I screamed and cried for mercy...

~

Once I'd had my fun with the demon's dead body and my adrenaline subsided, I took his clothes, because mine were torn up and way tight on me. I guess Donthaar is just scummy enough a place to charge royal money for a peasant tailorship.

Not that money and classes are of any concern to me now.

He had a belt with some slots on it and a sheath, a thick shirt and pants, and a black cloak he wore over it all, which I'd riddled with holes in my manic state. Not that I'm complaining. I liked the look of it.

All that mattered was that it was much warmer than I am now. I don't know why I'm suddenly feeling so cold but I'm not enjoying it. Normally my body fends off those frigid temperatures. Perks of being a race of people that evolved to be the perfect slaves.

The last thing I had to do was get everything out of my pockets and say goodbye to the gorgeous outfit Sage bought for me. Sorry I went and ruined it. Not that it matters though, considering it was you and your friends that caused it to be ruined in the first place.

Apparently I still had the box that the twins gave me with the phoenix in it. Which, speaking of, was still asleep in my pocket even after that whole fight and with me picking it up to move it into my new cloak.

I opened the box again to find a piece of paper at the bottom of it.

It was the letter I never opened.

I folded it neatly and put it to the side. I'll read it after I find a reasonable place to sleep... and some food.

All that fighting and... you know... almost dying - it got me a bit on the hungry side. And the thirsty side.

As my adrenaline wore off, the clear vision i had during our fight stayed for the most part. Perhaps it just forced my eyes to adjust?

For the first time, I could really see myself and my surroundings without a sword coming at me, and what I found made my heart skip a few beats.

I wasn't wrong about being taller. I was much taller than before. My skin was almost entirely white and my arms and fingers looked bony and thin, and my nails were longer than they should be, ending in almost a point.

What the ffff....

Where before I saw ginger hair just past my eyes, I could see only a glint of a tuft of my hair this time, and it was a bright silver-platinum - almost white too.

I stripped first my dress to put on the new clothes, which for the most part were luckily my size. I was used to my body having scars all over it, but now they were all gone. My skin was all silky smooth. A little too smooth to be honest.

Next came my bottom half, and I was struck quite abruptly by two perhaps equally startling realizations:

First, my plumbing swapped pipes. Granted I'll now have had both systems in my lifetimes, so it's not like it's anything new. Which then led me to realize my breasts were again completely flat and my face felt a little sharper and I had an Adam's apple again.

The demon.

The one who choked me out...

He was the old me. Vincent. I'm him.

The second thing I realized was something else that wasn't there before, at the bottom of my back.

It was thin, long, and black, and as soon as my pants were off, that area was measures more comfortable. It was... a tail. A long tail that had an extremely smooth texture about it and ended in a spade shape. The spade was hard yet slightly flexible, and when I was feeling it, I sliced my finger open on it at the slightest touch.

"Ow," I said out loud, sucking on my finger and immediately regretting it because my blood kinda tasted good.

My brain was all out of wack as I felt a whole new body part. The nerves were there; I could feel my fingers on my new tail, but at the same time it was foreign and unfamiliar. To have feeling in a place that didn't exist before.

I had no idea how to move it around though. It was like trying to see out of my elbow. I just couldn't make the connection with the muscles. At this point I'm not even sure if it does move.

At any rate, I finished getting dressed. Sadly the demon's boots were too big (yet my old ones were too small on me now). By no means my style, nor fitting perfectly, but it was better than nothing.

I was too busy gawking at the tail coming out of me to really care, anyways.

My body was still aching and the place where the demon sliced me open was stinging and barely sealed, especially after all the moving around I did to get my new clothes on. At least I'm somewhat warm now.

My next biggest concern was that the demon had two other people with him before we fought. But, where there's smoke, there's fire, and I'm freezing.

Right now I need knowledge and a way out. As much as the idea of being around a bunch of people sickens me - even more so now than before - I've gotta go in their direction. Plus I don't wanna stick around here much longer in case those other two people got more to come here.

