“A faint smell lies in the air … the taste of adventure from our newest heroes. What will they experience? Will they find love? Success? Will they reach their goals? That all depends on a highly valuable skill … packing your stuff. Gregory, you do not need half your wardrobe, Ellie, you have a serious catnip problem and Sofie? What’s with the chests full of potions?” I asked, my hands at my hips and looked down on the stuff they laid out in front of me. Gregory had clothes for parties in there and Sofie’s things were way too heavy. Only Ellie and Schwarz didn’t have too much with them … even though Ellie’s choice was a bit questionable.
“Well … I could run out of mana and therefore I thought packing a lot of health and mana potions was a good idea. And why aren’t you telling Schwarz he needs more than one backpack? What even is in there? A single shirt?” Well, I had to admit that Schwarz would smell after a few days. But we weren’t on a parade and bad hygiene was part of serving in the army, especially behind enemy lines.
“Everything I need.” Schwarz said and laid out his stuff in front of him. One pair of underwear, a single trouser, shirt and a bit of medicine for his feet.
“Great … Luna, you have the list, don’t you?” Luckily the greatest secretary of all time was with me, all the necessary stuff in hand already.
“I do. Here are the things the adventurer guild recommends taking with you … Schwarz you should buy a bit of soap.” Luna said, but didn’t do anything else and rather strolled on towards the next problem child. Well, she didn’t do much better when we packed her stuff, but at least she wasn’t bummed out after saying goodbye to most of her stuff.
“Okay … Lucy, can I talk with you?” Schwarz said, walked towards me and grabbed my arm to guide me out of the room forcefully.
“Is anything wrong?” I asked a bit concerned as he pulled me into a little dusty broom closet. Closing the door, he shut out most of the light falling in and directly pressed something cold in my hands.
“Can you feel that?” Closing my hands around the metallic seethe, I could immediately guess what I was holding, even if I completely ignored every bit of death inside the object.
“What do you mean?” And yet, I had quite the suspicion he wasn’t hinting at the obvious.
“I … had a dream. It’s quite hazy, but it called out to me. It wanted me to kill … and in my dream I did exactly that. I murdered my way through the streets of this city and it felt … it felt good.” Oh … I never thought the part of me within the sword would be able to influence him that much, but my guess was that the ten people of so I murdered the day before may had something to do with it.
If I thirsted for blood, so did the sword.
“It felt good? That’s … worrying. Schwarz … come with me.” I mumbled, opened the door and walked over to a painting a few steps away. I was the main motive, holding up a shining sword with a rather heroic expression on my face while demons surrounded me from all sides. So far, that was one of the better pictures of me, especially because the artist presented me as a lot more mature than I was at this point. And that painting was from a hundred years ago … “I have once wielded a sword similar to yours I believe … only shortly though so I cannot tell you much. But I have felt what you feel now. The remnants of another persons life … in this sword there is a soul supplying it with energy. It’s on par with all the other legendary artefacts of the kingdom, but it is completely different. I don’t know how much of a connection you will have with this sword, but be aware that there may be a demonic soul inside. It will show you whatever it can to make you it’s puppet, but I believe you are able to resist its influence.”
“A soul inside the sword? It’s the first time I hear of such a things.” He said, looking down on my sword with amazement.
“It’s a secret. Not many know of it.” I said and smiled a little as he gripped it tightly.
“I see … I won’t fall for its temptations.” He said and looked into my eyes with determination. But I honestly had my doubts about that. Well, I wouldn’t mind it even if he fell for my tempting blood thirst as long as he had some level of control over it. And that couldn’t be so hard, could it? I mean, I lived with it for hundreds of years already and I got by fine. “And I will make sure it is used for good.”
Yeah, I had no doubts about that whatsoever.
“I have faith in you. I would advise you to keep the secret as one though … others may misunderstand and claim the sword reflects on your personality in any way. But in the end, it’s up to you wether you tell the others or not.” I could only wish he wouldn’t tell anyone. Sofie would definitely have something against my weapon and might decide to throw a tantrum then. And honestly, the later they kept watch over him the more interesting it could get.
Patting his shoulders gently, I soon turned my back to him and walked back into the foyer straight away. I did keep an eye on Schwarz though as he didn’t seem to have made his decision right away, but at least he didn’t tell everyone right away.
“Lucy, Gregory thinks he needs all his clothing.” Luna admitted a bit ashamed for having failed while Sebastian, my newest personal butler from Tom, was already carrying out the stuff of the others.
“We would need to put all your stuff on a cart then, which cannot be used to carry rations. Do you want the others to risk their life because of a red suit?” I asked, pointing to the pile of attire he definitely wouldn’t need in the wilderness.
