Ch-6 Adelinde's Soliloquy

[Adelinde POV]

My name is Adelinde. 

Adelinde Hershey, to be precise. 

I'm a simple maid in the Kagenou Family Manor, a low ranked noble family in the Kingdom of Midgar. 

I come from a backward family myself, originally taken in by the previous lord of the house, when Mrs. Kagenou was till a child. I was also a child at the time, and when my parents brought me here to work, I was assigned to the young daughter of the house. 

Which I am eternally grateful for, by the way. If not for that, I might have never made a friend as nice as her. 

She was my first real friend, after all. Despite being a noble and essentially my boss, she was always nice and made my whole life so much easier. We even practiced the art of the sword together, ordered by her father to teach me, since I've had to defend her in the past and act like a bodyguard as well. 

I got good at my job eventually became the Head Maid of House Kagenou. My dear friend was so happy when he heard this and didn't let go of my for the next three days. I truly adore her. 

She then got married and now, after a year or two, she had her first child. A daughter named Claire. 

Almost immediately, I was put under the duty of caring for her when she couldn't. That was when my job as a babysitter began. 

Claire was adorable and beautiful, I just knew she had a bright future ahead of her. As I continued to take care of her, I noticed something. Something that made my heart shatter. 

She had... those black spots on her delicate, soft skin. 

The mark of a demon possessed. 

I felt the urge to do something, biting my lip in frustration. She was essentially my niece, how could I not feel this way?! 

I'm not an idiot. I knew that this Demonic Possession was not a disease. That's why I never believed a word the church ever said. 

I have never been particularly gifted in magic or anything, but I have been graced with above average magic perception. I've always seem things very differently from everyone else. 

Magic was a supernatural form of energy that was used by almost every human and beast, being the most abundant form of energy in the world. Everyone believed it acted the same way as water or air. 

And in a way, they're right. But even liquids and gases are made up of small particles. Magic was no different. It too, was made up some kind of particles. The issue here was, Adelinde herself was unable to actually see these particles. She they existed, she could even feel their existence. Yet she couldn't see them. 

I had a few theories why. I thought it was something I wasn't capable of seeing. Looking at how nobody else could see them, it was possible that such particles were not capable of being seen by the human eye. Or maybe they're just very small. 

But I never elaborated on it. Why would I ? What's the point ? Nobody would believe me. And it's not like I have a way of actually proving it. So I gave up on it and focused on my life as a maid. 

It was years... years ago, that I was struck with tragedy. 

When I developed a black spot on my foot. I realised that I too, was infected. I was also a monster. 

But despite my own weakness, I observed how demon possession, which I had hidden for so long, never spread. Not in my body, or from mine to another's. I had already studied the composition of diseases and desperate to do something about this, I even dived into the possibility of it being a curse, as unbelievable as it may sound. 

But, as my research continued, I soon realised that it was indeed a curse! I didn't know the details of it, but the church sometimes spouted some nonsense like "heroes' descendants" or something like that in her home Village. 

I also realised that this curse, whatever it was, had something to do with magic. I couldn't quite out a finger on it, but it was caused by unstable magic. That's all I knew, but I wasn't able to properly understand the phenomena. 

I was lucky to never be found out, until my master and only friend found out about it. At first, I was scared. Scared because I didn't know what would happen. I even tried to explain how it wasn't a disease or anything, knowing full well that she probably wouldn't listen. 

But she listened. 

And she hid my secret from everyone else. Even after the previous lord and lady passed, she kept my secret hidden. The only other person who knows, is her husband, who has also become a good friend of mine. 

Because it had something to do with magic, we tried to stabilize it by putting magic in, that didn't work. Not one bit. 

So I began to reduce my magic usage to almost zero. 

Just like that, the symptoms fell down severely. I still had the curse and I'm certain it won't reduce anytime soon. My death was soon to come, but it hasn't spread as quickly as it's supposed to for some reason. Whether it was my methods beings successful, the help I received from my two friends, or just my own luck, I managed to somehow slow down it's spread. 

It's been like this for nearly fifteen years, but by now, my whole leg was engulfed, and even more in my back and abdomen, as well as parts of my other leg. The spreading hadn't stopped entirely, after all. 

I was now super afraid of Claire's future. I decided to give her some advice in the future, once she was old enough to actually understand. Claire learning magic and fighting was out of the question now. At least, if she did what I did, she may be able to live till her adulthood...

