Chapter XI: Hide and Seek
Destruction fills the mountain, where the sky is already covered with blanket of stars.
All the people who were supposed to be resting in silence were now running on their feet, with fear covering their faces, turning the once peaceful town into great chaos.
*CRACKLE!*
The fire swiftly spread everywhere, causing all the houses' roofs and furniture to turn into piles of ruins as it destroyed everything, looking like a fire-breathing dragon was inside the houses, puffing away voraciously while consuming the lives of people. The acrid smell of charred wood even filled the air as the fire licked the trees, causing it to devour and turn half of the town into a fiery hell, taking the lives of everyone in its path, leaving them choking on their lungs while their flesh melted into the ground before they slowly turned to ashes.
Everything would be fine as long as I could protect my daughter!
We would be able to escape this place!
He gritted his teeth as he kept running rapidly on his bare feet, tightly yet carefully holding the child in his arms, determined to escape the forest that was now engulfed in blazing fire and filled with people's cries.
"HUSH~"
"Papa is here, there is nothing to fear anymore..."
He murmured, trying to calm the whimpering child.
As they passed through the trees, the man didn't dare to look back as if death were chasing behind them.
"Annngh!"
He groaned with each step, leaving a trail of tainted red liquid on the dried fallen leaves as it creates a smell of copper whenever his foot landed.
"Hey, are you done with your business?! We don't have much time to import these beverages! "
The guy sitting on the wagon shouted in complaint as he waited for the man behind the trees.
"Can't you wait a damn minute?!"
"Damn it!"
He curses as he buttons up his pants and gets ready to ride in the wagon.
Watching the two busy arguing with each other, a muscular man saw it as an opportunity and climbed inside, holding a child who was sleeping peacefully in his arms.
"If the shortcut passages weren't blocked, we could have arrived earlier! What a pain in the ass!"
He complained to a wrinkled man driving the wagon beside him.
The man frowned while gritting his lips as he tried to calm himself down.
He then looked at the peacefully sleeping child in his arms, putting his lips gently on her forehead as he embraced her from the cold. When suddenly, his eyelid had become so heavy that he couldn't keep up with his energy and lost track of himself.
The warm red fluid that keeps flowing out of his feet makes him dizzier and drowsier without even knowing that he has fallen asleep himself.
"Garion, the afternoon will soon pass. It's time to wake up."
He blinked his eyes as he heard a sweet, soothing voice caressing his face.
His expression turned blue as he looked at the child looking right straight into his face, blocking the morning sun through the hole.
"Papa, it's time to wake up, or Mama will be angry!"
The child scolded, blocking the rays of the sunlight with her small and thin body.
"Pa-papa, is something wrong?"
She asks, making a worried expression on her face as she looks at the man in front of her with a surprised yet sorrowful expression in his eyes.
Garion then gently patted her head and sighed before he responded with a smile.
When he noticed the barrel of liquor and alcohol inside the wagon, he immediately tore his clothes and let the fabric soak before he washed his wounded feet and tied them with a knot.
"Argggh!"
The ticklish piercing he felt made him groan in pain, but he still smiled sweetly, looking at the child beside him as he tried to get her attention, with all the people outside negotiating with each other like buzzing bees.
"WOAH~ This place is so pretty!"
Everywhere her eyes landed, she couldn't help but be amazed by every scene and market stall they passed, gazing at them with a glimmering light in her eyes as she held onto the man with a tall, muscular body walking by her side, slightly swaying on his own two feet.
It must be luck that they didn't notice us as soon as the wagon stopped.
He thought with a serious expression written on his face, tightly yet carefully holding the hand of the child, who was busy admiring the scenery, when suddenly her attention was caught on his swaying foot that covered his rounded pink-ish eyes in distress.
"Skewers! Everyone buys some of our freshly cooked skewers!"
He smiled watching his daughter quickly turn her head on the vendor as he yelled, not so far from them.
When the man rummaged through his pocket and found only three silver coins, he suddenly felt a sting in his heart watching his daughter approach the vendor with only three silver coins in her hands that could only buy a total of one skewer, which wasn't enough to feed both of them.
"Here, you have it."
As the vendor handed the skewer, she could not help but to looked back, watching his father's gaze not so far from her.
Looking at him, you could already tell that his complexion was not good, as his face had become much paler than a corpse.
Pa-papa...
She thought, as she shook her head before she ran towards him wearing a lovely smile while holding a skewer in her hand. But when she was about to be near him, a carriage suddenly popped out of nowhere and crashed into the man, hardly making him come off flying in the air as his body hit the ground, leaving the child trembling on her two feet as she stares at the scene with her eyeballs shaken on surprise while the skewer she was holding has fallen onto the ground.
"What's with all this commotion?"
A cold, blunt voice asked while people bowed and gave away, walking past them along with the two armored guys.
His eyes widened when he saw the child gripping her clothes, trembling as she looked at the man's body lying on the ground, bathing in his blood.
Staring at the scene, he suddenly felt a needle piercing his heart, losing his breath as a long-buried memory appeared right before his eyes.
It was a young little boy who was holding a certificate in his hands, staring at the bloody corpse of a lady with a pair of widened eyes while blood continued to flow out of her body. Everything popped out like a videotape in his mind as it quickly disappeared, leaving him in shock as he held his chest, hardly catching his breath.
