I stand before the last room, the one who holds the highest authority in this mansion, Lord Nil. My sisters described him as an impulsive master with so many mood swings. He has a roundabout doing things and is easy to communicate with and an easy going man who always have a smile plastered on his face.
That’s all the details that they can describe since they do not mingle with him long enough. Also, Lady Hydrangea said that he gets along well with everyone including my sisters. I don’t see any reason to be wary of him it seems.
As per usual, I knocked three times as a polite act before turning the knob and letting myself in. However, as I step inside and closed the door behind, my breath was taken away.
There is a man standing beside his bed and directly stare at me in the eyes. A man with an unrivaled face that I could honestly tell he is pretty with a fair white skin and black glistening hair that covers his nape.
He is a man. I can immediately conclude that as I stare at his bare body with only the white sheet of the bed covering his lower half. He wasn’t thin but his body was able to announce that it is a body of man for the reason it is has a fine amount of muscle that can even be covered up by clothes and still mistaken as a woman.
A pretty man that gives a luminous stare from his deep dark pupils that could suck anyone who stares at it for too long. His eyelashes are beautiful…no…overall…his countenance…is unmatched by both genders.
I just gained my own ego days ago, however, I can already discern such beauty when it is placed in front of me even though a devil such as me should not have any aesthetic when it comes to appearance.
But with the atmosphere wafting, I could tell…I came at the worst time.
“OOooohhhhh? Are you…the new servant…?”
His voice rang up an intense chill in my spine. His gaze is like piercing right through my soul and it prods my whole being. I can’t feel my heart pounding anymore like how I felt towards Lord Shun and Lord Flow. This heart of mine already froze in fear. I can feel my whole body being doused in nonexistent cold water.
“Why are you just standing there?~ Hmm…regardless of appearance…you’re still a devil, huh.”
From few words from him, my teeth started clacking in looming presence of the man in front of me. I can feel it to the very core of mine that this man is someone that even my god don’t want to face with. I can’t even fall on my butt anymore as my leg also froze up and the only moving part of my body is hand that trembles with cold sweat.
“You see…I’m not really on…a good mood right now. I just had a recurring…bad dream.”
He slowly walks toward me with an unsteady gait. His eyes are smiling, his lips are curving upward, but, his presence and power are steadily crushing my very own sanity with pressure. As he arrives in front of me, his cold and smooth palm touch my cheeks as he moves his face closer to mine.
“I dreamt of…Als…dying and dying and dying and dying countless of times…in my hands as…she lay…lifelessly. Her face is of someone…smiling…she always smiles…I love that smile of hers…”
I started hyperventilating as cold words passes through my ears. This is no longer fear that I am frustrated with earlier… This is…a maddening terror…! I cannot stabilize my mind anymore and thinking began to become unclear…
No…
“Haaa…but this is…interesting. You look like Milin that…Asagao loved so much. Ahh!~ Your despairing face…gives me so much joy. Hahahaha…”
“Ma…”
“Hmmm…?”
“Ma…ma….Mama….”
“?”
“Mama….”
“Hehehehe….HaHAHAHA! Did you hear that, Hy?! She thinks of you as her mother?! It can’t be helped though when her mind becomes like this!!”
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“Hahahahaha! She can’t even think of anything anymore!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Wonderful! This is the first time I saw a devil reacting like this! That hateful devil that I painstakingly controlled….this the first time! HAHAHAHAHA!”
BAM!
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…………
“Ow, ow, ow! Hy, as usual…you do unnecessary acts like this!”
“Haaa…you’re such a scum. Well, that side of yours never changed. Instead, aren’t you getting worst? Whatever, I’ll smash your cranium like this as much as you like so it really never bothered me.”
“Aren’t you the worst one here? Smashing someone else’s cranium is bad.”
“Anyway, don’t you think you vented at the wrong person?”
“Hmm? I guess. Venting to a devil is really insignificant…well…that’s how I think a while ago.”
“Haaa…scum…trash…”
“She’s like Asagao! An empty slate! Can I toy with her?!”
“Absolutely not. We’re leaving.”
“Aww… then I’ll go back to bed.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
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When I came to, I was in Lady Hydrangea’s cradle.
She was stroking my hair as I lay down on her lap that feels so nice. My breathing slowly stabilizes and I can feel my body functions slowly returning to me. My heart began pumping normally a while ago now so I feel much better.
“That’s the worst experience for you.”
“Ma--! Lady Hydrangea…”
“Hmm…I don’t mind you calling me like that. I do take a motherly stance for you after all. And as your mother, I am going to show you kindness.”
