11.1

Clip-clap, clip-clap, clip-clap.

The carriage rocked as the horses walked in a pace that was akin to a snail’s. The people in the carriage were all conversing with each other excitedly as they were on their way to the capital of Dezarith Empire, Registoria.

Most of them were came from villages or small towns and rarely visited the big city unless they had important matters to attend to due to how costly the transportation fees were.

But today, this merry band of villagers happened to hitchhiked ride to Registoria that costed them only a copper coin instead of a silver coin. Their excitement was through the roof as they shared what activities they would be doing upon reaching Registoria.

All of them except for one.

A single male sat silently on his own at the very edge the carriage, his back turned away from the other passengers as he stared mindlessly at the scene behind them. His facial structure was different from everyone who was on the carriage, unlike the rectangular head shape that all males in the empire had, this male had an oval face and black hair.

“…”

His dark eyes, thick eyebrows, his board shoulders, it was clear to everyone that this particular person was of the different caliber from the usual foreigners that they’ve met in all their lives. Though he was young, his sorrowful gaze made them uneasy when he turned his head towards them, causing the passengers to look away from him on instinct.

Though the passengers were curious about what had happened to him, they dare not ask, they dare not strike up conversation with him. They may be regular countryside folk who had no aptitude in the physical nor magical realm, but when it came to people, they intuitively understood who that young male was.

A magic caster.

He was why this ride to Registoria costed them only a single copper per person. It was a pre-arranged transportation that would transport this foreign looking male to where he needed to go.

No doubt, he was an important person.

Instead of making idle conversation with someone who was mentally in a dark place, they knew better than to provoke the magic caster. While they greatly respected their local magic casters in their respective hometowns, the passengers remained vigilant to casters of unknown origin, more so, one who was a foreigner.

“Ah!”

A child yelped when the carriage hit an uneven part of the road, causing the child loose his footing, he stumbled, but before his parents could catch him, the child had already staggered himself to the end of the carriage.

Bang!

Another bump on the road caused the entire carriage to jolt upwards, the child who was already unsteady on his two legs was launched from where he was.

“Peter!” the mother of the child yelled, hoping for his father to catch the child before he falls from their ride.

But an outstretched arm caught little Peter by his shoulders, holding him firmly and prevented the child from falling off their ride.

It was the magic caster, he instinctively brought Peter to the seat beside him and gestured him to sit still.

The parents, seeing that their child was safe, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Um…” the child named Peter looked towards the magic caster who wore clothing as dark as his hair. “Thank you, Mister…”

The magic caster looked away from the child and returned his gaze outside.

Little Peter became a loss at words when he saw the magic caster turned away coldly, but the child’s eyes were sharp, on the bags that the magic caster had besides him, had small tags that indicated his name.

“Thank you, Mister John Sarvod!” the boy said in a joyful tone.

“…”

John was not in the mood to talk, he was too focused on what happened to him yesterday that the little boy’s voice were like sirens to his ears. He chose to ignore the child stared at him, but when he realized that boy was not taking silence for an answer, he lifted a hand and dismissed him.

“You are very kind, thank you!” the boy said once more before he returned to his parents.

“…”

John had no idea where he was at the moment, his memory of the past ten hours had been a blur, but he knew that he was on his way back to the academy.

The sun had just risen, his eyes had already become pink from his lack of rest, his mental state was in a horrible mess, he wanted no more than climb into a bed and sleep away his worries, forgetting all of it for just a short moment.

But, he can’t.

Every moment he tried to shut his eyes, his mind became filled with thoughts of the Harvests. About how all of it could be prevented had he went home earlier, had he heeded Evie’s warning, had he been more punctual, had Scywell…

I…

He tried to form his thoughts but they broke before he could complete a sentence. All that raced in his mind was what happened after he cursed himself for ruining his own life, for being a demon who brings nothing but pain.

John’s mind returned to the very moment where he was on his two knees before the Harvest’s Residence, back to hours ago in Parac Village still cursing his blasted existence, for being a harbinger of chaos that brought pain and suffering to his very life.

For being a demon

A man appeared beside him when John was still whimpering in the soil crater that the Orichalcum adventurer had pounded him into.

“My, my, what is a Moxnet student doing here? I wonder what would Kaldor say when I bring this up to him and the others?”

It was a man who had flaming red hair, he had a white attire befitting of a noble in Dezarith Empire, but unlike the nobles who were plump and spoke condescendingly, this man was well built, had an entirely different aura from the adventurers.

