When we arrived outside, the palace was in chaos. Many knights were running around carrying bodies – alive or dead, I do not know. Maids were tending to the people who got injured in the explosion. They are all headed towards a certain area towards the forest.
Aside from it being already dark, we are now surrounded by knights, who are guarding us against all sides, so I cannot see clearly where they are heading. I wonder if Cecil and Ser Wayne are okay.
“They’re headed towards the magic tower. The first floor of the tower is a health center. Since the people who are studying alchemy, pharmacy, and magic research reside at the upper floors of the tower.” Lucil smiled at me.
“I just thought you were wondering where they’re carrying the bodies.”
“Lucil!” Emilia shouted from behind us.
“Sister?”
“You’re letting that thing see those injured or maybe dead bodies! Aren’t you aware it might traumatize her?”
Emilia unfolded her fan as she scolded her sister.
I looked at the other children, all of them were carried by knights and all of them are closing their eyes against the shoulders of the knights. Either they were asleep, crying, or they just want to cover their eyes.
“Ah! Sorry. Flizeria, don’t look over there. Here, look at me.”
“That thing is weird. Ever since earlier, she did not show any kind of emotion. It’s as if she’s just observing everything around her.” Emilia stares at me.
“See? She does not even flinch upon seeing me.” She looked away and walked past us.
“Brother surely brought a weird thing inside the palace.” With that, she left.
“Heh! Flizeria is not weird!” Lucil shouted at her.
“I’m sorry Flizeria, sister is rude sometimes but she actually cares about this family more than anyone else here.”
“Princess!” I heard someone call out to me from outside the group of guards.
“Halt! You are not allowed inside this formation.”
“Princess! Are you okay?!”
Cecil was at the rear of the formation, she was not allowed to go in any further, but I want her inside so I stretched out my hand towards her.
“Ce-Ce!”
“Oh, do you want to be carried by her?”
I nodded at Lucil.
“Okay then. Let her in.”
Cecil ran towards us and bowed her head towards Lucil.
“Ce!”
“Here, you can carry her. It seems she’s more comfortable with you.”
“That’s – that’s not true your grace!”
“No, it’s okay. I can tell she’s very fond of you.” Lucil then gave me to Cecil.
“Oh, Princess! I was so worried.”
I cupped Cecil’s cheeks as a way of telling her that I’m okay.
“Ser Wayne is together with the other knights. They’re still inspecting the vicinity.”
I laid my head against her shoulder, somehow I felt tired. The breeze is still warm from the explosion but the moon is full. Before I continued to close my eyes I saw a silhouette of a beast flying in the sky.
******
“Your majesty.” An old man dressed in a red robe approached the emperor inside his office.
“So, what did you find?” The emperor had a stern look on his face, but deep down he was filled with dread.
“Here is the report about the incident earlier. The knights found traces of ‘it’ inside the explosion.” The old man handed the emperor pieces of paper that contained very important information.
‘That’s why it was intercepting the signal of the orb, it’s the same as before.’ The emperor thought to himself.
“Thank you for your hard work Zyde.” The emperor skimmed through the pages forgetting about the presence of the Lord Magician.
Zyde was hesitating for a few moments before opening his mouth again. “Uhm, your majesty may I ask you something?”
The emperor stopped skimming through the papers and looked at him eye to eye.
“What is it Zyde?”
“About the incident,” Zyde hesitated again.
“What is it Zyde? Spill it.” The emperor was now losing his patience.
‘There are still a lot of things I need to do and confirm, I have no time for chit chats’ He thought to himself again.
Zyde exhaled and directly asked “Perhaps, did you already know that it would happen?”
******
I woke up laying in the middle of the twins and their mother on a huge bed. The room was dark but the moon was so bright that it illuminated a quarter of the room. I tried to sleep again but can’t. The incident earlier kept coming back to my mind. I also noticed how the emperor stole glances at me during dinner and when we were underground.
What was his expression? He looked scared and hopeless whenever he looks at me, then regret would then follow his expression. No one else noticed it but I did.
