Prologue – Part 02
“You’re invited to the ball too?”
“I’m just tagging along with Luke,” Lisa replied. “We run a smithy, so I’m going as his assistant.”
“Oh, I see. Cecily’s going as security,” Aria said. “Knight Guard duty. Maybe you’ll run into each other.”
“We might not attend, though. You know Luke.”
“Yeah, that sounds like him. Oh! Isn’t it about time?”
“Yup, almost there.”
Lisa and Aria, chatting away, peered into the pot together.
Lisa had her hands full at Atelier Liza, helping with forging, cooking, laundry, errands. She worked non-stop from morning till night. She didn’t mind, though. Being useful to her master gave her a sense of fulfillment every day.
It was around noon, and she was checking on the stew simmering in the kitchen. The old, thin iron pot, worn to the point of looking like scrap metal, was bubbling away, releasing a savory aroma as she stirred it gently.
The intense heat, combined with steam from the pot, caused her blonde hair, tied in a single bundle, to cling to her forehead and neck. Her rolled-up sleeves revealed arms glistening with sweat. Summers in the Independent Trade City were extremely humid.
“Is it done yet? Is it done yet?”
Beside her, a brown-haired woman—Aria—leaned in, eagerly sniffing the air.
Aria’s outfit was daring, reminiscent of a dancer’s costume, highlighting her curves and smooth figure. Yet despite her revealing attire, there was nothing obscene about her appearance. Her lovely features showed a childlike, innocent expression as she peered into the pot.
Aria, Cecily’s partner, was a demon who could transform into an Infernal Blade.
It had become routine for Cecily and Aria to visit the workshop at lunchtime. Today, they arrived a bit early, so Cecily watched Luke work while Aria helped Lisa, though she mostly just sneaked bites of the food.
“Can’t wait, huh?”
“Yeah. Your cooking is exquisite.”
“Hehe.”
Luke rarely praised Lisa’s cooking, so Aria’s compliment genuinely pleased her.
“Yesterday, while I was gathering scrap metal around the city, the butcher gave me some pork bones he was about to throw away,” Lisa explained. “I used them for today’s broth. Look at all that fat! It’s making my mouth water. We usually can’t afford meat, so opportunities like this are rare. Ah, I’m drooling! Plus, I’m using some wild herbs from the Ashen Woods as a secret ingredient, so it smells amazing. It’s so rich in Aetheria, I’m drooling!”
The Aetheria in the air served both as a catalyst for Prayer and Demon Pacts and essential nutrients for demons like them. Regularly consuming Aetheria allowed them to maintain their physical forms for a longer period of time. In short, they were appetizing.
“The Ashen Woods, huh,” Aria muttered. “What’s it like? I’ve never been there. There’s always volcanic ash floating around. That can’t be good for your health.”
The Ashen Woods, also known as Housman Forest, was, as the name suggested, a woodland shrouded in volcanic ash. The area was rich in Aetheria, which enabled it to absorb the ash from the nearby volcanic zone. Lisa often gathered wild herbs there for cooking, and the high concentration of Aetheria meant those herbs were particularly potent.
“Sure, there’s a lot of ash in the air, but I’m a demon, so it doesn’t bother me,” Lisa continued. “I think you’d be okay too. But humans need to wear masks to avoid inhaling the ash, and they have to use jewel steel to prevent Aetherial sickness.”
“Aetherial sickness? What’s that?”
“High concentrations of Aetheria can affect humans in various ways. Symptoms include vomiting, fainting, and hallucinations. Oh, and at the edge of the forest—the boundary between the forest and the city—there’s a very deep gorge called the Clawmark. There have been a few falls there, so you need to be careful about that too. Sadly, every year, a few people die during the Ash Trade because of it.”
“Wow. Well, I’ll be fine, though, right? I’m not human. As long as I watch out for the cliff, I should be okay.”
Noting the strange tone in Aria’s voice when she said “I’m not human,” Lisa turned to look at her. Instead of looking at the pot, Aria was gazing out the open window.
Atelier Liza was located on the edge of the agricultural Seventh District, right next to the forest with the gray sky. Aria appeared entranced, staring into the distance.
