It’s been two days since I occupied this body. The Captain’s soul being tortured each and every moment and being disintegrated little by little. According to the Demon book the lifespan of body occupied by a demon will be reduced to eight years; but judging by the deterioration of the Captain’s soul, this body will not even last a month.

I have been impersonating the Captain since I arrived in Levylon. I was going through the books in the central library today. When I first arrived here, the librarian raised her eyebrows which led me to believe that the Captain was not much of an educated person. I was searching through the books in one of the shelves when the librarian came towards me with a book in her hand.

“Sir, this is probably the book you are searching for” the old women said in a low tone.

I took the book from her hand and looked at it. The cover said ‘Detailed accounts of Gliania’s history’. The Captain’s voice was unusually loud which didn’t set well with the librarian and I unconsciously voiced the title of the books as I was searching, hence she took it upon herself to help me find the book and send me out of the library as soon as possible. If it wasn’t for my status as a Captain of the guards, I feel that she wouldn't even have allowed me into the library in the first place.

“Is it alright to take the book outside the library” I asked her again in an unusual loud voice.

She replied yes almost immediately.

After exiting the library I was on my way to the Captain’s house when one of the guards ran upto me.

“Captain, Sir Edmurd has requested your immediate presence. He’s waiting in the de lafey inn” the guard said panting.

“I wanted to meet him ever since I came to Levylon, very well lead the way” I said to him.

I was led to a grand hotel and to one of the rooms on the upper floor. Upon entering the room I was addressed by a voice.

“My retainer told me that recently you have been loitering in the libraries rather than finding the culprit behind my father’s death” the voice came from the chair which faced the opposite direction.

“My men are looking for him. I don’t have to be personally present all the time. I am sure you will get to see him soon enough” I spoke to him in a provoking tone.

“If you know what’s best for you, you better find him soon.” he said to me threateningly.

I just snickered under my breath thinking how I was in front of him and yet he couldn’t do anything.

“What about the girl. I don’t believe you would have trouble finding her as you already have her portrait distributed among your men” he said in a firm tone.

“I have my doubts regarding that. Even if she’s alive, I don’t think she would come back. Pursuing her would be a waste of time. I think it’s better to have my men find the boy responsible for your father’s death rather wasting time on the girl” I suggested to divert the attention from Elena.

“No! you will find her and bring her to me” he turned and yelled looking at me. He then composed himself and said “I am certain that the boy made it look like he kidnapped her. I don’t believe that, it was just to divert our attention from her. She will return to her village. Don’t move your men from the village, as soon as she enters the village capture her and notify me.”

He was a lean man with sharp features. His narrow eyes were filled with intelligence. He correctly guessed that I did those things in order to divert their attention from Elena. He is a dangerous man, I have to be careful around him and deal with him as soon as possible.

“My men are still stationed in that village. I’ll do as you wish” I replied to him.

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses. You may go now.” He said to me and then turned back to his original position.

I was leaving the manor when I heard the guards gossiping among themselves.

“Did you hear that the Sir Edmurd’s marriage had been postponed and now he’s obsessed with some village girl” One of the guard said.

“I heard that a man killed his father and he took that village girl hostage while escaping. That girl was supposed to become his concubine but that man snatched her from him. Ever since then Sir Edmurd has been trying to find them.” The other guard said.

“I heard that he didn’t even set foot in Cleveton and immediately came back after hearing the news about his father’s death. He vowed not to return to Cleveton until they are found.” The third guard said lowering his voice.

The guards stopped talking among themselves when they saw me.

I was feeling a bit restless as they were after Elena, I have to take care of this Edmurd sooner than I expected. I was hoping that as a Captain I would have better prospects of finding clues to help Lisa but I now I have to make haste least the noble himself makes a visit to Elena’s village.

I was still holding the book I took from the library. I decided to go to the Captain’s house to take some rest and read the book. I didn’t visit the Captain’s house since I came to Levylon. I was afraid that people close to the Captain will become suspicious since my personality is entirely different from him. But if I stayed in the inn then people would get suspicious. I bought some food from the market; it was a little weird as the shopkeeper insisted that I didn’t have to pay him money. I was not in the mood to argue with him and started walking towards the Captain’s house.

I took the keys from my pocket, opened the door and went inside. All the lights were out. A girl sat there in the corner of the kitchen with her eyes closed. I went near her and woke her up, upon seeing me she was shocked and the backed up, seemingly afraid. I became a little uneasy, did she figure out that I was not the Captain.

“Sorry I was searching for food and fell unconscious here” She said still afraid of me.

I was relieved inside, she didn’t find out my identity. She was shocked because she was woken up abruptly.

