The place I woke up to was an open, dreary field.

There were dead trees, the soil was dry and cracked, and the sky was gloomy and gray, full of clouds that looked ready to pour down on me. I frowned, my eyes moving from right to left, then turning around, taking in my surroundings. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing else but the desolate panorama surrounding me.

I looked down at myself, surprised to find my body wrapped in a stark white dress. I was barefoot too.

This… was I dead? Did I finally die, despite all my attempts at surviving? Was the demon too much for my body to bear because I was unprepared to hold it?

I bit my lip, feeling my eyes getting warm and wetness accumulating behind my eyelids. So much effort, so much pain… all for nothing! In the end I couldn’t save myself. A single moment of distraction was all it took for everything to go to hell. If only I had been more attentive, if only I had not been so concentrated on Mathias and his strange change…

Wait.

I blinked, remembering something I had deemed as insignificant then, but that now came back in a rush of realization.

Wasn’t Lucas closer to the viscount’s body?

Why then, did he catch me, instead of his own son, who would have been more appropriate for the transfer?

Was I just thinking too much?

I pursed my lips, clenching my fists at my sides and tensing my body, all in order to keep myself from crying, but no matter how much I tried, those treacherous tears still fell down my eyes. How stupid, I’m dead and I can still cry? Ridiculous.

I sat on the ground, hugging my knees to my chest and letting my emotions flow out of me. I recovered my memories for nothing. I did the impossible and more for nothing. If I had been more intelligent, if I had stayed in the camp instead of wanting to go back to the castle only so that I could see the viscount dying with my own eyes, then I wouldn’t be here right now. Dead, and waiting for who knows what. Heaven? Hell? Or another reincarnation?

If I’m going to be reincarnated again, then please, God, don’t choose another shonen manga. In fact, don’t choose any piece of fiction in existence from my original world. Just a normal, tranquil world, where I don’t have to worry about any of this shit.

Something soft was pushed against my arms. A sweet fragrance invaded my nose. I looked up.

The first thing I saw was a deep red flower in front of my face. I recognized it immediately. A spider lily.

The second thing I noticed was the hand holding the flower to me.

The third thing I noticed was Lucas, kneeling in front of me and looking at me with gentle eyes.

I blinked through the tears.

“L-Lucas…?” I asked, dumbfounded. What was he doing here?

As soon as that name left my lips, Lucas frowned. He tilted his head and it was only in that moment I realized he was slightly different from the Lucas I knew. He was older, his hair was longer, and his eyes… somehow, the way his eyes shone, it was not the same. Less innocent and more... guarded.

This was not Lucas, even if he looked like him a lot.

“Lucas” the stranger said, tasting the name on his tongue as if it was something rotten. “Why would you call me by my father’s name?”

Something cold and electric ran down my spine, travelling from the center of my chest to the tips of my fingers. I jumped, stepping away from him as I looked at him in terror.

“Viscount” I spat out. I was sure of it. I didn't know how, but I was sure it was him.

The man’s frown deepened, and slowly, he stood up, holding the flower to his chest.

“As I said…” he began again, this time wariness marking his features; “why are you referring to me as my father?”

I was the one frowning now. There was no doubt in my mind. This person had to be the viscount, Mathias and Lucas’ father. But he looked younger, not quite an adult, although no longer a small child.

He seemed to be around Mathias’ age, actually.

Oh.

Was this… was this the viscount around the time he… got this thing? In the ritual where his father transferred the demon to him… I think he said he was fifteen, right?

Then… did that mean I wasn’t dead? Was this some kind of dreamscape produced from the power of the demon now residing in me? It was a possibility.

I gulped the knot in my throat, before opening my mouth. “You… who exactly are you? No” I shook my head; “what are you?”

The man, the viscount, stared at me steadily, not saying a word. He brought the flower from his chest to his side, rolling the stem between his fingers as he looked distractedly at it.

“Mmm… that is the question” he smirked. “Why don’t you tell me who you are? You don’t look like me, so I’m assuming you’re not my daughter. You also look too young to be fifteen.”

