Reasons of Evil
Page 2
The old Grimmere shook his head.
“This is also what I have longed for. I am the one who has to thank you.”, the old Grimmere said with a smile. The light slowly became brighter and brighter, and moments later, the light completely devoured Grimmere.
He saw scenes of everything that had happened up to that point being shown by the light. Everything slowly started getting erased until nothing was left but light.
After what felt like forever, the light started dissipating.
When the light has fully disappeared, he stood in front of a building he was very familiar with. It was the knight’s barracks in Gallohall.
This was the place where he started training his swordsmanship. He looked at his body and saw that it was him when he was 14 years old. The spell had worked.
In front of him, a group of knights stood by the building’s entrance.
“Our hero, come! We must begin our training soon!”, one of the knights beckoned him to enter the building.
Grimmere smiled at the knight and bowed to show his respect. “Thank you, but I will have to decline.” Grimmere said as he turned around and walked away.
CHAPTER 2
The knights chased after Grimmere.
“What the hell?! I thought he didn’t have any prior training? How is he so fast?!”, one of the knights complained. They were the elites within the kingdom’s forces. They were known to have the highest physical capabilities within the entire kingdom, but they were beaten by a young boy.
The boy moved so quickly, that even the guards that were guarding the kingdom’s gates couldn’t react in time to stop him.
Grimmere simply dashed all the way out the kingdom. The knights from the kingdom had given up on chasing him.
When he had made enough distance between him and the kingdom, he hid himself in a cave by the nearby forest. He tried to reach for something in his belt, but then realized that it was missing.
The book that contained ancient magic. It wasn’t there.
Grimmere found this strange. It was normal that he didn’t have his magical sword yet, since he found the sword after he had finished his training, which was supposed to be two years later, but the book that he always carried around had been with him since he was 10 years old.
In fact, that book was the reason why everyone acknowledged him as the hero of Gladmont. Even though he had no prior knowledge towards magic, he could easily read the contents of the book. Not even the best scholars could decipher the text written in it.
He was born in a family of nobles.
His father was a Baron in a faraway kingdom called Maurow. It was found in what was called ‘The End of the World’. Beyond Maurow, there was nothing but a huge ravine. No one knew what was down there, and no one had attempted to scale the ravine.
Until one day, Grimmere fell down.
He was a young child at the time. He was sitting at the edge of the cliff, while staring at the abyss, which was the ravine.
He felt that the darkness ‘invited’ him to go down. The more he stared at the darkness, the more he felt that he wanted to jump.
At one point, he couldn’t resist the temptation anymore. He jumped down. As he kept falling, he felt strangely at peace.
He was falling for a very long time. Darkness slowly enveloped his surroundings until everything became pitch black. Even the sky above him was no longer visible. Not a single sound could be heard, except for the sound of the wind pushing against him as he fell.
Moments after, his body started feeling more relaxed. He felt as if he was just floating in the darkness. The sound of the wind stopped. Everything became completely silent.
Suddenly, he felt extremely drowsy. He felt as if the darkness was telling him to fall asleep. Just as he couldn’t fight the urge to jump down, he also couldn’t fight the urge to sleep, and so, he closed eyes.
When he woke up, he was in his bedroom. Beside him was a book with a leather cover.
He opened it and started reading the contents. Even though he was sure that he had never seen those characters before, he could strangely understand it. His body understood how to utilize what was written, and what would happen when he performed the instructions.
He showed the book to other people. Nobody could read the strange looking symbols that were written in the book. His tutors were scholars that were knowledgeable about many languages, but even they did not recognize the symbols.
He explained to everyone what was written in the book. Everyone told him that what he was saying was impossible. They explained that magic that performed things beyond the four basic elements; fire, earth, water, and wind, were impossible.
But then, he showed them.
The first spell he cast that was from the book boosted his physical capabilities. He did what was instructed on the book and started chanting words that were incomprehensible to everyone.
After chanting, nothing had happened. Everyone looked at him with a look of disappointment, but then, he started moving around.
The speed at which he dashed around was absurd. Even his father, who had seen the elite knights in action himself, could not hold back his surprise. The child was even more nimble than them.
