Our Journey

Chapter IX Prologue

Agitation. That emotion alone lingered in the air, fraught with tension as a lone finger stood within a disheveled inn room.

With a single hand running through his slicked back, cerulean blue hair, the man snapped his gaze around, sensing that he was not alone.

“You have a lot of audacity, to be showing your face after the stunt you just pulled.”

Golden eyes met with an infuriated, rusty red.

“Oh my...You look quite angry, Roan. I wonder why?” An amused, sing-song voice replied, humming to a beat no one could hear but himself, or so it would seem.

“Before I slit that filthy grin of yours from ear to ear, I suggest you tell me why you let them escape.” Roan hissed, shooting the man a look that would have killed...If looks could kill, that is.

“I have no qualms with enlightening you, but you should know something, dear Roan.” Golden eyes lost their playful light. “Do pick your fights a little more carefully, yes?”

Roan was struck silent, regarding Xordin in slight caution, but as though it had never left, the playful light had yet again returned to those golden eyes.

“...Why are you so insistent on letting him live??” He decided to question Xordin’s motives instead. He simply couldn’t comprehend the man’s reasoning, no matter how hard he tried to discern it. “What could possibly be of so much value about him, other than his ties to the royal family??” Roan demanded answers to these questions, at the very least. “You had them right here in their room, and yet you let them slip away.”

Xordin seemed to be entertained with Roan’s open agitation, quite different from his normally aloof demeanor. He simply couldn’t resist dragging the moments out before he would give him those very answers.

“I just advise you not to kill him. You’ll truly regret it. I can assure you of that.” Was his only response, words Roan had already heard time and time again, which only further fueled his sense of vexation.

“Why though? For what goddess forsaken reason-”

“Do you recall the great city of Cathella?” Xordin suddenly cut Roan off with an out of the blue question.

Roan was understandably puzzled, but Xordin waited patiently for his response, and he had no choice but to humor him, a small sigh escaping his throat.

“Of course. Even if it was a Raoulian city, even I’ve heard of Cathella. According to documentation, it once rivaled the capital Vars. Some even referred to the city as Raoul’s true capital before it was decimated by Demonic forces.”

“One.” Once more, Xordin cut into Roan’s words with something seemingly random, an eerie grin playing upon his face.

“What?” Roan felt his frustration rise once again at this pointless topic...But he was immediately silenced at Xordin’s next words.

“One Demon.” Xordin’s continuation shook the very air. “Cathella’s vast population, their rising technology, and their impressive, military force...Every man, woman, and child...All was brought to it’s knees and crushed mercilessly by a single Demon...Can you guess which?”

A single Demon fell the city of Cathella...These words sounded unrealistic, impossible even. Cathella had once been a rising nation, perhaps even greater than Farronia and Xerxes combined, at the time...For just one Demon to destroy all of that in a single night...Which could have possibly…?

It was only then, that Roan came to terms with the implication, disbelief coloring his expression.

“...Yes, that’s right.” Xordin’s eyes gleamed, flashing with that golden light.

“...That’s not possible.” Roan denied the aspect. The very notion of it. He’d seen what this person was like, how weak he was. “...I didn’t see him once during the raid, only finding out he fled to Raoul much later, abandoning all of his subjects, yet you’re telling me that little fox decimated the entire city of Cathella single-handedly? In one night? Even if I were to somehow believe that claim, this was years ago. He would have only still been a child.” It was inconceivable. “Have you gone daft?”

“I assure you this is every bit the truth...Though back then, he was a very different person.” Xordin’s gaze grew distant, reminiscing. “So very different...He was empty, ruthless. Like a little doll...Or perhaps, like a little Angel of Death.” Xordin chuckled, returning to the present. “...It’s a pity you couldn’t have seen it. You do seem the type to take joy in that sort of thing, after all.”

Silenced passed between the two, and Xordin’s grin widened upon seeing Roan contemplating it all. Like a fish drawn to bait, he knew he had Roan hooked on his line.

“...Piqued your interest, have I?”

Rusty red eyes glanced over his way, narrowing slightly, but Roan was in no position to deny Xordin’s words. They were very much the truth after all...More and more, his interest was piqued. This night and day difference of the person in question.

But there was also something else, a detail he withheld from the conversation.

He recalled hearing a certain rumor, a rumor he once believed held no merit…

...But after hearing this...This changed absolutely everything.

He wanted to ascertain it with his own eyes.

“...Very well then.” He finally spoke up after the long, drawn out silence. “I’ll humor your claims, at the very least. I’ll see it firsthand. This little Angel of Death that you speak so highly of.”

And with that, his gaze lingered on the room once more before he turned on his heel.

The rest would surely fall into place. Soon enough.