The very next day, Leonhart departed the capital alongside some of his guards, Elena and Lisa. He did not mention his curse to Elena as it was not something he wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. He still needed to gather more courage before he could tell his problem to Elena.

So, to hide the curse mark, Leonhart was a helmet-like crown that covered his forehead. It was quite a good artifact too even tho it was not a legendary item, so he was able to get some extra protection by wearing this.

The village of Norhada was about 2 days away from the capital. So they decided to go there by using a carriage. Even tho Leonhart was very shy to ask Elena for anything, the other royal guards were not. They had a misconception that Elena probably would become their new empress so they were fine asking her for some little things.

That was the reason why they shamelessly asked Elena to give them some little training. Getting a little training from a S ranker was always a big thing. And Elena also had no reason to reject their request as it would also be a good way to spend her time on this journey.

Lisa was very satisfied with the amount of books she was able to read in the library. Now she was planning to master the knowledge she was able to gather. Elena had given her a special item for this exact purpose. It was something that would take her to a dream realm where she would be faced with several situations where she had to use that knowledge practically to solve various kinds of problems. This was an easy way here she could use that knowledge without holding back. She could even try various risky and somewhat impractical methods, which she cannot use in the real world for the fear of backlash. That allowed her to gain important experience very fast which others might need several years to gather.

...

The village of Norhada had a special status in the Gaim Empire. Even tho it was only a small village with about 200-300 residents, more than 60 percent of the residents here were over level 200 and there were even over 10 retired A rankers living here. This was one of the most heavily guarded places in the whole empire.

The main reason why this small village was full of so many high level individuals was because this place was the location of the distinct divine realm of the Gaim Empire. As the beast god had blessed the location of the divine realm so any old beastkin living here would have their life expectancy extended. That was why many retired A rank beastkins lived here for the rest of their remaining life.

The distinct divine realm did not take up a large amount of space in the outside world. The real divine realm was present inside an ordinary looking hut in the middle of the village and the distinct divine realm was a large world that was situated inside the small and ordinary hut.

The door of the Hut was closed all the time throughout the years and except the Emperor, no one could open the door of the hut. And even an emperor could only open the door once in his life to take the test of the beast god.

If an emperor could perform very well in the test, he or she would get the chance to get the blessing of the beast god and could become the envoy of the beast god. That was a status that every beastkin wanted to get no matter what.

And if the Emperor was not able to perform very well but still was able to clear the test, then they would be able to get the recognition of the beast god and only then their reign would be secured and supported by the population. Other than that no one would be able to challenge that person for the seat of the emperor for 20 years.

Clearing the trial one was sure to get a legendary item and a chance to improve his or her one chosen auxiliary arts, like talisman, alchemy etc. One of the great masters of that particular art would give the emperor a personalized teaching on that art.

And if a person failed to complete the trial then that person would be known as an incompetent person and no one would give his support for his reign. Other beast nations would also be able to attack the nation with a incompetent leader without any retribution from the beast god.

And finally if a person was not able to even take the trial after entering the distinct divine realm then that person would be known as a sinner and he would not only lose his status as the emperor but he would also be executed in public for disrespecting their mighty race.

So this trial in the distinct divine realm was a very important thing for all the emperor. And luckily for the Gaim Empire, in their history of several hundreds of years, no body failed the trial even once. But unfortunately none of the previous Emperor were able to perform well enough to gain the blessing of the beast god. Leonhart was a very excellent ruler and had performed very well even compared to his predecessor. So the nation had a lot of faith in him that he would be able to gain the blessing of the beast god for the first time in their nation's history.

...

When Elena and Leonhart's group reached the village the others in the group suddenly became tensed as they could sense many very strong auras from the village. It was inevitable as when a lot of A rankers gathered in a location then their cumulative auras could easily create an oppressive atmosphere.

But Elena released her own aura a little bit and that just cancelled out the unintentional oppressive aura coming from the village. That instantly relaxed the guards and they thanked Elena and then all of them entered the village.

One elderly looking rabbitkin and 10 more highest class B rank beastkins were in the front gates to welcome their new Emperor to the village. The elderly looking rabbitkin was one of the previous prime ministers and he was currently over 500 years old. He was also the highest level individual present in the village. He was at the limit of the A rank at the level of 299. His name was Zuafella.

After a short chat, Zuafella himself guided Leonhart to the most luxurious hut in the village. It was the traditional hut where only the emperor had the right to live. Elena and Lisa were also guided to a different hut which was also quite luxurious and it was created for the partners of the emperor who would also enter the distinct divine realm with the emperor.

They were going to stay in the village for a week and Leonhart was going to use that time to perfect his condition before challenging the trials of the distinct divine realm. During this time Elena had planned to take Lisa to a nearby grassland which was filled with monsters between the level of 100 to 200. She was going to let Lisa fight then non stop to hone her battle instincts in this grassland.

...

After entering the hut specially created for him, Leonhart closed his eyes to mediate a bit to calm his mind down. He immensely enjoyed the little journey he had with Elena. And the more time he spent with Elena, the more he found himself more impressed by her. But at the same time a question that if he was worthy enough for her was also torturing his mind. So he wanted to calm his mind down a bit.

But just when started to calm down a bit suddenly Saliol send his a message. He told him that the trial of the distinct divine realm was very important. If Leonhart could get the blessing of the Beast God then his chances to reach the Demigod rank would increase by at least 60 percent. So, he must enter the trial after becoming 100 percent fit. And to be in his perfect condition, the curse needed to go away.

That was why, Saliol was telling him to go to Elena to ask for her help to cure this curse. Leonhart was also very aware that the trial of the divine realm was very important and if he missed this chance for some petty pride then he would regret it for the rest of his life. So, finally he tried to make up his mind to ask for Elena's help.

...

In the divine realm, the Beast God Zenkaplua was very worried as the idol of the god realm, Elena was going to enter his divine realm in the Gaim Empire. With her level of power she could even destroy his divine realm like it was nothing. So he was quite worried.

He knew that Elena was not someone to just destroy his divine realm without any reason, but he was still a little bit worried as the existence of his divine realm completely depended on Elena's whim and he was not very knowledgeable about her personality as he never had the chance to meet her in person.

So he decided to invite Elena to for a little chat before she entered his divine realm even tho he was very scared about how the fan club of Elena was going to react to it. But still a divine realm was very important to a god so his worry won against his fears.

Now Elena had another new god to meet.

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