Tales of the Old World Demon Lord
Chapter 42 – For whom you fight for now
[Eternum Calendar 1972]
With a face seething red with anger and disappointment, the first prince, Leon stormed cantankerously out of the ‘secret’ conference with the fraudulent baron. Shutting the door loudly behind him he tried to ensure that both his father and the baron understood the extent of his ire. So absorbed within his own anguish he did not pay any heed to the cautious servants who bowed nervously as he passed by.
“Prince Leon, has the meeting ended so soon? I do not see the Tetrarch with you however…’
Lost in his thought, before even Leon himself had even realized it, he had already returned back to the stables where he had left his mount. Spotting his approach was one of his attending knights who stood to greet him with a formal salute.
Due to the secretive nature of this visit only a handful of people were even aware it was happening. Thus in order to keep it that way they also had to limit the amount of bodyguards they brought along with them. That being said the guards that they did bring were no ordinary knights either, but an elite unit known as the [Praetorian Knights]. They were the best of the best with each member having an impressive resume of grand accomplishments and history behind their belts. Some were legendary, top tier Adventurers while others were gallant war heroes.
“Nicholai…”
Leon spoke out the name of his guard as he sighed as the shame of what he had just done finally getting to him. He hung his head low and tried to cover his paling face with his hands but the truth could not escape his attendant’s notice.
“Aha, so milord has let his emotions get the better of him once again. Well, that was something that should have already been expected, we are talking about milord after all, aha~”
The attendant who casually disregarded the vast difference in status between himself and his lord was also Leon’s personal knight and a close confidante. A bespectacled knight by the name of [Nicholai], who was rather scrawny and feeble looking for a man who was supposed to have been a member of an elite unit of warriors. He had a clumsy and disheveled hair which, along with his large round glasses, obscured half of his face, his arms were also slender and looked like it barely had enough power to carry its own weight. His fragile figure was only spared from looking like a skeleton by his left shoulder cape and overall bulky and decorated clothing.
From a small first glance anyone would have the thought that this person was extremely ill-fitted for combat purposes and indeed that was the truth. In fact, it was the master, who was supposed to be the target of his protection that was the obviously more capable combatant. Since this was the case the reason he was initially chosen was not for his combat potential but rather for his intellect.
Instead of outright protecting his master with proper combat skills, he was the type to ensure that such dangerous opportunities never presented itself before the first prince. By moving behind the scenes and planning everything beforehand he was able to manipulate most situations to suit his master’s advantage.
“Just what exactly do you think you’ve understood? Stop making that face, it really wasn’t my fault this time.”
Leon tried to justify his actions until now yet the act of his avoiding direct eye contact was all that was needed for Nicholai to continue his condescending nod.
“I see, I see, so it wasn’t milord’s fault this time… I see.”
“Like I said it wasn’t! Also, stop calling me by my formal title, I don’t need there to be needless distance between you and I; you’re supposed to be my confidante so just continue calling me ‘Leon’ like you did when we were kids.”
To the first prince’s request Nicholai smiled brightly as he answered.
“Of course, milord.”
“You… ugh, whatever, anyway let’s pack and return to the main castle before I start losing my mind.”
“Eh? But what about the Tetrarch? Should we not be waiting for him to finish with his business so we can all return together?”
“Just forget about him; it looks like he means to be busy for quite a while so I’m going back to the main castle before him. Besides, it’d cause a massive uproar if both of us were gone from the main estate for too long.”
“Hmm, I suppose that’s also true, then the other Praetorian Knights will stay here and return with the Tetrarch, while I’ll leave first with you.”
…
“Hmm? Hey, what’s going on at the entrance?”
As the two were packing up their equipments for the plan to return to the main castle they noticed a small gallery gathering by the town’s entrance. With curiosity getting the better of them they decided to immediately investigate what the problem was. Yet upon arriving at the scene of the crime it was actually a lot worse than what they were initially anticipating.
A young woman in bloodied and torn clothes, evident by the horrific trail of blood behind her she had dragged herself quite a distance to seek medical attention. Responding to her distress the some of the villagers tried to heal her with their rudimentary healing magic but it was just not enough.
Slowly the woman lifted her head and met the eyes of the first prince. With tears and desperation coiling onto her face she whispered to him in a painfully feeble voice.
“P- please… help… I don’t… want to die…”
However, just as Leon was about to help her up and take her to the cleric he was pushed aside by Nicholai. What the young woman received was not help or medical assistance; it was in fact quite the opposite.
The chilling and distressing sound of a metal blade scrapping its scabbard, a cold and emotionless swing that emphasized murder encompassed by the notion of protection. The thin but well designed sword that had been attached to Nicholai's waist had been unsealed and with an emotionless slash it cleaved neatly through the supple skin of the young woman's. Her lifeless body flopped onto the ground, unmoving, as the very dirt beneath her was dyed in the color that once sustained her.
It was so very sudden that no one in the vicinity even knew how to even react to it. However, the feelings of terror finally seeped deep into the minds of the villagers as they shouted in distress; they then took a few steps back in fear. It would have taken only a moment of rational thought to understand that they weren’t going to be cut down next. Alas they were too scared and only continued to observe the situation from a distance.
