Dawn- An Age Of Darkness

I gulped down two whole plates of food this morning. Refina stared at me with wonder as I finished my meal and lied down again. My body was messed up pretty bad. So, I couldn't move much. The pain didn't go down? I thought I'd at least recover a little. But it didn't. Did my curse weaken or something? Where was that damn thing when I needed it?

Sometime later Meriane came inside. For some reason, she smelt good. Some kind of perfume perhaps?

Along with her came Gorgan. As usual, the lady killer had a lady-killing aura. I wouldn't have been surprised if there was a fan club of sorts for him even in this world. Actually, come to think of it, there was, wasn't there?

These two had at least some ulterior motives. However, I could get the impression that they liked me; how much so, that I couldn't and didn't want to comprehend.

"Drink this," Meriane said. It was as though she was offering medicine to a toddler.

"This is?"

She had a cup of red liquid. It almost looked like blood. But smelt like wine. "A high potion. Quite rare and expensive. But luckily, her highness has given you three of these for your exploits." He handed it over, and it definitely smelt like red wine.

Some part of me tells me that's just bribery. But I suppose I shouldn't judge people out of assumptions.

I drank a full cup of the potion. What a taste. It tasted exactly like red wine, without the punch of alcohol. I had a liking for grapes, so I liked the flavor. This is bad…. I think I can get hooked to this…. I erased the thought from my mind the moment it appeared.

My wounds didn't heal much. But the pain eased. I could stand on my feet and move around, albeit on a limited scale.

"This is amazing!" Of course I meant the taste.

Meriane smiled. "Yes, it is. But don't forget that they are very expensive, and use them accordingly." She didn't hand me the remaining two. "I'll hold on to these. They say high potions have a refined taste, so people often go bankrupt trying to acquire one. We can't have that with you, right?"

"I will. And yeah, I understand." I had to act humble even though I didn't really have the potions. But I could see where she was coming from. It really did taste quite nice.

"Now that you can move around, want to head to the throne room? I believe her highness has some business with you," Gorgan said.

So that's why you were here? "First I'd like to visit Lianne," I said.

"Of course." Gorgan sweated and looked a little awkward. Perhaps it was just my imagination.

He led me to Lianne's room. Mariane followed us. Compared to my room it had less lighting, small, and seemed kind of grey. The elf boy was there too. He was holding Lianne's hand. Something about it made my heart feel heavy.

"I promise you, I will find a way to get you there, even at the cost of my life," he said. He hadn't seen us yet. Or perhaps he was saying that because he saw us. he had excellent eyesight after all.

"Calm down. Remember what I told you?" I said.

Honestly, I couldn't bear to see Lianne like this. She was much more pale than usual. She looked skinny, and I felt horrible.

He turned around, shocked. "Daarc! You can move now?"

I ignored the elf boy's query. "She never awoke?" I asked.

"She fainted right after you, and hasn't opened her eyes since," he said as his eyes sparkled with tears.

"Don't worry. I think I know what to do," I said.

Beatrine might not like it, but I suppose I can at least give it a shot.

"What do you mean?"

"Daarc, I think we should head back. It won't be wise to poke our nose in the Elf's business," Gorgan whispered. I couldn't follow his reasoning. Why shouldn't I be involved with them?

But for the time being, I listened to Gorgan. "I'll see you later," I said.

"Okay." Elf boy didn't make a scene. He just stayed there.

Afterward we headed towards the throne room. The only way to understand all this is to speak with the most powerful person here. I didn't have a plan, parse. But I did have some ideas. And the princess probably won't like any of them.

My impression of the castle changed quite drastically since the last visit. I had to admit, I was wrong. Only the first half of the castle was made out of stone and looked like the castles found in the history books. However, the rest of the castle was made from something special. Something I had never seen before. This special something was like metal and floated. Yes, you heard me right, they floated! That's why the castle had a narrow base yet had seven floors: each with a unique layout. And I'd only seen one of them on my first visit. No wonder I'd thought this was ordinary.

"By the way, how come you were able to kill the undead?" I said.

Normally even with the coating on my sword, I could only severe the undead's body but they didn't die unless exposed to direct sunlight. However, Lianne's knife was quite effective in that regard. That was the only weapon that could perfectly kill an undead. So when Gorgan effortlessly killed more and more undead, it only made me curious.

"I'm a holy knight."

"I heard. And?" I wasn't letting him off the hook and he knew it.

He sighed. "You see…"

He explained it to me. Apparently, holy knights were handed a special technique by the royal church in the capital. It all depended on one's purity of the soul and their ideals on whether they'd be able to use the power or not: sounded like utter BS. That power on the other hand was similar to magic but instead of using mana to cast spells, they used it to coat their body and weapons. But the only people eligible for such training were ones with holy affinity. And they even made sure to seal away the actual memories of the technique somehow to prevent leaks. Seemed a little too cliché to me but rather effective. But why keep it a secret? Wouldn't making it public help the people more? Gorgan didn't seem comfortable when I asked him that. He just brushed it off saying ''please don't ask me that.''

It took some time to get there, as I had to move at a rather slow pace. But finally, I'd gotten some good clues about this how this world worked. If the church had made the technique public that more and more general people would be able to use it and the undead crisis would subsidy at least to some extent. But this way, they won't be able to maintain their position. I'd seen such practices more than enough in my own world. Every history books had at least some form of this. I narrowed my eyes, exhaled, and moved on. Something really was wrong with this world, and it wasn't just the undead. It was the living too.

