"So what's your story?"Ian asked while simply lying on the soft bed and staring at the ceiling of the room. He didn't want to inquire about Louis's personal matters before today because he wanted the kid to have his space. But it looked like he was finally willing to share by himself right now, no, he even looked a little excited to share his story with Ian, making him tease the kid by pretending not to be interested any more. "There isn't much.. really.."He looked a little shy as he said, trying to shorten his whole life as much as he could. It was the first time he willingly wanted to share the mess called 'life' with someone else. It took a long time. No matter how much he tried to shorten the mess, it was still too long, too heavy and too complicated to finish in a few sentences. But they listened. They listened with all their heart and mind. The two people inside that room, the two people who could easily be called the closest ones to his heart after Lucas, they listened to
"You lost your memories?""Why? How?"Both Ian and Ash asked simultaneously as they looked at Louis. "I don't know.. Maybe it was a backlash for overusing my powers.. Or a side effect from trying to cure Lucas.. "Louis looked down helplessly as he thought about their question. It was a question that he himself was dying to know the answer of. "What happened next?"Ian asked. "The next time I opened my eyes, I was inside a prison like cell, along with Lucas. And with no memory of the past.""So the slave traders somehow got to you two while you were unconscious?"Ian wondered what kind of shitty luck one needed to have such a thing happening to them. Just imagine, a being powerful enough to be called saint, someone whom King's and Queens bowed to, had their memory snatched away from them and was left with a kid too small to know about the dangers of the world. "They had already placed a restricting collar on me by then, eliminating any chance of my powers returning to me."Ian rem
The next day.Everyone was having their lunch together in the royal palace due to the King's request. Even Oliver was there. He now knew about the true identity of Louis and was acting a little awkward since he was confused about how to behave around them. Ian looked at Lucas who was sitting between the King and the Queen. Although the child looked a little less awkward compared to yesterday, he still didn't look like he belonged there. "Really.. I don't know how to thank you guys enough for what you did yesterday.."The King was thanking Ian and his party for what they did. They were simply people who came to know Oliver through a weird set of circumstances. Neither did they have any close relationship with the cat tribe, nor were the obliged to go through so much just to help them.Yet, without any greed or hidden agenda, they simply decided to help them out. Their whole tribe was saved due to Ian and his party's generosity. "Anyone would've done so in our position."Ian remembe
Louis and Ian was having a conversation about what their future actions are going to be when Ash knocked and entered the room.He saw the huge board in front of Ian. He had been helping Ian put it all together throughout the whole week so it wasn't anything new to him.And the questions Louis was asking, the confusions and doubts that he had, Ash had felt them weeks or maybe even months ago.He was the one closest to Ian. The one who knew about each and every one of his crazy stunts and impossible to explain decisions.That's why, to Ash at least, it wasn't unnatural. He knew Ian's personality better than anyone, and how private of a person he was, how much he hated attention.More than anything, how much he wanted to stay hidden from the mass. It was almost as if he was traumatized by something, making it almost impossible for him to accept the attention of the masses. "The others are ready."Ash informed Ian while taking a seat at the nearby chair. They were planning on leaving tod
A bright and dazzling morning. Ian and his party was up and running once more after having their breakfast. "The omlette cooked by Ian are really the best." Rick exclaimed as he rubbed his full belly. Ian always wanted them to eat freshly cooked meals and prepared their meals accordingly. Everyone helped by either collecting herbs or vegetables, some hunted wild animals while the others collected firewood. After two or three days, at night, they'd make a temporary shelter and get some sleep. Since all of them were mana users, they didn't need regular sleep like normal people. It had already been more than three weeks that they left the village of the cat tribe. During these three weeks, they visited two other places, both of which were under the organisations attack. As for how Ian managed to find these places, it was all thanks to the board. The information he had about the future and the ones he collected through the help of the cat tribe gave him a clear idea about the lo
A fresh breeze surrounded them from the moment Ian called out to his familiars. The boring, monotonous mood disappeared and was replaced with a happy and jolly atmosphere. As Ian looked at the three kids hugging and petting his familiars, a smile automatically appeared in his lips. Even the ones that had never seen them before, like Rick and his guards, had their guards down and were looking at Jet and the others with gazes full of curiosity.Amber was already near the kids, trying to act friendly so she could get a chance to pet them as well. Following her, even the others had also started approaching them just to get a chance at befriending them.Jet and the others were wary of their presence at first since they weren't familiar with them. Whenever one of them tried to pet them, they'd fly away or jump back.Ian couldn't help but chuckle seeing the expression of heartbreak in each of their faces as they failed to pet them or earn their trust.At first, it was Amber. When she fail
