R 01

Chapter 1

The Kingdom of Mandarin.

A nation of avian beastfolk on the southern frontier of the Debus System.

With a population of approximately 150 million, this land is ruled by Lucleros, the king and a fragment of the Divine who is said to live through eternity and reincarnate endlessly. It is warm and prosperous all year round.

Except for one secluded village, where children born with the emblem of the Black Firebird live.

In the middle of the afternoon, I stood in an open clearing on the outskirts of the village, gripping a wooden sword and glaring at a scarecrow.

A name tag had been hung on the scarecrow’s chest.

Lucleros.

‘If it weren’t for that bastard…’

Just seeing that name made my blood boil.

I tilted the wooden sword slightly and glanced at the back of my left hand.

The emblem of the Black Firebird was clearly visible.

‘If it weren’t for this, either, my life wouldn’t have turned out like this.’

I tightened my grip on the wooden sword again.

“Hyah!”

I stepped forward with a spirited shout.

Thwack!

A satisfying impact was followed by a sharp, intense tingling in the back of my left hand.

“Ouch!”

Startled, I let out a short cry and dropped the wooden sword.

“…What was that?”

It was a strange pain I’d never experienced before. I examined the back of my hand again.

Had I imagined it? The only thing that stood out was the Black Firebird emblem, and it didn’t hurt anymore.

“Damn it!”

Grumbling, I picked up the wooden sword I’d dropped.

“Of all the times to be born, why did I have to be born then?!”

As if my mood wasn’t already terrible every day, now I had to deal with this unfamiliar pain on top of it. My temper flared even more.

“Just because you’re the king, you think you can do whatever you want? I was simply born! What crime did I commit?!”

As always, I began venting my anger in earnest on the scarecrow in front of me.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Straw from the scarecrow’s body began flying through the air, knocked loose by the blows.

“Firebird or waterbird, what does the Black Firebird emblem on my hand have to do with you?! You damn bastard!”

I mercilessly pummeled the scarecrow, remembering the unpleasant lesson we’d had at the community hall earlier that day.

Mr. Goose, the only teacher in the secluded village, was a good teacher, but there was something dark and eerie about him.

“All right, Reddan. Why don’t you tell us about the characteristics of our Mandarin race?”

At Mr. Goose’s question, Reddan, the only male student, answered.

“We’re avian beastfolk, and we’ve received the blessing of Mata Hari, the Divine of Fire. We can also fly through the hidden wings of our race. However, the process of training to fly is extremely difficult, so nowadays, we can hardly fly at all.”

Mr. Goose smiled in satisfaction.

“Good. Well done. Next, Rea. Why don’t you tell us about reproduction in our race?”

Rea, who was sitting beside Reddan, answered in a clear voice.

“We’re human, but because we’re classified as avian, we lay around one to three eggs at a time. The gestation period is about two months, and if the eggs are left somewhere sunny or incubated, they gradually grow larger before hatching.”

“That’s right. Good answer. Of course, you’re all destined to die soon, so none of you will ever have to lay eggs.”

Mr. Goose added the last sentence with a smile. As a result, the classroom, filled with twenty-one children of the same age, sank into its usual gloomy silence.

“All right, Ellie.”

He was calling on me again. I didn’t want to answer, but since it was the teacher calling my name, I had no choice but to stand.

“When does His Benevolent Majesty, the King of the Kingdom of Mandarin, suddenly turn into a tyrant?”

His Majesty the King.

He meant Lucleros.

Mr. Goose continued.

“He and his knights have been invading cities and villages, searching for women who meet certain conditions and killing every one of them. You all know this well, don’t you?”

“…Yes.”

It was a story that came up in every lesson. And Mr. Goose always demanded that I answer this particular question. Almost obsessively.

“Why don’t you tell us what those conditions are, Ellie?”

I didn’t want to, but I opened my mouth. The faster I answered, the sooner this lesson would be over.

“The cycle is every twenty-three years.”

I showed Mr. Goose the back of my left hand.

“Women born with the Black Firebird emblem on the back of their left hands.”

Mr. Goose smiled in satisfaction.

“That’s right. Every one of you in this classroom has that emblem, except for Reddan. Now, when did His Majesty say he would kill you?”

‘Haah.’

I couldn’t help sighing. I had to suppress the sense of injustice welling up inside my chest.