His father immediately reported this to the King of Maurow. Hearing the news, the king immediately thought that the book and the child who was able to read it, could be the key to subjugating the monsters that were terrorizing the kingdoms. It might even be the key to defeating the monsters’ ruler.
The king immediately arranged a trip to the capital for the Rothsborn family. He sent a few capable soldiers to accompany them.
The travel went smoothly. After two weeks, they safely arrived at the capital of Gladmont, the Kingdom of Gallohall.
Grimmere’s father reported everything to Gallohall’s king. The king told them that he would have the best scholars all over the world to translate the book’s texts if they handed it over to him, which they did.
They stayed in Gallohall for over two years. At this point, the scholars had given up. They simply had no clue what any of the ancient symbols meant. They would ask Grimmere to perform the spells over and over again. When they thought they had a clue as to what it meant, more questions arise, which became more complex the more they studied.
Grimmere even tried to read it for them, but all they could hear were incomprehensible sounds.
When the scholars had given up, the king decided to just train Grimmere to become a hero. He planned to send Grimmere to defeat the Demon Lord.
Grimmere did not hesitate in accepting the king’s decision. If it was for the sake of the world, he would do it.
His father was sent home, and he was to stay in Gallohall until he had finished his training.
He paced around thinking of what to do. The book that contained the magic that made him a hero was gone.
As he kept thinking about the book, a female voice suddenly spoke in his head.
“Arcane Spellbook loaded.”
A window popped up in front of Grimmere. In the window, a few lines of text were engraved in what seemed to be buttons.
[Arcane Spellbook
I immediately pressed the button that said ‘Note from your future self’.
[“Dear younger me,
This might come as a surprise, but the physical body of the book Is now incorporated in your head. This is because there are people that are after the physical copy of the book. Even though the physical copy is gone, you should still be wary, since when you die, the book will manifest itself back to its physical form.
To use the system that I made, all you have to do is wave a hand to make the window appear and press the category for what magic you want to use, which is either
Consider th
is as a small gift from me.
Yours truly,
Your future self.]
After Grimmere finished reading the letter from his future self, the window immediately closed.
He wanted to test out the gift that his future self had given him.
The sun was about to set. He remembered that the nighttime in the area he was in was quite dangerous. It was particularly cold, but nobody dared to set a fire, since monsters would be attracted to the light.
He waved his hand, which made the window appear. He pressed the
A new window appeared, with a list of spells that were written in symbols that were the same characters that were written on his book.
He chose a spell that he was very familiar with. He always used it when he was traveling since the nights were always cold.
As soon as he pressed the spell, his body instantly felt warm. Even when the moon was at its peak, Grimmere did not feel cold at all.
“This is extremely handy.” he mumbled to himself.
He didn’t have to manually flip pages to look for a specific spell that he wanted to use anymore. Everything was well sorted out, and even separated into two categories.
“My future self seems to be extremely smart.”, he thought to himself with a smile.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep in the cave.
As the sun was about to rise, Grimmere woke up. He could hear something moving nearby.
He stepped outside and saw a small group of goblins carrying something that was stuffed in a sack. The sack was moving, as if there was something inside that was struggling.
As Grimmere continued to watch the goblins walk by, he saw something that was sticking out on the end of the sack. It was a pair of feet. Inside the sack was a human.
Grimmere immediately waved his hand and rushed towards the goblins.
The goblins were caught in surprise. The ones carrying the sack threw it away and drew their weapons. Before the sack could hit the ground, it disappeared.
Grimmere had already casted a spell that teleported the sack near him. He caught it and carried it on his back.
The goblins started charging towards Grimmere.
Grimmere waved his hand and chose another spell.
A few moments later, Grimmere could feel his body starting to prepare to cast something, even when he was moving. ‘So I can even cast spells while focusing on something else… this is extremely convenient.’, he thought to himself.
The moment that Grimmere felt his body had finished casting the spell, the group of goblins started bursting into flames. It looked as if every part of their body suddenly caught fire, even their insides, since flames were erupting from their mouths.
Moments after, the group of goblins turned into ashes.
The body which Grimmere was carrying continued struggling. He carefully removed the sack. In the sack was an adult woman. She was completely naked. Her hands and feet were tied up to ensure that she couldn’t move, and a piece of cloth covered her mouth.
