Bab 20: Reminiscence
"Congratulations Tigrid!" Shouted the crowd, which caused Tigrid to raise and wave his arm after receiving his new pendant with a rare white gem embedded at its center. It indicated his new class as a mercenary.
"Captain!" Not far from where he was standing, he saw his squad with his brother, smiling at his achievement.
They were shouting and praising him, while their healer was silently staring and smiling at him. Tigrid smiled the brightest after he looked at them.
'I'm very happy for you,' the woman thought, but it was like Tigrid read her mind; he nodded the moment their eyes met.
The king walked beside Tigrid and held his arm.
"Once again, we congratulate the new and the youngest diamond class mercenary in the Kingdom of Herish!" He shouted before he raised Tigrid's arm, which caused ever-overwhelming praise from the sea of people.
"Tigrid! Tigrid! Tigrid!" The crowd yelled; their voices rang over the castle grounds.
. . . . .
Unending silence covered the destroyed tavern as soon as Zeno left. Tigrid's party slowly came alongside their captain. Their eyes were soaking wet; tears overflowed, especially after they approached Tigrid's headless body.
They mourned; overwhelming sadness enveloped their hearts, especially the healer. She felt that her world collapsed as soon as she saw the last moments of Tigrid.
One of the knights came to them and placed Tigrid's head above his neck, then bowed and left the group.
The healer moved to Tigrid's side and sat on her knees. She was crying, but she still placed her hand on his chest.
Soon enough, a blue light attached Tigrid's head to his body; the blood from his mouth disappeared along with his other injuries, but his heartbeat never returned.
The spell fixed his physical appearance, but he still remained a corpse. A body without a soul would soon decay through time.
"Why did you leave me?" The healer wailed as soon as he hugged Tigrid's left arm. Her voice was filled with sorrow.
"Why!" She cried without intending to stop.
The three men tried to comfort the woman despite their emotional state, but they soon let her lean over Tigrid's head. She caressed his face with her left hand, and a bright white light shining from her fingers shone after the sunlight struck a gem embedded in a ring.
After a few moments, her cries attracted the attention of the people who had left earlier. They returned, wanting to see the outcome of the fight, and they immediately recognized the bald man lying on the ground. They looked around and searched for the silver-haired man, but he was nowhere to be found.
The battalion commander prepared a letter regarding the result of the battle, and he didn't dare forget to include Zeno's words. Then he tasked the fastest knight in his team with bringing the report to the king.
. . . . .
Lux arrived in the town a little late; the battle was over, and he couldn't find the source of energy. Then he walked to the scene of the fight and found too many people; he didn't move closer, but he still listened to their chatterings.
"Both brothers died in the hands of a single person," he heard from somewhere in the crowds.
"Remember not to mess with him, once you see that man with a red dice," another remark entered Lux's ear, and curiosity got into him.
The presence he felt earlier was from a demon; then it turned into something he didn't know, and before it disappeared, it became similar to that of a human.
He walked further inside the town, searching for answers; the place was still busy and alive despite the commotion from earlier.
He arrived near the town's center, but still, he got no specific clues. He tried to ask the townspeople about the exact scenario that happened in the tavern, but all he got was all about a silver-haired man with a dice.
Then he looked at the sun; it was about to set, and he needed to get back to the inn, like what he told his mistress. He searched for an empty alley to levitate from there; he didn't want to attract attention before the festival started because that would foil his plans.
After he flew in the air, he found something odd on one of the roads leading to the capital.
People were walking, but they were definitely ignoring something in the middle of the way; it looked like they were moving to the side to give space to the man heading to the giant walls of the city.
He moved closer to see who was causing this strange act, then smiled broodingly over his lips upon seeing the red dice hanging from the man's ear.
"Bingo! I found you," he uttered before he leaped as silently as he could into one of the buildings, then vanished into the sea of people while his eyes were entirely focused on Zeno.
. . . . .
The silver-haired demon went to the shop that the battalion commander told him to. He bought another set of clothes and disposed of the one tainted with blood.
His mood was soured because of the color of his coat. He looked for something similar to his previous attire, but the store failed to satisfy him; instead, he chose a gray long coat with black lining. Its color had the exact same hue as his hair.
'I should have taken that off earlier before I engaged in the fight,' he thought, making his mood nastier.
Then he noticed something odd: no one was looking at him; the people's heads were low, and they even sighed with relief upon passing him; and those walking behind him, didn't dare to advance.
"They're giving me a strange feeling," he murmured.
