Capítulo 27: Hate
"You...all this time, you were aware?!" Das angrily slams his fist on the table.
The scorched knight smiles with malevolent pleasure, enjoying Das's shock and anger like a glass of sweet wine.
"ANSWER ME!" For a moment, his voice splits into many and his eyes flash with the burning red mana building up inside of him.
"It's useless Das" Ann places a comforting hand on his shoulder and gently pulls him away "He has no tongue to speak, the fire must have turned it into ash a long time ago"
"I should turn HIM into ASH! He helped that bastard! I have to KILL him!" He looks at the grinning corpse and calls his staff that was resting on a wall to him.
"Control yourself, Das!" Ann, with an authority in her voice and pushing Das away from the table, standing between the corpse and him "It doesn't matter if he deserves death or not. He is of use to us"
"How can you say that? If he is not being controlled then everyone he has killed deserves justice!"
"Is that why you want to do this? Justice? Isn't it because of your own selfish emotions?"
"Selfish?" Offended, Das's face twists into a further rage, his grip on the staff tightening "How DARE you call a selfish emotion to want revenge!"
"Oh, so now it's revenge and not justice?" Her quick comment cachets Das by surprise "Which is it then?"
Reason seems to leak through his wrath for a moment, but soon the leak lets through the images of the fire, the haunting expressions on the burning corpses, and the head of the little girl on the pike. Her eyes looking up fall directly to his.
"You have no right to stand between me and that monster, you are as guilty of its creation as the phantom!"
"I know" She answers quickly, with a tint of remorse in her words, showing Das a vulnerability he is not used to seeing in anyone except himself "I think about it every day, but I can't do anything to change the past, so, I focus on the future. The phantom has surpassed my teachings and taught himself new things I've never seen before. If keeping this undead functional can help me to understand what has he done, I can use this knowledge to prevent a new Eversmile from happening"
She looks back at the corpse, its grin gone and it has returned to his usual moaning and angry face, its gaping mouth burning bright with the fire inside of him.
"I will not let you kill him, I NEED him. Only with it do I have a chance to grow stronger, so next time I meet my student I win the fight and bring some peace to my consciousness" She looks at Das, her eyes fierce and determined "I want to stop the phantom because I may be the only one capable. Why do YOU want to stop him?"
"Do you really need to ask me-"
"I do because if our intentions were the same we would think alike. Yet all I see is the immature reaction of a raging child"
"I'm NOT A CHILD" Das exclaims, hitting the end of his staff on the ground.
"Then don't act like one. Get hold of your emotions and think rationally"
The two stare at each other with increasing hostility on Das's part, yet he remains quiet, even if he wants to lash out at her the initial momentum of his anger has come to a halt and, if he were to do that, it would only prove her right.
The soft moaning of the corpse is the only sound that can be heard for several seconds until the metallic footstep of someone walking to the door begin to be heard, making Das turn at the door and then at Ann, realizing he has no real excuse for bringing her to that specific room out of all the options he had.
Ann finally hears the footsteps and rushes to pick up her cloak, hastily putting it on.
The door opens and Das's heart skips a beat when instead of a guard, general Edel stands still looking at the both of them. Two guards stand a couple of meters away from the general.
He looks almost like usual, except his dreadlocks are no longer tied and instead fall on his shoulders and reach his middle back, as well as a pair of square silver earrings with small rubies, hang from his ears.
Ann quickly hides her body and puts the hood on, beginning her act and acting like a scared mouse, running off to a corner and hiding in a pile of books next to one of the tables, hugging her legs and mumbling to herself.
"High General Edel" Das respectfully salutes him, somehow managing to maintain a calm tone in his voice, even if his heartbeat increases every second "What brings you here?"
Edel takes a couple of heavy footsteps forward until he stands inches away from Das, his stern look worsened to such a degree Das can only expect to be greeted by his fist in the next second, but instead, the general speaks.
"Why are you here, alone, with the insane woman?" He asks in a low, grave tone. The question sounding far more threatening than it otherwise would. The sickly sweet aroma of his breath was potent.
"I-" Das doesn't understand why would it seem wrong until he understands how this situation must look like for Edel the moment he opened that door "No! I wasn't doing anything to her! I wanted to bring her here to show her monster to see if she...remembered something!" He takes a step back "It seems the trauma has made her forget! Yes, so I thought looking at him would bring some memories back, she took off her cloak after staring at it for a while, I think she was reliving the heat of the fire" His voice shaky and eyes lock with Edel's, not because he wanted, but because it felt impossible to look anywhere else.
The general remained in silence for a moment, he then turned to Ann and walked up to her, kneeling one foot away from her.
Ann raised her head slightly, to be able to see him, and she was meet not with scorn or anger, but with a rather calm expression. He holds his right arm forward with an open palm and she accepts the invitation, grabbing it and standing up along Edel who walks her to the door, the pair of guards walking up to them.
