Prologue

The tragic beginning

Our world is full of magic and wonder. There are many different races living here. Humans, Elves, Beastmen, Demons, Dwarfs, Dragons, Fairies, Sirens, Treants, Angels and Halfbreeds.

There are 7 continents. The Human continent, the Demon continent, the Beast continent, the Northen continent, the Southern continent, the Mystic continent and the Neither continent. They are called officially like that for more than 3000 years now, because none of the different races could agree on one name.

Humans live mostly on the Human continent with a few on the Beast continent and singles on the northen continent. The Human continent is the second largest, only 20 sqare km bigger than the Demon continent. It's located between the Beast and Demon continent, a bit more than half the continent is in the south globe.

Elves, Beastmen, Dwarfs and most of the Halfbreeds live on the Beast continent, the largest one. The Elves live in the southern and central forests on the continent. They are peaceful and don't have coutry on their own. They live in separate tribes, scattered aroud but nevertless they keep contact with eachother and gladly would help any travelers and injured people. They would even accept requests from adventurers to be guides or archers/healers in a party. They obey allmost all the laws of the country they're in but don't be fooled, Elves can be fearsome fighters when they want to, there's even a saying "Don't anger an Elf or you'll suffer greatly." . Especially Elf druids which could control plants were the scariest when angry, good thing it's very hard to anger an Elf and they have a quick forgiving nature. The Beastmen had different appearance according to what the animal's characteristics were. There were those with animal ears and tais - the cat, dog, bear, horse, wolf, sheep, goat, hog, raccoon, rabbit, hedgehog, monkey, lion and squirrel tribes. Those with scales - the snake, lizard, turtle and salamander tribes. There are also many more, like the frog and tiger tribes, but I lost the count and there might be even some unknown tribes. The Beasmen live all over the continent but unlike the Elves they have a country, Floren, found by the first beastman emperor Leopold 'King' Florenz 600 years ago. (Haha...As you can see the similarity in names...) Floren occupies the north-west and part of the central parts of the continent. Not all beastmen tribes live there but more than half do. Since then the Floren family rule the country. The Dwarfs live mostly in the northern and eastern parts, where there are a lot of minerals and metals to mine, also a lot of volcanic activity, especially in the north-east, providing natural heat for melting and processing materials. There are some Dwarf that live in big cities all over the continent, some even go to the other continents. Halfbreeds can be found anywhere in the world but because of discrimination and abuse most of them have fled to the Beast continent. There they are accepted by the populace, unlike the Human continent where they were abused and sold as slaves, no even criminal slaves (criminals, murderers and etc turned slaves) had been treated better than them.

Demons live on the Demon, Northern and the most eastern parts of the Beast continent. Demons extremely value the purity of their bloodline, so it's extremely rare for one to have kids with another species. Like with Beastmen, Demons also have different types - the Oni, Ogres, Vampires, Fire, Water, Lightning, Shadow, Ice, Horned, Asura, Sand, Werewolves, Rot, Plant, Chronians, Devils and many others. There were also demons that looked like humans, excluding the fangs, horns, long pointy ears, claws and tails, those demons were called Nobles or Trnscended ones. The first Demon King was one of them. The principle with demons was they had weaknesses to certain elements depending on their species. Ice demons were weak to fire and high temperatures, Shadow demons couldn't stay too long under the sun or they could die, Rot demons were weak to fire and certain vegetation, Asuras had tremendous speed, agility, defence and strenght but couldn't use magic and their magic resistance was quite weak. You get the picture, right. The Nobles, however had only one weakness - the holy atribute of Angels and priests. This didn't mean they would die but it weakened them and could mortally wound them, this however could be prevented by simply rairing your tolerance or strenght. The first Demon king Gregory Daiagron was defeated by an army with over 60 priests and 300 knights 800 years ago. In the end the priests sacrificed themselves to use the strongest holy magic to ever exist in the world, a now lost spell called 'Aegis' . After the Demon king was defeated only 10 knights remained, later they were killed by monsters. Remember, everyone, the Demon continent has most of the strongest monsters in the world.

