Book One – Interlude – Part Six – Servi’s Nightly Stroll

“Fine. I understand. What do you want to know?” Yellow sighed.  He knew he was going to die, so why fight it? If he answered her questions, then maybe there was a chance for him to go peacefully.

“I assume that you three work for someone?”

“That we do. But I can’t tell you.”

“Based on what Brick said, I’d imagine his name is Parrel. And he said mansion, so maybe it’s the giant gold one that can be seen from almost anywhere in the city?”

Yellow tensed up, and his breathing quickened.

“I’m right on the money. Now, how do you feel about slaves? Those things are worst than trash. You just wanna burn them all away, don’t you?”

Yellow waged his options on if he wanted to lie or not. Does it even matter? The night will still end with my death because I don't see any way out of this...  I’ll just tell the truth. Maybe I can do some good with my shitty life. He thought.

“I do hate them. You wanna know how I got these scars?” Yellow pointed to the white lines going down the black side of his face. “Slaves. Usually, slaves are at the bottom of the totem pole, but not me. A baby with a face like mine was nothing more than a plaything for other people to release their anger. And who do you think used me the most? Slaves. I hate them so goddamn much.”

Yellow balled his fists up out of anger but sighed, releasing them.

It won’t do much to get angry now.

“Are there a lot of slaves at the mansion?”

“Yes, but I don’t know how many.”

“I see…” The monster uncrossed her legs and waited. It watched with a watchful eye, and Yellow felt the primal fear of death.

“Last question. Who is this Parrel guy?”

“It’s supposed to be a secret, but I don’t care anymore. Parrel’s the firstborn son of Virin Keywater, the man who leads the Empire of Keywater.”

“How did Brick know him? And for that matter, do you know him?”

“Brick was a poor man who had nothing until a chance encounter with Parrel. At least, that’s what Mossi told me,” at saying her name, Yellow teared up a bit but kept it together. “Mossi and Axel were bodyguards, chosen by Parrel himself. They were supposed to listen to no one but him, his wife, or their son. I only know this because Mossi and Axel got drunk one night.”

“I don’t understand. If Parrel's the first prince of a nation, why is he in a different country? This isn't Keywater, is it?"

“This city is called Canary, and it’s on the southeastern edge of the Kingdom of Lando. And I don’t really know why. Mossi never told me. But now that I think about it, one time, when she was really drunk, she said that it was a direct order from Virin himself. She and Axel were in the throne room when that happened, but I don’t know much else.”

“I see then. Well, I don’t want to say this, but I thank you for the information.”

The monster got up, and Yellow did the same. In an instant, the chairs they were sitting in disappeared, and Yellow braced himself as a swirling circle of black arrows appeared around the monster.

“Honestly, you three brought this on yourself. All you had to do was stay away from my friend. In fact, you didn’t even have to do that. You didn’t even have to be nice, but why did you make her cry? Why did you choose her as your target?! Do you EVEN KNOW HOW SHE FELT?!” The monster yelled into the night.

“I’m sorry, but I was only following Mossi,” Yellow quietly said. He stared at the ground because he couldn’t bring himself to look at the eyes of his murderer.

“I see. Well, any final words? True to my word, I’ll make this as painless as I can.”

“How do you think your friend will feel if she finds out about tonight?”

“Honestly,” the monster said as she barred her teeth, “It wouldn't be that much of a problem. When I hugged her, I felt her soul lashing out. No, that’s not right. It was like there was something else inside her soul that wanted out. It was made out of pure anger, even more than what I felt at the time. Regardless, while there is a chance she’ll find out, it’s closer to zero percent than it is to one percent. She’ll only know when I decide to tell her.”

“I see. It might not be much use now, but I apologize for my actions and the actions of my friends. I really do hope your friend can find the courage and strength to move past it,” Yellow put his finger to his chin and pointed to the woman he loved. “I’m sorry, but can I die next to Mossi?”

The monster nodded. “I’ll allow it. One last thing before you go. What happened to Rowan’s body and his sword?”

“I don’t know. Brick handed Rowan’s body and his sword to some guy and told him to hurry back to the mansion. I swear that’s all I know.”

“I believe you.”

And with that, Yellow nodded back and slowly shuffled over to the cold corpse. Mossi still had a faint smile on her face.

“Even in death, you look beautiful. I wish I told you how I felt earlier,” he bent down and embraced her tightly. With a deep breath, he wailed, and he howled, and he ululated. It was like their two souls were dancing, letting each other feel their hidden feelings. Then he suddenly stopped and kissed her lips.

“I’ll be meeting you soon, my love.”

“Goodbye,” the monster said as 28 deadly revolving black arrows pierced through Yellow’s body. Like the monster-- like Servi promised-- it was painless.

