The Midnight Leave: What It Means to Be Human
Tác giả:© WebNovel
Chương 1: CHAPTER 1
“Where there is order, there is chaos.”
These seemingly cryptic words are a description of one of the many “Endless Cycles” that make up the world. These Endless Cycles have been called by many different names and have been defined by many different perspectives, but no matter what one chooses to call them or how one chooses to define them, they are what form the natural order of the world. The true nature of the world is usually misunderstood, as those who attempt to define the natural order have an influenced perspective.
However, those with a higher level of understanding could realize how the Endless Cycles operate; they are systems of equilibrium. In other words, the natural order was based on keeping the world in balance as much as possible. Therefore, there are those who benefit from this system, as well as those who suffer from it, and some may argue that the latter should have the choice or ability to adjust the system, or else destroy it. Of course, the system cannot be dealt with so easily, and any who dared to try were usually met with a dreadful fate. In the end, most decide to surrender to the fate that was dealt to them, rather than even attempt to defy it.
Still, there are those rare cases where one succeeds in going against the natural order, though the results of such actions are usually never desired. When one decides to fight against the Endless Cycles of the world, they become an enemy of the world; once someone is in that position, what other ending could possibly await them?
Although, there was an individual that differed from the rest; rather than choosing to be the world’s enemy, the choice was already made at the very time of his birth. Before he could even understand his own true nature, let alone the world’s, he was already considered an existence who threatened the world. Therefore, he was cursed by the people he lived amongst, as they continued calling him the same thing over and over: a “Monster.”
#
In an age when castles still stood tall and Monarchs ruled over all existing countries, an omen spread across the world like wildfire. The omen originated from one country in particular: the infamous Demkil Kingdom. During the time the country was founded, the world was engulfed in the flames of war, and it could be said that Demkil put an end to all warfare; at least, warfare between Humans.
The Demkil Kingdom was established around the same time that Humankind had made a disturbing discovery: the existence of creatures with powers and abilities that shouldn’t logically exist in the world they knew. At first, these creatures were nothing more than characters in stories meant to scare children into obeying the words of their elders. The elders, even most of the children in fact, didn’t actually believe that such beings existed. Yet they did, and they happened to originate from the very lands where the Demkil Kingdom was founded. These creatures that existed outside of Nature’s laws were known as the Supernatural, but as Humankind began their violent interactions with these creatures on a constant basis, the Supernatural were eventually dubbed simply as “Monsters.”
At first, they existed in small numbers, and incidents involving them were extremely rare, and most Humans lived their entire lives without encountering a single Monster. However, the rise of the Demkil Kingdom caused a drastic change, as Supernatural incidents increased at an alarming rate. Yet, as if to counterbalance that, the Demkil Kingdom specialized in handling the Supernatural and their ridiculous powers. The knights of Demkil were trained to be “Slayers,” who would specifically hunt down the Monsters or resolve incidents caused by them, and were considered the highest class of knight, their authority equal to nobility.
The widespread belief of Demkil was that Humankind was meant to be the most powerful race, since Humans had the most potential of all living creatures, and the Supernatural were nothing more than invaders of their world, which wasn’t entirely false. Eventually, the prior conflicts between other countries waned as the threat of the Supernatural became more known, and warfare between Humans had inadvertently ceased after the once hidden Demkil Kingdom was finally discovered by the rest of the world.
With that, Monsters were considered the enemies of the world, which Humankind had to unite to fight against. Incidentally, soon after Humans stopped pointing their weapons at each other, an Oracle suddenly arrived at Demkil, requesting to speak with the Founder and First King regarding an urgent matter. The Oracle was allowed an audience with the King, and he shared the prophecy that would change Demkil at its core:
“One day, a child will be born into this world, but that child will bring ruin to Demkil, and the world along with it. If this child is allowed to mature and reach its true form, the ‘Hour of Ragnarök’ shall approach us all.”
Such an omen caused the reversal of Demkil’s initial influence, and the countries that were once at each other’s throats pointed blades only at Demkil, ironically. Of course, the Founder of Demkil argued against the prophecy from the start, calling into question its validity. However, as a result of a certain event that was omitted from Demkil’s history, the First King himself was suspected of being a Monster, sending the Founding Father to his death as a consequence.