On the Southern continent almost no one lives permanently. Explorers and fishermen often go near it or explore it''s shore. A small isolated tribe of Yeti lives on the northeast shore, other than them there are only monsters and ocasionally a few ice elementals.

On the mystic continent live the Fairies and Dragons. They have isolated themselves there and don't involve themselves with the other contnents' buisness, the frequent seastorms around the continent and sea monsters help for that. Like with everyone there are exceptions. Young Fairies would venture around the world, most will return but some remain to explore or make a family.

Treants can be found in every forest. As long as they aren't disturbed or hunted they would even stay near or inside small town and villages. They get along really well with the Beastmen and Elves.

Sirens and Meremen live both in sea and big lakes. They rarely come to the surface but when they do it's either for buisness, war or fun. Young Sirens often hypnotize sailors or villagers living near water to come to them, after the hypnisis many have woken up painted in vibrant colors, scribbled with funny pictures, with makeup, wigs made of seaweed, and a dress, bikini or stripped of all clothes but their underwear.

Angels on the other hand haven't been seen in the last 1000 years. According to a legend almost all had left for 'Heaven' but no one knows where it is or if it's even real, even the descendants of the few Angels that remained don't know. Another legend says an evil creature came from the sky, the Angels went to stop it but all were killed in the process. No one shall know the truth but people still wonder.

The Neither continent is a mystery. No one lives there, no people, no monsters, no plants, there's only thick mist and rocks. High mountains reaching above the clouds, casms of certain death, mist so thick you can cut it. As one goes deeper the more lost he becomes and more likely to die. It's only known where it is, no one has managed to return after going deeper than the coast. Everyone avoids going near it.

Now, our story begins.

On the Human continent, in one of the many kingdoms, the kingdom of Karimel in the north-west of the continent, there were 3 big families. The tree Grand families, the Gerber - a military orientated household, the Durin - a scholary household that produced some of the best schoolars in the kingdom, lastly the Lorean - a family with vast riches, land and the best magicians. The head of the family back then had 2 kids, a son and a daughter. The son was the older one and was going to inherit the house, unfortunately his talent and interest in magic were so-so. The daughter on the other hand loved magic so much she constantly studied, this coupled with her talent brought pride to her parents. She was accepteg in St. Jose academy in the capital at the age of 14. The girl's name was Beatris Lorean. She became an A rank magician and graduated at the age of 19. After that she joined the Adventurer guild and traveled for 2 yers around the continent, defeating monsters, saving vilages, exploring ruins and dungeons. She had a lot of fun and many looked up to her. Then, one day she met him- Jack Hagoro. After 2 years she had decided to take some rest and went to a famous resort town with nice beach, forest, and many hot springs but it was most famous for it's mud and it's healing properties. Not only was it good for the skin but in removed scars, stains and improved health. She rented a hotel room and stayed in the hotel for 2 days before getting bored, she went out to look aroud after lunch.

The town was beautiful and had many ineresting places for spa, each with it's own specialities and quirks. There were numerous small street stalls and restaurants open day and night. While looking around it had quickly becomme night.

'Where should I go now? It's dark and I'm hungry from all this walking.' (Beatris thought)

She walked a bit more when she stopped. A family restaurant offering exotic foods from around the world, it had live music too.

"Let's go there~" - Beatris' melodic voise sang, making some of the men look at her. She had short wavy hair in beautiful chocolate brown, bright green eyes and cherry lips. Although she looked petite for her age she was surprisingly strong.

She went in and sat on an empty table near the stage. The musicians had a break at the moment. A waitress came and took her order. By the time her meal was served the curtains in the stage slowly opened revealing a young, 23 year old man, he held a violin and a notebook. He placed the notebook in a holder infront of him, opened on acertain page and staightened his posture. He had shaggy black hair, the most common and cheap clothes, brown eyes and a few hairs, far cry from a beard, growing on his chin. His vionli was old and scratched, a normal, bit poor, commoner. People would hardly even notice him, so why, why had he grabbed hers, the famous genius' attention. The moment he started playing, the most beautiful sound she had ever heard came out of the old violin. Even the musician in her home couldn't produce such a sound. All chattering stopped and everyone listened to the magical tunes. It was a verry well known song she hard numerous times, "The dying flame and the little beggar" . A beautiful song made into a play.

