tight formation was the only sensible option.
Ashina eased the barracks door open a crack.
Two armored corpses sat slumped inside, still in their plate, no weapons in reach.
The Death Haze had taken them before they could arm themselves.
Field’s eyes went straight to the armor.
Dense lamellar construction.
Good condition.
“Kill them,” he said.
“And try not to damage the armor.” “Understood.” Ashina kicked the door off its hinges and was through it in two strides.
A Chosen One’s physical capability didn’t just improve after Awakening.
It transformed entirely, alongside a complete mastery of specialized combat arts to match.
➤ Next: Survivors, Let Me Communicate with You in Blood and Iron