Second chance

Gideon was so entertained listening to the daemon's story that he forgot the question that started it all. It was easy for him to pity such a story, for the dark elves equal situations became almost a daily trend, how many families have not been torn apart because of the first years of the war.

Looking at Satoru and Envy, for the first time, Gideon wondered if on the human side it had been that way too.

"Right after my sister and I have this fight, the event that would change everything happened."

Of course, while the dark elf thought, Hilda continued to speak, she was lost in thought, being the first time she should tell her own story, the emotions that she kept inside for so long seemed to flow out.

"Wait, if it was thirteen years after the war started, then this event was the fall of the capital?" The dark elf seemed to struggle to remember, but his expression twitched when he did.

"The news reached everyone, the biggest line of defense had been unraveled overnight, the armies began to move towards the fallen city if the humans passed it would be the death of many."

Being where Hilda wanted to go, Gideon only lamented to himself, not knowing whether to praise her for her courage or reprimand her for her idiocy.

"My mother took my sister and fled in the red caravels, but I stayed and joined what was left of the army, there I found Gondor still alive, one day before the confrontation..."

"The red caravels would never come back, somehow the humans learned of the route and intercepted them still at sea." Gideon interrupted Hilda, all races knew of these events, the feeling of terror when those still on the mainland discovered that their family and friends had probably been killed.

Hilda was silent for a minute, her hands fisting and holding her armor, the pain she never got over, the pain of never being able to see her family again and not being able to make peace with her sister.

"I fought for more than three years until I realized that maybe it took too long, I wanted revenge, but something didn't please me, I fought for no real purpose, when I got to the rank of general I didn't feel I had accomplished anything, only that soon I didn't there would be nothing else to defend.”

"So over three years in hell, and you've done the same as many?" Gideon asked.

"Yes, I deserted, I went back to my old house, it was surprising she was still standing, all messed up, I'm not going to lie, I came back expecting to hear my sister and mother's voice, but life isn't so kind" Hilda looked in the direction of Satoru and Envy, Gideon didn't need much to understand what they were to her.

"It had been about a year until I received a mysterious letter with the demon king's seal"

"Wait, by then the demon king had already died."

"I don't know either, but she told me in detail about my life, whoever it was, knew who I was, what I had lost, in her, there was a mission to take care of a village tormented by the ashes of a volcano and pay attention, it will arrive."

Unable to process the information properly, Gideon put a hand to his head.

"You want to tell me, you met them both because of someone mysterious?"

“First of all I went to find out which village this would be, that's when I discovered the kingdom of Rhamian, looking all over the region I found not only the village but also a strange platform in the middle of the mountains. After a while I decided to follow what the letter said, I had nothing to lose.”

"I bet you didn't expect someone from another world, capable of beating a dragon," Gideon said in a playful tone.

“Not really, but after 4 years of waiting, when I first saw what he was capable of, I didn't know why anyone would expect him, but after three years of living with him and Envy, I felt like they were my family, and that scared me, I wanted to get closer to them, but I couldn't bear to lose something like that again.”

“I never actually got to have a family, but a lot of times I don't

we choose who we like so you should listen to what your heart says, they are rare humans these days, if you can call them Human.” Gideon lay down on the floor and turned to sleep.

Reflective, Hilda looked at those two and didn't know what to do, maybe Gideon was right, but something inside her still denied it. Getting up, she went to where the two were lying. Hesitantly, she lay down beside the little girl and suddenly heard an unexpected voice.

“Thank you for considering us family.” The voice belonged to Satoru who was still awake and looking at Hilda.

“When did you…”

"Shhh, if you talk too much, it will wake Envy"

Satoru turned around right away and this time he began to sleep. Not knowing how to react, the daemon felt confused but happy at the same time.

With that, it didn't take long for the silence of the night to fill the cave making the laments and personal resolutions be resolved, for the first time in this trip, everyone slept feeling safe.

⊛⊛⊛

The sounds of metal armor echoed through the large encampment with countless white tents set up.

Soldiers moved from there to here, everyone was agitated because of several roars of a dragon that were heard in the distance, fearing the worst, everyone started to dismantle their things and get their horses.

Wearing iron armor and a spear, the superior in command had a shaved head and a large scar that ran from his right cheek to the upper side of his head.

"Captain, we brought the prisoner."

Being dragged by two soldiers, a black elf all bruised could barely stand up due to lack of food and water.

"You didn't tell me there was a dragon in this region, didn't you learn anything last time?"

【Days Before】

Ross, now a superior in the army, placed the blade of his spear at the elf's throat.

'Days before'

Tired, Elviron, when separated from his companions, was captured trying to defend the elf and the child who followed him. When he woke up, he was alone in a prison, Ross was the first to visit him asking him to turn over his friends, of course, he denied it until the torture sessions started when he was going through physical pain, he didn't give up any information.

But he didn't realize how ruthless humans could be, in less than a day of torture, the threats began until they tried to negotiate to offer freedom.

Elviron was not stupid, he knew that humans would never let him go, as for threats, even if they said that if he spoke the elf child would be released, the principle was the same, she would go back to being a slave.

With time slowly passing by, the humans were desperate to get the information, so on the second day, Elviron woke up and was no longer in a cell, the place he was on was plain and it was night.

In front of him were two people, one of the Ross and the other an old human with a long white beard, wearing a white robe.

"Your last chance, pest, tell us where your friends are going, or else my friend here will take all his anger out on losing a disciple on you!"

Ross grabbed the elf's hair and pulled, he was unsteady, anger and anxiety overflowing him. Elviron chuckled when he realized the humans were desperate at this point.