It was about a little beggar boy that lived in a wooden box. One winter however a few of the villagers decided to light the boy's house on fire. The boy had to sleep outside during the cold night. The fire felt bad for the boy so he he hent next to the sleeping boy to keep him warm. Soon the wood was burnt and there were a few stcks left. The fire knew this would be both his and the boy's end, so he rose up and took a few planks fron the nearby house, then a few more, and a few more. The sleeping people inside felt the cold and saw the fire. They were scared and rushed out to put out the fire, they threw water and snow at him. The fire wouldn't give up no matter how much pain the water and snow caused him, instead he grew stronger, protecting the boy and taking even mose burnable things inside him. This continued till morning there was no more wood or anything burnable, the water, snow and ice cape at the fire without a stop. The fire looked and saw the sun, he had done his job. As he was being extinguished he used his last strenght to appear in the boy's mind and gifted the boy with the ability to use fire magic at it's will. Like that the flame died. The vilagers were angry with the little beggar and banished him from the village. Many years later a monster started terrorizing the village, so they called Adventurers to stop it. After a long battle, the monster was killedd by the party's fire mage. The vilagers thaked them, they even kneeled in front of the fire mage. When the village chief asked what would they want, he even offered his daughter to the fire mage. The fire mage just shook his head for NO and said : "I already have a wife." he hugged the party's archer "Also, I don't want anything from of you." he lowered his hood, revealing his full face. The mage was a handsome and kind looking man. "Years ago, when you banished me away for something I hadn't done, I gave up all hope for this village. Did you think you would be kneeling in front of the poor, weak beggar you chased away with stones and sharp sticks?" The chief and everyone's faces becape pale and they lowered their heads in shame as the Adventurers left. "You should never judge the book by it's cover. Everyone, no matter how he looks can have a big heart on the inside," - That's what the story was about. Because of the flame's kindness the beggar destinied to die lived and became a great person, who saved the vilagers even though they chased him away.

Somehow that song suited the man perfectly. As Beatris listened she could feel tears running down her face. After a few more songs he took his stuff and went down the stage. Beatris quckly got up and rushed after him. He was packing his stuff when she reached. She was breathing heavily, her heart was racing and her face was red. He looked at her, confused.

"uUm....I-I really liked how you played aand" she fumbled "I wanted to ask...will you be here tomorrow?"

"No." he answered blatantly, disappointing her. "I'll be here the day after."

She beamed. "My name's Beatris. What's your name?"

"Jack Hagoro. It's a pleasure." he bowed lika gentleman holding an imaginary hat.

"Nice to meet you too. Um..I'll have 'ta go... you know, my food will get cold." She hurried but stopped for a moment, turned around and said "I'll be here to listen to you, so play something more lively!" then she ran away.

'Waaaaaah!! What was that?!! It was sooo embarrasing. Why did I say it?!!' (Beatris)

Not knowing, after she left, Jack also blushed and put a hand on his heart.

'What a beautiful girl. Why did she come to talk with someone like me? And why is my heart beating like this?' (Jack)

He relucantly took his stuff and left.

Fate indeed was a mysterious thing. It made those two meet and fall in love. Beatris continued to come watch Jack and Jack would practice in order to play better and newer songs for her. After a week they met in the town. She bumped into him, haking him and his stuff fall. They spent the day together and enjoyed it a lot. Beatris started to work because she decided to stay here because of him. Like that tree months passed. They fell in love more and more. In the end when the restaurant owner chased Jack away, because he found someone cheaper to play music, Beatris suggested they left the town together and go to her home.

"OK but after a few more days, please." (Jack)

She was confused a worried.

"What would you do, without a job? What would you eat?" (Beatris)

"Don't worry for me so much." he stroked her cheek lovingly " I'll be fine. I still have a few things to do before I leave."

He then left. She didn't see him for 2 days and got verry worried.

'What should I do? Should I go look for him? He said he'll be fine though...No! Something might have happened, I have to go!'

