Chapter 358 - Blank Soul

"She's a blank soul…"

As if on cue, everyone's eyes widened, their mouths slackened at the same time – except Ryuu. However, even the Koutaishidenka paused for a while before a flicker of understanding glinted in his blue orbs.

So, that's why…

"What's a blank soul?" Aki suddenly asked. He'd only ever heard of incomplete soul thanks to Gin, as it was Alinea's circumstance before. But it's his first time to hear about a blank soul.

"Blank souls are reincarnated souls without a trace of their past lives," Gin stated robotically as his eyes that glinted in suspicion searched his brother's face.   

"I… don't understand," Aki said apologetically.

"All souls are from the cycle of life and death. When they die they are reborn with another identity, and when they die again, they're reborn as another. For example, me." Alinea pointed at herself. "I was Alencica in my past life, but here, I am Alinea and Ara," she continued.

"For demigods like me and Ali, we retain memories and some abilities we have from our past," Ivan added. "As long as the soul remembers, the possibility of the current identity remembering his past life exists."

"And the blank soul?"

"Blank souls have nothing aside from their current existence," Alinea answered.

"What does that mean? How does that happen?" Aki and Chiaki looked totally curious.

Alinea shrugged. "It's either a really young soul – something that had just entered the cycle, or…"

"Or?"

"Or someone whose past lives were deliberately erased from them," Gin completed the explanation, but his gaze never left Perun's to check for any reaction.  

An idea was born in his mind as soon as he found out Yuuka's soul's situation, but he couldn't be certain without his brother's confirmation. After all, blank souls were… blank. There was no method existing that could identify the blank soul's history unless he could perform soul tracing to forcefully know who she was.

But the latter was something only the King of Heaven would be able to do as he wished as it ate up immense energy. Technically, Stribog and Kresnik could do it as well, but it would be dangerous as they had pacts with tons of powerful elementals. If something went wrong with their strength, most especially with Stribog, their elementals would run amok with worry.

"So you mean to say that Yuuka is a new soul or someone whose past lives have been erased?" Chiaki asked in amazement.

"No." Alinea shook her head. "Yuuka is not a new soul, but someone whose past lives have been erased."

"How did you know which one is she?" Aki inquired again.

Since finding out about his sister's special circumstance as well as the secret of the Homura House, he'd become very interested in things related to them. This interest increased upon learning that their mother was also like them.

"It's because Yuuka is immune to miasma and memory alteration," Gin answered. "Only blank souls whose past lives have been erased are like that. The new souls can be influenced by these powers."

"Oh, is that so?" Aki nodded. He learned something new today.

"Did you try and peek into her history at dinner, Ritz?" Ivan asked casually, and both Ryuu's and Gin's ears perked up.  

The two were very interested to know if Perun tried to see who she was. First, it's because blank souls whose past lives got wiped out were very rare. It would be interesting to know who they were to learn why they had been given divine punishment.

Yes, soul washing, the process of removing traces of the soul's past lives was a divine punishment. It was given to anyone who would dare defy the laws of heaven by harboring something vile within them. Most of them were maidens that were vessels of demon lords and such with or without their knowledge.

On the other hand, this process was also redemption to some. Why? It's because most of them just disappeared, not able to reincarnate at all. Also, if one was lucky to be reborn after being a tool to something vile, he is better off not remembering anything.

"No," Perun answered nonchalantly.

Eh?

Everyone gave Perun a look of disbelief.

"Why?"

Gin couldn't believe it. If it were him, he'd have checked.

"Why?"Perun countered lazily. "Should I have?"

"Why should…"Gin wanted to counter his brother but decided to shut up.

He originally wanted to ask him to look since there's a chance that his wife, Shitara could have been reincarnated as well. If she did, she'd be a blank soul like Yuuka. But then again, as he was about to ask him earlier, he realized why Perun didn't try to look.

His brother, Perun, the King of Heaven was scared to see the blank soul for two reasons. One, he's scared to check only to be disappointed to realize that she was not Shitara. Second, in case that it was really his sister-in-law, Perun was scared to face her. At least, not at the moment.

Perun still hadn't fulfilled his promise to his wife to fix their child's destiny. He couldn't face her yet.

"No, you don't have to," Gin agreed softly.

It's been thousands of years, so he had momentarily forgotten. His proud, twin brother had been a wreck when his beloved wife died. His obsession over ending his daughter's curse which was his promise to Shitara was his only driving force. He refused to have other distractions.

"Why not? It's just looking," Alinea countered, but Gin turned to his niece and shook his head.

"It's not that easy," he told her.

It was a good thing that soul tracing was not a common ability even among the deities. If not, he wouldn't be able to give Alinea a better answer than that. Ivan who was about to say that Ritz could do it also realized what's going on, and clamped his mouth shut. This was one of those moments that even though one could see a window of opportunity but had to let it go.

"Yes, it shouldn't be easy," Perun suddenly agreed while looking lost in thought that Gin whipped his head to stare at him again. But this time, he looked at his brother in disbelief as he realized something weird from the words that had been said.

It shouldn't be easy? Didn't this mean that it was supposed to be difficult but Perun was able to do it effortlessly?

Then again, Gin recalled the previous conversation when Ivan first asked if he looked at the blank soul during dinner. Perun replied no, and he wouldn't lie. But Gin just saw a big loophole there.

Yuuka took a walk in the garden earlier. His twin was there as well.

"Brother, did you meet out guest at the garden today?" he asked lightly.   

Perun looked surprised at first before he raised a brow at him. "She thought I collapsed," he answered softly before shifting his gaze somewhere else. This gave Gin the answer he was looking for.

Ah.  

Perun didn't see the blank soul at dinner. He saw it much earlier in the garden. He knew who Maki Yuuka was.