In fact, his presence was so strong that John’s very spine stiffened at the sight of the man.

Not even Scywell Shatterstep had that effect on John, but this man with the blazing red hair did. The man’s entire being exuded of magic power, it was though he was a magic reservoir and strong magic was on the verge of bursting forth from him.

“Hey Malcom! What did you do to this boy!?” the man said in a thunderous voice, it was so strong that the flapping of wings could be heard from the nearby forest a moment later.

All the adventurers became wide-eyed, their bodies stiffened, and those who still had autonomy over their body after hearing that man’s shout, all turned the direction of their leader, the eye-patched adventurer.

The man tapped his foot while he awaited for a response from Malcom, a second passed, two seconds passed… The neutral expression on the man slowly turned into one that was filled with irritation.

“I am not playing around, Malcom! I will single handedly beat everyone here into a bloody pulp if you don’t explain to me what this is! Five! Four! Three! Two—!”

“W-wait! I-I am here! Calm down, I was checking evidence left behind by the assaulters.”

The strained expression to the man’s face disappeared the moment the eye-patched leader stood forth from the adeventurer’s, but his expression was still as serious as ever.

“Explain to me this second!” the man with flaming red hair demanded, his patience thinned the longer he stared at Malcom. “What did you do to this Moxnet student!”

“The runt was interfering when were cleaning up the bodies of this village, he was claiming that those corpses there,” Malcom pointed towards the three body bags that were placed before the Harvest’s house, “were his family when he shared—”

“And you doubted him!?” the man eyes crackled, yellow streaks of electricity flashed across his violet eyes as he spoke to Malcom. “Are you implying that the Moxnet students lie about their families’ death!?” his voice became so loud that Malcom’s eardrums shuddered when the man spoke.

“I-I… That was not what I meant, just one look at him and you’ll see that he is not from around here!”

“Assuming that I forgive you for mistaking him as a Eastern Continent spy…” the electricity in the man’s eyes abated. “What reason do you have for allowing this to happen to Parac Village? Or is your Orichalum rank just for show? I am truly disappointed when I heard that not a single life had been spared in this assault on Parac Village.”

Malcom gulped at the man’s words.

“T-the magic detector f-failed s-so… And it w-was the hero’s d-duty to defend…”

The man behind John disappeared for a moment, then re-appeared before Malcom and grabbing the adventurer by his collar.

“There is a hero standing before you right now, and if I must, I will defend the Empire from worthless scum like you.” The man then turned to John and said in a soft, comforting voice, “I am sorry that due to this idiot’s incompetence that your family has passed away. Not only that, he dared doubt your relations to them. If you so wish, I shall end him this very moment.”

The fact that this person claimed that he was a hero made John crawled a distance backwards.

Not another hero…

“No…no…”

Upon hearing John’s confused murmur, the man frowned but quickly recovered his face and turned it into a pleasant smile.

“If that is your wish, then I shall respect it. As expected of someone who attends the academy, your virtues remain stronger than mine, the hero blessed by the Archangel of Truth, Fester Aquilla, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

The hero, Fester Aquilla dropped Malcom to the ground.

“It is just my luck that I was tracking the very vampires that attacked this village, if not for that I would have never seen this side of yours, Malcom. Is that how you climbed to you Orichalum rank? By bullying those who are weaker than you? By showing how strong you are the way you’ve beaten this student here? To think Kaldor vouched for you lot not a week ago in front of the Empress…”

Spit!

Sticky saliva flung from Fester’s lips and hit Malcom’s eyepatch.

“Consider your rank to be lowered to mythril. The same goes for everyone in you silly guild, rank demotion for all, this is the least I can do to punish all of you for now. As for how Kaldor will deal with you lot, that is up to him, this is all for the boy here…” the hero looked at John and extended an arm to him.

“May I know your name young lad?”

“John Sarvod…”

Fester’s eyes widened upon hearing this, then they reverted to the kind expression that he showed him earlier.

“John, I presume this is your home, correct?”

Not wishing to speak to yet another John nodded.

“And do you have any family other than the ones here? Anyone who will be taking you into their care for the time being? A friend perhaps?”

John opened his mouth, but quickly closed them when he realized that Scywell was partially responsible for what transcended.

The hero’s party… Scywell and the rest of them…

John shook his head.