As she was about to leave her room a knock was heard. She opened and saw Jack. He was still wearing normal clother but those were cleaner, newer and neater. On his right was a big backpack and his violin's case. He suddenlu kneelen and pulled a small wooden box. He opened it, revealing a bronze ring with a small green stone, the color of her eyes, her name engraved on the inside.

"Beatris, would you marry me?"

She teared up and almost shouted.

"Yes, I will!"

He took her hand and gently put the ring on her finger. She started crying and threw herself in his hands, making them both fall on the floor. They stayed like that for a while until she got on her knees adn asked: "How?"

"I worked a few oddjobs while I was free and saved up money. It needed a few days to be ready, I was going to propose you then."

"Where's yours?" she asked.

He laughed nervously "I didn't have enough for two."

"Oh, you little dummy." she hugged him.

He helped her up and the same day they left with a carriage. After a few days they reached Hambelin, Beatris' hometown. The carriage stopped in the centre of town, they got down and she showed him the town. At some time she dragged him to a jewlery shop and asked the clerk to make him a matching ring. Unlike the shop from where he bought the ring, this one was the best in Hambelin, a town at least 3 times bigger, and had a magic blacksmith. In 15 minutes the ring was ready, it looked the same but had Jack engraven on the inside.

"The fee is 7 gold coins." (cleric)

Jack gaped at the sum. The ring he gave Beatris was only 2 gold. She pulled the money calmly from her bag and gave it to the cleric. She then put the ring on Jack's hand.

"I-Is it fine for you to give me something like that?" (Jack)

"Ofcourse, you worked so hard for my ring, this is in fact too little. Come on I'll show you my home!" (Beatris)

She led Jack to her family's mansion. He gaped at it.

"You live here?"

"Yes, this is my family's house, although I haven't beenhere since I was 16." (Beatris)

She led him to the entrance when the doors busted open. Her parents and the servants came out to greet her. Her brother came out last, his expression like he had seen something unpleasant.

"Oh, you're back." her brother Gerald grumbled.

Her parents invited her inside to have some tea annd talk. It was all nice untill she told them she was going to marry Jack. Both her parents' faces became furious. Her father even shouted at her.

"How DARE you marry for a lowly peasant?!! Get him out of my sight!"

"Then I'm also going with him! I love him!" (Beatris)

Her brother was extremely happy. He was afraid he would loose his place to her but now he had a chance to win over her. He used his father's anger to officially make him the heir and chase Beatris away from the house, making her a normal citizen. She was no longer noble but that didn't matter to her and Jack. They bought a small house in a nearby town named Fresca. A year after her mother got sick from a 'mysterious desease' and died. Her father was crushed and stopped eating, in the end he also died. Her brother took the place of family head and would always ridicule his sister on balls and celebrations. Sometimes he would say it was her fault this happened to their parents.

Jack and Beatris lived happily, not caring about such stuff. The only thing they wanted was a child. They tried again and again for ten years after their marriage, they even started thinking they may never have kids but then a miracle happened, Beatris was pregnant. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl. They named her Deva Hagoro. They cherished her a lot and treated her like the most precious thing in the world. They lived happily for 7 years but this didn't continue. One day they traveled to the Hakiki mountain to watch the flowers. On the way back there was a terrible thunderstorm, because Deva was tired she slept deeply. Suddenly there was a landslide, their carriage was pushed off the mountain road and fell down from the ledge. Her parents both afraid for her hugged her with all their strenght to protect her. The next day workers and a few adventurers came to the landslide to clear it. The workers and earth mages cleared while the others looked out for monsters. One of the adventurers got bored and looked aroun. He walked to the ledge and looked down. He then noticed a few Carpacets digging in the dirt.

'Strange, they are only attracted to dead or dying animals and people. Meh, it's probably just a dead a---!!'

He noticed they pulled a dead horse. It had died because of the 20 metre drop from the ledge and bein burried by dirt. What shocked him was the horse had reins.

"Hey!! Come here! A carriage was swept by the landslide!" he shouted at his teammates. They came and he showed them the place. They quickly jumped down, jumping from 20 metres high was nothing for a strong enough adventurer. They chased away the Carpacets and started digging. They found the carriage's door and opened it. Inside they saw something shocking. A sleeping girl laid in her dying mother's hands. Beatris weakly looked up at them.