"Take her to one of the guest rooms, tell the servants to prepare a bath and a meal for her" Edel guides Ann ahead of him and lets go of her hand, wondering for a second why was her hand so cold "Hey" he snaps his fingers in front of her, making her look at him "Do you understand me?" Ann slowly nods "If anyone does anything to you, let me know"
Ann nods once again and Edel moves his hand as if brushing off the guards, who understand the order and escort Ann out of the dungeon.
Das stands there, stunned. In all his years he had never seen such a kind and considerate side of the high general, but then again, this was also the first time he saw him drunk.
"Go back to your cage and dress nicely, we leave in an hour to the castle of Duke Louis and you..." Edel turns around and looks at Das, his stern expression back where it belongs "...will take us there"
The orders given, Edel leaves from where he came from, not allowing Das to speak, ask, or move at all, but soon he snaps out of it and walks out of the room.
As he turns to close the door behind him he sees the corpse looking at him with his fiery eyeballs, his mocking grin is back too. The all too familiar rising anger within Das knocks on the door of his mind, but no one answers back.
He closes it, the door of the dungeon.
"I have to do better" He thinks, making his way out of the dungeon.
It is a long walk and a silent one too.
His mind is busy with the thoughts of Ann's words. He felt like the anger and desire to punish those who masa
but eventually, he reaches his dusty and messy bedroom, the warm orange colors of the sunset only add to the sense of security and comfort immediately invading him.
"You took your time down there" Drachen comments, drawing Das's attention to her, resting on the hole in the wall "I know I said I would go back to the dungeon, I figured you would have everything under control" She stretches and hugs her legs "Did you got to learn something new from the corpse?"
"Nothing at all" Das replies, closing the door behind him and walking up to the wardrobe "Did you got to talk with uncle? What was it anyway?" He opens it and begins to undress.
The distant sound of the busy city can barely be heard, and Das's clothes fall heavily on the floor or the nearby chair, but Drachen's voice never joins.
Das glances at her, now only with his tunic on, and sees her resting her head on her knees, looking out the great everything that lays outside of the tower.
He opens his mouth to speak but closes it soon after only to open it again, deciding to change his question.
"It's my turn to join the visit to one of the dukes. Any idea of what should I wear? I only have plain-looking robes, wise-looking cloaks, and outright worn-looking tunics" he comments in a joking manner, even if it was true.
"It's a fancy event, you can't appear in shabby clothes. They will confuse you for a beggar and throw you out" She replies after shaking her shoulders as if laughing but without making any sound.
"The problem is I don't have anything like that" He stares at her, the air feels awkward, and it worries him a little.
"You do" Drachen answers flatly. Still not looking back at him "Inside the chest under your bed"
Das looks down at the mentioned place, frowning even if he can't see the chest thanks to the falling blanket on his bed, he doesn't like to think of what's inside there.
"Your father had an excellent taste when picking clothes for occasions like this" Drachen says moving and sitting on the edge of the window, looking and facing Das, a serious expression on her face "Will you wear it?"
"No" He turns back towards the wardrobe, opening one of the three drawers and digging his hands inside it, throwing clothes as he searched for something good enough to wear.
"I know I never treated seriously his dead. I'm an immortal being, I've seen countless friends and people I cared about pass away. So for me, his inevitable death was not so shocking...it was how he died-"
"I don't care about either thing. He is dead, nothing will change that and how he left doesn't matter"
"You never visited his grave" She leaves the window and floats closer to Das.
"Why are we talking about this? It's been weeks already!" he turns to face her.
"Das, your mother-"
"PLEASE!" His voice cracks and he looks at the floor, his black hair cascading down, his fist clenching until his knuckles are white "Not now. Not right now, I have too much, I can't THINK about those things"
Das walks to his bed and Drachen moves out of his way, he kneels and pulls out a large square wooden chest, it's dusty and looks very old.
"I hate him, Drachen" He mutters under his breath, opening the chest.
Drachen looks at him with, her eyes saddened and mouth tight shut, ears down.
"I love him" She replies softly, then, her body changes until she becomes an owl and flies out through the hole in the wall "I will visit his resting place, I need that closure. If you ever want to go there...let me know, alright?" Das doesn't respond or looks up at her "I will be back in a few days, so take care"
Drachen turns around and flies away, her body soon disappearing in the orange sky.
Then, Das sits down on the floor, his breathing is loud and he shivers with both anger and sadness.
His hand clutches his chest, it hurts, but he hates it.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
PenguinSam64
PenguinSam64 We are so complex, and so needlessly too. Sometimes if we could just say things out loud and be honest with ourselves we could be honest with everyone else and live better lives.
But we chose to turtle up and let those emotions boil until we don't even know how we feel anymore, the anger, grief, shame, and everything else mixed into a stew of ugly thoughts.
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