MaruMA:SideStory01:Prologue
Prologue
There are four things in this world that must never be touched.
This castle has been broken.
And the bloodline of our family will also break here.
Watching the wounded soldiers stretch out two bodies, the man who was until just now the king of this city and country, sighs thus.
In this room highest up in the tower, there’s a mixture of the ministers fighting to the very end, and enemy soldiers here to invade them, making the situation so chaotic it’s hard to tell which side the blood and the bodies belong to.
Stepping on the blood and bodies of both sides, the invader stands straight, and immediately snaps when he sees what his subordinates are carrying,
“Who asked you to kill them? Didn’t I say to bring them to me alive?”
The ones lowered onto the cold stone floor together with the stretcher, are the cold corpses that were once the royal consort and the prince.
Since her body is tightly curled up to protect the baby in her arms, so they can’t see the expression of pain that should be on her face. Her previously beautiful honey-colored hair is stained with blood, plastered to her snow-white skin. Maybe it’s because she had plunged a short sword into her chest, the still-fresh blood has dyed a large part of the clothes on her back red.
“But Your Excellency Englas, by the time we discovered them they were…”
“It’s meaningless if they’re not alive!”
That’s right, if it’s not alive, it’s meaningless.
Held up by four strong soldiers, Robert Belal mutters to himself.
He never told them to kill themselves.
No matter how barbaric the clan, they wouldn’t actually hurt women and children. Although he couldn’t protect them to the end, but to ensure that his wife and young son survives, he had spent a lot of effort convincing them to leave the castle. And still, why did they act so rashly?
Robert calls their names in his rough voice, struggling and trying to break free from the soldiers, so he can touch his beloved family.
His newborn son is in his wife’s arms, so they can’t see the hair color and pale brown eyes he inherited from his father. All they can see is his skinny limbs sticking out from his mother’s embrace, cold and white, like a statue made of wax.
“When we found them on the north bank of the lake, they were long dead. If we were just a little later, their bodies would have sunk into the depths, never to be found.”
There’s a giant lake right underneath the tower north of the castle. Should anything sink into this lake, which is cold in summer but doesn’t freeze in winter, finding it would be impossible. The consort’s aim was to kill herself together the prince, wasn’t it? Rather than watch her country waste away in the hands of foreigners, and live her life in sorrow, it would be better to sleep forever in the icy cold depths.
If he was by their side, they wouldn’t choose this path of no return.
Robert moves his gaze away from the bodies, swearing at the invaders. But strangely he doesn’t lose himself in grief, because he feels that he’ll be able to apologize to the mother and son very soon.
Because he too will soon die in the same place, so they won’t have to wait long.
The huge and burly man called Englar caresses his red-brown mustache as he frets. This man had gathered the Shimaron people, representing the power of the east, and made them into troops to invade other countries, controlling everything with violence.
“At first I thought that if I threatened you with your wife’s life, you would definitely obey everything I say… Now I have to find other sacrifices, but what else can make this man surrender…”
“No matter what dirty tricks you use…”
Robert Belal says, gritting his teeth. The soldiers holding his limbs, are shocked by his next expression into loosening their grips. Because this king is laughing, he’s laughing at the Shimaron soldiers.
Right now, he doesn’t have the time to sink into shame and despair.
“The day you desire will never arrive, no one will be loyal to you Shimarons with no country, and no pride. Since Robert Belal’s son, Peg Belal is dead, my family bloodline dies here too. Your wish will never be fulfilled!”
This king of the fallen country, yells with the power to push aside the soldiers holding him,
“If you can open it, then go ahead and try! The next time the ‘Box’ without a Key is unsealed, forget the name, everything you got will be destroyed by that uncontrollable power! And one of the four Keys that can open the ‘Boxes’, will disappear together with my son’s and my death, never to fall into the hands of evil!”
If he wants world peace, it would probably be best to let the Key vanish. Robert looks at his son’s tiny, motionless hand. On his little arm, there isn’t the mark of inheritance.
This world doesn’t need keys, maybe this is God’s will.