That became the starting point; using the First King’s very existence as proof of the Oracle’s divination, every person of Demkil, regardless of age or condition, were required to endure a series of harsh tests to prove their Humanity. This bred more hatred towards the Supernatural, producing Slayers just for the sake of killing any and all Monsters, without exception.
About half a millennium later, Demkil had established many ways of dealing with the Supernatural. At some point after the Third King’s reign, killing the Monsters was no longer sufficient; as time progressed, the Monsters became more diverse, and eventually, Demkil encountered Monsters that couldn’t be killed through conventional methods. Until they discovered new ways to kill them, they would subjugate the Supernatural, forcing them to endure harsh labor, have them fight each other for entertainment, and even use them for experimentation.
#
“Alright, line up!”
Upon the orders of one of the Slayers, a group of prisoners all chained together, all suspected of being Monsters, were gathered in front of a wealthy man’s establishment, who would be taking one or more of them as workers. Only a handful of Slayers were present among all of the knights escorting the prisoners, but they were vigilant enough to notice and prevent any attempt at escape, for if they saw the slightest suspicious movement, they took it as an opportunity to mercilessly beat down the prisoners. The Demkil Emblem, which displayed a Human-shaped figure holding a blade that was pierced into a Nonhuman-shaped figure that lied on the ground defeated, was displayed somewhere on each of the knights' armors, whether it be on the shoulder, chest, or back; the Slayers even had the crest emblazoned on their weapons or shields.
The prisoners all differed in appearance; some had obvious inhuman traits, such as claws, fangs, an abnormal amount of hair or scales covering their body, and even their bestial eyes. However, out of the twenty who were rounded up by the Slayers, only nine of them should have been considered Supernatural on appearance alone. The other eleven at least seemed Human, some of them with the appearance of young adults, and others who were elderly. However, the physical appearance meant nothing, for even the Founder of Demkil appeared Human. The fact that all twenty prisoners failed the tests was enough to prove that they weren’t Human, at least not any longer.
“Alright, stand up straight, Monsters! The buyer... I mean, employer will be coming soon, and he’ll want a good look at each of you.”
As the shackled were demanded to stand, most of them obeyed willingly as they had already abandoned any hopes or thoughts of escaping. However, there were two in particular who disobeyed the command: one was a woman, wrapped up in a cloak to hide most of the details of her physical appearance, even wearing a hood low over her face, and the other was a young boy in ragged clothing, covered in dirt as if he had been either playing in the mud, or kicked around in it. The child’s lead-colored hair was disheveled, and his dark skin had multiple scars, showing that he had likely been tortured as well. His face was expressionless, almost as if he no longer had any emotions, and his grey-colored eyes were fixed to the ground. The Slayer noticed both of them, calling them out while walking towards the child first.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe I wasn’t being clear. I’ll put it to you in a way that any Monster would be able to understand.”
The Slayer kicked the child down onto the ground, stomping on his head as he lied there. The cloaked woman looked over to the child, and though her face was mostly hidden in the shadow cast by her hood, it was easy to tell that she was disgusted by the sight as she bit her lip in vexation. As the Slayer continued kicking and stomping the child, while yelling out chastising words, the woman resisted the urge to jump up and try to save him. Then, the Slayer said something within his scolding that piqued her interest.
“Do you really think you have the luxury to act defiantly?! I guess I have to remind you that you are no longer ‘Axis Demkil!’ You’re the Monster known as ‘Nexus’ now, which means that Demkil has disowned you! No one will be saving you, and though we can’t exactly kill you, don’t think we can’t make every second of your existence into a living hell! Trust you me, we most certainly can. Got it?!”
The Slayer paused his abuse, taking a step back and away from the child. In that moment, the boy once named Axis Demkil looked up at the Slayer, with his grey eyes, once emotionless, now glaring furiously. The Slayer was visibly shaken, preparing to draw his sword if the boy made one wrong move. The cloaked woman forced herself to simply watch, as the child talked back to the Slayer as if he was a grown man himself.
“‘No one will be saving me,’ huh? No shit. I just figured that since I was rejected, I didn’t have to cooperate with you scum. Go ahead and do your worst, shitbag.”
Out of anger, the Slayer kicked Axis again, before forcefully pulling him up to his feet by the collar of his shirt. Yet, Axis kept taunting the Slayer.
