Chains, Part 2

Present day, Central Countries, Empire of Grascc.

The sunset sun kissed my skin, gazing with dying eyes, although my body was still infused with life, at some ducks pouncing on the breadcrumbs I threw them.

Watching them pecking at each other for the bread crumbs maybe reminded me of the things that had happened 40 years ago.

I was sitting on a bench, in front of a bank, wearing ostentatious attire that made me look like one of those dandies I used to hate in the past.

I am now 68 years old, but I still keep myself strong and healthy, I wonder if there really is a god up there watching over us.

I was heading to a funeral, a old friend from the army had recently died.

Although... I can't even remember who it was anymore.

It gave me a bit of envy.

Over the years, the notion that death was only for cowards faded away, and I came to accept that it was for the truly fortunate.

How painful life is, dragging ourselves like worms across the face of the earth, striving not to die, only to know that none of this makes sense.

I looked at the palms of my hands.

All I saw was blood.

"Tell me, what has all the blood you've shed been worth?"

There it is again.

I slowly raised my gaze, looking at the white legs and warm white hair cascading down the back of her body, she was a girl.

A girl from the now-extinct empire of Aurus, now a country in the north, of the Grascc Empire.

I myself had annexed to that country, and had torn down stone by stone each of its houses.

Since the day that girl abandoned me, I think my humanity left me with her.

Damn it...

Again.

My head started to ache.

Voices invaded my head.

The screams and the sound of bones breaking still haunted me.

"Envious, you're already an old man," said the little girl with white hair, standing in front of me.

Her name...

"You don't remember my name, do you?" she said.

"No one will, all thanks to you... it's as if I never existed..." she said accusingly, directed at me.

"Tell me..."

The voices in my head grew louder and louder.

Screams, gunfire, artillery sounds.

That exact moment flashed through my head.

"What was the point of everything you did?"

I felt like my eardrums were about to burst, at that moment all the voices accumulated and made me bring my hands to my head.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I screamed like a madman in the street.

I fell to the ground, passing out.