Night had fallen over the capital, its darkness spreading mostly unimpeded through every corner and crevice it was allowed access to, blotting all light and plunging the city into primal darkness. Well, at least that was what most of the city’s population experienced, the many regular Joes walking through the streets every day far too poor to buy something to purge the dark, like those fancy mana lamps used to exhaustion in the palace and in the fancy bedrooms and hallways of nobility and rich merchants, the gold they earned monthly more than enough to cover the costs. While Kary and Asteria were partying around, not really because they wanted to, mind you, in one of those bedrooms freed from the almighty darkness, lighten by a colorless sphere emitting a light that was just at the perfect intensity that it managed to illuminate the entirety of the room without being too hard on the eyes. Despite being a bedroom, fully furnished with everything its owner might need, down to the must minute of things, architectural decisions that a more sensible person might have scoffed at, thinking of it as nothing more than a waste of money, but the owner of this room couldn’t care less for the opinion buzzing flies. The tall man sat languidly on a padded chair so full of frills and ornaments even an emperor would hesitate sitting on it for fear of ridicule. The man had no such fear, instead savoring the rich tea he had one of the many maids under his employ prepare for him while he waited for one of his trusted aides to come back with the latest news regarding the local nobility.
That was his hobby, his passion, the whole reason he even bothered to put on a fa?ade to impress the bootlickers and rats within the upper ranks of society, mixing his love to play pretend with his obsession with being in control at all times. It was the reason he had picked such a peculiar career path, ditching the easy life of a noble, where he would only need to leech off of the taxes flowing from the people living on the portion of land assigned to his family on the conception of this kingdom and return a fraction of the money on the form of minimal improvements of the people’s lives, going instead through the trouble of getting close to king using the fa?ade of kindness, gathering the trust of official after official, rising through the ranks until reaching the point where he was at today. Was he satisfied with everything he had managed to build over the last decades? Definitely. But did that mean he would stop his machinations, his behind-the-scenes works, put an end to his information-gathering network, painstakingly developed on the shadows of the ruling class? Of course not. If anything, being in a position of such power gave him not only a bigger leeway to execute his plans, but also allowed him to extend his web far and wide, giving him access to plenty of useful information that he would in turn transform into carefully conceived reports that at times would reach the hands of the monarch, though that was only the case with matters that were either of too little importance for the man to care or represented an actual threat for the kingdom, requiring the full attention of its ruler. He was weird, eccentric, quirky, even, but lumping him together with the many traitorous sharks just waiting for an opportunity to sink the ship would be doing the man a huge disservice.
He smiled as he sipped his fragrant drink, savoring every last drop as he closed his eyes, allowing the baby swirls of smoke to dance on his complexion, his expression in nothing betraying the dying curiosity he felt, serene smile tugging at his lips while he patiently waited for the man he had planted on the party held at the castle today to arrive. One sip. Two. Three. The same movements, thrice repeated in the same mechanical, almost inhuman manner, his body almost looking as if it was being puppeteered by some higher being who knew not the art of puppeteering, amateurishly moving a single limb at a time, the arm moving in the same stiffen manner an uncared-for door would, although there was no noise like there would be for an unoiled door other than the almost inaudible clinking of the teacup as it was thrice put to rest on the saucer, allowing it but a moment’s rest, before its services were once more requested. Despite deliberately taking his time finishing his tea, his servants had yet to knock on his door to let him know of the informant’s arrival, giving the man time to think of an appropriate punishment for making him wait for so long. Compared to other nobles, he could consider himself to be quite liberal with the way he treated his servants, allowing some degree of informality, giving them the freedom to enjoy their free time with whatever activities they might want to do, setting up pretty lax timeframes in which they had to do their duties. He didn’t mind a small slip here or there, after all, was someone who never made mistakes truly a mortal being like they all were? Or were they just really that good at lying with a straight face? Regardless, what mattered was that the man he had entrusted with gathering information on that joke of a party was stretching thin every last bit of goodwill the noble had left. There was a limit to how much he was willing to tolerate, and that blasted man was threading very, very close to it, putting his life on the line for… for what exactly? The nobleman wondered and wondered, but nothing he came up with could explain such blatant disregard for orders.
