As the cloudy sky finally made way for the moon sitting high up in the sky, as night was the only time they ever stopped covering the Dark Lands, I was standing on the balcony connected to the highest floor of my tower.
Seeing the lonely moon in the sky, I had some trouble trying to keep my mind from straying to past memories, memories of a life in another world. Yet, the more I tried to grasp those memories, the blurrier they seemed to become, sinking through my hands like sand.
Simultaneously, I knew they were still there, as my mind could reflect back on them spontaneously in reaction to different contexts, but I was losing the ability to consciously think about the past.
It wasn't the first time I noticed this phenomenon, and although it had scared me at first, it was also comforting in some twisted kind of way. Because, as I couldn't remember the name or faces of my former family, it was also very hard to miss them. And thinking about what kind of situation I had been put in, that might also be for the best.
What I could remember, though, was my former classmates.
For some reason, even though the rest of my former life was nothing more than a blur to me, whatever was happening to me did absolutely nothing to the memories I had of them.
In fact, all of the memories involving my former classmates seemed to be even more prominent and exaggerated than before. It was almost as if the goddess wanted to make deathly sure that I was aware of the fact that I would be killed by people I regarded as friends, as well as the one I believed myself to love.
Leaning forward on the balustrade, which was supported by pillars made of the same kind of weird, dark stone as the rest of the tower, it was impossible not to think of the goddess as a very sick kind of being.
'Couldn't she at least have removed my memories of them as well?'
I wasn't sure if that would help at all, but at least it wouldn't make me have to envision Selene and George trying to kill me.
That being said, though I regarded most of the people in my class as friends, I didn't actually have anyone I could call a close friend.
For all my life, I had been so very insistent on not wanting anyone to know just how useless of a human I was that I never truly allowed anyone to get close to me. Due to this, even though I had a lot of people around me most of the time, none of them truly knew the real me.
And to be honest, I didn't either.
As the light of the moon illuminated the skin on my body which seemed to get paler for every day that went on, I somehow understood why I had been chosen to become the demon king. The reason why I was suited to filling this position.
"Master."
Suddenly, a nowadays familiar voice rang out behind me, a voice that I knew without even looking back belonged to the white-haired demoness that kept supporting me, helping me survive while still looking forward to the day I die.
Instead of turning around, I kept my sights on the moon, the entity in the sky that pretended to be close to the stars, which seemed to resonate with me a lot.
Unlike the sun which shone brightly, and burned with intense vigor as the symbol of life, the moon was only allowed to shine due to the sun permitting it to do so. Without the sun, it would be nothing, and the small amount of luster it had, would inevitably disappear.
Just like me.
*Tap, tap*
Hearing the sounds of Tatiana's footsteps as she walked up to me, it didn't take long until she was looking at the same painting in the sky as I was, her long, white hair fluttering in the wind.
"Tatiana... Do I have to die?"
No answer came from my guide, who had never had any trouble answering any of my questions before this. But she didn't need to say anything, as her silence told me that the only answer she had to give was an answer I didn't want to hear.
It was a stupid notion, to think that she would be able to answer that question as I already knew what she thought about it all.
Frankly, I as well shared similar thoughts as her.
How was someone as stupid, cowardly, and hesitant as I supposed to be able to survive when it meant that I would go against the very beliefs of the one who ruled this world?
'But that doesn't mean I will give up...'
I honestly didn't care if the chances were slim, or even if there was literally no way for me to survive. In the end, I just had to do whatever I could, no matter what. Because if there was one thing I knew about life, it was that the only way to truly lose was to give up.
'Though I guess dying would also be a way to lose...'
Which, if I gave up, would happen anyway, so there wasn't much of a point in thinking about it.
"That's right, master. There's nothing you can do but struggle as much as you can."
"..."
Ignoring Tatiana who once again read my mind without my permission, we simply spent the rest of the night looking up at the lonely moon framed by the starry night sky.
==========
"Gob!"
"Gob, gob!"
It was truly remarkable how the goblins had somehow managed to create a fully functioning little village around the tower in this short amount of time, with their multiple small huts spread around the area.
No matter how crude it was, as the huts were made up of mainly just black sticks brought from the Dead Forest, which was also the material they had used to build the wall spanning around the village, made up of black logs, it was still impressive.
It was also quite interesting to see that even though they should have been swamped with work, as there were still a lot of things for them to do, they still saluted as I walked past them. Even though I could see Gob standing around, shouting orders to the other goblins, it felt like I didn't have time to speak to him right now, nor did I want to disturb his work.
Right now, I was on my way to the wilderness of the Dark Lands with Pi by my side, but today we weren't just going to hunt monsters. Today we were going out to scout further beyond the other side of the Dead Forest, going past the vast plains where we had fought with the Gobba tribe.
On those plains, there was supposedly another tribe thriving, although I still had no idea how any creatures could survive in this kind of place, and I felt a need to check it out. Because if I knew anything about fantasy worlds, which I didn't but pretended to do, the monsters that made up that tribe weren't something I could leave alone.
Therefore, it wasn't just Pi that was coming with me, but also eight large birds, as well as four other fairies, who stood under the flag of an excited commander Pi, who smiled proudly as she led her troops outside of the goblin village.
Now, I didn't have any plans of going to war right now, but I did want a chance to see if I could make contact with the tribe in question, just to try and see if there was any chance for us to have a friendly relationship.
In other words, this would be my first attempt at diplomacy.
As soon as we paced through the entrance, which was really just a hole in the wooden wall, we took to the sky, with me and Pi leading the way over the Dead Forest.
Then, in less than an hour, we had passed it, arriving above the vast, open plains where we would have to look for any signs of the tribe we were looking for. Thankfully, and luckily, as the plains were more or less flat, with just a couple of small groves, some hills, and the occasional water hole, I didn't think it would be too hard to find it.
And, I was right.
"Pi?"
Though it did take us a couple of hours of flying above the dried-out landscape, Pi nudged my shoulder with her hand, as she saw something in the distance, something that blew my mind.
When I thought of a tribe in the Dark Lands, I had expected something akin to the village that my goblins were building around my tower, but even though we were so far away, I could still instantly see that that wasn't the case.
In front of us was a small village, however instead of the buildings being made out of wood, everything seemed to have been made out of stone, proving just how much I had underestimated the orcs that we were about to make contact with.