Fester softened his expression upon seeing how John was behaving, “I understand, Moxnet is the only place you can return to. Fret not, I shall handle your family’s funeral affairs while you go back to the academy in the meantime. Is that okay, John?”

John bobbed his head lightly.

“In that case, I’ll go fetch you a ride back to the academy. Do you have anything you wish to ask of me before I go procure your transportation?”

John paused, he really didn’t want to speak to this second hero of the empire, whose name he never heard of. But he had no choice, if he don’t open his mouth now, he will never know what happened to the Harvests.

“W-was the village attacked by vampires?”

Vampires, creatures of the night, monsters who sought power through siphoning the blood and life out of others. Once, the world was plunged into a period great darkness due to these very monsters, but an unknown warrior of light had appeared and wiped these very monsters and banished them to where they came from.

Since then, the powers of vampires have greatly weakened, and have become common folklore that parents would use to scare their children with so that they would not boldly wander off by themselves in the middle of the night.

They still existed, though not as powerful as they were depicted in the ancient texts that he read, but when unhindered by the sun’s cleansing rays, vampires were the apex of all known monsters.

The hero paused, but eventually nodded to John.

“I offer my sincerest apologies.” Fester placed a hand on the opposite of his chest and lowered his head. “Your family did not deserve to die at the hands of such brutal creatures. I truly did not think that vampires have finally left their homelands and come for us humans.”

Excuses…Excuses… All you offer are excuses, if you or S-Scywell had been here like you were supposed to be… T-they’ll...

John’s averted his eyes from the hero, indicating that he no longer want to speak. But the hero continued, “It shames me to say it, but even I, whose strength is only a fraction of the great Immortal Emperor’s, will have a hard time should facing those who are from the Vampire Sovereign… Even with two heroes chosen by the great Archangels at the empire’s disposal, the current acting hero Scywell and I cannot possibly handle what these monsters might have planned with all their spontaneous attacks—”

Fester stopped himself when he realized that John was listening closely. “Oops, I’ve said a little too much. Perhaps things like these interests you, John?” a goofy smile sprawled on the hero’s face as he scratched his head for speaking too much. Then, he quickly moved to John’s ear and whispered, “Do keep this to yourself, John. I am telling you this because you deserve to know the reason for your family’s death, under no circumstances should you mention this to anyone else, is that understood?”

“…”

John turned his eyes away from the hero.

Fester may have a cheerful personality when compared to Scywell, however, the way this hero was conducted himself felt unusual to him.

It was though Fester Aquilla had something to hide behind that quirky personality of his.

John did not like it.

“Dezarith Empire is dangerous.”

Those words from the Ephinelyth the Elder Dragon popped in his mind before he could make out a reason why he thought Fester Aquilla was suspicious. Set aside the hero’s volatile personality, the man himself was sharp enough to tell John what he wanted to hear.

The vampires…

John etched the monsters’ names into his heart.

“Moxnet Academy!”

The coachman’s voice rang in John’s ears, bringing the sleep deprived John back to reality. He jumped off the ride and walked back to his room, covering his face with a hood as to prevent anyone from seeing his swollen eyes.

Fester Aquilla…

According to Fester himself, Fester was the first hero to have ever appeared in Dezarith Empire, following him was Celian Agnes, a hero whose served the Empire for a short time before her life swiftly ended, and Scywell Shattertep was the third and current acting hero.

But why haven’t I heard about the other two being mentioned by everyone?

It was as though the previous two heroes had their names numb from all of Dezarithian’s minds, not that he particularly cared why. All John understood was that the so called ‘heroes’ were no more than good for nothing poster boys.

Before he left Parac Village, Fester had personally assured John that unlike normal villages that suffered tremendous loss of lives, Parac Village would remain undemolished and be kept in their conditions by the adventurers, Parac Village would become a rest stop for various travelers. This was the punishment set by Kaldor—the very same person who recruited John to the academy—who oversaw their activities after Fester had informed the Academy’s vice president of what happened.

And as compensation, Kaldor had made it such that all the assets that the Harvests had were transferred into John’s possession. While Miros’ farm would be tended by the adventurers for growing corps, their house would be left completely untouched and only for John’s use only, he would also get a profit cut from the revenue of the corps from the Harvest’s land.

But John could barely care for the property rights that the Harvest had…

It was all pointless.

The house may now be in his name, however the people who made it worth living are no longer there. The revenue from the farm that he would now ‘own’, all meant nothing to him, he had nowhere to spend it on, no one to spend it on.

