Path of the Cambion: Kurou's Rising, Chapter 23

To be able to heal so fast in such a short time, I had to admit, that was amazing, since it was still night, we would begin to look for more supplies in Saniki's bag and found an extra bed roll inside, we would put one under her, having her lay on it before going back to our own tent and falling into slumber.

It was the bright light of the sun against my eyes that woke me up, I would curse under my breath at the blinding sunlight that hit my eyes. Groaning, I slowly sat up, feeling a bit sore from last night's unexpected and sudden attack. I was reminded of the dragon girl that we had met and followed, actually feeling a bit worried about her. When I looked outside to see if the girl was doing okay, she had completely disappeared into thin air. Quickly, I looked around to see that she was sleeping on one of the tree branches again. "You like sleeping in the trees?" I asked, walking up to her. She opened a single eye and looked down at me before shrugging and closing her eye again.

I would sigh and would go back to the tent to wake up Saniki and Saika, and soon, when they woke, we would begin walking forward again, with the girl soon following as well. As we walked, I wondered how much further the kingdom of Astaria could possibly be, after all, it seemed as if we had been walking for hours before, it almost made me think we were treading the wrong path. But that didn't stop me, I would keep walking in order to find Kaiza, and to bring my mother back to safety, to that end, nothing would stop me from walking.

"...almost there," I heard a voice said and looked back at the girl who was standing on a tree branch, looking off into the distance in front of us. I assumed that she could see the kingdom from where she was and climbed up a tree, taking a look at where Kaiza could be. My eyes widened at the sight, the entire kingdom almost glowing from the bright white walls and seemingly bustling and busy streets. "What you see is never the truth," the girl said, hopping down and walking along. I followed behind her with Saniki and Saika, a bit confused.

I couldn't believe we were already this close to Astaria Kingdom, and so quickly as well, I was expecting it to be at least a week away or something, yet it was this close anyway. I wondered how Kaiza would react when he saw me, or how he'd react when he knew that Edakura was kidnapped, and probably being hurt, my best guess was that he wouldn't react well at all. Kaiza might even blame me for the reason that Edakura was kidnapped, but to be honest, I didn't care how he'd react, as long as he would be there to help me save Edakura, my mother, any reaction he gave me, I'd be prepared for.

I looked at the girl in front of me who's name I still didn't know. We had been through a lot already, and I had hoped that she would give me her name or become my ally. She seemed really cool and her power would be useful to have by my side when going to find and save Edakura. The white haired female seemed really powerful, but I couldn't help but think that there was something wrong- something bothering her. But from her reactions, it was only safe to assume that she wouldn't tell me anything. Her words seemed to really stick to me, and I contemplated what she meant by "What you see is never the truth."

As we ran, we would see what I assumed to be a knight standing alone, guarding the gates that led inside of Astaria Kingdom, he was probably a guard, and that probably meant he must've been very powerful to have been chosen to guard the gates. I grit my teeth as we began to steadily walk to the gates once we were close, whatever I do, I could not let anyone in Astaria Kingdom find out I was a Cambion, or I might as well be considered dead. I wished Edakura could've been with me to help me out, after all, she was a noble, she probably would've been able to handle this without any problems, but she wasn't, meaning we'd have to handle this ourselves.

I watched the girl approach the guard, pulling out some sheets of papers, which must've been travelling papers. I found myself feeling a bit nervous since I didn't recall getting any to enter the city. Debating internally if I should tell the guard about Kaiza, the girl looked back at us, obviously waiting for us to go. Walking towards her, I wondered if Saika or Saniki had something that would help us get into the kingdom. I was pretty sure that Daigen would give us everything we needed, even a travelling permit. I told myself that it was fine and waited for the girls to go and do something.

