In the dead of night in Castle Melromarc the painful cries of a woman in labor echoed through the hallways. The King watched at the side as his wife brought his children into the world, something that would make any man tear up.
"Push my Queen, push!" The head nurse instructed as the Queen breathed for a moment. With one more painful cry she gave birth to her first child, a beautiful baby girl who cried as soon as she was brought into the world.
"You are nearly there my Queen, one more push!" The nurse urged the Queen, awaiting the twin of the first born child. Another few moments and the second child was born, a baby boy asleep in the arms of the nurse.
Congratulating the Queen on her successful childbirth the head nurse handed the two children over to their mother, finally getting a good look at the two children as she was too focused on delivering them first.
The baby girl already had a few wisps of hair, strangely though, they were coloured red unlike either of her parents. The Queen had luscious purple hair that any woman would crave and the King had white hair that gave him that aura of wisdom that came with his title, 'The Wise King'.
The boy had wisps of hair as well, and they were white like his father, though what was the most attention grabbing feature of the boy were his strange markings. There were five black circles around his mouth with black lines shooting from the circles. (Imagine Hyoga from Dr. Stone)
The boy slept peacefully, even while his sister loudly cried and demanded attention from everyone in the room. It was strange, usually a newborn would cry yet the boy did no such thing.
"I will take my leave now, your majesties." The nurse left the room, leaving the two rulers of Melromarc on their own.
"My dear, this is wonderful! We have been blessed to not only have an heir to the throne, but also to have another who can foster relations between other countries!" The King, Aultcray Melromarc, was nearly jumping with joy over his wife giving birth to twins.
The Queen though, Mirellia Q. Melromarc, was quiet, staring at her son with guilt and sorrow filled eyes. She knew of the markings that plagued his face, knew of the stories that explained their significance.
The king finally took notice of her silence, stopping his celebration and moving towards his wife. "My dear, is something the matter?" It was then that he finally laid his eyes on the boy's face. He stepped back and he went pale, as if he had seen a ghost. "The curse… But how… No…"
"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Aultcray. If news of the boy came out then he would be hunted down by the church and their followers." Tears flowed from the Queen's eyes as she spoke, knowing the future of the boy if she were to announce his birth. "Leif Melromarc doesn't exist."
The King stood in silence, still pale from looking at the boy and seeing the cursed mark that plagued him. After a few moments the King regained some of his composure, though what he did next was something that the Queen was not expecting. From his sleeve he pulled a dagger, one that he carried in case his guards were not present and he needed to protect himself.
"I will not allow this cursed child to ruin my family the same as the Shield Devil!" Aultcray ran forward with his dagger raised high, only to be stopped when Mirellia froze him in place with her ice magic. There was fury in his eyes as he viewed the boy from his frozen prison, though he could do nothing but remain frozen.
"And I will not allow you to murder an innocent child, your own child." The Queen stood from her bed, placing her daughter down but keeping Leif in her arms as she moved to the window. With a click of her finger a black clad figure entered the room and bowed to the Queen.
"What would you order of me, your majesty?" The Shadow kept her head down, not daring to look the Queen in the eyes after seeing her freeze the King mercilessly.
"Take this child to Lord Seaetto, leave a note of this child's name but don't leave any identification that he is of royal birth. If the church finds out they will hunt him down and kill him in way of 'Purifying a Cursed Child'." The Queen handed the child over to the Shadow who bowed her head and flickered from view.
The Queen stood there for a moment before falling to her knees and clutching her face with her hands. There were no sounds from the room except the sounds of the Queen's sobs as she realized she lost her son before he could even know her.
After nearly half an hour of sobbing, the Queen regained her composure and straightened herself up. She walked back to her daughter, now finally asleep after crying since her birth. She picked the child up and rocked her to sleep, a smile on her face as she looked at the innocent smile on her daughter's face. If only she knew of the twisted being her daughter would become in the future.
—
"Come on dad! You never let me go outside on my own!" A young boy, probably 8 or 9 years old, was whining to his father about not being allowed out of the house on his own. He wore a black mask over the bottom half of his face, allowing for his eyes to be seen but his mouth and anything below to be hidden. (Again, think of Hyoga from Dr. Stone)
"And I told you, if something happens to your mask then it will be better if Eclair is there with you, Leif." The man sitting in his chair reading a book was Lord Seaetto, lord of the Seaetto territory who currently resides in Lurolona village.
