Dawn- An age of Darkness

"But the dwarves would have lost and-" The dwarves were clearly at a disadvantage.

Jori chuckled. "Sometimes you can be naïve too. Though- I don\'t dislike that about you." He squirmed around. I was disgusted and he probably knew that. "Ahem! Anyway, they were getting backed by the goblins you killed. They were going to use that whole city as bait. That was why they never exterminated the goblins. Everything was already set up. And as you might expect, the dwarves had very high firepower and they were going to use that- if only a certain someone hadn\'t shown up. And once you got rid of their ace in the hole, they became desperate, didn\'t they?"

I hated to admit this but- I was played on more than just one occasion. And now that I thought about it- a lot of stuff did make sense, albeit in not the way I hoped..

I sighed. "And I can trust your words because?"

"Because you stand to make me profit and where there\'s profit, there\'s only truth. I would never sell you out or let you be deceived. My lovely Daarc!" He licked his lips and a shiver went down my spine.

Yeah, I didn\'t buy that. But he was right, there wasn\'t any reason for him to lie. Or was there?

Even if there was, I didn\'t know any. 

With a sigh, I stood up. "I guess I\'ll leave now. Thanks for the help."

He grinned. "Looks like you\'ve grown. I\'m so proud." He blushed and almost leaked saliva as he stared at my crotch. 

Only then did I realize, I might or might not have lost my towel somewhere along the way.

\'Oh shit.\'

***

I was out of the bathroom wearing a black robe: what happened just minutes before was already erased from my memory. 

My clothes were currently in the process of going through their first wash. I had a feeling they\'d be going through at least ten or so washes. At that point was there any need for those clothes?

I\'d probably have to throw them away. The armor though was special and so was Boriosa\'s pants and cape. I guess those three would survive regardless. 

Sigh. 

I was currently heading towards a room on the 98th floor. 99th floor was the bath and roughly a few hundred floors up was the throne room. Though none of the floors were actually numbered, so I just made the numbers up. Seemed like a fun way to pass the time and keep myself distracted. 

There were some soldiers scattered here and there. They saluted me as I passed by. The maids around were always bowing and looking up at me like I was some sort of god. 

Almost everyone treated me like a god though. I guess saying I had godly blood in my veins was basically saying I was a god to them. And since Viola claimed she came back from the dead, people were going crazy over my godly powers. 

Powers that I didn\'t have.

I did check Viola thoroughly for signs of her turning into half-dead and I found nothing. I did get loads of glares from my female companions though. 

***

The tree was lit up with pixies and this city and the castle were really beautiful. It was somewhere around midnight but the city was just too lively. There were so many pixies in the sky that I hardly saw any stars. 

I really hated being dragged into all these power struggles but- but at the end of the day, when I looked out in the distance and saw people just walking back to their homes without worries, I really felt peace. Perhaps I was just eluding my mind into thinking that but- I wanted to believe I was doing the right thing. And at the same time, I didn\'t want to go through all this.

I was a hypocrite and the fact that I knew that only made me feel worse. I snorted at myself and turned around.

Sighing wasn\'t getting me anywhere so I just walked on and reached my room in three minutes. 

I went in. I really hoped I didn\'t end up in the wrong room.

It was a single room with no extra fuss. Just a typical room: definitely better than all the royal rooms and stuff. There was just one pixy in here and upon seeing me we went out of one of the windows.

I didn\'t care though. I had broken bones and though they treated me with magic and potions, I needed rest.

My robe was kind of wet, so I ditched it and got under the blanket.

There was one bed, two chairs, and a table in there.

Though I hated to admit it, that quack doctor in Jacour was probably better than most of the other doctors I came across in most of the lands. Hard to imagine I was thinking highly of that quack of all people.

Sigh. 

I sniffed myself and as I expected, I still had a bit of smell- or it have just been my imagination. At this point, I couldn\'t tell. It felt like my nose got corrupted or something.

My companions were probably doing their own stuff. So without wasting too much time, I just tried to sleep. 

I used to sleep in my underwear all the time. But that was when I had my own room. Sure didn\'t stop me from sleeping like this though.

\'Everyone knew huh?\'

So even Alisa knew. And she already knew that the two royals were also dead. But she still chose to take us down and make me kill the king. Granted, the guy would have died either way and if the duke hadn\'t turned into a vampire-

No, no matter how I thought about this, this just seemed like a stupid plan. The previous king struck a deal with the demons. This country was small and the guards weren\'t that many, but still, it didn\'t mean they\'d just take in two royals from neighboring countries and just start a war and become vampires and stuff. 

And it also didn\'t mean the neighboring countries would use this as an excuse and do stuff for their own good.

People weren\'t that stupid and evil, were they?

They weren\'t, right?

Honestly, I wasn\'t sure anymore. They probably were. \'Maybe the gods really are right. Maybe humans- maybe we really are-\'

I fell asleep.