“My name is Elaine. I’m eleven, and you’re right, I’m not your daughter” I answered, disgusted at just the mention that I could be related to him. “Just what is this place? You really are the viscount, aren’t you? Or a younger version of him…”

“I would guess, since you’re here, that yes, I am that viscount you talk about. My name is Daniel Ernst de la Rosa” he extended his arms, encompassing the whole desecrated land we were in. “This place, well, I’m not too sure what exactly it is, but I assume it’s an space provided to us, vessels, by the connection we have with the demon. The fact that you and I can interact also shows there’s a bond between our souls. I came here because I felt the energy of a magical transfer, and I knew my real self had finally passed over the demon to my child, or…” he frowned again, pushing down his arms; “I thought that would be the case.”

Real self? “So you’re not real?”

“I am. I exist here, as an incarnation of a memory frozen in a particular moment in time. My thoughts, feelings and conscience are real. So are the others.”

“…others?”

“Yes. Our predecessors” he sighed, ignoring my shock, as if disappointed I didn't know this already. Ugh, he’s just like Mathias! Wait, no, he’s the father. So this is where Mathias got his annoying personality from? No wonder!

Wait, did he say our predecessors?

“You mean… the old holders of the demon?”

He didn’t say anything. His silence was answer enough.

“Oh…” was everything I was able to say.

“They become more and more difficult to come across the older they are… Thirteen generations was the most I could reach.”

Thirteen generations… just how many hundreds of years were that? And still, there were more? But, considering the real viscount said this demon had been passed down his family even before the wars between humans and demons took place…

I looked at the younger version of the viscount again. “Did the real viscount know of your existence? Or the existence of this place?”

“Of course he did. He’s me and I’m him. We’re the same person” he answered as if it was obvious. I felt like hitting him just hearing that tone of voice. “When I interact with the previous generations, he does as well. In fact, you are not the actual Elaine living in the real world. You’re like me, a simple incarnation of a memory. That’s why you are here, talking to me. Your actual conscience it’s still in the real world.”

At this new information I just… gaped. Excuse me? I am not… me? Just what did that mean?

Before I could ask anything though, the viscount spoke; “you’re not the only one who has questions. Since my memories are cut short a few years after the ritual, which was the last time my real self and I were connected, I’m afraid there are many things I don’t know. Before, you called me Lucas… is that the name of my son?”

He sounded a bit fearful as he asked that question. I couldn’t understand why he would feel like that. “Yes… he’s your second son, actually. The first is called Mathias… and he’s just as annoying as you…” I murmured the last part to myself.

The viscount nodded, his expression tense. “So, if he’s called Lucas, then that surely means…” he bit his lip, looking down. I tilted my head in wonder. It was rare seeing this person acting so… human, I guess? “My wife…” his voice cracked a little, so he cleared his throat. He looked nervous, but also… hopeful? “Was my wife a woman named Eve? Dark blond hair, amber eyes…”

I blinked, taken aback. Eve? “Your wife… was the daughter of a duke. I don’t know her name but her hair was black. She died a year ago” I didn’t tell him it was his son the one who killed her. He didn’t need to know that.

He remained silent, his face turning into a mask, hiding the nervousness I saw before.

“Of course” his tone was flat. He let out a small, self-deprecating laugh. “Of course, what was I expecting?” he glanced down, the hand not holding the flower going to his hair, passing it through the auburn locks. “My father would never let me marry a commoner, after all…” he whispered at the end, but I caught it.

I raised my eyebrows. Should I tell him it wasn’t that his father didn’t let him, but that he needed to marry a woman with money since his father left behind the land barren and destitute? That even though his father was dead, he couldn’t afford to marry who he wanted because of him?

For some reason I didn’t feel like telling him anything. But I was curious about this woman. A commoner? Was he in love with a commoner?

“Why did you think you married this Eve?” I asked. He snorted.