Placing his teacup one last time on the saucer placed on the table in front of him, he slowly got up from his comfortable chair, the pleasant smile on his face disappearing almost as fast as the last fumes of the hot remnants of what had once been tea, stretching with the his stiff muscles with a fluid motion that was so immensely different from his cranky, stiff arm movements before that an unrelated observer might wonder if the internal systems in charge of motion control had been changed without the audience noticing, though it was simply a result of the way the noble had been raised, a product of his environment, one more educated person might argue, although the nobleman, would have to disagree with that. Despite the many times he had seen children of noble houses turning out as almost perfect copies of the heads of the houses, his case had been the most extreme opposite, with his father being a surprisingly good man, despite the surprisingly accurate label attributed to nobility, caring dearly for both his only son and his cherished wife, a great man even at his deathbed. That was the opinion the man had of him, and although it was obviously embellished to a questionable degree, it was evidently clear that he had not been forced to become what he now was due to any one factor, but rather a culmination of events and discoveries.
Regardless, it was well known to the people working at his manor that he loved what he did more than anything in life. He didn’t know why he was that way, nor had he ever tried to pry more deeply into this matter, but it remained that he was really looking forward to all the juicy information about the many scandals involving the folks vain enough to attend such a pitiful party he should have already received, his hands itching for a pen with which he would be able to record everything down, placing it neatly with the archived parchments hidden away in his personal safe. Breathing just a smidge faster than before in attempt to qualm his nerves, the tall nobleman walked with wide, confident strides to the closed window by the side of the room, opening it without a care in the world, knowing full well that it opened to the inside of his estate. Taking in the starry night in all its infinitude, his gaze jumped from one constellation to another, the endless points of light for a brief moment allowing him to drown his mind in its brightness, while he himself disappeared on the dark night. For what appeared to be both an eternity and no time at all, he basked on that sick and twisted feeling of insignificance, a reminder that in the end it didn’t matter how much he achieved in life, or how much he fed his vices, in the end, everything would disappear into the night, forgotten by all but the most tenacious of minds. And then he heard a knock on his door, followed by the polite phrase he had been waiting all night long, his mind jutted out of its stupor by the sweet voice of a young maid.
“Master Kuko, your guest has arrived. May I please open the door to your study?” Moving quickly, the nobleman returned the window to its original state, before hurriedly crossing his room to the still warm chair he was occupying not even five minutes ago. With a light cough to hide his awkwardness in front of his subordinates, he addressed the maid with that deep voice of his, his voice laced with killing intent directed at none other than that failure of an informant.
“Bring him in.” Three words. Three simple words arranged together in a string was all that it took to shake the poor man standing on the other side of the door, his trembling knees threatening to force him into a kneeling position, though he managed to hold his ground, at least while the cute girl in a maid outfit stood around to watch. Once she finished her job of opening the door and picking up the empty tea set, though, he was almost as quick to fold as a chair made specifically for that purpose, trying his very best to get some air into his lungs as he stood at the doorway, both hands and knees on the ground as pressure like he had never felt before assaulted him from above. For a few brief moments, the poor bastard saw his entire life flash in front of his eyes, from the first moments he was able to remember, all the way up to the mission that had put him on this precise spot. Closing his eyes, the man prepared for the absolute worst, asking every single god he could remember for forgiveness, begging for them to intervene in his favor, to at least try to put up a good word for him, but it seemed that either divine intervention had been unnecessary, or it had already done its work, for the pressure suddenly disappeared as if it had all been coming from his own imagination, though such a theory was so outrageous that the man didn’t even dare think about it, instead focusing on the thick leather boots in front of him, his gaze noticing its shine, its luster, its sudden movement upwards towards his downward-facing face.
“Well, well, well, look who has finally decided to show up. You sure took your sweet time, didn’t you? For a moment, I was worried that you had taken this opportunity to flee this country, perhaps hoping that in doing so you would be escaping my grasp. It would be futile, but I bet you already knew that, hence why you came crawling back to me. So? Come on, my servant, tell me the true reason why it took you so long to come to meet me, to the point where I can’t help but force myself to hold back my anger so as to not crush you against the floor. After all, you are still useful to me, despite your… less than adequate sense of time. Some correction might be required, but all in due time.”
