The palace servant who brought ointment and hot water for the White King in the latter half of the night entered the palace holding his breath and focusing his spirit, not daring to glance sideways the entire time, without even the courage to take an extra look toward the bed.
Just catching a glimpse of the scattered jewelry and ornaments on the silk carpet, the tangled necklaces that looked all too familiar…
The palace servant became pale and averted his gaze.
That was…
The Divine Envoy
Was the Pharaoh blaspheming against the gods?
No, no, no, how could he think such a thing? As the master of this land, the walking embodiment of divinity in the mortal world, he rightfully owned everything of the Nile.
Even to the extent of wholly possessing the messenger of the gods.
The golden silk bed curtains hung without revealing the slightest gap, yet the fragrance within the hall permeated everywhere, clinging to people like a lingering embrace.
The Pharaoh did not favor heavy perfumes; such a scent could only come from the High Priest with snow-white hair and skin.
It was a light, subtle and cool fragrance, yet it made the heart tingle with numbness, as if a sweet sap would even flow from the gaps between that person’s bones.
“The water is too hot.”
The White King’s voice was hoarse. It was as if the usual gentleness was trapped in a throat containing gravel, leaving only a majesty that inspired awe.
The palace servants coming and going carefully mixed the water in the bathing pool.
The Pharaoh had specifically instructed the addition of medicinal herbs with healing properties.
As for why it was necessary to add medicine unlike before, this was not within the realm of what they were allowed to ponder carefully.
Cinnamon, mint, and cedar wood floated in the milky bathwater, the rising steam blurring one’s vision.
The palace servant cautiously raised his eyes, only to see the curtains part. The tall White King lifted a person in his arms expressionlessly, their slender outline shrouded under a thin blanket, making it impossible to see.
The palace servant hesitated about whether he should step forward to assist.
Rahotep said lightly, “Step back.”
……..
For Rahotep, this was an excessively extraordinary night.
He was intoxicated from the first moment he saw the Divine Envoy in the storage room and lost himself in the beautiful pink night fog.
Even so, he did not regret the decision he had made, even if that decision now seemed wrong.
In such a situation, would it have been right to call for another person to relieve the Divine Envoy’s lust?
He could certainly have sent someone to find singers from the festival, dancers, or those beautiful slaves favored by the nobility…
But since someone had dared to drug the new High Priest at the risk of great consequence, there was no guarantee that the person found to provide relief would be without issues.
The purpose and malice of those behind the farce last night were clear as day.
All religious personnel had sacred duties. From the high-ranking positions of “Hem Netjer”, “Kheriheb”, “Wunu”, to the low-ranking auxiliary priests, no matter the position, they were collectively referred to by one term: “Servants of God.”
The strictest obligation for God’s servants was to maintain physical purity. They bathed twice daily, in the morning and at night, could not grow beards, had to shave all body hair, undergo circumcision…their bodies had to be absolutely pure.
Xin Hexue was special.
He was the Divine Envoy who emerged from the prophecy of the gods, and it was also because of the prophecy that Rahotep did not need to specially promote him to the position of High Priest, taking the opportunity to carry out a major reshuffle of the priestly group.
If one wanted to attack this new Divine Envoy, the method could be quite simple: just discover him and another person in an intimate act…
A Divine Envoy whose body could not remain pure, no matter what, had no reason to sit in the position of High Priest as a servant of God. In that case, the original priestly group, led by the old Chief Priest, would inevitably force Rahotep to make additional concessions.
The temple reforms he had previously implemented would also be lost in one basket.
Therefore, Rahotep had to hide last night’s Xin Hexue. This was a choice forced by circumstances.
He lowered his head, his fingers touching Xin Hexue’s damp hair.
The young man slept in a well-mannered way, but as he approached, he turned and nestled his cheek against his warm palm.
Rahotep withdrew his hand as if licked by a flame.
If everything made logical sense, why did he…still feel that tingling sensation from last night, as if his heart had been struck?