My death was inevitable. A shame I wouldn't be able to see Claire and her soon-to-be born younger brother grow up to be the fine people I knew they'd become. 

But I was so, so filled with anguish after learning about Claire's condition, all I wanted was a saviour. I wished and prayed to the gods, that one day, someone would find a cure. There had to be one! There just... had to be...

The exact day after I made this prayer, this wish... was the day Cid was born. 

When the second child was born and given the name, Cid Kagenou, my eyes contorted in shock almost immediately after he opened his eyes. 

When he opened his eyes for the first time, the black eyes he inherited from his father, were glowing red and they had a weird symbol floating right above the pupil, illuminating a weird glowing light along with it. 

My own magic perception began to pick up on what was happening, realising that he was indeed seeing something. Something beyond what he should be able to see. 

When I saw him smile so sweetly, my heart almost melted. It was so pure and filled with emotion. I'm sure his parents felt the same. 

But right after I made the comment on his eyes, his smile turned upside down and his eyes turned normal again. I was astonished. I didn't know what to say. Just what did he see ? What eyes were those ? 

But as I began to think about all this, he began to cry loudly. When I saw this, I forgot about all those thoughts and smiled sweetly. 

He was seeing something entirely different, wasn't he ? And when his eyes returned to normal, he didn't cry because he was in shock and didn't understand anything. Once his awareness returned, he began to cry. What an interesting young boy. 

I could just just from here, he was meant for greatness. 

Could he see them too ? I noticed him notice my own perception as well. What kind of prodigy must he be to be able to activate magic perception at birth ? Was it an accident or something ? His future seemed so promising I was almost jealous. Almost. 

But above all, I held nothing but happiness and joy. Happy that my friend's son would be happy and strong in the future. 

Though, the news about his sister would definitely be devastating for him to hear. I've informed Lord and Lady Kagenou as well, about Claire's condition. But Claire didn't care. 

I even tried to explain things to her directly, but she said she wanted to master the sword and become a dark knight, no matter what! No matter what was done, it was useless! 

I felt like crying to be honest. Sometimes, I even did! In my room, crying myself to sleep as I hopelessly worried about Claire's future. What else can I do?! As far as I know, demon possession, though not a disease, doesn't have a cure and I have no idea what kind of curse it is, so I don't know how to handle or reverse it's effects! I didn't want Claire to die, or worse, be taken by the church!

Who knows what those bastards will do to her. I know they aren't trying to help the possessed. 

My only solace during that time, was Cid. For the next three years, where I tried to convince Claire to stop, she just refused to listen. When we refused to teach her, she opted to learn herself! Every now and then, her brother would give her advice on fighting, despite also having no prior training. 

Speaking of which, when I realised that he could not only SEE the magic particles in the air, but also use them, I almost fainted. 

And the he used telepathy to speak to me when he was only two weeks old! I literally fell to the floor, unconscious, and had to be taken care of for the next two days. Eventually, I grew accustomed to the cheeky boy's methods. He was also a very quick learner. All he did was listen to others speak around him and then learn it all alone. 

It wasn't long before I noticed the way he would drink milk. He demanded milk literally every hour. Literally. He was fed at least 16 times every single day! And he took several minutes each time. His poor mother was so tired after feeding him that she could do nothing but sleep. 

But I was able to notice that only ten out of those sixteen times involved him actually drinking milk. And even then, it wasn't all about him feeding either. Small quantities of the milk was turning into magic particles after entering his mouth. Not only that, but he was also syphoning magic from his mother by touching the bare skin of her chest during breastfeeding. 

What a greedy little boy he was! 

I even teased him about to, but he only giggled. 

I still have no idea how he could understand what I said. He was three weeks old... He shouldn't even be aware of his surroundings at that age, much less understand human speech. 

The he asked me to take him to the library. I laughed and decided to take him there regardless, even though he cannot read. 

I was sooo not ready for what happened after....

He flew... 

He just for up from my arms... and flew in the air, towards the top shelf. 

I was just left there, standing in shock, unable to comprehend him doing this. 

He opened a book as big as his own body... A spell book! 

And then he... he... He fired a magic spell! 

Like as if it was second nature to him, he used <<Hydro Sphere>>. But if that wasn't enough, he then began to spam it over and over again, but each time, it was stronger, sharper, spun faster, and was so much more well refined. 

