"If I kill you right now Alexander, is there anything you might regret to keep you stuck in this world? Someone you need to save, a loved one you wish knew how much you loved them, someone you need to kill, or perhaps, the king succeeding with all of his plans?" She asked while walking further into the forest. There was nothing she was holding onto like the humans to tie her to this world if she somehow died.
"I believe I don't have anything to hold me back. I know my father will live a good life regardless of me being alive or not. I don't have many regrets either because I have always tried to make things right when it happens. I will move on to my next life with ease," he replied, looking around the forest to study it. From what Artemis said, he was the first human to be walking around the forest alive. It was beautiful but very dangerous at the same time. "Why did the thieves mistake you for a demon? Your appearance right now does not look like anything evil."
Artemis laughed remembering the sight of the thieves on the verge of pissing themselves. They boldly stole from others but trembled before her. "I scared them a tiny bit when I realized they weren't good people. I was even surprised that the forest had not killed them. They were so confident with trying to threaten me because they found a woman all alone. The tears falling from their eyes were a nice sight to behold. Have they been killed or imprisoned for their crimes?"
"As far as I am concerned they are currently in the palace cells waiting for their judgment but I believe they will be eventually killed. They have stolen from too many people who needed the things they took."
"No redemption plans for them before you consider taking their lives?" Did they only think death was a punishment? There were many other ways to make a person regret their decisions and make them change. You can make them better and toss them back into society.
"They were locked up before and I had asked for them to be released. In exchange, they were not supposed to steal anymore and a portion of what they made daily at a good job was supposed to go to one of the orphanages as sort of a way to redeem themselves. You saw how that turned out. The king doesn't like when anyone ruins the peace he believes the kingdom has so they will be killed for continuously stealing." Alexander tried to help them but they had gotten greedy again. They might have successfully escaped that night if not for Artemis scaring them.
Alexander took a quick look at Artemis now that she was distracted by the souls or ghosts of people with unfinished business. He still failed to believe she was truly evil. As much as she liked to say she disliked humans he had a feeling there were a few humans she had a heart for.
"You tried to help them and released them only for the same thing to happen again. If I were you, they would've been punished immediately the next time I saw them. Don't worry, they'll be punished in the underworld."
There it was again, her mentioning an underworld. "What is this underworld you speak of? Is it a world like this one down below us? Is this the place with fire that some people tell tales of?" He asked. Alexander had also heard stories of bad people going to a place with fire.
Artemis was amused he heard so many stories about these places and creatures when humans were ordered by past kings never to mention these things. "Who told you the story of sirens and where did you hear about a place of fire? You, being a general, must set an example for the people in this kingdom to not speak or listen about forbidden things. I'm curious to know how you gained this knowledge."
"My father was the one to tell me these things. He said it was to protect me the day I encountered something out of this world. He told me there are moments where knowledge might save me instead of a sword," Alexander reminisced on the old times he would sit on his father's lap and listen to these stories.
Instead of being told about these things to scare him, it had always been to prepare him. Alexander never knew back then what his father was preparing him for and now that he was in this position with Artemis, it came off like his father knew this would happen.
"Wasn't your father afraid the king might point swords at his family for repeating these things to you? Was he never afraid of being killed?"
"Those swords you speak were men trained by my family. My father had a lot of power in the court and Darius's father knew not to threaten him. My father wasn't royalty but because our family always protected this kingdom, he had an army of men behind him that the king needed. Those men only listen to the one who trained them and not the king." Alexander knew Darius hated he could not control his father's men nor strip him of his title. Alexander's father spent a great deal of time bringing the ministers in the court to his side.
The years his family spent being the right hand to the king and providing sons to win wars for the crown, they had generated power year after year unnoticed by the kings. When the kings did notice this power growing, it was already too late. But Alexander's family never wanted the crown for the kings to worry about that, they gained this power as protection for the day a king decided the family was no longer needed. Only then would they would turn against the crown.
"You mean to tell me your family has all this power and you decided to basically be an errand boy for the king?" Artemis didn't see the sense in that. She would've stayed beside his father if she was Alexander.
"I don't want to be in the midst of a power struggle between my father and the king. I like my current job and life," he responded.
"Honestly Alexander, what the hell is wrong with your brain?"