Wrong Protagonist

The tent was silent, but bustling noise from outside could be heard, yet Liam didn’t pay attention to anything other than the lowered down Karth in front of him. He looks hurt… Liam thought as he attempted to raise his hand in comfort.

But he froze in place when a dark voice reached his ears, “You saw it, didn’t you?” it was menacing, so cold one could feel an icy shiver.

Was he talking about the scar?

Karth stood up. He held Liam's upper arm, forcing him on his feet with a force sure to leave a bruise. The man looked deep into his eyes.

Liam may have been unsure of how to act, Karth was practically hurting him, but pushing him away in this situation could make matters worse. He needed to calm him down.

"Karth-" he tried but was immediately overtaken by a more powerful voice.

Karth shouted as he held one hand on his face to cover the scar, "Well?! Do you see now who I am?! Are you able to keep up this facade any longer? Continuing this false play right before me like this-"

This time, Liam managed to cut him off, not by speaking louder or hindering the man from vocalising, but by grabbing his face to pull him closer. Their foreheads touched, Karth tried to back away, but Liam held him in place with all his strength.

Liam couldn't say why, but within his heart, he felt a troubling pain when he realised Karth hid his face from him. Weren't they getting along so well only hours ago?

His main point of interest should be to get on his good side, and he didn't care about the mask, but the fact that Karth really felt he couldn't show any vulnerability before him weighed him down immensely.

"I don't know what you're talking about..? Facade? False play? But it doesn't matter, please, don't cover your face in front of me." he ended up saying, not caring whether or not he would be pushed away.

It was odd. They had met not long ago, and yet, wasn't he risking his life now? Just because he couldn't stop himself from making a wish to Karth instead of defending himself.

"You!" Karth roared at him.

Growing smaller within, Liam had fear surging through his body. Already angering the protagonist?

He closed his eyes, leaning more into Karth, letting their warmth be shared. As he was waiting for whatever Karth would do, he was thoroughly surprised upon feeling the soft tickling of hair by his neck.

A head rested on his shoulder, heavy but worth carrying. He could hear an exhausted sigh as the grip on his arm lightened.

"Who are you?" asked Karth.

Whatever answer he could come up with, be it truth or a convenient lie, no one would believe him. Being a foreigner, if he could even be called that, he didn't even come from the same universe. It was difficult to explain.

But in a moment of tenderness, Liam decided to tell the truth, only this once, to the protagonist. Everything didn't need to be told, but to give the man an understanding of why his questions couldn't be answered with complete truth, he said,

"Truth be told, I'm not from this world…"

He waited for an answer.

Eventually, Karth spoke, "You expect me to believe you?"

"I don't know. But I hope."

"..."

"Fine then," Karth replied. He got up on his knees, extending a hand to help Liam up as he dusted him off.

Liam had his mouth gaped. Was it truly this easy? What fool would believe him so easily? In a moment of disbelief, he decided to go with the flow. Why question it if it was beneficial to him.

He still had questions regarding this odd place of a camp. That was mainly why he could hear but not see the people.

"Why -"

Boom! A loud bang came from outside. People were yelling, and the clang from swords hitting each other echoed.

"It's the royal knighthood!"

"Grab your weapons. We're being attacked!"

"Hurry! Find Lord Karthremith!"

The royal knighthood. The knights were personally selected by the prince to represent him and his force. If they were attacking, then who were the people shouting?

Liam turned to Karth and faced him. "If you are the prince, then why would the royal knighthood attack your camp?"

Karth's brows furrowed. He raised an eyebrow, "Prince?"

Suddenly, it dawned on him.

This wasn't the prince. Liam ripped open the tent doors. It fell to the ground, a wave of dust emerged. He looked out on the camp.

Several horse riders galloped past him, swinging their swords after pale, red eyed… humans? They didn't look human.

Their clothes were dark, some had armour, some had nothing but a dagger, and some were cowering. In contrast, the horse riders wore bright blues and whites under a light silver coloured set of armour.

The air was ashy, and fires had spread from one tent to another, leaving a pile of black dust behind. One's nose would hurt upon breathing in the fiery wind.

