Chapter 20: Rain of Sin
The attack on the Rain Clan was clearly premeditated. An army of over ten thousand fairies, drawn from four clans, struck when the Rain Clan was lost in the joy of their Plentiful Harvest festival, launching their assault at the moment of least defense.
Many fairies, drunk and asleep from revelry, never even realized what was happening. They died in their dreams, cut down without understanding.
"It hurts… it hurts… it hurts!"
"Please! Stop! Stop this!"
"No! Don't burn our home!"
"Don't bully us! Don't hurt us!"
"It hurts so much, it hurts so much, it hurts—!"
"I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm… dying…"
The cries of agony rang endlessly. Just ten minutes earlier the Rain Clan had been celebrating in bliss, and now they were plunged into calamity.
Snatching up weapons in haste, they barely managed to hold back the combined assault of the four clans, slowing the advance of the invading host for only a short while.
Inside the castle, Aesc and Vivian had been told to flee, but the surprise attack had come from every direction. There was nowhere to run. With the maids escorting them, they made their way to the council chamber.
Still clad in her ornate wedding gown, Aesc gripped her wand, ready to rush into the fray—only to be stopped by Vivian's hand.
"Where are you going, Aesc?" Vivian cried, fear in her voice.
"I must protect you, Vivian. I must protect Father, Mother, and everyone in the Rain Clan!" Aesc's eyes trembled wide, fear and determination warring inside her. She fought to stay calm, but her voice betrayed her struggle.
"Don't be reckless!" Vivian begged. "You'll die!"
"But—!"
Before they could argue further, the great doors of the council chamber slammed open with a violent kick.
But it was not the enemy who entered—it was Tenkei Shiomi.
The moment Aesc saw him, she felt a rush of relief. But it lasted only a heartbeat. He was drenched in blood, cradling the unconscious Queen in his arms.
A gaping wound marred her chest, her robes soaked crimson.
"Mother!"
As Shiomi laid her down, both Aesc and Vivian rushed to her side.
"Her life is safe for now," Shiomi said gravely.
Only then did Aesc notice: though Shiomi was covered in blood, there wasn't a wound on him. The blood was from the fairies who had fallen—both Rain Clan and their attackers.
"Take the Queen and get her somewhere safe. Don't come out again," Shiomi ordered, handing her over before turning back toward the battlefield.
But his hand was caught by the Queen, who had just barely regained consciousness.
"Sage… sama…" Her voice was faint, broken. "Please… take Aesc away…"
"Mother?" Aesc's voice trembled with confusion.
"The other clans… they've come for the Paradise Fairy." The Queen's bloodstained hand reached shakily for her daughter's tear-streaked cheek. "If they don't find Aesc… they'll kill… and kill… they won't stop…"
"So we're just to let the other clans slaughter you all, Queen?" Shiomi demanded, unable to accept it.
"…You've seen it yourself…" The Queen's eyes were filled with pleading. "The other fairies cannot match you… but the one leading them… is a Sub-Bell…"
The Sub-Bell were the ancestors of the six great clans, beings of overwhelming power.
Though the six Sub-Bells had perished one by one over the thousand-year cycles of catastrophe, among the current clan leaders three were reborn Sub-Bells, their strength equal to the originals—far beyond that of ordinary fairies.
The King of the Rain Clan, not a reborn Sub-Bell, had fallen in a single blow.
Shiomi knew the truth: even if he fought two reborn Sub-Bells at once, victory was uncertain. The Queen's meaning was clear. Their power was too great—she did not want Shiomi to fight them, but instead to take Aesc and escape.
"But even so—if they kill everyone in the Rain Clan and don't find Aesc, won't they just keep hunting her?" Shiomi pressed. "There would be no—"
Vivian suddenly lifted her head. "They want the Paradise Fairy? Then give them one. The Paradise Fairy is right here!"
Her words froze both Shiomi and Aesc. Vivian wasn't betraying her sister. As she spoke, she gestured to herself.
She intended to take Aesc's place—becoming the substitute Paradise Fairy, to meet the death that could not be avoided.
"Vivian?!" Aesc seized her sister, but her grip slipped.
"Sage, please… take Aesc away…" Vivian's tears streamed down her cheeks.
Shiomi reached to stop her, but his wrist was seized again, the Queen clutching with the last of her strength.
