...On the day of the sacrificial ceremony, the Imperial Family of Alercane, including the leaders of the extended branches of the family, the members of the council who had been pus.h.i.+ng for this, as well as various high-ranking officers from different departments gathered in the four towers that were circling the sacrificial platform, where runes and wards had been carved into each and every brick.
The sacrificial platform, which was originally built for sacrificial purposes, had not seen a sacrifice in the years that Ralmaroz became the Daemon King. Instead, it was repurposed and made into a battle arena, where everyone, including the lower cla.s.s servants and slaves, was allowed to fight for their freedom.
Who knew that on the very first time it became a sacrificial platform since the ascension of Daemon King Ralmaroz, it would be to sentence his infant son to death.
The commoners, as well as their servants and slaves, watched on intently from the seating areas on the ground floor. To some of them, slaves even, Daemon Queen Cahryss had been nothing but a kind queen who often walked around and talked to lower-cla.s.s people like them, completely disregarding the established social rules and her station.
Thus, they had hoped that the queen would not be here today, that she would opt to sit out on witnessing the execution of her newborn son. Yet their hope was dashed when she walked out and stood in the middle of the sacrificial platform, where an opened small wooden coffin with golden engravings was placed at.
"Two babies… This should have been a happy event," a young minotaur mumbled as he looked at the queen, who was still holding her soon-to-be-dead eldest son on the sacrificial platform, completely unwilling to put him in the small coffin that would house him for all eternity. He shook his head with a sigh as he thought about what was to happen in a few minutes" time.
"Twins are never a good omen for the demons," said a young orc standing near him. The orc touched his right ear, which was sharp like a pixie"s and had a greyish-black hue, just like the rest of his body. "I"m surprised that the king allowed both babies to live on until now. If this were in the old days, one of the babies would have been executed at birth… or in some cases among the lower-cla.s.ses, both."
The minotaur turned back and recognized that the young orc was from the same school as him. After greeting his friend, he said, "That"s the old days when demons were a lot more superst.i.tious."
"Maybe," the young orc said as he looked up at the queen. "Perhaps things would have been different if one of them were born normal… But for two demon kings to be born at the same time, as twins and royal…"
He sighed and shook his head. "This is their destiny."
"I feel bad for the little prince…" the young minotaur said as he looked at the baby in the queen"s arms. "Was it his fault to be born with such a prophecy?"
"Don"t be an idiot," said the young orc as he glared at his friend. "The prophecy of the seers is more often right than wrong. And this is about a prophecy that was "seen" by more than one seer, so it can"t be wrong. It"s better to get rid of the problem at the bud now than to allow him to grow up and let the prophecy come true. It might not be his fault now, but 200 years down the road, who to say that it wouldn"t?"
He then turned to look at the young minotaur. "And didn"t you hear? The eldest prince has a unique soul-related ability, and I heard that he killed three of his servants in one day. Can you imagine that?"
Upon hearing his friend"s words, the young minotaur frowned. He had heard of the rumor as well, that the young prince sucked away the souls of three servants one night. Whether or not it was intentional, this rumor had caused a lot of fear among others, especially with the prophecy looming over them.
If the young prince could do something like this as a baby, they shuddered to think of what he could do as an adult.
Even so, even with all these reasons, the young minotaur could not help but think, "The prophecy has never stated which twin would bring the destruction of Alercane… Isn"t it a bit rash to sentence a poor innocent baby to death just because of his power?"
He wanted to voice his question, but he felt that, based on the short conversation that he had with his friend, they would just argue about the same thing without making much progress at all. Thankfully, he was saved from saying something by the loud ringing of a bell that came from the bell tower.
"It"s about time…" the young minotaur murmured as he looked pitifully at the queen, who was now talking to one of the personal guards of the king.
…
"Your Majesty," a humanoid dog with white fur greeted Daemon King Ralmaroz, who was sitting at his throne with a dark expression. "It"s almost time for the ceremony."
"Do I really need to be here? This kind of stuff can be done by you guys, right?" Daemon King Ralmaroz asked nonchalantly as he kept his eyes on his wife on the platform. He had sent a man earlier to separate his wife and the baby, but it looked like the man failed to persuade the queen to let go of the baby.
The last few days, he had not seen his wife at all, but his servants reported to him that she had been staying with baby Hades in another room the whole time, barely talking to others at all. And the only visitor she had was Thadeus.
"Yes, Your Majesty," the humanoid dog replied with a bow. "The Council said that Your Majesty should do this to show solidarity, that you are not angry with their pet.i.tions, and that it would also pacify the citizen"s concern that Your Majesty might..."
The humanoid dog hesitated for a moment as he looked at the king in the face. After a while, he said in a low voice, "That Your Majesty might be mad and take revenge against the seers… like what happened before."
A long time ago, because of a human seer"s untimely "prophecy", one of the kings of Alercane set an order to kill all humans with magical abilities in Alercane, and that for as long as he lived, there would be no mages nor human seers living on the soil of Alercane.
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