Chapter 20: Encounter in the night

I quickly fell asleep.

However, the comfortable feeling I had didn’t last.

I had a nightmare that night.

“Your sin… is your own existence.”

I kept hearing the voice of the ‘Millenium Ancestor’ inside my head. I couldn’t move or speak. I could only hear the voice until it changed. The voice became more human-like.

It soon became the voice of someone I knew a long time ago.

The voice of my brother.

“You’re a sinner Thomas. Why did you get another chance while I didn’t?  I was the one deserving to live another life, not you!”

The accusations of my deceased brother were like sharp knives cutting my body. I couldn’t speak, but even if I could, I wouldn’t answer.

His face appeared in front of me along with every person I ever loved in my two lives.

I finally woke up drenched in sweat.

I couldn’t sleep anymore so I stood up and left the little house.

It was the middle of the night, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know if it was a side effect of my meeting with the ancestor of the forest, but this dream seemed incredibly real.

The cold air of the night helped me clear my mind.

After a few minutes of walk inside the city, I was finally able to calm down.

“What are you doing here?”

The loud voice I heard behind me made me jump from surprise and turn my head to see who was talking to me.

It was the female elf, I fought earlier.

It was difficult to discern her face in the darkness, but some fireflies were flying along the trees illuminating her face from time to time.

She wore an angry expression. Her bow was on her left shoulder.

I looked at her beautiful face, then her bow before smiling a little.

“Do you want to have a rematch?”

I thought that she would be angry over my words, but she simply adjusted her bow on her back and replied with a calm voice.

“We aren’t allowed to fight in the city. We can only fight if there is a threat. What are you doing here on your own so late at night?”

I laughed a little hearing that.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I walked outside for a bit to cool my head.”

“Where do you sleep?”

“Inside the Queen’s house”

Her long ears twitched hearing that. Her lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. I held back my laughter as I didn’t want to tease her too much.

“You’re lying, right?”

"I’m not, you can ask the Queen if you want, but she is busy right now.”

She didn’t answer.

We stayed in front of one another without uttering a word for several seconds until I couldn’t bear it anymore.

I sighed before telling her I intended to go back to sleep.

I started walking back when I heard her soft voice.

“I will come with you.”

“Do what you want.”

We walked together towards the Queen’s house.

She probably wanted to confirm if I told her the truth.

“Are you alright?”

Her question surprised me.

“You're interested in my well-being? It’s quite surprising. I thought you hated me.”

“I don’t hate you. I was just doing my duty as one of the guards of the forest when I fought you. However, I’m not worried about you either. In fact, I’m more curious about what happened in front of the ‘Millennium Ancestor’.”

“You want to check by yourself if I’m an evil creature;”

My voice was cold.

I didn’t want to talk about what happened earlier, especially so that I could be judged again.

“No, I don’t. I think our Queen is right. It’s not up to us to judge you. I was just curious. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“Thank you. I will tell you, but not tonight, I just want to go back to sleep.”

She nodded before we continued heading together towards the Queen’s house silently.

“Have you really been kidnapped?”

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She suddenly broke the silence between us.

“Yes, I was." I answered calmly. 

“Why?”

“It's quite complicated, so let’s just say that my kidnappers wanted to use my talent for magic. I spent four years training with a subordinate before I escaped a week ago.”

“Did you kill this subordinate to escape?”

I hesitated a little before answering. The Queen already told her I was a murderer, but she probably couldn’t believe that a small child killed someone.

I could have explained to her what happened to find some excuses, but I didn’t want to.

No matter how it happened, the only thing important was the result.

“Yes, I did.”

She didn’t answer.

We continued to walk together with a heavy silence between us.

“Do you think I’m a monster because I killed them?”

“Do you feel like you did something monstrous?”

Her question made me raise an eyebrow.

I remembered the face of Amanda trapped in the ice and then my hands covered with ice crushing my grandfather’s head. The pain and the horrible sensation along with this noise of my hands hitting his defenseless head.

I knew that this sound would haunt me for the rest of my life.

“Yes, I do.” I finally answered with a quiet voice.

“Then you’re not a monster.”

“What?”

Her answer surprised me. I didn’t expect her to say something like this to me.

I looked at her and saw her serious gaze despite the darkness. Her beautiful green eyes were shining as the fireflies came near us.

“It’s only if you think that what you did doesn’t matter that you're a monster. That’s what I think. In the human world, even at peace, killing someone isn’t rare. However, that doesn't mean that it's something to be proud of. ”

She was right.

In my previous world, murder was an absolute taboo in society. Here, even if it wasn't tolerated, as long as there wasn’t any big evidence against you or if the one who died wasn’t someone too important then the authorities wouldn't think too deeply about it.

Of course, I knew that the murder of Arthur Waldemar was going to be investigated.

They will probably interrogate the coachman who fled when we started our fight. That’s why I wanted to leave as fast as possible. However, after one week in this forest, it wasn’t possible anymore.

As long as was in this forest, I thought that I didn’t have to worry about that. If I didn’t have a family, I probably would have asked the Queen to let me stay here for a while.

As I was walking in this beautiful forest, I admired once again its natural beauty. There wasn’t any noise except the ones coming from the branches moving rhythmically with the wind.

I didn’t know how much time it would take me to come back home, but I was sure it would be quite long.

According to the words of my grandfather before his death, he was planning to kidnap my sisters in six weeks. If his plan was still ongoing despite his death, I only had five remaining.

I worried about that, but there was nothing I could do even if I rushed. Moreover, I remembered he said that he didn’t have any subordinate anymore. For that reason, I still had some hopes that his plan disappeared with his death.

However, after thinking about it, I realized it probably wasn’t the truth.

After all, no matter what happened, he was still rich.

He could hire mercenaries to kidnap my sisters.

He could also have some loyal followers like Amanda.

Just thinking about it made me anxious.

I tried to calm down.

This was just useless thoughts.

The only thing I could do was to wait for the Queen to help me get out of this forest as quickly as possible.

After that, I was planning to send a letter to my parents to warn them.

“What are you thinking?”

The voice of Hiraliel brought me back to reality.

We were in front of the Queen's house.

I didn’t realize as I was lost in my thoughts.

“Thank you for coming with me. Your name is Hiraliel, isn’t it?

“Yes, it is. Yours is Sillath if I’m not wrong.”

“Yes, it is.”

I smiled at her

“Good night Hiraliel.”

“Good night Sillath.”

We finally separated.

I entered the house before lying down on the bed.

I had a small smile on my lips as I fell asleep without any nightmare this time.