Smash! With the sound of something smashing against a tree, someone's palm turned into a fist full of scratches and wounds came into view. As they punched against the tree in such a violent manner, the friction caused a few new cuts to appear along with the countless old ones. "Why can't we find him?!" Arthur shouted as he tried to punch the tree again. But this time, he was stopped by one of his teammates. "Getting angry won't help, you know." She was one of the calmest and wisest member of his team. And all that wisedom was nothing but a result of years of experience as she was also the oldest one. Sierra, the Queen of elves, nobody knew exactly how old she was. And since some of the elves lived for even more than a thousand years, it was even more unpredictable. "It's just so frustrating.." Arthur expressed his feelings but at the same time, he also calmed down. As he took a seat nearby, Sierra came and sat by his side to keep him company and listen to his worries. "
"My lord!"Corner called out to Miller as he ran behind him. Miller was only there for a few minutes, ordering the knights and informing them of their next mission before he keft to do more paperwork in his office. It was another one of those days where they were too busy to even take a ten minute breather. But even so, it wasn't normal for Miller to ignore Corner. That was the only unusual part.And this has been going on for the last month, a whole month. He wouldn't avoid him usually, unless when Corner brought up the topic of Ian. It all started a month ago. Miller called for Corner in the middle of the night, making him run to his chamber only in his pajamas. It was unusual, for his lord to call for him with such urgency in the middle of the night, unless it had something to do with Ian. And just like today, he went running in that night as well, wondering if there were news about Ian, or even better, if the kid was finally back.But unlike what he had expected, the scene bef
Ian returned. After wondering the continent for half a year, he came back with a 'Bang!'. Right when the nobles all around the country gathered to 'show the hero his place', Ian returned. Crazy hypothesises such that Ian being a Devil worshipper, betraying the country and being on the run or that he's actually a demon etc etc all came to an end as he openly took Arthur's side and threatened the other nobles.Of course, most of those rumours weren't too far off the mark. Ian did prefer villains over heroes, demons over angels, he had no love for their country and lastly, he was a darkness ability user with a twisted moral sense. And! To top it all off, he also preferred these rumours over ones that would hail him as a hero. he'd rather be on the run after being called a demon rather than be called a hero and worshipped. Again, twisted morality. But he couldn't do that this time. There were too many people using his name so he couldn't just let it be as those people got treated bad
"It's been a week since young master lost consciousness."Rob wrote in his diary as he sighed. There was a heavy atmosphere surrounding the duchy ever since the day Adrian fell down from the roof and went into a coma. How or why it happened was still a mystery around the duchy but speculations about an attempted suicide was slowly spreading around. Rob didn't believe them though. The Adrian he knew was too selfish and arrogant to do something like that. Yet, even when he was so sure, a small part of his mind kept lingering over that quiet and motionless room where Adrian was."Ah.. It's been a while."With that, Rob went to take another look at the sleeping Adrian for the 36th time that day. Although he was telling himself that Adrian's situation wasn't that serious, that he'd wake up soon, as he tried to remember all the bad things Ian did in his short lifetime just to mask his worry, he didn't even realise that he was unconsciously heading towards Ian's room again. After worryin
Things Ian did(Unintentionally or intentionally) that influenced the future of Arthur's world: First of all, although the effect wasn't that eye-catching at the moment, Ian was going to be known as the figure that erased racial discrimination. Due to him giving shelter to people of all age and race, and the humans around him having constant changes in their views and perspective, it was going to be the seed that erased all future discrimination and racial profiling. Secondly, he was going to be known as the bridge between Humans and the Demons. The Queen of the Demons, Ash's mother who had gone back to the demon world to deal with some 'internal affairs' would soon return with an actual offer of friendship between the demons and the humans. It was Bela's way of showing gratitude to the people who had taken care of her son in his times of need. Ian's love for Ash was plain as day and the care and gentleness he showed when dealing with him was no different from what a parent woul