The king thinks it over, and shakes his head.
There aren’t any gods in this world, if there are, then a newly-born, pure and innocent baby would not face such a cruel fate.
The old Shimaron soldier with the highest rank, murmurs into the red-brown-bearded leader’s ear,
“Your Excellency, our army’s influence is spreading very smoothly, we just received the report that Samaluje has fallen to us too. After Laxi, I think it’s a matter of time before Gillesby falls into our hands. Even Belal is now our prisoner…”
The old soldier glances at those pale brown eyes with the silver irises, and is suddenly lost for words, his confidence visibly shaken. But then he immediately refutes the unease in his heart, and continues talking to his boss,
“I think that by tomorrow, even Robert Belal’s men will support you as king, so now there’s no reason to bother about the ‘Box’ any more. Even without that thing, our army will rule this continent.”
“So?”
“In that man’s body… there really exists the Key. His wife and child are already dead, so now it won’t be easy to threaten him into obedience. If we continue harping on the matter of the Box, it will just create an opportunity for other countries. Right now we shouldn’t let the other countries have time to gather their forces, instead we should conquer the entire continent in the one fell swoop to…”
“You mean you want to give up?”
Englar pushes aside the old soldier’s shoulder, yelling in a voice so loud all the soldiers in the tower want to stuff their ears. In his fury, his eyes are bloodshot, his tightly-gripped fist shaking.
“Are you telling me to give up? Telling me, the hero who discovered the legendary weapon, to give up!”
Robert thinks, ‘This guy is possessed. I must never let this man open ‘that’.’
“It took so long for my soldiers to find ‘End of the Wind’, and back then it was my soldiers who found it, so it belongs to me. That is the legendary Box, that is said to release mad gales strong enough to destroy the world when released. The solders should have sent it here by now. Today… that is, right now, I have the power to destroy the world, I can finally end this world with my own hands. If so, why the hell would I give up? What reason do I have to let go of that power!”
Looks like one of the four Boxes, ‘End of the Wind’, has already been found by them.
Robert Belal gives the howling man a look of pity, thinking back to the memories passed down in their family for generations.
Long ago, powerful heroes had waged a war with the Creators who wanted to destroy the world. They put everything on the line, and even committed despicable acts, to seal the Creators into a place where they can’t escape, and the guards to that place are the four Boxes. The Boxes were kept in different places separately, and the Key treated as a symbol of warning, kept in the bodies of each clan leader, to be passed down through the generations.
The four Boxes have four Keys, but each Box only matches one Key.
Even if it’s right there in front of you, if you use the wrong key, it will cause to power to go haywire, causing irredeemable damage. And even if the right Key is used, the user will be swallowed by that power, handing the world over to the Creators just like that.
No matter which way, all it leads to is destruction. And that’s exactly why, these four Boxes
The Boxes are ‘End of the Wind’, ‘Edge of the Earth’, ‘Mirror of the Water’s Depth’, and ‘Inferno on the Tundra’ respectively.
And one of the Keys, lies within the left arm of the human king, Robert Belal.
They must never use it!
“Chop it off!”
The Shimaron man says, madness in his eyes. The soldiers holding down the prisoner look at their boss in surprise.
“…Chop that guy’s left arm off! Either way he won’t obey us any more, since he refuses to use the Key for Shimaron, then just chop off his left arm! You don’t have to take his life. It’s okay as long as we get the Key to open the Box!”
“But Your Excellency, once the power is released, no one can control it!”
“What the hell are you standing around for? Do it now!”
Before the old soldier can stop them, the soldiers, terrified by their master’s expression of fury, have pinned Robert’s left arm and legs onto the dirty stone floor.
And then, with one downward swing of the sword held high over the head, there’s the dull sound of a blade snapping bone and knocking into the stone floor, the thick steel is broken into two, the sliced arteries waiting for a second before spraying warm blood everywhere, the chopped left arm lightly bouncing in the pool of blood.
The fingers gripped loosely into a fist are still moving.
