Episode 0 Prologue & Prequel Version 2

Episode 0 Prologue & Prequel Version 2

Prologue 1 - Execution site

Gasps of shock and disbelief echoed across the huge execution venue.

A tall man in military attire stood straight up, using his loud voice to report to everyone attending this execution case. "Reporting! When Squad 2 arrived at the site, they discovered that the location that was tipped in was completely ambushed." He shouted, "The shed they were occupying was in the midst of burning with 10 people stuck alive. 50 bandits died from poisoning, and the other 59 were then discovered half a mile away from the criminal's base slaughtered."

The man paused for a second to glance at the small figure who was standing on the execution ring, sighing he continued, "The rest were dismembered… gruesomely by this child as seen by many soldiers."

Gasps of disbelief were then filled with shouts of anger and disgust! Booing towards the little girl standing below them.

" Not only did this child interfere with our mission of capturing the bandits alive, but this child had also ruthlessly slaughtered everyone in a cruel and gruesome way! As per the rules of Xenperia, if a common citizen has killed someone and was found guilty of doing so, they will be sentenced to immediate death."

Child or not, a common citizen who kills someone must pay back with their own lives. A common citizen means a person who does not work as a knight or a soldier.

"The bandits that were slaughtered are criminals that were to be captured alive no matter what, but this child had gone and ruined it! Although executing this child might seem cruel, she was caught in the act of killing many lives! The spawn of the devil that came out of nowhere! If we sympathize who knows what kind of monster this child will grow up to become!" The tall soldier shouted as the accused child was held down by 2 humongous Imperial knights. The child held down looked under the age of 10 and was completely covered in dirt and blood.

Because this trial was a sensitive case, the Emperor had ordered the trial to be kept from the public as well as quickly solved and over with.

Here in the execution venue were military soldiers that had just arrived back from an expedition outside Xenperia. They were men who protected the country from outside evildoers. Out of the people present, there were two esteemed figures ordered to overlook this execution case.

Normally with execution cases, the highest-ranking noble would be required to judge and foresee this case but because Xenperia was in the midst of a huge crisis, this case was given to the 2nd highest-ranking figures.

The military men who just arrived back at Xenperia were shocked and stunned at this case. Some couldn't help but feel chilly just by hearing that a small child was capable of such things.

"W-why was there a child there in the first place!" One man whispered in terror.

"But isn't this too cruel? The child looks so bloody!" Another man replied.

"Judging from how over 100 people died from this child alone, the child must be a foreign agent." Another military man whispered.

"Indeed! There are reports about xx country grooming children as secret agents. This child might be from there to hush these bandits up to keep them from talking."

"How cruel… To sacrifice a child to hush the bandits" One man frowned.

People were whispering left and right. Some were uncomfortable with the child being executed, and some were thinking about the future of which this child becomes a monster and a threat to Xenperia. Either way, it wasn't possible for the child to escape death and that was because the child had already committed the worst sin, taking a life.

Elaborating on the bandit situation, there were still many questions that needed to be answered and one of them was how the child came to know of the bandit's hideout. Even though the child might be on the bandit's side, it was still impossible to communicate that fast whilst the bandits were being man hunted from every side.

These bandits were criminals that had just broken out of prison from Xenperia's neighboring country. From reports by the neighboring country, they found out that this group of bandits were most likely a division of a huge criminal group Xenperia had their eyes on, hence why Xenperia worked with the neighboring country to capture the escapees.

A civilian had accidentally crossed paths with the bandits whilst they were escaping which greatly helped the Xenperian soldiers to track down the bandits. But who would have known that before they could extract any information from the bandits, they would already be down in hell with the god of death!

With the trial going on, the child being held down was on the verge of passing out. Ever since the mass killing, she had been in and out of consciousness. Her whole head was ringing from being beaten mercilessly by the bandits plus the people above the execution grounds were shouting left and right. From many factors together, she couldn't find the right timing to speak.

Moreover, her wounds were starting to open up again from being carried to the execution venue. When the military soldiers captured her, they threw her into prison and gave her little to no medical attention. There were some that thought she was pitiful and gave her some water to drink but that was all. Most of the time she was sleeping and the next thing she knew, she was already kneeling in front of people she had never before seen.

Gulping down her dried blood, she could feel her heartbeat thumping fiercely. The situation was completely ridiculous, and she knew she could have prevented such a situation from happening if she were to be conscious during the time she was thrown into prison. If she were to know that she was going to be put in such a situation, she would have said something before passing out!

'Curses! Am I going to die again? If this was a novel, people wouldn't even bother reading this!' The girl cursed. Dying before her life is about to begin is RIDICULOUS! 'Haa…' She breathed out, 'How am I supposed to resolve this!' The child couldn't help but deeply exhale from exhaustion.

