A thousand years passed. The Vanadias Kingdom, now the Vanadias Empire, expanded to cover the entire continent, with its northern boundary marked by a giant dividing wall that cut across the continent to contain the evil beyond, and its southern boundary bordering the sea to cross over to the dark continent, inhabited by the 'demons.' Although the term 'demon' is actually a human, the difference from humans in the central continent is that they have red pupils, medium brown skin, and jet black hair.
The central continent, called Libelia and entirely controlled by the Vanadias Empire, was divided into five major territories. Each major territory consisted of about four or five smaller territories within it. Each major territory was led by a Lord who acted as a regional king to govern and manage their entire area, while the smaller territories within were led by nobles who reported to the regional king, and the regional king reported to the Vanadias Emperor.
Disputes and wars between territories frequently occurred for various reasons, such as border disagreements or fighting over a town that was a border town crossed by two territories, and so on. Even so, the Emperor's focus was on watching the northern wall and strengthening the defenses there to prevent darkness from entering the empire. He carried on the duty of the three destroyed kingdoms in the records of the Estoria war, which had previously served as a fortress to fight evil from the north.
***
(Hereafter, the thoughts of Alfonso, Alicia, and Anabelle will use the [] signs in every conversation.)
One night, "SPLASH... WHOOSH... SPLASH... WHOOSH... SPLASH." The sounds of a ship sailing the ocean could be heard, and several people were talking.
"Hopefully there are no pursuers from the central continent," a girl said.
"Let's hope not, Miss Eluisa," a woman replied.
[Alfonso, Alicia, Anabelle: "Huh? What is this?"]
[Alfonso: "Hey… this smell… the ocean?"]
[Alicia: "Huh… why is it dark? I can't open my eyes."]
[Annabelle: "What is this… you two… are you with me? What happened? I need to ask."]
The three tried to speak, but the sound that came out was, "Wah… wah… wah!" Naturally, the three were very shocked. Suddenly, they felt someone gently swaying their bodies, trying to calm them down.
[Alfonso: "Oh… I'm… a baby? Where is this? Hey, Alicia, Anabelle, can you hear me?"]
[Alicia: "Of course I can. I'm confused myself, and please don't ask so many questions."]
[Anabelle: "Didn't the three of us… die?"]
[Alfonso: "We should have. What happened after that? Why are we babies now?"]
[Alicia: "Please be quiet for a moment. Somehow, being patted like this makes me sleepy. Plus, the rocking of the sea… it feels comfortable."]
[Alfonso: "Grrr… such a sleepyhead."]
The girl named Eluisa looked down. In her arms were three triplet babies with black hair, their eyes closed because they appeared to have just been born. Her gentle hands continued to pat the backs of the three babies alternately, even though she herself found it difficult to maintain balance inside the boat.
"Wah… wah… wah!"
The three twin babies cried again, not because they were hungry, but because they were confused about what was happening to them.
"Helen, maybe they're hungry," Eluisa said, seeing the three of them crying in her arms.
"Sshh… sshh… quiet, now… here, let me nurse them one by one," the woman accompanying Eluisa, named Helen, slowly transferred the baby boy from Eluisa's arms to her own embrace.
Then she took out her breast and immediately nursed the baby. The baby boy immediately suckled eagerly.
[Alfonso: "Wow… I'm really a baby, and now I'm nursing."]
[Alicia and Anabelle: "Hah." Both seemed shocked.]
Alfonso could feel his head being stroked, and he felt incredible comfort that made him drowsy. Meanwhile, Eluisa, seeing the two baby girls in her arms, immediately hugged them with a sad face.
"My little siblings… Leon, Lucia, and Livia, don't be scared, okay? Your sister is with you, and I'm taking you far away so you'll be safe," Eluisa said, shedding tears and smiling.
[Alfonso: "Oh… my name is Leon now."]
[Alicia: "I'm Lucia… not too different from before, actually."]
[Anabelle: "And I'm Livia… we really were reborn, weren't we?"]
[Alfonso: "It seems so… let me open my eyes again."]
Leon, or Alfonso, opened his eyes. Since he was nursing, the first thing he saw was Helen's chest. Then he looked up and saw the face of a beautiful woman, probably around 30 years old, with wavy blonde hair. Lucia, or Alicia, and Livia, or Anabelle, also opened their eyes.
They saw a small girl, perhaps only 12 years old, with blonde hair braided into pigtails and wearing noble attire, who was crying with her eyes closed. Her face looked incredibly sad.
"M-Miss Eluisa… L-Leon is opening his eyes," Helen murmured, surprised to see Leon staring at her.
Eluisa opened her eyes and was shocked to see Lucia and Livia opening theirs. Then Lucia turned to look at Livia, who had a birthmark on her cheek shaped like the mark of the God Terranus. Lucia's face immediately brightened, and she made cute baby noises when she saw it.
Livia, who felt watched by Lucia, immediately pouted because, in her head, Lucia was pointing out that Livia had the same birthmark on her face. Leon also waved at his two sisters, even though his mouth was still latched onto Helen's chest.
Seeing the three cute babies seeming to joke with each other while making funny noises, Eluisa smiled and laughed. Then she asked for Leon to be returned to her for a moment. After that, she immediately hugged all three of her siblings, smiling widely and shedding tears.
"It's a miracle, Miss Eluisa, it's a miracle…. they are only a week old and can already open their eyes… it's truly unbelievable," Helen said, stroking Leon's head.
"If only Mommy and Daddy could see this… sniff… sniff… sniff," Eluisa said, shedding tears.
"Miss Eluisa," Helen moved and put her arm around the crying Eluisa.
[Leon: "Huh… our sister is crying?"]
[Lucia: "Where are our Mom and Dad, then? Wait a minute, are the three of us triplets?"]
[Livia: "It seems so, and judging by our situation—being on the ocean, no Mom or Dad, and our sister crying—it looks like we are running away."]
[Leon: "Hmm… that's true. I did hear something about pursuers from the central continent when I woke up."]
[Lucia: "We're triplets… is this punishment from the gods?"]
[Leon: "Why are you talking about that?"]
[Livia: "Right, this isn't the time to worry about that. I'm actually glad we're triplets. Now we don't have to fight over Alfonso anymore."]
[Lucia: "Huh… fine."]
In the end, the three could only look at Eluisa's face, who was crying in Helen's embrace, who was also shedding tears, unable to do anything except put on sad baby faces. The ship continued sailing across the ocean toward the continent located in the south, or what is better known as the dark continent, inhabited by the 'demons.'