“Where am I?” Suspended in a world full of flashing lights, a number of rectangular screens floated around, showing events very familiar to me. “Are these...”

“These are your memories, Hiiro.” A sound coming a woman resounded throughout the place, speaking with a seductive voice. “Hello, Hiiro~” Suddenly, a silhouette of a girl appeared in front of me, slowly gaining its color and form. It was Lucie.

As we toured the place, she explained what was happening. A person’s dreams also contained their own memories. This is the reason why people sometimes have dreams about their past. Using Lucie’s ability to tap into these dreams, she could use my memories to ascertain if I was telling the truth.

We stopped in front of a particular screen, showing a recent memory of before I died, after I confessed to Lily. “Let’s go inside, Hiiro~,” she chuckled. As she touched it with her hands, the screen sucked us inside. Just after entering, we saw a man standing while looking at his hands forming a fist; it was the me of the past. “Hoho,” Lucie giggled. “You’re actually quite handsome in your human form.”

As the man shouted, the place was suddenly filled with blinding lights mixed with a deafening sound coming from the sky. It was the same plane that killed me, or so I thought. Mere seconds before it crashed into him, he suddenly vanished into thin air; Lucie and I soon followed. The two of us were brought in a forest.

“Wait, a minute. The plane did not crash into me?”

We observed the man as he panicked, running all around the place. “Hiiro, you’re kinda funny here,” she chuckled. Covering my eyes with my hands, I was too embarrassed to look at myself. “Let’s go, Hiiro. He, or you, are going somewhere.”

We followed the man until we reached a village. “No way,” I spoke in denial of what I saw. The two of us were standing right in front of the Village of the Necromancers. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion coming from inside. Curios, the man entered the village. In the middle, there was woman wearing a robe, casting elemental magic and necromancy left and right.

“That girl is Lady Marina, Emily’s mother,” Lucie spoke in a serious tone. Looking around, I couldn't believe everything that was happening. Dead bodies of necromancers were scattered all over place, there were also those who were still alive helping the injured. “It seems Lady Marina is buying time for them to escape.”

Emily’s mother was fighting, alone with humans wearing military uniforms which seemed to be a modernized design of German clothing used last world war II on earth; they carried firearms of high caliber. There were also three tanks simultaneously firing at her, however, Emily’s mother blocked it all with barrier magic. But the tanks and the soldiers were not the only ones there. A weapon not existing in the reality of my world was hovering above the tanks. It looked like a mechanized exoskeleton covering the limbs of the pilot. Strange metal-like objects were also floating behind it. The body of the pilot seemed vulnerable at first, having only a suit as protection, but when Emily’s mother tried to attack it with a spell, some sort of shield dispersed the magic like it was nothing.

“W-what is that?” Lucie stuttered, looking at the mecha with her eyes opened wide. “H-Hiiro. Do humans in your world have that kind of weapon? Please, explain to me what is that,” she shouted, pointing at the weapon.

“Sh*t. I-I don’t want to die.” The human me fell on his butt; trembling, he dashed towards the forests. Lucie wanted to look at the weapon more, but we had no choice but to follow my other self; the image was disappearing. It was a scene from my memory after all; we could only observe the things that I once saw. He was running while looking down at full speed. “Sh*t. Sh*t. Sh*t. Sh*t.” The scenario he just saw, with the addition of the eerie atmosphere of the forest, just made his fear worse. Until he bumped into a bear-like monster, pouncing him to death.

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After that, we returned to the real world. “That’s… That’s how I died?”

“Lucie, tell me what you saw.” It was Dullahan who commanded Lucie sitting on his throne with his head placed on his lap. He was looking at her who seemed to be dumbfounded.

“Your Highness,” Lucie spoke while looking down. “We need to start preparing for an upcoming war.”

After that, Lucie explained everything. How I was innocent, and was telling the truth; what happened in the village; and the strange weapon that we encountered. She was shouting as she hastily talked.

“Please, Your Highness. If we don’t prepare now, everyone will die,” Lucie begged.

“I’m sorry, Lucie,” Dullahan apologized, looking at her. “But with little evidence we can’t just decide on this. What if those were not from the Human Kingdom, but just a bunch of terrorist?”

“But… Your Highness. They already summoned...” Before Lucie finished her sentence, Dullahan shouted at her.

“We can’t go to war!” Shocked by Dullahan’s sudden change of tone, everyone looked at him. Silence filled every corners of the room. “We have too little information about the Human Kingdom and their military power. I don’t want to repeat what happened in the past. It would only cause more bloodshed and sadness. You should know this, Lucie, since you’re the one who experienced it the most.” There was a bit of silence before Dullahan continued. “Don’t worry, I will raise this concern to the Demon Council on our upcoming meeting next week. Until then, we can only gather for more data.”

“Yes… Your Highness.” After she bowed in front of Dullahan, Lucie went out with a look of disappointment in her eyes. Dullahan then commanded the guards to leave.

Dullahan sighed, with her two hands clasped together as her body bends forward. “You may not know this, Hiiro, but among my three generals, Lucie hates humans the most,” Dullahan spoke, slowly.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Based on what he said, in the last war, the Human Kingdom attacked and killed the entire Dreizen clan; Lucie was the sole survivor. Maybe she want a war to start so she can finally have her revenge. All this time she was just holding herself, hiding her real emotions in a gleeful facade. The scene we saw in my memories might had destroyed the illusion she planted on herself. I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for her to help a human like Emily; or me, a former one. But why would she do that, I wonder?

“Hiiro,” Dullahan called out to me. “Do you know what was the last weapon you saw in your memories?”

