Far to the south of the main continent, beyond the expanse of fierce waters separating the Labyrinth City of Orario from the open ocean, lay an ancient maritime territory that had stood for centuries.
The Island Nation of Dizara.
Originating from the age of gods, this nation was recognized as one of the great world powers that ruled the seas. Unlike kingdoms on the mainland built upon earth and rock, Dizara was an architectural and magical marvel comprising over four thousand islands. However, the foundation supporting these islands was not ordinary coral, but the massive shed shell remnants of an ancient sea ruler—the Leviathan—from the distant past.
At the extreme northwestern edge of this giant archipelago, isolated from the center of government and the bustle of main trade routes, lay a secluded island named Cetus.
In the heart of Cetus Island stood a magnificent castle made entirely of marble and white limestone. The castle gleamed under the night's starlight, radiating a cold majesty untouched by the dust of the human world. It was the crown of the island, and simultaneously a monument of silence.
And on one of the castle's upper-floor balconies facing directly toward the dark ocean, stood a little girl.
The girl was only seven years old. Her pale light blue hair fluttered gently in the cold night sea breeze. She wore only an oversized white silk nightgown, hiding her tiny, almost sinless body.
The girl's name was Asfi Al Andromeda.
Currently, her large cyan eyes were squinting, peering through a strange object shaped like an elongated brass tube. It was a telescope. Not a luxury item bought from a merchant guild of the Magic Empire, but a masterpiece of precision she secretly assembled herself from scraps of old magnifying glasses and worn pipes she stole from the castle's storage.
With both her small hands trembling from the weight of the brass tube, Asfi adjusted the lens focus. The distant world out there suddenly leaped closer into her view.
On the horizon line separating the night sky and the dark ocean, she saw a medium-sized merchant ship struggling to cleave the waves. However, the ship's journey was not peaceful. Through her telescope lens, Asfi could see giant watery tentacles and the silhouette of a sea monster inching up, trying to wrap around the steel hull of the ship.
Asfi's heart beat fast. Her hands gripped the telescope even tighter.
"Hold on..." whispered Asfi softly, holding her breath.
Inside the lens, the sailors on the deck began running around. Flashes of bright orange light exploded in the air as the ship's guards chanted fire magic and fired gunpowder cannons at the monster's tentacles. Explosion after explosion colored the night sea. The sea monster writhed in pain, released its grip from the hull, and finally dove back into the depths of the ocean to escape.
The merchant ship stabilized again, its slightly torn sails billowing out once more, continuing its voyage cleaving the ocean.
Seeing the sailors' small victory, Asfi's eyes widened in awe.
"They did it!" cheered Asfi unconsciously.
She jumped for joy, her white dress twirling in the air. She felt as if she were on that ship, fighting against the monster and feeling the breeze of victory on her face.
However, just a second after her feet touched the marble floor of the balcony again, Asfi instantly froze.
Her light blue eyes widened in panic. She immediately raised both her tiny hands to cover her mouth tightly, holding her breath until her face turned slightly red. She glanced fearfully toward the double glass doors behind her connecting to her dark bedroom.
Her heart pounded, no longer from joy, but from pure terror.
If her mother—Jiene, a paranoid king's concubine who always demanded perfection—heard her voice at night, the woman would definitely come in and ransack her room. If her mother found this telescope she had just painstakingly made, the object would be smashed into useless splinters, exactly like her other inventions in the past.
For several minutes that felt like an eternity, Asfi stood petrified on the balcony. Only the sound of waves crashing below the cliff could be heard. There was no sound of her mother's footsteps, no sound of rough knocking from the castle guards.
She was safe. For tonight.
Asfi let out a long sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead. Her tense shoulders slumped back down. After the night returned to silence and her heartbeat returned to normal, she raised her telescope once again.
This time, she didn't point it at the open sea, but turned the lens downward, sweeping her gaze toward the castle town of Cetus sprawling at the foot of the cliff.
Even though it was late at night, the white stone city was still pulsating with life. Through her lens, Asfi could see night vendors packing up their fish baskets. She saw a group of young men laughing uproariously outside a brightly lit tavern. In a quiet alley adorned with magic stone lanterns, she caught sight of a couple leaning against each other and being intimate under the shadow of a canvas canopy.
There was warmth. There was laughter. There was freedom.
