A Spirit's Destination

6. A Devil's curse (Akemi POV)

The first embrace I had ever gotten wasn't even of my mom. I remember that clear as ever.

The first ever thing that touched me, was fire.

Huge flames bursting out and enveloping me.

My mom's was the second.

She was holding me to prevent me from getting burnt.

Getting burnt in the process herself.

The next thing I remember, was that I was the princess of this huge kingdom.

My mom was the queen.

She died that day.

That day was 17 years ago from now.

The fires weren't natural. She didn't die by burning, I'm sure of it.

But the others called my mother's death off as an 'accident'.

I seriously despise them.

I despise this whole castle.

Every important individual survived when this castle burnt down.

Just my mom died.

Why did she have to die?

Why?

I have proof from when the castle burnt down.

The Library.

Apperantly the library is a hidden building here in this castle, that nobody, even the king doesn't know about.

I just happened to chance upon it when I was running about the castle. It reeked of the smell of burnt paper and cardboard.

It was the personal library of my ancestor, Harrold M. Sylvestia. The first king and founder of the Sylvestian Dynasty.

There I found his diary. It was old and dusty, and also burnt.

Wierd symbols, which I was able to read? Some area's i couldn't make out because it was just illegible and burnt.

It had tons of information on this world nad it's history.

That library was my hiding spot since then.

Every day and night I'd go and read his diary.

I had read all his diaries and the seemingly important books there.

Took me 4 years. I'm almost 11 now.

I got information about the 'Iron era' till the 'Great War'.

The 'Iron era' is when Harrold-sama was born.

People were exploiting spirit beasts for war and wars were happening every where.

Harrold sama had special blood, which is now called demon blood.

Demon blood is cursed, and said to only bring misfortune in this world.

I just found out something.

I had demon blood. Since the language that had been used then has evolved, people who can read the ancient language are regarded as having demon blood.

Luckily, my dad doesn't know about my blood.

Harrold-sama started the great war by using his demon blood to summon the 7 Guardian Spirit beasts from the shrines.

Normally, a person can only contract a single beast, but his demon blood allowed him to contract several.

He crushed all the revolts and the wars in a single night. And established the Sylvestian Dynasty.

His rule, over time, extended over 7 islands and he sent a spirit as the guardian of that Island.

That was when they got their name.

Whenever wars would start, the Guardian spirits would stop it and bring peace.

Those diaries had many hints leading to the mystery of my mother's death.

I had no ambition.

I did not know what to do.

So, I had made it my goal to figure out the mystery of my mother's death.

I just had to.

It was my ambition now.

I had found out that the one of the Guardian Spirits, the Magma Salamander, has the ability to manipulate flames.

It's shrine is on Topaz Island, North-west of Diamond Island. It's too far, so I kept searching for clues, this time, I took my first expedition outside.

Into the various ruins.

Then I took more expeditions.

Those expeditions took me closer to the truth but farther away from politics.

I haven't even given a single order to my assigned servant.

I haven't even dished out a single punishment.

Eventually, most of my time used to be spent on these expeditions.

I'd usually travel for a couple days.

Those couple of days turned into a couple of weeks.

The expeditions became longer and longer.

I started to grow distant from royalty, even more than I already was.

I don't know, all of those clues, all of those ancient writings, all of that research and expeditions which I conducted for 6 more years, they all led me to another Guardian Spirit, or more specifically, his Shrine.

The Phantom Dragon.

This dragon was my final destination.

All that hardwork would amount to nothing if i didn't go.

I went back to my home.

I tried to spend time with my dad, the king and tried to show interest in politics, but, it just doesn't sit with me.

No matter what I do, that castle, that damned castle just seems wierd to me.

Feels ominous, like I can't do anything.

Like I am powerless.

Soon, the next recruitment for the spirit hosts occurred. I knew this was my ticket to get to the Phantom Dragon's shrine.

The truth will finally be unveiled.

I talked to my dad about this, he agreed to let me into the Shrine.

The dots were connecting.

But then I suddenly met this wierd kid, the same age as me.

Well, I did not meet him, rather he met me.

He crashed into me, while he was running in the streets when I was just wandering about, away from the castle. Soon, he eventually started to run along with me.

He seemed so careless.

He had no worries.

No regrets.

He then started apologizing to me? Along with Kikotei?

(Kikotei is the old man incharge of recruiting spirit hosts from the East Sector of Diamond Island.)

For dragging me around?

What?

That's not even a proper crime.

I let them 'off the hook'.

Many things happened after that.

I got a wierd feeling, that something was about to to happen.

And it did happen.

That wierd kid contracted the Phantom Dragon as his Spirit beast.

I tried to warn him but he fainted.

I quickly rushed by his side.

This reckless brat.

But soon I lost consciousness too.

What was happening?