“I… I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

After that, I described the current weaponry of earth. That mecha flying above those tanks were not present in our reality, but rather in the fictional world of anime. But, I couldn’t properly explain what is anime. Though, he seemed to get it when I compared it to a ‘novel’.

“Hiiro,” Dullahan looked at me. “Please return here tomorrow with Emily and Aria, we need to plan our raid on Dr. Albrecht’s lab, and to decide on Emily’s punishment for breaking a taboo.”

“I’m… joining the attack?”

“Yes,” he answered. “We want the knowledge you possess about the weapons from your world. It may be different from what’s here, but we might still need you regardless. Also, before you go back to your room, please promise me. ‘Protect Emily with your life’. She’s very important to us.”

“I promise, Your Highness.” After our conversation, I went out of the room. Opening the door, I saw Lucie standing in front of me. “Lucie-san?”

“So you heard the truth,” she spoke, with a serious look. Her flirty personality was gone, as if I was talking to a different person.

“I’m really sorry,” I apologized as I bowed; I couldn’t look at her.

“Why are you apologizing?” she asked. “You're not even from this world.”

“Even so, I was still once a human. I’m also apologizing on Emily’s behalf.”

There was a bit of silence. “Lift your head, Hiiro,” she said as she touched my shoulders. “It’s okay. After days of watching you and Emily, you made me realize that there are still good humans out there. Also, I should be the one apologizing instead.” She bowed. “I’m sorry for tricking the three of you.”

“No, Lucie-san. For everything that you’ve done for us, thank you.”

“But, I never really helped you,” she denied.

“Yes, you did. Our conversation before I talked to Aria in the recovery room, it helped me voiced what I needed to tell her. And today, even though there’s a possibility of me being a spy, you still told me you hoped we’re still allies. Even though... even though you have a grudge on humans you still helped us.”

“That… That’s not true, Hiiro. I helped you because the King gave a royal order to me,” she replied. “I’m just following him since it’s something that nobody should ever disobey.”

“Royal order? To help me?”

No, considering what Dullahan just said, is it for Emily?

“Lucie-san, please tell me. Who is really Emily?”

“I can’t answer that one.” she replied. “I’m forbidden to tell you anything regarding that. But, I have a feeling that you’ll know it eventually.” She turned her back, and waved her hands as she walked away. “Good bye, Hiiro <3.” Speaking with a seductive voice, was it her real emotions? Or just another facade? I don’t know. But there’s one thing that I’m sure of. I’m glad I met her. After that, I went to our room.

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As I entered, I saw Emily and Aria sitting on top of the bed. Aria noticed, and walk towards me. “I’ll leave you two for now,” she whispered, and went outside.

“Ahm… Emily... I...” But, I couldn't speak what I want to say. With her eyes swelling red, Emily stood, and hug me.

“Hiiro.” Crying, her embrace became tighter. “What am I going to do now? I… I can’t reanimate mother.”

“No! There’s still hope,” I replied as I hugged her back. “Remember what Dullahan said, someone tried to reanimate a necromancer by altering the spell.” Holding her shoulders, I distanced myself so I could see her eyes. “Emily, even if there’s just less than one percent chance of attaining your goal, I will still follow you. Even if you lose all of your hopes, I’ll be there for you. And if you lose all of your reason to live, I will ran to you and be that reason. I’ll stay by your side forever.” There was a bit of silence until I noticed her blushing; I then let go of her and turned around. “I… I’m sorry. I just… It’s just the words came out and I couldn't control myself. ”

“Hiiro, thank you,” she spoke. I tried to look at her but she placed her hands on my shoulders stopping me. “Don’t look!” She shouted. “P-please, don't look.”

“Emily, let’s start from the beginning. Let’s look for your mother’s remains together.”

“Yes,” she replied.

After that, we stayed in that position in silence for a few minutes, until Aria finally came in.

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The next morning, our group together with Dullahan’s officers had a meeting in the throne room. Robyn was not present that time since she was still at the village, but Dullahan said that he would inform her when she return. The raid on Dr. Albrecht’s lab will be conducted in a month. Our primary goal is gather as much information as possible from the inside: about Dr. Albrecht’s research, the Shadow Purgatory and the Human Kingdom; then destroy the lab after. There will be two teams consisting of six soldiers each. We need to have as little soldier as possible since the enemies might blow our cover if there’s too many. Lucie and Aria will lead Team A; they will be the lookout and will act as backup if ever something bad happens. The strategy is to use Aria’s mind reading ability to scout the guards and Lucie’s memory reading to visualize the map of the lab. Aria will then pass that information to the soldiers inside via telepathy. Team B will be headed by me and Robyn. Robyn will use her enhanced senses so we could easily infiltrate the inside. However, there is one problem. And that is the Demon Kingdom’s lack of knowledge on human technology. This is why I am needed for this operation. As for Emily...

“As punishment for breaking a taboo, you will be forbidden to join this raid,” Dullahan announced.

She had no choice but to agree. But, I guess it’s okay. If we think about it, the punishment is very light compared the the taboo she broke.

Who is really Emilly? And what is her purpose for the Demon Kingdom?

After the meeting, Emily and Aria returned to our room, while I asked for permission to go to the library. Based on what I saw on my memories, necromancy and elemental magic do not seem to affect the mecha. And if my theory is correct, then it should be the same for other kinds of magic or even curses. I need to be stronger. I need to create a new type of magic that will work against that monster. Then I thought of something crazy. Whatever material that machine is made of, it is still a machine. Meaning, it should have a computer to control or regulate itself.

If computers does not exist in the Demon Kingdom, then I just have to create one. I will hack and destroy those monsters. 

This is my new goal.