'Should I kill them all?' Evil thoughts ate at his mind, and a smile crept out of his face, which frightened the crowd.
"I wanted to, but it was burdensome to do so," he uttered, then he looked up and stared at the sky that gave a mixture of colors, from red to orange and indigo to pale blue.
The sun was starting to set, though his destination was not that far away. He could already see the thick walls of the capital, but he wanted to take a nap after that tedious fight.
He surveyed the surroundings and looked for a place that would cater to him for the rest of the night, and maybe the man that had been watching him since the time he left the border would try to approach him.
'A vampire huh,' he thought, 'though my blood is not good for your diet.'
He changed his path and walked towards a huge, non-bearing tree that was several meters away from the center of the road.
Eyes were watching his every step; most of them were curious about his abrupt actions, changing direction all of a sudden, but Zeno ignored them all. He sat under the giant tree and rested his body against its trunk.
After that, he pulled the old locket from his coat, stared at it, and channeled a small amount of energy around its side that gave a glowing light to the flying phoenix. He tried to open its lid, but like the merchant told him, it wouldn't open.
He was not disheartened by this; instead, he smiled like he had expected this reaction, then put it back inside from where he took it, and he closed his eyes.
As soon as he let go of his thoughts, a certain memory from the past surged into his mind.
. . . . .
"Ssssshhh, keep quiet," a woman looked behind her, placed her forefinger to her lips, and uttered before she resumed walking inside an underground tunnel.
It was dark, and the extreme silence was a pain in the ears. Zeno was being pulled by the woman through his hand. They continued strolling the passage, then, after a minute, they saw light at the end of it, and from there onwards, the woman ran while still pulling Zeno.
She jumped and spun in joy after reaching the exit of the tunnel.
"Welcome to my secret paradise," she faced Zeno and raised her arm in the air.
"What is this place?" Zeno asked before he looked around.
There was a huge tree in the center with many vines hanging from its branches. From the looks of it alone, it was magically enchanted, and the space around this place was big enough to put the entire Demon King's castle inside, but there was nothing here beside the tree, the grass covering the soil and the thick layers of moss on its wall.
"Uhmnn, I don't really know, but this was definitely beneath the ground," the woman chuckled and put her hand in the trunk of the tree.
'Below ground? Then where is this light coming from?' Zeno thought then he levitated in the air and moved to the ceiling that gave radiance to the place, but before he passed the height of the tree, he was pulled down by a sudden force and his body fell to the ground, which made him surprised.
"What the!" He exclaimed.
Then the woman came to him and laughed.
"It's impossible to go up there; I've already tried several times before, yet I always fall like this," she said before she extended her hand to pull Zeno up.
"How did you discover this place?" Zeno asked after he held the woman's hand.
"I found it when I was a kid; I stumbled on a certain wall that led me to this place, then I never told anyone about it," she explained.
"Whenever I'm upset about my father, I hide here," she said, and then she hugged Zeno as soon as he stood up. Her face was buried on Zeno's chest, and she listened to every beat of his heart before she looked up to see the demon's face.
"This place is special for me, and now it's for the both of us," she said, a smile written on her lips.
Zeno hugged her back, and he placed his other hand on the woman's cheeks. It traveled down to her chin. Then he lifted it up, and he leaned in to give her a kiss.
The two of them stayed like that for several minutes before they let go of each other. They walked around the area, and Zeno saw something shining under the grass leaves.
He sat down and looked for the thing that caught his attention.
"What's that?" The woman asked upon seeing the silver object on Zeno's hand.
"A locket," Zeno answered, then stood up and showed it to the woman.
They were mesmerized by its intricate curving, which looked like the empire's insignia.
"What's it doing here?" He asked, then tried to open it but failed; he gathered all the strength he could muster but the lid didn't budge.
"Try to channel your energy," the woman beside him said.
"I already did; still no reaction," he complained while shaking his head.
"Let me do it," she said, filled with excitement, and Zeno gave her the locket.
She tried to open it with her strength, but like Zeno, it failed. Then she tried to insert some of her energy, the phoenix on it glowed, and as soon as the light disappeared, it opened.
The two of them looked inside, but it had nothing.
"I felt betrayed there," the woman said, pouting, and then she returned the locket to the man beside her.
Zeno smiled for a second, then he pulled the woman closer to him and he raised the locket above her chest. He was holding it by its black strings.
"Maybe it was empty because it's waiting for its rightful owner to place something inside," he paused for a moment. "And now it has found you," he continued after successfully putting the locket on the woman's neck.
. . . . .
Hadiah
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