[Darkness]
Uh? My eyes are closed, and I can't see anything but the sounds of a bass growing louder and louder. As I open my eyes to look around, I see nothing but a void of Darkness and red. There's a deep hole in the ground calling for me, calling my name loud and clear, but it's not my new one.
"Cristopher," "Cris," "We need you," "Cristopher," {Distorted laughter} {Nonsense whispers} {Babies crying}
I look toward the hole just so I can get a little peak, and suddenly, the noises all stop as I see nothing but a void of pure Darkness. The void looks dangerous and threatening, but I can somehow feel it's not all bad; it feels like it would actually be a cozy place for me; it calls for me.
Another second later, I woke up, randomly hitting my head against the bedboard.
Ugh, my entire body feels like it's been run over by a hoard of bulls or something; I can't believe I'm still alive. Not only does my body hurt, but there's also something very wrong with my body and my powers. I've lost almost all of it; somehow, I'm back down to level 1 without explanation.
I know it's weird to complain about the levels I gained so quickly, but my concern is whether I can even get those levels back. What if I'm powerless for the rest of volume three? That would suck! Especially when a demon king is running rampantly trying to invade human territory.
How do I know about this little bit of information, you ask? Well, it's not like I'm a complete moron, so I've been paying attention to whatever the maids say whenever they talk between themselves and, bit by bit, have pieced together some intel.
I don't know much based on little bits, but I do know that our house is basically demon territory now, like the entire witch forest is under the rule of the demon king by now, which sucks! I mean, this whole situation sucks; the church is such a horrible institution when it does stuff like this.
What does the church have to do with the invasion of the demon king? Well, they're pretty much the sole reason why the demon king even had the balls to show up in the first place. According to the maids, if the church had never attacked and killed the Witch Queen, then the entire situation wouldn't be in play right now.
Not only did those idiots kill the Witch Queen but also the elf patriarch, which left the door wide open for the demon king; no wonder they took advantage! I get that they probably also planned on taking out the demon king after killing the elf patriarch, but apparently, someone finally put an end to that overpowered's guys rampage.
You know exactly who I'm talking about, right? That guy who utterly destroyed the Witch Queen, someone who seemed to be one hundred times stronger than me in that fight against Lord Auri. I'm guessing the only reason my power managed to surprise him at all is because my magic disobeys the laws of natural magic.
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It's been a while, but I still carry hope with me; I wish there were something I could do to bring back our home, or well, more like my mother's home and Veronica's home. I wasn't a citizen of the witch nation for very long, so I personally never felt anything when I lost it, but I bet Vera does.
I bet there are lots of people who were born and raised in that forest, and now their home is just gone, taken over by some demons. If only I were more robust and more on point than I could! UGH! Gosh, it makes me so mad to be this useless; I must find a way to control myself and learn magic myself without the help of anyone, as the Witch Queen said.
There are also these weird dreams I've been having about a hole in the floor filled with nothing but a dark substance that somehow feels like it belongs to me like it should be part of me, like it's missing me, calling for me, begging me to find it so it can merge with my body, I wonder what that is all about.
Perhaps if I could somehow get back to the Witch Queen's office and look at her belongings, I could find something useful, but that's too far-fetched. I have a better shot at trying to find the Queen's crown than getting through the demon king's army that quickly, and unless I have complete control of my power, that idea would be suicide.
{Knock Knock}
"Who is it?" I ask as the maid slowly cracks the door open.
"It's just me, my lady; I've got you some beef stew with vegetables and a brownie for dessert." Answers the maid, who makes me happy. I'll never say no to a hot meal, that's for sure.
"I thought you'd forgotten; I'm starving; please, please let me at it." Okay, I know I said not to be a brat, but I'm not joking about this part; I really am starving. Why would I even go into deep thought voluntarily if it wasn't to distract me from starvation?
"I'm sorry, my lady, but the cooks weren't exactly happy about your request, so I had to prepare your food myself." Hearing her only makes me feel like an absolute asshole, so I now start apologizing to her.
"I'm sorry you had to endure that; please sit down with me for a bit, and let's eat together; how does that sound?"
"Lady Yoimiya, I really shouldn't. You're way above me to share a meal with me." Responds the shy maid as she places the tray of food over my legs once I sit up in bed.
"Don't say that; I'm just a small-town girl too, nothing to be ashamed of. Come one, sit down, let's have a chat." The maid looked so nervous all of a sudden, like I'd asked her to jump off a cliff or something, but I was just trying to be nice, regardless. I got myself too deep now, so there was no turning back now.
"If you say so, my Lady," says the maid as she finally sits down next to my bed in a little chair.
"Please, just call me Yoimiya; I really don't like it when people call me 'My lady.' It makes me feel old, you know?" This wasn't a lie either; honestly, calling a kid 'my lady' feels very strange. I really don't like it that much, and I bet it gets annoying for the staff, too.
"Okay, and uh. What did you want to talk about?" Asks a timid maid who is slowly becoming redder by the second.
"How about what happened to my friend and Lord Auri? Do you know anything about them?"
"I, I do. Lord Auri is fine, but that other girl is, uh. I don't know how to say it, she is fine but they've got weird black marks all over their body."