“Care to explain this, Emperor Ouro.”
Vische asked towards Emperor who Ouro who just entered the door. The room we are currently right now is painted with blood as Vische rampages here. In my cradle is Elen who is covered with a sheet of a blanket.
Fear and trauma are deeply etched in her heart due to the continuous violation of the soldiers to her body. Her whole body trembles and her hands cling to me like her life depends on it.
……
To be honest, I don’t feel any sympathy for her plight. Compassion never existed inside of me and neither the attitude to give comfort to someone. I think she is pitiful but I feel nothing sort of heaviness in my heart.
As I thought, I as a person am not whole, the dreamy and nice attitude, even the shyness and anxiety are all left to him. As my twisted personality left him, he will be having an extremely pure and untainted heart.
Be as it may, I am afraid that he won’t live long in this kind of world with those personalities.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I have come here to check on my soldiers just to find this horrid bloodbath.”
“Is that so? By how this place looks like, it is undeniable that these soldiers of yours have done something to this friend of mine.”
“I see, I am sorry for what my soldiers did. I will take responsibilities for it. Hero Elen will be given proper treatment under my watch. However, was killing my soldiers necessary? How are you going to justify such spectacle?”
Vische stood quietly as she stares at Ouro. We caught his soldiers red-handed, however, the emperor himself wasn’t in this place, only when Vische killed all the soldiers that he appeared. That timing was too perfect but as long as we can present any clues, we can’t press any accusation against him.
“We shall discuss this matter tomorrow, Hero Vische. As for Hero Elen, I will personally take her to my court magician to take a look at her.”
Vische begrudgingly lowers her sword and let Ouro passes by. With careful steps, Ouro approaches Elen who is still shaking in my arms.
“It must be hard for you, Hero Elen. I shall see to it that the fear and pain go away.”
Ouro reaches Elen with his hand, however, Elen’s body jerks a little as she heard Ouro’s voice and as her eyes fixate on Ouro’s face, I can feel her body seizing every movement as fear started to paralyze her.
“N-No…”
“Come now.”
With such exchange alone, any living thinking sentient being should have realized it in an instant. Elen’s herself suppressed the words in her throat and looks at me and Vische with anxious eyes.
……
So that’s how he played it.
Elen unwraps her shaky hands from my arm and slowly, she tried to take Ouro’s hand that he offered.
Welp, sorry girl, unless we have any solid evidence to pin him, we can’t do anything right now.
However, before his fingertip touches Elen’s hand, we are interrupted by a sudden intrusion.
“What an idiot. You don’t need your court magician to take a look at her.”
A carefree voice rang inside the room with a tone that seems to look down on everyone. Naturally, our eyes are pulled towards the source of the voice. In the doorway stands a man who leans with confidence.
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As soon as Ouro laid his eyes upon the man who dons a black hair but white scale on his jaws that dresses in an old-fashioned manner that consists of a leather robe and such, he was taken back and his eyes stare widened to the man.
“Great Ancestor…Mrothgir…!”
“I see you are still in rush to have more descendants, Ouro.”
“No! I..this is just…! I am extending my hospitality to the heroes.”
“That’s cool. You know, I am in an extremely bad mood even though a few days ago, I was at a festival. There’s this little vixen that captured my interest, however, she got betrothed to this lion guy so I kind of find it a shame that I wasn’t able to make her my newest apprentice. That’s why stop feeding me those craps.”
“But Great Ancestor…!”
“Move.”
Upon the order of the man, Mrothgir, Ouro moves from his place and let him pass. I’ve never seen him go pale as a snow like this and sweat like a river. By Great Ancestor, we can assume that this man is somewhat higher than Ouro who is the Emperor of the Kingdom of Valley of the Ancients.
Who is this Mrothgir and why does Ouro fear him so much?
Mrothgir walks closer to us and with meticulous eyes he stares at me, Vische and Elen.
His eyes aren’t considerate, gentle or even sympathetic, however, those kind of eyes that speak his intention and seems blunt are what I wanted to see for a while, not that deceitful smile Emperor Ouro always shows.
Without warning or even precaution, his hand darted to Elen’s head. Elen herself wasn’t prepared for it but she let Mrothgir do as he pleased. A glow of red light came out from his palm that envelopes Elen’s body.
Slowly, Elen’s eyelids close without resistance and nodded to dreamland.
“She was drugged and her privates are sore. Sad thing is that none of her body parts were left untouched. It seems that she was treated as a plaything for more than an hour. How ugly that is…Ouro.”
“That’s definitely horrible, Great Ancestor. We can’t let words get out or it will tarnish Great Ancestor Krothgir’s name.”