“Kindness…that’s the weirdest word a devil could receive. Not to mention, I was unable to complete my task.”
“Taking out the garbage from that room is impossible from the start.”
“…?”
What did Lady Hydrangea mean by that?
“Don’t think too much about it. You were perfectly petrified from terror physically and mentally earlier.”
Perfectly petrified from terror, huh…
Why…?
How did such emotion take over me? Is it a failure on my part or is it because that this body comes naturally with it? I never experienced various emotions before so I am greatly frustrated and confused on how to deal with it. I hate this…I really hate this…
If only I can remove such function…
Remove…?
My body immediately shot up and I stand in front of Lady Hydrangea.
“Lady Hydrangea, I…have somewhere to go to…”
“Fine, you may go.”
As I heard Lady Hydrangea’s reply, I promptly left from her sight and made strides towards the place I am going to.
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Slamming the door open, I felt a little delighted that the man I need to see is available. I briskly close the door behind me as I step inside and walk towards him.
“Lord Dylan!”
“Oh? What do we have here? A lost child?”
“Lord Dylan, can you remove my emotion?”
“…Well, …that came out of nowhere…”
“Can you?”
From my sudden query, Lord Dylan immediately halted his work from writing on the paper and stand up in front of me with face showing great interest. I stare back at his eyes wit a firm resolve to show that I won’t back down no matter what.
But contrary to his smiling face, he just let out a sigh.
“Haa…”
“Lord Dylan, I am serious! Can you?”
“Can I?!” Who do you think I am? I am Dylan, an etherian that ruled over the field of machinery, technology, quantum physics and even touched alchemy recently.”
“Then--!”
“No. I won’t do that.”
“But…!”
“Haaa…”
From Lord Dylan’s another heavy sigh, I took a step back as he turns his back on me and proceeded to sit on the chair again where he was initially is. I only stare at Lord Dylan who gave a look of exhaustion. I was going to announce my demand again when he speaks faster than I could.
“Topaz, do you know what drives people to live longer?”
“It is not something I am well aware. What could it be?”
“Fear and desire.”
“Excuse me?”
Lord Dylan’s eye glints as he said those. I feel a tension forming inside the room as Lord Dylan’s usual goofy countenance becomes serious befitting of an Order of Arcana member, the Arcana of Sloth.
“In my own perspective, these two concepts intertwine with each other to create a perfect excuse for a creature to live, a special bond that yields the ego of a person whether you came from another gender, another race, or another social standing. Desires enable a person to act through drive of what they want to attain whether it is from an external or internal factor. Fear is the instinct to survive for the reason you want to avoid something that you hate. It enables a person to forego for their drive for their desire while thinking of their own safety.”
I am not stupid or someone with slow learning capabilities, however, such concept presented and told to me at face value, I am sad that I cannot comprehend it. If a person desires something, won’t it be sufficient for him to survive? If a person fears something, won’t it be sufficient for them to avoid everything painful for them?
Should the two of those intertwined, wouldn’t it just give a troublesome idea that a person needs to avoid something and take another route for the desire that he wants. By that, won’t the person contemplate and be ridden by whether happiness or anxiousness?
Wait…
“Judging by your reaction, which seems flabbergasted, you seem to realize something.”
“Emotion…Are you saying that emotion is what that two yield, but at the same time, is what make desire and fear exists!? Then what about if a person only has desire alone or fear alone?!”
“I never mentioned anything about the absence of each other.”
“Huh?”
“Right from the beginning, everyone has desire and fear, but, by disposition, they became unstable or you could say, imbalance, causing or yielding what we call now sins, or specifically, the best example would be the seven deadly sins.”
Seven deadly sins?
Then…if you fear or desire too much, it will cause an imbalance and those sins will manifest?! Lord Dylan subtly saying that even with those sins, fear and desire exists and emotion still manifest normally?
“However, how can this be related to me?! I want to remove these burdening emotions!!”
“Since gaining ego, you desire becomes stable and you were able to think clearly Topaz. Your judgment will lead you to either stupidity or safety, but the decision you are going to made is within the boundary of what you fear and what you desire.”
“Then…!”
“Didn’t emotion or basically fear and desire, helped you survive or enabled you to slip past a pinch?”
When…Lord Shun tried to make an advance to me, it was my own subconscious decision to avert…he then stopped. If I was a mindless devil, things could have gone worse.
When Lord Flow slams me against the wall and pinned me, my fear gave in and I begged for mercy. That alone has helped me.
It is the same for what Lord Cr’thgor and Lady Sistina.
