Chapter 119: The Past of the Twin Wings

Leila and Renée, the winged sisters, arrived to meet Miss Vilyric on the night after the coup, just as she had instructed.

Before that, they seemed to have flown to an abandoned shed in the west of the city, doing nothing and quietly waiting for nightfall.

Being winged people in the human United Kingdom is quite sensitive; with their white wings, they even dared not go out to forage. By the time they came to find Vilyric, they were starving, relying on the meager meals provided by the Priestess.

For their savior, Vilyric, the sisters held nothing back and recounted their past experiences in detail, suppressing their discomfort.

The social structure of the winged people is somewhat similar to that of the beastmen. Although much more advanced, they also divide their communities based on race, that is, by the color of their wings.

This is the most important distinction among winged people.

There are over a dozen types of wings, with the red, blue, and black wing types being the largest and most basic. The others are relatively fewer in number.

Among these, Leila and Renée belong to the rare and powerful white wing type.

The ancestors of the winged people are said to be a mix between angels and humans, and white wings carry the most ancient bloodlines, closely resembling the mythical beings, the angels.

The current Wing Emperor of the Kingdom of Azure is a white-winged individual.

However, unlike the half-dragons of the beastmen, there is no such thing as a hereditary succession in the Kingdom of Azure. In this country, any type of winged person can inherit the position of Wing Emperor, as long as they are strong enough.

Additionally, the reason the Kingdom of Azure has such a name is due to its unique characteristic: the winged people live in the skies.

Or rather, they reside on floating islands.

Along the edges of the world in the four cardinal directions, there exist unimaginable spectacles.

Among them, the western world, where the United Kingdom and the Beast Kingdom are located, is an endless expanse of wasteland—no matter how far you walk, it never ends.

In the eastern coastal areas, countless powerful magical beasts inhabit the sea, and this area itself is an enormous expanse that no ship can navigate to the end.

To the north lies the Snow Country, which is similar to the western wasteland; continuing northwards here leads to an ice field that is equally interminable. Additionally, you must endure extreme cold and unending attacks from ice elementals, making it a place of despair.

Finally, to the far south, the Kingdom of Azure is blocked from further advancement by the Abyss.

A bottomless pit, like an immeasurable chasm.

No one knows what lies beneath the Abyss, and no one has ever returned after descending to its depths. Even if someone were to be lowered down with a rope, no matter how deep they went, it would inevitably end with the rope running out.

The Abyss stretches infinitely far away, but the land here didn’t always not exist; at least a significant portion of it once did.

They rose up into the sky.

This is the source of the Kingdom of Azure, the collection of floating islands.

The Kingdom of Azure has a hundred thousand islands, most of which are inhabited by various winged people and other creatures.

No one knows why the floating islands can rise, but even if a part of it is chipped away, all that remains are ordinary stones, which cannot float on their own.

Leila and Renée belong to a white-wing clan living on one of the floating islands.

The Kingdom of Azure is not solely inhabited by winged people. To outsiders, it may seem like a homogeneous nation similar to the United Kingdom, but in reality, it is a mixed community.

Occupying another part of the floating islands in the Kingdom of Azure are various flying magical beasts and monsters.

In fact, winged people themselves can also be considered a kind of magical creature, so unlike the views in the United Kingdom, they do not immediately engage in fierce battles upon encountering magical beasts. Although there are occasional frictions, overall, they generally coexist peacefully.

If we strictly analyze, treating all hundred thousand floating islands as part of the Kingdom of Azure, the country essentially consists of two parts.

The winged people led by the Wing Emperor and the winged magical beasts and monsters governed by the Sky King.

Leila and Renée, even after living for over seventy years, are still seen as children among the winged people. In white-wing tradition, there exists an examination known as the “Coming-of-Age Trial.”

The content involves hunting down ferocious beings that reside on floating islands, which neither belong to the Wing Emperor nor heed the commands of the Sky King, to prove their strength.

White wings are the rarest and most noble of all winged people, not merely due to their bloodline or numbers, but because each one is a formidable warrior, which is why such a traditional examination is passed down.

However, during Leila and Renée’s examination, an unexpected event occurred.

To put it simply, the small floating island they were on, along with a group of their tribal companions, was struck by some external force and shattered into pieces.

This was an unprecedented sight; even within the winged community, there had never been records of a floating island completely collapsing.

According to Leila’s description, an enormous crimson light beam shot up from the depths of the Abyss, directly piercing through the entire floating island. The island broke apart, most creatures perished on the spot, and she and her sister were struck by the chaotic aftermath, severely injured and losing consciousness.

They did not know what happened next, but when they woke up, the sisters found themselves in a cell belonging to some unknown gang.

Those humans seemed to intend to train the valuable white-wing sisters and sell them at a high price. They even encountered many girls of different races there.

However, unlike most girls, Leila and Renée, as powerful white-winged beings, especially held their faith in the Sky and the God of Freedom, placing utmost importance on the word “freedom,” so they certainly wouldn’t allow themselves to be manipulated like that.

The sisters attempted to escape multiple times, but the captors seemed to possess some peculiar methods. Each time they were on the brink of success, they would be caught at the last moment and subjected to torture.

The cruelty of the torture left a profound shadow in the young minds of the winged sisters, perhaps those people intended to break their will to escape through such means. Yet their deeply ingrained yearning for freedom ultimately triumphed over fear, prompting Leila and Renée to attempt escape repeatedly.

Capturing them with the level of power they held was quite difficult. Ultimately, during one of their escape attempts, Renée was killed by a pursuer.

After witnessing her sister’s death, Leila went mad, fighting fiercely for revenge, and eventually met the same fate at the hands of the enraged captors.

What followed was their tragic daily life as the deceased, transformed into blood slaves to provide blood for a female Blood Clan Duchess.

After their revival, that portion of their memories had become blurred, but overall it felt like they were mere items being stored in some room. When needed, their wrists would be cut to draw blood, and they were commanded to manage the bare minimum of their daily lives.

If Vilyric hadn’t stumbled upon them and saved them, the sisters would have likely continued in such a dazed state until death or being discarded as unwanted.

Thus, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was a life-saving grace.

   

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