Dawn- An age of Darkness

I walked out. There were some guards outside. I walked closer to one of them: the same guy who gave me back my robe. We ran into one another, a lot today.

"Lead me to my room. And can I get some clothes? I don\'t really want to wear this stuff…. I have to take a shower too."

Just thinking about all this made me want to sigh. 

"Right away, my lord. Should I take you to the bed chambers?"

"As long as it\'s not that overly decorated Dis-ney Park, it\'s alright." I didn\'t want to go back to that decorated hell hole anytime soon. It really creeped me out.

"I am not familiar with that my lord. But are you saying you don\'t want to go to the royal bed chambers?" The soldier cocked his head around. 

"Yes, I am saying that. Any room would be fine other than that. On that note, even that room, the one you guarded would be fine," I said. I was a little annoyed, actually.

"That would be an insult to my lord. I could never ask you to stay in such a filthy room!"

I already spent three days there though.

"Lead on. And skip the, my lord dialog." I had no intention of hearing \'my lord\' every time he said something. It was weird.

"Sir!" The guy gave me a rather stern salute.

I guess that\'s an improvement.                   

Every time I passed by a soldier, I got salutes and they\'d always have their heads facing their feet, never looking up. 

The treatment was nice and they were treating me with a lot of respect. It felt odd and I didn\'t like it. But at least it was better than being treated like a criminal or running around, pretending to be a girl. Actually, this might not have been that bad.

The guard took me to a guest room and soon came with clothes. I still hadn\'t had dinner but I was reluctant to ask him so much. I guess I was the duke now, but even so, ordering people around kind of felt out of place. After all, the soldier had a life too. I couldn\'t just force him to run errands for me nonstop. That\'s what lazy royal pricks would do. I sure didn\'t want to turn into one of those. 

But the shower I couldn\'t skip. 

I was led to the royal shower room. This is where I told the guard to just go on about his day. But he insisted to see me back once I was done. I guess I had to accept. 

But my fate got ruined the moment I entered the bath.

Once inside, I met true horror. Jori was in the water.

"Oh my! You wanted to see me that badly?" He grinned in more than one horrifying way.

My whole face twitched and I turned around. "Showers aren\'t necessary for survival."

I saw nothing. I saw nothing. 

"Don\'t go!" I couldn\'t escape. He dragged me to the water.

"NOoo!"

***

It was some sort of pool. Water was coming in from a lion statue close to it. The water was steamy but not hot: just warm. I couldn\'t see the full body of Jori and I was willing to thank even the devil for that. 

I really didn\'t want to be here.

"You know, when I first met you, I thought you were another country bumpkin tryin hard to live by. Guess I was wrong."

"I don\'t need a confession. You\'ve been here long enough, right? Why don\'t you give me a little alone time? You said you were like my older sister, right? Then shouldn\'t you go?"

"What\'s with a barrage of questions?" He chuckled. "Life is hard I know. But hang in there. Maybe you won\'t end like me."

I\'m definitely not going to be like you. 

"Noted."

"I suppose you are uncomfortable around me." He sighed. "But next time, I won\'t relinquish you to the elf. So be prepared," he said playfully. Every single hair of my body stood up and shivers went down my spine. "Oh, and by the way, the secret to channeling mana within your body parts is easy. Just imagine the mana as your lifeblood. Do that and maybe you won\'t end up boiling like last time?"

He got out. I looked away.

I saw nothing I saw nothing.

But this guy actually knew that I was uncomfortable around him. So why the hell didn\'t he stop?

But now that he was gone, I had time to think about it, alone. 

Mana as blood, huh? 

It sounded so simple but it wasn\'t. Just what was even mana anyway?

With a sigh, I just drowned all my worries in the water.

***

The soldiers were nice enough to return Boriosa\'s pants. And from the looks of it, they gave me decent shirts too. I\'d made it clear that I didn\'t want any of the duke\'s clothes, so they just gave me stuff they had for guests.

Well, technically I was a guest too, as I wasn\'t going to stay here long. 

The guard did see me to my room as promised and he also gave strict orders to the guard outside to guard properly. I guess he was trying his best too.

***

"You alive?"

"Still am…"

It was a little late. Later than midnight. I was by the terrace, watching the night sky. I complained about being tired but couldn\'t really sleep. Some of it had to do with a certain bath incident that took place not too long ago.

And then all of a sudden a blonde beauty descended from the sky on a crow.  It was like a scene straight out of a movie. I couldn\'t help but giggle though.