When we were close enough, the guard would hold out his hand, obviously expecting travelling papers from us as well, I would look at Saniki, who would reach into her pockets and would take out three sheets of papers, all of them being traveling permits for each of us. I sighed to myself in relief, thankfully, this meant we would be able to get into the city, especially considering all of the permits were commissioned by Chief Daigen himself. The guard would take the three papers and would look at them all, examining them for a while, we stood there with hopeful expressions, hoping this would be enough to let us in, and before long, the guard would hand them back to us, saying they were acceptable and would let us in along with the girl, and we would all sigh in great relief.

The girl seemed to act calm as she walked through the streets, and I saw her toss away the travelling permit that she had acquired. I wasn't too sure if it was by accident or on purpose, but I picked it up and looked at it. Something seemed different about it, like some of the information that it contained, including what I assumed was her name. Then it hit me. The girl didn't have a real travelling permit, and the one that I was holding was a forgery. But to have been so cool and calm when presenting it, it was no wonder it fooled the guard. "Gasseth…?" I read the name, and the girl stopped in her tracks. It was for certain that the name on the forgery was her real name at least.

Gasseth slowly looked back at me after I had said her name, I wondered if I had offended her somehow by saying her name "That… is your name right?" I asked Gasseth, and she'd just slowly nod before beginning to walk off again, and we'd follow. I looked around at the bustling streets of Astaria in amazement, it had multiple rich looking buildings, technology I've never even seen or heard of before, and all kinds of shops that we'd passed. I had to admit, compared to Astaria Kingdom, Kagura Village paled in comparison, but now I focused on looking for Kaiza, I looked around at the different buildings, which one could he possibly have been in?

Gasseth suddenly stopped in her tracks and I ended up slamming into her back. "Hey! Why'd you suddenly stop?" I asked only to watch her run into an alleyway, hiding in the shadows while peeking out at some times. Confused, I looked forward to see what she was hiding from, but didn't see anyone suspicious looking. That only made me more confused as I walked up to her, asking, "What are you hiding from?" Her reaction was to pull me behind the wall as well, an intense glare in her eyes that sent shivers of fear down my spine. I remembered how powerful she actually was and how she almost killed me.

Saniki and Saika would soon hide in the dark alleyway with us, seemingly seeing something that I missed, we would peek our heads out of the alleyway slightly to see what looked like… hunters, and the same kind that had attacked us in the forest. I wondered if they could've been looking for Gasseth and us, it would make sense considering we had defeated some of them in the forest, so we decided to lay low until the hunters were gone. After a large group of them had disappeared from the street, we sighed, well except Gasseth, and would walk out of the alleyway, Saniki and Saika checking to see if the coast was clear before heading back to us, nodding and confirming that the hunters had disappeared from the area.

Looking at Gasseth, I was a bit surprised by how she noticed them so quickly and easily, like she was used to it. Thinking back to how she reacted to the hunters initially, it was safe to assume that she was being constantly hunted by those hunters. Anyone who looked at her eyes and knew about her clan would know what she was, and the hunters were professionals. It made sense how they were able to single her out from all the others. The way I looked at her, she did seem to stick out like a sore thumb when with the crowd of people, but at the same time, it was like she didn't exist to them. The way the people walked past her like she wasn't there made it sad to watch her. "What are you looking at?" her sharp tongue asked me, and I realized I had accidentally been staring.

After realizing how long I'd been looking at Gasseth, I'd quickly look away from her, shrugging off my thoughts and would look at the others "Alright, so where do you think your friend Kaiza could be?" Saniki asked. I thought about it for a moment, Kaiza was a noble, so he either lived somewhere fancy or lived in some kind of castle somewhere like royalty, after telling Saniki and Saika that, they nodded and we would begin to look around at all of the most fancy looking houses we could find, however, no matter where we looked, Kaiza wasn't there. I looked back at Gasseth, wondering why now she was the one following us after all this time, perhaps she had nothing better to do, but anyway, we began to check the last place we hadn't looked, which was practically a castle that seemed as if it was the biggest in the kingdom.