“Umm… s-s-so…”
“No, that just won’t do. Am I supposed to stay here for the next three moons, hearing this poor excuse for a speech? Do you take me for a fool, a unoccupied buffoon who has nothing else to do other than listening to this barely understandable mess? I you do, please do me the favor and go die in a ditch, starving, bleeding out, whatever, just… disappear out of my sight and never dare to step foot inside any city within the empire while your breath still holds. If you do understand what I’m asking of you, please do try to be more concise with you way of conveying your information, for you already wasted while the amount of my precious time, and I would like to head to bed soon. Now please, it would be a quite the treat to hear your beautiful voice once more, so please, do continue with your report.” Although Kuko flashed a bright smile that threated to end the reign of the night, his voice dripped with venom, a sharp dagger that sunk deeply into the poor man still ling on all fours on the ground every time the noble opened his mouth to address him.
“Y-yes, of c-c-course. Ahem, ahem. Okay now, you got this. Deep breaths, deep breaths and a confident voice.” The man said in a whisper, barely audible, but just enough to make Kuko’s smile grow a tad bit wider as he watched the man on the ground trying his very best to control his nerves. Yes, he had been quite annoyed before by the man’s lateness, but, now that he was here, he had all the patience in the world, as long as that meant he would be able to get his hands on all the information he had been waiting for the entire day. A few seconds passed in almost complete silence, the only sound coming from within the mansion being the muffled steps of the few servants still awake at this hour on the distance and the informant’s constant words of self-encouragement, that seemed to work surprisingly well to toss away some of the well-deserved fear he was feeling.
“As you predicted, it seems that the Berap family has been trying to establish a deeper connection with that up and coming house… what was the name again… Ah, yes! Vora! How could I forget! Yes, their representative, a boy that might be one of the children of Penin. Only the gods know how many children that sly fox has put out throughout the years. I doubt even the man himself, regardless of how much of a genius merchant he might be, knows the exact amount of his offspring that walk through this very earth. Other than that, the same exact circles you see in every noble party were also there, discussing the same boring topics that don’t really seem to change from one event to another. Since there were some commoners participating this time around, though, there was some nice variety to their same-y conversations that was much appreciated. As previously mentioned, the biggest difference this time around was the presence of some commoners courageous enough to accept the invite. They mostly kept to themselves, so there wasn’t much I could extract from them, but I did notice a girl accompanying ‘Crimson Blade’ Asteria, a girl so pale that even I had to do a double take when I saw her for the first time. What’s more, it seems that the girl managed to catch the attention of Onico, who came in after the end of the party to drag both the girl and the knight off to somewhere. I did try to follow them, but that old monster probably knows this castle better than the lines on his palms, so he was quick to lose me through the twists and turns, hence why it took me so long to get back here. Although it shames me greatly, I was completely lost for some time, though I hadn’t wandered far enough for the exit to be impossible to find. And that concludes my report, sir.”
Hearing the disrespectful rambles coming from his servant’s mouth, words that would get anyone into trouble should they have the indecency of addressing their superiors in such a manner, Kuko couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh, drowning out all the other sounds reverberating through the thick walls of the mansion, reaching far into the night before disappearing into the oblivion. That was the reason Kuko kept such a tight leach on this specific individual, for his reports never once failed to entertain him to the point of tears, and losing him would be quite the unfortunate accident. Still, if it ever came a time when the man’s services were no longer needed, Kuko would have to stain his hands with blood just like he had done many, many times before on less opportune occasions, the subtle smell of iron never quite leaving his palms. For now, though, he was willing to forget the quite egregious mistake the informant had made earlier, in light of both his skill and his humor, a there was some value in maintaining a man who could joke even in such a stressful situation.
