In the kingdom of Alvarya, border village of Oakvale. This village is tucked in a small valley of ancient oaks, it sit where a minor trade road skirts the forest's edge. Small earthen ramparts and wooden palisade follow the contour of the hill overlooking the main ford. A modest watchtower, manned by a handful of militia, stand sentinel over the road. Most families tend small orchards and goat herds, trading dairy and cider for grain and cloth from the neighboring realm. Every third dawn, peddlers and frontier rangers converge on the central green, bartering salt furs, and herbs beneath the oak boughs.
In this humble village the biggest landowner is Raphaël and his wife Elena, located just outside the eastern palisade, their estate spans over fifty acres of wheat, barley, and root vegetables. It employs upwards of thirty day-laborers, villagers and seasonal migrants alike, who are hired each harvest to plow, sow, and thresh. In lean years, many of Oakvale's young men and women find their first work here. Raphaël's farm supplies both the weekly market and small granary that feeds Oakvale through winter. In return, the farm provides coin, tolls, and occasional apprenticeships to the village's youth.
But at this tile the village lack the usual there is a heavy silence in the air. The village is subject of some sort of curse that affect the children and infant. At first it was just something of a nightmare so no one paid attention to it, and simply chalked it to being a strange occurrence.
Right when no one expected, the infected children would start to weaken and their skin turn to a deathly pale color, it was at this stage that the people started to panic as even the local doctor aren't able to identify the cause of this occurrence, let alone finding cure. Even sending messages to the capital would take at the very least two days to reach there, and another four to five days to reach here so they have little to no hope. Just after four and a half a days after the message was sent to the capital, something happened, the infant that were flimsy, were the first to have these symptoms. They start to have dark mark shadow-like that spread throughout their body. And at the dawn of the fifth day, they start to die out, and the young children started to have these symptoms all at once.
And when the expedition from the capital arrived, only the oldest, and some of the surviving infant, of these affected were treated in time and even then, they weren't permanently cured, simply maintained alive, until the source of the disease is eradicated. It was a lean man that found the source being in the cemetery, something that no one thought of.
As it turns out, it was the Sepulchral Shade. The Sepulchral Shade is a rare and mysterious disease that primarily affects infants and young children. It is caused by a dark energy or an ancient curse, manifesting as a subtle, black mist that is invisible to the naked eye. This mist usually spreads at night around cursed areas or places where tragic events or forbidden rituals have taken place.
After much investigation, they discovered that there was a cursed artifact sealed in the cemetery of the village. This cemetery is said to have been there since a long time already, and there were many tombstones there. The largest of these gravestones, presented a mechanism where it opens a hole in the middle of it. And inside lay a dark pearl that pulsate like a heart, and surrounded by a formation that is slowly fading away. It seems like as the time had passed, the power of the formation has been degrading, and it is now in the verge of completely dissipating.
"What a strange artifact, it should have been sealed here for eon" exclaimed Dagura.
After discovering it, Dagura then decides to send a message to the palace about this artifact, so that they can send some people to cleanse the village of the Sepulchral Shade. After four days of waiting, the people of the palace arrived at the village of Ruth, they moved the pulsating pearl to a box with a new sealing formation and took it away to the palace to be guarded and to find its purpose. The expedition's people also returned with them.
They then sent a message to the capital through their own devices to ask them to dispatch people to purify the village and to take away the pearl. And in two days, they arrived, and took away the pearl and purified the village in just one day. The surviving child were saved at long last.
(Raphael's POV)
At this moment, the estate of Raphaël's family, the atmosphere is gloomy, as they just lost their only son in the disaster.
My name is Raphael, I just turn twenty this year. I'm the one sustaining my mother since my father disappeared when he went hunting for us to celebrate my coming in age at my fifteenth birthday. It was a somber day for both me and my mother, even thought my mother was devastated, she didn't show it in front of me back then, but at night I heard her crying silently.
