Kaztov, the strongest and wealthiest nation in Greater Europa, praised for its strong military prowess and wealthy economy. The country, under the rule of its current king Ivan Alexi III, has managed to nearly eradicate the term poverty, improve the country’s international relationship and overall made the country the best place to live in but the more his power grows the more enemies he makes all over the world—it’s a shame, a truly capable man indeed but even with all the world's greatest military at his control he still can’t escape the scythe of the faceless god—the god of death. Today you die.

I walked past the elegant hallways decorated with exquisite paintings of the past kings and their families who lived in the castle, framed with gold, they do this to show their family’s wealth even in death—a tradition that completely baffles me­­.

The sun had begun to set when I looked out the window, so I made my way into the kitchen—my usual duty—the scent of roast chicken hit my nose, the chef’s specialty. The kitchen had to be the second busiest place in this whole building, there was always chaos every hour of the day as the staff rushed to prepare food and seeing the fate of the last chef who displeased the family with a distasteful meal, everyone had to work until the meals prepared were perfect—no one wanted to be executed for serving a disgusting dish.

“Oi you!” I felt a sharp slap on my right shoulder and was handed a rag and a tray from the head chef. “You don’t get paid to watch us work. Get these trays moving!” Dressed in my neat black tailcoat suit and white gloves—the uniform worn by male servants of the royal family. I had a tray of tonight’s dinner held up in the palm of my right hand and I stepped into the hallway when I was stopped by the head servant standing at the door to the dining hall and he clapped his hands at me, signalling for me to walk faster when I stopped at the windows, inches away from the head servant when I noticed the full moon hanging in the cloudless night sky, shining it’s silver glow down on the earth

The time has come

“Kruger!” The head servant called my name—at least the alias I’m associated with this time—and snapped his fingers at me. “Hurry up.”

I turned to look at the old greying man and kept walking and the doors to the dining hall swung open for me and in that instant the bright golden light from the dozen chandeliers and wall lamps washed over me followed by the idle chatter of the entire royal family seated there. The King sat at the far end of the table, far away from the others at the table with two men at his side, seated closest to him at his right have was his wife, the Queen Marcella and around them was their sons, Viktor and Igor, Viktor being the eldest son sat opposite his mother on the left hand side of his father and Igor on the next after him and at the queens right was her daughter Ann. Only the five people seated at this table had access to this room and the servants meant to serve the family.

The room was most likely 2 acres of land and the only thing occupying it was the conference-like dining table—a real waste of good space if you ask me—I walked up to them and placed the tray on the table and bowed.

“You!” I turned around to leave when I heard the king call out to me.

With a swift turn I bowed. “Yes, my lord.”

“What is your name?”

“Sir…?”

“I said, What is your name?”

There was a brief pause and I exhaled before speaking.

“Eric Von Kruger, my lord.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m 19, sir.”

 “You’re not from Kaztov are you?”

“No, my lord, I am not.”

“Your accent…. it’s strange, where are you from?”

“Gormani sir but I was raised in the Armelia,”

“Why so far from home?”

This was weird. In all my years serving the palace I’ve never once spoken to the man I served every day. Why would he want to start speaking to me now? Is he unto me? Did I give my position away? I need to think of something quick.

“I came seeking a better life for myself, the world outside Kaztov is harsh and I couldn’t bear living in such a world. I find the Kaztov lifestyle rather pleasant, even as a servant to the royal family I get paid ten times what I would earn in Armelia, the health care here is great, and the city is lovely.”

The king broke into a small smile and leaned back against his chair and waved for me to leave.

I bowed once again and turned to leave but something wasn’t right. I felt a chill down my spine the moment I turned my back to the king, his statement made me feel like I had a gun to the back of my head. He was unto me.

I shut the door behind and made my way towards my room, but I still felt eyes on me this time from everywhere—I was surrounded but why? I feigned ignorance when I caught the reflection of a shadow dash past me from behind and the situation became all too clear. I reached the door to my room but walked past it and walked up the stairs to the roof of the castle and the moment my feet stepped out the door I felt the barrel of a gun against my temple.

Unfazed, I looked at the man in black beside me and cocked my head. “Care to explain why the king’s guards would be tailing a servant, much less why is one pointing a gun at my head.”

“Who are you?”

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“Pardon?”

“Who are you?”

“I am the king's servant and—”

The man pulled the safety off his gun and cleared his throat. “I’ll ask you again, who are you and why are you here?”

“You seem to have some notion in your head so do tell me. Who am I?” I pushed the barrel of the gun away from my temple gently and cocked my head to one side when the gun fired, the bullet zipped past my ear.

“Do you think I’m messing around here punk?”

“Forty-Five,”

“Uhn?” I watched the man’s left brow lift from behind his mask.

“Forty-Five, that’s how many men who have their eyes on me right now. Five of them are armed with sniper rifles and have me surrounded on the five towers around the castle, behind that door,” I pointed to the door at the far end of the roof, the door that led to the other side of the castle from here. “Ten men with assault rifles are waiting on standby for you to click the silent alarm remote behind you have on the thumb of your gloves. Behind me is another set of ten men with the same assault rifle, all guns pointed at me from behind the door and ready to tear me apart with bullets and the other twenty are scattered all over the castle’s surrounding, blocking the exits.”

The man’s eyes widened in shock and pulled the trigger of his gun, but it only clicked without any release. I chuckled and took a step back from him, held out my closed fist to him and slowly opened them and the bullets from his pistol rained on the floor. He reacted quickly and reached for the magazine to his left but felt nothing. He looked up at me tossing his magazine in the air and catching it.

