The Tale of a Demonkin(Curseling)

As the story of Jaguar Platina was set to begin again in another world, let us take this opportunity to explore what this other world entails...from the eyes of one of its most unfortunate.

...

Once upon a time, there was a world.

A world where dragons soared through the skies, where giant beasts roam the land and celestials and demons alike conspired with and against each other, and caught between all of these were mortal beings who dared to defy the rules of heaven and earth in an attempt to overcome them all.

This was a world where the strong made the rules, while the weak simply listened and begged.

It is in this world that we focus on a particular region, one that was smacked dab between two warring kingdoms.

...

The Shadowmarked Valley was a hotly contested region located between the Iron Wing Kingdom and the Splinter Eye Principality, both of which were located on the Twin Dragon continent.

On one side, the Iron Wing Kingdom, a three hundred year old dynasty that can trace their bloodline to a Celestial supreme tier expert known as the Iron Seraph, have a population mix of celestials, celestial-kin and mortals, and the current ruler, King Jarvo the Fifth, has been ruling the kingdom with wisdom and grace for a little over forty years.

On the other side, the Splinter Eye Principality, a a three hundred year old dynasty that could trace their bloodline to a Diabolic supreme tier expert known as the Splinter Eyed Devil, have a population mix of demons, demon-kin and mortals, and the current ruler, Prince Illimon the Second, has been ruling the kingdom with wisdom and grace for a little over forty years.

Both sides hated each other to the point where they constantly paint the other as tyrannical baby-eating monsters, both sides regularly employed incredibly underhanded means to try and sabotage or kill each other, which led thousands upon thousands of soldiers, civilians and beasts had lost their lives during the course of this ancient blood feud. The only reason neither had gone for full-blown war, was due to the simple fact that they weren't the only nations on their continent.

They could've easily gone to war to wipe out the other, but this would also leave them vulnerable to all of the other kingdoms that were eyeing their resources.

It was under these conditions that the Shadow Marked Valley became what was essentially a lawless eternal battleground for the two kingdoms, with dozens of villages, towns and cities all vying for the favor of one power or the other by attacking enemies of the other.

Unfortunately, this has the unintended(?) consequence of turning what was originally a factional dispute into one based on race.

It was the oldest dispute in the multiverse, celestials against demons, demons against celestials and the hapless mortals in the middle just trying to survive all of this bullshit.

Depending on which village a person attempted to visit while in the Shadowmarked Valley, they would either be greeted with propaganda calling for the eradication of the demon tribes or the celestial clans, or in some very rare cases, both.

Either way, this was stupid from an outsider's perspective.

In the lands beyond the Shadowmarked Valley, it was common sight to see celestials and demons conspire with and against each other, to the point of an entire empires being established by the crossbreeds born between celestials and demons.

Regardless, It was in the hostile environment of the Shadowmarked Valley though that we find a demonkin child, a curseling if we're being derogatory, that was born between a human and a member of what many people consider to be, the weakest demon tribe in existence.

...

"Shino! Can you bring in the laundry, please?"

"Yes, Sister Agnes!"

"Shino! Can you help me get some tomatoes!"

"No problem, Maggie!"

"Shino, I got today's firewood!"

"Thank you, Mister Oga. Please leave it by the stove."

"What's for dinner?"

"My special Potato and Horned Rabbit stew."

"Yay!"

The funny thing about war is that there is this lovely, positive correlation that exists that nobody ever wants to talk about but everybody knows that it exists.

The correlation is simply this: the more casualties a war produces, the higher the number of orphans there are.

When a soldier dies, a family's future dies with them...usually.

In some very dark cases, a soldier will take someone else's family with them.

But alas, regardless of the circumstances, orphaned children need places to sleep, eat, live and receive education until they can get adopted or grow up to adulthood.

One such facility was a place known as the Holy Azure Vine Convent, a small religious temple that just so happened to double as an orphanage.

The Holy Azure Vine Convent was located in one of the neutral territories within the Shadowmarked Valley, next to a village called Springfang, meaning neither the Iron Wing Kingdom nor the Splinter Eye Principality had any sway over the church and how it ran it's facilities.

Unfortunately, this also meant funding was rather...low.

Regardless, the Sisters of the Azure Vine made due with what they had to care for the various celestial, demon and mortal orphans that wound up at their doorstep.

Granted, they also had the older children help out with some of the more menial chores around the facility.

"Alright, just a dash of salt and...perfect! Now it needs to cook just a little longer..."

"Shino! Prayer begins in about fifteen minutes. Can you go and ring the bell, please?"

"The big one or the small one, Sister Diana?"

"Just the small one, please. This is prayer time for the sisters."

"Alright!"

One such youngster was an adolescent named Shino, a demonkin of the Soul Mirror Tribe, and a lifelong resident of the Holy Azure Vine Convent.

"Okay, if my memory serves me right, each tap of the bell represent five minutes so tap the little one...three times!"

For the most part, Shino looked incredibly human.

"One!" *Clang!*

Short brown hair, tanned skin, an average build, two arms, two legs and a rather normal looking face. There were, however, two physical traits that made him it obvious he was Demonkin.

Firstly, he had a pair of short horns coming out of his forehead.

For some reason, any child conceived between mortals and demon always have horns just...by default. Even if the demon parent comes from a clan without them, the child would always have a horn or horns in some capacity.

On the flip side, any child conceived between a celestial and a mortal would always result in the child having shockingly colorful hair, like naturally blue,pink or white hair.

"Two!" *Clang!*

The second trait that made it obvious he had demon blood was the fact that he mirrors for eyes.

Now I don't mean they were "mirror-like", or "so clear one could see their reflection", I mean they were straight up mirrors that could reflect even the rays of the sun.

This trait was something exclusive to the Soul Mirror Demon tribe, one of the weakest demon tribes throughout the world.

"Three!" *Clang!*

Granted, Shino had no idea about that fact or anything about his past really.

All he knew for certain was that he was left at the convent's doorstep on a warm summer's evening, with nothing to identify him other than a basket and a little note that had no signature, asking for sanctuary.

In fact, that note was actually how he got his name.

When the sisters were discussing about him, the note and his circumstances, one of the sisters had said the word, "signature" while another sister was mentioning that the baby had no name.

Being nothing more than an infant at the time, Shino had attempted to repeat the word for themselves, but couldn't get pass the "signa-" sound and made it sound like "shi...no."

And thus, the Sisters of the Azure Vine decided to name that little demonkin baby, "Shino".

"Alright, that takes care of the prayer bell. Now to get back to the stew."

And from there, the rest was history.

Shino grew up under the careful tutelage of the sisters, learned all sorts of life skills such as reading, writing, cooking and cleaning, and eventually grew up enough to help out around the convent.

Shino even had aspirations to become a nun himself, but alas, had to switch to becoming a priest after learning that he didn't have the right...components, physically and spiritually.

Regardless, Shino had grown up under the impression that this was his course in life, that he would one day become a man of the cloth and would go on to spread the word while taking care of fellow orphans such as himself.

Unfortunately for Shino, life had a habit of going wrong for no reason whatsoever, at the worst possible times.

"Why is there so much smoke coming out of the village today?"