“Wha… Have you lost your mind?! What the hell did you just do that for?! Nicholai!”
It was the first prince who truly reacted first; enraged, Leon grabbed Nicholai by his collar and shouted to his face. His eyes reflected disbelief that his closest friend had just slain an innocent woman right in front of him for seemingly no apparent reason. With half a mind to beat him down he yet held himself back because he knew that Nicholai was not the kind of person to just do this kind of thing without a proper reason.
Leon repeated his question in a softer voice while relinquishing some of the strength in his hand that was apprehending his friend.
“Why…?”
“Because it was suspicious.”
“… Suspicious?”
“Yes, do you not think so as well? The harassment on our borders from the South Tetrarchy has been rather precise in how they hit us. In only a few short months they’ve managed to decimate several villages, almost as if they have a solid knowledge of the geography and location of the West Tetrarchy. However that shouldn't be the case since the map of our country is a close guarded secret.”
There was indeed a small possibility that the map was leaked however Nicholai did not believe that it was. Since it was such a crucial data the West Tetrarchy has been exceedingly careful with it, otherwise the nation itself could collapse. There was no way that any country was incompetent enough to not grasp the significance of this, and it was because that the West Tetrarchy did that they were able to survive for so long.
While the first prince agreed that this fact was rather suspicious he didn’t understand what that had to do with the situation at hand.
“So?! What does that have anything to do with why you just struck down that innocent and defenseless woman?!”
“Like I said, this is part of their plan; to let a straggler escape in order to track them down to their next target village. If it’s a citizen that’s lived around this area for a long time then they’re sure to know the location of the nearest village.”
“Still! That's no reason to kill her off now; if she's made her way to this village then that means the enemy already knows this location, so killing her here would make no difference! We should be the ones protecting them, not killing them!”
“Even if it was unknowingly, to lead the enemy onto your own countrymen's doorsteps, is that not at a level worthy of treason?”
Nicholai replied coldly as he pushed up his glasses.
“You, you think everyone thinks on the same level as you?! Not everyone is a genius like you; these people are ordinary civilians that just wanted to live!”
Leon pushed back as he gripped onto Nicholai's collar even tightly than before. Yet despite his initially scrawny appearance, Nicholai was able to undo Leon's grip easily and freed himself. Dusting his clothes he met the gaze of his prince and continued with his explanation.
“Milord, you've always given me the freedom to act and speak as I pleased with you so I have thus done so. However it is my mistake to not have given you my full intentions beforehand, for that I apologize. Then allow me to explain to you my second, more important, reason for slaying this woman.”
Stolen novel; please report.
"Second reason?"
“Ineed, you see I've previously sent some of the knights under my command to do a little investigation on the sites that were attacked. In doing so we've managed to dig up some interesting findings. It's that those attacks weren't done by simple brigands or soldiers of the enemy nation but there were signs of massive carnage. Almost as though a horde of monsters ran amok in the village, however the most surprising thing was that there were no corpses left behind.”
“There were no corpses? Why?”
“Who knows, perhaps the enemy thought to use them for some kind of ritual or perhaps…”
Interrupted by an enraged growl, Nicholai and Leon turned to see the source, only to find the corpse of the woman stumbling slowly towards them. Jaggered golden crystals protruding from her wounds, soulless dead eyes, drooling as she staggered clumsily.
"Well, that answers that question."
Leon spoke as he reached for the sword on his hilt.
…
“[Tch, all of these computers are broken.]”
Deep within the heart of the earth, the sole survivor of the USSC underground base, Nemesis had been searching for clues as to what had happened since the time she had been put on Hydrostasis. Yet her search had proven to be quite difficult as she was unable to access any of the data base as all the computers had degraded beyond use from age and a lack of maintenance.
Another problem that had impeded her from early on was the fact that she didn’t have any mechanical implants that would have otherwise allowed her to interface easily with the holographic console. She had to use the archaic method of manipulating a physical mouse to open documents and such. This unnecessary step only added more time than it should have but there were no other options than to do this, thus she struggled on.
“[In the first place who are the bastards that put me into Hydrostasis? Or rather, why didn't they just kill me instead of going through all of that trouble?]”
If the purpose of putting Nemesis into Hydrostasis was to remove her then it would have been faster to kill her. Since they had enough strength to force her into that situation it was a reasonable assumption that they could indeed kill her, however they didn't. Following that logic, it was very likely that the goal then was not to remove her completely but to seal her for the time being. In other words whoever put her into that situation wasn't necessarily an enemy, thinking this helped somewhat alleviate the clouded mood she got from having consider a possible traitor amongst the Echelon members.
Since complete stasis was an impossible feat even with the level of technology achieved by Sovereign's world the second best thing was to slow down aging to such a degree where it could be perceived as permanently stopped. It was 'Testament' who had proposed the idea of [Hydrostasis]; specifically it was a technique that siphoned a person's life in order to prolong them in an artificially static state.
