How To End This Marriage-Chapter 177: The Quest for More

"Can you take me to the Heavenly Realm, where all information of the Heaven and Mortal Worlds is kept?" Duchess Bernice said.

"I can take you, but isn’t that door kept closed for years?" Erios, the holy sword, replied.

"The door is open now. You can take me there without hesitation. I’m the one who unlocked it," the Duchess declared.

"You? How? How could you have access to rooms in the Heavenly Realm?" Erios questioned.

"This isn’t the time for explanations. Take me there. Even your creator won’t be able to stop you. And whatever questions you have, ask him. He’ll provide the answers," the Duchess said confidently.

"As you wish, master," Erios conceded, teleporting them to the Heavenly Realm’s secret door.

"Your arrival is a blessing, Heavenly Princess," the library guardian, appearing out of nowhere, greeted.

"Heavenly Princess? What’s happening? Did I miss something?" Erios sounded confused. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Your journey ends here, Erios. You may now visit your creator. He’ll answer your questions," the Duchess said, entering the library’s secret room. The room, filled with books floating on clouds, felt oddly familiar, as if she’d been there countless times.

"I need to check about the ongoing events in both realms. Surely something like this is documented here," the Duchess declared, walking, scanning each row of books. Her path led her to a book shining at the top, piquing her interest.

"What is this? Is this what I require?" she mumbled, reaching out. The book flew into her hand.

As she flipped the pages, a blinding light transported her to a different timeline.

"What is this? Where am I? This place appears like the Heavenly Realm, but brighter," she said, walking forward. She soon encountered a princess running after someone.

"Hey, can you-" she began, but the princess called out to the other person, "Princess Aurelia! Wait! If the Grand Teacher sees this, we’ll both be scolded. We just skipped our lesson."

"Aurelia?" the Duchess gasped, eyes fixed on the princess’s face, shock flooding her. "Me? How is this possible? Those gods might have called me their chosen one, but seeing my own replica before me..." her voice trailed off, eyes glued to Aurelia once again.

Aurelia smiled and shushed her with a gesture. "She can see me? How? This is my first time here. And how does she know someone from the current timeline when she’s in the past?" The Duchess felt utterly befuddled.

The duchess Bernice looked at Aurelia all confused while her eyes once again fell on the other princess who was running after Aurelia which bewildered even more.

"What is this? This is the truth I came here to know... the true identity of the tribal princess Sylvia. She’s also one of the princesses of the Heavenly Realm! Then she, too, has been reborn in the Mortal World just like me? What crime did she commit to be born there, just like me?" the Duchess mumbled, finally spotting them approaching a person sitting under a shimmering tree, holding a book.

"Hey, you too skipping class? Why? Aren’t you a scholar?" Aurelia said with a smirk.

"I can ask the same from you, Princess. What’s a Heavenly Princess doing here, skipping an important lesson? Is there something that made you not attend the class?" the person asked.

"The lessons are all boring. I don’t know who even designs them when the practical use of power is even more fun than what’s inside a book." Aurelia plopped down under the tree, laying on her back.

"I agree with you, but as a Princess, you need this, even though I don’t. I’m merely a lower-ranking god’s son who will eventually be like the god I was born from, but you’re going to rule Heaven." the person said.

"Still, you’ll be a god eventually. So we’re both the same." Aurelia said, as the other princess, looking similar to the tribal Princess Sylvia, reached them, panting heavily.

"You two! What are you doing? The teacher must be searching for you all over. And I guess my brother already told him about your secret escape from the lesson," she said.

"He’s a study maniac, but you don’t know that he too secretly escapes classes when no one’s watching. You’re just too innocent not to know," Aurelia chuckled.

"I’m not. I’m just following you because if I attend the class with my brother, he’ll only tease me, so I might as well run around with you than stay there, being teased by him in front of all the students," the other princess said.

"Aww, little Princess is all tired from her brother," Aurelia said, chuckling.

"Now you’re teasing me like him too," the other princess pouted.