“It’s their job to protect nobility. If they can’t even do that, for what are they good then?” Wow … I really liked his view sometimes, even though he needed a reality check. The soldiers would definitely prioritise their own life over a bit of luggage.
“… my answer is no. Get rid of it or I’ll do it for you.” I growled unhappily which seemed to be the only action I could take to make him reconsider. I had threatened to throw him out so often already that it was underlining each and every demand I made for the cheap prize of turning him against me slowly.
And in the end – like always – he bend to my Will and did what I asked him to. For how long it would work like that though was a mystery.
“Luna, how much time do we still have?” I asked while looking at all the stuff still laying around the room.
“Around three minutes.” She said, probably listening to the noise outside like I was. But unlike my ears, hers weren’t horrible during the day, even though mine had seen worse times as well.
“Alrighty … let’s get going then.” I shouted out and clapped my hands once.
“I take care of the rest here.” Luna said while I ushered the four idiots in front of me out of the massive door. Two strong guards swung it open as the magical circles were apparently under maintenance, but whatever. As the gates to the royal district were closed that day, we weren’t stopped in the slightest as we made our way down to two coaches without roof.
“You know what to do?” I asked a bit concerned they would mess their first big public stunt up.
“We have gone through this four times already.” Ellie sighed loudly, while I had to shut my mouth before I could say that this was before I found all the catnip in her luggage. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in the group who preferred her brain turned to mush sometimes, even though I still had to find out what it did to her.
But hey, I did have my own hidden stash of drugs, so I wasn’t exactly envious as I sat down in my own coach and pulled the white hat further downwards, attempting to gather a bit of my usually missing social energy.
Sitting alone, I could lean back for a little while and enjoy myself while my time ran out. As the trumpets resounded on the walls, I stood up and looked forwards, a crowd of cheering citizens forming a singular path for us to pass through. Flower pedals were thrown in our way and loud blessings filled my ears straight away. And I, not even the centre of this parade, felt my knee itching for some reason. Waving happily towards the people desperate to see me close up, I had to smile the whole time, something which I was very much used to at this point.
Hours went by like with us doing a great parade for the citizens of the nation even thought I had to agree that hiding my face afterwards was out of question. But maybe I would age once more again, so there was always hope left.
And like this, we spent a whole fucking day to travel out of the city. Never in my life did I find myself wasting so much time. Even a snail on the right drugs would be faster than that!
But at last, we left the outer district and were finally freed from their clutches. The coaches sped up a little and finally, I could sit down again and lean myself onto the soft pillow to my side, only to have my little pause interrupted by our arrival.
“I’m spent …” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to find that necessary part of being a public figure exhausting and not even Gregory who usually dealt with this stuff as well was untouched by the experience.
“Tell me that it’s over …” Ellie asked, leaning onto her spear tired.
“It is … you can go to bed now.” I said, looking over to around ten tents in the distance. They immediately understood and headed straight for them, while I enjoyed the night sky for a little. After some time, Hannah approached me from the tents and stood next to me silently, putting her cheek onto my shoulder.
“What are you thinking?” She asked while I tilted my head to the side and enjoyed her company.
“Four hundred years ago, I could have never imagined I would be cheered on by normal people.” I mumbled, looking over to the rather distant lights of the city and extended my right hand towards it.
“Times do change.” Hannah stated quietly.
“I just thought it was quite hilarious that I am now supported by those who I thought of beings I needed to conquer in the past.” I explained, clenched my hand into a fist and thought about all the fun I could have had as a tyrant. But I would be missing out on other things as well if I did so. I would have never met Luna, could have never used the so called heroes as I did … and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my free time. In a sense, it was great that I changed in that regard, even thought it severely limited the opportunities to cause mayhem.
“We can always switch sides if you want. It should be fairly easy to conquer the world at this point.” On the one hand, her offer was incredibly tempting. There was a part of me which wanted to see this city burn, but it was a small one.
“I don’t want to lose what I have. Some really fucked up shit must have happened for me to attack this nation …” I was queen already. And with time, I could erode the kings powers as much as I wanted. I had generations to achieve a nearly complete grip over this kingdom after all. “But thank you …” I muttered and patted her head with a smile on my lips. Then, she noticed the approaching horses and lifted her head off my shoulders and looked at the carriage lit by magical lamps in the distance. It was only a matter of minutes for it to come to a halt in front of me and Luna jumped out of it.
“The luggage will arrive over night along with Louis and the butler.”
“Good job.” I said and gave her the thumbs up. She really was a great secretary capable of keeping track of every task I gave her.
“So this is it? It’s finally beginning?” She asked, kind of exited that all of our work over the last weeks finally bore fruit.
“It is …” The beginning of the end was close. I could feel us inching closer to the truth behind everything step by step. I just wasn’t sure what laid at the end of the path we embarked onto. My downfall? Or my greatest success?