I could have just rejected, I could have just said plainly that I don’t like it when those things are given to me, however, my desire for what they gave me strengthens and now, I am craving for those if ever I have another opportunity. It makes me want to live for that sake of the kindness I received…
Realizing that Lord Dylan’s words are proven true, I can only clutch on my skirt and look down as I try my best to hold down the tears that are about to erupt.
These emotions, these feelings, everything is a bother! I want to scream but I feel like my voice will come out as shrilled, coarse, or even unheard.
“Why…why am I even here…with this…feelings…emotions…fear…desire…everything! I was fine when I was just a mindless devil that comes and go in the cycle of life and death!”
“The red moon that you believed to be your spawning place…sooner or later…it will be destroyed.”
“Eh…?”
“And for that, …we want to preserve the remaining devils. However, preserving devils are seen as stupidity as they are what you called yourself, mindless.”
“Wait…!”
“That’s why I did my best to give not only your sisters but to you an ego. So when that time comes, you will persist, you will survive, and can stand on your own.”
“That’s! You are saying that…the reason that all of us are girls is…”
“To reproduce, that’s the goal of synthesizing devils with emotions, feeling, desire and fear. You four are sentient beings that have wills of your own.”
My mind becomes disarray…
The true purpose of our existence…is to reproduce…?
Don’t fool around…! Is he implying that sooner or later, we will be taking a job that involves being pregnant?! Don’t give me that crap!
My tears burst out and anguish, despair, and hatred!
“ARE YOU SAYING THAT WE ARE GOING TO BE A FUCKTOY!?”
“That’s a harsh way to put it… and where did you even learned that?”
“How dare you!? You created us for that?! How do you think I feel right now?! Or…does it even matters to you what I feel?!”
“Amazing…even among the four of you, Topaz, you, is the most emotional of all. You yield feelings that are common for a real living being.”
“Why are you even trying to bring that up?!”
“You may have the wrong idea now, but…soon…you will know how important those emotions to you.”
As Lord Dylan said those, he grabs my wrist and started pulling me somewhere!
Wait…!
“[Arcana of Earth – Earth Spikes!]”
“[Arcana of Sloth – Aversion]”
WHOOSH!
The earthen spikes that I directed to Lord Dylan avoided him. He was still trudging my wrist without minding my struggle. I pull, I twist and I even flail but I can’t make him let go of my wrist!
Lord Dylan dragged me to his facility and threw me inside a glass tube!
“What is this?! What’s the meaning of this?! Lord Dylan!”
“Let’s say this is a part of an experiment. Rest assured, with that face, Asagao Lionheart will protect you even if you are a devil.”
“Asagao Lionheart?! Who is that?! I don’t need anyone else other than my sisters and Lady Hydrangea!”
“I am not saying that your sisters are failures. There are actually none of them. It is just that you are just the perfect one. There are a lot of possibilities for you, you will grow together with her, realized many things and experience happiness and even sadness.”
Lord Dylan then started fiddling with the machinery beside this glass tube. The light started to spill from the tube I am confined in.
"I'll just set the right coordinates for your teleportation so you'll end up with them."
“Stop! No! I don’t want to! Stop this!! I beg of you! Please, Lord Dylan!!”
“Walk together with the girl who holds the light and myriad of possibilities for this world. Walk together with the girl who will bring salvation not only to Lord Nil but to hundreds of thousands of people.”
“NOOO! NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!”
“Bye! Have fun!”
“NOOO-----!”
My consciousness was taken from me as the bright light completely covered me.
I don’t want to be separated from my sisters…
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The next thing I know, I was screaming at the top of my lungs because I am falling from the sky…
Below me is nothing but water. No earth that I can even use to save me from this predicament and I do sure know how I am unable to swim.
But, at that very moment, as the sadness of my separation is still fresh, a girl smaller than me holds me in her embrace.
A girl with glossy white hair that grows past her armpit, cerulean eyes that are like the reflection of the blue sky itself, cute rounded eyes filled with innocent but a glint of bravery is deep inside it, and her attractive pink lips that are like flowers, skin so fair and pale that you’d actually think it is made out of the finest milk.
All of these are contained in such small girl…
I was in a daze looking at her pure and strong willed eyes.
As she saved me from falling right into the water, we landed on something. Perhaps this is what a ship is…
Her eyes swam right into my body as she sternly prodded my figure but after that, she immediately wrapped her arms around me.
“Milin!”
“Eh...No…my name is Topaz…”
That’s how my encounter with Asagao Lionheart started.