
POV: Kirigaya Kaizo
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A few hours after the spirit annihilation attack. The Ariel-class flying ship, which was repaired by the engineering team, landed on the sacred ground of the Wind Elemental King.
"Ah, I can see the island!" On the deck, Aura looked in a good mood and pointed to the island. The pure and high-spirited figure of this young noble lady was cute.
"Don't say it out loud. That's a shame." Victoria whispered that in a small voice while pushing Aura's elbow.
"Geez, want me to shut up, are you jealous?"
"You made a bad impression, that's what I said."
Kaizo watched them with a sideways glance as he got to the side of the ship and muttered, "So it's holy land,"
Among the thick clouds and surrounded by steep mountains was a floating island. Wind Palace, even within the Astral Spirit, was one of the most important sacred lands.
"Alicia was there." Kaizo gripped her skin-gloving left hand tightly.
The flying ship quietly advanced towards the floating island port through midday.
*****
Moments after the appointed time, the plane docked at the port of Wind Port.
Looking at the battered condition of the flying ship, all the mechanics of the ship held their heads. They were transferred in the harbor into a horse carriage that prepared the Divine Ritual Obsession.
Since the horse carriage was meant for four people, it was a little tight with six people. Nyx went as a sword but it only freed up one space.
During the bumpy ride of the horse carriage, he felt Aura's chest. Kaizo quickly separated himself from him, but it was very tight.
"Ka-Kaizo, you pervert."
"I-I'm sorry, that's inevitable."
"Well, I understand that but..." Aura sulking. But there was no reproachful expression on that face.
By the way, on the opposite side Victoria groaned, "Whatever, my chest won't shake," she muttered to herself with teary eyes for a gloomy reason.
The horse carriage continued to the castle opening ceremony. While pointing at various things outside the window, Victoria acted as a guide, "The floating island of Wind Palace is one of the five sacred lands, the sacred land of the Elemental Lord of Wind. The Sword Style Festival was held here 75 years ago."
By the way, the Sword Style Festival three years ago had been held in the Fire Lord Elemental region of Fire Mountain town. There was no rule where the Sword Style Festival would be held because it was decided by the divination received by the Queens.
"And the castle in the middle is a historic ruin from the mythical age."
"So that's where we stay, huh?"
"Yes, this is an unequaled opportunity. Normally the Divine Ritual Obsession would never allow anyone but the princess maiden to enter. Which reminds me, have you been there before, Tiana?"
"Yes, but only once. Normally I would remain in the Fire Lord Elemental temple."
"The true temple of the Elemental Lord. I was a little nervous," Eve whispered that with a nervous expression.
There was no sign of anyone on the paved road. Invited to the opening ceremony were the Five Elemental Great Lords and Queens serving them, elementalist representatives and upper class nobles only. The entry of others is not allowed and can trigger the beginning of an actual war.
"Did not the king and queen of the Empire come?"
"It seems so, but it's none of my business," Tiana shrugged and sighed.
"Sorry." Kaizo apologized with guilt.
Tiana is crowned the "Lost Queen" after she loses the power of her spirit contract despite being the future Queen and is consequently shunned by the king and queen. Talking about the king and queen to him might be insensitive to him.
"I don't mind. Originally, our relationship wasn't so good and not returning to the Divine Ritual Obsession almost left me unrecognized. I have no intention of defending my title as a second princess and even if I should be removed from the monarchical line..." And then Tiana stopped talking.
Victoria's parents have been imprisoned and she's after her rebellious sister who has disappeared.
"I don't mind," Victoria flicked her red ponytail upwards and turned to Aura.
"Did anyone come from the Aura family or Eve to watch?" Ask Kaizo.
"Yes. My father and sister will come."
"One of the goals of the Sword Style Festival was to gather superior talent. The Veilmist family has traditionally adopted those who excel in martial skills."
Aura and Eve nodded simultaneously. Come to think of it, Eve's half-brother Lucia Eva was adopted, Kaizo thought.
"That's why, if you show your true strength in front of them, they might accept you as an adopted child." Eve muttered indistinctly with a red face.
"Is the Kaizo family coming?"
Hearing Victoria's words, Kaizo asked thoughtlessly, "My family?"
With the way the conversation went, it was clear that he would be questioned that. But Kaizo suddenly couldn't answer. Family, one of the most separate words from Kaizo.
"You, you really don't talk about your family. I thought I heard your parents are from the empire?"
"Y-yeah..." Kaizo nodded ambiguously.
In the academy application that Aidenwyth prepared, Kaizo was the adopted son of a lower-class noble family. Victoria believed that. Of course, that noble family did not really exist. It's just a family made on paper.
Kaizo has no known surname. Every faint memory he had of his parents when he was young had been overwritten with experience in the Instructional School. The one who was at Kaizo's side when young was a dark spirit, only Alicia.
(Perhaps, I wonder if I can call them family.).
Kaizo remembers the other girls at the facility. Two other girls on his tactical team at the Instructional School. They don't know each other's real names and it's not a relationship between colleagues.
Expert intelligence elementalist, Lina Flame. And the girl who clings to him and calls him sister.
(Elementalist military spirit, Mia Vialine.)
Four years ago. Ever since the facility was destroyed by fire spirit attacks, Kaizo lost track of where he was.
He had heard most of the orphans there were taken away to be protected by the Empire, but there were definitely others like Noah Alnest who had used the chaos of the institution's destruction to escape.
He wondered if he remembered them because the dream he had felt between real and unreal.
"What's wrong, making you have such a grim face?"
"Nothing, just thinking about the past." Kaizo turned his gaze away from Victoria who asked and looked out the window, then they approached the castle on the mountain.
****
The horse carriage stopped in front of a large gate made of stone. The castle on the rather sloping mountain peak was prepared with incomparable beauty and splendor.
It was surrounded by a forest and had a lake not far away. The other team also came and stopped their horse carriage in front of the gate and walked in slowly.
(It's a good thing we didn't meet that Dragon Princess.)
Relieved, he got off the horse carriage, and they were greeted by the priest girl wearing a white dress with a hood while saying, "We have been waiting for your arrival, you know, the princess girls who came to console the Elemental Lords."
"They are disciples of the Divine Ritual Obsession, my junior." Tiana whispered into his ear.
"While you stay here, we'll be in your care for instruction in femininity."
As the princess maidens bowed, Kaizo stole a glance from their bare chests under the clothes and her heart was pounding.
Looking closely, the ceremonial clothes they wore were equivalent to half-naked. The openings above the chest were large and at the end of the skirt, a hint of youthful skin was visible.
Although the clothes were to inspire purity, strangely the clothes were erotic. Maybe if Victoria and the others were wearing those clothes, she suddenly thought of that.
"Hm? Kaizo, what are you looking at?" Victoria asked because Kaizo looked at something from the girl.
"Ahh, I just thought that if you guys were wearing those clothes, it would be a great fit for you."
"What!?"
Kaizo said his thoughts out loud without thinking.
(Uwa, I'm fucked!)
"W-what are you saying, da-base spirit slave perverted!" Victoria's face turned red and she smacked her whip into the ground.
"Me-What do you think holy clothes are!"
"Ka-Kaizo likes things like that, like that."
"I wonder if I still have my holy clothes since I was at the Divine Ritual Obsession?"
The three young ladies whispered amongst themselves with reddened faces like they were imagining something.
"So, Mr Kaizo, whose figure do you imagine?" A smiling Lesley asked and Kaizo turned her eyes.
...
*Connected.....
*Note: This story is fictitious. If there is a similarity in the name of the character, the scene, or the story, it is a mere coincidence and there is no element of intentionality.