I can only assume my time is limited before a lot of demons arrive. I barely escaped this one with my life, but I might not be so lucky in the future.

Gonna have to figure out some way to train more.

Either way, I swiped the letter and the demon's sword and set off, the veins along the cave growing thicker and brighter as I went.

~

Sage

Finally my headache was gone. Not that it mattered because I was damn near giving myself another one.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Remember what I said about glorified cannon fodder? Yeah. That's where I am now.

I've been in a perpetual state of numb since that night. What I saw in the mirror lives in my mind like a fat roommate that hasn't worked a job in their life and doesn't pay a lick of rent.

Whatever that man did to me on the way to the mountains... it changed me somehow.

Well, I think I get it. All the commotion in the castle and insults thrown at me after that made it plain and clear. I was "Scarred." The same way Lydia was.

They say you get a Scar after committing a mortal sin, like murder. Which drilled a hole in my stomach then ripped it in half, because that was totally right.

The Scar is a marker of someone who will spend a long time in the pits of hell. And I guess that's fitting for me considering what I've done.

I'd spent days hiding away from everyone. From even Fezege. From my peers. From myself. All that time alone I spent running through my mind about what I should have done. The game of shoulda-woulda-coulda. Shoulda told Lydia the truth. Woulda protected her. Coulda had her beside me through all of this.

That guilt gave me headache after headache and nausea spell after nausea spell.

A few nights ago, while I was curled up in a ball, a snot-covered, tear-soaked mess on the floor, a group of soldiers forced their way into my room and threw me into a straw bag like I was some kind of animal.

Well, I kind of looked it now.

I screamed and thrashed, but nobody wanted to help me. I could hear as people moved out of the way while the soldiers carried this squirming bag down the halls. Some even congratulated them. Others spoke in Elfish, which I didn't know. And that scared me a little.

I didn't have the heart to be mad. I was scared. A weak pile of nothing in a dark bag being carried far away to some unknown destination by strange, strong men, who otherwise would soon have been my underlings had none of this happened.

At some point, the thought hit like a brick in the face that this was probably how both Vincent and Lydia felt.

All their lives.

And I did nothing to help Vincent, and I was the reason Lydia died.

That was the fate I deserved, but not the one I was going to get anytime soon.

After a few hours at the back of a wagon, I was taken out of the bag at sunrise, chained up, and thrown to the ground.

One soldier gave a command in Elfish - which again, I didn't understand. I was on my hands and knees and facing the wagon, so I had no way to prepare for the paddle that cracked on my back when I didn't do anything. I yelped out as my back felt like I'd belly flopped into a pool from 40 feet high.

This repeated a few times, until another solider said something in English, but his accent was so unbelievably thick that it might as well have just been another language.

This of course got me more lashings.

Eventually I got the order. It was just to stand up. All of that for a command so simple.

I had to quickly learn to discern what was being said through super thick accents as I was led to what was basically a stable. This was my home now.

We were on an army base near the northern end of the border of the Wood Elves' forest. The demon activity and the Wood Elves' strange behavior with not doing anything about the demons has Donthaar and other kingdoms in a bit of a scare. So we were creating defenses first, and as my time here grew longer, I overheard talks of a possible attack.

But I was the lowest of the low. The only reason I was left alive and not executed on the spot was because apparently Fezege is revered as one of the greatest fighters of the country, and I was her prized student. So my skills in combat (which I don't really feel like I have) can be used in this defense. Or assault. Whichever it ends up being.

I was treated like a dog. Depending on who was in charge of me and a handful of others like me (none of whom seemed to even be able to speak), I could expect to sometimes be chained to the wall for the majority of the day. Some soldiers were a little "nicer" and wouldn't have me in chains, but everyone fed me from an old and crusty plate on the floor.

It was cold at night and I didn't really have a blanket. My body seemed to help with it a little bit, but nowhere near enough when the temps went below freezing. One of the chained-up people died one night. Nobody did anything except get rid of her body, and even that they didn't do until a few days later when the stench got bad enough that they could smell it.

