One of such, without a horn, pulled on one of the many chains in his grasp. His group of slaves were holding together a large, wooden beam, but the pull was all it took for it to fall down and dirty itself. Immediately, seeing as the bottom of the building material had been tainted, the demon released his irritation.
All around them, countless demons and slaves looked at them, proceeding to do nothing. Instead, the human-powered carriages and material-carrying slaves kept on moving, dim lights fading around their eyes.
Although his sight wavered, there was nothing coming out of his mouth, the face remaining virtually unresponsive.
“You seem surprised,” the demon lord said suddenly, making his head jerk towards her abruptly. Looking at the pair of eyes staring him down, Lutiel naturally replied, whether he liked it or not.
“What?”
Despite hearing the tone of his voice, her mien remained the same.
“To see your kind fall down this way.”
Her voice spiraled inside his head while he looked back and forth between her face and what the windows depicted beyond them. He didn’t reply, but she cared little for that.
“He did say you lost a part of your memories while hiding away. Do you know how long you were inside that cave?”
Lutiel clenched his teeth before she even finished. The words he heard from that red-skinned demon repeated inside his head.
“N-no, I have no idea. I don’t even know what day, month, or even year it is right now,” he said through gritted teeth, battling hard against what his body wanted to speak out for him instead.
“I see. In the human calendar, it would be the tenth day of Herolian of the 917th year. Does that make you recall something?”
‘Huh? No, no, no, there’s simply no way. Is she saying ten years have passed by just like that?’ As he thought to himself, the size of his pupils drifted off while the lids themselves opened up.
Was she lying? But, what would she gain from that when she had no idea who he was? His head was already a mess from the previous events today, but now, the mind had practically turned into a puddle.
Much to his surprise however, he couldn’t think much of it, a striking hot sensation spreading from the middle of his chest. And it didn’t stop.
Once it appeared, it only began to intensify. Quickly looking up, he quickly saw an image that made his bones turn cold.
The chilly glare coming off Zyponia made his skin tighten up, his hair starting to stand as her voice reached his ears.
“I asked you a question,” her voice blossomed inside of him, but in the worst way possible. Instantly, a regretful response had been generated through his head.
“What of it?” He asked a question, an indifferent look to his face, though it quickly changed once the cheeks had been left with an imprint of her metallic palm on them.
Crashing against the inner walls of the carriage, it did nothing to sway it, the man being the one that took all of the damage.
“Don’t ever speak to me that way again. If you do, I won’t hesitate to waste my strength,” she said through unchanging eyes, simply looking at the red expanse coming out on his cheeks and the left side of his face.
With his face turning as red as a tomato, he put his hand over the beat-up area. However, it had done no wonders.
“I’m sorry, I won’t do it a second time, master,” he said, forcing the words out from biting the teeth.
“You’re bleeding again. Come closer,” whispering, she kept looking at the right brow that had been once again opened from her strike just now.
Although his body tried to resist, Lutiel sat closer to her obediently, though he first straightened himself from the hit to the side. Gnashing his teeth the moment he did, wrinkles appeared on his face.
Feeling something violently move out from his cut skin above the eyebrows, he blinked twice a few seconds later, wondering whether it was real.
Touching all over his face, he could no longer feel the crusty, dried up streams of blood on it, soft skin welcoming him instead. Although there were still some swollen and bruised areas from the fight, most of the open wounds were covered with dried blood to stop the further bleeding.
Only his broken and puffed nose was left, thanking her inwardly. Just the slap to untainted skin from half a minute ago brought him a world of painful nightmares. If he were to experience the same with the fractured bone, he wasn’t so sure about keeping awake.
Fortunately, it seemed that the demon wasn’t some miracle performer, other than somehow manipulating the blood around his face.
“You will get your nose treated at the manor, but you shouldn’t feel too much pain around it,” she said, making him nod in response. Just like she muttered, a cold sensation quickly followed, slightly numbing the pulsating, broken bone of the nose.
“Thank you, m-master,” he said, as though eating through sand. Battling himself not to say the words his body wanted to almost made a few of the veins on his face pop, but nonetheless, he got through with it.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s a mere necessity to care for one’s slave. Otherwise, it would be a plain loss of money. Especially in your case,” she said bluntly, a clear look of indifference piling on her.
“...”
He didn’t speak, awaiting another statement from her mouth. Not having any real path he wanted to partake in with her, silence had become his best friend.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“That being said, it’s not only about money with you. That strength of yours, to be exact. It definitely wasn’t that of a normal human. That’s why, I would like to know. How much do you remember about yourself? I mean, you couldn’t have lost all of your memories, no?”
Although it wasn’t intentional, so far, he had only been lying to the demons he met after waking up. Whether he wanted it or not, his body spoke for him.
However, right now, feeling the tightening feeling around his chest, Lutiel had his doubts about revealing any sort of lies.
Holding back any imprudent words, he revealed what he knew. The absolute truth.
“M-my name. I know my name.”
“Hmm? Your name? Tell me.”
“I-it’s Lutiel. Just Lutiel,” he muttered, once again through gritted teeth.
“Hmm? Lutiel?” She wondered for a second before adding. “Is that all you remember? Are you sure you haven’t lied to your capturers?” Zyponia asked for confirmation.
Gathering the thoughts for a while, in the brief period of silence, Lutiel stared into her pink eyes, letting out a clear answer.
“No,” he said, his chest no longer needing to be attended.