"Please… take Aesc away… You must live… You must correct Britannia's… mistake…" Her voice broke, tears and blood spilling together down her dress already soaked scarlet.
"…I will not fail you." Shiomi's brow furrowed as he clenched his teeth and swore.
He would protect Aesc. Whether asked or not, he would. But to abandon the clan she loved, to let them die so she might live—such a path, one that would bring her only sorrow, was unbearable to him.
And yet, both the Queen and Vivian had staked their very lives on this plea, entrusting Aesc's survival to him alone.
Hearing his vow, the Queen finally released her grip, slumping weakly against the throne, awaiting the end.
"Sage! Please, let her live happily—I beg you!"
As Shiomi lifted Aesc into his arms, Vivian spoke these words before walking away.
Unable to accept this outcome, yet powerless to ignore the will of the Rain Clan, Aesc wept in Shiomi's embrace, following his steps through the clan's streets and out toward the city gates.
Cries and the clash of battle echoed unceasingly along the way. Smoke and the stench of death mingled in the air. The once peaceful Land of Rain had already become a living hell.
Shiomi moved as quickly as he could, yet still crossed paths with searching fairies. Wherever the crimson spear struck, the fairies blocking the way were torn apart, their bodies left scattered across the streets.
Avoiding the gaze of most of the fairies, Shiomi carried Aesc into the forest beyond the city. He turned back, looking at the Rain Clan's homeland now engulfed in flames.
A moment later, the crimson spear he had loosened in his grip was once more clenched tightly.
Sensing the change in Shiomi's presence, Aesc opened her tear-dimmed eyes.
"Wait here for me," he said gently.
"Tenkei?"
"…I can't accept the Rain Clan's destruction without the fairies who caused it paying any price." Shiomi set up a barrier of concealment around her, his voice hardening. "So wait a little. I'll deal with them and return…"
After speaking, he stroked her cheek. "…If I'm not back by dawn, go to safety on your own. Don't wait for me."
Then Shiomi sprinted out of the forest, disappearing in an instant into the burning city. Aesc didn't even have the chance to hold him back before the barrier stopped her.
Breaking such a barrier would normally be no challenge for her. But in just the blink of an eye, the happiness that had seemed within reach had collapsed into hell. Her mind was in turmoil, unable to focus.
She hugged herself, curling up behind a thicket within the barrier, weeping silently. She shut out the sounds of battle, mourning in her heart for Her Majesty, for Vivian, for the Rain Clan—and prayed for Shiomi's safety.
When night finally gave way to dawn, and the flames consuming the Land of Rain faded, leaving only heavy smoke rising into the sky, Aesc—who had waited the entire night—sensed a faint presence drawing near the forest.
Shiomi returned, drenched in blood, covered in wounds, his left arm gone. Supporting himself on the crimson spear, he stumbled forward, limping heavily.
No pursuers followed behind him. No sound came from anywhere else.
When his eyes fell on Aesc again, he forced a faint, reassuring smile before collapsing like a kite with its string cut, utterly spent. He fell into Aesc's arms, who caught him tightly, holding him close.
That morning, autumn rain once more fell upon Orkney.
In the downpour, she clung to the unconscious, exhausted Shiomi, doing her best to warm his battered body—and the heart within her, torn and scarred beyond mending.
...
[History]
In the autumn of the 4000th year of the Fairy Calendar, the Rain Clan—who had sheltered the 'Paradise Fairy'—was destroyed after an assault by the other four clans, and disappeared from history.
But the leaders of the attacking forces—the chieftains of the Fang Clan, the Wind Clan, and the Wing Clan, three Sub-Bell rivaling their ancestors—along with their army of tens of thousands of fairies, also vanished within Orkney's autumn.
Months later, when winter came, the other clans, sensing something was amiss, dispatched fairies to Orkney to investigate. Yet on the Rain Clan's homeland, now buried under snow, the fairies' remains had already returned to the earth, and the bodies of men were long since buried. No trace could be found.
Realizing no answers would come, the four clans gave up their investigation one by one. Without even mourning their fallen kin, they closed the matter as though it had never been.
As time passed, the fairies of the four clans sealed the affair as a forbidden subject, eventually forgetting the motives for the Rain Clan's destruction. They forgot their own sins, and lived on in peace of mind.
By the time the 'Rain Witch' appeared in Britannia alongside the 'Sage', no fairy could still connect them to the Rain Clan of old.
And by then, centuries had already passed since the tragedy.