Servi stared at the dead bodies as four more souls flowed into her ring. She wasn’t happy, but she wasn't sad either. The experience forced her to realize something.

“Even though I think they deserved to die, I gotta admit something.”

What?

“They were bad people, but I could tell Yellow loved Mossi. I wonder if we had met on a different day or in a different situation….maybe we could’ve been friends…”

I don’t know the answer to that.

“Yeah….”

Is something wrong?

“I guess. It’s just….seeing Yellow hug Mossi like that made me a bit sad. I could feel the true love he had for her, and it made me think about things.”

About what?

“Stuff like who I was before this happened. Did I have family or friends? Did I have someone I loved?”

What is love?

“Love is a complex emotion, and I can’t really explain it, but I’ll try my best. When you love someone, it means that you want to be with them. You want to help them. You couldn’t dream of living without them. It means that their voice, smell, or even touch is enough to make you smile. It means that when you see someone, no matter how bad a day you were having, it disappears when you see their smile. And when the person you love is sad, then you feel sad. It can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing. It’s a feeling that is impossible to describe.”

It really is complex. Thank you for explaining it to me.

“You’re welcome.”

Servi silently absorbed the bodies and weapons before leaving. Even though the battle she just had should’ve been loud to be worth investigating, not a single person ran to check it out. After waking a few meters away, the Human with a Goddess inside her turned back to look at the scene. The larger pieces of flesh were gone, stored inside her ring, but she left the smalls pieces around. And she tried to absorb the blood, but it was still too abstract for her to wrap her mind around. With a sigh, she turned around and started her journey to her room at the Warden office.

It was a long walk, filled with silence through the mostly empty streets. Itarr's voice broke the stillness as the Warden office came into view.

I’ve finished analyzing all of the souls we collected today. Do you want to go over them?  Also, I am through with the organization. There is a new category called ‘Food and Drinks.' For weapons, you now have 'Axes' and 'Clubs.'

“Thank you and yeah, let’s go over them,” Servi said with sadness in her voice.

Itarr felt bad. She wanted to help Servi and make her happy. Was that love? Seeing Servi reply with such a solemn voice was enough to make Itarr sad. Based on what Servi said, this was love, but she also said it was complex and complicated. Did that mean that different forms of love existed in the world? If so, then what form of love was Itarr feeling? Was it even love? She needed time to think about it more. For now, she just wanted to be helpful to the person who saved her from those years of loneliness.

It’s a lot to take in, but I’ll do my best to summarize it. They all had Fire Wall, so I combined the enhancements. Right now, Fire Wall is level 39. Yellow had the skill Astral Arrow. I believe it’s a skill that allows you to make an arrow from Skill Energy and shoot it. It’s at level 7. Axel and Mossi both had the skill Telekinesis at level 7. I added the two together, so your Telekinesis is now level 14. There’s a limit on the skill of 15 items and a total weight of 30 KG. I wonder if stacking it increases the limits? If it does, then doing that ten times brings the limit to 150 items and 300 KG.

“I see. It sounds like it might be a skill to be well acquainted with. Manipulating objects from a distance could be useful.”

I agree. You now have Lighting Smash at level 6, and Remedium has increased to level 11. A skill called Greater Fireball is level 19. It’s a Rank 5 skill, and it sounds pretty powerful. You shoot a big ball of fire from your hands. Oh, there's something called Combination License and Combination Skill: Venti Aqua. It’s level 13. I believe it combines the elements of wind and water to make a water tornado.

“That sounds destructive. I can just imagine thirty tornados slinging water at such a speed that could cut boulders in half.”

You also have the skill Conjure Ice Rope at level 29, Speed Casting, which is useless, and Water’s Breath, which is a skill that allows you to breathe underwater. True Immortality can let you breathe while submerged, so it won't be that useful. Oh, here's something that you might like. It’s a skill called Expand Skill Energy, and it’s level 79. From what I can gather, it’s a Rank 5 skill that expands your Skill Energy Reservoir by one percent per upgrade. Our already giant Skill Energy Reservoir just became 79% deeper. And that is all of them. There weren’t many skills, but I’m sure you’ll agree that they’ll be valuable.

“I see. That’s good,” Servi said, still with a tinge of sadness. This stuff was important, she knew that, but the sudden realization hit her. Servi had no memories. If she had friends, were they sad she was gone? Or were they happy? Was she an honest person like Momo, or was she an evil woman like Mossi? She asked herself that, but she didn’t have an answer. If she was an entirely different person prior to losing her memories, what would happen if she regained them? Would she hate herself for what she used to do? Or would she hate herself because of what she did? She wanted to ask someone, but Momo was out of the question.  That left Itarr, but Servi decided to ask the Goddess her thoughts about it later on.

