—–
After checking the abilities of my new Soul Grimoire, I wanted to check out for a bit. Probably to take in a bit of that cold breeze there is from the cold mornings of this town.
Last night we just massacred an evil scientist and his army of chimeras, yet the people all around here had absolutely no idea that such a thing had happened.
I didn’t know what to think regarding this. Perhaps ignorance was bliss. It was better for the good people of this place to simply not know of the atrocities that had happened below their feet. Even if it should be widely known, it would only bring more troubles to the duchy as a whole.
I’ve seen and interacted with the people around here, and I can tell they’re good people. We had even gone to have a delicious lunch outside and more, so we had our own fun in our own unique ways.
Nonetheless, I was growing a bit tired and concerned about our future. Now that there were these slaves pending for salvation, I had considered going back to the goblin village as sending them alone could be dangerous. Even if it delayed my “crusade” to slay the pigs involved in the death of my family and me… I felt like it was the right thing to do.
Using this village as our main area of rest also sounds fitting. Every main character always has a certain home area where they come back after traveling elsewhere after all! So I don’t see what would be wrong with doing just that now.
But as I wandered outside, I found Lucifer awake, looking through the window of the corridor. The cold breeze bathed his handsome face as his long silvery-white hair waved around. I could also tell his sharp eyes were filled with exhaustion.
“Hey, how are you doing? Why are you awake this early?” I asked.
“Mary… I am fine. As an Undead, I don’t really need to sleep and have greater necessities such as eating… Although to calm down my mind, meditation doesn’t sound so bad, which I do while I sleep to calm down the stress,” Explained Lucifer.
“I see, so that’s how you do it. My sleep is not so different,” I responded.
“Hmm… It seems that as Undead, our minds cannot possibly dream the same way living beings do it… quite depressing now that I think about it,” Muttered Lucifer.
“Well, we also got our perks that mortals don’t have… So what’s on your lonely mind here?” I asked.
“A-Ah? I-I was just admiring the beauty of the morning….” Said Lucifer, though it was rather shyly.
“Just the beauty of the morning? You?” I asked skeptically.
“W-What’s wrong with that? We might be Undead driven by negative emotions and resentment, but we all… used to be alive once. And those memories persist within our minds,” Muttered Lucifer.
“Huh… I see. Do you have any good memories where you enjoyed such a morning?” I asked as I moved at his side and watched the sun slowly rise from the horizon, the cold breeze covering my face.
“…I do,” He sighed.
I looked into his dark and phantasmal eyes and noticed there was a tiny glint of light within them. It was small and fading away quickly, but I think he recalled something precious for that small moment.
“Tell me more. I want to know more about you,” I said.
“Eh?”
“Come on. You’ve been at my side for almost half a year by now… Am I not worthy of your trust yet? Aren’t we friends?” I asked.
“Friends… Not really… Aren’t we just servant and master? Do you really consider me your friend, Maria?” Asked Lucifer.
“Of course I do! A friend is a friend. A servant is a servant. Those things are different. When someone I raise from death sticks to me for months and months… then you’re a friend already!” I said.
“Friend…”
Lucifer suddenly looked into his own pale hands. His eyes once more shone brightly for a split of a second.
“I used to have a good friend back then… Back then, when there was still hope, back then when we were still fighting. Do you know… how horrendously frustrating it is to realize you’ve been sleeping and imprisoned on your own power for thousands of years… only to wake up and find that everything you hold dear is… gone?” He asked.
“Lucifer…”
Lucifer suddenly looked at the ground sorrowfully.
“My real name is Lucifer Drakon Draknea. I was the first son of the Dragon King of the South. Our family of dragons lived in harmony with nature in the cold lands to the south of the continent… Despite our long-lived race, we were not immortal, and we still died at a certain age… Due to that, on his deathbed, my father, the former Demon King, gave me the task of making my own family before I was to regret it later, when I was to grow too old to make one,” He said.
“…”
“You see. Since that moment, at the age of 137, I was given the title of Dragon King, and I had to lead my people to prosperity… Despite that, we dragons were a peaceful civilization, we lived in the mountains, and we mostly napped and hunted. We were nothing more than a wild tribe. Although the Dragon King still held an important role in unifying us all into a clan, the Dragon Clan,” Explained Lucifer.
“The dragon clan….”
“When my father died, I did what I had to do and sought a wife and had children. My two other siblings did the same, so we could keep our bloodline ongoing. But of course, we couldn’t simply have children, and that was it. We had to raise them and teach them well. But it was right in those times when war broke out across the entire continent. The Demons and the Humans began to fight at long last, after many years of small conflicts… That’s where the Demon King one day came here, asking for the aid of the Dragon Clan…” Muttered Lucifer.
—–