Spoiler
Was it because he saw dead people? I thought it said he saw old people and I was confused.
It makes me wonder if she was the true owner of the necklace. Also if you look at the cover image it looks like she has the necklace or some magical glowing orb power. Hopefully when she gets to the capital she will get more answers.
Spoiler
I assumed that the old people everywhere would be ghosts or like their ancestors so either way they are dead, but I'm not sure which is why I phrased that sentence as a question.
I'm really looking forward to when she gets to the capital ( ﾟ∀ﾟ) I want the loreeeee! This story is so interesting!
Spoiler? It’s mostly just my very long theory about what I think is going on…
I think that when someone gets crowned as the emperor they learn the truth about the empire and Essie. I bet that she (whether as a god or not) had amazing powers and fell in love (either romantically or just general care and affection) with the first emperor and used her powers to help him expand the empire. She even blessed him and his bloodline. But either the first emperor or someone else betrays her and kills her. She is then reincarnated almost 400 years later. So I bet each new emperor learns about this from the locket when crowned and they usually just decide to keep it hidden and hope that she never shows back up. And then I think that the second prince probably had the same vision the emperor gets when he’s crowned. And for some reason that freaked out the dad so he sent him to the church. And then I think the third prince is the reincarnation of the first emperor? Or someone who was involved in what happened in the year 23. He regretted that Essie was betrayed and killed, and so he wants to atone by dying to her hands. I also bet the locket was hers originally. And then the first prince… I can’t decide if he’s actually the reincarnation of the first emperor, or if he’s just ignorant to the sins of his bloodline? Oh also! About whether Essie is a god or not, I think it’s super interesting that we haven’t really learned about the god that the empire currently worships! The only parts of the theology we’ve really learned about is some vague sayings about “the light”. Which brings into question what the god(s) of this world are actually like? Sorry this was so long
(；゜∀゜) I guess Essie is a God or something and the prince was sent away to the church because he saw dead people? A very nice amount of info we got here. Things are developing.