Memories
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I heard the cheers of victory even from the distance. A few moments later the front door of my room banged open, and Celine covered top to bottom from blood appeared in my room.
“I’ve done it,” she gave a grin. “I’ve conquered Talobell.”
I was sitting on my bed the moment she arrived, still sleepy after last night’s late council meetings. But I couldn’t help but smile at her victory. My bets were right. Celine was a monster in the battlefield.
“I see you decide to bath their blood as a trophy.”
She marched forwards, picked up my pot of water and splashed it on her face. Chaotic as usual. I didn’t like that about her. And now I needed to call the servants to clean my room again. But all of that for later. She won the fight. That’s what mattered.
“These blood are of demons,” she said as they washed down from her skin. “Blood I’m proud to carry.”
“When are you going to tell me about the fight?” I said, irking away from the wet carpet.
“Right now,” she dragged a chair and sat down. “I wanted you to hear about it before anyone said a thing.”
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For a few moments, I could only feel the blade on my throat. In my eyes I saw Ekta glaring back at me, her irises glowing red. At first I thought the least resistance would be the best choice, but as the blade dug deep I concentrated on whatever energy I had.
Normal humans didn’t possess any innate magic power, so I had to use runes to cast spells. But now that I didn’t have any runes, my only powers lay in my martial arts abilities.
“First of all,” I kicked her knee, grabbed her elbow, and pushed her to the side. “Remember who you are.”
Before she could recover I slammed her to the wall with a newfound energy, and twisted her arm hard enough for her to yelp and drop her blade. The anger grew within me. It was a feeling I had never felt before.
Pride.
She hurt my pride, and I wasn’t about to let it go. Perhaps it was the demon king’s feelings now swirling within me, but I found a strange satisfaction as I saw her squirm under my grip.
What am I doing?
I released her and leaped back, heaving a breath. I wondered if the demon king’s feelings could affect someone. Were my thoughts my own?
“I’m sorry Dalos,” Ekta said in a meek voice, rubbing her hands. In her eyes I saw fear, which was funny. Never in my life I thought I’d see fear in demon king’s second in command. “You were speaking very differently today. You don’t even seem to have track of anything we’ve spoke.”
“Please,” she kept a hand on my shoulder. “Tell me if anything is bothering you. There are great plans we’ve made lying ahead of us. We cannot be weak at this moment.”
I could lie. But I wasn’t a good liar. And I didn’t know for how long I could carry that lie. Which meant I had to say the truth.
Or at least a twisted version of it.
“I have lost my memory,” I said, leaning on the wall and closing my eyes. It wasn’t good to look at others faces when you were lying. “I only have fragments of it. Something happened last night, and I’m still trying to find out what it is.”
When I looked up, there was no doubt in Ekta’s eyes. I prayed to the gods for it.
“Was it some spell? I heard those Half-Guild mage bastards have joined the sides of the hero. We can buy them with coin, but it is possible they might have inflicted some sort of spell on you in the meantime.”
Perhaps I should go with that lie. The Half-Guild mages were a set of freelance mages who worked for the highest coin. Luckily I got enough funds from the royal treasury to buy them. And they were powerful enough to cast a good spell or two.
“I don’t know,” I said after some thought. “But I need you to help me figure out what’s happening. Tell me everything we’ve done so far, and guide me where I’m needed,” I gripped her by the arms and looked into her eyes. “Can you do that for me?”
Her cheeks flushed for a moment, but in the next her desolate grim expression invaded her face again.
“I will…” she paused for a while. “So you trust me?”
That was a strange question for her to ask. “What exactly were we? Were you something more than my commander?”
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This time I could definitely see her cheeks flushing.
“N-no. You have a different lover. I am your right hand. Your friend ever since you escaped the prison. I’ve been addressing you with your name. Don’t you remember any of it?”
There was a fracture in her expression for a moment. It was something I never thought was possible. They called her the demoness with blades. But at that moment she seemed like a normal…human.
I shrugged away my thoughts. I couldn’t mingle with demonkind. I had a job. If I could just get close enough to Celine during the fight in the village I could show her my face and explain what had happened.
“I’m trying to remember,” I lied. “Just tell me what our plans are for now. I’ll figure things out along the way.”
“Our original plan was to let Yelna attack their enemy commander after an ambush at the village. But since you agreed to leave in her place, you’ll have to face her. Or I-”
“No,” I leaned back on the wall and tried to reminisce about the battle of Talobell.
Celine had recounted to me the details of it after her fight. She had met Ekta on the battlefield, and the two had clashed swords. Ekta had overpowered Celine but the rest of the army had managed to kill most of the demon king’s forces. After seeing her armies fail Ekta had gone for a hasty retreat. Celine hadn’t chased her.
