Prologue

The sound of rattling chains, as if pulled swiftly across the ground, echoes in my head.

“What’s…..that?”

That noise is followed up by a series of more sounds resembling steel objects hitting one another continuously until I hear what one could describe as a crumbling wall of bricks. My eyes may be closed with my consciousness barely present, but I know these sounds all too well—the sound of an ongoing battle.

"na....una.......YUUNA"

A girl’s voice resonates through an open area accompanied by heavy rainfall. My awareness gradually strengthens.

This voice. It sounds... familiar.

"Yuuna, wake up! Please!"

My sense of touch is slowly returning to me; I can feel someone holding me. Her hands feel soft, and her voice bears desperation. My eyes open; I’m presented with a blurry view, yet the person before me is still recognizable. The dark color of a Purple Pansy covers her short hair, and her forehead is drenched in blood that slowly flows down her face, crossing her eyes along the way.

"Le. . .na..."

The girl’s name is all I can let through my lips as I'm deprived of strength. A single faintly pronounced word, the name of someone close to me. But that single word triggered a sudden wave of joy within that person.

"Thank god! You are alive!"

She starts crying while tightly embracing me with her thin and trembling body. I use the last of my strength to place my bloody palm on the back of her head to comfort her.

I feel warmth, but not just from her. As I slowly move my eyes around, I'm presented with a bright burning view. We are surrounded by buildings engulfed in flames, indicating we are in the middle of a battlefield. But that’s all I manage to process before my strength leaves me entirely and my sight is sent back into the darkness.

All that’s left with me are the words of my Master.

“Life is an odd thing. A powerful word, a word with a different meaning for each person. For some, it may present joy, yet for others, fear. But even life can be ended with just a snap of a finger. That’s what makes it so precious to us.

People say the weak die and the strong survive, but the terms weak and strong don't describe a person physically only. It’s something most of those people fail to realize and in a world like this, such a mistake can ultimately mean the end of one’s life.

Become strong, Yuuna. Strong enough to protect those in need and to forgive the unforgivable.”

Master...
———

[March 28th, 1215]

"una....Yuuna......."

I’m woken up from my slumber by a voice calling out my name.

Huh…Where am I?

A sudden beam of light strikes through the branches of a tree above me; it’s a direct hit to my sight as if I was not confused enough already, but it also is an efficient way to wake up. I rub my still-tired eyes and look up at the sky.

It is a beautiful day with a sky clear as the blue oceans and a gentle spring breeze. I often like to gaze upon it every morning as I lay beneath this freshly bloomed cherry blossom tree. It’s giving me a nice cool shade, but that’s just a bonus.

I sit up and then begin to stretch my arms while yawning.

"Finally. I knew that I would find you napping out here."

The voice enters my right ear and almost leaves through the left. I navigate to the source with my sight and shortly spot a girl crouching near me. The two golden eyes of hers look vicious with the combination of a disappointed face she’s putting on for display.

"Oh. . .hey..."

I say in a sluggish manner.

“Don’t ‘Oh…hey..’ me! I was trying to wake you up for several minutes! I swear, did you not sleep? You look like you are about to fall apart!”

If I recall correctly, a nightmare woke me up several times. I couldn’t help it.

The crouching girl who dares to interrupt my peaceful rest is my older sister, Lena. Hair so short it stops at the top of her neck, dyed in dark violet. But despite those dark colors, her eyes shine with a bar of bright gold, just like a ray of light piercing through the darkness. She is always dependable and kind, but her words have the power to inflict mental scars. Currently, at the age of sixteen.

She’s about to go on a rant when another girl’s voice starts echoing in the near distance. Together, we respond to that voice and redirect our gaze. A girl is running towards us while waving.

"You are late."

Lena and I pronounced in unison.

"Sorry, I couldn’t find my necklace! I always put it somewhere and forget."

That’s a lie. She was touching herself again.

The girl out of breath connects her hands for a praying sign before Lena, while closing one of her eyes and slightly sticking out her tongue. She then looks at me, her expression goes from playful to a disappointed sort of expression.

“How was your beauty sleep, Yuuna?”

“What are you talking about?”

I answer as I rub one of my eyes.

“You are drooling all over the place.”

Oh, she’s right.

This is my second older sister, Charlotte, fifteen years old. Possessing black hair hanging down to her hips, accompanied by two crimson eyes as red as blooming roses - It goes well with her tanned skin. A big rack too, and not just that, she's squishy in all the right places. She is known by the people around her for her beauty and laziness, which often brings her to sleep, hence the ‘Sleeping Beauty’. She’s currently the tallest.

She oversleeps so often that we usually don’t bother waiting for her, but since the academy is starting again, Lena has put in extra effort to get her ready in time. And yet, she still somehow managed to make us wait.

For just a few seconds, Lena looks at her with a serious expression before letting out a sigh.

"Whatever, let's just go. We don’t want to be late on the very first day, do we now?"

She then gets a hold of my hand and pulls me up to my feet. It’s time to march through the town of Hikone. A small town in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the darkness of a forest spread across at least a mile. Its population shouldn’t be more than a thousand, but I’m no expert on that matter.