“She said that if one day we had a child, she would definitely name him after my father. She was like that. Cheeky to a fault and incredibly rude even though I was the son of her lord” he was complaining, but there was a sincere smile on his face. A melancholic smile. “Always so unimpressed with me. Always expecting so little of me. I could bring back the moon and stars for her, and she would be like, oh, I’ve seen that before, can’t you do better?” he shook his head. “She knew I hated my father, so she used to say that just to get to me. But I have no doubt she would have done it, had she had the chance. Well… I guess it doesn’t matter now” he finished dejectedly.

Hmm… you know, I think I heard something about Lucas not being the viscountess’ child? Who was it that said that? Gale? No, not him, but it was one of the mercenaries… mmm…

Well, it would make sense, I think. The cold viscount I remember didn’t look like someone who would care about having an affair just because someone was hot, after all. But what do I know, it’s not like I cared enough about him besides hating him for his actions to know what he would or would not do.

In any case, there were more important things we needed to discuss.

“Then, if this space it’s a way for all of us, demon vessels, to be connected… how do I get out of here? And how do I enter when I need it?”

“When you wake up you will leave. And if you want to come back you need to sleep” he frowned, looking at me pensively. “I have two sons and yet it is you who I passed the demon to. The circumstances behind my decision were surely complicated, no?”

“That’s one way of putting it…”

I sighed, once again feeling helpless about it all. So now I had to live with this… thing inside me? Moreover, I only had around five years before it broke free and killed me in the process. Did I really have to pass it on to someone else before that? Having a child was completely out of the question. Even if I waited as much as I could, I was still too young and there’s no way I would subject a baby to this. And not only that, I had no idea what consequences having this would bring to me, besides the obvious one. There were so many things I didn’t know, so many things I didn’t understand.

The spider lily entered my field of vision once again. I frowned, staring angrily at the viscount.

“The heck the flower’s for.”

“In the demon’s culture, a spider lily symbolizes goodbyes. They are flowers that grow in the afterlife, guiding people to the correct path of reincarnation. With that last meaning in mind, it can also be used to represent new beginnings. I don’t know what happened for me to pass the demon to you, but I am deeply sorry for that, because there’s never a good enough reason to involve a stranger in this. I also assume that, because of how young you are, you weren’t correctly prepared to assume this role, and therefore your time it’s less than what it should be. For all of that, I apologize” he took my hand and placed the flower in it. I reflexively closed my palm around the stem and looked up at him, wary.

He smiled. “However, there’s nothing that can be done now. The only thing I can offer you it’s my help. The last thing I remember is investigating to find a way to erase this curse, to finally kill the demon inside us. With that objective in mind, I started a journey, though the results of it are unknown to me. But if I grew to be the same person I was when I first decided to travel the world, then surely I managed to find something of importance before coming back to take on the title of my father. And if not, I’m always here, ready to lend a hand.”

He extended said hand towards me, but I didn’t take it. He didn’t seem offended by it.

“Let’s find a way to finally put an end to all this. So no other child has to bear this burden. That’s what I wanted the most. And surely you want that too, no?”

I pursed my lips, annoyed beyond belief by his sudden goody-two-shoes act. The heck was wrong with him? What was this he was talking about? The current viscount and this one suddenly sounded like two very different people. And like when I saw Mathias back then, apologizing to Gale and thanking his group for their help, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it one bit.

Suddenly, the world started to buzz around us, as if it was glitching. I lifted my head, surprised, while the viscount sighed, putting his hand down.

“So you’re about to wake up. Well, at least I managed to tell you everything I wanted to” he looked at me again. “Whatever you decide to do from now on, please remember… you are not alone. It’s not only me, but the rest of us too. We’re all here, ready to help, because we all know just what you are going through. I don’t know why I stopped coming here” he tilted his head, glancing down; his hair falling over his eyes with the action and hiding his true feelings from me, “but for all it’s worth, I’m sure I can still help. Just… I have to put an end to this, so…”

I wanted to tell him to shut up. I wanted to tell him I didn’t need his help. Even if he was not the same viscount who did all those bad things to me, my family, to his own family, I didn’t trust him, and his offer of help, his apologies, everything just felt so empty to me. But I couldn’t do it. As if a rug had been pulled from under me, I felt myself falling, and the dead trees, dry land and gloomy skies disappeared with it.

 

End of Chapter 6.