NOVEL SIMPLE Ch 82. The Wicked End Pt. 3
Everything was so weird, as if the world had suddenly stopped but at the same time, it was as if the world continued with its own pace while I was the one that was frozen in time. As if I was suddenly taken out of my body and turned into a mere spectator of my life, a life that was still passing by, right in front of my own eyes.
Suddenly, Phlum’s hand that was shaking me from my shoulder made me go back to my senses.
“What was…”
“Beatrice, get up! We need to get out of this place, now!”
I tried to look back at where Anastasia’s castle was, but the forest that was between us and the Demons that were now under her orders was burning in flames.
“Uh…?”
“It seems that the fight turned out pretty serious… We should use this chance to get away from this place…”
My head was still spinning around, but I managed to understand that if we leave this place, our chances to see Nero again are really low. However, at the same time, I knew that in an oblique way, we all had understood that the moment our party split.
I closed my eyes and felt how big and black feathered wings emerged from my back and started surrounding us. I wasn’t something conscious, it was almost as if I had done something like this a plenti of times, because, in a way, it is true that I have.
I wished that we could get out of this place, get away from what had happened in this place, get back to when we were just running away from our daily difficulties. I wish that we could just be inside a cave on a montain’s top, surrounded by the wilderness and guarding ourselves from the weather and every single Demon or Human.
Sooner than later, my wings ended up melting into feathers that turned into something like a dark ooze when they hit the ground. A dark sticky ooze that was sucked by the ground of the cave that we were in.
Sadly, the moment we appeared inside the cave, it was being used by a traveling party of Adventurers, but right now, I'm simply too tired to deal with something like this.
I had nothing against them, but please understand, we just wanted a little bit of peace, we needed time to let everything sink inside of our minds and hearts.
Thats why, seeing those Adventurers looking at us with perplexes faces, surprised by the sudden appearance of a group of Demons, in the middle of the night, right in the center of the place where they were staying, I simply muttered some words to the ones that had come with me, to my loyal servants.
“Take them out.”
It was fast.
It took just a few seconds. There were no screams nor a fight and the few things that broke the silence of the night were the sounds of flesh being sliced, the sound of blood being splattered on the floor and walls and the sound of bodies falling to the floor.
I walked towards the entrance and leaned my back against one of the walls.
“Geez…”
I heard steps coming from inside. It was Phlum, and when she arrived where I was, she simply sat by my side, in silence, leaning her back against the wall and her head on my shoulder.
“When did I go wrong…?”
“...”
“Was I really that bad as a leader?”
“...”
“Are we really that weak…?”
“Yes, we are.”
Unexpectedly, she answered one of my self deprecating questions. But she was right, if we had been stronger, then we could have saved Afallen, we could have defeated Anastasia. No, we could have defeated the pursuers that forced us to walk into that goddamned forest and nothing of this would have happened.
“But you weren't wrong, and you are not a bad leader, that's why we are here with you. Kaashi, Fluph, myself and even Nero and Afallen; we’ll continue by your side, no matter what, because we trust you and we know you.”
Her voice was calm, so calm that she even managed to calm my troubled soul. After all, it was clear for me that she was being honest, there was no harm nor lies in her words.
“That's such a dull way to say it, you know?”
“That way it's easier to understand, right?”
“You might be right…”
I closed my eyes.
Somehow, that night I managed to sleep better than ever.