Birth of a Nightmare Man

Chapter Twenty-Five

Some time passed, and Ulgar's disappearance became a thing of the past. He had a few friends but they were wise enough not to try and get revenge. Or perhaps they were too frightened, as the news of Ulgar's entire family disappearing reached the school eventually.

As for the lord, he began a habit of carrying wands every now and then. There were three different ones on his belt one day, and Rowena asked:

"Why do you have three wands?"

"Well," the lord began and took one of them, "this one was mine originally. I've had this since I was a child. This one belonged to an enemy, but the core's the same as mine so it's sort of attached to me. And this third one, I took it from someone and it became mine."

"Oh." Rowena looked closer at all three without touching them. The bone-white one was something she'd never seen before. "So this white one belonged to an enemy?"

"Yes. It was given to me afterwards."

"What kind of enemy?"

The lord looked at the bookshelves surrounding them for a moment.

"An enemy I didn't ask for," he replied at last. "I think… it was one of the first people I killed. It wasn't about having fun back then; it was to kill or be killed. I took his life to survive myself. Stupid really."

"Stupid?"

"Things happened after that," the lord said and took the white wand in his hands. "Sometimes… I will look back at that moment and wish… that he had killed me instead."

Rowena startled. The lord smiled a bit and said:

"Don't tell Elise or the others that, alright? They get so anxious when I talk about being dead, as if it'll make me leave them."

How old is he? She wondered this as he began to walk around the office, glancing at books. She couldn't convince herself he wasn't old, with the way he talked. But his face… he didn't look old. So many believed the Nightmare Lord was different people, impersonating one. Could it really be that he was the only one?

However, that would mean he was hundreds of years old! Rowena shook her head. Could someone live that long and remain sane? Then again, the lord was unstable at best. He had been on good behaviour for a while, but who knows what he was like when he wasn't there with them?

This was giving her a headache, per usual. The Nightmare Lord was a nightmare in more ways than one. Rowena gave up thinking about it for now, and followed his journey across her office.

"Have you tried to fit an entire library in here?" he wondered.

"It's not that many books."

"Well, it's a lot of books."

"Not enough to make it into a library!"

"It could be that you tried to make a small library."

"It's not a library," Rowena said. "I just like books."

"I suppose I like them too. Funny that, I was never the studious type as a child."

"You weren't?"