Asfi lowered her telescope slowly. Her cyan eyes looked at the city landscape directly, without the aid of a lens. From the height of this castle balcony, that warm, living scene was merely tiny points of light twinkling in the distance. So close she could see it clearly, yet in reality, it was a world she would never be able to touch.
Beyond the lens of her homemade telescope lay a vast world where people could cry, laugh, fight, and love. A world that had color.
But to Asfi, this secluded island surrounded by the sea—Cetus—was not a home. It was a cage. An incredibly beautiful marble prison.
As the ninth princess of the Kingdom of Dizara, born of a low-ranking concubine, Asfi was never allowed to bear the official name of the state. She was forbidden to receive formal education like other nobles, and she was strictly forbidden to receive a Falna—the god's blessing that could give her the power to change her fate. She was locked on this upper floor, forbidden to ever explore, let alone set foot in the outside world.
Even the sea air she breathed right now felt like an invisible wall slowly choking her.
Biting her lower lip to hold back the tightness in her chest, Asfi turned her body. She stepped into her spacious, cold, and silent bedroom. She walked past her luxurious yet empty-feeling silk canopy bed, toward a crystal wall lamp mounted in the corner of the room.
Her small hands turned the brass ornament under the lamp with a very specific combination of clicks.
A soft mechanical grinding sound creaked from behind the wall. Slowly, the marble arrangement in front of her shifted open, revealing a narrow, dusty corridor.
Asfi stepped inside and closed the wall from the inside again. She walked down the secret corridor, an ancient servant's passage long forgotten by the castle's architects, but discovered and mapped by her own intelligence.
At the end of the corridor was a small room without windows. This was her "secret base". The only place where she could breathe freely.
The cramped room was filled with stolen tools, small gears, shards of glass, and stacks of thick books she had smuggled from the castle's underground library. On her messy workbench, there was a half-finished music box whose gears were still exposed, and a rough draft for a pair of shoes equipped with air springs. Creating these devices was Asfi's only way to calm her mind, to distract her brain from the "buzzing sound" that had lately been torturing the back of her head.
Asfi walked past her workbench and stopped in front of a small wooden shelf. There, arranged neatly were worn books containing epic tales of heroism from the Ancient Era.
Her small hand touched the leather cover of the book she read most often. A book telling the story of an inventive hero who used tools, someone who didn't rely on pure magic or a huge sword, but rather his intellect and equipment to slay a monster and save a princess.
Perseus.
Asfi looked at the worn illustration on the book's cover with a melancholic gaze.
From the servants' conversations she accidentally overheard from behind these secret corridors, Asfi had learned the most horrifying truth about her existence. She knew why she was never allowed out. She knew why her mother, Jiene, always forced Asfi to maintain her physical health without ever giving her the slightest freedom.
This marble castle where she stood—Cassiopeia—was not just a building. It was a giant magical artifact from the ancient era that functioned to stabilize this Leviathan shell island from destruction. And that giant machine... required "Royal Blood" as its activation key.
Asfi realized that she was not a princess. She wasn't even human in the eyes of her father and mother.
She was merely a "tool". A living "keystone" kept and cared for inside a marble birdcage, only to be sacrificed into the castle's machinery when this island began to collapse.
She was locked up not to be protected, but to be saved as a sacrifice.
Asfi hugged the epic heroism book tightly to her small chest. Her body trembled softly in the darkness of the secret room. She didn't cry. Her isolated life had taught Asfi to shut off her tears a long time ago.
However, in the depths of the soul of the little girl who was too much of a genius for her age, she still harbored a faint dream. A fragile hope that refused to die, no matter how small its light.
"Just once... just once is enough," whispered Asfi softly to the empty air, her voice very quiet but filled with deep longing.
Her clear blue eyes stared at the pile of gears and lenses on her workbench, staring at the tools that were her escape from this grim reality.
"If only... someone—someone like the Hero Perseus in this book—would come from beyond that ocean..." murmured Asfi, tightening her embrace on the worn book. "...and take me away from here."
It was not the whining of a spoiled child. It was a prayer. A calm resolve and longing for salvation from a poor child trapped by fate, who only wanted to trade her life destined as a keystone, for a pair of wings to fly to the free outside world.
Under the sparkling night stars, inside the island surrounded by the ocean of death, the sincere plea of the captive princess wafted into the air, waiting to be heard by the wind blowing from the north.
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