Our family own a big farm, were we employ some of the other villagers to aid us to farm, so it was where I began working to provide our family. But my mother kept asking me when I would be getting married, so at the age of nineteen, I married Elena. She is a lively and lovely girl, she is the daughter of a man working in our farm, and it was also, because she often delivered food for her father with her mother that I noticed her. And after one year of marriage, we had our first child delivered, we were so happy. Our little boy was very lively and curious about everything, he would crawl around inside the house every day.
Until one day, some unknown illness or curse start affecting the young children, and the infant. After the people from the capital the village was purified. But our child being only four to five months old wasn't able to survive. I can't help but be jealous and devastated of why is it that our child has to die and theirs to live. But despite that I didn't wish for their child to die or something like that. I just ..., I don't know. Maybe I'm just too sad. It had been a week since that calamity. And here I am, in our lounge, here is where our son used to play, but now there is no life anymore in the house. Elena entered the room, still teary eyed suddenly pounced in my arm crying her heart out in my chest as I embraced her.
What did we do that deserves such harsh punishment? It should have been me, even if I'm still considered young, at least I've had a fulfilling life till now, he, he was still a child at the start of his life.
"I'm sorry for being such a useless husband." I said as I embraced her.
(Elena's POV)
My name is Elena, I turn nineteen this year. I was just a little country girl till a year prior, were I met the love of my life, Raphael. Here I became the lady of one of the biggest farms in the village, I didn't intend it to be that way nor have I imagined something like this to happen to me in my lifetime, but here I am. But even then, I always treat the employed farmer as I used to be since that's my root.
My life has always been smooth sailing, and fulfilling until now, I didn't think it would be any better, since I've thought that this was the Pinnacle of life but it changed when I gave birth to our little baby boy, our little energy ball. He was really active in the house. I thought it would continue like that till the end until this calamity stroke, this accursed disease or curse, I don't Know anymore. It is something that the people of the capital call "Sepulchral Shade". It took away the light of my life, my little treasure. My little Nathaniel, sorry mama was incapable of giving you a good life and let you pass away so soon.
As I was deep in thought, I subconsciously arrived at the lounge, where my little boy used to play around, there I saw my husband. He moved through the room in silence, each corner still echoing with laughter that no longer came. The silence in the house no longer peaceful. He was also startled seeing me appearing so suddenly. It further broke my heart seeing him like this. I couldn't control myself anymore so I dashed toward him and pouncing toward him crying all over his chest.
"I'm sorry for being such a useless husband." He said as he embraced me.
"It's not your fault, it was too sudden, and I just wish he will be more fortunate in his next life." I said, shaking my head as tear kept flowing from my eyes.
"I can't help but think "If only I took you two to the capital to live" maybe then nothing would have happened." SIGH" He sighed.
"You know very well that we can't do that and life in the capital isn't something that can be achieved easily. And our parents are also all here, who will be taking care of them if we were to depart there?" I admonished him. "It must simply be fate. Let it be, all we can do is wishing that he has good life in his next life." I said amidst weeping.
"Y-You are right. You also shouldn't blame yourself for this, I-I know very well that you feel really guilty about this. Please don't be so cloudy, you are also the light of my life you know?" He said wiping my tears away.
"Okay, I will try."
Dong Dong
As we were discussing, someone tinkle at the door, so Raphael got up to open the door as I rest over the chair. As I was waiting for Raphael to return, I suddenly heard the cry of a baby coming from the door, I thought I was hallucinating. Then as I looked up, I saw that in the hand of Raphael, there was a baby crying looking famished. I didn't even think twice as I dashed toward Raphael and took the baby from him, and started to breastfeed it..
"He is likely the son of an impoverished family of one of the villages next ours, since I didn't see him in the medicinal care center at that time." Said my husband.
"You're right, poor little thing. Can he stay with us?"
"I don't see any problem. But we must understand, he is not Nathaniel." He said sighing.
"Y-You're right, I shouldn't think of replacing him, he would always be our only one. We would raise this child as our second child."
A week after that occurrence, Dagura decided to leave the prince in the care of a couple he saw some day after he arrived in the village. He then placed Belzebuth in a bundle at the doorstep of the couple and knocked on the door. They received him with open arm.
What they didn't know was that this child would be the last hope of the Lunaris kingdom in the future.