Spending a year of a person's life could artificially prolong them in stasis for up to 20 ~ 30 years. That being said it was a completely different story if the subject had already undergone the [Human Immortalization Project], in that case it was theoretically possible to be put under stasis indefinitely.
“[Could it be that they wanted to stall me out for this long? Tch, I don't even know how long it was that I was in stasis so I can't get a definite answer. Still, by the looks of this place... well it's probably over a few decades to say the least... but why?]”
Nemesis paced around the room trying each and every intact computer she could find but even among the ones that did technically function, most of their data had been corrupted. She continued her vain search a long time, to the point that she lost count of the hours fleeting away from her. However none of that mattered to her; after having become immortal the concept of a mortal, fleeting time had become so foreign.
‘Time’ was precious because it was finite, however when it turns infinite a lot of the perspective of value are lost. Seconds, minutes, hours and days all seemed relatively the same to her. To her conscious mind it had only been a few years since she even became immortal but she was already starting to feel the burdens of it. She could finally understand why some people would call such a grand gift a ‘curse’.
On the other hand, it was specifically because she had lost so much of her perspective of time that she was able to work through untold hours without any complaints. Hours and days may have passed but to her it was all the same as she scrolled through computer after computer, trying to find one that would give her some answers. At the end of her long search she was given a sliver of hope for her tedious struggle.
Archived in the deepest recesses of the USSC’s databank, there was a single video log that had survived the thrashing of time. Nemesis’s heart started to pound as she found herself unable to move her hands further due to the anticipation. She didn’t even know if the speakers on these computers were functional anymore but she still needed to try. Her breathing intensified as she felt the beating of her own heart while manipulating the cursor over to the application containing the video log.
She double clicked to open them. The moment she did so the entire screen turned dark. She didn’t know how to react to this; the misery of her own heart sank into the darkness just as the monitor did. These computers were so old that it wouldn’t have been a surprising development if they really did break down and turn off at random.
However her worry quickly turned around into attention as something happened to the black screen.
“[Ahaha~ I got you, didn’t I?]”
The video recording had started to play, or rather it had been doing so this entire time and was only made to appear as though it broken down. Nemesis’s eyes widened as she saw the laughing figure on the screen. Long black hair, pale complexion, bags under his eyes, serene blue eyes, and an overall sadistic presence… ‘This type of prank, that playful and annoying voice…’
“[Testament.]”
It was not a voice that she could have so easily forgotten, especially not after having the luxury to hear it so many damn times that it ascended into a new dimension of annoyance. Yet now, hearing this nostalgic taunting laugh that transcended through time put her uneasy mind to peace. The corners of her mouth involuntarily curved up to form a soft smile as she thought, ‘this way of doing things, it really is just like him… Testament.’
Other than Sovereign who she had mostly shared a professional relationship with, it was Testament that she could truly have considered her first ‘real’ friend. She wasn’t sure exactly why but a single tear rolled down the side of her face amidst her soft smile. The truth may have been that an extraordinary amount of time had passed since she went to sleep, but to her conscious mind it had only been a few days since she last saw Testament in the flesh.
She could still envision his sadistic but friendly smile. She would always be the first one that he would come to show what kind of sick experiments he’s been doing. Despite his personality and exceedingly vile reputation, to her, he was an overall pleasant person to be around.
The fact that she couldn’t ever meet him again was starting to ache at heart.
“[Ah~ well, Nemesis, if you’re watching this message then it means that you’ve recovered from Hydrostasis. Your body must have undergone quite a bit of change since the last time you were conscious. The reason for this is because Hydrostasis deteriorates your body during your sleep, for most people this means that they age, but because you’re an immortal your telomeres have been extended infinitely. So since you can’t age forward you’ve conversely aged backwards. Either way, I’m sure your current form is quite a lot weaker than it was previously.]”
Nemesis stared down at her child-sized body.
“[So that’s why?]”
“[I mean, it is a shame that I can’t be there to taunt you but I can imagine your immature, pint-sized body hopelessly flopping about the base. It is quite an amusing thought to envision; the dichotomy between your status as an elite soldier and child is too great~]”
Nemesis sighed.
“[Testament… you really never change.]”
“[Now then, as I’m sure you’re already aware but the world you know no longer exists. In fact it has probably changed beyond even your own recognition. Which is why Dr. Testament is here to help you along with your journey into the new world~]”
After speaking those words the playful smile disappeared completely off of Testament’s face. His overall town and aura changed as he continued.
“[Still, even if it’s like this I’m glad that you’re okay. I don’t really know what kind of place the future is but I can imagine, after all I’m a person with an abundance of imagination… Nemesis, in the end Sovereign was right. That guy is always right. From the start his mission was never to bring out the potential of humanity, rather it was to hold back the darkness of it. So when the floodgates holding back humanity’s arrogance was opened everything was swept away. The USSC, the Upper Echelon, civilization as you knew it… everything. We’re just broken remnants of a time that no one probably even remembers, but undoubtedly we were here.] “
Testament paused once more. Taking a deep breath he faced the camera and as though his glares were jumping through time and space itself she felt its weight.
“[Nemesis, if you have ever considered me as your friend then there’s one thing I would like you to do.]”