"W-What happened?!"

"i I casted a sleep spell on her...she'll...wake up." she took out her adventurer card with a lot of struggle and lifter it towards them, putting whatever magic energy she had left in it, making it shine, the proof it belonged to her "Pplese...take her to a safe place... she is, after all my treasure."

"I promise I won't allow anything to happen to her, I swear." the adventurer said, putting a hand on his heart.

"Tthank ....you..." Beatris smiled and her hand fell limp down. She was dead.

"Take the bodies out, we'll bring them to town and make a burial for them. I'll take the girl." he took the girl and the mother's adventurer card to search for relatives with it. He climbed up the long way in order not to wake her too soon by being too rough. He arrived by the temporary camp they made for the landslide's clearing. A woman was making food when she saw him.

"Balk! What happened?" she asked with concern.

"Me and my party found a cariage that was pushed down the ledge. She's the only survivor." Balk said as he put the girl down on a sleeping bag.

"How terrible." her face became sad.

"You couln't have done anything Elaine, that's just how things turn out sometimes no matter how good of a healer you are." Balk sat on a chair taking a sip of water from a bottle, which he took from a table.

He now could have a good look at the girl, she had short,silky black hair, her face was clean with a bit of baby fat in her cheeks left making her squishy and irresistable. Long eyelashes and pink lips. She was one of those kids you couldn't resist to pinch on the cheek and give them candy.

She stirred a bit and slowly opened her eyes. Blinking she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Elaine went next to her.

"Yawn...Good mornin'." (Deva)

"Good morning, how are you?" Elaine smiled.

"Fine. Who are you miss?"

"Oh, how polite! My name's Elaine, a Half-Fairy. And that ruffian there is Balk, he's the one that found you. What's your name?"

"I'm Deva Hagoro. Nice to meet you." she looked around and panicked "Wwhere are mommy and daddy?!! Are they fine? I feard a loud BOOOM!! Then I wake here."

Both of them looked at her with pity and sighed. Balk stood up, walked to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"There was a large landslide. Your carriage fell on the rocks below the ledge. Your barents are dead, I'm sorry." (Balk)

She looked at him speechless for a bit, then it hit her like a cargo train. She started crying, he was lost here, Balk had close to none experience with kids. He stood there while Elaine hugged her and tried to calm her down.

===Two days later===

It was over. Her parents were buried and she was noe traveling with Balk and Elaine towards her uncle's mansion. When they arrived they were met with coldness and distaste but nothing could be done. Even if they wanted to take Deva with them, they couldn't. It was decided for her to be raised by her relatives. After her luggage was put in her new home, a shabby shack at the far corner of the mansion's garden, Balk and Elaine had to say goodbye.

"You'll be fine, right?" (Elaine)

"Yes, I will." (Deva)

"Grr. Couldn't they have put you in a better place. This mansion surely has like a 100 guest rooms!" (Balk)

"Shut up, Balk. We can't do anything even if we want. It's one of the 3 families after all." (Elaine)

"Oh, fine. Hey, kiddo, don't forget to write, got it?" (Balk)

"Yes, I'll write." (Deva)

After that they said their goodbyes and left. She was left alone in a house with 'relatives' that didn't care about her. That nigh she recieved a loaf of old bread and a bowl of soup. After eating it she laid down on the old matress and looked at some of her mother's and father's things she brought with her. Her father's violin and music notes, her mother's adventurer card, a few of her books of magic and a graduation certificate of St. Jose. Deva gazed at the school's emblem on the back dreamyly, this was the best school in the country and the 10th best on the whole continent.

'I have decided, I'll go to the school and become a great adventurer!!' (Deva)

This was her goal for now. Maybe she could go to another school but for her that was good enough at the moment.

'It won't be easy, from tommorow I'll start training and learn magic! Now, I'll sleep.' (Deva)

That day the 7 and a half year old Deva made an oath to herself to never give up, no matter how hard it is or what stands in her way, she would do her best and reach her dream.