Out of place
After a three long day journey via carriage, we were at the capital...no...to be more precise, at one of the royal estates, the palace!
"Under some rough timing, we are unfortunately an hour late, my apologies," the carriage driver said. He was concerned over a minor issue. Furthermore, throughout this journey within the carriage, I was taken to top quality inns and fed posh foods that I thought I would never be able to indulge in this kind of world. However, the flavor for it all was bland and disgusting; it could not be enjoyed...especially in a country like this.
I was advised to enter inside the palace through the main doors. The size was unimaginable. Just the front garden was the size of four entire football pitches. As soon as I made it to the grand entrance, I noticed just how colossal the front doors were. All was unrequired but a show of wealth and power. Upon trying to enter...
The door would not open? Was it locked? I struggled and struggled...pushing the door...my hands were bleeding. Thick red metallic blood dripping towards the perfect white snow as I tried to open these doors. No matter how much pressure I put out of frustration, I could not achieve opening these doors, and I assumed they were locked...
I was ready to make my retreat after an embarrassing show of power. Am I really this useless?...
Just as I turned back, an individual, a female who bared medium-sized silver-colored hair and was wearing a white traditional outfit that had a similar shade. She had a mask on, a mask, with the artistic face of a cat on it. She ignored my presence completely and paid no attention to my side. She sliced the entire door in two with a swing of her sword...
She was on a completely different level...her atmosphere...her sword skills reminded me of the one I encountered before at the farm, like the one that killed grandpa.
"Sister, you did not have to do that. We are guests, so we should act like it." In my moment of appreciating the power of the cat-masked girl, a similar-sounding voice pops up from behind.
"I don't believe it! It's you, one of the refugees we encountered earlier in our journey to the kingdom. With your little sister, the one who was with you, right?" It was the same male figure from before who had picked me up during my faint from the journey here. Upon closer inspection, he had bright red-orange-like hair with a similar type of clothing to the masked girl, but in bright orange color, and also like the masked girl he called "sister", bared a sharp, sturdy katana blade on his right side.
"Little sister?" I was distracted; even in this conversation, I was overwhelmed by the pressure of having just witnessed the slashing of the door. I realized he was describing Aina and chose to keep her identity as "sister", so I could avoid further questioning.
"Yeah, well, it might be hard for you to remember you were out pretty cold, it seemed."
I replied in a desperate hurry to end the conversation and to try to make my way inside...
"Sorry, I don't seem to remember any of it. However, I do have a little sister, that is not wrong."
"Oh, I see! But if this is true, what are you doing here?" It felt worse than talking about the future with my former teacher at school. He was always piling questions that I could not answer even once...such as interests?...dreams?...careers?. It was a great hassle, however here, it felt like a threat like I was forced to answer. Out of fright? Out of duty?... I did not know, but I still felt forced to answer...
"I am here for the tournament," these words I spoke of indeed ended the talk.
"Stop joking around! This is no time to be having a laugh!" ... his persona changed, the area we occupied suddenly became extremely heated. He was in a blazing hot state, emitting flames around his body and carried on his words in the greatest of vexation...
"You, who could not survive outside these walls without our assistance? Who has a poor suffering little sister? Chooses to end his life here! and what's even more bizarre is how you were not disposed of during the shortening, but you still go on proceeding to the capital upon your survival!"
It was clear as day. He had the power of flames. Yet again, I have encountered another "godly" form in this world. I could not answer...and his rage grew further with his flames. The coloration between the two was undeniable.
I was in a state of emptiness. I was simply a pawn; in this new world, I am and will always be suffering. My mind could only go into this one thought, and my mind was sympathizing with my entire ordeal.
The strongest gust of wind suddenly hit us...I struggled to even stand on my feet. It was much too powerful. Its force was crazy. Again natural sciences could not display the meaning of such strong and wild wind.
His very flames disappeared, vanished in an instant. The one behind the act...was yet another as vigorous as a god. It was the cat masked girl...she dominated his anger and finally talked beneath her mask...