Then I thought back to my previous life. Why was I even at the organization in the first place? What was the world I came from like? I never really had the chance to be knowledgeable about the world around me back then. I was not given any social education, only education related to assassination and destruction. There were even parts of my life back then that are a complete blank to me. It’s as if I can’t remember what I was doing all throughout those years.
I tried to remember the people I mingled with, the people who experimented on me over and over again. The people I killed or the world outside my cell whenever I was given an assignment.
Ryan? Reynold? Rey? It’s funny that those are the only names I could remember and I’m not even sure if that was his name.
I remembered portraits along the walls of the hallways. How they seemed to be important people in the organization.
I felt a shudder down my spine when I suddenly remembered what they did to girls who turned 16. They would impregnate women to raise another generation of test samples. I know that it was almost my turn, I bet the task that was given to me at that time was related to that.
I remembered the expressions on the faces of people I killed with my own hands. I remembered cities burned right before my eyes. My body acts on its own, and before I knew it I was already wreaking havoc around me.
Why was I given another chance at life when all I did before was kill people? I thought death would be harsher to me. Or is this life already my punishment?
It’s no use I can no longer sleep. The twins are sleeping soundly beside me, and Lucil was even snoring.
I looked outside the balcony, where I can see the full moon. It’s so pretty, I want to admire it even more. I decided to get out of bed gently, so that I could not wake them up, and that I may not fall.
The bed is high for a baby, but good thing there was a chair beside it. I carefully crawled over the edge of the bed and tried to stand on the chair.
Okay, almost there. Work legs, work!
Thud.
Lucil moved a little and mumbled something in her sleep. I froze and waited on the floor. Good thing I landed on my butt, if I landed directly on my own two legs, I bet it would not be good for me.
The balcony is not too far away, I can crawl over there and bathe in the moon’s light. The double doors are made up of glass so light penetrated.
I sat before the double doors and looked outside. The same as the room I had before, there was a table set on the balcony and a tree beside it.
“Do you want to go outside?” I look back towards the direction of the voice.
A woman in blue emerged from the dark.
Phew, it was just Lucil’s dragon.
“You can’t go outside with those clothes on. They’re too thin for the night breeze.”
Blue tried to pick me up but I refused.
“You don’t want me to carry you?”
I nodded and attempted to stand up.
“Oh, do you want me to assist you in walking?”
I nodded again. I want to learn how to walk, I don’t want to be carried all the time. I need to strengthen my legs faster.
“Okay, let’s go to the dressing room first, we’ll get you a coat.”
Suddenly she turned into a child.
“It’s better to assist you in this size than an adult’s, I don’t want your arms to tire.”
Although she became a child, she’s still as strong as ever. I wondered what she looks like in dragon form.
“You know, I can tell you’re intelligent.”
We arrived at the dressing room and went inside. She snapped her fingers and an orb of light appeared along with the edges of the ceiling.
“Okay, let’s get you a coat. I hope there are baby sizes in here.”
She let me sit down as she rummaged through the coats.
She sighed, “Found nothing, but let’s try this.”
She made me wear a coat, the coat was too big for me but it’s better than nothing.
“At this point, I need to carry you or you’ll trip over the coat.”
I tried to take one step to see if the coat will really get in my way. No use, I’m really going to trip if I refuse to be carried.
“Okay, let’s go outside.” With that, she turned back into an adult and picked me up.
We went outside the balcony and I felt the cold night breeze. I wrapped the coat tightly around me as we sat down overlooking the forest.
I looked at Blue once again.
“What do you want?”
I really want to see her in her dragon form, would she say yes?
“Dra- Dra- gon?”
“Hmm, dragon? What do you mean?”
I pointed at my eyes then at her.
“Dragon.” This time I got the word out just fine.
“Hmmm, so you can already understand that I’m a dragon huh?”
She stared at me more intently as if inspecting me from head to toe.
“You really are an interesting baby.”
“S-s.. see!” I insisted.
“Oh! You want to see me as a dragon?” Blue’s eyes lit up.
“I never thought you’d never ask.”
With that, she put me on the chair and started stretching. She’s got an excited look on her face, it almost reminds me of Lucil’s excitement when she fed me earlier.
“Okay, here I go!”
She took a few steps back then sprinted towards the edge and jumped off the balcony.