Black Solstice-Chapter 12: Three Simple Words [1]

Chapter 12: Three Simple Words [1]

Upon learning she had been accepted into Solstice Academy, Seraphis hadn’t held many expectations.

A school for demons.

How different could it possibly be from a human school?

Truthfully, it wasn’t except far more dubious and infinitely more dangerous.

She had spent a considerable number of years in both the Demon Realm and the Human Domain, giving her a thorough understanding of the two races.

She knew how humans behaved when they gathered in groups, and she knew how demons behaved when they were forced to tolerate one another.

Neither was particularly admirable.

Humans hid their cruelty behind false personas whereas Demons displayed it openly.

Solstice Academy was supposed to be the bridge between the two worlds — a place where demons learned to coexist with humans. But to Seraphis, that sounded like an elaborate joke.

She doubted it.

According to the [Treaty Laws], humans and demonic species were prohibited from interacting, at least not openly. Because of this, humans were barred from entering Nifleheim, and demons were forbidden from harming humans.

How could true coexistence ever be achieved when one side did not even know the other existed?

It was just another idealistic dream crafted by politicians and high-ranking devils who would never personally deal with the consequences of their own decisions.

A fantasy disguised as policy.

Seraphis had seen enough of both worlds to understand one thing clearly: coexistence was easy to preach and nearly impossible to practice.

Demons were too prideful, arrogant and steeped in their own hierarchy to adopt to change.

And humans were too fearful and untrustworthy to welcome the unknown.

So when she received her acceptance letter, she had merely shrugged, packed her things, and prepared herself for another predictable story.

A school built on pretenses.

A campus filled with factions constantly vying for dominance.

A place where lessons in "coexistence" were taught by beings who had likely slaughtered hundreds in the past.

Still, she tried to be hopeful. Her mother once said that someone who focused only on the negatives would eventually become blind to the positives.

It had already been ten years since her mother had vanished without a trace.

The vampire elders had dispatched countless search parties, yet none returned with results. Her mother remained unfound, and her father sank deeper into depression with each failure. Perhaps he already knew more about the circumstances behind her disappearance. Perhaps he suspected one of his mistresses. But that possibility felt unlikely.

Her mother’s Mythical Arcana was [Visionary] of the Major Arcana, the [High Priestess]. She was also a Devil Lord. Even if she was considerably weaker than the other Devil Lords, her strength was still incomparable to the mistresses, who were only Supreme and Great Devils1

Certainly, she couldn’t say she didn’t miss her, but her memories of her mother were hazy and unreliable.

Was it because of the pendant seal?

She did not know, yet she continued to live by the words her mother had left behind, words that urged her to live a peaceful life and to follow her heart.

That was why she didn’t mind living in the human world and attending a demonic school filled with all kind of devils and monsters.

Still, Seraphis knew she could never fully belong anywhere.

She was a vampire who had walked among humans for years, yet she had never been one of them. And though demons were her own kind, she had never truly fit in there either.

But then... something unexpected occurred.

She encountered him.

The boy with a strange "non-existent" aura.

A young devil who looked like he had wandered into the Demon Realm by mistake.

Cassius Cain.

He was quite strange, really.

She couldn’t get him out of her mind.

First and foremost, he first struck her as utterly ordinary, yet somehow... not.

It was difficult to put into words.

There was something unusual about him. He didn’t radiate the arrogance or malice that most demons carried so effortlessly, nor did he exude emotion like the humans she had known. He was quiet, unassuming, yet she sensed a pressure that contradicted his appearance.

For someone so seemingly ordinary, there was an odd gravity to him.

Seraphis didn’t understand it at first. She couldn’t pinpoint why her mind kept returning to him. Perhaps it was the way he seemed unfazed by everything around him, or perhaps it was the memory of his rich, warm, and intoxicating blood that lingered in her mind.

The perfect way to describe it was tasting a wine so rare and refined that it lingered long after the glass was empty.

It wasn’t sweetness or bitterness, nor was it anything she could name with a simple adjective.

Every time she thought of him, that sensation returned, prickling her body, soul and mind in a way she hadn’t experienced before.

The sensation was utterly addictive, and inescapable.

And the strangest part was Cassius himself seemed unaware of the intoxicating effect of his blood.

Consumed by curiosity, she asked him about his race, even though revealing one’s true identity was strictly forbidden at the academy. When he finally answered, the pieces clicked into place.

"Incubus."

The male counterpart to the succubus. They were devils known for their charm and the deadly power of seduction. While most arrogant demons dismissed succubi and incubi as nothing more than sluts and harlots, their strength shouldn’t be underestimated.

In fact, they were one of the rare demon species capable of rivaling vampires in terms of pure spiritual power, though their physical capabilities was comparatively weak.

But what she couldn’t understand was why Cassius had lied about his race.

Vampires could easily ascertain when someone was lying simply by listening to their heartbeat. Their physical abilities, along with their heightened senses, were far more advanced than those of most other demons, with the exception of werewolves, their bitter rivals. This allowed them to do things most demons could not, though there were still limits.

A vampire’s senses depended on their Class.

Compared to Thrall-born vampires

— humans transformed into vampires — who could only reach the rank of Lesser and serve as subordinates, True Vampires possessed vastly superior abilities. Seraphis, for example, as a Supreme Devil, could hear and see things from miles away. It was hardly difficult for her to detect when someone standing before her was trying to be deceptive.

To be frank, Cassius sucked at lying. That much was apparent by how he stammered over his words.

She felt a bit suspicious but decided to play along.

Whether human or devil, everyone had their secrets, which they kept hidden from others. Seraphis was no different. She harbored her own secrets that she had no intention of revealing. In other words, she couldn’t be a hypocrite.

In addition, she grew quite fond of this devil.

She didn’t know if they feeling was love or not but knew it was unfamiliar. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He treated her as an equal.

He didn’t refer to her as a noble vampire from that House.

He saw her as what she was, as an individual with her own wants, needs and personality.

Most demons, even those of her own kind, measured her against her family name, her status, her strength. They saw her as a tool, a rival, or a novelty. Rarely as a person.

Cassius, however, did none of that. He treated her as he would any other individual.

Seraphis found herself watching him more than she realized. The way he moved, the way he spoke, the warmth in his smile — it all defied every rule she had learned about the demon world. There was a calmness to him, but it was not weakness. There was a warmth, but it was not comforting in the usual sense.

It was... compelling.

For a vampire like her, emotions were as much tools as instincts. They could be honed, suppressed, wielded, or hidden. Yet Cassius’s presence bypassed all of that. He made her feel in countless ways she hadn’t in years.

She began to question her own sense of self.

Because "He" was the only one who had unsettled both the "Inner Self" and "Outer Self" simultaneously then plunged them into chaos.

Yet...

"I’m human."

Those simple words completely shattered her reality.

Devils, also known as Demons, were ranked in order of increasing power: Lesser Devil, Great Devil, Supreme Devil, Devil Lord, and at the very pinnacle, Blight Star.