"Princess, don’t tease her, or she might start crying, and we won’t be able to stop her," the other person said with a poker face.

"You too, Arthur?" the other princess said, looking at the person.

"I’m not teasing you, Princess. I’m just trying to stop Princess Aurelia from teasing you. Don’t you know how much I respect you?" Arthur said, making the other princess’s face flush, hinting at her feelings for him.

"Who is this Arthur? Why can’t I see his face?" the Duchess mumbled, observing them from afar.

"Here you all are! Ditching the Grand Teacher for entertainment?" another person arrived.

"Ditching? No, Marcus! How could we even ditch the Grand Teacher? It’s just that he doesn’t entertain us as much as he should. He only makes the class dull with his teaching process. Just look at the Supreme Mother, your mother. She teaches as if the scene is actually replaying in front of our eyes, but the Grand Teacher is not at all like that," Aurelia said.

"Because the Supreme Mother adores you, so she makes the study entertaining so you won’t run around and learn carefully," Marcus said.

"No, Marcus! The reason is she’s the Supreme God. She’s the sole reason for our power, and she knows what makes a lesson understandable," Aurelia argued.

"I can’t understand you, Aurelia!" Marcus said, laughing.

"Yeah, no one can understand me. The way you don’t understand, I’m getting so tired of exploring the Heavenly Realm. I want to visit other realms. I want to know things beyond those lessons. But the Supreme Mother isn’t granting me the wish to travel around the other realms," Aurelia lamented.

"Your time will come, Aurelia!" Marcus assured her, pulling her hand towards the library.

"You want to learn something new?" Aurelia asked, smiling.

"Of course, being with you is fun. But you never tell me anything beforehand," Marcus said.

Aurelia’s laughter echoed through the library as they reached the floating books. "So, what shall we learn today, my studious friend?" she teased.

Marcus, bowing playfully before his mischievous Princess, replied, "Anything you desire, Your Highness. Though I must confess, your sudden thirst for forbidden knowledge intrigues me."

Aurelia’s grin widened. "Intrigue? How about a taste of the forbidden itself? Dark magic, perhaps? Are you brave enough to explore its secrets with me?"

"Forbidden knowledge? Won’t we be punished if the Supreme Mother finds out?" Marcus asked nervously.

Aurelia, undeterred, smirked. "There’s no one here now, and there won’t be for hours. I checked the schedule. This is our window. We can do our research before anyone else arrives."

Hesitant but intrigued, Marcus agreed. "Alright, as you wish."

Aurelia led him towards the forbidden knowledge section of the heavenly library. As she reached, a particular book seemed to beckon her. It landed in her hand as if by magic.

"How about this one?" she said, flipping through its pages. The book brimmed with warnings and intricate illustrations, a forbidden portal to arcane knowledge.

"This is one of the forbidden arts I’ve longed to explore," Aurelia declared, a glint of excitement in her eyes.

"What is it?" Marcus inquired, a tinge of apprehension in his voice.

Aurelia’s smile faltered slightly. "The magic of reviving the dead," she admitted.

Marcus flinched. "Aurelia! That could be a terrible mistake. Let’s stop before we delve too deep."

She scoffed, her rebellious spirit flaring. "No one will interrupt us. Come, let’s delve into this together."

Pulling him closer, Aurelia pointed to a specific passage. "See, here are the detailed steps for the ritual. It seems deceptively simple, but it demands the full strength of a god to succeed. And even then, it’s not guaranteed. Failure could mean sacrificing oneself for the one they seek to revive."

Marcus grew pale. "So, one must die to bring back another?"

Aurelia’s eyes held a spark of defiance. "That seems to be the price. But I want to test this, to see if it truly holds power."

"Aurelia!" Marcus exclaimed, his frustration mounting. "You promised this was just about learning, not experimentation! Do you want to risk punishment? Do you want to throw away your life for a hypothetical resurrection?"

The conflict between Aurelia’s insatiable curiosity and Marcus’s cautious pragmatism hung heavy in the air, setting the stage for a potentially perilous decision.