"I wanted to talk with you a little so decided to come," Susan said. Then she started to giggle. "Looks like you\'ve finally gotten out of that. And I kind of liked that dress too, my lady."

"You sure? I am a guy you know and it\'s late." I had plenty of self-control. But after hearing what she\'d said, I could only grind my teeth and be sarcastic.

"So what? I\'m pretty sure I\'m stronger than you. So I can protect myself." The way she declared her superiority was almost comical. I guess she hadn\'t realized it.

I sighed, chuckling a little. "I guess you\'re right. On that note, how strong are you? Can you beat the emperor as you are?"

"What\'s with the questions?" She wondered for a second. "No, not really. I\'m not strong enough to beat that jerk yet."

"That jerk?" Her overly familiar way of describing the emperor was weighing on my conscience. Was this girl really okay, brain-wise?

"How come he treats me so bad? I told him countless times that he shouldn\'t let those Orc scum live but-"

"I\'m not following."

"You see-" She jumped from the crow and it shrank. The crow flew off. "Demonica has a lot of problems. One of those problems is Orcs. They eat everything, reproduce at an astronomical rate and then repeat the process. The west area of Demonica has already become brazen lands. If this continues-" she spouted nonsense. I couldn\'t follow. 

"I still don\'t understand. What the hell are you saying?"

"Basically the Orcs are bad and the emperor isn\'t doing anything to stop them. If this keeps up the demons would lose precious land and suffer from famine." She was actually feeling sad for the demons. 

How disgusting!

"I\'m pretty sure the demons are just as bad. Do you have any idea what they do to humans and-"

"Are you sure? To my knowledge, humans do the same to demons if not worse. Have you visited any pleasure districts of this world? I\'m pretty sure you\'ll mostly find demons there. Demon slaves that is. And did you know that the emperor is doing whatever he can to prevent wars?" She glared at me. She said stuff as though they were the most general knowledge in the world. 

So he didn\'t summon you to fight him…. 

I didn\'t know why the emperor summoned everyone. He must have had different plans for all the summons.

But that didn\'t justify her way of thinking. 

"Unfortunately, I didn\'t have the luxury to do that. Oh and you\'re telling me, humans, just run to the so-called demon whatever town and release an army of undead shit to pillage and destroy everything, right?" My teeth clattered with one another. I was seething with anger. Just remembering all the events…. "And humans just happen to run wild in demon villages and kill everything in sight? Right?" And the memories just kept on boiling. "And humans just happen to unleash incurable diseases to demon villages, right!?"

"Wh-what are you talking about?" She stuttered.

"I\'m pretty sure you\'ve heard that I killed two monarchs, right? Do you know why?"

"They-they set up tests for you. So that they may gauge your potential as a hero, didn\'t they?" Her eyes jumped around. She clearly knew nothing. 

"Are you kidding me? Just what kind of crap have they been feeding you? Demons raising a hero?" I laughed. I laughed too hard. "If that was true then all of my friends would be alive and thousands of people wouldn\'t be dead."

"I-I… that\'s not true! Thamas, Merenia, and the others…. They can\'t be!" She stumbled back. If the terrace wasn\'t here, she\'d have fallen down.

"Looks like you don\'t know anything. Try to see the world through both perspectives." I closed my eyes. "I believe this conversation is over. I thought we had a bond. I thought we had something in common." I glared at her with unbridled disgust. "But you\'re just like them. You\'re just like those monsters. They whispered you sweet things and you started dancing at their tune. You\'re no better them than them. You won\'t hesitate to kill humans if they just told you it\'s for the better of this world. Go, go away."

I bit my lips. I couldn\'t believe in the demons. Not after what I\'d been through. Not after what those wretched things have done to me and the people I came close to. I could never forgive them.

And so, I couldn\'t forgive Susan either. 

"Sorry…. I guess I shouldn\'t have come…." She whispered and jumped. 

I didn\'t see the crow dive. Wait did she just- I hurried and looked down. Nothing was there. Then out of nowhere, the crow flew off with her on its back.

Dick said something about how he never saw the emperor. This girl- if nothing else- respects the demons. What is going on? 

Even if she was a complete ditz, she would still know something wasn\'t right. Just going by logic, the demons had to have at least something which justified her line of thoughts. But I wasn\'t going to trust in that.

Within moments the crow\'s shadow vanished into the night sky. 

I need to learn more about that damn country. More about those damn things.

"Daarc- are you?" There was a knock on the door. Lianne was outside the room. Why was I suddenly getting visits from girls in the middle of the night? Judging by what just happened, I didn\'t have a good feeling about what would come next.

"I\'m awake. Wait."