“I see, I see… That’s quite fascinating. I wonder what Asteria has been up to during these past months we haven’t seen each other. Not that I haven’t tried to figure it out, mind you, but she is surprisingly slippery, always hiding just out of my sight. Heh. Heh heh. I wonder… hmm… if she has to take care of a girl now… maybe… maybe that could work. Heh heh… Number Three, may I ask you to bring me Number One? There are some things I wish to discuss with that brother of yours.” With a nod of his head, the man referred only by the number engraved on his back, a mark of his eternal pact of submission to the vile beast in front of him, got up and, without looking at the man’s eyes, turned his back and briskly walked to the little shack his fellow companions called home, leaving behind an ecstatic Kuko pacing back and forth in his well-lit room, a huge grin that threatened to reach all the way up to his ears plastered on his face. Although he appreciated the new info he had obtained, insignificant as it may be, there usually wouldn’t be anything that would make the man dance as if he had been possessed by a ghost, but the knowledge that tonight he might be able to spy on one of the most secretive persons in the entirety of the kingdom was too much for him to contain everything inside himself, his joyous mood such a stark contrast with his usual serious fa?ade that any servant that might catch a glimpse of it would think that he had surely gone mad this time around. Perhaps he had always been mad, and that was the reason why he hadn’t broken after all these years of twists and turns.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It didn’t take very long at all for the man of the hour to arrive, his face hidden beneath a white mask with two horizontal slits, a personal choice of his that he had stubbornly refused to give up even after the many critics by Kuko of its design and the way it contrasted with his clothes. Well, he did his job well enough, so there was no need to pick on him too much. As long as he carried the missions he had been entrusted with and returned with all his limbs attached, it mattered little what terrible fashion choices he made. Still, every time the nobleman called for him, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by the fact that he still hid his face, hideous as might be, behind that plain, unoriginal mask. If only it had the some decorations, some variations of colors, then it might be passable as belonging to the servant of an important noble. But alas, Kuko had yet to convince the stubborn man, though he never tried too much out of fear that one of his most valuable assets, a true shadow capable of slipping past any security measures completely unseen, killing and stealing and spying as per whatever orders he might have received on that night and leaving without a trace to link back to either him or his master before daybreak. Silent like a dead man, he listened as his master rambled on and on, adding details to the his orders amidst his crazed storytelling that mixed some useful info with things that one really would question whether or not someone on Kuko’s position should be telling his subordinates. The man couldn’t care less, though, his excitement getting the better of his judgment, though one might argue that it was only because he knew that Number One would never betray him, for he had trained the quiet man for a long time in order to get him to be this way.
Minutes ticked by as Kuko’s words melted into one another, his nonstop blabbering entering through one ear and leaving through the other, Number One’s brain automatically filtering off anything that wasn’t of importance, leaving very little for him to work with. It was always like that, and sometimes Number One did wonder what life would be like should another filthy noble picked him up from the cage he had been locked in, only to reach the conclusion that there was a much bigger probability that he would be either living a miserable life as a slave to some rich, arrogant man somewhere far away from the prying eyes of the authorities, or he would be already dead. In a sick, twisted way, what happened to him was amongst the most positive outcomes, where he was able to keep his personality and practice his passions, with the only condition being follow this ridiculous man’s every word.
The buzzing on the nameless man’s ears continued for a while more, though with most of the relevant information having already been relayed, there was very little reason for Number One to bother himself with the nonstop ramblings of a man so lost within himself that he needed to do things like these to give himself a reason to remain in this world. It was a depressing sight from the spy’s perspective, watching a man who had everything any commoner could ever want and more, a man who had long reached the pinnacle of his profession, withering away in the solitude of his compounds, surrounded only by the men and women who would never ever dare to negate him anything. With cold, detached eyes, he watched from behind his pristine white mask as the long, disconnect series of words were momentarily paused, as Kuko reached for the place where his tea once was, only stopping once his hand failed to grasp the nonexistent handle. Sighing, the nobleman turned his gaze, sharp despite the all-consuming madness trapped within them, towards Number One.
“Hah… in short, I want you to try and sneak into Asteria’s home and gather as much information on the new girl she’s been housing as you can. Be careful, though, for that woman can be as sneaky and as calculating as a snake. I wouldn’t put it past her to have already predicted our… nightly visit. It wouldn’t be such a big problem if that woman wasn’t so inhumanly strong, but alas, there’s nothing I can do other than warn you before you go. Know that you aren’t the first to take the mission of spying on that mansion, but I certainly hope that you’ll be the last. Do not disappoint me, alright?”
“Of course, master. I’ll be back before the crack of dawn, regardless of how the mission goes. If you desire nothing more from me, then I shall take my leave.” With a deep bow, the masked man melted into the shadows, disappearing under the darkness of the night, leaving behind each and every single stray thought that wasn’t pertinent for his mission, his mind solely focused on accomplishing the ridiculous assignment he had been asked to do. Perhaps today it would be the day he would die. Perhaps today would be the day he would be finally set free from Kuko’s grasp, though, despite the man’s bossy nature, he usually wasn’t terribly unreasonable, though his most recent decision sure did make it seem like it. Shaking his head, Number One continued his path in silence, hopping from roof to roof as he approached the knight’s manor with inhuman speed, his footsteps leaving no mark nor sound behind, all the skills he hones through years of intense training working overtime to make sure not a single person could notice his presence. That was his job, after all, and, as a much as he disliked it, it was impossible to deny his affinity for it. With eyes open wide to encapsulate as much of the night scenery as he could, the man clad in shadows swiftly arrived at the unlit mansion where one of the most important officials of the kingdom resided, despite what the simplicity of its design would lead one to believe.