“So that's your answer, very well. Master, make him spit out every last information in his head.”

Ross walked away, while the old man, clearly angry, brought two hands to Elviron's head who could feel the mana particles moving, trying to get away from his enemy's hands, he was caught anyway.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Screaming in pain, he felt his brain being twisted in every way, not understanding what was happening was a very agonizing pain like he had never felt before.

After seconds of suffering from it, the old man walked away and said something to the captain.

Ross smiled satisfactorily and walked back to the dark elf.

"Let's try again, where are your friends going?"

"The last city of dark elves that exists on this continent.", said Elviron who was in shock soon after, not knowing why he said it, the old man's magic somehow affected him in a way that made him submissive to the order of soldiers.

"This is very interesting, where is this city?"

"II…don't…know…how to get there, but I know what's involved."

Trying to resist somehow, Elviron felt his mind was going to explode until he could no longer fight it.

"SOMEONE, BRING A MAP!"

Ross yelled, and a soldier came running up with a large rolled-up paper, when they opened it was a map of the realm only, however it was enough, because as Elviron pointed out what he knew, they found the approximate position, moving as fast as they could. the army began to march night and day towards that city.

【Current days】

"Calm down Captain Ross, you don't need to get so excited, if the dragon had any quarrel with us we'd be dead by now."

The old wizard lowered the captain's spear and managed to calm him down, Ross was desperate to put an end to the dark elves even if no one knew why.

“Can we make him talk?” Ross asked the wizard.

"Impossible, even you couldn't stand the magic twice." Said the old mage shaking his head in denial. Agreeing, Ross turned his back to the elf, and then swung his spear, making all the soldiers shock at the scene.

"Then he's of no use anymore, get the body out of here and you clean my spear."

Walking away, Ross threw the spear to one of the soldiers, for him to finish off all the dark elves became an obligation, since the black elves slaves fled during his command, making mistakes here could cost him his career to which he dedicated years of your life.

But what Ross didn't know is that thanks to his means of climbing in life, such as leaving Beren alive so that one day he could be used, just as he happened, he would draw to himself an enemy that not even a dragon could match.

⊛⊛⊛

When dawn came, Satoru woke up and saw Hilda and Envy cuddling in their sleep, he was happy that the two were getting along well, although he had never told Hilda that he also has this fear of getting attached to people, he found it difficult to explain.

What he had long understood, his immortality was not a blessing but a curse, the Void wouldn't let him die until he found something or someone, so all he wanted was to complete this mission soon so he wouldn't have to see the two die leaving him behind.

Seeing that no one else had woken up, he got up and started walking towards the great bridge.

To his surprise, when he arrived, he saw some trolls putting several wooden planks long enough to go from side to side in the hole that Satoru had opened in the bridge when he jumped in the fight against Litchia, in the heat of the moment he didn't even realize what. was destroying.

"Oh, are you leaving yet?"

Hearing that thick voice from the day before, Satoru saw Litchia lying on top of the first mountain, there seemed to be a hole big enough for her to use as shelter.

"N-no actually, I just came for a walk.", said Satoru in shock he hadn't noticed Litchia up there.

After she insisted a lot, Satoru ended up giving in and went up to where she was, not very comfortable with the situation he was very shy in a corner, as she didn't seem to care, in her view, Satoru was so strong and still having this attitude was okay cute.

"So L-Litchia, what did you want to talk about?"

"No need to be like this, I just want to know who you are?" Litchia approached his face.

"H-uh, well… what do you mean?"

“Where do you come from? Are there others like you? Is there anyone you like?”

Fearing where this conversation was going, Satoru wished Hilda and Envy would wake up soon.

"I doubt there are others like me and I'm not of this world."

"A foreigner, that explains a lot, I heard that you cause problems wherever you go!"

Suddenly Hilda seemed even more interested in the subject, on the other hand, it generated doubt in Satoru.

"Wait, are there others like me?"

"In this world I doubt it, but I've heard stories of beings from other super

Powers from other worlds, there are all kinds of stories, some are idolized heroes or become feared villains, which one are you?”

"I think generalizing like that is not very cool, I just want to be myself, and find a way to get rid of this thing."

Satoru looked at his hand that turned black, there was no way he could see eternity as something cool to live.

"Fear can be felt from afar, what do you fear?"

“What I'm afraid of…” Satoru said hugging his knees until he continued “Losing everyone I care about and in the end being alone again makes it seem like no matter how hard I try, I always come back to where I started. people always leave me.”

"Tsk, do you think that not even a human, for you everything is always so dramatic, in dragons we live for at least eight thousand years, if we're lucky we could go up to ten thousand, it's no use complaining if we like someone we get closer, everyone ends up dying before us, all we can do is see it happen, but if another one that is worth we will do it again without blinking, this is the best way to deal that we can think of.”

With anger in her voice, Litchia seemed to hate human attitudes, but for some reason her contemptuous words eased Satoru's mind a little, knowing there was still something human about her.

"You make it sound easy talking like that."

"And it's not? You think about these things too much, enjoy the time you have with those you love, but if you ever need someone, know that I'll be here.”

Litchia's face wasn't very expressive, but I could see a certainly satisfied smile on her, which made Satoru for some reason more comfortable.

Even if she was right, changing her mind would not be an easy thing to do.

"D-D-DRAGON!"

Suddenly a scream of shock echoed all over the place, Satoru and Litchia went to see who it was, then they noticed a little girl in shock, Envy had woken up which means everyone else had to, it was time to continue traveling.