Miserably fragile, the poor lady struggled to stand straight, being hung by her hair, which remained under the effortless, yet strong grip of the towering man standing behind her. Aria's powerless arms were raised above her head, with her hands trying to relief the stress on her stretched hair, even if to a little extent, but it was looking completely hopeless. The tension in her hair looked deadly and painful, just to its looks.
No one in that room dared to even blurt a single word out against the General. Everyone felt hesitant in even blinking, in the presence of Darvth. His power, his strength and his authority were outmatched, totally otherworldly. I doubted, if even everyone in that room could defeat him together, as one, in a battle.
Glassy black material of the daggers blade sparkled, reflecting the light contacting it, into various directions. Hilt of it remained hidden under the general's grip.
I turned my neck to the helpless father beside me, who had been standing beside me, but a few steps back. His chest kept on inflating and digressing furiously, as his lungs fastened. From his thick greyish hair, descended a bead of sweat down his already sweaty forehead, to his left brow. Under the thick brows, the two sockets held widespread eyes, which reflected only terror and nothing else. His entire body seemed to be shaking, watching his daughter on the brink of her death, whom he loved with his soul. As Darvth stood there with the dagger in his hand, his lips curled to form a wide grin. With his next movement, the dagger closed in on the neck of the young lady, but stopped, on a slight contact with it.
From its corner, my eye captured a sudden disruption in its sight. Despite his old and weak body, Fredrick took a run up to where his daughter stood, under Darvth's capture. The focus of the room shifted from the dreadful Darvth to terrorized Fredrick. All eyes watched him run.
In a few seconds, Fredrick was standing right in front of Darvth, who still had his dagger on Aria's neck, but the grin on his rough face had been vanished. Fredrick gripped Darvth's forearm, which further connected to the dagger, and started to pull it, away from his daughter's bare throat. It was hopeless. Everyone watched the powerless Fredrick, putting all his strength in. Nothing came fruitful. Darvth patiently watched Fredrick, put all his effort in, but all were in vain, as he failed to even budge it to an inch.
Finally, his patience broke and his arm swung, hitting softly on Fredrick's chest, which pushed him away a few meters. Fredrick resisted the push and charged back at Darvth, as he gained control, that time, with his hand curled into a fist.
He was still midway, when Darvth's arm swung again as a crescent, striking on Fredrick's chest once again, but a little harder that time, causing him to fall down after a few unstable backsteps.
Seeing her father's pitiful state, Aria tried to calm him down. "STOP FATHER. THIS IS ENOUGH. This is enough. Just leave me, father", Aria cried, her tone transiting from a cry to a frustrated one. It seemed like that the sound waves carrying those protests of her dispersed, without actually entering Fredrick's ears, or rather, he just didn't want to listen at all.
Completely ignoring his daughter, Fredrick got back on his feet and for the third time hasted back at the colossal general. Darvth's arm swung again, encountering stubborn Fredrick, but...that time, his forearm further lengthened by the extended dagger. The sharp tip of the weapon pointed out.
The world seemed to slow down as the dagger gradually approached Fredrick's bare neck. Fredrick's mouth was opened, through which his battle cries escaped, filling the whole room. His fisted hand was raised and his arm stretched behind his back, charging his punch with power. But everyone knew the outcome.
The dagger's sharp blade swooshed through the air, then slashed through the fragile hyoid bone of Fredrick. Valvet red blood sprayed out of Fredrick's throat for some seconds, like an output of an atomizer. His hands reached for his neck, and wrapped around it, trying to block the leakage, but obviously it was not possible like that. His life spirit was gradually extinguishing. Fredrick dropped on his knees first, then, as the final ounce of life extracted out of him, he fell on the ground with his front facing it.
My inner turmoil was totally getting unexplainable. I didn't know what I was even feeling.
Guilt?
Regret?
Agony?
Resentment?
My emotions were a mix of all. Fredrick laid dead right in front my eyes. I could do nothing. I was just a spectator. I couldn't hate myself more. ahh. 'Why Roheric? why?', I questioned myself.
"Who said I was going to kill this girl?", Darvth said.
"FATHER!!!—YOU MONSTER. WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Aria's terrorized scream coursed through the throne room, echoing into screeches, as she watched her father drop lifeless on the red carpet. She was burning. Her eyes were stretched wide. Her punches were hitting the thick quads of the general but causing no impact at all. What a pity...
'I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him', I thought.
With her hair still under hold, Aria hung like a lifeless body, as the sudden rush of blood in her veins stabled. Tears streamed down her lightless eyes, which once blazed with life. Her spirit seemed to have been quenched. She sobbed. Obviously, what else could that piteous being even do.
"WHAT DO YOU EVEN WANT, YOU FU**ING MONSTER?!", I shouted in resentment, as blood rushed to my brain.
"What do I want, you ask?", the beast for a man, Darvth interrogated in his deep voice, finally freeing Aria's hair. "Where is the descendent?", Darvth asked in a tone, which sounded gentle for a man like him.
I was still standing against Darvth, ahead of all the village people. My brain tried to extract out the supposition of his question.
Dead silence in the room ceased, as the sound of delicately taken footsteps produced. With each step, the sound amplified and finally halted when got the loudest. At first, I didn't care much to be distracted by it and kept my head straight.
But as hand rested on my shoulder, my instincts caused me to rotate my neck. "Markus?". Responding with just a slight smile, Markus proceeded to stand a few steps ahead of me.
"Surely can you say that your descendent is among us?", Markus asked confidently.
"Smart one. Absolutely, yes. My lord cannot ever be wrong".
