I am a monster from the fourth generation. And I have lived for over eight centuries. Your Majesty, perhaps you have heard about me from others. I am quite, or was, a renowned monster who had acclaimed a pathetic title. I am known as Ratabat, the Traitor.
Indeed it's not a title I am proud of. But I am not ashamed to acknowledge the reason I have this title. If your Majesty decides to not allow me to serve you because of it, I have not the littlest right to object.
Then let me begin my tale. It feels, nostalgic actually...
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I grew up in a wasteland, much later after the Great War among humans and monsters reached its climax. Its only common that humans are slaughtering the monsters and harvesting their arcanes wherever they can. And I justified the reasoning of humans.
I believed, although I knew that humans are fundamentally greedy, they are required to kill us for the sake of their own benifits. Your Majesty, was I not rational? We hate humans, but why? Because they hate us, and the same is true for them. The cycle continues!
I thought, your Majesty, was there any solution? Saint Alief had given up on humanity and sided with the monsters. Perhaps, he was right. And for the centuries that had passed inbetween, it has become obvious that peace among humans and monsters is not realistic. Yet, your Majesty, I was not satisfied.
I was, perhaps you would call me a heretic because of this, an opponent of Saint Alief's beliefs. I could not understand how eradicating the human race would solve the problem. Humans are not peaceful. So they are fighting with each other guided by their greed. Does their eradication solve anything?
Solve what if the question has been eradicated?
Perhaps his goal was not bringing peace, but eliminating it. Perhaps again, he was right. He desired to replace humans with us, monsters, who, he believed would bring what he actually sought.
Don't feel amazed at my heresy, your Majesty. But, I, then had a question. Would monsters really never betray themselves, and be forever peaceful unlike humans?
It was a tough choice. I was always strong, and respected immensely in my community of Fifth Sea, where I was born. We were the descendant of Ristismal, the Arcane of Change, who as you know, is the father of shapeshifter race of monsters.
When the Human Kingdoms began fighting against each other, while monsters were suddenly out of any power, a few groups of monsters decided to take this opportunity and raise a mass upsurge. How can they fight both of them? It was an ingenius plan! No flaws, I say!
It was seven hundred years ago, at the time when Fifth Sea was in war against Sixth and Fourth Sea. With the declaration of war from the monsters side as well at this already dire moment, the King back then decided to eliminate us, the small problem as fast as possible.
It was then that I executed my plan. I must say this too, the human army which was dispatched against us was huge. If I remember right, there were more than thirty thousand soldiers, of which nearly a thousand used Arcanes. But we are monsters! They were scared, your Majesty. When we faced them, they were shivering I remember. Against a mere five thousand army of us. One-sixth of them, they were nothing, truly!
...Hah. Unfortunately, I was determined.
The burning question placed deep in my heart. Will monsters ever betray themselves? Was Saint Alief really right? Can monsters truly replace humanity for filling the world with peace?
If I... If I could betray them... Then that means, monsters can betray themselves! If I managed to betray them, I managed to proof Saint Alief to be wrong! Because never in history, before I, had monsters ever betrayed themselves. In fact, the thought of betrayal never even crossed their minds.
...Hah... Haha..
Just like that, when the war began, I turned my back upon my brothers of centuries... I joined the humans and fought from their side. It was a bloody war. Monsters, we are absolutely superior than humans. And humans... So feable.
So much blood. I remember it like a nightmare from last night.
...Hah.. I do not need to elaborate on that, I imagine, your Majesty. But in the end, the humans won that war. Fifth Sea eventually proudly declared monsters to be extinct from their land just a few years later. I was given the title of "Beast Who Enlightened" by humans but the title which was much more famous and which was attached to my name...
Its Ratabat The Traitor.
I proved Saint Alief wrong. Monsters can not replace humans and establish lasting peace, your Majesty. While we do not have greed like them, we lack something that, apparently, humans have. It's love.
Love. Yes. This word is strange, but it's very common among humans. They believe it's a feeling. An instinctive feeling by which one can feel protective of someone else... Or something like that.
All we have is passion, perhaps ambitions. Sigh, monsters need more psychologists to research on us...
In any case! My story continues. After the war, I stayed with humans, shared the same table and fought in their front-line for three centuries. Then I betrayed the humans in a war, perhaps guided by guilt and curiosity, just as I did with my fellow monsters.
Is that not funny, your Majesty? I made monsters extinct from Fifth Sea. And then I singlehandedly destroyed the humans their as well. Sigh, I do deserve the title of Traitor. But to me, it was an, as they say, experiment.
For the rest of four centuries I have been travelling around the world, meeting strong individuals and leaving a legend everywhere. Now however, I wish to return to monsters. Why you may ask. Guilt-ridden and guided by curiosity, I suppose. Who likes to betray themselves? I did not. I forced myself. Yet, I consider my journey a success.
The Traitor, Ratabat the Shapeshifter, and great grandson of Ristimal, the Arcane of Change is then willing to pledge allegiance to you, the great, and one of the only remaining Arcane of the first generation... The Arcane of Holy Apple, and the King of Astagha... for a change in life. And I don't really intend to betray anybody this time, your, Majesty.