"What..?""That's absurd!""Is that sorcery? Does he think he can fool us so easily?!"There were looks of disbelief, shock and confusion on everyone's faces as they looked at Ash. But no matter how tough they acted or how oblivious they tried to be, the bone chilling aura coming from Ash that slowly filled the room was undeniable. It was an aura that was impossible for any human to manifest, dark and scary."It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not.""I'm not the one behind bars looking at lifetime imprisonment and possible death sentence."Ian shrugged his shoulders in a casual manner as he signaled for Ash to stop. He was only here to give these people a chance. A chance at repentance. If they refuse to grab it, he didn't care less whether they died or lived inside a cage forever. 'Human resources are valuable after all.'That was one of the other reasons why Ian was here. He wanted to bind all these people under contract and have them serve the country. It didn't sit right
"You're gonna let them go?" Arthur asked, conflicted, as he looked at Ian. They were currently in an underground prison, the biggest prison that was made on Ian's request under the Duchy. The war criminals, the cult members, were being held here. Seven days had already passed since Ian's soul returned to his body. He was forced to have complete bedrest this whole time by his parents and the kids. They finally let him go after he managed to manipulate them emotionally with everything he had. It was a difficult job indeed. But nothing was impossible for Ian. "Let them go? NO?" Ian asked back in utter shock instead. But it wasn't Arthur's fault that he misunderstood. Ian did indeed say something that could be easily misinterpreted. "But you just said 'It's time to go out.'..?" That's what he said. To the criminals. Not that he meant it literally. "To the hall. TO.THE.HALL." Ian repeated himself twice, once for the criminals and once for Arthur. Everyone captured already had
Ian's time with the kids were cut short as the Dicarious couple arrived in a haste. A part of Ian was happy to see them again after so long. But a part of him was also wondering if they really were there for Ian. What if they were expecting their son to come back? What if the person they expected to see coming to his senses was Adrian and not him? How disappointed they would be. With a mixture of these various emotions coursing through his mind, he failed to make any type of expression when faced with those two people. Neither could he smile wholeheartedly nor apologize and cry. The kids were guided outside by Arthur and Albert, giving Ian and his parents the room to themselves. Ash was reluctant to leave seeing Ian's expression, but the atmosphere was too heavy for him to interfere. So while everyone else went to another room, he stayed, waiting while standing outside Ian's room. The others also didn't force him to leave since they didn't know which was better. "Are you
"YOU!"Smack!"THOUGHTLESS!"SMACK!"BAS-! JER-!! PERSON!"Ian had to wake up from his peaceful sleep with the sound of someone's shout along with the obnoxiously loud yet not so painful smacking of the pillows."Ow ow ow.. what the hell...?""Huh?""I'm back?"Ian woke up rubbing the back of his head that was the victim of continuous battering and looked around. The changed bedroom and the familiar faces made him aware of the fact that he had indeed come back. "What?""What are you talking about, young master? You didn't go anywhere."Both Albert and Arthur looked concerned as they checked Ian's status for any abnormalities. Only after multiple checking did they finally sigh in relief. "Ah no.. ""Hey guys.. Long time no see?"Ian greeted the kids and the Prince and the Knight all together while leaning back on his bed. The one responsible for the ruthless battering from before still had a massive pout on their face as they silently glared at Ian. "Are you angry? I'm sorry. How lo
Ian enjoyed the tea from hell while having a long and informative conversation with death, or at least that's who he assumed the other person was. He learned about the past that he had locked away and the people he had forgotten. But it all felt distant, like he was viewing the life of somebody else. "Why did I do that? Lock my memories?"Ian was curious. Just by watching the memories of Noah's future, he could tell that he lived a pretty okay life. The daughter he adopted also turned out to be great. She became his family. These were precious memories. So he couldn't understand why he'd lock them up like this. "After I presented you with my request, this is what you told me."Death continued showing Ian another set of completely different memories. An old man, wrinkly hand, white hair, hazy eyes. The room looked similar to the one he was in right now, and so was the person in front of them. "The me right now cannot save a world.""The blade has already lost it's edge.""I've grow
"What do you mean by welcome back?"Ian asked, confused. As far as he could remember, never before in his life did he see this man or these scenes. And these weren't circumstances that he'd forget 'by chance' either. "After your first death, you came here.""First death.. Ah.. When I jumped down the bridge?"Ian remembered his last moments as Noah. The music that played, the scenery he watched on top of that bridge, they were all very memorable. Yet, he had no memory of coming to this place.But unlike Ian's thoughts, the guy in front of him shook his head in denial. Not understanding exactly which part he was denying, Ian tilted his head to the side slightly."What death are you talking about then?""You didn't die back then."The guy sat down on the bed, facing Ian and the endless hell behind him as he spoke. "When you were at the verge of losing consciousness, you heard a childs cry.""A child?""Yes. It was the final monster outbreak." Ian wondered what this guy was talking abo