A Vengeful Path (Resumed)

Ch.22 What the future holds

Asta watched the sun rise. He could hear the conversations of nature as the birds woke up and sang and animals exchanged their greetings. He scanned the garden and saw Kiroyame sitting against a tree with birds flocking him from all angles. He looked happy to be in the flurry of nature. Asta was going to go greet him, but he thought about it for a moment and stopped himself. I shouldn't bother him, he thought before walking to the door. It's been 2 months since the Dark Triads' attack, and nothing big has happened while the three of them were recovering. Nothing big could happen since the trio were always under strict supervision ever since Kiroyame had a run-in with those royals. The young devil was stroking the fur of a very plump squirrel, listening to its chirps and the sound of it cracking an acorn open. He spread his orange-veined wings so birds could perch on it, and a blue jay landed on one of his horns. Their chirps all mixed into one song, off-tune but beautiful at the same time. The birds suddenly stopped their songs and flew into the trees, as the butterflies took off into the air. The squirrels scurried through the grass and up the tree, the sound of their tiny claws scraping the bark being projected by the leaves. Kiroyame looked around to see a maid walking up the stone path to him. "Your presence is being requested by Wizard King Julius," she said without looking at him and bowing. The old man hasn't visited us in a while. I wonder what he wants? he thought as he hopped off the grass and stepped into the sunlight. He saw the maid flinch back as he subconsciously growled. "S-sorry," he quickly apologized, and she just nodded and walked back down the path with him trailing behind her. The sun has just passed the high point in the sky, indicating the early evening. "What does the Wizard King want with me?" Kiroyame asked the maid, trying to smooth over the natural roughness in his voice. "E-eh?" she stuttered, jerking away from him, to which he responded with raising his hands. "Sorry about that," she said, bowing again. "And I'm just a servant. You'll find out once he tells you." The look of fear she shot him gave him unpleasant flashbacks from back when he first went outside the castle. As they walked to the Wizard King's Office, Kiroyame tried and failed to talk to the maid who was quite scared of him. "W-we are here," she said, bowing at the double doors. He tried to thank her but she quickly rushed away without a word. Ouch, he thought before knocking on the door. "Mr. Wizard King? It's me, Kiroyame. Was I called here?" he called out. "Ah, yes. Please come in," he heard, so he grabbed the ring handle to one of the doors and pulled it open. "Yes?" he asked tentatively. "How have you been doing?" he asked, gesturing for him to sit at the end of the table. "Ah, I've actually been doing quite nice!" he responded. "The food here is really good, and the garden is nice to relax in. The only thing that sucks is that none of the palace people want to talk to me," he said, deflating a little as he remembered the shaken looks that the servants always gave him when he went to the kitchen or passed them by in the hallways or ran into them as they tended to the garden he was always in. "Oh! But there is Mimosa. She's been visiting very frequently," he said, brightening up. "Yes. She seems to be one of the few people who aren't scared of me," he said to Julius. "By the way, where is Asta and Liebe?" he asked, suddenly remembering his comrades. "That's what I wanted to ask of you today. The two of them are planning to go clean up the ruins of the Spade Kingdom along with the Black Bulls, the Green Preying Mantis, the Coral Peacocks, the Aqua Deer and the Purple Orcas." "Woah, that's a lot of knights," Kiroyame said, stunned that they were sending so much of the kingdoms forces away. "That's because anything could be lurking in the Spade Kingdom. Even with the Dark Triad defeated, we still don't know if they have anything else up their sleeves so we have to be prepared. Plus, we are planning to take over the land of the Spade Kingdom." It took a bit for him to process that, but when he did he understood. "That's why you're taking more than half the magic knight squads," he said, finally realizing. "Yes, and it isn't known to the public, but we are also bringing Asta and Liebe to better reinforce us, which brings me to what I wanted to talk about with you today. Since more than half our squads will be deployed, along with Asta and Liebe, I wanted to ask if you could stay in this kingdom, just for safety measures. We kept from deploying the royal squads on purpose, but it would be great to have you here just as an extra precaution. As I said, with the Spade Kingdom in ruins, they are very unpredictable at the moment, and we can never be too careful." Kiroyame pondered over this for a moment. His life on Earth was a few short months, but in those months Asta and Liebe have been his only friends, so being separated from them was bound to be weird. Oh wait, I have Mimosa! he reminded himself. Even with the two of them gone, he wouldn't be totally by himself. "When do they leave?" "At midnight, as to not attract attention from the public," he responded. "And where are they now?" "Probably preparing, I'd assume." "Hmm.." he thought about it, but then felt silly. "There's no point in thinking about it. I'll stay," he said, and Julius smiled at him. "I'm glad to hear that. If you want, you can go see them off when they leave in a few hours," he said. "I'll be sure to do that, but I'm kinda hungry so can I go eat something?" he asked eagerly, and Julius nodded again. "See you soon!" he called back as he pranced out the door. Wait , he suddenly thought, stopping. Damn it... he winced internally.