Scanning the wall nearest to him in the hopes of finding an easy way in, Number One eventually gave up, noticing that each and every single one of the windows was firmly closed, and to attempt to pry one of them open would be to announce his presence to any half-baked servant that might still be awake. Of course it wouldn’t be this easy. His master had specifically warned him that this would probably be amongst the hardest missions he had ever done, and so it was nothing but wishful hope to expect anything less. With a sigh that in much resembled his master, the spy once more dissolved into the shadows, swimming through the darkness of the night, slipping right under the doorstep and into the pitch-black interior of the mansion, where everyone had most definitely long since gone to sleep. It was peaceful, almost bucolic, the world standing completely still as nothing dared to move within the confined of the house, is inhabitants enjoying their rest without any worries within their little heads. That was what Number One hoped, at least, since he hadn’t had much time at all to plan this impromptu mission, meaning that there were a number of variables that he hadn’t even considered when jumping through the night to reach the manor’s gates. Still, this mission all but promised to be a quick one, at least if his master decided not to pursue this matter further, perhaps out of fear of retaliation from the renowned knight who resided within these walls, for he only needed to check on the supposed girl that had been seen standing beside Asteria in the afternoon party before clocking out for the night.
That was when the lights in the central hallway of the mansion suddenly lit up, forcefully ejecting the man out of the cold, comfortable confines of the dark, his eyes darting around as he flew through the room with all the grace of a misfire, frantically trying to locate the responsible for turning his simple in essence mission into a nightmare that was sure to get him belittled by his master once he got back. Although he expected a servant, perhaps a maid on night duty, the person standing at the edge between the room and the hallway didn’t look anything like a frightened girl in the frilly, almost impractical dress worn by maids, the woman instead looking straight at him even as he tried to gain the most distance he could between them within the large room, tracking his every move with the sharpness of a seasoned warrior that thrived in the battlefield. Goosebumps formed on the man’s skin as his eyes scanned the room, the calm with which he had entered long gone, substituted by weariness and a tinge of fear, though the stoic man would never admit that, even in death. While the two of them locked eyes, Number One began to discern more and more details as his eyes got used to the abrupt change in lighting, the woman’s skin, which seemed to bear a slightly darker color than the usual skin tone of the people in this region, her muscular body, not to the point of being grotesque, hiding beneath the simple white night gown, her grey eyes, looking as if they could bore a hole right through his head, the big, callous hands standing perfectly still besides her torso.
Each end every single detail he could observe made the man panic more and more, for he knew that the woman in front of him wasn’t someone he could simply defeat before continuing to carry on with his mission. He had been quite confident in his chances of wrapping up things quickly here and returning to his master, but that was only because he had assumed he wouldn’t cross paths with the monster standing on the other side of the room from him, and, even if she did and up spotting him, he was banking on his skills to get him out of there before the woman could do anything that could compromise the mission, or worse, his own safety. Now, through? He would be lucky if he managed to escape with all his limbs intact. That was the kind of freakish strength he was dealing with, the power to overwhelm anyone and everyone that dared to stand in her path, bulldozing through each and every obstacle placed in front of her with absolute finesse and otherworldly ability with the sword, the might to pierce the very heavens should she choose to. That was the kind of woman he would be fighting against, in a terrain where he had absolute disadvantage, with the only thing working in his favor being the fact that Asteria had no weapons in hand, though Number One doubted such trivial things would bar her from splattering his brain matter into the ground.
Controlling his breath to the best of his abilities, his eyes went from corner to corner, his trained vision registering all the dark spots he could use to get the upper hand on the experienced knight, while the woman herself simply stared at the spy with utmost disinterest, not even seeing him as a toy worth playing with, at this point seriously considering simply killing him and going back to bed. Although he had seemed promising when she had found him, now she was coming to the realization that, although the man was, indeed, better than most, he wasn’t exactly good, as demonstrated by his series of bad decisions. Shaking her head in disappointment, Asteria suddenly lunged forward, her naked feet barely touching the ground as she advanced at breakneck speeds, closing in the gap between the two of them in a mere instant, her hand reaching for the man’s throat in one fluid motion with no empathy or compassion at all. What greeted her, though, was simply empty air, as the man was nowhere to be seen. Should she be in her shoes, Asteria would have used this slight moment of respite to make her escape, but it seems that the man knew not the concept of giving up, for he ignored all the easy ways he could have used to escape, choosing instead to throw towards her a knife from a safe distance, his eyes focused solely on her, almost as if he had an obsession.