Markus' right hand went for the single pocket on the back of his silky pants. With two fingers, he slid a small notebook, around the size of a palm, out of it. Of that notebook, Markus flipped some pages then stopped on one. He read something from the page he took the stop on and put it back in the same pocket.
"Exactly twenty days from now...my son will have his return back to our village, in our world obviously. If not after twenty days, then somewhat around it", Markus explained, with no hint of fear or hesitation. "Let that girl go now", he added after a brief pause.
For a moment, Darvth stared at Markus, considering his words. "If his confession is found to be false, every single of you, will bear the consequences", Darvth announced, threatening everyone with his warning. Immediately after, he furiously marched to the gateway, which he entered the room through, and went beyond it, shutting the door behind him.
Poor Aria sloppily ran towards her father who laid dead in the center of the room and dropped on her knees beside him. With her hands, she held the shoulders of her father, and her head descended to her father's chest and rested on it, further digging in.
"Everyone must return to the refugee hall", the guard which brought us there, ordered the whole room.
Everyone had been standing still, even after Darvth left, but hearing the guards order, they got provided a new sense of direction. The room infused with commotion as everyone started to gather near the main entrance. Noises kept on getting louder by each moment which passed.
Markus who had been standing in front of me, started to walk up to the dead father and his daughter. I was spaced out and watched Markus, walk away for a moment. As I brought my mind back, my body responded and shot forward. I was then walking beside Markus.
I knew Markus from around twenty years, being his neighbor in that nameless village of ours. Haha. No one even cared to name our damn village. Well, he first lived with his wife and their son. I didn't even have his son's name saved in my memory. I was not attracted to them ever. No one was. Not like I hated them. They lived silently, never in a close union with the villagers. Markus' wife died soon after the birth of his son. He should have married. At least for his infant. But he never did. His royal self could have gotten him a beautiful woman. In his mid-forties, he still looked young. Despite being only a few years younger than me, he had the charisma. Never did that guy compromised on his clothing, always dressing like a noble.
As I was walking by Markus' side, my eyes were gazing at him simultaneously too. "Why would you save her, risking your own son?", I asked, as my intrigue got irresistible.
"I felt like trash. I... I just couldn't stand such cruelty anymore. So, yeah, I decided to finally speak up", Markus replied abruptly, guilt clear in his voice.
My mind, on its own, replayed my memory of a few moments ago. It surged that guilt up, again in me. "I should've done something", I whispered to my own self, frustrated.
"If you really regret that much, then you can at least, take care of what he has left behind. What done is done. Mourning over it is useless. Fredrick cannot be resurrected. But that poor girl. She deserves a life. And a good one", Markus lectured me. It seemed like that I failed to keep my thoughts to my own self. His lecture rose some sort of motivation and a resolve in me. I was suddenly feeling determined, not out of directions anymore.
As we reached the Halters, we stood looming over them. Markus crouched down on the other side of Fredrick as Aria and said, "I am sorry. I am really sorry...for your loss, young lady".
The very next moment, Markus stood up and turned towards me. His lips formed a warm smile, and with his hand, he tapped on my shoulder. Immediately after, he walked away to the crowd, leaving me with Aria.
I crouched down too, right where Markus did, just to kill the intimidating pressure which I might had unknowingly continued to impose on Aria. I prepared myself to say something, but couldn't, as my mouth suppressed all of my thoughts. Words remained trapped beyond my contacting lips, even when I tried to speak.
Breathing a good volume of air, I began, "You know, my wife left me eighteen years ago, with my little princess—Carolin. She was only two. hah. I really messed everything up. I wanted to be a good father for my daughter, a good husband for my wife, but I messed up".
Hearing my voice, Aria's shaking body stopped trembling, then completely still. I continued, "I think, this is a chance. A chance for me to be a father again. I know, I know it very well, that I cannot be a replacement for your father, but...I am sure. Yeah, I am sure that I can put my life before you. I would be nothing like Fredrick, but I will try. I will try my best to be a good father this time". As I finished my emotional 'speech', the thoughts of my own daughter and her memories started to flood my mind. Tears started to fill my eyes gradually, till they leaked out of them. With the sleeve of my one arm, I vigorously wiped my vulnerable face off.
"Aria, let's go. Let him return, where everyone must, one day", I said, struggling as my voice trembled.
The young girl finally straightened, removing her head from her father's chest. The wool of the Fredrick's knitted sweater slightly darkened at the area of the chest as the fibers of its threads kept the tears locked in.
Aria's face was pale, wet and soggy having no emotions on it. Her eye area was swollen and hair a mess. Tears on her face shone, as the light rays hit it. Her frock had dirt all over it. Despite everything, whatever she might have faced in those days of her inspection and then her father's murder, she looked emotionless. The stiffness on her face wasn't affirming, rather made me feel at unease. Expressions on her face were gone, rising some sort of dissatisfaction in me.
With the same emotionally numbed face, she stood up with her eyes locked on me. For some seconds, she kept on staring in my eyes, then spoke, "Can we at least get him buried?"
I wanted her to say something, but when she said, her words pierced right through me. A sharp pain grew in my chest as I heard those words of her, lingering with pain. The fact that they were said plainly despite the initial emotional outburst, made them even more choking. Suppressing my heartache, I assured her, "Yes, we definitely would".
I slid my one hand over the widely opened eyes of the corpse in front of me, finally shutting the eyelids closed. Then I sat on my knees and dug my arms, one through below the knees of the corpse and the other made its way through corpse's upper back and the carpeted floor. Tightly curling my arms around the thin frame of Fredrick, I powered my legs up to stand straight up. Fredrick's body laid over my arms which weighted even lighter, than how much his skinny self, made it seem.
Passing Aria an assuring nod I said, " Let's go, Aria".