NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: Withering (1/4)
"I couldn't be any happier at your words, Lord Rimmon!! As for your question, well i've been in this place and living in the fortress for almost a century now, Mother is here too! But other than that, no one really dares to come to the bleak territory of our fallen Demon Lord of Withering, demonkind is very committed to your Majesty's sanctity, unless it's some of the Divine Priests that come here occasionally for pilgrimage. I'm left with the duty to keep you and your former subordinates' graves intact, since we have a huge graverobbing problem before. Damn thieving scum" After this huge mouthful of a speech, I merely gave a nod at her valuable info dump.
She smiled at my awkward silence and gave her one back, trying to not come across as too stoic in order to make her comfortable in my presence. To which she seems to do so, growing a more relaxed grinning expression before a sharp look took over her again.
."B-by the way my Lord! I'm really sorry for attacking you!! I never got the chance to know what you looked like before and I acted too hastily!! I understand that hat I have done to you equals nothing else than the highest crime, B-but… it really was unintentional!!" Clenching her fists adorably while shaking and yelling this, her mannerisms really were something else. Something you would see a Cosplayer trying to imitate in an anime convention. a bit too over the top, but strangely endearing with how natural it seemed coming out of her.
Well, do I listen to my base sentiments and respond in a petty way to this? Because frankly this girl did make me think that i was about to die and she really did hurt me a lot. But seeing how distressed she is at the moment, I chose to be the bigger man and calm her down. "It's okay, Ligeia. I understand the situation. I would be extremely cautious if i were in your position too" I gave her some patting as well, hoping to eliminate our physical barriers, but mainly because I'm instinctively a rather touchy person with people.
I can feel her simple-minded self immediately grew at ease because of that. I wonder if the reason she's like this is because of the very limited contact she had with people? We silently kept walking out of the cemetery onwards to the gate, opening it with a key in her pocket and getting out together. I looked around the flat horizon ahead to see a semblance of a building not far away. While it's quite far from what I would usually be able to perceive with normal eyes it wasn't an issue for my current field of vision. Around 5 km from here, but I can already see the contours of something extremely impressive, albeit uneven on the edges since it seems like it's been worn down without renovation.
"That's your Dungeon, Lord Rimmon. I'm sure that you don't quite remember it looking like that but… I couldn't really afford renovations a-and…"
"That's fine" I cut her off "We'll think about that later." Walking all this distance would be very tedious I thought. Perhaps I could use some magic power stuff and speed it up? Should be straightforward typically, manipulate the energy, and then imagine the spell? Something like that? I thought about reinforcing my body and muscles with the strange energy coursing through my body like blood, which I was able to manipulate like a limb. After moving it around to the desired locations, I tried a bunch of moves like punching and kicking, to which they seemed much faster now and stronger, the wind making very sharp sounds as I was moving.
'Can I use this on my brain?' I thought, it's a much riskier thing to do, and I didn't really want to ask Ligeia in fear of feeling as though something is amiss. I'll try to put on the amnesia act later, since I honestly also prefer self-reliance when it comes to learning.
'Lets just use a very miniscule quality, since I feel the energy rushing through my cranium anyway, it can't be too harmful' I speculated, directing a very negligible amount of the energy towards my head. To which I immediately felt the effects. My head was much more refreshed, sharper, faster and my motor skills much more honed. It was a euphoric experience.
'This could get very addicting' 'Let's gradually add more' I kept experimenting as we slowly walked towards our destination, Ligeia seemed in her head and uninterested in what I was doing which felt much more relieving. After a while I gave her a shoulder bump and decided to accelerate towards the Fortress, signalling her to do the same.
†*****†
Meanwhile, Ligeia was thinking to herself 'This is not what I had in mind for Demon Lords at all! I thought he would be much more overbearing and unpleasant… Surprisingly not' giving one last look to the face to her resurrected Demon Lord, who seemed to be playing around with his mana in a way that almost felt that he didn't know what to do with it.
'Maybe he's just getting used to his stiffened body' she mused, leaving this matter aside. She returned to reminiscing about her family, her loved ones who remained here for centuries before perishing, not knowing any other way to live other than serving their Demon Lord. As her mind continued spiralling in reminiscence, she thought of her mother, who she grew up so much to resemble in terms of appearance if not for the gloom and madness that was so characteristic of her, not that she blamed her though. Losing her home, loved ones and everything she cherished except for some demons the humans took pity on for being too weak.
Her birth circumstances happened when she decided that she had to continue her high devil lineage, for a witch of her caliber. Finding a way to inseminate herself through traces of DNA wasn't beyond her capacity. And that she did, although where exactly she got the DNA from was never something she really told her.
"My mother lives in the Dungeon's underground, she never really goes out of her self-confinement. I'm not sure what exactly she's been doing there, but at least I can assure you that it's extraordinary"
"Ligeia" Rimmon suddenly mutters.
"Yes?"
"I need to tell you something first, but I'm not really sure how." Adding "I actually cannot remember anything from the past, I do not remember ruling this place, nor who your mother is." Dropping the news. But he wasn't yet finished. "Actually, to be completely honest with you, I'm not even sure I'm the person you're really thinking of." He begins to tell her of his true circumstances, much to her shock and dismay.