Seeing that I wasn't eating the cookie, one of the boys snapped and said to me sarcastically, "What the food is lowly for one such as your esteemed self to eat?"
"Tom!" Old Eddie shouted at the boy, who snapped at me, "Is this how you treat our guest?"
Feeling indignant, Tom retorted back, "How is he a guest when he hides his face from us? What if he is a spy from the other alleys or a robber? I don't want the same thing to repeat-".
"Tom! Shut! Up!" Old Eddie roared angrily at Tom. Seeing the anger on Old Eddie's face, Tom lowered his head in obedience as the rest of them continued their meal in silence. If not for the munching coming out of their mouths, one would have taught that they were statues.
Seeing the awkward atmosphere, I sighed before returning my cookies to the basket and left to the roofs staring at the dazzling night sky as I thought back to the benefactors who have helped me throughout my journey. Even though some were poor, they had a heart of gold. Seeing these poor children and Old Eddie made me wonder how the world could turn out like this?
As I sat there on the rooftop and reminisced, sounds of laughter and children singing could be heard below. 'It seems that there were a great number of them afraid of me', I thought to myself.
"Mate, care for a drink?" Old Eddie's voice could be heard behind me. Turning around, I could see him carrying a bottle of what could be seen as a homemade fruit wine. Looking at the bottle of wine reminded me of an old friend that likes to make his own wine even though he is rich beyond belief; sadly, as a Lich now, I am unable to partake in such pleasures anymore; after all, I don't have the organs to take fluids.
"I can't drink," I said before turning back and looking at the night sky. With a knowing look on his face, he walked beside and sat down, pouring himself a cup of his wine before sipping them.
"Kaaa, good wine, good wine," Old Eddie said as he took sips from his cup, acting intoxicated even though the alcohol content in the cup was low. Raising the bottle of wine in his hand, he asked, "You sure you don't want a sip?"
Perhaps it was because of my disappointment with the Radiant Church, or I just wanted to scare him, but I decided to remove my hood and show him my face.
"Pui, ack, you, you are a lich?" Old Eddie choked on his drink when he saw my face.
I jumped to the next available building's roof without answering him, hoping that Old Eddie would leave me alone. Sadly, Old Eddie didn't seem to get the idea and followed me to the other roof.
"Are you not afraid of me?" I asked.
He took another sip, "Mate, I have seen devils in human skin. Humans in devil skin are not so scary". Pausing to take another sip of his wine before continuing, "Mate, you look like a man with a story; since you can't drink your sorrows away, why not sit down and talk" Old Eddie said as he patted my shoulder.
He started his story first, taking my silent consent, "I used to be a simple man from Volcano Continent working my way up from a spy for the empire to an intelligence director of the empire. *sip* I always thought that whatever assassinations, rebellions or intelligence I carried out was for the peace and prosperity of the empire, but as I killed and learnt more about the truth behind them, it was never for the good of the empire but because of the greed of the ministers.
*Sip*
Well, most of it, some helped the empire, *gulp* but out of the hundreds of thousands of operations carried out since the beginning of the division, only one in every hundred operations we had was for the better of the empire or humanity. Seeing this as the side of justice, I couldn't take it anymore and decided to report the matter to the emperor.
*gulp*
But, that was my biggest mistake and regret.
*Gulp, Gulp, Gulp*
Who could have known that the beloved kind emperor who was known as the emperor who abhors evil was just using it as a political move against the citizens? Instead, that two-face emperor was nothing but a power-hungry one that has no bounds!" as Old Eddie tells his story, he starts to drink more and more clearly, venting his frustration under the influence of the alcohol.
Hearing his story kind of reminded me of myself, where I did not care about politics and did everything based on principle. However, it ended up being the bad guy who wins. Although it was kind of late and useless at his point in time, I still wanted him to know this, "Sometimes the right thing may not be the right choice", I said, giving him my two cents on his situation before pausing to recollect myself before continuing, "No human can be free of sins and desire. The only thing you could do is recover and get back on, but when too much poison surrounds him, so much so that it renders the antidote ineffective, the next best thing is to get a repellent to expel the perpetrators".
"Hahaha, mate, you sure are funny; where am I supposed to find an antidote or repellent?" asked Old Eddie, clearly curious about the new methods I had proposed.
"I don't know, maybe a psychologist? Or a close friend or family member? As for the repellent, you could perhaps start with doing things that they hate so as to avoid you; of course, these are short-term solutions; if you want a concrete one, I don't have one cause there is no such thing as a fool-proof plan" I replied.
Thinking for a moment before nodding his head, "Indeed, if you were by my side, I would not have so many mistakes…". With just one or two more mouthfuls of wine left, he asked, "What about you? What's your story?"
"My story could be said to be similar to yours," I said in a sad melancholy tune.