He did not sleep in the later half of the night, sitting until the morning light illuminated the banks of the Nile.
……..
At the break of dawn, the guard arrived at the palace gate to request an audience.
Rahotep secretly glanced towards the inside of the curtains; Xin Hexue was still sleeping quietly.
He instructed the guard to wait in the administrative palace, then turned to put on his outer robe, dressed neatly, and also moved to go there.
Aside from the obvious Golden Chariot guard force, Rahotep had another power under his command, one that even his brother Seto knew nothing about.
“The Eye of Horus.”
This was the organization Rahotep used to monitor the movements of the Theban royal city. All the dirty work that couldn’t be brought to the surface but needed resolving were handled by this force.
“Has that female slave with black hair and black eyes been found?”
Rahotep’s expression was solemn.
In the latter half of the night, someone had come to deliver a message, identifying the suspect who took the opportunity to drug the Divine Envoy last night. Even though Rahotep could directly infer that it must be the handiwork of the old priest behind the scenes, evidence was still needed to legitimize the charges.
The guard knelt on one knee. “We are still searching, but we found someone who was lurking outside the palace last night, behaving suspiciously…”
The servant described as behaving suspiciously was brought forward. On the surface, there was nothing noteworthy about him.
But Rahotep recognized this face.
“I remember you serve by Seto’s side.” Rahotep narrowed his eyes sharply, and slowly stepped in front of the servant. “Could it be that my royal brother has become so unruly that he has begun to covet the throne occupied by his elder brother?”
He pressed down with the suspicion of an unforgivable crime, and the servant trembling like a sieve quickly confessed.
“It was Lord Anubis! His Highness instructed me to keep a close watch and protect the Divine Envoy… but last night I neglected my duty and drank two extra cups of wine…”
To avoid Rahotep’s distrust, the servant swore, “By the radiance of the Sun God, every word I speak can withstand testing!”
The guard spoke up, “Why did Lord Seto instruct you to monitor the Envoy?”
The servant looked hesitant. “This…”
It seemed there was some unspeakable story behind it.
Rahotep said coldly, “Lock him up.”
Soon, someone entered and dragged away the servant who served by Seto’s side.
The guard turned back, feeling an indescribable strangeness.
He felt that today the Pharaoh was very impatient; the generous and benevolent demeanor that was usually visible between his brows could no longer be found, replaced instead by an indescribable irritability.
This guard had followed the Pharaoh for many years, and could be considered one of his closest confidants.
Therefore, he dared to speculate boldly without fear, “Your Majesty, are you concerned about the relationship between Lord Seto and the Divine Envoy…”
Rahotep’s hawk-like eyes stared directly at the guard. In the guard’s eyes, he looked exactly like a man consumed by jealousy.
‘Jealousy?’
Could such an emotion derived from love occur in him?
Ridiculous. No one understood the emptiness of the word “love” better than him.
Because of love, his mother tolerated his greedy and promiscuous father infinitely. They were clearly both royal siblings and spouses, sharing royal power under equal status, inheriting and continuing this land, yet she sank into the lie of “love” and repeatedly yielded her own rights. She no longer cared about the fullness of the granaries, the bows for hunting antelopes gathered dust, and only the new favorites, who had her husband’s favor, made her burn with jealousy…
Even when she relied on what power she had left to enter Lower Egypt in the end, his mother’s story still left him with a permanent warning.
Love is a fruit wrapped in lies. It rots after just a few years and attracts flies, while power is an eternal pyramid, capable of lasting into the distant future.
So…
Jealousy?
Laughable.
To place such emotions, worrying over lies and falling into madness, onto him, was simply debasing his rationality and erasing his autonomy as a human being.
The guard gradually fell silent under Rahotep’s deep gaze.
…..
Although the servant who served Seto was imprisoned, he managed to deliver an important message before that.
