Aeonian Butterfly (Malenia X Male Reader)

Chapter 6 - Cursed To Remember

The once beautiful landscapes of the Land Of Reeds have become nothing more than dust and mud. Corpses filled the fields of wheat with their blood and putrefaction. Rats became the new rulers of these war-torn land. Every three steps a rat would screech telling its finding of food to its kin nearby.

In this field of wheat the Leyndell army set up a base camp. The capital of the Lands of Reeds was within a hike of two days, and they were preparing a full on assault. This was the last step to end the war. The suffering. Needless suffering? Are we the heroes? Are we saving people? Or just destroying families? Killing husbands and wives?

(Y/N) was sitting outside of his tent, it was dark outside, the only source of light coming from the torches on poles that they mounted hours prior. His gaze lost on the horizon. Thinking. Wondering. So many emotions ran through his chest but barely any thoughts passed through his mind. He was feeling, but not thinking. How could he be so ruthless? He couldn't find an answer, nor he could he create one. He was stuck in an endless loop, of despair, but he couldn't process what was happening.

Am I really the hero?

Thankfully, he was saved from his inner turmoil by Alessia and Finlay, both of them sensing his distress from his lack of emotion in his facial features. He was suffering. Not in a physical way, he was torturing himself, with just a simple thought.

Am I a monster?

He snapped out of it, when Finlay offered something to him.

Finlay: You should eat, you look exhausted.

He saw what was being offered to him. A loaf of bread. He gratefully accepted her present, and started to eat. Finlay sat by his side while Alessia sat beside her.

Alessia: You've been very quiet recently. You're not eating with us anymore. You stopped training. Hell, you don't even sleep on the barracks anymore. You just sit, whenever we are and stare at nothing. What is wrong with you?

Alessia didn't mean to be rude or aggressive, that was her way of showing concern, which (Y/N) already knew by now. After months fighting with the same brothers in arms, he learned their quirks.

Finlay: Yeah, we're worried.

Finlay gave him a worried look. Watching his face. The bags under his eyes. The cuts on his face, old and new. His hair a mess from the lack of care for it. He looked like he was in hell. For everyone else this was a great mission, a crusade to keep their home safe. But to (Y/N) it had become a damnation in life. His beliefs were fragile. What was wrong or right when the man in front of you wants to kill you? It wasn't the greater goal, protecting the homeland or some other reason his comrades believed in. He was suffering, because he had to keep on killing. He was good at it, and that made him useful. A useful soldier, a capable warrior, a killing machine.

(Y/N): I'll be fine, I just want this war to be over with, so I can go home.

He stood up and walked towards the field of wheat. His shoulders brushed against the tall wheat. It's yellow every once in a while was contrasted by the crimson colour of dried up blood. Soon he heard some coughing. Coming from a trail of blood impregnated on the wheat, marking a path. He followed it towards the source of the sound.

When he reached it, he saw a soldier of the Lands of Reeds. He was laying against the corpse of a horse holding his stomach. He was bleeding out. The soldier realised who was watching him, and instinctively reached for his sword, but he didn't have enough time and before he could draw his sword a katana pierced his chest. His eyes looked at his killer, his dim blue eyes watching as the life leaves the soldier's body. But before he could die, the soldier muttered something.