"Ahem" A loud cough was heard, this cough for some reason giving the girl a bit of hope for one reason or the other.

"Men! Why don't we let this young child have a chance to speak!"

From her vision she could see a buff man standing up, his words silencing everyone in the execution dome. 'Most likely someone to oversee the trial' The girl thought.

Feeling a bit grateful to the man, she sighed in deep relief, 'CHANCE! Whoever it deserved to be praised!' She quickly thanked the man in her mind.

"Well….." The girl spoke out

-

Prequel 1 - Her former life's death.

During the time she remained unconscious, her mentally and physically exhausted body made her once again recall the things of the past. Her origin...

She used to have another life.

Before being reborn or reincarnated into this world, she was an actress. Doing everything from modeling to acting, she was an ideal entertainer who people loved and adored. She was an A-list actress who had everything in her hands but because of one accident, everything she accomplished disappeared.

The accident happened on her 15th anniversary of debuting as an actress, where she was murdered by an ice sculpture meant to commemorate that anniversary with her fans.

Just like that before she realized what happened, she was already on the floor clutching her head.

An empty death...

Before her empty death, her life was already empty. Why?

Because she was Alexithymic. She was unable to feel emotions.

Happiness, Sadness. She only knew how to replicate these feelings, but as to what they truly felt like… she didn't know.

Without emotions, she was completely isolated from the whole world. And before she knew it, she was auditioning to become an actress. It was a route that she felt might give her emotions back.

But how can someone who doesn't feel emotions act? Well, she failed terribly as a child actress but she continued to persist in this area regardless. Every day, she would mimic different types of emotions.

Every minute, and every year that passed by, she became more and more successful. Everyone praised her talent for acting and everyone looked up to her as someone who succeeded after countless failures.

Like this, 15 years went by but she was still the same. Empty.

The only thing she picked up from her 15 years of career was her talent in acting and that's why when she was clutching her head on the cold hard floor, bleeding to death, she didn't care.

Dying or living didn't mean much to her.

So how was it that she was able to narrate this section of this episode? Hmm… This was something she could never figure out. Being able to be reborn and reincarnate was something she could never put her head around.

It was just that before she knew it, she was already a baby...

-

Prequel 2 - After her former life's death.

Clutching her bleeding head on the cold hard floor of the dark storage room, before she knew it, she already found herself staring into the abyss. This was the first time she had opened her eyes after being murdered on her 15th anniversary.

The abyss was empty and dark as if she was floating in the air.

She was only able to stare into the abyss before who knows how many minutes or hours has passed by, she was able to blink.

From her eyes, her ears became able to hear bell chimes. Soon after, her nose was able to pick up smells of fresh herbs.

Slowly, her body was able to make small movements, and as if she was possessed, she was forced to walk for what seemed like an eternity to a small dot of light.

The small dot, upon her walking closer, took the shape of a book. As if static were covering the book warning for people not to touch, her body did the complete opposite and forcefully make her grab the book. Before her eyes, she could see her hand burning with white flames as well as smell the pungent smell of her flesh burning.

Ignoring her hands, her body opened the book and before she knew it, she had regained complete control over her mind and body.

Ignoring the flames burning her hands off, she stared at the familiar book. Using her burning hands, she read out the only word written on the blank page.

'Promissum'

Latin for Promise.

Crash-!

As soon as she muttered the word, thunder roared from behind her, shaking and tearing apart the empty abyss. Lighting flashing before her eyes.

"B-!" A voice spoke.

Before she could react, the abyss was cracking and was being sucked away with frightening speed! This forced her to crouch down until no sound, no nothing was heard.

Peeking through her arms, the first sight that greeted her after a huge storm was a dazzling light. Blinking her eyes to get used to such brightness, she slowly looked around. Instead of the abyss, the universe before her was completely white. As if she was filming a commercial with a white backdrop.

'Is this death..' She wondered, looking around at many stone statues that surrounded her. 'Why is death so complicated?' She couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. First the abyss, then her hands burning, then a white world.

This is too complicated.

After crouching down for at least an hour and seeing nothing happening, she slowly got up from her position. Putting her guards up for something to happen.

And like her standing up was a queue, a childish voice echoed throughout the bright universe. "Miss!!"

'Miss?' She looked up. The voice sounded very far yet very close.

"Knock-knock, A little princess was dancing happily in the beautiful forest at the Valley of Voeia-" The same childish voice then began to sing.

"..." What is going on? Is this a dream? Was she not dead? Is she in a coma and just couldn't wake up?

Who in the world is singing?!?!

The voice that belonged to a child continued, "The princess swayed and swirled, everywhere she danced flowers bloomed. The loveable princess everyone admires"

As soon as the childish voice paused, a loud creaking noise was heard.