“Also, isn’t it ‘believe you me?’ How did a dumbass like you become a Slayer, anyway?”
“That’s quite a tongue you have. Maybe I should cut it off.”
Another Slayer called out in a warning tone, trying to deescalate the situation before it became too graphic, though at the same time, poking fun at the previous Slayer.
“Careful, ‘Mustard.’ The employer will be mad if one of his workers are injured before they even start working.”
“This freaky little bastard will eventually heal from any damage we do to him, anyway! Also, my name is Mestard! I can’t get any fucking respect around here!”
“Quit your bitching. The employer is on his way out now.”
“Why couldn’t you have led with that?!”
As people started coming out of the mansion-like building, the Slayers moved to form defensive positions on each side of the line of prisoners to stand guard. The people that exited the building, who seemed to be employees of the man who owned the company, also formed lines by the door, bowing their heads like butlers as their boss stepped out. He was a portly man of short stature, with a thick beard covering the bottom half of his face while the top of his head had no hair at all. He wore overly extravagant clothing with various colors that didn’t blend well with each other, and one could tell by the way he walked that he believed himself to be the most important of Demkil’s patrons.
To no one’s surprise, the first prisoner the boss’s dark brown eyes fell upon was Axis; it seemed obvious that he was expecting Axis to be among the prisoners, as his excitement at confirming Axis’s presence was evident. Once again, Axis glared back defiantly, but that only seemed to thrill the boss even more as he introduced himself energetically.
“Hello everyone! You may know of me already, but in case you don’t, my name is Dalton Swinger, and I am the current Head of the Swinger Company. The Swinger Company has been aiding Demkil since the Third King’s reign about four hundred years ago, and even today, we have just as strong, if not an even stronger relationship with the current Twelfth King. In other words, I, along with the rest of my family, are considered Nobles. That is why we have our own territory within Demkil where we can conduct our business without hassle.”
Though Swinger was speaking to all of the prisoners, he kept his eyes on Axis the entire time. Eventually, he addressed Axis directly, since there were others taking glances towards the infamous child even among the prisoners.
“Due to a deal we have made with Demkil, those of you we select will be under our care from this day onward and will no longer be considered prisoners. In fact, one of you should be rejoicing already, as you have been selected to join our workforce by default. Congratulations, Axis… Sorry, I meant Nexus. Unfortunately, though your status will be changed, your name shall not. Even so, be glad! You will be a criminal no longer, after today!”
Though his words seemed enticing to some of the other prisoners, Axis was no fool; Swinger’s fixed gaze betrayed his true intentions: he planned to experiment on Axis, along with any others that interested him. The Swinger Company was mainly known for researching the Supernatural and developing new weapons and gear to deal with them. They started off as a basic smithery, but after they started their business in Demkil, some would say that their techniques had drastically improved, while also becoming steadily more inhumane. Within such a company, there was no telling what atrocities occurred there, and with the King’s backing, no one would ever know the truth.
Axis simply overheard this information from the Slayers conversing with each other, while escorting the prisoners to that very destination. There’s very little merit in hearsay, but Dalton Swinger’s eyes hinted the truth.
“The eyes are windows to the soul…”
Axis remembered his mother saying those words before, when she argued with the King. She said that “one’s true character can be glimpsed just through eye contact,” but for some reason, Axis couldn’t remember the context of the conversation, or anything beyond that phrase for that matter. Still, he understood what the words themselves meant, as he could see Dalton for the sick bastard he was pretending not to be, just from his gaze.
“As for the rest of you…”
Turning away from Axis for the first time, Dalton briefly browsed over the other prisoners, showing no apparent interest in any of them. Then, Swinger’s eyes landed on the cloaked woman, who was watching Axis earlier, still crouched low to the ground. He stared at her blankly for a moment, his expression slowly changing into that of annoyance. The longer he stared, the more confused the Slayers seemed, as they glanced at each other wondering what the problem was. Eventually, Dalton spoke out to them directly.
“Excuse me, but am I really the only one who has realized that this one is the only prisoner not standing? How am I supposed to get a good look at a potential subject for my… Ahem, what I meant to say was, how am I supposed to get a good look at a potential worker for my company, with her crouched down like that? Also, who was the idiot that allowed her to keep this cloak?! How can you be capable of killing or capturing Monsters, if you’re so maladroit with the simplest tasks?!”