I was scared for a while. A little mad.

How can you treat people like this?

But I remembered that I'd realized the true nature of Donthaar after they ordered me to kill one of my best friends. Someone I loved in their past life.

I also realized that in the end I made this bed for myself. And I'm probably going to be laying in it for a long, long time.

So at some point I became numb. They brought me out for various tests of my skill and prowess in magic and swordsmanship, just to toss me back in this dump later like I'm some animal.

Getting this Scar changed me. My skin became darker, and tall, pointed cat ears grew from the top of my head. And a tail.

It was embarrassing at first, but I just had to accept it and move on with it. Facing my classmates while looking like this wasn't that fun either. Luckily getting kidnapped out of what I thought was the safety of my room made it so I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

In my free time, which I had a lot of, I tried to pick up some of the language. I knew a handful of words and felt like I knew a few more. Definitely not enough to form a sentence or anything, but it was fun to do.

It was kind of a fun little guessing game. Someone would say something and if I thought I knew what it was, then whoever was speaking or being spoken to did something that confirmed it, I cheered a little inside.

One night, the commander of the base had me woken up and brought to his office, though somewhat more gently.

I'd only seen him around once when I was coming back from one of the tests the soldiers gave me and he was giving some speech.

I was sat down in a cozy office with a lit fireplace. Documents and letters and maps were strewn on a desk and a large meeting table, which had no occupants.

The base commander, a somewhat plump man with a moustache, greeted me with a warm smile and good English. A small girl about my age stood behind him with a large plate to a chest as though she were a maid, but she was dressed in a slightly modified version of the army's uniform for mages.

"I'll keep this short and simple," he said in an old and grumbly, yet friendly voice. "You're with me from now on. This here is Carla; she'll help train you with everything you need to know. I'll explain more tomorrow, but for now get cleaned up and a real rest."

I'm not sure why he waited until now to do this, but at the same time I definitely can't complain. All that time sleeping in hay has humbled me.

The man gave a nod and a smile and left. The girl, who after standing still so I could look at her for a moment, was exactly like me. Her skin was dark and she too had cat-like ears and a tail.

I cheered inside. There was finally someone like me. I felt a little less alone.

This Carla girl set the plate she was carrying down on an empty space on the desk, then said a short phrase in Elfish and looked at me expectantly.

I gave her a doubtful look. She didn't know English.

But it doesn't matter. Knowing how things have been so far, it's pretty safe to assume I'm gonna be here with her for a long while. So I'll learn.

She realized I didn't know her language, and then her expression changed to a bit of confusion, but she smiled in understanding.

Our faces said all that needed to be said to each other. She was gonna work with me and I'd do the same for her until we could communicate.

What mattered to me was that I had a friend. I got the feeling she felt the same way too.

~

Author's Note

Welcome to Chapter 20! Wow!

The progress I'm making is insane to me and the people I'm slowly drawing in are all so awesome for sticking this far.

That means you. You're awesome. Deal with it.

So, I've done gone and started a Discord server. (Yeah yeah yet another server). If it's something you're interested in, I'll put the link below. So far there's really nobody in it, so if you join now, it might be an empty wasteland full of tumbleweeds, but I want to grow a friendly community of isekai/fantasy/Midnight Wings enthusiasts.

Perhaps complete with chapter updates, bonus content, polls and community events, nights where I read the book in a voice channel, who knows? Maybe even isekai anime news like new anime/episode drops?

If you don't know what a word of what I just said means then you can safely ignore this haha

Either way it's gonna be a fun community, so if you want to do your part and help make it awesome, then here's that link:

https://discord.gg/jKT4dRDYDc

On another note, I hope you're enjoying. Remember you're always welcome to leave a comment <3. I love reading them, plus yanno dopamine when I see new comments.

Feedback, reactions, suggestions, whatever you want to say.

Have a good day/night, whatever it may be when you're reading this, kind stranger.

-S