“We’ve been compromised! Kill this bastard!” The man yelled at the top of his voice, and I took three steps back from my position when a shower of bullets tore through the door at my side and shattered it into splinters. The instant they stopped I cocked my head and two bullets flying from opposite directions—must have been the handiwork of the snipers—at my head clashed and left a dull ringing in my ears but I shook it off the moment the soldiers flooded in from both side and opened fire at me.

I ducked and dashed forward into the shower of bullets narrowly dodging them until I grabbed the barrel of the rifle closest to me, the man in front of me stopped startled for a minute and I slipped out a tactical dagger from under my sleeve and shoved it right into his throat, pulling the pistol from his utility belt I slid under the opening in this formation and got up to my feet with a swift turn I released the pistol from safety and shot seven men in the back of their skulls.

“That makes eight,” I muttered under my breath as I cocked my head and a bullet from the sniper behind me zipped past me and hit the man charging at me. “Nine”

A few of them abandoned their gun and pulled knives from their utility belt and charged at me. I took a step sideways as the first one drew closer and swiped his knife at me and caught his arm and bent it in the opposite until I heard his elbow snap and his entire arm fall back, slacked, I caught the knife before it dropped to the floor and rammed it into his temple and tossed his body aside and I was met in the middle of a coordinated attack from two other man wielding tactical knives.

The moment they drew closer I caught both their wrists and squeezed hard until they could no longer hold on to the knives properly and bent their hands back.

I heard someone pull out a gun and looked up to see three men pointing their guns at me, I grabbed the two men in front of me by their necks and rammed them into each other, serving as a shield as the armed men opened fire at me, I tossed the bullet ridden and bloodied bodies at them and charged at the man in the middle and kicked his gun into the air and with a spin I lunged a kick at his gut that sent him flying. The other two men at my side turned abruptly and opened fire but I ducked before they could pull the trigger and their bullets hit then square in their foreheads.

I heard a metallic clack coming in my direction and a dark round object rolled to my feet. I cocked my head and then I heard it click. A small explosive.

“Shit!”

I bounced to my feet and recoiled but I was caught in the blast, my vision clouded over by the smoke the bomb had released and I felt sharp pain, bits of shrapnel dug into the back of my hand, I hissed as I brushed them off.

This was my best uniform

My ear rang from the explosive—I was surprised they hadn’t burst—and my vision blurred slightly, awash by vertigo, I was unable to dodge the bullet that tore through the cloud of smoke and sunk deep into my left shoulder but I snapped back to my senses and charged forward as soon as the second bullet was fired and closed in on the figure behind the smoke screen and pulled one hand over his face before smashing his head into the concrete rooftop and I heard another shot ring out from behind me, the bullet had fired straight into my thigh.

Something wasn’t right here!

My reaction time was slower…. I looked down at the man I pinned down only then did I notice the gas mask he wore.

The smoke from the bomb was laced with poison.

I pulled a gun from the man I pinned down and turned around to shoot the person standing behind me in the forehead.

The smoke cleared up and the next thing I knew I was surrounded with men in black pointing their guns at me. I was too slow in taking them out reinforcement arrived.

I felt dizzy and my eyelids felt heavier. I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore and the gun in my hand felt slacked from my fingers when I heard a clap from behind the men surrounding me, followed by a laugh. The person drew closer and broke through the crowd, my eyes widened in shock at the person standing in front of me.

Golden blonde hair, dragon tattoo running up from his shoulder to his left eye, all dressed in black and a smirk on his face. He pulled out a pistol from his utility belt and pointed it at me.

“You… it was you…” I managed to let out before my throat started to ache.

It all made sense now…

“Goodnight Faceless,”

His words were accompanied by the sound of his gun firing and in that instant my vision went black.

In the end even the messengers of the god of death can’t escape him.

                                    ***

Born and bred under the philosophies of the god of death, idolised and worshipped his name and yet you couldn’t escape his grasp. He truly is ruthless wouldn’t you say?

W-who said that…. where am I? Why is it so dark.

“Oh, my goodness, isn’t he just adorable!”

“I know! He’s so cute I might burst into tears!”

“Me too!”

I heard the voices of a man and woman conversate around me with excitement in their voices.

I felt…. Smaller than I was, what’s going on? Why can’t I see and who were these people giggling with so much cheer.

Ouch! I felt a pinch on my face and felt my eyelids, flutter open and a burst of light flooded my vision, and it was soon clouded over by two faces staring down at me. A beautiful blonde-haired woman and a shabby looking young man. They stared at me with so much glee is made a shiver run down my spine. Something was wrong…… why did they look so much bigger than me. I was bound by comfortable restraints, was I captured by the enemy? But I remember dying. I didn’t feel any of the injuries I sustained the night before. This was weird.

“Gha….” What the hell? I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by the voice of a baby. What sort of enemy would bring a baby to an interrogation session?

“Look darling! He spoke. That was so adorable!” The man said to the woman with tears streaming down his eyes

“I KNOW! He’s so cute!”

Listen here lady, I don’t care if you torture me. I will never betray my sect! I said and struggled, trashing around in the full body restrains.

“Whaaaa………!” The baby started crying…. Wait a minute…….

The woman gasped and they both looked terrified.

“He’s crying! What do we do?!” the woman said and reached out towards me. None of this feels right.

I watched the lady pick me up with so much ease and I fell silent. The baby stopped crying at that point. I was cradled in her arms, face smothered into her breasts. I turned my head away from her to see the reflection of my face on a silver plate hanging on the wall and I fell silent. Looking back at me was a child. I was the baby.

What the hell is going on here?