Robert screams, rolling on the ground, breaking free from the enemy’s hold in the process. The rookie soldiers are shocked into stillness, while the old hand has thrown away his reputation as a soldier and turned his face away.
Robert was waiting for this moment!
He kicks the wall by the tips of his toes forcefully, rising in one step, and snatches a sword from a young man frozen on the spot. By the time the livid Shimaron leader yells at his men to fight back, he has already defeated three men despite having only one arm.
“Your Excellency!”
In that moment, all eyes are pulled to the entrance to the room. A messenger soldier with no idea about the chaos within rushes in.
“The Box… The Box has been taken!”
“What?”
Robert doesn’t take this opportunity to run, rushing instead to the center of the room. He tosses his sword at the man trying to stop him, and uses his remaining right arm to grip the ‘Key’ tightly.
He puts his five fingers into the pool of blood, and lifts his own left arm.
And then, hugging the still-warm arm, he quietly walks to the window, shrouded in darkness. He bends his knees and gathers his strength, then grabs the window sill and jumps upwards. All the motion around him looks slowed in his eyes, as though they belong in separate times, because up until now, no one has to catch him.
He turns around for a glance, engraving the image of his wife’s body abandoned by the wall into his mind. The beautiful honey-colored hair is stained with red-black blood, the skin of her neck pale as wax.
Her soul has long since gone.
His young son’s skinny limbs, hang limply underneath the chest embedded with the hilt of the short sword. The man who was once king murmurs their names.
“…I won’t let you wait long.”
Robert Belal uses his armless shoulder to smash the window, and leaps into the darkening sky.
There’s a giant lake right underneath the tower north of the castle. Should anything sink into this lake, which is cold in summer but doesn’t freeze in winter, finding it would be impossible. Looking at the surface of the water , sparkling purple in the remaining rays of sunset, Robert says to the god he praised and prayed to every day,
“Please let this unfortunate Key to disaster and my body sleep peacefully forever in these depths.”
But he knows—
There’s no god in this world. If there were, his son wouldn’t have died so tragically.
Hearing the deep splash of water, a few soldiers finally peep out of the window. There aren’t any ripples, only a quiet purple water surface.
“Did he really fall?” A young man asks. Although they heard the splash, there aren’t any ripples. Even as a living, breathing man sinks, there aren’t even bubbles from his last breaths.
“Go! Get me the Key now!”
Their boss, having lost his sanity, even pushes a rookie out of the window. The body that falls, accompanied with screams, creates a huge splash before sinking into the lake, as the rookie desperately waves his limbs and cries for help.
Everyone runs to the stairs in panic.
As for the messenger completely out of tune with the situation, he just stands there dazedly as he watches the events unfolding before him, all the way until Englar pulls his shirt, forcing him to finally remember his duty coming here.
“You say the Box was taken? Not only did you grab it back, you had the nerve to come here?”
“No, no, we already did our best to prevent it getting taken, it’s just that the opponent is too…”
“Which country?” “It’s the mazoku.”
The old soldier squatting beside the bodies calls his master with a strange expression. Of everyone there, only he shows respect to the woman who was once royal consort, even helping her clean up the dirt on her body.
The boss turns around, and sees the tiny body the old man pulled out from its protector’s embrace.
“What is it?”
“…This baby, is still breathing.”
You don’t need to look too closely to see that his body is still shaking slightly. His soft and silky dark brown hair, moistened by his mother’s blood, is plastered all over his forehead, and under those slightly open eyelids, are pale brown eyes just like Robert Belal’s, with shining silver irises.
There are still red finger marks around his neck. The old soldier who noticed this, pulls the child’s clothes up higher, as though trying to hide the finger marks.
Englar doesn’t notice, though. He just uses the gaze of one possessed, staring hungrily at the baby’s left arm.
“…Can this guy become the ‘Key’?”
“I don’t know, you still can’t tell at this stage. Once he grows up, we have to see if he will have the same mark as his father.” Or maybe it’ll be just like the king who committed suicide said, and the wish will never come true again. But he doesn’t dare voice that possibility. To let this child live on, it requires a special reason.
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