“I see. That’s enough, then,” she said, finally turning her gaze away from his, looking at the gradually changing images of the windows.
Left in a scape of silence, Lutiel also looked out of the windows, being the only thing that made him stop thinking about becoming her slave.
However, even that went to the gutter once she spoke a minute later.
“From now on, you will serve as my servant.”
“What?”
“Or rather, a servant inside my mansion. Your role will be further explained by the maids once we get there, however, it’s not the main reason why I bought you,” Zyponia stated, her head still turned to the window on her left.
‘So a slave lackey, huh?’ While he thought to himself, the demon lord began looking at him anew with the same, unresponsive eyes as ever.
His hands inside the shackles vibrated slightly while the muscles around his jaws became slightly pronounced.
“Does it have to do with my strength, master?” Lutiel asked, naturally mimicking the demeanor his new master had been giving off. However, in contrast to him, as she heard the question, a faint crease across her lips raised itself before calming down.
“Your strength? A part of it decided that, I admit. Mostly however, you interested me and I needed an assistant just when you fell down from the skies at the perfect opportunity. So, I bought you.”
“Assistant? Why?”
“You will understand soon enough. I just wanted you to know something about your new life here,” she spoke, soon losing interest in his face and looking outside of the windows.
‘I don’t know anymore.’ With a single statement in his head, Lutiel also found himself staring out of the windows, gazing at all the different humans dragging demons through the mud.
With all of the convoluted events happening in the past few hours, he had a hard time taking all of it in as a reality. All of it simply seemed to be a continuation of the long dream, of that darkness he drifted through.
Glancing at a couple of humans that fell at a demon’s whim, being pulled with the chains and dropping large stone slabs on their bodies, Lutiel’s eyes retained their new, composed look.
Observing the world ten years in the future, before he knew it, the landscape had already changed, from the bleak, dirty bricks that made up the buildings to the modicum trees waving in the distance, long, pale grass blades swooshing together with them.
Looking at the hills and mountains in the far distance that barely showed themselves beyond the murky skies, Lutiel’s head moved up slightly. He wanted to get a better view of the land he recalled from the past.
Even if the cities were to change because of the demons, either artistically or be swept away from the maps, the world itself was bound to remain.
‘ At least you never change, do you,’ muttering inwardly, the images of the landscape quickly changed, a certain building appearing in the horizon as the carriage took a detour from the main road firmed by countless merchants and horses.
Gradually appearing closer with each passing minute, they couldn’t see the outline of the mansion anymore because they were heading straight at it, up the stone brick road on the low, sparsely forested hill.
‘Wouldn’t taking over the king’s royal palace fit a demon lord like her better? Wondering while feeling the carriage slowly losing its pace, his gaze invited Zyponia.
“This is the mansion,” she said, facing him with her eyes before something made the right side of his body flinch.
Opening up the doors, the coachman spoke in a human language, and Lutiel couldn’t help but thank for the consideration internally.
“We’re here, my lady.”
Standing by the side of the doors with his arms behind his back, the old man awaited the lady’s leave from the carriage, along with the man she brought inside.
Once again, before he could do anything, the wind quickly made his practically bare body shiver. Still, following the demoness closely, he stepped on the cold, stone slabs that made up the ground beyond the black gates.
Looking at the small fountain in the middle of the estate, along with strangely vivid, verdant gardens around the supposed, autumnal mansion, something felt eerie.
It felt and it could be seen by his own two eyes. Everything was being cared for, to the utmost detail. No branch or a leaf came out from the straight wall of greens, cut perfectly.
The whole place itself was as clean as it could be. Almost as though he was stepping on freshly paved roads.
Even though the goosebumps around his skin made him want to immediately jump inside the mansion, Lutiel could do nothing, but wait, especially while looking at the set of demonic maids awaiting the head of the house.
“Panyi Zyponia, ges la nuen. Vitacu vte,” said the lady standing at the front. Blending in together with her hair, the black and white maid uniform accentuated her silver gray complexion. Correcting the glasses that hung on the nose bridge, the thin chains around her nape rustled.
Lutiel stared at her, the maid reciprocating his gaze.
“Tis li,” Zyponia said back to the only maid that didn’t bow at her appearance. Instead, she was mostly focused on the man behind her lady.
“Tomi tis zaipi?”
“Ars li e involni, e intimau cin,” the blue-skinned demon replied without batting an eye. Although the reveal made every maid standing there widen their eyes, the one standing in the front quickly recollected herself, already speaking up.
“Tis’e Panyi? La ges secur u jun? Tis le gotovelie teug’yr cinroche v junt poner,” she said, glancing at the human with the corner of her eyes, but keeping most of her attention on the lord before her.
“Ges tomi pripres kiz ara’o v tis’e timaun, tem. Tis gotovelie pekuc ars’o.”
A few seconds of silence engrossed the space, only broken apart by the horses nickering to the sweet aroma carried by red apples that the old coachman was giving them.
With all five of the maids practically glaring at the human with cloud-like white hair, down at his displaced, swollen purple nose, the one in the front eventually sighed before moving to the side.
“Please come in, my Lady. It’s chilly out here,” she said, sending one last glance at the human barely holding back the chattering teeth.
Hearing and seeing the armor clatter in movement before him, Lutiel moved immediately, right after her. When he finally entered the mansion, only then did the maids follow them. Walking through the excessively large doors of the dukedom’s largest palace, the maid that spoke with Zyponia closed them.