Learen woke up feeling surprisingly good, far better than she did in weeks, she got up with relief and nodded to herself.

It was her son’s third birthday and she wanted to make it special, so she had been saving up money for months and bought all the necessary ingredients to make all his favorite food and even bake a cake – although the crumbling oven they had in their tiny one-room house was most definitely a fire hazard – it was also somehow good enough to use…

…probably…

”Hmhm~!”

The black-haired woman hummed to herself and tiptoed by the little bed of her child and started sneakily preparing everything.

She knew that she shouldn’t be using the darkness magic spells because since her shadow attribute transformed into the darkness attribute her health plummeted down like a speeding wagon down a cliff, but she decided that it was okay just this once and casted muffle to allow her precious little boy a little more sleep time.

”Uncle Benevirau always said that kids should sleep a lot and not worry about a thing~”

She muttered, smiling to herself reminiscing about her old life in the Banemor territory.

”I wonder how father is… It’s already been more than three and a half years, maybe he had forgi…”

”|YOU HAVE ABANDONED YOUR FAMILY, GOT IMPREGNATED BY SOME MAGICLESS SCUM OF A COMMONER AND EVEN THEN YOU LEFT HIM TO DIE ESCAPING ON YOUR OWN! YOU ARE A WORTHLESS BITCH WHO WHORES HERSELF OUT JUST TO SURVIVE AND FEED THAT MAGICLESS BASTARD OF A CHILD! FORGIVE YOU? YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF FORGIVENESS! IF YOUR SINS WERE SO EASILY PARDONED THEN BENEVIRAU WOULD HAVE FOUND YOU ALREADY! HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN ALREADY? NO ONE IS LOOKING FOR YOU! NO ONE CARES FOR YOU! NO ONE EVEN REMEMBERS YOU! GIVE UP! JOINING THE DARKNESS IS THE ONLY WAY! YOU HAVE ALREADY STOOP SO LOW, WHAT’S THERE PROBLEM TO BENT A LITTLE MORE…?|”

Learen hugged herself and sighed with a dreamy expression – when suddenly her body trembled in and she bent in half, having to use both hands to support herself against the table to not fall down as the furious words of two voices which neither sounded as if belonged to her, came out of her mouth, berating her relentlessly.

”Ghhhh…! GHOUGH! GHOUGH! GHOUGH!”

Immediately as the voices stopped, Learen started coughing heavily until blood started gushing from her mouth.

”N-noo…! GHOUGH…! The…! GHOUGH! The ingredients…!”

The black-haired woman cried out, crouching down making sure that the blood won’t be spilled on the food she was preparing.

She didn’t seem nearly as concerned with the two voices nor with the bleeding as she should be – but that was only because it wasn’t the first time that happened.

”GHOUGH! GHHHHOURRGGGH..! Ptghe…!”

*splat*

Learen coughed and coughed until she spat out a piece of fleshy red tissue, and that seemed to have helped.

”That’s right… who am I kidding… Neither father nor uncle could ever forgive me…”

She gulped down the saliva mixed with blood and whispered bitterly as her shoulders trembled.

”Now then…!”

With the reoccurring attack of violent coughing gone, the black-haired woman stood up and nodded to herself, trying to smile and get back into the good mood that vanished when she saw the mess on the floor.

The only good part about the situation was that her son didn’t witness the attack this time – when the voices berated her the little boy would always try to help her but end up crying as there was nothing that he could do.

This was just how things were for Learen.

This was her punishment for being such a terrible person…

…at least according to the voices that started harassing her at the same time she became sick…

Learen hurriedly got some rainwater stored in an originally leaky barrel that she and her son fixed t the best of their ability, and cleaned the floor, hoping that the metallic smell won’t reveal to her child what had happened.

Even his sad face was so cute that Learen couldn’t stop melting over him, wondering whether he would look more like his father or her when he will grow up…

”…”

And instantly bit her lips with a bitter realization that she will most likely never be able to see him grow up…

Her biggest wish was to live long enough so that he would be able to survive in this world, maybe even get adopted into some warm family…

”Ah…! Oh no, not in the batter…!”

Learen realized a bit too late that she started crying and her tears ended up falling into the bowl she was mixing the ingredients for the cake.

”Oh, dear… What’s going on with me today…? I need to be strong for the two of us!”

She wiped her tears and shook her head, taking a deep breath and breathing out to compose herself.

The sun was already up and the normal sounds of the slums were invading their tiny house through the cracks and holes in the walls – it was only a matter of time before the birthday boy would wake up.

…but the thing was, he already was awake, and was only pretending to be asleep…

Learen didn’t realize that her muffle spell never properly worked and the boy had heard everything…

Soon enough the whole house filled with the enticing smell of food and the black-haired woman approached him and kneeled by his bed, so he hurriedly burrowed his face in the pillow so she wouldn’t notice that he was awake this whole time and got sad over him witnessing everything…

”Hey~ my little sleepy head~! It’s time to wake up. It’s your birthday~”

Learen cleared her throat, sore from all the coughing, and hummed happily, reaching her hand and affectionately tousling the boy’s black-haired, which was actually of a slightly lighter shade of black than her own.

”…nnn…?”

The boy let out a sound that he hoped sounded sleepy enough to not arouse any suspicion and moved a bit, but not enough for his mother to take back her hand.

The little boy really loved his mother’s head pats after all.

”Hmhmhm~! It’s time to wake up, my sweet Benevi~!”

Learen called out with just as much love and…

*****

”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Zoemi never woke up so violently from any nightmare – not even the terrible ones about danger approaching Miriette – as he did from that particular dream.

He…

He dreamt about his childhood.

The time house in the slums could be called a ruin at best and was only slightly better than a shack made out of sticks and mud.

His mother, tormented by the attacks of violent coughing caused by the darkness mana slowly melting her from the inside, corroding her respiratory organs first as they were the easiest target.

But there were some details that he didn’t originally remember.

The voices…

Back then he was extremely scared each time the voices spoke through his mother’s mouth, berating her and putting her down about everything she did – but at that time he had no idea who they belonged to.

…it was a different thing now…

Zoemi had no idea how he knew, but he was absolutely sure to who the voices belonged.

Two members of the Ghosts of Bellcephora.

Rethaq, a woman whose darkness blade turned into mist, who interestingly enough Benevirau had mentioned the night before…

And Kiorterell… the one whose darkness blade was allowing him to… possess his target…

”…sentinels…”

”~?” x 97

Zoemi gulped down his saliva and breathed out – the next second the master bedroom that he slept in became packed to the brim with tens upon tens of murky dark robs, all very confused about their quantity.

”Find the Ghosts of Bellcephora. Find every single trace of the Ghost of Bellcephora. Go.”

The black-haired boy demanded without raising his head and pointed his hand at the window.

”~!” x97

All the sentinels turned into murky mist and effortlessly passed through the wall, materializing back into their usual form once they got outside and spread out at ridiculous speed.

”…”

Zoemi hid his face in his hands and breathed out, doing his best not to lose his mind.

The dream could have been only just that, a charmless dream that his brain pieced together from the information available.

But the black-haired boy knew deep inside that it wasn’t the case.

That wasn’t JUST a dream.

It was a memory, a memory buried deep inside his brain that got uncovered because of the recent events.

Zoemi slowly straightened his back and looked outside the window – the sun didn’t even raise yet and only a thin orangish line on the horizon was marking its presence.

He barely slept an hour.

Maybe even less.

”Benevi, huh… I wonder how Benevirau will react to my original name…”

The black-haired boy raised his brow and thought out loud, before getting out of the bed and dressing up.