“Ouro, Krothgir my brother is an honorable man that would never violate a woman. He upholds his patriotism to this land high, the same as how he uphold his values.”
“Yes, Great Ancestor Mrothgir! I am well aware!”
“That’s why stop uttering his name with your mouth. It’s disgusting.”
“Guh…!”
“You won’t get away unpunished. I am going to kill you myself if you try to escape from this.”
“It’s just a single damn woman!”
“Are you a moron? It is because of a woman that the war between the human and demon started a century ago. Right now, you don’t want to go against the king of the humans now do you?”
“……”
“I thought so. Get out of my sight.”
Ouro gritted his teeth before leaving the room in hurry. Meanwhile, the man, Mrothgir scratches the back of his head as he watches Ouro walks away.
As he lets out a quiet sigh, he faces us again.
“You there, give this to her and her body will regain vitality.”
“Y-Yes…”
Mrothgir handed me a bottle of vial of weird liquid inside. Since he said it, I don’t have any reason not to, however, he should not have put her to sleep like that if he wanted Elen to drink something.
I can’t just shove this thing into Elen’s mouth and force her to gulp the content.
“What’s wrong?”
“You know, do you think I can just shove this into her mouth?”
“Why not just give it to her orally?”
“You said earlier that none of her body was left untouched.”
“I…really don’t know how to answer that.”
Upon our exchange, Vische angrily marches between me and Mrothgir.
“If you don’t to do it, I will.”
She said as she took the vial from my hand and drank the content herself. After that, she sits beside the unconscious Elen and opens her mouth and passes the vial orally.
“It’s weird how you are fine with all the blood and gore around you Nil but passing the content of that vial orally is not.”
“What? I just can’t. Look, I’m sorry.”
“Ah, nevermind it, that’s just how you are. Anyway, let me take it from here too. I’ll bring back Elen and explain everything.”
“I swear this won’t end well.”
“That’s given.”
Vische then carried Elen in her arms after sheathing her sword back. She carefully wraps Elen’s body with the white sheet and steadily walks away from us.
Well, it is as she said, things like blood splattered all over or guts and remains loitering around doesn’t make me sick at all. They are still just creature that had their lives taken away and now unmoving.
It always fascinates me how people can be so frantic about taking away another one’s life when they kill animals and such all the time who are equally alive.
Well, taking my mind off of trivial matters, I began thinking why did I let myself get left here?
It’s not like I enjoy the scenery but I feel like this man here, Mrothgir, has something important to say.
“You look a little undisturbed by this. Even as your friend was done horrible things to her, you seem indifferent.”
“Oh, can you read minds?”
“It’s painfully obvious. You…are you morally twisted or something?”
“Who knows?”
“…Come to think of it, have I seen that face before?”
“I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve met.”
“Well yeah, that’s impossible. That man died four years ago.”
“Who are you referring to?”
“Forget it. Aren’t you going back to your friends, hero?”
“With this incident, do you think my companions will afford to stay here?”
“I will hold every authority temporarily until we can reach a conclusion for what punishment will be carried out for Ouro. It’s a damn hassle but if I can decide, I’ll banish him far away or even send him to the human king for the final judgment.”
“You seem indifferent yourself about the situation.”
“I’ve lived long enough to make any colorful reactions. Perhaps I just got tired of the same thing but at the very least, I will uphold what’s right.”
After Mrothgir said that, silence fell and I am out of things to say. It’s not that I actually wanted to talk to him, I am just feeling a little uneasy.
……
Funny that I got uncomfortable around Mrothgir rather than what’s around us. People should be arriving here soon as I better get out.
“Wait.”
“W-What?”
“You, together with that psychopathic girl…won’t you leave this place?”
“Where is this coming from?”
“I think you have heard this many times now but, I don’t like you. You have this personality that is devoid of some emotions. Even the cruelest person will feel wholesome for me, on the other hand, your very being is somewhat…half-filled. Tell me, what are you?”
“…I don’t think much of what I am so I don’t know how to answer that.”
“Do you not understand yourself or perhaps…you are just beginning to understand what it means to be a just person…?”
“Psychological mettles aren’t my thing. I’ll talk with Vische later about what you said. I should be going now too.”
I turn my heels and proceed towards the exits of this room where the horrible stench of the dead starting to linger. I really don’t care much for everything.
What I wanted to know is where he is.
If someone would make me feel complete and satisfied with all the emotional derailment, it would be him, the original Nil.
“Hey!”
What now…?
“I want to ask you one last thing…”
“……”
“What do you feel about death…?”
What do I feel about death?
I don’t know.