"Enough! Homura...you have no time to concern yourself with the trash that lay beside you. Remember what we are here for!"
"Sorry, sister Chiharu, you are right."
Trash? I am only thought of as trash now by all around me. What am I saying? I have always been trash to society's eyes. Why does it affect me so much now? and... Wait...wait...wait... if we are trash, if we are useless and a hassle...Why did they assist us from the very start! was it out of pity? Did we look that hopeless?
Where there was the government in my previous location, there laid a hierarchy. I always assumed it was unfair, but this... this... is making us look like we have no purpose in the world! No role to play but as the ones who do nothing but suffer!
Homura, as he was named, erased my existence and made its way into the palace under the open segmented doors.
I did not want to enter...the palace; I wanted to flee from this area. I was a coward, with all my thoughts. It was not because death laid insight; however, the treatment, the inequality was too obvious! It was too accepted...too common. This very fact sickened me of the very place I arrived, oh and three days into my journey to the capital, I almost forgot the mass massacring of nearly all the participants.
I could see the outer gates of the palace front garden, and freedom is what I thought. But I chose to enter...after all, I'm here for only one thing, and that is to allow at least Aina to survive...
I entered...
The interior design was indeed meant for royalty, lavish gold wallpaper decorations. A gigantic marble flooring that lay felt disrespectful just to stand on, I truly felt out of place...
Walking in the main hall, the atmosphere had rapidly declined from its former state, and bloodlust was present from every direction. I felt like the proton among electrons. The very force was unbearable. I was suffocating in loneliness, being the only individual who did not bear a strong will towards victory. The scene was one from a myth. They were all humans but felt like gods in their own right.
including the two from before and myself,
I could see all twelve individuals present, all surviving members!
My shoulder felt heavy.
A hand?
It hurt; the hand was exerting extreme pressure on my shoulder, crushing my bones! I looked back in distress to find...
A figure who could have perfectly been described as a Devil. They were female, Had dark purple hair and bloodshot crystal-like red eyes. It bared an expression similar to a smile, and I could feel nothing from it, no fear, no anger, no sadness. It was excited. I can only refer to it as an "it" because I have never encountered a human who seemed as malicious as this.
This thing, This person was also taking part?
"How did a rat get in here?" She had a normal voice, a voice of an average young adult girl.
I could see Homura's attempt to unsheath his sword. Was he actually trying to save me? Well, of course, as a victim of this world, it's only logical, right? His involvement with me was yet again dominated by the one in the mask.
I was being stared at...by everyone...
Did they want to witness something as dull, like death from who they think as "trash", I wondered?
"Hey..." I said to...
The godly elemental two sword siblings denying my existence...
The boy with the fancy handmade arrow... sitting calmly in the corner...
The mysterious group of five uniformed personnel minding their own business...
The muscular thug who is enjoying the sight...
"Your all going to hell! and I will be there waiting...!" The day that I uttered the most pitiful of words, by my standards, finally arrived...
"Rats, should not talk back..." she giggled about during the instantaneous act of trying to rip my arm off...but she failed?
In a flash of a moment, I appeared on another side of the room next to none other than the hooded figure! I was saved again by the figure which I felt familiar with before entering the ice kingdom and he who saved me before as well. His moves were as fast as flashes of thunder. The girl noticed but did not do or say anything and simply looked to me and smiled, the girl who had no difference from the devil himself.
The hooded man uttered one sentence:
"How interesting to find a member of the dark army attending this tournament. I'm talking about you, purple-haired girly!"
While walking back to a distance, she simply replied, "You can all wait for your turns while I slaughter every one of you in this little game of a tournament."
Everyone listened, but no one feared. Everyone was here for only one thing, to conquer the ice empire! With the soon to begin tournament...
I wonder still, who is this hooded man? Where did I meet him before all this? My memory is still fuzzy; I could barely make out who this was.
Also, if this girl, if she is a member of the dark army, that thing over there, what about Re..o does he really rule over that creature of a human being? I could not further ponder... with the tournament just around the corner.
-do you believe?-
Continued in the Next Chapter...