"It's time-" A voice belonging to someone else sounded out. This voice was whispering behind her. Without turning, she could see a shadow overlapping with her own from the bottom of her feet.

BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

She couldn't help but tense up, her heart thumping incredibly loud. She could feel that something was going to happen...

The childish voice continued, "But then one day, some old child got jealous of her beauty, pushed her from behind, and the beautiful princess fell into-"

"Eternal darkness" The familiar voice behind her continued instead of the childish voice.

Startled because of the sudden dark lyrics, she mustered up her courage and fastly turned around!

'Ah…' She speechlessly stared at the person in front of her.

A woman wearing a beautiful partially see-through blue dress was standing in front of her. This dress was designed by a famous Italian designer who gave this dress to her as a gift to celebrate her 15th year.

'Ah... Was this how I looked when I died?' She stared at the person in front of her… Herself...

Replacing the weird statues, her bleeding self was standing in front of her instead.

"Anxious?" Her other self spoke, slightly smiling towards her.

'… anxious?' She thought. Unable to reply.

Putting her hands in front of her beating heart she became momentarily stunned! Was getting hit in the head a cure for her alexithymic condition?

"Ah.." She muttered.

"Haha" Her other self chuckled. Watching her other self laughing, she couldn't help but frown. A genuine expression was plastered on that face of hers.

Her other self for a few more seconds before becoming serious, "It's time I go back" Her bloodied self said before taking a step back. "Thank you"

She speechless stared as her other self disintegrated into thin air. Before she was able to process anything, she was jolted away a second time!

-

Prequel 3 - After her former life's death 2

"Ah, the miss has awoken!" The childish voice that sang rang into her ears. This time as if the person singing was beside her.

"How adorable, her eyes are just like the Duke and Eldest young master! Too bad her younger twin sister is still asleep to see her waking up!" Another voice spoke for the other end of her ears.

"Shh! Don't be too loud!" The voice that sang the dark sound hushed the person speaking.

'Twins?' She thought. What on earth are they talking about?

Although she felt her eyelids opening, she couldn't see beyond her. Everything was misty and blurry as if her eyes weren't functioning. She tried to move around but her body felt as if she was being held down by another body.

'What on earth is going on?' She could feel that this wasn't a dream, but if this wasn't a dream, were her nerves completely dead? And what was the talk about a younger twin about? All her relatives were dead! Where was her other self that was just in front of her?!

'Wha...What is going on!' She shouted in her mind, before once again falling out of consciousness.

And that was the first time, she opened her eyes in this world. As a month old baby...

-

Prologue 2 - The Execution Site 2

The memories of her death and what happened after her death was all she could dream of when she was out of consciousness in the prison. These were memories she kept at the back of her head, but possibly because she was about to die again, these memories came gushing forward.

'What execution? NO WAY!' She gritted her teeth. Her life is finally not empty and she was unwilling to die again! NOT NOW ANYWAYS!

"Child? What's wrong? Go on?" The man who allowed her to talk spoke out once again.

"Eu…-Kughk-" She coughed whilst attempting to say her name.

"What? Say it louder" A knight beside her kicked her forward.

"Coughh-" She coughed up more blood from being jerked forward, 'What 'say it louder?' You're making it harder for me to talk!' She blinked rapidly to stay awake.

"Hey! Get down and listen to what she's saying!" The guard who kicked her ordered the other knight to crouch down.

Rolling his eyes in his mind, the younger knight followed the older knight's order just to stare at the child in front of him in horror! Nodding to her words, he slowly got up and looked palely at the older knight.

"Why? What did the child say!" The older guard looked down at the child with short black hair before looking back up to the younger guard for answers.

"... Eugene" The younger guard mumbled, looking out of it.

"What?" The older guard raised his voice!

'What the heck. It was my first day on the job!' The younger knight glanced down at the child who was staring at him with eyes that seemed to swallow his soul.

'Why!!!' He shouted in his mind. Quickly swallowing his dry throat, he shouted as if the ending of the world was here! "REPEATING AND REPORTING!"

The important crisis Xenperia was dealing with was here right in front of his eyes! The blessed Paladin of Xenperia! The missing eldest twin daughter of the house of Veria whom every single soldier and knight in this country has been searching for!

"HOUSE OF VERIA! MISS EUGENEIA LA VERIA HAS BEEN FOUND!"

His loud voice echoed and punched into the soul of stunned soldiers. The two esteemed figures immediately stood up from their seats, one running out to report that the blessed twin had been found and the other clutching the handrail staring at the small child speechlessly! The other soldiers felt their souls leaving their bodies at such a plot twist!

The blessed twin of Xenperia!

Hell is awaiting.