Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Prologue (section)

===Part 1===

--The streets were plunged into a sea of flames.

This was a tiny rural town on the borders of the Ordesia Empire.

This was not the result of war -- Destruction had descended without warning.

On that day, a rain of fire fell from the sky.

This was the punishment cast upon the townsfolk who had been negligent in their offerings to Volcanicus, the Fire Elemental Lord.

Raging flames incinerated homes and turned the surrounding farmland into scorched earth instantly.

The people fled for their lives from the swirling flames and black smoke, desperately praying for absolution.

They had not intentionally neglected their offerings for the Elemental Lord. Only because they had been met with a rare drought, the crops used for offerings had failed to come to harvest.

Despite the dance performances of beautiful princess maidens together with the total offering of all stored grain originally meant for winter consumption, the Elemental Lord's wrath could not be placated.

Before the anger of the great Elemental Lord, humans were completely powerless. All people could do was bow their head and gnash their teeth, desperately enduring and waiting for the disaster to pass.

"--Great Elemental Lord, we beseech you to calm your wrath."

High ranking princess maidens serving at the Divine Ritual Institute had been offering prayers at the sanctuary's Great Shrine for three days straight to appease the Elemental Lord's anger.

And the one chosen to lead them was the newly appointed Fire Queen, a girl only fifteen years old.

While the other princess maidens rested in shifts, she alone focused all her efforts on sustaining the prayer with neither rest nor sleep.

At the same time, the imagery of the people devoured by the crimson flames was branded deeply in her red eyes.

The rain of destruction finally halted on the morning of the fourth day.

Streets that had been bustling mere days earlier were now turned into a wasteland of scorched earth.

Homes were all incinerated, leaving nothing behind but ashen gray despair.

The peaceful everyday life the townsfolk had worked hard to maintain was transformed into ash in but an instant.

And after all had ended--

"The merciful Elemental Lord has heard our prayers."

The elderly shrine leader spoke to comfort the prostrated Queen.

However, the young Queen covered her ears and shook her head.

I wasn't able to do anything. I failed to protect them -- that was what she thought to herself.

"Why... Why did the Elemental Lord do such a thing to innocent citizens..."

"Rubia-sama, the will of the Elemental Lords cannot be understood by mortal humans. All we can do is pray for forgiveness. Rubia-sama, you have already done spectacularly."

In actual fact, amongst the people of the destroyed town, there was no one who had a single complaint. Having had all their possessions taken away by a tyrannical and unreasonable disaster, the townsfolk felt nothing but sincere gratitude towards the Queen who had placated the Elemental Lord's wrath.

--Nevertheless, such gratitude stabbed into girl's heart and soul, more painfully than any vicious curse.