In a castle in the freezing cold mountains of the north, the whining of a newborn baby could be constantly heard. Doctors from all over the Empire were called to the Northern Archduchy, but no one could find out what was wrong with the little girl. She was said to be healthy. But her whining never stopped.
The little girl's siblings tried making faces at her, the parents tried showing magic in front of her, the servants took her out of her bed and cradled her in their arms, but the little girl's soft voice still rang around. The only time it came to a stop was when she had her mouth full or when she whined herself to sleep.
Worried about their youngest child and only daughter, the Archduke and Archduchess asked the Church of Light for help. But they found nothing wrong with the baby, making the parents even more worried. And the rest of the children noticed it.
"Father, Mother..." The oldest son, Lucien Valerius, was barely eleven, and he was trying to help his parents most of the time. But when it came to his little sister, he got scared, showing his childish side. "Will my sister die?" he asked.
"No!" the Archduchess, Eleanor Lisette Valerius, shook her head. "We will heal your sister!" She hugged her son tightly.
"Mother, Father." The second son, Casimir Valerius, entered the study after knocking. "I think I found something useful." The boy was eight years old, and since his little sister was born, he was cooped up in the library most of the time, looking for ways to help her. At the moment, he had an eerie-looking book in his hands.
"What is it, Casimir?" the Archduke, Alaric Valerius, asked with a smile. He and his wife made sure to always smile in front of their children, but the dark circles under his eyes gave away just how worried he was for his only daughter.
"Let me read something for you..." Casimir said as he opened the book at a page where he had kept a paper. His next words shocked the family.
What the book basically said was that sometimes, babies were born soulless. Because of that, the soul of a baby that just died would enter their body.
But under certain circumstances, the soul that enters is that of an adult. And the soul of an adult can never fit in the body of an infant. Especially their mind.
The small brain of the baby could never store the information from the memories of the adult soul, so the baby will have extreme headaches. There was no way to solve the headaches other than letting the baby grow up quickly.
Also, the book stated some reasons as to why the soul of an adult would get dragged into the body of a newborn. And that was the most shocking.
Either the soul belonged to a person who had committed too many sins, so they were made to go through the headaches to repent, and after the body reached adulthood, it would die, sending the soul to hell.
Another reason could have been that no infant souls were available in the world, so only the soul of an adult could be used, but for that, it was more likely the soul of a child would enter.
Or the baby's body was special and could only accept certain souls, and the most suitable one was that of an adult.
And the most unlikely reason was the last one: maybe the souls of the high-ranked dead in the underworld liked something about the adult soul, so they sent it into the body of an infant to give it new life. They could want the soul to achieve something, or they could just wish to amuse themselves by watching the suffering of an adult soul trapped within the body of a baby.
This method was known to be used in the world only once, and the person didn't survive past fifteen because of the terrible headaches. He killed himself. So, the method was named by people as the Game of the Dead Souls.
And the only one who could confirm if the method was used on someone was the Demon King, as he could communicate with the underworld. He was also the only one who could confirm the age of the soul within the body.
After listening to Casimir, Alaric and Eleanor looked at each other in worry. Communication with the Demon World was strictly forbidden in the Empire, as the state religion was under the monopoly of the Church of Light.
But the Valerius family wasn't worried about that. They were already in contact with the Demon World for a long time. They were worried about their daughter. If they wanted the Demon King to check on her, they needed to bring her to him, but the Demon King was known to dislike children, especially those who cried. That meant he could very easily kill their daughter.
"What do we do?" Eleanor looked at her husband worriedly. Usually, she was a sweet and kind person, always keeping up a smile, but at the thought of bringing her daughter in front of the Demon King, she shuddered in fear. Not in fear for her life. In fear for the life of her only daughter. She didn't want to lose her.
"Let me discuss it with the Demon King beforehand..." Alaric said with a sigh. He didn't like the idea either, but they were already out of ideas, so he was grasping at straws.
So, a few days later, the whining little girl was lifted out of her bed into the arms of her father. Her whining was very quiet, easily ignorable, but with how her small body trembled, Alaric knew that she must have been in agony.
Carefully, so he wouldn't cause her any more pain, he cast a sleeping spell on his daughter and brought her to the Demon World alongside his wife, to the castle of the Demon King.
"I see you've brought the brat!" an enigmatic voice sounded through the huge throne room as the Demon King twisted his finger a bit. With that, a black shadow rose from the ground behind Alaric and took the baby away from him, bringing it to the Demon King.
The Demon King grabbed the baby by the back of its neck, letting the small blanket covering it fall to the ground.
The baby instantly opened its eyes, and, to the parents' surprise, it didn't start whining. It just stared back at the Demon King with its big silver eyes. It looked a bit creepy, but also beautiful. Also, though barely visible, the baby was already growing some hair on its small head. It was blood-red.
That was unusual for the Archducal family. The Archduchess had brown hair and green eyes, and the Archduke had black hair and golden eyes. And their four sons had mixes of it.
The Demon King stared straight at the little girl, a smirk on his face. Her silver eyes clearly showed consciousness. That wasn't the gaze of an infant.