I only needed to change a few threads in the plan so I could meet Celine. If I met her in the battlefield, she’ll recognize me, and I could retreat with her back to my camp. I could finally be free from this wretched place infested with demonkind.
“Tell me one thing,” I looked back at the demoness. “Why didn’t I show my face?”
Ekta looked surprised. “You never revealed the reason to any of us. All you told me was how you cannot show your face in front of the hero.”
And here I am. With the demon king’s face. Perhaps it wasn’t Dalos who cast the spell…
“And you don’t see a change in my face?” I tried pushing the bounds of my luck.
Ekta looked even more mystified. “That’s the face you’ve been having all these years.”
I rubbed my temples. “I think the best option right now is to go to the village. Explain anything I need along the way.”
***
It was the year 1093. The last year of the infamous Demon War. It had been going on for three years now, and everyone was at their limit. As I walked to the village of Talobell I saw smokes rising in the distance - vague shadows of the battle that had happened. Pillars of smoke rose to touch the sky, and the distant ground was scarred with mud and soot. Ruins of the war were scattered around the area from broken spears and shields to trials of blood.
It wasn’t a pretty sight.
It was a sight I desperately tried to avoid once I killed the demon king. And here I was to see them again.
“The hero’s party is improving their strategies,” Ekta said, looking at the blood soaked battlefield. She rode her horse calmly, as if everything was a normal sight. I expected nothing more from a demoness. “We need to start improvising. I hope in time you’ll remember your plan.”
“What plan?”
She gave a sideways glance. “Sadly, I don’t know. A few months before you told me you’d come up with a plan to defeat the hero. You said it was to be kept strictly confidential, even from me. You said it was a way to end this war once and for all.”
“And I didn’t give even a hint at what I was planning?”
“You spoke of only one word - Kairos. I don’t know what’s that supposed to mean.”
Did the demon king know I was being transported back in time to his body? Perhaps he even planned that I’d ask all these questions from Ekta.
I need answers. Fast.
The village appeared in the distance. The armies of Commander Larg covered the entrance, with the Selian flag bearers at the very front. Larg loved his province. No wonder he needed to show the colors of his province if he won the fight against the hero’s army. Sadly he won’t be winning. I’ll make sure that happens.
If the chance arrives, I’ll even take out that traitor myself.
That’s when I first saw figures darting across the soldiers. My first thought was - dwarves. They were rare across the cities, but if you found one you always found a pack of them. But as I nudged my horse and moved closer I realized they weren’t dwarves.
They were children.
Human children.
I gripped my reins. “Why are there children in here?”
“How much memory did you lose?” Ekta trotted near to me. “This is Talobell. A human village. They’ve been under our protection for more than two years now.”
But that wasn’t possible. Celine told me the village was empty. Did that bastard Dalos purposefully put children in this place thinking I would defend this place?
No. Celine will understand.
“We’re protecting villagers?”
“It’s always been this way,” Ekta said. “We give them protection in return for their manpower. Most of them join our army.”
So that’s why the demon king’s army had been having so many human soldiers.
“But the hero knows of this,” Ekta continued, passing the flag bearers of Selia. “That’s why that bastard keeps murdering every single man, woman and child in these villages.”
I felt as if someone slapped me in the face.
“No,” my voice was louder than I thought. “The hero never does that!”
Ekta glared at me. “How could you know?”
I paled and quickly diverted the subject. “Isn’t he the hero? Isn’t he supposed to save people?”
“If it was such a wholesome story then we wouldn’t be placing so many armies in here. I would-”
In the distance, a war horn bellowed. I recognized the sound even from a distance. The horn of the tribesmen. Celine had hired them from the Northern Mountains, and they proved quite effective in battle…
…as mass murdering bloodthirsty inhumane…
We only kept them for the extreme missions - to invade a den full of monsters, to fight a hive of demons, or to ambush an army of highly trained soldiers. I never used them in a village with innocent men, women, and children.
I looked around to see the little faces run back into the village, darting among the shields of soldiers. The few people who were walking in the village hurried into their houses, dragging their children along with them. From the distant mountain, right below the afternoon sun silhouette of the first few tribesmen appeared. They rode on their horses, yelling cursers and raising their swords and scythes.
Ekta reared her horse.
“Leave this to me. Retreat to the village.”
I looked back at the village. I looked at the innocent faces peeking out of the windows. It was like the Union decided to unleash a bunch of hungry wolves on a coop of chicken. I couldn’t let them die. I won’t let that happen.
Perhaps that’s what the demon king wanted from me, but I’d rather dance to his tune rather than let some innocent suffer because of my actions.
“No,” I pulled the reins of my horse and faced the oncoming army. “I’ll command the soldiers. It’s time we prepared to fight.”