One of the knights just happened to comment a bit too loudly.
“‘Maladroit?’ Someone’s been to a library…”
Just as quickly as Dalton turned towards him, Mestard approached to rabbit punch him in the back of the head. The Slayer was wearing a helmet, so the damage was minimal, but he still groaned in pain exaggeratedly. Meanwhile, Mestard apologized for the Slayer’s behavior while mocking him.
“Please forgive Ketsu, sir. He’s slow when it comes to reading the atmosphere, but I’ll make sure he catches up. Right, ‘Ketchup?’”
“That won’t stick, ‘Mustard.’”
“HUH?!”
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry. Won’t happen again, Boss.”
Swinger shook his head, sighing in exasperation.
“Just… Take her cloak away. I’ll be taking both her and Axis. You can just kill the rest, or take them back to their cages, or whatever.”
The Slayers affirmed their orders in chorus and rushed over to the woman to force her on her feet and remove her cloak. However, that seemed to be the moment she was waiting for…
“As if I’ll just let you do as you please, you sick bastard!”
As the knights approached her, “something” began to shine underneath her, and then her body suddenly vanished, leaving only the cloak and broken restraints in her place.
“Where the hell did she go?! Was that Magic just now?! How did she break out of the Orichalcum chains?!”
Dalton, both amazed and alarmed at the sudden disappearance, rambled as his eyes widened while the wind began to stir. Suddenly, one of the knights yelped in shock as they were suddenly thrown to the ground. As the others looked over, they saw the woman who had just disappeared crouching over the knight, as she picked up the sword that was dropped during the grapple. Then, she placed her hand on the chest plate of the knight’s armor, and as her hand began to glow while in contact with the armor, she let out a quick shout while pushing down with only the slightest effort.
Then, there was another sudden burst of wind, and the armor protecting the knight was blown apart.
The sudden blast shocked the knight, but surprisingly caused minimal damage; as a result of the broken pieces of armor flying about so violently, the knight suffered only from light cuts across her body. The knight looked up as the woman above her stood up, no longer hidden by her cloak; she was a dark-skinned woman with long, flowing white hair and violet-colored eyes, but the most important detail were her pointed ears, revealing her true form to the other knights of Demkil.
“Oh shit! It’s an Elf!”
“More specifically, it’s a Dark Elf! I thought we already wiped them all out!”
“You just had to specify the ‘Dark’ part, huh?”
“What?! That’s an important detail to point out, isn’t it?!”
As the knights chattered, the Elf raised the sword she had swiped from the knight below, preparing to thrust through her as a finishing blow. However, she hesitated; firstly, the fear in the eyes of the knight gave her pause, but then she took a quick glance at Axis, who was watching along with the other prisoners. She quickly changed her mind, delivering a kick to the knight’s head rather than stabbing her with her own blade. With that, the others finally realized that the situation had escalated.
“Son of a bitch! Surround her! Don’t let her escape or get near the other prisoners!”
The knights rushed towards her, foregoing capture and intending to kill her instead. However, she was incredibly swift and skilled; one of the knights aimed for her legs to hinder her movements, but she hopped just as the blade was swung just to stomp it to the ground. As the knight was stuck, the Dark Elf pushed the knight with her free hand, and once again, a destructive burst of wind obliterated the knight’s armor while sending him flying backwards. Another knight attempted to swing at her from behind, but without even turning to face him, she thrust a kick behind her, landing a blow on the knight’s torso, destroying his armor with a burst of wind as well.
Grabbing another dropped sword so she could have a blade for each hand, she deflected the blades of two knights that attacked in tandem. Though they attempted to overwhelm her, she defended against each strike flawlessly; her movements made it seem like she was dancing more than fighting. Then, with another burst of wind, she suddenly appeared behind them, and though they turned to retaliate, she countered and knocked them out with only a single strike each. Axis could only stare in amazement as the Elf, on her own, was taking out the knights as if they were garbage. However, the Slayers eventually entered the fray after observing her techniques.