When he finally launched the final water spell, <<Aqua Lacerabis>>, I screamed my lungs out in shock and disbelief, utterly flabbergasted by what I was witnessing. He blew up the library, destroyed the lawn and left a hole in the ground outside. 

And if that wasn't enough, he then began to spam literally EVERY spell in that spell book! LIKE... WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!!! 

He then electrocuted his father, almost froze me to the ground, and then flew away towards the forest. I had to literally chase after him to bring him back home that day. It was tiring as hell. 

But I didn't realise then... that it was just the beginning. 

He then began to learn EVERY single spell in the damn books. Every book in this mansion, he read. Every spell, he mastered. 

And once he was done reading and practicing spells, he began to improve and each and every spell, over and over and over again, until even the weal spells were extremely deadly! 

What kind of monstrous magic power does this little boy have?! 

If he were a girl, which would raise his chances of being a demon possessed as his sister is one, then he would've already died from it. As a baby! 

I even began taking him on walks in the capital, but almost all of it was to the Royal Library in Midgar. Because he was that curious of a character. Magic. Spells. Charms. He learned everything he could about magic in the first four years of his life, while also helping his sister Claire become better at the sword, much to my dismay. 

It got so bad, I'd have to go tell Cid about it myself. But my meeting with Cid... went differently from what I imagined. 

"Cid... Do you know the fairy tale about Diabolos and the three heroes' ?" I asked him while he was sitting on my lap, my hand caressing his soft hair. 

"Hm ? Yeah. I've heard of it. I even read the book. It's a brilliant story!" Cid said this with some stars in his eyes. It made me slightly happy. So he liked the heroes' so much huh ? 

"Yeah... But did you know it actually happened ?" I asked him slowly, my hand gently moving across his beautiful locks. 

"Hm..?" 

"The story... It has inconsistencies. The demon was truly defeated by these three heroes', but just before she died, Diabolos unleashed a curse upon the heroes', which would later pass on to their descendants as well. This curse came to be known as "demon possession"." I explained things to him. I couldn't see his face, so I didn't understand how he would react to all this. 

"I thought it was a disease...?" 

"No... It's not. Information is missing from the history book because someone, most probably the church, altered it. Or maybe there's someone behind the scenes, controlling the church as well. I honestly don't know..." 

"This demonic possession is caused by some kind of fluctuation or instability in your magic circuits, but I don't know what the cause is precisely. And I haven't been able to find a cure! I've looked for so long but... I've never found it." I felt sad, and tired. My life, most of it, was spent searching. And I failed. 

I didn't just fail myself, but I also failed Claire, who would meet the same fate as me. But due to her stubbornness, she might end up dying as a teenager! Or maybe even earlier than that! 

All I could do was pray... Pray to god that one day, someone would be able to find a cure! 

"I found a way to delay it's effects though.. by reducing the magic output of the body to almost zero, you can greatly slow down the spreading of the curse. But... Even that won't fully cure it..." 

"Why... Why are you telling me this ?" He asked me. 

Cid is a smart kid, much smarter than he should be. I wouldn't be surprised if he already realised I am a demon possessed. 

"Because Claire... She's also been cursed. But she's so stubborn and no matter what me or your parents do, she won't listen to us! So please, convince your sister to stop! I don't want to see Claire die or get taken away as a child!" I began to completely break down. I've witnessed countless people fall to the church and the curse itself. I did not want Claire to be the same. 

Cid remained silent for a while. It must've been a lot to take in. Learning that your sister will either die or get taken away while you can do absolutely nothing about it... it must hurt so much. Normally, I wouldn't have told him this, but he needed to know it! 

"Please... Please, convince your sister to stop! She won't listen to us, but she'll listen to you right ? Please... I beg..." I was unable to hold on my perfect facade any longer. 

I had long since accepted my own inevitable death, but I did NOT want Claire, the baby I helped raise, to suffer the same way as me, and then die from it. 

These past few days, Cid has been helping her out. And in turn, she's gotten a lot more clingy towards him. Perhaps it's because, when faced with opposition from all the people she trusts the most, the only person she can turn to is her little brother. And he actually listens and helps her, unlike us, who oppose her dream, even if it's only for her own good. Maybe that's why she's gotten so clingy. 