Bam!

The door made a loud noise as he close it, he had reached his room in Moxnet Academy before he knew it. His gaze turned to the ground where the relic that Evie sent him was last seen, hoping to for something impossible.

His eyes slanted when he discovered that the relic was no longer there, leaving only small traces of combustion at where he last saw it.

“Figured as much…”

Hope was something that John Sarvod always had, even in the darkest of times, there was this flame of hope that burned in him, carrying his visions for his future, serving as his guiding light to become better person.

Though it greatly dimmed when all of A’vetheas called for his exile, still, he held this flame of hope dear to his heart, did his best to adapt to the outside world in hopes that he will someday, somehow, achieve what he set out to.

But now…

With the Harvests massacred by vampires for unknown reasons, his relationship with Evie severed, the hero who he befriended was responsible for his family’s death. That flame of his is extinguished.

John was no more than a living husk.

His arms covered his eyes as he laid helplessly on the bed, his body exhausted, his mind broken, there was no point for him to try

Was it always like this? Was my life before A’vetheas always like this?

Between the fragmented memories and the cruel reality, he no longer knew which one to hold onto. Perhaps it was better of had he just forgotten it all, leaving everything behind him and restart his life.

Or better yet…

Just end it once and for all.

His heartbeat stopped.

His thoughts crawled to the shiny edge of the mythril weapon he had set by the table.

A single slit of from the metallic edge of the weapon, if he only brought it close to his neck, and he would no longer…

“No, what are you doing, master!?”

The familiar voice rang in his mind, causing John to halt his suicidal thoughts in place. This situation of his felt oddly similar to a conversation he had with the maid, Kahnira.

“Why, w-why would you do something like this!” the voice cracked, almost on the verge of breaking down. “W-what good would that bring!?”

“…I am not needed.” His voice, so much younger and just as much pain as he was in now, replied. “So, I thought… I might as well make it end while I still can…”

Hic.

The maid chocked, an elbow rose to her endowed chest as she wiped away the tears that formed on her scarlet eyes, her short snow white hair dangled as she tried to put on a brave face for young John.

“I-I was never able to fully understand you, master. While I do know that master has many thoughts that goes on in his head, this maid cannot fathom what made master think this way,” she confessed. “But… if master wishes to do this, this maid has only a simple wish, but for her to die before master takes his life.”

Young John’s voice cracked “W-why…? This is my death wish, why do you want to die with me!? You are not even a servant that serves this family, you are just a maid who happens to serve me! Wouldn’t it be better if I died? You would be finally free to live on your own, no one would even care if you go missing. You can just leave!”

The girl shook her head.

“The day master extended kindness his extended to me, I have already decided that I will forever follow you.”

“You are retarded! I only chose you as my maid because I pitied you, you don’t owe me a damn thing once I am dead, stop talking like you are my mother! I don’t have one! That woman just gave birth to me, nothing I ever do is enough!!!”

Despite young John’s outrage, the maid retained her kind expression, “All this time, I have noticed Master’s suffering caused by his blood parents, I fear if I mentioned it to you, it would cause more trouble to you. But it seems that I was wrong, this punishment is only suitable for my lack of—”

“Don’t change the subject! I told you, you don’t owe me a thing for making you into my servant! So, why!? Why follow someone as weak, as useless, as broken as me…”

The maid had gotten closer to young John, she placed a hand on his head, normally young John would have swatted her away, but this time he did not.

“It was from a time before you’ve made me your servant, Master John. A time when I still had my family…” her hand stroked his head gently, all the while looking into his eyes. “You are the only family I have left, Mama and Papa are gone, and if master is gone too… This maid will have nothing.”

“…”

Silent tears dropped from young John’s eyes, he may have been harsh when he spoke to her, but he was not as heartless to her that he would ridicule Kahnira for her deceased parents.

“Master, I may not be related by blood to you. But should you promise to never attempt to end your own life, I promise that I would give all the love you never received to you, more so than you could ever imagine. So please… I beg of you…”

“I don’t need your pity… Nothing will matter when I—”

Young John was interrupted by a sudden force from her arms, pulling him all the way to her soft body.

“…”

“…”

“I p-promise… Kahnira.”

“Why did you make me promise that…? Why… Who are you to me… Why do I keep hearing your voice, w-why have I forgotten you, Kahnira?”