As much as she would’ve liked to further analyze the man’s bizarre behavior, it was undeniable that he had quite a bit of experience, as demonstrated by the accuracy of his shot, aimed directly at her heart, though in front of overwhelming strength even the most precise assassins would choose to flee in order to preserve their own lives, choosing to lose the battle in order to hopefully secure the war. This man was the complete opposite, going all in on the fight, employing every trick he had learned over his extensive career, except the one that could’ve saved him. Without looking to see if his knife had connected with the woman, he quickly grabbed another one from his belt, a present generously given to him by his master as a reward for his perfect streak of complete missions. When he tried to find his target, though, the only thing within his field of view was a poisoned dagger stuck in the carpeted ground, green poison seeping through the cracks and crevices, making a nasty-smelling smoke rise from the ground like the souls of the long deceased. Eyes widening, he tried to determine the direction the woman would come from, but he had simply too little information, too little to go off with. He didn’t know her patterns, the way she fought, her preferred fighting style. Heck, he didn’t even know what her dominant hand was! He had been careless, much too careless, overconfidence born out of all his previous successes, a fragile tower of cards made out of his own ego, stacked just a little too high, now crumbling to the ground as realization kicked in. He was going to die tonight, and there was nothing he could do.
Still, he would try his very best to survive, to extend his lifespan even a second longer. With renewed determination flashing brightly from within his eyes, Number One entered a state of complete focus, his mind kicking into overdrive as he tried to think of a way to escape Asteria. In a fit of genius he had never before experienced and would never after experience again, he jumped, going high into the air, ditching his one advantage — the shadows on the ground — for a chance to analyze the battlefield from above. He felt his feet leaving the ground, his head reaching for the clouds above despite the ceiling standing in his way, feeling the gust of wind below where Asteria had just passed through, the sheer pressure exerted by her punch more than enough to make his hair stand on end, the knowledge that a single punch from that monster was enough to end this fight only feeding his regret of not having escaped when he had the chance. He bawled his fists, ready to make one final stand, one final attempt at delaying the inevitable, and, who knows, perhaps changing the tides of fate in his favor, the mask he wore at all times concealing whatever feelings of despair he might be feeling, his faced perfect in every way, the narrow slits in his mask all that he needed to convey his feelings to his opponent.
Fear. Overwhelming and all-encompassing. Primal terror over the inexplicable, over the natural disasters that no amount of theory-crafting could explain, over the realization that what he was fighting wasn’t a human, but a force of nature itself. With abject horror, Number One watched as the freak of nature wearing the skin of a beautiful woman punched her fingers on the ground, leaving behind shallow, smoking lines on the ground, breaking all the momentum with which she had lunged towards him, fully intending to taking his life then and there. Although he knew what he was seeing was occurring in speeds faster than the average human would ever be able to comprehend, he couldn’t help but perceive everything in slow motion, his body too sluggish to react to his own demise as he fell to the ground at a snail’s pace, allowing him to witness as the ‘sword of the kingdom’, holding no sword in her callous hands, turned towards him, got up on all fours, and jumped with the grace of a bird soaring through the skies, the difference between her deliberate attempt at flying and his desperate attempt at survival so palpable the man was forced to wonder if anything he had done this night had been worth it.
As he watched the woman reaching higher than he ever could, almost touching the tall ceiling with her back, wondered if anything he had done during his life had been worth it. If his efforts farming with his family were worth anything, for they were compensated with selling him into slavery after a couple of bad years. If his efforts in being his boss’s number one had been worth it, for it only resulted in him getting more and more work, oftentimes dangerous and risky work. Watching Asteria interlocking her hands together in a makeshift hammer, Number One decided that, in the end, it didn’t really matter. That was the path he had walked, a path filled with death a suffering everywhere, a path that was sure to consume and eventually destroy anyone who dared thread it, and, although he had many, many regrets, he couldn’t really bring himself to hate the world for what it had done to him. There were choices, and he just happened to take the bad ones. Looking up, his gaze locked into Asteria one last time, a smile filled with pain blossoming in him masked face, before darkness fully embraced him one last time, this time fully intending to never letting go.