When he looked to his right, amidst the chaos of people and another species fighting, he saw a rider heading straight for him. This man's clothes were different.

He held a proud sword like the others, but his clothes were green, and a heavy white cloak hung from his shoulders.

A mighty crest on his chest as well on his grey steeds saddle. White voluminous, short hair slightly covered a chiselled, lean face.

This was, without a doubt, the prince.

The real protagonist.

The one destined to take his life.

Liam was frozen in place. He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn't move. It got heavier to breathe. Then, a cold hand grabbed him by the waist, pulling him back. He got yelled at, “Why are you standing still?!”

Looking up behind him, he was met by Karth’s frowning face, but there was another emotion hidden in his eyes. Something Liam was unable to put his finger on. He turned around to push Karth away, his strength was evidently inferior and rendered him to fall back.

“Who-” he swallowed once as he steadily tried to back away, “Who are you?”

Karth took a step forward but was stopped when the tip of a sword was held against his chest. The prince had stepped between them, “Stay where you stand, foul evil. How dare you kidnap my dearest friend?!”

Liam looked up at the figure standing next to him. The man was extending his other arm to help him up. After getting on his feet, the prince whispered, “Are you alright, Liam?”

Liam? Was his character also a Liam? How convenient, he thought. “I’m fine…” as he said those words, the prince suddenly swung his sword, it had a translucent blue glow around it, and it was heading towards Karth!

Liam’s body moved on his own and he ran up to stand in front of who he’d believed to be the prince, shielding him from the attack. Seeing his friend’s action, the prince’s eyes widened as he, with all his might, pulled the blade back to aim at the chair next to them.

“What are you doing?!” he shouted at Liam who didn’t know either.

“I… don't kill him! We should leave!”

“What?” the prince glanced at Liam with concern before his gaze turned dark and he watched Karth once more, “You! You did this to him, didn’t you?! You demon!”

“Demon?” Liam looked back, Karth stood quiet, “You’re the villain..?”

Liam’s head dropped, he stared at the ground; pieces of wood from the chair laid scattered, they were already covered by a thin layer of ash. He could hear a deep huff coming from Karth.

“Why aren’t you doing anything, demon!?” the prince called out. His question made Liam look up again, why wasn’t Karth fighting. He simply stood there, staring at him. Suddenly, the villain’s brows furrowed, he grabbed his sword and sprinted forward.

Liam still sat on the ground between the prince and the villain, if he stayed any longer, he’d end up becoming a sliced cucumber. Karth appeared to completely ignore that he stood between them, and before Liam had a chance to run away, he was grabbed by a familiar arm.

Karth had run past him, his sword hitting that of the prince with a strength pushing the other back in the mud as he resisted the hit. Instead of killing Liam, or even better, letting him flee, the villain had picked him up like he was a bag.

An empty bag for one; he was still in a sword fight while carrying Liam as if he weighed nothing!

But that wasn’t important, there was still the issue of what kind of intention Karth had with him to even go through the effort of capturing him now - the guy’s camp was literally in flames.

People and, as he now knew, demons, were fighting wherever you looked. In every direction there was someone wielding a sword, shooting arrows, riding horses and even some using their bare fists. But those were mainly the demons, they had a larger build, most were also much taller than the prince’s knights. However, the humans still put up an equal fight.

Liam snapped out of his temporary daze to unleash himself from the grip which was holding onto him tightly. He fell onto the ground which got both party’s to turn his way. Karth gritted his teeth, yelling as he conjured up a dark red aura around his sword while the prince held his own abdomen.

The prince’s eyes widened once more, he backed away, pulling Liam, who still laid on the dirt, with him. Karth conjuring looked like a red snow storm surrounding his entire being but fastening to the sword to give it a new colour. It was clear that the prince did not intend to fight him in his current state, and so, a loud whistling sounded.

Liam looked to the side, from behind the smoke, the silhouette of a horse began showing. A grey steed ran past them; the prince, holding Liam in a tight embrace, reached out to the saddle and in one motion pulled himself and Liam onto the stallion.