Chapter 263 - Cursed Child

Kazehaya Gin sat in the vehicle with his gaze outside the window. However, what he was seeing was not the nice scenery outside, but the events that had happened this morning. The car was on its way back to Tokyo from the seer's estate. But until now, he still hadn't made a report to Ryuu for he was still unsure of what to tell the Koutaishidenka.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips as what transpired earlier played in his mind.

"I'm Dolya, the Goddess of Fate and Master Stribog's right-hand person."

It was understandable that Gin had been rendered speechless after that introduction. Who would have thought that the seer was a returner to ancestry herself?

Ah. No.

She was not a returner to ancestry. Dolya was a deity who descended without being born, just as Perun did thousands of years ago in Ged.

"I came here to Earth with a task from my Master," Dolya said with a smile as the two of them were once again in the house having tea.

"Master" was Stribog, the God of Wind, of course. Gin was confused after that. He had stayed there to find the truth about the prophecy, but the truth he had unearthed was not the one he had been expecting.

Finding out that she was a deity, Gin was also unsure of how to deal with her. After all, it's taboo for deities to disclose knowledge from heaven directly without being born. This was the rule that Perun's predecessor had established, and he had no idea if this had already been changed.

Perhaps, not. Because Dolya gave him a general history although with more details, and nothing but hints on the important things.  

"May I ask about the task?" Gin couldn't help but ask.

If the task had something to do with Ryuu, who was Stribog's best friend in heaven, then he better know about it. As expected the deity just smiled enigmatically.

"I'm sure Young Master knows the rules," she reminded him, and Gin nodded and sighed.

"Then please tell me about the prophecy," he said. He had no choice but to stick to his original purpose in coming here. He was just not expecting the answer though.

Dolya nodded and smiled. "Young Master, there is no prophecy."

Ha?

Gin frowned. "How come? When Ryuu was born, you, yourself prophesized that the child should marry the girl the Suzuki couple will have or the bloodline will die out."

"It was not a prophecy, but part of my task," Dolya answered, making him totally confused.

"But the seers of the clan had been giving us prophecies for generations. It was even why my family was cursed."

All his life, whenever his mother got the chance, she would always remind Gin to blame the Makura of the previous generation for his cursed existence. Because she was the cause that his great grandfather failed to follow the prophecy, and because of her Gin had suffered since he was born.

"Curse?" Dolya looked as if she had no idea what he was talking about, which made Gin feel a bit upset.

"Me," he blurted, barely stopping his voice from sounding emotional. "My existence is proof that those prophecies were real and that by failing to follow them resulted in a cursed existence: Mine."

Silence followed his words as Dolya looked at him with sad eyes.

"Young Master Gin, why do you ever think that your existence is cursed?" she asked softly and looked confused upon seeing him tensed.

"As the legends say, the child who was born with the darkness within will bring chaos to the world – the harbinger of catastrophe," Gin recited stiffly what he'd learned from the classroom and what he'd been hearing from everyone in the Kazehaya House when he was young.

"And you are that, because?"

If it were someone else, Gin would have declined to answer such an absurd question. After all, all his life, there was never a day he was not reminded how his life would be short because of who and what he was – most especially now. The moment that he and Emi got together, a part in his heart secretly wept about their very short relationship.

"Because I'm a harpy caster. All harpy casters go insane," he answered with a bitter smile. "The elemental takes over and wreak havoc. I am doomed to die – prefer to be killed than massacre everyone around me."

"But you will never go insane," Dolya suddenly said, and he looked at her as if she was out of her mind.

"What are you talking about? It's clearly stated that –"

"Only those who were weak without the Wind God Stribog's blood running in them go crazy because they couldn't handle the harpy," Dolya interrupted; her face serious.

Gin, on the other hand, was speechless. "But it is said that even Stribog's bloodline –"

"That's not true. I was there when the harpies made a vow to follow Master for all eternity," Dolya told him matter-of-factly. "They're just more difficult to control and could be stubborn, but they would never harm the Wind God's family."

Huh?

