Chapter 208 - False Legends

"The curse about the fated ones? I don't think it's quite like what we thought it was…"

Silence followed Ryuu's words. It stretched for a long while before Gin finally absorbed what was being said. Still, he couldn't understand.

"What are you talking about?"

The prophecy they knew stated that the heirs who were born with a fated partner must be with their fated ones; else the bloodline would be doomed. It was what happened to the Kazehaya House after all. There was no room for the prophecy to be thought wrong by either of them.

Yet, Ryuu was here doing just that.

"I'm talking about the fated ones," Ryuu answered.

Gin scoffed. "Of course you're talking about the fated ones. We have no other prophesies aside from that one. I meant 'what nonsense are you talking about' when I asked my question."

Ryuu sighed and gave Gin a look as if he was unhappy with his reaction. Gin could be understanding but could be totally stubborn on some topics – like right now.

"I know – but I'm serious," Ryuu told him matter-of-factly.

"What is it then?"

Gin didn't want to believe, but he'd hear him anyway. He's a fool but not a total fool who'd not at least hear what the other had to say.

"I realized it when I remembered Alencica," Ryuu began. "The prophecy stated the importance of finding the fated ones right?"

Gin nodded.

"But for me, it was my vow," Ryuu continued. "I can't remember everything but I remember something very clearly. It was I who cursed my own bloodline."

"WHAT?"

Gin's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets in his shock. He was expecting something ridiculous but never something like this.

"What do you mean?"

"I still can't remember how she died. But she did,"Ryuu said.

Gin could understand that. Alencica was still after all a human – someone with a limited lifespan. She couldn't live forever like the deities in heaven.

"She died and I was broken. I remember the agony of being left behind."

As Ryuu spoke, his eyes were trained far ahead as if he was looking at a different scenery of a different time.

"I only wanted to be with her and no one else. I vowed to follow her wherever she would appear next. Somehow, I felt she would come here and so I came to be born in the Homura House."

"Well," Gin began, still looking totally confused, but at the same time thought Ryuu made sense.

Deities were selfish and stubborn that way. But when they promised something, most of them go through with it.

"So what do you mean you cursed your own bloodline?"

This was the confusing part. As much as deities were selfish and stubborn, there was no way they would curse their own bloodline. They couldn't reincarnate as humans if not.

"Not a real curse per se. But I'm sure I vowed not to have other children with any other woman when I came to find her this time."

Oh.

Gin wondered then if Ryuu's past incarnation had somehow forgotten about Alencica and had children with another woman and was stricken with grief over his perceived betrayal of his wife. Well, with Ryuu, it was possible.

Gin was right.

"Ara said that I was born as Emperor Vladimir of Kres in my past life," Ryuu said and Gin swallowed hard.

"Vladimir?"

The both of them knew well who Vladimir of Kres was. It was the Flame Emperor who had sent his heir – his firstborn son over the portal to be the guardians of earth.

Yes, the quest was never about Kronos' artifact. It was just a false legend. The deity, Kronos, didn't even exist in the first place. Perun, the ultimate God was the only one who could control time and dimensions – although sometimes his twin, Stribog could.

According to the records of both the Homura and the Kazehaya Houses, Perun had appeared to Emperor Vladimir in a dream telling him of an unfortunate accident caused by his twin brother in their quest to resolve a thousand year old curse.

It was not clear what the curse was about. But because of this, the Emperor quickly asked the aid of the Emperor of Ovid, the wind kingdom in Ged. He and the other emperor sent both of their first-borns – their heirs to the quest, and was never heard of in Ged again.

They didn't vanish, however. They just transported to earth and became the guardians of the portal – the effect of the accident the wind god Stribog caused.

The idiot.

The two of them wanted to roll their eyes heavenwards upon remembering the carefree god. Ryuu, because Stribog was his best friend, and knew that he's really an impulsive idiot, while Gin did it because he was the idiot deity's descendant.

"I was that emperor," Ryuu repeated.

"If she's from that world then they have a clearer history," Gin stated as he nodded. "If she said Vladimir was you – the returner to ancestry Kresnik, then it should be like that."

Ara couldn't have been lying. If Ryuu was Vladimir, then his guess that the returner to ancestry Kresnik remembered his wife too late was correct. He could already guess what happened – the reason for his vow. Why?

Because what happened to Vladimir was recorded in their history as well.

The emperor rallied for the formation of the strongest group for the quest. The previous ones were just normal warriors sent, but most of them perished from the monsters who had managed to sneak out of the portal.

Yes, the previous warriors who were sent to the quest transmigrated to earth as well. But they got caught up by either the politics of the land or by the monsters who managed to come.

It was only when Vladimir formed the group with his son in it and Ovid's crown-prince that they managed to continue to exist on earth until now. Well, at least the Homura House would still continue. The Kazehaya House would end with him. Aoi didn't have that much divine power to be able to pass it on to the next generation.

"So that's why Vladimir did that,"Ryuu commented, bringing Gin back from his thoughts to the present, and he frowned.

"The mystery's solved now huh?" Gin shook his head.

It had always been a mystery why Emperor Vladimir did what he did after forming the group for the quest. It was said that it was because of the guilt that he sent his own son to his death. But that was not real as he died right after the group even left Ged and his son went willingly.

Also, the information about his death was a little bit mysterious as a note from that world suddenly just appeared from the portal telling them about the Emperor's passing without other details. 

"Yeah, my memories might have come back and I realized I betrayed my wife," Ryuu said with a bitter smile on his face. The emperor suddenly died from poisoning, and now they knew why.

"I killed myself…"