“A faint smell lies in the air … the taste of adventure from our newest heroes. What will they experience? Will they find love? Success? Will they reach their goals? That all depends on a highly valuable skill … packing your stuff. Gregory, you do not need half your wardrobe, Ellie, you have a serious catnip problem and Sofie? What’s with the chests full of potions?” I asked, my hands at my hips and looked down on the stuff they laid out in front of me. Gregory had clothes for parties in there and Sofie’s things were way too heavy. Only Ellie and Schwarz didn’t have too much with them … even though Ellie’s choice was a bit questionable.
“Well … I could run out of mana and therefore I thought packing a lot of health and mana potions was a good idea. And why aren’t you telling Schwarz he needs more than one backpack? What even is in there? A single shirt?” Well, I had to admit that Schwarz would smell after a few days. But we weren’t on a parade and bad hygiene was part of serving in the army, especially behind enemy lines.
“Everything I need.” Schwarz said and laid out his stuff in front of him. One pair of underwear, a single trouser, shirt and a bit of medicine for his feet.
“Great … Luna, you have the list, don’t you?” Luckily the greatest secretary of all time was with me, all the necessary stuff in hand already.
“I do. Here are the things the adventurer guild recommends taking with you … Schwarz you should buy a bit of soap.” Luna said, but didn’t do anything else and rather strolled on towards the next problem child. Well, she didn’t do much better when we packed her stuff, but at least she wasn’t bummed out after saying goodbye to most of her stuff.
“Okay … Lucy, can I talk with you?” Schwarz said, walked towards me and grabbed my arm to guide me out of the room forcefully.
“Is anything wrong?” I asked a bit concerned as he pulled me into a little dusty broom closet. Closing the door, he shut out most of the light falling in and directly pressed something cold in my hands.
“Can you feel that?” Closing my hands around the metallic seethe, I could immediately guess what I was holding, even if I completely ignored every bit of death inside the object.
“What do you mean?” And yet, I had quite the suspicion he wasn’t hinting at the obvious.
“I … had a dream. It’s quite hazy, but it called out to me. It wanted me to kill … and in my dream I did exactly that. I murdered my way through the streets of this city and it felt … it felt good.” Oh … I never thought the part of me within the sword would be able to influence him that much, but my guess was that the ten people of so I murdered the day before may had something to do with it.
If I thirsted for blood, so did the sword.
“It felt good? That’s … worrying. Schwarz … come with me.” I mumbled, opened the door and walked over to a painting a few steps away. I was the main motive, holding up a shining sword with a rather heroic expression on my face while demons surrounded me from all sides. So far, that was one of the better pictures of me, especially because the artist presented me as a lot more mature than I was at this point. And that painting was from a hundred years ago … “I have once wielded a sword similar to yours I believe … only shortly though so I cannot tell you much. But I have felt what you feel now. The remnants of another persons life … in this sword there is a soul supplying it with energy. It’s on par with all the other legendary artefacts of the kingdom, but it is completely different. I don’t know how much of a connection you will have with this sword, but be aware that there may be a demonic soul inside. It will show you whatever it can to make you it’s puppet, but I believe you are able to resist its influence.”
“A soul inside the sword? It’s the first time I hear of such a things.” He said, looking down on my sword with amazement.
“It’s a secret. Not many know of it.” I said and smiled a little as he gripped it tightly.
“I see … I won’t fall for its temptations.” He said and looked into my eyes with determination. But I honestly had my doubts about that. Well, I wouldn’t mind it even if he fell for my tempting blood thirst as long as he had some level of control over it. And that couldn’t be so hard, could it? I mean, I lived with it for hundreds of years already and I got by fine. “And I will make sure it is used for good.”
Yeah, I had no doubts about that whatsoever.
“I have faith in you. I would advise you to keep the secret as one though … others may misunderstand and claim the sword reflects on your personality in any way. But in the end, it’s up to you wether you tell the others or not.” I could only wish he wouldn’t tell anyone. Sofie would definitely have something against my weapon and might decide to throw a tantrum then. And honestly, the later they kept watch over him the more interesting it could get.
Patting his shoulders gently, I soon turned my back to him and walked back into the foyer straight away. I did keep an eye on Schwarz though as he didn’t seem to have made his decision right away, but at least he didn’t tell everyone right away.
“Lucy, Gregory thinks he needs all his clothing.” Luna admitted a bit ashamed for having failed while Sebastian, my newest personal butler from Tom, was already carrying out the stuff of the others.
“We would need to put all your stuff on a cart then, which cannot be used to carry rations. Do you want the others to risk their life because of a red suit?” I asked, pointing to the pile of attire he definitely wouldn’t need in the wilderness.