A massive double door opened up and we went inside. Somebody declared our arrival in a stout voice. Refina and Gorgan were here with me. Mariane too was here: she'd been awfully quiet for a while though. Although every one of them bowed I didn't: more like I couldn't.

The princess greeted me with her smile. "Welcome, Daarc. I believe the potion has worked?"

"Yes, as you can see so, it has certainly worked. Thank you for giving me something so valuable." I had to play my cards right.

"You're welcome. You must be wondering why I summoned you here despite your injuries, correct?"

It was kind of odd how Gorgan had phrased his words so I was curious. "Can't say that thought didn't cross my mind." But it would have been more surprised if she didn't have questions for me. After all, this all started because of me.

"Well I wanted to talk about the emperor you see," she said.

She got straight to the main issue. I was here because of the damn emperor, to begin with. So it was only natural she'd ask me that. the question, however, wasn't to my liking.

"The emperor? So you were conscious?" However the princess was being controlled. So I didn't really think she'd know that. Other people could have filled her in on it as well, I suppose.

"It's true I was being controlled but I was still conscious of what was transpiring around me." She looked a little down. "Besides, my vessels have filled me in where I'd lacked."

"I see." But then-

Before I could dwindle in thought she bombarded me. "So, what happened? Why did the emperor come all the way to this city for?" Her eyes were glaring at me and I could tell everyone's eyes were on me. She'd recovered way too fast.

Would it be better to say the truth? I pondered for a moment and then tried to answer in a haze. "I-"

"My lady, if I may," Jocaur stood up.

He was here with the knights. Some other people were here too. I'd assumed they were nobles.

"Yes, go ahead." Beatrine squinted her eyes but she didn't protest.

"He has saved us and proved that he was telling the truth. I believe it would be the rudest thing to ask of him to verify his words, yet again." It was surprising really. I knew he trusted me quite a lot. But I never thought he'd go on and petition the princess on my behalf. My respect for the man shot up by miles.

"I too believe that, my lady," Gorgan spoke up. I was glad to have some backing. But this one I didn't anticipate. I never thought Gorgan of all people would rebel against the princess- his love.

There were some whisperings inside the court. With a barely audible sigh, Beatrine spoke. "Very well. I will refrain from asking that." She shot a dejected look at Gorgan. Gorgan quickly averted his eyes. Just what was going on with these two people? "Now let's get down to business. I've already seen your strength first hand. You are no ordinary warrior, but do you think you can beat one of the Monarchs? But wait, didn't you already beat one? Doesn't that count?"

She had a point. I was cornered. "But I didn't do it alone and the Monarch I'm supposed to defeat was bigger and well- kind of had a large thingy- I mean-" I was running a little low on imagination.

"I see." Just what the hell do you see? She paused. "And what was that? My retainers tell me, that was magic, but humans-"

Her speech and conduct were different from when she spoke to me alone. Maybe that's just how she was. But her questions were precise. If I didn't answer adequately I got the feeling that anything could happen.

"No," I said without hesitation. Truth to be told that slipped out of my mouth; because deep down I knew I couldn't beat the emperor or his puppets, as I was. "As for that, it really was a spell but I wasn't the one who cast it. I had some help from an acquaintance. Can we just leave it at that?"

The whispers became louder. It was a tall order and I didn't think they'd take me seriously after what I'd just said.

She gasped. "I see. I was hoping you were some sort of chosen warrior of god capable of wielding magic, but there goes that. You do however have holy affinity, so maybe…."

Sorry to disappoint you but I'm the chosen warrior. Chosen warrior of the demon lord that is. It was almost laughable how screwed up my life was.

"We have a year, correct? What do you plan to do in that time?" She supported her head on her hands. She almost seemed cute.

"I'll be honest with you. I'm neither strong enough nor skilled. So the first thing I'd like to do is to acquire skills and get the best equipment I can find," I said.

I didn't have time to think about all this. To be more precise, I never gave it time, to begin with. But now that I think about it, I really needed to get stronger.

"Hmm... that would be wise. But how would you increase your skills?" She won't give me a break, will she?

I'd watched and played enough games to know how to get strong. I hoped the same fundamental theory would apply here as well. "By traveling around the world and searching for good equipment." And hopefully not dying.

I was kind of flustered. There wasn't much to say as I didn't really think about it or rather didn't have enough time to think about it.

"That would make sense. Yes, you should search for mystic weapons. Without them you'd end up minced in seconds," she struck a thinking pose and said.

Minced? The way she phrased herself, left a lot to be desired. "Mystic weapons?"

Her eyes glared at me in confusion. "You don't know about them? I thought you were talking about them when you said 'good equipment."

Shouldn't have asked that I suppose. I tried to play it cool, but I was drowning in sweat. Wasn't this supposed to be just a greetings exchange thing? Why the hell was I getting interrogated with this much intensity? I knew the reason, but that didn't help me ease up.

"There are three legendary equipment, each possessing mystic powers, and names," Gorgan said.

Ahh…Gorgan to the rescue. "Where can I find them?" I was being stupid and a jerk. Something about my conduct was rude but I couldn't really change my own self, not at this point.. What's worse, I was aware of it.