The streets are surrounded by houses built out of wood with floors of hardened earth and a thatched rooftop. Their openings are sealed off with sliding doors or windows. Most of the architecture is made this way, just for a few exceptions. For example Mayor’s mansion, that guy is living in a castle. Oh, how I wish that I could live that man’s life. Lazying around all day long as I’m protected from danger by countless guards. Just like a princess.

I’m stuck in my little daydream when I suddenly bump into something and knock it over, or rather someone. I’m struck by a terrible odor, almost as if I’ve crossed paths with a bunch of rotting garbage. But that’s not the case. It’s a child boy with a gaze saying it wants something from me. His clothes resemble a dirty piece of cloth. His body is covered in all kinds of stains, from dirt… to bruises. It’s one of those children.

What does it want? Help? I don’t want to deal with it, but I also don’t want to be mean to it either.

As I attempt to organize my thoughts in hopes of finding a way out of this situation, I’m suddenly struck by a feeling of heavy pressure. I glance from left to right and find myself in the center of several gazing pairs of eyes. Everyone passing through the street has the same hateful look on their face. I can feel their negativity seeping into me. I can feel my pulse rising and my body trembling with it. I can’t deal with a bunch of people staring at me.

“There there, take this and share with your friends too. Okay?”

In an instant, I feel at ease after one of my sister’s soft voices. Lena is crouching down and offering the child her entire lunch that she has made for today. She’s helping the boy without a thought about what the bystanders think of it. It doesn’t affect her.

The kid springs up with joy before bowing with gratitude and running away with its new possession, soon disappearing into the crowd of people moving through the street. Lena then brings her attention to me with a gentle smile, almost as if she’s checking if I’m alright. My eldest sister is really kind, sometimes too kind for her own good. Whoever stood by to observe is now returning to their original path and the circle made of people falls apart.

“Was it alright to give him your food?”

I ask my sister as she stands up and looks back in the direction of the child.

“Would you rather leave him starve to death?”

She answers my question with another. I can’t any words to answer her with.

“Just so you know, I’m not giving you any of my food.”

Charlotte adds to the short conversation with her little selfish remark. I wonder if the kid will be alright.

The people of this town go by a strict rule. In a few words - become a warrior for the people or you’ll be abandoned by the people. Children are trained from a young age to be just that. If they refuse, they are thrown out onto the street. To most adults, we are just potential tools of war. Though, I was lucky to be born into a kind and forgiving family.

As you can tell, the adults here have their pride when it comes to fighting, or maybe hunting is a better word. It’s not people they fight, but nightmarish monsters that crawl to earth from the pits of hell. In other words, Demons. What once used to be just a myth became a reality just a few hundred years ago. Nobody knows how or why they came, but one thing is certain - humanity wasn’t ready for this kind of threat. As a result, it has been split into parts and scattered across our land.

Now things are different compared to back then. We have been blessed with powers strong enough to protect ourselves. We simply call those powers “gifts”, they are pretty much like a special ability of some sort. And even then there are a few exceptions. The chances are close to none, but if I child fails to show any signs of gift possession by the time it’s ten years old, the child is labeled as defective and is abandoned after.

“Hey, look. I can see the school. Are you excited for your first day?”

Lena asks me with curiosity. I nod, but I can’t say I’m all that interested. Yeah, this is going to be my first time at school. The minimum required age is thirteen so I’ve been practicing with my dad while my sisters were attending classes. Though, after hearing all of Charlotte’s complaining I ended up setting my hopes rather low.

Suddenly, I catch the sound of a thin and hollow metal object hitting a hard surface, coming from one of the dark alley paths leading into a small opening between the houses - It’s a sound familiar to me. As divert my gaze towards the source, I catch a glimpse of someone in the distance, just before they disappear behind a sharp corner.

I guess someone just knocked over some garbage.

I’m about to continue down my original path when my eyes catch something else lying on the ground a bit closer. I don’t know what it is, but something about it has caught my attention. The rooftops of the neighboring houses connect and shelter the back street from sunlight. I end up ditching my sisters to have a better look at it.

What is that? It’s covered by something but doesn’t look like garbage. Why does it feel so odd? It’s really hard to see.

I casually move on, with each step bringing me a better picture of the thing before me, until some kind of liquid splatters beneath my foot. For a moment my attention is stolen.

Is that water? It looks kind of dark, and why is there such a metallic scent in the air? No…

With a mind filled with nothing but questions, I come to a dark realization. That puddle isn’t made of water.

It’s blood! Then that means…

What I’m looking at indeed isn’t trash lying around, or just some kind of an object. It’s a person. I pull off the cloth covering the bleeding person in hopes of helping them, but it’s too late. It’s just a child, and its expression filled with pain and still open eyes is the first thing I see. I recognize this kid.

It’s the boy from earlier. He’s… dead.

Struggling to keep my stomach’s contents where they belong, I lean to the wall and avert my eyes just a bit behind the corpse. There I spot Lena’s lunch box. The child didn’t even get to enjoy that much.

“Yuuna! Where did you go?!”

They’ve noticed. I should go back before they find me here. It’ll be better if they don’t know about this.

And just, like that I turn my back on the victim of this unforgivable act, that our people commit. There’s nothing I can do but turn a blind to it and move on. That’s the kind of world humanity lives in now. Cruel and unforgiving.