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Forbidden West: Ballad of Akelldema Miyamoto

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Born in late 1864 beneath the cold skies of Hokkaido, Akelldema Miyamoto enters a Japan caught between fading steel and rising industry. His father, Hiroshi, once a formidable samurai, has sheathed his blade to serve as a physician to a powerful lord, walking the narrow path between tradition and survival. Through harsh herbal regimens and disciplined breathwork, he forges his son into something steadier than most boys his age, preparing him for a future neither of them can fully see. By 1879, unrest coils through the country. Old loyalties are hunted. Food grows scarce in certain districts. Rumors move faster than horses. In the lord’s estate, Princess Aiko Takamori stands at the heart of fragile political balance, and Akelldema, still only fifteen, finds himself drawn into her orbit even as the ground shifts beneath them. When violence can no longer be contained, Akelldema, seventeen and nearing manhood, is chosen to escort Aiko and seven loyal companions across the Pacific to California. What awaits them is not only gold and opportunity, but the consequences of ambition unbound. In the American Wset, the brilliant and obsessive Dr. Nikolai Richtofen has traded provisions to a desperate tribe in exchange for their medicine man, seeking to master life itself. His experiments awaken a corruption that seeps into the blood, spreading by bite and turning the living into something hollow and driven by a darker will. Separated from the princess and believing his duty has failed, Akelldema is cast into a fronteir where greed, secrecy, and infection thrive in the shadows of mines and desert laboratories. Armed with his father’s teachings and the discipline to resist the taint in his own veins, he must hunt for the truth, protect what remains of his honor, and confront the man whose curiosity has begun to unravel the boundary between life and something far more dangerous.
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Take Me Away, Dark Lord!

#VillainDad #CuteProtagonist #Ghosts #Misunderstanding #Transmigration #SmartMC Mira realized two things the moment she woke up in the body of a nameless orphan in a fantasy novel: 1. She is a disposable "shrimp" destined to die in the crossfire of the main characters. 2. She is the only person in this world who can see the screaming, terrifying ghosts that haunt every corner of the empire. Tortured by the wails of the dead, Mira finds only one source of silence: Duke Kaelus von Nacht. Known as the "Dark Lord" and the "Emperor's Sword," Kaelus is a man so ruthless and soaked in bloodlust that even the ghosts are terrified to go near him. To the world, he is a monster. But to Mira, he is a walking, talking pair of noise-canceling headphones. Desperate for a good night's sleep, Mira clings to him, acting like a naive, affectionate child to secure her place by his side. She succeeds, but she miscalculated. Kaelus didn't adopt her out of kindness. He needed a disposable child to act as 'live bait' for the assassins targeting him. Now named Seraphina, she must navigate a deadly game of survival. She thinks she is using him as a ghost shield. He thinks she is a fearless prodigy who loves him. As Seraphina munches on poison berries and naps through ambushes to avoid seeing spirits, the cold-blooded Duke starts to ask the wrong questions. "Why does she only sleep when I am holding her?" "Why does she stare into space with such disdain?" "Is it possible... that I am a good father?" Spoiler: He is not. But he’s about to destroy an entire kingdom because someone woke her up. --- ### Excerpt "Your Highness, the Archduke," the aide whispered, trembling hard to cover his laughter from bursting out. "The child... she is clinging to your leg again." Kaelus looked down. The tiny creature known as Seraphina was attached to his calf like a barnacle, drooling on his pristine military trousers. "She is fearless," Kaelus murmured, misinterpreting her desperate need for his ghost-repelling aura as familial affection. "The assassins are approaching, yet she seeks comfort only in the eye of the storm. She is the perfect bait." Seraphina, currently trying to avoid eye contact with a headless ghost hovering three feet away, squeezed her eyes shut. 'Just don't move. If I let go, the headless guy will ask me where his nose is again.' "Sir," the aide hesitated. "She's... eating your cloak." "Let her eat," Kaelus commanded, drawing his sword. "Whatever she wants, she gets. Except for freedom."
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