She eyed the bag I held in my hand. I extended my hand and offered her the food.

She didn’t take it from me, instead looked at me with caution. I again voiced her to take the food. She took the bag hesitantly. I stood up, poured some water in the glass and sat in one of the chairs.

The girl stood up and ran with the bag in hand. I was confused from her action and followed after her. She went in one of the rooms. I peeked inside the room and saw that she sat on the floor feeding the bread to the two kids sitting beside her. She noticed me and stooped feeding the kids.

“Sir, they are hungrier than me. Please let them eat, I promise they will work properly. They won’t break anything again.” She pleaded desperately, tears in her eyes.

I left the room and came out of the house to buy some more food. I have more or less the most important memories of the Captain but the less important ones have faded when I took over his body. Those children must be working for the captain. I can’t believe he locked them and left them to starve.

After I bought large quantities of food, I left the store. The store owner had a sad look on his face when I stuffed my bag with a lot of food. He again told me the same thing. I got angry and handed him the money for the food. The sad look on his face vanished as I exited the store.

I went back to the house and heard the kids complaining that they were still hungry to the girl. I told them to come to the kitchen and offered food to all of them, grabbing some for myself.

The kids ate the food greedily like a hungry wolf. I didn’t look at them and concentrated on my own food. After eating the kids started cleaning the dishes while the girl started cleaning the table and packing the excess food.

I sat there quietly looking at the kids doing the work diligently. One was a boy and other a girl, they looked like twins of about ten years. After tidying up they excused themselves to go to sleep. I asked the girl to put the kids to bed and come to the Captain’s room.

I made myself to the Captain’s room and lay in the bed which was really comfortable. This was the first time I was resting on a bed such as this. It was like heaven when compared to the floor I usually slept in.

There was a knock on the door and then the girl entered the room. She stood there by the door looking in my direction. I got up and sat on the bed making room for her to sit and then asked her to sit on the bed. She didn’t move and stood in the same spot looking in my direction.

I voiced again for her to come. She slowly walked to the bed and sat there casting her eyes down on the floor. I patted her shoulder to look at me and she immediately jumped out of the bed.

“Sir, please don’t beat me. I am sorry, I will work harder, I won’t make any mistakes.” She was on the verge of crying.

This is so screwed up. Why would she even think that I called her to beat her up. What did this bastard of a Captain do to her to make her so scared all the time.

The more I act to make her comfortable the more scared she becomes. I motioned for her to be quite and listen to me after giving up on making her feel comfortable.

“I am not the Captain. The Captains’ as good as dead and I have taken his place for the time being.” I said to her blatantly.

She stood there disbelief written all over the face. It’s clear that she didn’t believe my words and thought I was playing a trick on her. Guess I have no choice but to show her.

I stood up and she backed away. I created a black energy ball in both my hands. She was shocked after seeing it and remained motionless. I closed my palms and the black ball disappeared.

“Now do you believe me? I am not Captain. I have taken over him. The reason I told you this is because you will find out sooner or later.” I said to her focusing my attention to her expressions.

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes and then asked “What have you done to father? Are you going to kill us too?”

“The Captain does not exist anymore. He wanted to kill me and hence I had to kill him. I won’t harm you if you don’t tell anybody about me” I said to her.

She again stood there in silence for a few more seconds and then started laughing manically. After a few seconds she slumped down and started crying.

“We are finally free of him” she voiced while crying.

After calming down she narrated her story to me. It seems that her mother was a maid who came looking for work and the Captain took her in. The Captain forced her mother to have a relationship with him but didn’t marry her, all the while having affairs with other women. Her mother had three children from him; he beat them and barely fed them. Her mother was not allowed to work elsewhere. One time when the Captain was out of town, her mother worked in a shop in order to get some money to buy a toy the siblings wanted. The Captain learned about it after returning and beat her mother to death. He then framed the shop owner for her murder. After that he constantly abused his children. They were not allowed to go out of the house and the Captain always locked them inside when he goes out of town. Just before I gave them food today, the girl and the kids were starving for two days.

After hearing all the things she said, I started wondering what is wrong with this world. The weak are constantly abused and had to live fearful of their lives and the strong misused their authority to oppress the week.

I promised her that if she didn’t tell anybody about me then I would see to it that they are taken care of; I further explained that it meant sufficient food, cloths, no abuse and freedom.

To make her believe my words, I told her that was a good friend of nobility in the capital and they would gladly take care of her and her siblings if I asked them to. After talking to her I went to sleep postponing reading the book for tomorrow.

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Here's an extra long chapter for you guys. I wanted to keep the size of the chapters consistent but it's beyond me since I can't abruptly close up a chapter. Anyways thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the art I posted earlier.