The servant had a backup plan; if anything happened to him, Nub, who was closely related to the Divine Envoy, could complete the work for him.
So, when Xin Hexue returned to his own palace, he saw the papyrus letter delivered to him by Nub.
The long-haired cat swayed its long and fluffy tail, and swaggered into the palace.
This form was merely to avoid drawing attention so he could return from the White King’s bedchamber silently.
Nub naturally did not mistake it; the first time he saw Xin Hexue’s white cat form, he mistook it for the lion war god worshiped in Nubia.
“Divine Envoy.”
Nub collected all expression, not inquiring about why the Divine Envoy didn’t return all night.
When he was urgently searching last night, he had already hidden in a secluded spot and seen the sedan chair outside the temple. Intuition told him that the person wrapped in a long robe and carried by the White King was…
Nub silently clenched his fist and lowered his head.
The cat nimbly leaped from the ground onto the desk, stretched lazily, and pushed the papyrus letter open…it was Seto’s handwriting.
There wasn’t much content, and the writing was very childish…
Well, frankly, the handwriting was ugly, to a degree that Xin Hexue couldn’t not cover with praise.
Of course, one couldn’t expect a beast who spent its entire youth and childhood in a cage to integrate into civilization so quickly. The etiquette scribes had probably put great effort into teaching Seto, but the writing still looked like dog scratches.
The wording throughout was also simple; complex vocabulary was beyond Seto’s level.
The content was nothing more than expressing love for the mother goddess, his own health, and hoping the mother goddess was also healthy.
Xin Hexue had already finished reading the letter.
Nub presented the writing tools in a timely manner
The white cat’s tail swayed, and its paw casually pushed over the ink pot. While Nub was cleaning up in a fluster, it stepped onto the letter.
Thus, the dog-scratched letter now had many plum blossoms on it.
“Meow.”
—Noted.
The white cat leaped to the ground, waiting for Nub to clean its ink-stained paw pads.
Then, because the transformation time limit had passed, the white cat lay down on the bed lazily.
The silk blanket was pulled over only to the waist and hip, leaving the curves and a large area of snow-white back still exposed to the air.
Xin Hexue folded his arms over the pillow, yawned, and looked back at Nub, who was standing like a statue. “Nub, can you help massage my waist?”
……
When Rahotep returned to the palace, the Divine Envoy was no longer on the bed.
When the palace servants all said they had not seen anyone enter or leave the palace, he frowned, but there was no time to investigate further. It was almost time for daily court; he had to sit in the administrative palace and listen to the Vizier and other ministers’ reports.
Rahotep sat on the throne holding the golden hooked scepter.
The Vizier stood at the head of several important ministers and said, “Recently, the Nubian tribes at the Aswan border have been quiet, with no unusual movements detected. The stone materials from the Aswan quarry should be sent to Thebes along the Nile…”
Inexplicably unable to settle his mind, Rahotep unconsciously rubbed the carnelian ring on his left hand.
But suddenly, someone disregarded all attempts to stop him and directly rushed in from outside the hall.
“Anaket.” Rahotep stared at him with a cold expression. “Are you preparing to rebel?”
It must have taken some effort to break through the guards outside the hall; Anaket stood in place, catching his breath.
Finally, he suddenly knelt on the ground. “Elder Brother King, I have a matter to request of you.”
Rahotep frowned. “Whatever it is, wait until after state affairs. Now is not the time; do you not even have this much patience?”
Anaket took two deep breaths, and as if unable to bear it, his voice became louder, more urgent and formal: “Great Pharaoh, I beg your grace. Under your wise rule, both inside and outside the court are nobles and wise men. I have deep affection for a wise and noble man; he is the new kingdom’s High Priest. I humbly implore the Pharaoh to allow me to form a marital bond with him.”
He finished smoothly, as if he had carefully prepared and memorized in advance.
There was a slight “crack” sound.
Rahotep stopped rubbing the ring. “Say it again.”