Gin's jaw dropped. "Then why?" He now looked totally confused. "But Aello…"

"Most especially Aello," Dolya continued. "Among all the harpies, there were three who were the strongest. Aello was the most violent one, but she's also the one who loves Stribog the most. She would never hurt him or anyone carrying his blood. In fact, she would die to protect them as it was her promise."

Ha?

Kazehaya Gin suddenly felt very weak. "If you're telling the truth, then does this mean I'm not dying?" he asked.

Dolya smiled and nodded. "You are not."

"But all these years, I thought… I thought I was…"

"I'm sorry," Dolya said afterwards.

"Why are you apologizing? It's not like it's your fault that I –"       

"Actually it is my fault because I didn't appear to explain things a lot earlier," the deity interrupted him, rendering him speechless. "I am bound by the rules of heaven. I can only do my task but I cannot divulge more than what I was tasked to do most especially with regards to the Returners to Ancestries."

"Huh? What do you mean? Is it something related to Kresnik?"

Dolya sighed. "It is but at the same time it's not. It's not up to me to make Returners to remember who they are or give them their memories. After all, if it's not them who recovered the memories themselves, they cannot utilize their complete potential."

With this Gin nodded. He already knew this. Returners to Ancestries should be the one to recall their memories on their own. They could only work so hard to help them.

"It's a difficult job you have there, right?" Gin commented with a snort.

Dolya nodded. "Most especially if you have an idiot of a boss," she added condescendingly as she looked at him with meaningful eyes.

However, Gin couldn't understand it yet so he laughed. "Stribog's really a handful, isn't he?" he asked making Dolya cover her mouth to stop laughing too.

"Anyway, Young Master, let me tell you a story," Dolya began; a faraway look was on her face. "Back in the celestial plane, my Master had a vision."

Kazehaya Gin inclined his head. Stribog, the God of Wind could also prophesize, as being an oracle was also his power. It was why Dolya, the Goddess of Fate was his follower.    

"The star-crossed lovers of thousands of years who kept following each other in the cycle of reincarnation finally have a chance to stop and beat the curse."

HA? Curse?

"Kresnik and Alencica," Dolya said, making Gin sit stiffly.

Ryuu and Ara.

"What about them?" He knew that Kresnik's wife's name was Alencica, but he'd never heard any curse related to those two. Oh, wait… Alencica's a broken soul. It was a sign that she was cursed.

"Have you heard of the Immortal War, Young Master?" Dolya asked, and of course, Gin nodded.

"There is no Gedian who hasn't heard of this," he answered.

The Immortal War, the battle between Perun, the King of Heaven and Czernobog, the Black God. It was what people would say, the most important part of history as Ged would have been doomed, run over by demons and dark elemental beasts by the Demon King if Perun did not intervene.

"When Perun defeated Czernobog, he had banished the Black God into the depths of hell, and placed a seal so he couldn't escape."

Gin nodded. He knew this story as well.

"Every fifty years, the seal weakens, but not weak enough for the Black God himself to escape. He could only send his minions out to cause havoc on the mortal plane," she continued, and again, he nodded.

This was the Immortal War, the continuous battle of demigods versus the Black God's minions every half of a century.

"Are you aware of Perun's ability to break souls?" Dolya asked and Gin nodded.

Ara's broken soul state was proof of that ability. By this time, Gin started to feel uneasy. It was as if there was something very important that he'd forgotten and his head was pounding, forcing him to recall things but couldn't.

"When the King of Heaven fought the Black God, he had accidentally cut a part of his soul," Dolya continued. "Czernobog nursed that broken part of his soul until it became strong enough to become a parasite. When the seal weakened thousands of years ago, with the help of Perun's wife, Fanya, that part of the Black God's soul attached itself to a woman. The human woman couldn't be a host, but she would give birth to the harbinger of catastrophe when someone had a child with her."

"W-what?"

Gin looked totally horrified by now, as he slowly realized what had happened.

"That's right. The mortal woman who became Perun's wife, the one who nurtured Perun's seed that merged with the piece of the Black God's soul was that woman, Shitara," Dolya said softly as she reached for his hand on the table to hold him.   

"Young Master Gin, you see, you were never the cursed child in the prophecy – it's Alencica."