She wanted to think about it a bit more, and soon, she found herself sitting in the Warden lobby. It was mostly empty, except for a few employees behind the windows. After a bit, Servi stood up and went to her room. She opened it with her key, stepped inside, locked the door, and sighed.

“What do I wanna do...” she said out loud before using her ring to remove the slightly-too-big armor and mask. All that was left was the black undergarments that she wore. The thought of getting a sleeping gown or something from her ring crossed her mind, but she decided against it. The night was rather hot, so she decided to sleep naked.

Wait, should I have removed the armor when I was outside? Nah, it doesn't matter, she thought.

Servi made her way over to the mattress and picked up the blanket lying on top of it. It was coarse and rough to the touch, but it was better than nothing.

Or so she thought. After holding it against her chest, the rugged cloth rubbed against her bare nipples.  Usually, she imagined the feeling would be pleasurable, but she felt none of that.  She balled it up and tossed it against the wall.

Servi laid down on the mattress and sighed.

Maybe I should get a bed? It wouldn't be that hard to hide it if I could store it in my ring. I wouldn't have to pay, either. Just absorb it while walking past a furniture store...

She twisted and turned over a few times before curling into a ball. Then, she finally asked the question that’s been on her mind. “Itarr, do you think I was a good person? Before I lost my memories, I mean.”

I do.

“You don’t think I used to be mean like Mossi?”

I don’t. I think you’re a wonderful person who wouldn’t hesitate to help those who need it. That’s what you did for me. You jumped down without bothering what I was going to say.  Someone who would do that for a stranger can't be a terrible person.

“Thank you. I needed to hear that,” Servi closed her eyes.

Servi?

“Yes?”

I’ve been thinking about what you said. You know, about love?

“…”

And from how you describe it…. I think I love you.

“…”

Seeing you unhappy makes me sad. I feel good when I see you smile. I believe you’re a caring person. Look at how you protected Momo and healed that kid… Not to mention that you saved my life. Whenever I hear your voice, I feel happy. I like talking to you, and I when warm when I help you. So Servi…I love you.

Warm tears slowly slow slid down her face, and she curled up into a ball.

Why are you crying? Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry if I di—

“Don’t apologize…” Servi said through the tears. “Itarr, I love you too.”

I wish I knew why you were crying.

“I don’t know… I guess because I feel like a fool? Here I thought I was alone in this damn world, but I guess I’m not. I’m so happy I met you,” Servi silently wept.

I’m happy as well, but from my point of view, you have Momo.

“You’re right.”

Do you love her?

“I don’t know. It’s only been one day since I met her. That’s way too soon to decide if I love someone. I just know that when I look at her, I feel funny in my stomach.  It's like I want to protect her.”

If that's the case, then isn’t it too soon for you to decide that you love me?

“Ah! No, no! I don’t mean it like that. I mean, it feels like I’ve known you all my life even though it’s been a day. It’s because we both lost our memories, but I feel a connection between us. We both share a unique situation. Please don’t take it the wrong way. I do love you.”

And I love you too.

“But Momo? I don’t know. Maybe I'll be able to answer that in the future. Right now, I just wanna be friends with her. That isn't to say we can't go beyond just being friends... But then again, maybe she doesn’t feel the same way about me."

Servi waited for a moment before she continued.

“It feels like I’ve repeated myself over and over, but I really do want to be her friend.”

I feel the same.

“I’m scared, though.”

Why?

“We’ve been lying to her the entire time, and it feels like our friendship was built on that. I’m afraid that she’ll hate me when I have to tell her the truth.”

I wish I could say I understand, but I don’t.

“Momo's my first friend I made after you, so she’s special to me in that way, and I don’t want to lose her. I don’t know why, but I have the strangest feeling that my old self didn’t have people she could rely on. That’s why I feel bad about lying to her.”

Maybe I don’t have the experience to say this, but it’ll be ok. When the time comes, and we have to tell her, I’m sure she’ll understand.

“Itarr?”

Yes?

“Can you promise me something?”

I can.

“You won’t leave me, will you? You won’t be gone when I wake up?”

Of course not. What about you? Will you leave me?

“Of course not.”

The two shared a little giggle, and Servi felt better. Her eyes were still red from crying, but she felt happier, which made Itarr happy. That only further convinced herself that it was love she was feeling.

Do you feel like sleeping? I’m sure you’d feel better in the morning.

“But what about you?”

I’ll be fine. I'll protect you while you sleep, so don’t worry about it and get a good rest. You deserve it.

“Thank you,” she said as she rolled over. A smile appeared on her face as she lost the battle against sleep.

Sweet dreams, my dear Servi. I love you, Itarr said as her friend drifted away. She hoped with all of her being that when she woke up, Servi would be happy. That’s all Itarr really wanted.