Grimmere knew what the goblins did to women. He felt thankful that he was able to save her before she was taken to the goblin’s home.
She was cowering in fear as she looked at Grimmere.
“It’s okay, I’m here to help.”, Grimmere reassured her as he waved his hand and chose a spell.
Immediately after, a piece of thread appeared out of nowhere and started weaving itself. The string looked as if it was endless. The thread had turned into pieces of clothing.
Grimmere untied the woman and handed over the clothing.
“Here you go.” Grimmere handed over the clothes that he had made.
The woman hesitantly took it.
“W-who are you?” the woman asked. Fear could clearly be heard from her voice.
“I… I’m…”, Grimmere realized that he was still unknown during this time. The King of Gallohall only announced the appearance of the hero after Grimmere trained with the knights.
“… just a passerby.” Grimmere smiled at the woman. He didn’t want his identity to be leaked out yet.
The woman hurriedly dressed up and then approached Grimmere.
“My savior, please, let me ask you a favor.”, the woman desperately pleaded to Grimmere.
He was curious as to what made the woman so desperate.
“What is it?”, he responded.
“My daughter… she was taken before me… along with a few more women…”, the woman shakily replied.
Grimmere immediately understood the situation. Since the goblins were passed by near him, their base was probably nearby.
He waved his hand and chose a magic under
As soon as he pressed the spell he wanted to use, he could feel the presence of a small group nearby. There was a group of goblins, so it should be their base, but… there was another small group that weren’t goblins.
The captives were still alive.
He looked at the woman, who was still cowering in fear. If he left her behind, she might be spotted by monsters and be unable to defend herself.
“Please, hold on tightly.” Grimmere told her as she lifted her up and carried her on his back. He waved his hand and chose another spell.
As Grimmere started moving towards the goblins base, the woman held on as tight as she could, since they were going at an extremely fast speed.
It didn’t take long before they arrived at the goblin’s base.
Grimmere simply walked in while carrying the woman. There were already a few dead bodies laying around the area. “W-were we too late…?” the woman asked with a trembling voice.
“No… there are still people nearby.” Grimmere responded.
The goblins spotted him and started charging towards him. There were goblins stationed on small towers. They were equipped with bows and they immediately started shooting towards Grimmere.
Seeing the scene before her, the woman started trembling even more. She felt as if this was her last moments.
Grimmere waved his hand and chose a spell.
He dodged the arrow while carrying the woman on his back. His body was preparing to cast the spell that he chose.
He kicked the goblins that approached him and dodged their attacks. As soon as he felt that his body was ready to cast the spell, all of the goblins that were nearby started bursting into flames. He used the same spell that he cast on the goblins earlier.
The woman was shocked at the scene that unfolded before her. She thought that they were dead for sure. She has also never seen magic like that before. Just who was this person that saved her?
Grimmere walked towards the area where he felt that the humans were being kept.
As he entered the area, he felt sick at the scene he witnessed.
Multiple women were being bound to the wall. He knew that something horrible had happened to them. Some women were still in a sack, which probably means that they still hadn’t been touched.
As Grimmere looked around, he saw something, no, someone.
It was someone that he recognized.
That person wasn’t bound. In fact, he was peacefully sleeping besides two women who were tied up.
Beside him, the suit of armor that was all too familiar to Grimmere rested.
It was one of the elite knights from Gallohall. The one who trained Grimmere to use the sword. And he wasn’t alone. There were multiple knights who were sleeping peacefully besides women who were tied up.
Grimmere was immediately able to connect the dots. The goblin base that was close to the kingdom that wasn’t immediately subjugated wasn’t a goblin base.
It was a pleasure den.
Grimmere immediately felt his heart burning with rage. Weren’t the humans united to fight against the monsters? Weren’t the monsters the only threat to humanity? Didn’t the acts of evil only start after the fall of the Demon Lord?
No.
It was something that was there all along.
Evil has always been a part of every human
being.
Despite the world being plagued by monsters, these humans still did these vile acts.
The people he thought that went missing when he was still training weren’t all done by monsters. No, they were done by monsters. After all…
Humans are also monsters.
He put down the woman, who was still trembling at the sight before her. She had also realized what had happened. At that very moment, Grimmere had decided on what he had to do.