Piera Paracelsus

'Even if death is the predetermined end… please don't walk that final path alone.'

A family curse. The burden of tending the dead for the Burial Society. The coffin that she carries wherever she goes. No matter how one sees this former Vice-Commander of Bell Ringer Saint Albrecht, death is never far from her side.

And that solemn duty—bound so closely to death—now quietly knocks upon the door of Piera's fate.

Through my inquiries, I learned of the mysterious curse that haunts Piera and her bloodline.

Because of it, members of the Paracelsus family rarely live to old age—elders are a rarity, and partings come far too soon. From childhood, Piera grew up surrounded by illness and last goodbyes.

One quiet afternoon years ago, she held her mother's cold hands and bid farewell to the last of her kin. From that day on, she took it upon herself to prepare the dead for their final rest. Perhaps, by then, Piera had already come to see farewell as a part of life itself.

Unlike other families, the Paracelsus bloodline has always been led by young faces.

As Piera grew, the ever-tightening intervals between family gravestones became clear markers on the dial of her life. All of it seems bound to some vague and unshakable destiny.

Piera does not fear death itself—but the thought of fading into oblivion, of being slowly forgotten after death, often sends a chill through her soul.

An alchemist once shared more about Piera's lineage with me.

Though the Paracelsus family had long suffered misfortune, they were never on the brink of extinction. That is, until 66 years ago, when a terrible calamity struck their homeland—an isolated island, by most accounts.

The calamity claimed over half the family, and those who escaped perished one by one after leaving the island. Their names faded, lost to time.

For Piera, then, homeland is nothing more than a distant idea—an echo of a place that no longer exists.

A mysterious coffin—its contents unknown.

Scrawled across its surface are the names of the Paracelsus family's departed, each one carrying the weight of a young girl's unending longing for her kin.

Despite the sorrowful rumors, this family has not yet been forgotten by the world. For now, it remains deeply engraved in one girl's heart.

And I, too, shall follow the path of her longing—to witness the winding traces they once left behind in this world.