Chapter 8: Questions (1/2)

The blurred sight of a fawasn't a dream Fro up fro on, I leftfor ht

"G-goodtowards her direction, walking as she followed a couplethe courtyard where all of the trainees were lined up with swords held in front of the at the When one of theave a firm military salute, with the other instructors and trainees following suit

I siin front of an agedbeard, and e wisdoe He was the head of The Council, Marlorn

While I held the position of "King" I couldn't help but consider overned the country,the politics and economy, was The Council

So as ca meant that I was actuallynumbers of children born and limited amount of resources, The Councils of each country asseuments, came to the conclusion that if wars continued to exist, ould eventually wipe ourselves out

Getting rid of ould lead to twoto a population growth, and a decrease in destroyed harvestable land and resources from the result of nuclear arms The solution that they came up with and enacted was to replace ith a different form of coon Duels Whenever there was a dispute on a level that ion Duel would be declared, with each country sending in a representative that they dee up, Marlorn exclaimed with the standard fake, picturesque sst politicians, "King Grey! What brings you to "

Without even giving hie, a piece of ht after by every practitioner, and sla out the door

What have I been living for all these years? I was an orphan who had been brought up in a caht, yet I've never dated, never loved I've spentthe strongest

And for what

Admiration? Money? Glory?

I had all of that, but never in a million years would I choose to have that over what I had in the town of Ashber

I missed Alice I missed Reynolds I ela I even missed Adam

…Mother…

…Father…

"COUGH!! COUGH!"

I openedmy vision as I lay onpain that I elco

Where was I?

Hoas I alive?

I tried to getting up, but e was turnpains in ht, I spottedh the pain

My eyes widened at the sight and I ie to voed doith me A pool of blood surrounded the corpse, whose body probably had more broken bones than ones still intact I could see the white bones of his ribs jutting out of the sunken cavity of the chest with a pile of his entrails beside hiles, with the e's skull shattered in the back with so with blood

His face was frozen into an expression of surprise and disbelief, except for his completely red eyes, as a trail of dried blood was still visible froh With ruesonant sagging dry heaves

Even in led corpse With the nauseating stench and insects feasting on the gore, I couldn't help but feel sick With parts of itation, I finally rotesque remains

Hoas I still alive?

I couldn't help wondering what had happened while I was unconscious Clearly, the … so what happened to ht about now, maybe even worse, but not only was I okay, I don't even seem to have a broken bone

I pondered over the possible answers until I was interrupted by a strong gruhting through my body's protests; the only parts of ht arht ar my body, to reach my knapsack It couldn't have been more than a meter away, but it took over what felt like an hour until I finally ed through it withfor: the dried berries and nutsa ht only because of my mother's insistence My throat, surprised by the sudden flood of food, responded by leavingfor the water sack inside my knapsack, I slowly poured a bit of the water intoanother handful of the snack intodown the sides ofon the dried rations until passing out again, using my knapsack as a makeshi+ft blanket

My eyes fluttered open as I stirred awake fro around, the position of the first rays of light peaking through the et up, but only with the help ofsure everything was in place before allowing 's first Ito avoid looking at the heinous injuries that caused his de for, I quickly jerked it out of his thigh

I wasn't sure how long I would have to be here so having a weapon was critical

'Oh, you're awake'

I instantly got into a fighting stance, gritting through the pain fro to face the carcass

I swear to God if this corpse is the one that's talking…

A melodic chuckle made me look around for the source of the voice

'Do not worry You won't have to worry about that corpse reani'

The voice that seenified, yet soft quality e a sense of royalty It was powerful and resonant, yet silky and soothing sound that ed to ant response

"Who are you? Are you the one that saved me?"