They approached slowly to surround her, guarding themselves as they sized her up. In turn, she took a defensive position while awaiting their next move. Any careless moves would have meant death or defeat for either the Dark Elf or the Slayers, but the former seemed to have no intention of making the first move. As the distance between them gradually closed, the tension in the atmosphere gradually increased, and even the few prisoners that wanted to use the chance to free themselves stopped to watch, wondering what the outcome would be.
The moment they were finally within striking range of each other, the Slayer directly in front of her swung towards the Elf’s neck. She parried the attack, just for the Slayer to her right to thrust her blade towards the Elf's chest. Unlike the guards, she wore no armor to protect herself, and instead wore the same type of shoddy clothing the other prisoners were wearing; that should have meant that she was at a disadvantage, but unlike the Slayers who wore the armor, she had more freedom in her movement, which allowed her to twist her body to avoid the blade.
She planned to counterattack by thrusting her own sword through one of the gaps of the Slayer’s armor to deal a fatal wound, but she once again changed her mind at the last minute, turning her move into an accidental feint as the Slayer awkwardly fell over in attempts to avoid it. With that, their formation fell apart, allowing the Dark Elf an escape from their encirclement. Since surrounding her failed, the Slayers attempted to blitz her as she attempted to flee. Of course, rather than fleeing, her goal was to line them up so she could strike them all at once.
Spinning her body and swinging her leg to perform a roundhouse kick, another burst of wind was unleashed to blow away the pursuing Slayers. As Axis watched her, he noticed something about the way the Elf was fighting; every time there was an opportunity for a fatal strike, she hesitated to finish off her enemies, and each time, she took a quick glance at Axis. Despite the Slayers’ hostile intentions, her finishers ended up being nonlethal. It seemed contradictory at first, but after considering her actions, Axis realized that she was holding back due to his own presence.
How foolish…
As one who had been treated as a Monster practically his whole life, he couldn’t help but have that thought. After all, if she wanted vengeance against Demkil, there was no need to restrain herself from killing them, regardless of any witnesses; however, the longer Axis watched the Dark Elf, the more he realized that vengeance wasn’t her intention.
In that case, what exactly is her goal? It couldn’t be…
“What the hell are you guys doing?! If you’re unable to defeat her yourselves, then call for reinforcements! One of my servants, sound the bell! Hurry!”
Disregarding Swinger’s slip of the tongue in addressing his “employees,” they did as commanded and rushed towards the nearest bell tower. Meanwhile, as if turning into a gale herself, the Elf rushed to free as many of the prisoners as she could before the warning was signaled. Much sooner than expected, the bell warning of an incident rung loud enough to be heard even from the Demkil’s main citadel, which was quite a long distance since the castle was near the center of the lands owned by Demkil, and the location of Swinger’s territory was to the west, near the boundary line. Even so, the cavalries patrolling closest would arrive soon, and the Elf knew that she didn’t have enough time to free everyone.
“Damn it…”
Cursing under her breath, the Dark Elf took one last look at Axis, her dark violet eyes meeting his pale grey eyes, before starting to retreat as more Slayers appeared. Within another gust of wind, she passed by him without freeing him from his chains. However, Axis definitely noticed her say something as she made her escape through the nearest forest; she couldn’t make it audible and give herself away, but she still wanted to ensure that her intentions were clear. Therefore, she said the words without using her voice…
“I’ll return for you.”
Of course, Axis was not inspired by those words; in fact, he felt the exact opposite about the idea.
Don’t even bother… You’ll just get yourself killed.
The moment he turned away from the forest that the Dark Elf disappeared into, another Slayer whose name hadn’t been revealed approached to kick him down, holding him to the ground while calling out to Mestard.
“Damn it, the bitch escaped and took over half of the prisoners with her! The King is going to chew us out for this fuck-up…”
In turn, Mestard expressed his condolences to Dalton while bowing his head.
“Our apologies, sir. We fell for her ruse. We’ll hunt her down though, even if it takes all day and night.”
Swinger seemed unimpressed by Mestard’s integrity and redirected his attention towards Axis.
“It doesn’t matter. The package I was supposed to receive is still here, after all. Bring it inside, and make sure it doesn’t make a fuss.”
As ordered, the Slayer restraining Axis struck him in the back of the head to knock him out. As his consciousness began to fade, there was one last thought that passed through his mind…
This world would have probably been better off, if I was never born into it…
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