“It’s their job to protect nobility. If they can’t even do that, for what are they good then?” Wow … I really liked his view sometimes, even though he needed a reality check. The soldiers would definitely prioritise their own life over a bit of luggage.
“… my answer is no. Get rid of it or I’ll do it for you.” I growled unhappily which seemed to be the only action I could take to make him reconsider. I had threatened to throw him out so often already that it was underlining each and every demand I made for the cheap prize of turning him against me slowly.
And in the end – like always – he bend to my Will and did what I asked him to. For how long it would work like that though was a mystery.
“Luna, how much time do we still have?” I asked while looking at all the stuff still laying around the room.
“Around three minutes.” She said, probably listening to the noise outside like I was. But unlike my ears, hers weren’t horrible during the day, even though mine had seen worse times as well.
“Alrighty … let’s get going then.” I shouted out and clapped my hands once.
“I take care of the rest here.” Luna said while I ushered the four idiots in front of me out of the massive door. Two strong guards swung it open as the magical circles were apparently under maintenance, but whatever. As the gates to the royal district were closed that day, we weren’t stopped in the slightest as we made our way down to two coaches without roof.
“You know what to do?” I asked a bit concerned they would mess their first big public stunt up.
“We have gone through this four times already.” Ellie sighed loudly, while I had to shut my mouth before I could say that this was before I found all the catnip in her luggage. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in the group who preferred her brain turned to mush sometimes, even though I still had to find out what it did to her.
But hey, I did have my own hidden stash of drugs, so I wasn’t exactly envious as I sat down in my own coach and pulled the white hat further downwards, attempting to gather a bit of my usually missing social energy.
Sitting alone, I could lean back for a little while and enjoy myself while my time ran out. As the trumpets resounded on the walls, I stood up and looked forwards, a crowd of cheering citizens forming a singular path for us to pass through. Flower pedals were thrown in our way and loud blessings filled my ears straight away. And I, not even the centre of this parade, felt my knee itching for some reason. Waving happily towards the people desperate to see me close up, I had to smile the whole time, something which I was very much used to at this point.
Hours went by like with us doing a great parade for the citizens of the nation even thought I had to agree that hiding my face afterwards was out of question. But maybe I would age once more again, so there was always hope left.
And like this, we spent a whole fucking day to travel out of the city. Never in my life did I find myself wasting so much time. Even a snail on the right drugs would be faster than that!
But at last, we left the outer district and were finally freed from their clutches. The coaches sped up a little and finally, I could sit down again and lean myself onto the soft pillow to my side, only to have my little pause interrupted by our arrival.
“I’m spent …” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to find that necessary part of being a public figure exhausting and not even Gregory who usually dealt with this stuff as well was untouched by the experience.
“Tell me that it’s over …” Ellie asked, leaning onto her spear tired.
“It is … you can go to bed now.” I said, looking over to around ten tents in the distance. They immediately understood and headed straight for them, while I enjoyed the night sky for a little. After some time, Hannah approached me from the tents and stood next to me silently, putting her cheek onto my shoulder.
“What are you thinking?” She asked while I tilted my head to the side and enjoyed her company.
“Four hundred years ago, I could have never imagined I would be cheered on by normal people.” I mumbled, looking over to the rather distant lights of the city and extended my right hand towards it.
“Times do change.” Hannah stated quietly.
“I just thought it was quite hilarious that I am now supported by those who I thought of beings I needed to conquer in the past.” I explained, clenched my hand into a fist and thought about all the fun I could have had as a tyrant. But I would be missing out on other things as well if I did so. I would have never met Luna, could have never used the so called heroes as I did … and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my free time. In a sense, it was great that I changed in that regard, even thought it severely limited the opportunities to cause mayhem.
“We can always switch sides if you want. It should be fairly easy to conquer the world at this point.” On the one hand, her offer was incredibly tempting. There was a part of me which wanted to see this city burn, but it was a small one.
“I don’t want to lose what I have. Some really fucked up shit must have happened for me to attack this nation …” I was queen already. And with time, I could erode the kings powers as much as I wanted. I had generations to achieve a nearly complete grip over this kingdom after all. “But thank you …” I muttered and patted her head with a smile on my lips. Then, she noticed the approaching horses and lifted her head off my shoulders and looked at the carriage lit by magical lamps in the distance. It was only a matter of minutes for it to come to a halt in front of me and Luna jumped out of it.
“The luggage will arrive over night along with Louis and the butler.”
“Good job.” I said and gave her the thumbs up. She really was a great secretary capable of keeping track of every task I gave her.
“So this is it? It’s finally beginning?” She asked, kind of exited that all of our work over the last weeks finally bore fruit.
“It is …” The beginning of the end was close. I could feel us inching closer to the truth behind everything step by step. I just wasn’t sure what laid at the end of the path we embarked onto. My downfall? Or my greatest success?
