Notes

“GUHHAAAAHAHAAAA” I scream at the revelation of a new hole on my stomach, pain is nothing short of what I was feeling at the moment. “Oh dear, it appears you don’t take pain as lightly as I thought you would. How unfortunate.” I’d look behind me to see the culprit of the attack, but I was too focused on holding my guts in. All I knew is that this was a madman, someone so willing to die for vengeance that they go and risk their life and fight for the demons. “You know, I had higher expectations of you, though you are the ‘Glass cannon’, correct?” All I could do was lay there, writhing in pain and groaning every time I felt that sadistic breath on my face. “Any-how! It appears you have left me quite the gift. The sword of your people. I accept it with gratitude.” If I wasn’t holding my guts in, I would’ve tried with all my might to stop him from taking that sword. But with that same sword, he took another slash at me, and it hurt even more than the last. “My, oh my! You sure have the reddest of all blood I have ever seen! Hohoho, what a lucky catch.” All I knew was that, it, would hopefully happen again, and who knows where I’ll be sent next. Maybe an easier life, or one without bloodshed. I would’ve killed to have at least a week of peace. “Now, you too have put doom upon your people. Oh my, how I can’t wait to see their terrified faces!” He started laughing, one eerily reminiscent of mine, as he started to walk away from me, and towards the door. All I could hear before he closed the door was his laughing, and by god I hated that laugh. The pain was getting worse, and I was blacking out, the last thing I wished for was that he would die to my hands.

No matter the cost.

—
Now, I stare out a window, watching the wind move the bushes and grass, neatly kept I might add. After reminiscing on those past events, both now and in a nightmare, I find myself tense once again, since I don’t know when I might be attacked next. “Sir, food is ready.” I hear a maid say behind me, “Right, I’ll be there.” I add back, not long after, I hear a sigh. “You talk very shortly like that whenever you are in a bad mood, what happened this time?” Damn, she really sees through me. “Nothing, just thinking about past events, don’t stress about it.” “Fine, just be in time for dinner, ok?” She adds back, “Yeah, I hear you.” After a good minute, I head to the dining room, quite slowly as usual. After all, I did injure my leg and arm quite severely back then. Also, that one room with the huge density in mana really slows me down to a crawl, so I have to do my best to avoid it. Opening the dining room door on a given day, I would have seen Ram, the maid who had called me earlier, Rem, the more “expert” maid, Emilia, a royal candidate with a very innocent personality, her spirit puck that is quite bubbly, but dangerous, as all spirits are, and the unforgettable Subaru and Roswall, one is a complete dork, and the other is the owner of this mansion. But today, no one has made it to the table yet, which makes me tense up even more, to the point where I could cosplay as a tree, hoping not to see a murderer or a blood trail down the corridor, I check reluctantly around the corner, only to see Emilia and Puck, which, to be honest, could be much worse. After checking the other direction, I enter the room.

After another couple minutes, everyone is in the room and we start to eat, today it was a steamed potato salad and some steak, which was a bit chewy for my liking. At any given day, everyone would talk with each other, with me joining in whenever it was appropriate. But since everyone was enjoying a quite chewy steak, no one really got to start up a conversation. Which is the worst for me, since then I get many stares, either by accident, worry, or something else that makes me tense up, but all of that goes away whenever I look up. “S-So, how has your day been Ian? I heard you were working on that book recently.” Subaru finally starts up a conversation, “Yeah, my day has been relatively fine, and that book is coming along nicely, should be a quarter done by the end of next month.” I say back, though, something feels off. “Great! Uhh...What was it called again?” It feels as if he is trying to, stop something? “‘Retribution’, its a fictional story.” I answer, glancing around the room now and then, checking for a threat. “Alright, so how about you Emilia?” The rest of the conversation trails off for me, the one thing I’m focused on is the reasoning behind this suspicion and the sweat traveling down Subaru’s face. I try to get a hint of what is going on by looking at his eyes, but he’s locked onto whoever is speaking. I then look at the others, hoping for some sort of hint. Then, whenever I look at Rem...Something feels very off for a split second, then she looks away. *That’s it, what is her plan?* I speak to myself, glaring slightly in her direction, enough to tell her that I’m at least suspicious. Though, the answer seems to lie with Subaru, so I’ll ask him about it later. For now, I gotta finish this steak before it gets hard and chewy.

Once we were finished, I bid the others a goodbye, and walked in the direction of Subaru's room. Though, fortunately, it seems Subaru had the same idea, and we met each other at my doorway. Why? “O-Oh, hey Ian! How’s it hanging?” “It’s hanging alright, anyway, I assume you came over here for a reason?” I ask, already suspicious about his motives. “Y-Yeah, uhhh, could you help me?” He asked, “Yeah, with what?” my glare slowing becoming a squint, “I need help with learning to write, I can read well enough, I could use your help for this though.” Ah, that makes some sense. But, why me?

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