Reborn as a Snake! (2.) [ONGOING]

{Intermission}(1.) - Holy Prodigy - Harold.

Everyone would always tell me that I was destined for greatness and how they had big hopes for me and my future exploits. It honestly became a bit repetitive and annoying.

Everyones praise about me being an absolute holy Prodigy felt empty and meaningless. After all - I already myself knew that I was greater than most people of my age. That I was born differently from others.
But I didn't let that cloud my mind and get to my head. I didn't allow my ego to be my leading factor in life. Instead - I joined the ranks of the Holy Night Order as an 'official' squire of the Holy Knight who had taken me under his wing.

I took the Holy Oath and swore to always hold my blade up high, in the name of justice and protecting those who could not protect themselves. This was my vow when I joined the Order and this is the vow that I've stuck to ever since.

As a surprise to no one - I excelled above all other squires and began to climb the ranks of the Holy Night Order only a year after joining.
And before I knew it, at the measley age of 19 - I had been promoted to a Holy Knight within the order, giving me the same type of authority as my Master.

Being the youngest individual in history to become a Holy Knight, the praise about me being a 'prodigy' and 'Man destined for Greatness' only doubled down. However - at the same time...
Looks of jealousy and envy, began to be thrown at me. Mainly from individuals, who thought that my entire ascendence through the ranks was a fluke and that I was 'buying' my way into power.

However, these envious views never bothered me, as they were nothing more but baseless rumors. After all, no one who had seen me in action, would ever dare to doubt me or my power.

I continued to serve in the Holy Night Order for years, doing what I - or more accurately, the Order - deemed as the right thing to do. However - at the same time, in the back of my mind — there was a thought that sat.
A thought, which had been with me ever since the beginning. Ever since my years as a small child.

A thought...
Which I was never able to part with.

I am able to go even higher.

This singular thought - this singular thought, continued to rest in my mind - to haunt my entire being. It felt like the ghosts of my pasts - the expectations of all the people around me had manifested themselves as a feeling within me, which would now remain here to forever follow me.

This thought - despite me not making it obvious from the outside look - destroyed me slowly from in the inside.
It caused me my mental state to demolish - to slowly go down and down, and down, and down... It wasn't allowing me to live normally, whenever I wasn't out in public.

Whenever I tried to take a rest to take a break from everything - the thought would strike into my mind and almost shriek in my head with a blood curling sound...

It made me feel like, every second I wasn't doing my job as a Holy Knight - I was wasting valuable time, which I could have instead spent living up to all the expectations and praise I was given by everyone around me. It genuinely ate away at me on the inside.

.....Which I suppose is why - I felt a strange feeling that night - when I met face to face with the leader of the Hand Sons of Tritery — a criminal 'cult' organisation, that was caught many times doing rituals, messed up experiments and even partaking in criminal acts.

I was immediately doing what was right to do - trying to subjugate the leader of a massive criminal organisation-like cult that has been one of Holy Night Orders greatest targets for a long time now. However... The leader - he did not fight back. No, he just kept dodging and blocking — but not once did he throw a punch back at me.

Almost like he was holding back when he came face to face with me in a fight. Almost like... He was underestimating me. That made me boil a little inside - I had spent my whole life training and becoming stronger and stronger, and yet... This single enemy — this single leader of a cult... He was managing to stand his ground against... No, he was even able to overpower me.

While he kept dodging and staying on the defensive, I kept going in for an attack after an attack - all the while he kept on going on about 'Not being my enemy' and 'He brings news of a threat greater than even the cult'.
It all sounded like nonsense - I mean, for starters, why should I believe a word that was coming out from his mouth? He was known as the leader of a massive cult, so none of his words could be trusted on the base level.

....And yet - as he kept on talking — I felt myself slowly.. trusting him. I found myself slowly... Wanting to at least hear what he had to say. Even if the chances of him speaking the truth were 0, at least I would learn some information.

That mainly being how strong he was.
So - I put my blade down and sheathed it, agreeing to hear out what the leader of the Hand Sons had to say. And what he told me.....
Made me conflicted.

A Monster - supposedly growing stronger with every second, had managed to infiltrate the everyday lives of normal individuals and hide among them. A beast, whose intentions were unknown, but most likely nefarious - disguised as a human among the commonfolk.
...This was intriguing bit of news to learn. However, I did still have my doubts about the information.

I demanded him to show some evidence - and to my surprise - not only did the leader show me full blown evidence of this monster truly existing using replay spell, but he also hinted that the monster may be linked to the death of the Guardian of the Southern Monster Heart - as the monster had at one point held the title of 'Southern Guardian'.

This all... Like I said - made me feel conflicted. But at the same time... Gave me an idea. This - this was an opportunity. A golden opportunity at that. If I could eliminate this monstrous threat, I could live up to the expectations. I could finally get rid of that stupid thought that has been haunting me all this time.

I could finally....
Commit fully to being the powerful and brave knight, that everyone around me knows me as.

While I knew I could potentially violated the Codex of a Holy Knight as well as 'break' the vow I made by pursuing this monster on my own and not informing the higher ups of it first — In that moment, I cared more about freeing myself of burden.
So - I let the leader go free that time, while promising to myself to take care of the monster that had infiltrated the commonfolk.

According to the Hand Sons leader the monster was currently in Yiinao - the City of Merchants. Which meant, that Yiinao would be my destination.
And with the morning sun — I left.
I took my horse and rode off towards Yiinao - aiming to get there as fast as possible and take down this hidden monster before it could grow any more powerful.

While the Higher ups won't approve of my actions, I'm sure they'll be thankful to me, for eliminating a threat to this entire world.

And with that -
A grueling journey, which would take over 2 Months to complete, began.
Harold was on his way to Yiinao to slay the monster who had infiltrated the commonfolk - which unknown to anyone at the time, was Faofa himself.

• | C h a p t e r - E n d | •

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| Next time : (24.) |
| 'Questing & Departure'. |