This wasn't the first time they had had this conversation, and every time Lord Seaetto was stubborn and refused to budge on his stance. He was aware of the marks that had plagued the young boy's face and their meaning to the church of Melromarc, yet he didn't care.
"But she doesn't even play with me and the other kids! All she does is swing her sword and watch us!" Leif's arms slumped down in defeat, he was never able to convince his father to let him go alone.
"That's up to her. She is trying to become a knight for Melromarc to protect the villagers, and she needs all the practice she can get." Lord Seaetto took a sip of his tea before he spoke again. "I speak to Eclair about letting loose a little, but you and the others are the ones who are going to have to entice her to play with you."
"That's better than nothing!" Leif's hands raised into the air in victory, however small it may be. Leif raced out of the room to get changed into clothes he could dirty, leaving Lord Seaetto to chuckle to himself before calling for Eclair.
A few minutes later, a young girl with strawberry pink hair and piercing blue eyes entered the room, a wooden sword strapped to her belt. She bowed to her father before asking why she was called.
"Leif wants to go out again, I need you to supervise him." Lord Seaetto explained his reason for calling her and instantly any enthusiasm she had was squashed. "Now, now, I know you would rather be training with the sword, but think of this as more training."
"Father, isn't it time for Leif to be allowed out of the house on his own? You allowed me to leave the house on my own when I was his age." She expressed her thoughts on the matter, but Lord Seaetto sighed in response.
"I am aware, but his situation is unique, you know this, and that's why I can't allow him to leave the house on his own." The lord drank from his tea again before turning to his daughter. "If people found out of his curse then he would be hunted down, not even the Queen would be able to save him from the Church and their followers."
"Surely you don't believe those crazy teachings, father? They preach nothing but lies, claiming Demi-Humans are nothing more than monsters and that the Shield Hero is some sort of Demon. Why would you believe their words about Leif's marks?"
"Because it isn't only the church that preaches the warnings. Even in other countries they warn of the marks on Leif's face and the disaster that would follow if they were to be allowed to live." Lord Seaetto stood from his seat and moved to one of the bookshelves that lined the room, grabbing three books from the shelves and giving them to Eclair. "Turn to pages 123, 439, and 231."
Eclair did as told and opened the first book to the page she was told, reading the excerpt that was helpfully highlighted by her father.
'The Marks of Devastation are born with a child every 1000 years, and with them are brought destruction of untold amounts. Should the Marks appear again then destroy their host and pray that you aren't too late to save yourself.'
After reading the first excerpt she was worried about what the other two would read. Hesitantly, she opened the second book and found another excerpt highlighted.
'The gods have forsaken humanity, they brought forth death and destruction using unholy power that no beings could possibly hope to stop. Pray that another cursed being doesn't appear once again.'
Eclair was terrified of what she was hearing, if what these books were saying were true then Leif was going to be the cause of untold destruction. She couldn't bear to imagine that happening. She opened the last book, expecting to see more predictions of destruction, but was surprised by what she read.
'The Marks can be contained. After testing it appears that they will only activate in moments of extreme emotional distress, panic, or after immense training. As long as none of these situations are brought near the Mark holder then there is hope for the world yet.'
"Who found out the Marks can be contained?" She was relieved to find out that there was a way to stop the destruction that these books were foretelling, but someone had to have experimented on the Marks to figure this out.
"No one knows, it was found in ancient ruins that predated the waves of calamity so it's possible that they don't even relate to the Marks on Leif's face." Lord Seaetto took another drink from his tea, downing the rest of the glass. "This is why I don't want him to go alone, if something causes him to panic then his power may go out of control and destroy those who are close to him."
Eclair was silent, finally reaching an understanding as to why her father wanted her to watch Leif. She thought about what she would do in his situation, would she have killed Leif as a baby? Would she do the same as her father? She didn't know, and that scared her.
It was at that moment when Leif entered the room once again, causing Eclair to stiffen up in fright. Leif didn't seem to notice though, excitedly bouncing up and down in eagerness to go play with the other kids.
"Come on Eclair! The other kids are probably waiting for us!" He grabbed her hand and dragged the young girl out of the house, not noticing the looks that Eclair was giving him.
