Lucy Caldwell suffered a disaster in her childhood - her house was burnt, which turned fatal for her parents. She grew up in a children's house together with other orphans. She could never forget the fire incident and was sure her parents were murde...
"Now then," Seiji Yamada began, after carving a nine-petaled lotus on the blackboard, "This is the nine-petaled lotus, the main symbol of the Nine Heavens - the spiritual realm where all supernatural beings such as angels and spirits are believed to reside. Nine Heavens are under the supervision of the High Forces themselves, as well as the Natural Energy. The Black Energy is the force that surrounds everything out of the grasp of the Nine Heavens, and Nature is everything that surrounds us, thus it contains both the Black Energy and the Nine Heavens in itself, the centre of which is the High Forces.
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"As you might already guess, Nine Heavens isn't located above us, but instead in the centre of the whole universe and the world. It is just called 'Heavens' because it is beyond our planet and in fact contains our whole galaxy and universe, and 'Nine' not because there are truly nine places, but nine forces in one single territory. Those nine forces are:
"Seraphim, the highest group of angels which includes archangels as well as the devil, as the former archangel who is currently in the High Forces' service, thus three Seraphim powers - celestial, terrestrial, and infernal angels;
"Cherubim, the guards of the High Forces;
"Natural Spirits, or the Yaoguai, or the Yōkai - the animalistic-spiritual creatures that we call for guardianship here in the East Land;
"We, humans;
"Animals, both of our realm and mystical;
"Mystical creatures such as elves, centaurs, mermaids, etc.;
"Aliens who live in other universes;
"Grim Reapers, created by the devil to aid him in the High Forces' service;
"Devilish demons - the light-powered demons modified by the devil to help him conduct order in Hell.
"The Hell Palace of the Devil is located on the border of Nine Heavens and the Black Energy realm. Beyond the border of that palace which Lord Yanluo has founded, is Hell, or, the Black Energy territory. Yes, what you thought is true - the 'Hell' is what the Black Energy territory is called. Our realm grows time by time, and Black Energy gives in to us. We must continue fighting in order to achieve our souls' complete purification, afterwards to rejoin the High Forces. Until then, the higher creatures - angels and spirits - shall aid us on our journey. However, there is one condition which we have agreed upon - as you know, we all are born with guardian angels, but spirits do not really enjoy collaborating with angels, as these latter ones are off-springs of the High Forces while spirits have been born out of the Natural Energy, so they prefer to work separately. Because of this, here in the East Land, whenever we accept a bond with a spirit, our guardian angels leave us forever. Bear that in mind: if you ever make your spirit leave you, you shall be doomed to remain unguarded, thus nothing more but a Former Host. Be aware of that".
The children gulped - yeah, truly scary words, the 'Former Hosts'... No one liked those guys neither in the West Land nor here in the East Land - the ones who had proven themselves unworthy of the higher creatures' protection.
"Now, once you've found out about the work of the whole world, let's go on about our affairs..." Master Yamada drew a nine-cornered figure this time. In each corner, he drew spheres and wrote some names there. "In the realm of spirits, there are nine highest families. I shall recite them from the highest to the lowest: "Huli - the clan of tailed foxes..."
Lucy smiled at Yuehong, who proudly chuckled and fanned his face.
"Long - the clan of dragons..."
Rose and Xiao-Hong grinned at each other with happiness and pride.
"Kujaku, the clan of peacocks;
"Xiong - the clan of bears of all kind..."
Tang smirked a little, glancing obliquely at Meili, his panda spirit, who instead calmly listened to Seiji Yamada.
"Wolfe - the clan of wolves..." Yamada smiled a little himself. His spirit, Ulfrik, showed a wide grin instead. "Mao - the clan of all kinds of cats (be it 'big cats' or small);
"Adler, the clan of eagles;
"Fox - the clan of 'tailless' foxes (those with only one single tail);
"And Kaninchen - the clan of rabbits which entered the main clan rank after the main clan of rabbits, De Lapin, went extinct".
Hearing about De Lapin extinction being the only reason for the Kaninchen Clan promotion, Gretchen clenched her fists with inner rage but quickly hid her emotions once caught a glimpse of Yuehong's sarcastic gaze.
"As you can notice, almost all of you here have spirits that come from great clans, or, even more - belong to the head families of those clans. The only exception would be Lola Brown," he looked at Lola who had flared up with inner anger - why was she the only one with no cool clan spirit?! Evilia too had gone raged, but for a different reason - she felt bitter that her bonded hostess preferred other types of spirits who came from higher clans... But then Master Yamada smiled again: "I guess you are one of the strongest hosts yourself Lola, for you, with your spiritual energy mixed with your spirit's one, managed to enroll in our class no matter your spirit doesn't have a strong spiritual background, and you too, Evilia Hoot, good job".
Lola and Evilia both smiled - they were still praised!
"Now the last but not the least thing you should know for the first lesson," Seiji referred to all of them, "These nine clans are the most main, however, not all of them are friendly with us humans. Many of the man-eater spirits that exist belong to this list. The man-eaters you must be aware of are Huli - the clan of tailed foxes, Xiong - the clan of bears, Wolfe - the clan of wolves, Kujaku - the clan of peacocks, and Mao - the clan of all cats. As you might guess, it is very hard to befriend a high-class spirit, and this concerns these nine clans too. We were only able to befriend Long - the clan of dragons, Fox - the clan of 'tailless' foxes, Adler - the clan of eagles, and Kaninchen - the clan of rabbits. So be aware of those other five clans. I see that two of you," he looked at Lucy and Tang, "have been able to bond with a man-eater spirit, like me. People like us are rare. Still, you must train hard to unlock your spirit's full potential once these latter ones are bonded with you, so do your best! That shall be it for now. Training will begin tomorrow. Memorize this information for today. You are dismissed".
The children let their spirits go back to their realms. However, Lucy didn't get quite satisfied with this lecture, even though it was interesting, so she slipped into the library of the school.
He talked about two clans of rabbits, so the rabbit woman I saw in my dream... Was it Kaninchen, or was it De Lapin?