“When we turn twenty, he appears as if he’s been waiting for that moment, kills everyone except one person, and then torments that one survivor until she dies within three years… So in the end, we all die.”

Clap!

Mr. Goose’s loud clap echoed through the classroom.

“Exactly! Yours is a cursed birth! In the old days, parents would hide children like you, only for themselves to be killed as well. These days, families abandon you first, so that doesn’t happen anymore.”

I’d heard it so often that I could recite it in my sleep, but every time I heard it, a shiver ran through me.

“It’s not because you’ve committed any other crime. You innocent children are killed simply because you were born with the Black Firebird emblem! How can that happen? Horrible, isn’t it?”

Mr. Goose raised his voice as loudly as he could.

“A tyrant! The king is a tyrant unlike any other! But as the guardian of the southern gate of the Debus System, he possesses tremendous power, and he lives for an infinite amount of time! So resisting him is impossible for you!”

Not even a breath could be heard in the classroom.

Only Mr. Goose’s voice echoed through the room.

“Rather than letting entire cities suffer while searching for and killing women with the Black Firebird emblem, it was better to create secluded villages like this one early on and raise children like you there. Why? Come on, shall we all answer together?”

The students, cowed by Mr. Goose’s cruelly loud and clear voice, answered in gloomy unison.

“Then even if the villages are completely destroyed, only the secluded villages will suffer, while everywhere else can remain peaceful.”

“Good. Now for the most important decision! You have just turned twenty. What do you do when the knights of Lucleros Tower come?”

“……”

Silence settled over the classroom.

Everyone knew perfectly well how horrible Lucleros was. After all, they received lessons like this every day.

But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t accept the final conclusion.

I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, and if I was going to live, I wanted to live for a very long time.

But the conclusion Mr. Goose forced upon me and the other students was this:

“When they come to kill you, you just let them kill you. Understand?”

I’d heard it countless times, but it still sounded absurd.

“Even if one of you happens to become the one person who survives, you’ll spend three years suffering unspeakable torment and humiliation before eventually dying. So it’s much cleaner and better to take your own life the moment you’re captured. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes……”

Some of them seemed to have been brainwashed by that bizarre conclusion and answered in lifeless voices.

“……”

“Ellie, why aren’t you answering?”

Did he really have to hear my answer every single time before he could be satisfied?

“…Yes.”

At the same time, I couldn’t help feeling that my own fate was truly miserable.

In fact, I’d felt that way yesterday, too. And the day before that.

And that’s why I’d come out here with a wooden sword again today.

On days like this, beating up a scarecrow I’d named Lucleros at least made me feel a little better.

Of course, venting my anger wasn’t the only reason I beat the scarecrow.

If the knights of Lucleros Tower ever came to kill me, I wanted to have enough stamina to run away.

“Do you think I’m crazy? You expect me to obediently die just because you tell me to? What am I supposed to do because of that bastard Lucleros or whatever his name is?”

The more I thought about it, the angrier I became, so I resumed pounding the scarecrow with all my strength.

After about ten blows—

“Ellie.”

A familiar voice came from behind me.

It was Reddan, who was always smiling brightly. He was also the only boy of our age in the village.

Neat-looking and well-mannered, he had been born as a twin from a single egg. His other half was Rea, a girl who, like me, had been born with the Black Firebird emblem.

But today, his expression was different from usual. He looked gloomy.

“What happened?”

“Well……”

Reddan hesitated as though his mouth had been glued shut, then finally managed to speak.

“Everyone’s being summoned to the community hall.”

“……”

Why did he have to make simply telling me to go to the community hall sound so difficult?

“Really? All right.”

I answered casually, put down the wooden sword, and turned around. Then Reddan’s next words made my heart sink.

“All the women with the Black Firebird emblem.”

“…What?”

It felt as though all the blood had drained from my body. It seemed the moment I’d been dreading had finally arrived.

‘Was the pain in my hand earlier because of this? No…’

I rubbed the back of my left hand for a moment before shaking my head to myself.

It can’t be. It couldn’t be.

“Could it be… that Mr. Goose is holding a make-up class?”

Mr. Goose occasionally gathered the children again, saying he wanted to give them an additional lesson.

So I hoped that was all it was. Classes were boring, but they were a hundred, a thousand times better than knights coming to kill us.

However, Reddan’s bitter expression made my hopes seem meaningless.

“It’s not a make-up class… It’s the knights of Lucleros Tower.”