I'm not a saint and I never confessed myself to be one. Still, they all called me kind hearted to a fault. Is it that much of an offense to have? Killing people is a grave sin and the Gods may bear witness to my part in that. It's not an excuse but I have only done so in times of self-defense and war. I killed many people but I never murdered outright, he was my only sin on that part.

I carried the tiny girl in my arms, struggling with the wounds of my heart and body. I moved the children one by one back to the church. This time, I had noticed the symbols of the Veil on their bodies. It wasn't holy magic that afflicted them but pure evil. They weren't able to live full or meaningful lives yet, this was a cruel world for them. I felt the need for pain as a crux for my inability to save them.

I even took Helem's body back to the church while bleeding and covered in dirt. I can see the many wounds of torture inflicted on his body. He was most likely given a chance to return to the Religion of the Veil if he had brought my head. Everything seemed to be my fault and my soul mourns for it.

Finding a place I deemed acceptable I started digging. I didn't have a shovel, I was using my bare hands and anything else I could find. It was still dark but I wasn't cold, my body was burning. I was thinking about what Helem had said. Was I the only one truly ignorant of the Hero and those sinister plans? I knew who was the actual mastermind behind it all but the Hero put it into motion with the rest of them.

The image of her face came to my mind and I couldn't help but feel anger. There were many beautiful women in the Kingdom of Bareth but hers was otherworldly. Many men were infatuated with her and the Hero was no different. I acknowledge her beauty but I couldn't feel an attraction to her. Those eyes she had were dead, calculating, and expressionless.

My mind started to retrace back to a couple days prior to today.

It's been half a year since I killed the Hero in the war between the Kingdoms of Bareth and Solace. News had finally spread that the Hero of the Veil had died. The Kingdom of Bareth couldn't keep it contained any longer. Yet the specific details weren't omitted everywhere. Only a few people on the ground and many in the upper echelons truly knew what happened. The general populace had no idea that a companion of the Hero had killed him.

Information spread that his body was being returned to his home town and he would receive a hero's burial there. Even though I did what I did, I was compelled to go there. Just to pay my respects at least, he was dead and it was my fault. I didn't want to see the rest of my companions, I wouldn't be able to bear the shame.

An army was here and many people gathered to come mourn. If the military was here, it meant that the Royal family was as well. His hometown was simple but elegant. Many of the people knew and had talked to the Hero. He had told me that his hometown houses some of the friendliest people in the country. I could tell with how people greeted and interacted with me even if I was dressed incognito in my usual dark garb.

I was amazed for months how no one chased me and carried on with their lives. The Kingdom was suppressing the Hero's death beautifully until they could no longer. Now they said he had died fighting heroically in the war and it caused a cease fire between the two kingdoms. This was what began the elite patrols and search for a wanted criminal on both sides of the Kingdoms.

Nobody knew the real reason why they wanted to capture or kill me. Even the Kingdom of Solace participated in trying to hunt me down. It was because something had happened and I was labeled an enemy of humanity as a scapegoat by the upper class.

The Demon race had returned and there was a new Demon Lord.

They had taken back their stolen lands in the north. It had only been a year since we had fought and defeated the Demon Lord. Idle hands move quickly if perhaps both Kingdoms had known the Demons would come back they wouldn't have declared war on each other.

I twist the ring on my finger as I think about the Demon Lord. I move through the streets of the city and headed to the upper noble areas. This was Cassandra's hometown as well and I didn't want to fight her, she was a monster. Cassandra and the Hero were childhood friends who have stayed most of their lives together. As I approached my destination, I see her and she still looks stunning in her white armor.

I blend with the background and stay flat with the wall. I was close to my objective and I didn't want to be found out here. Cassandra and her entourage of knights had exited from the Hero's home. It was the biggest mansion in this town and had a long wide gate. There was a long road between the gate and the mansion but trees covered both sides of the road. It would be easy for me to hide in them and move toward the mansion.

Waiting for Cassandra to exit the gate, I jumped over the wall and headed to the mansion. There was a special guest here visiting and that was who I was going to meet. I could see the mansion being crawled with royal guards. With Cassandra leaving as well, she's most definitely here.

I had only been here a couple times but I knew my way around. I had been sneaking around places like this all my life. I enter the mansion through a side window and close it behind me. If I had to guess where she was, she would be in his room and that would be on the second floor.

Quietly I moved through the mansion, guiding myself around the maids and guards who moved throughout. Although it was too suspicious for me how little people I had come across inside the mansion but it wasn't out of the ordinary. The mansion was huge so you might not see the same person every day but I wouldn't count anything past her. Perhaps she already knew I would come and it was in her schemes.

I finally make it to my destination and what awaited me was two mahogany double doors. On the other side of these doors was the Hero's room and no doubt she would use it after he was gone. I open the door and let myself in as if I were invited. After ensuring no one was watching or behind me, I closed the doors and look to the center of the room.

There she was sitting on a white chair at a wide round table, drinking tea.

If anyone would see this scene right now they would think she was a part of a beautiful painting. She had a mesmerizing beauty but it would never clean the filth inside her soul. Her skinny frame and body were womanly to that of an upper-class woman. Wearing a white dress that benefited her body and her gray hair. She was not old but far from it, her hair came as a trait that belonged to the royal family. She was the first princess of the Bareth Kingdom, Princess Helen.

"Excuse me, princess," I said while taking out my blade.