But that just means, she'll listen to whatever Cid says. If it's him, she'll hear us out, right ? I'm sure Cid will understand...

I opened my eyes slightly when I felt him shifting in my arms, which I had unconsciously tightened around him like a vice. 

With his head tilted backwards, his eyes, which now had that same signature glow, was staring into my own. His face was completely void of any emotion, not one I could find. 

He broke out of my hold and walked a little away from me. In fear, I reached my trembling hand towards him, but pulled it back and bit my lip. I knew this would happen. It's too much of a sensitive topic for a boy as young as him to learn...

My last hope to save Claire... 

He then turned around and stared into my very soul. His hand on his chin, making it look like he was keenly observing something and trying to study it. 

After what seemed like forever, his lips turned upwards and he let out a satisfied sound of amusement. 

"A lot more simple that I thought... this curse." I heard him say. 

My eyes shot wide open when I heard him say this. But I never got the opportunity to actually ask him what he meant. Why ? Because he raised his hand up, fingers spread open, and pointed towards me. 

Right there, my mouth fell shut. I knew that look. He was about to do something. Another miracle, just like he's always done before. 

The air around us suddenly turned dense, purple colours filling the room and sparks coming out of my body violently. My eyes went bloodshot and I felt immense pain, so much so that I screamed in agony and fell to the floor. My eyes burned and smoke came out of my body as the curse began to suddenly act up, making it feels like I was being burnt alive from the inside out, slowly and painfully. 

Out of the corner of my now eye, which were blurred because of the tears, I noticed his expression change to a curious one, before turning into a smile. And then, my vision went blank. 

I thought this was it. My time had come. 

I never thought my death would be so sudden and so painful though. What was Cid trying to do ? 

But almost immediately after my vision disappeared, it reappeared and a pleasant feeling swelled through my body. I let out a suprised gasp as I felt the pain slowly go down, being replaced with a relaxing and almost euphoric feeling. With my eyes wide open, vision fully restored, I looked up at the smiling Cid Kagenou with his arm stretched out. 

I noticed him taking massive quantities of magic from my body and putting it into himself, but spreading it out evenly and somehow stabilizing it. The black markings and rotting regions of flesh all disappeared slowly, returning me to my former grace, and ridding me of my pain, for good. 

I was left kneeling on the ground, top stunned to process what was happening. My mind was still trying to comprehend what just happened. 

On the other hand, Cid looked at his own hand with a proud smile on his face. 

"I knew it. This so-called curse, it's really just caused by unstable magic overload. The only way to cure it, is to stabilize it. And the only way to do that, is to remove the unstable magic and stabilize it outside the infected body, in a fresh circuit. And as a bonus, it also adds to your own magic power. Brilliant!" He sounded so excited. When I heard his words, I snapped back into reality. 

Overwhelmed by what he just did, I realised that I had been freed. No longer dying or in pain. He just cured demon possession. The current that I've been looking for so long... It was him after all...

I... I always knew... Deep down... 

I hoped that Cid... Would be the one to save Claire... I knew he would. He was a genius from birth. But this early... this easily. 

The cute I spend so many years searching for... and he just explained it like it was completely normal. 

Then, it dawned on me. On that day, the one before Cid's birth, I prayed to God to give us a gift, one that would help fix this world and save others like me. 

And then... The next day... Cid was born.

I see now. 

He truly was a miracle... In every sense of the way. No wonder he's so talented. 

"Adelinde ?" I heard him curiously call out for me. 

Unable to hold myself together any longer, I brought him close to me and stuffed him in my chest, letting all the tears I held in for years, to finally flow out freely. I then felt his own tiny hands wrapping around me, making me feel warm and safe. I've never felt safer. 

Rubbing circles in my back, he calmly talked. "Tomorrow, I'll go heal Claire. You can go tell mom and dad about this, but nobody else. The news of this shall not leave this house. For now, just take some rest, Adelinde. You deserve it. Thank you, for taking care of me." 

I was smiling eye to eye, unable to stop the tears of joy from flowing out. I hugged him with my trembling arms like he would disappear from this world the moment I let go. I was afraid this was all a dream. Afraid of waking up from it and realising it was all just a hallucination. 

But I knew for good now... 

The Messiah I prayed for... 

This boy... Cid Kagenou... 

He truly was... 

A gift... from God.