No, it wasn’t the forest she was focused on. Was she staring at the Blair Volcano beyond the trees?
Lisa discreetly studied her profile and noticed a disturbingly blank expression.
Last time, when Aria begged Lisa to share her past and details about Valbanill, Lisa repeatedly asked why she wanted to know, but Aria had stubbornly avoided the questions with a forced smile.
Aria must be hiding something. Something she couldn’t share with anyone. Maybe not even Cecily.
“Hey.”
“Ah, y-yes?”
Aria asked with a somewhat listless expression, “What did you mean by losing everything together?”
“We’re already in this together, remember? We swore we’d lose everything together.”
It was a promise made between Luke and Lisa.
“It’s a secret,” Lisa replied, placing her index finger on her lips.
Losing together. Lisa didn’t know how Luke interpreted those words, but for her, they were a treasured secret she held close to her heart.
What did he really think?
Since the last Tri-Nation-One-City Conference, her relationship with him had become ambiguous. Until now, she had hesitated to intrude upon his feelings, consciously stepping back to remain just an assistant. But after meeting Cecily and Aria, that boundary had become harder to maintain. His feelings, shared with her for the first time, filled her with happiness, yet also made her greedy for more. She wanted to be closer to Luke.
“It’s an important promise I made with Luke as a demon. It’s not something I can share even with you.”
After all, Luke had asked her to keep it a secret.
“Hmm. Did you pledge to marry each other or something?”
“N-No, that’s ridiculous!” Lisa shook her head, blushing fiercely. “S-Someone like me getting married? No way!”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but you don’t have to put yourself down like that,” Aria said, a hint of reproach in her voice. “Have more confidence in yourself. It’s not like you two are stuck together against your will.”
“That’s true,” Lisa mumbled.
But I’m a demon, she thought. A demon born from the sacrifice of Luke’s beloved. That fact made her feel inherently inferior.
“Well, I’m a demon myself, so I guess I can’t really talk much,” Aria murmured, then suddenly exclaimed, “It’s boiling!”
Lisa hurriedly lifted the pot off the heat, but the handle was too hot, and she dropped it. The pot flipped over, spilling the soup everywhere. Aria let out a piercing scream.
Before long, Luke and Cecily, having rushed in at the sound of the commotion, found Lisa and Aria kneeling on the floor, tears streaming down their faces amid the scattered soup and bones.
“I’m drooling… I’m drooling.”
The two were reciting a strange incantation.
The Proxy Pact War was a conflict so horrific that it was given the alternate name of Valbanill War, after Valbanill, the most horrible Inhuman in continental history.
Valbanill drank the seas dry, split the earth, and consumed flesh in endless gluttony. Though not widely known, the war was actually sparked by Valbanill itself. Its name was no mere coincidence.
Sealed by a Sacred Sword, Valbanill harbored a deep-seated hatred for humans and unleashed a curse.
This curse took the form of Aetheria that spread across the continent, inscribing death spells onto human hearts. This created a deadly technique known as Demon Pacts, pitting humans against one another. To this day, the abominable Inhuman continued to spew its curse from deep within Blair Volcano, a truth known only to a handful of humans.
The Independent Trade City of Housman was the only neutral city on the continent.
In the wake of the great war, the pioneer Housman laid the foundation for a massive city that promoted free trade and declared independence from the Empire, the Militant Nation, and the Crowd Powers. It continued to thrive to this day.
The classified documents left behind by Housman significantly contributed to the continent’s recovery from the Valbanill War. They transformed the curse of Aetheria into a religious practice known as Prayer Pacts and revealed the existence of Valbanill and the Sacred Sword. Based on this information, the continental nations began holding regular meetings called the Valbanill Conference, overseen by the Continental Law Commission.
Now, centered around the city, the stability of the continent was beginning to waver.
Cecily Campbell, a member of the Independent Trade City’s Third District Knight Guard, had just been under suspension due to an incident that left the public office half-destroyed. Her wounds had healed, and it had only been a short time since her suspension was lifted.
It was the height of summer.
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