"Milord! Are you alright?!"
Reinhardt asked, as he approached the trembling kid in front of him.
"Erwin, I leave this job to you."
He declared trying to calm himself as he took a deep breath.
"Take the injured people to the hospital. Make sure that the one at fault will be given the right punishment for his careless act!"
Khalid then walked out of the scene, leaving the job to his two speechless knights.
When he arrived at the enormous yet fancy palace that was now looking great after the war, Khalid decided to just walk straight into his office and make himself busier than ever to keep his mind occupied at work. But as he scribbled, his attention was suddenly caught by the flowers outside of his window.
It was then Khalid had noticed that it had become more peaceful and quiet, yet it was enough for the loneliness to devour the room that was eaten in silence.
"When did I ever feel this peace?"
He wanders, gazing outside the window, when he jolts up on his seat before he hurriedly runs outside as if he had forgotten something important that took him weeks to remember.
"Damn it! Don't tell me he was still hiding until this day in straight 3 weeks!"
He wondered as he remembered Dal, who was left hiding out of nowhere and had already been missing for almost a month.
"So troublesome."
Khalid then immediately rushed outside, hoping to find Dal hiding in nowhere.
****************************
In the garden of the palace, where the big oak tree stood in the middle of the spacious area, a man with long blond hair in a lowered ponytail that was being swayed by the wind could be seen hugging himself as he waited under the oak tree, sitting quietly while murmuring to himself with his two feet buried in the dried fallen leaves.
"It's been a week now, but I could still wait."
He stated as he looked at the rotten leaves on the ground.
Dal stopped for a second as he remembered the night when he walked all by himself like a lorn wolf, without anyone by his side and with all the people in the tribe, including his father, looking at him with cloying disappointment on their faces.
I didn't raise a monster like you!
As the voice rings in his ears, he still smiles, trying to escape the sadness that wants to devour him.
"I...I-I had become one of his knights, he had given me a blessing, and I was sure he would come and fi...find me...."
"...The palace is surely big-Pfft...HA....haha-"
Dal tried to brush off the pain he felt by believing that Khalid would find him, but another week had passed, and not even Khalid's shadow was nowhere to be seen.
"All I wanted was his trust. I-I thought we-we were getting along with each other..... but every time I looked into his eyes, I-I knew tha-that it was impossible..."
Dal spoke with a bleak expression and tone in his voice.
Dal spent a week whimpering like a dog that had been abandoned by its owner as he started doubting his own leal actions.
Meanwhile, Khalid sighed as he saw the sight of a man hugging himself from afar.
Seriously. This kid!
Khalid hurriedly ran towards him as sweat ran down his face.
"Fou-found you."
Khalid gasps for air as he looks at him in the eyes with the same soulless expression, but looking at it Dal knows that there is a faint of abrasive feeling in the tone of his voice as he struggles to catch his breath.
*Sniffed!*
"You've found me, my elcid."
He responded as he tried to smile when a tear suddenly fell from his eyes, startling Khalid so much that he was left surprised.
Ah, I think I made a terrible mistake!
He thought as he offered him his hand.
"Let's go home."
Khalid insisted as he waited for him to take his hand, and when Dal did, he was sure that he was approaching the light as soon as he took his hand.
I will protect you with all my heart and soul, I swear...
Dal thought as he stared at Khalid's nonchalant face while trying to reach his hand, and before he could do so, he suddenly felt his legs turn to noodles, causing his mind to turn blank, leaving him unaware of what had happened before he passed out.
.
.
.
As Khalid continued working in his room, Dal was beside him, snuggling like a bug while sleeping peacefully on his lap, which made it tougher to move around.
When Khalid lifted his head, he noticed Reinhardt bursting with a porcupine reddish-orange aura while shooting lasers at Dal.
"Milord, are you alright?"
He worriedly asked, not noticing how deceitful his aura had covered the entire room.
Ah, I give up. I couldn't care less about being in a spot, but I don't think I could go on anymore!
Khalid absorbingly thought as he looked at them in the eyes.
"Ha, I think I made a mistake!"
He stated with an exhausted look on his face, but still it didn't make his soulless expression change. Perhaps the only thing that had changed was that another person had wanted to stay by his side.
I would not make you join at the hip of Milord, you cagey fox!
I'll rip off that innocent mask on your face!
The two knights thought viciously as they both glared at the man who was chained inside the room with no windows or light coming in from the small holes.
"I swear, I did not know everything that had happened!"
He cried and begged as he kept repeating the same word he had stated.
"It was no use."
Erwin sighed.
"What are you trying to do now?"
Reinhardt asks when he suddenly puts gloves on his hands, pulled his hair back before he directly stares into his eyes.
"Tell me everything you remember."
As soon as the man looked into his eyes, Erwin left eye changed to the color of the ocean, which made him follows everything that he asked for.
"Now tell me everything."
"It was a man—no! It was a monster in human flesh! It was all made by him!"
His voice was covered in panic.
"It was him! He was the one behind everything!- *POP!*
Just then, his head exploded, leaving Erwin in great shock.
"What do you think? "
"There's no doubt. There is only one person who can do such a thing! "
He paused for a second, wiping his face.
"It was surely the work of the emperor."