She seemed to have come alive from her picture perfect painting.

"Ah Demitri, I knew you would come and Cassandra said that you wouldn't."

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She was still sipping her tea before her expressionless hazel colored eyes rested on me. I step closer and closer to her but felt some tremendous pressure. It wasn't because she was strong or some great fighter or mage. This was the bearing of royalty and someone who had an intelligence defying all expectations.

She was a schemer and only few would have known that under her beautiful façade.

Princess Helen used to have many siblings and some of which were ahead of her in the royal family line. All have died under mysterious circumstances and she is set next in line to inherit the throne. In the Kingdom's history, there has been no crown princess and she may very well be that first Queen. Her father the King has grown old and feeble minded. With the numerous deaths of his children and the turmoil the Kingdom of Bareth was under, he has become a recluse.

Princess Helen is the de-facto leader of the entire Kingdom. The Kingdom of Bareth was ruled under the King in name only. I could already guess why she hasn't taken the reigns in front of the populace yet. She was going to smear the King and the rest of her enemies. It was like a game she was playing and it used the lives of people.

"Princess Helen…"

"Oh my, Demitri, you still call me your Princess after what you've done?"

Unbridled rage builds on my face and I pointed my short sword at her.

"Relax, it was just a joke Demitri and I know you aren't going to kill me."

She had given a chuckle with the utmost calm demeanor.

"…"

I relaxed my stance and sheathed my sword, she knew I wasn't going to hurt her. I wasn't a monster, I was not like them.

"If you may?"

She gestured her tea cup and I go over to the table. She wanted me to pour her another cup of tea, I obliged. Maybe the reason why I haven't been rushed by guards yet was because of her. I needed to know things so I'll play along. She had me in the palm of her hand already.

"I had built him up splendidly you know, now I have to find another piece to move," She said after tasting her tea. "You vex me Demitri."

"You planned everything, it was all your fault!" I said.

I ball my hands into fists at the mere thought. She pampered her lips with a table cloth before giving me her cold smile.

"And?"

"We were killing people in a staged war!" I slammed my fist onto the table.

"No, we were saving people. There was a disease spreading, the famine wasn't going to stop. We had no food and the population was growing massively." She said.

"You even killed our allies and all of them only dare to oppose you!"

"I did not, they were all killed in the war." She had a devious smile on her face.

"It was all by your actions!"

"I am not the King, Demitri."

"Liar! You are the puppet master!"

The war between the Kingdom of Bareth and the Kingdom of Solace was nothing more than a mere hoax. It was an agreement by the two countries to trim the fat and purge people. It didn't matter who they were in the common folk: men, women, children, old, and young, they all died. Only nobles who opposed the princess were systematically eliminated. Elite armies moved around each other with no resistance only to face the forces of nobles they deemed disposable.

I didn't realize it until it was too late. But the Hero, he knew, and with how many of the rest of our companions. They didn't try to stop it, they only tried to justify it. We were killing people whether they were soldiers or not. All the towns, villages, and cities we supposedly "liberated" were razed not just a few days later.

How stupid of me, when I thought I was "saving" villagers from occupying enemy soldiers. Only to visit their mass graves later and see the look of despair on their faces. The horror of that war and the stench of death won't leave me. I knew I had to stop the Hero who led the purge and in my rage, I had done so.

"What I've done, was only for the Kingdom and its people." she said.

"Don't you dare say that! You nobles just didn't want to look incompetent! Both kingdoms were rotting away because of the upper class and their flatulence. Don't you dare talk about the people when you were killing them indiscriminately!"

My emotions came to the surface while she only had the look of dead eyes on her white face.

"So tell me why!?" I slam my fist on the table again.

"I'm going to make this country great again." She said.

"At the cost of other people's lives?" I said.

"So? Every country is steeped in bodies of the dead." She replied.

She had no remorse for the things she had done. She had dead eyes and it irritated me greatly. This was how the upper class saw people. Nothing but specks of dust in the wind.

She was really the dirty sheath to his dirty sword. She pointed and led him around while he did all the work. Why did he have to follow this mad princess? What a dark pair these two were together.

"My legacy would be beautiful as I take over the reins of my incompetent father and raise a glorious Kingdom." She said while putting her hands together.

"My cousin will lose his life as well and I'll unite the Kingdom of Bareth and Solace back together."

She looked genially happy now when she talked about it.

What an evil woman and she were in the position of power. She was going to let her father take the blame for all the wrong doings and sweep him under while using him as a stepping stone. The Kingdom of Berath and Solace used to be one country until it was split into two by opposing princes. Her cousin was referring to the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Solace, he had married into the position and was going to be a ladder for her legacy. Her twisted thinking and schemes! Why couldn't she use her intelligence to help the people instead of herself?

"If it weren't for those Demons in the north, my plans would have moved faster." She said.

Princess Helen looked out the window but returned her gaze back to me.

"Well, Demitri. Our time must come to an end."

She gave me another cold smile.

I felt killing intent coming behind me.

The doors of the room burst opened and Cassandra rushed to cut me with her sword. I avoided it not before suffering a wound to the head. I ran and jumped out the window, crashing to the floor outside. The guards had poured into the mansion but I had already left running for my life.

My mind returns to today and I had finished burying the dead. I offered a small prayer that they find peace in the next life. There was no peace for them in this life. I stagger back toward Dante's mansion.

I had understood one thing, there would be no peace for me in this life as well.