Kaiza's POV

Since I was young, I had always envied my younger sister. She was smart, loved by our parents, and had stolen the all the attention from me the second she came into the world. Left in the darkness, the only light I had were my grandparents who took me with them to the kingdom I now protected: Astaria. Though my parents never really cared for me, my grandparents made sure to give me all the love and care I needed, and I never really thought about my sister. She faded from my mind eventually, something I really regretted now. I could have done something to save her; I could have been a real older brother and protected her, but I was so immature back then… that I lost the chance. Now all that was left of her was a shell of the person she once was, with no one but a demon in a staff guiding her.

Flashback

The birthing of my younger sister wasn't really exciting, and neither was watching her being taken care of by my parents. I only looked at the girl in distaste, not liking how she practically stole it all from me. My dad told me to take care of her, but I didn't want to. Constantly, everything was a talk about her, and I was left behind in the dust before long. All I had were my grandparents who took me with them to their house in Astaria, and that was where I continued to live my life. They were like real parents to me, taking care of me, and eventually I learned how to wield a spear from my grandpa who was a former knight at the castle. Training hard every day, enduring tough treatment, I eventually forgot all about my younger sister.

With the recommendation of my grandparents, I got into the army and fought for my kingdom, protecting the castle. Battle after battle, war after war, the kingdom of light really did hide a dark shadow of a past. While the people wandered inside, smiling and happy, out here on the battlefield, we warriors fought and shed blood for them. I don't know how many of my comrades had died, but I know my life continued as I slowly climbed up the ranks. A new scar lined my body with each war and battle. It was hard work, but I eventually became captain of the royal guard, though one can only wonder if it was luck that I hadn't died yet, or if it was skill. My grandparents were so proud of me till their death, and on the day of the death, the sun blessed their graves with its rays.

Thinking back now, it was around the time of their deaths that I decided to head back home, and found no trace of anyone there. A well kept grave was in the backyard, but the words on the stone had horrified me. "May your soul burn in hell endlessly in repentance for the suffering you caused me" was etched into the stone and beneath was the name of my father. Over the 15 years that I had been gone, without my knowledge, my sister had suffered all on her own and ended up cursing our parents. I had no idea how much she truly suffered until I found her alone in her room, sitting on the bed, staring out the large window. 15 years I could have used to protect the fragile young teen had gone to waste, and now I found out she was a demon-human hybrid. A cambion, like me.

In the end, we had nothing but each other, and I worked hard to make sure my sister's life became better. But the scars from our past would always be there, and it was evident when one looked at her body. Blue hair and blue eyes, the same as the demon that lived inside of her, and boiling blood that spilled out of her open wounds: signs that she was indeed no human. I always thought it to be the fault of our mother, but the demoness had as much reason to be blamed. Vizas was the one who changed Edakura's mentality, and our father was the one who tried to kill her. Eventually, Edakura disappeared, but she always kept in contact with me through our metal rods. The crystals attached to the special metal always told us when the other was in danger, and we always rushed to help each other. We were the only family left.

No matter how much she yelled at me, I was her older brother, and would always protect her. Even if she tried to kill me, I swore that I would give up my life just for her. The only person that had true meaning to me was Edakura, the little girl I had neglected for so long. It isn't just guilt that I felt, but a sense of responsibility as an older brother, and the only family left. But I could only do so much while we were with… that organization.

And the cambion boy she protected… I understand why. He was like us in a way, and maybe that was why it was so nostalgic to look at him. How he cared so much for Edakura's safety and always thought about her being with him forever, but that would never be the case. I worried for Kurou's safety as long as she was with them, consumed by rage and seeking revenge against our mother. His life would be in the hands of Edakura, someone whose hands were covered in the blood of innocent and evil, just like my own filthy hands. It wasn't just for herself, but for me too, and I knew that very well. After all, I was also a cambion, with the soul of a demon inside of me…. So long as one resided inside of me, I would be just like my sister.

Living as a shell of a person, and held together by the demon inside.