Death's Door

"….and ended up dying by falling down the stairs. Did I die again? Seems like I have reached a new low… this is humiliating….But wait, this isn"t my bed. So I didn"t come back after dying? Then where am I?"

Looking down he found that he was certainly not in his room.

This was not his bed, the furniture was all wrong.

The small notebook he check marks for every day he is alive was not there as well.

He was covered by a turquoise colored blanket.

Looking at his left side, he found a red haired maid, asleep, leaning upon the bed, on her knees, almost as if in prayer while holding on to his left hand.

"Maybe I had gone too far by spending more time with her. I did try to have her let her guard down around me so that I would blend in easily. Considering that after a while, the name of Dark Lord will be known all over the place, I needed a perfect cover so I wouldn"t be found out. Though I did not expect her affection for me to have reached this degree….Why do I feel a little warm sensation on my right side?"

Runfar no longer had flesh on the right side of his body, so it usually stayed rather cold. Strangely enough, he could still feel temperature with his skeletal parts.

Parting the blanket a little, he found that wrapped around his right arm was a form of a little blue haired fox demon, Rune.

"Well, this is unexpected."

"Maybe I should get out of the room while I still can before either of them notices…"

But unfortunately, Elian opened her eyes and noticed that Runfar was awake.

"Master! You are finally awake!"

Elian ended up hugging Runfar.

Runfar ended up finding himself squeezed tightly by arms that seemed to be tad bit too strong for a lady, maybe it was due to how much she was worrying about him.

"I am so glad you are ok, master! Please don"t scare us like that again!"

"Calm down, Elian. I am fine."

"Young master is obviously not fine, when I was patrolling the mansion yesterday, I found you lying under the stairs, pa.s.sed out, and your body was bruised allover! Your body was as cold as corpse… If I knew your condition was so serious, I wouldn"t have let you go without being treated…. "

"It is nothing, I am fine now….Cough!"

Runfar ended up looking down at his hand which was covered in blood.

Obviously, he was not ok.

"Oh, because of that idiot Finnerman, all the mana I was keeping under control ended up absorbed or discarded…I see, so that"s why I am feeling so weak…I am low on mana. But to her it looks like I have flu or some type of terminal illness….I need to make her believe I am ok."

"I am fine" Runfar smiled with his lips forming a smile, but because of all the blood in his mouth, instead of rea.s.suring Elian, it had the opposite effect.

She panicked and told Runfar to lie down and rest.

"Fine. If you insist"

Runfar ended up reluctantly being Elian"s patient.

She gave him several herbs and teas to drink; apparently they are used in order to cure diseases.

"Master Mordon and Landon went to the trading place to search for medicine, Lais and Alua went to the forest to collect herbs that Big sister Mira requested that can be made into a powerful elixir and as for others…"

Apparently Runfar ending up almost dying had sent the entire mansion into panic, now everyone was overreacting and were desperately trying their hardest to keep Runfar alive.

"I am grateful for that. Thank you. However, can you please explain…this to me?" he pointed at the small form of pseudo demi-human, Rune, the mute fox maid who now was like a little sister to Elian.

"Your body temperature was getting dangerously low, especially on your right side, young master, so Rune thought that sharing her body heat with you was a good idea."

"I see"

So that"s why a little fox demon was acting like a tiny body pillow.

"Frankly I wanted to do that too, but I was afraid that with young master"s fragile body it would be risky. Someone with a smaller body size would be a better idea."

"Fragile body? What do you…?"

Runfar now realized a crucial fact.

He was not wearing a shirt. His right side had fake skin attached to it, all covered by bandages.

Furthermore, he was not wearing his mask, the fake skin on the right side of his face imitated scar tissue.

Overall, he looked like severe trauma patient.

His right side no longer had any muscle, fake skin and bandages did not help matters much.

For those who did not know better, he looked like an extremely emaciated person barely clinging to life.

"I see, so that"s why she thinks I am ill and not well. Bleeding from my mouth did not help my case."

"Well, not every person gets to have a maid nurse them, so I might as well count myself lucky. But still, falling down the stairs? Seriously?! I have been eaten by a dragon, burned on a stake, and butchered G.o.d knows how many times, and each time, none even bats an eye. But now I fall down the stairs and the entire mansion panics….Huh, sometimes I wonder if this world hates me or something?"

Then Rune ended up waking up.

She saw Runfar"s face, but instead of being afraid, she smiled and proceeded to embrace him.

Being embraced by a child, who reminded Runfar of his own son made even Runfar"s stone cold heart pain slightly.

Runfar somehow found himself reading a book to Rune who was sitting on his lap, listening attentively, all the while Elian just watched with a lovely smile on her face.

On the inside, Runfar was a little confused.

"Just what kind of a family picture is this?" Runfar couldn"t help but see a family scene in his mind when he looked at his current situation.

* * *

Soon enough, Mordon and Landon arrived with medicine, and Landon had to practically force feed reluctant Runfar this bad tasting, horrifying concoction.

"I feel sicker after drinking that thing than I did before, but I can"t tell them that…"

"Thank you very much"

Runfar muttered.

But on the inside, he simply wanted to throw up.

"I am very sorry about this young master, but as they say, the more effective the medicine is, the worse the taste of it is." Mordon proclaimed.

"Please tell me you didn"t just pick the worst tasting one?" Elian looked at Mordon with harsh gaze, almost as if asking whether he intentionally made her beloved Runfar"s medicine growse on purpose.

"Of course not, Elian. This is the medicine from one of my most trusted colleagues, the herbalist who lives nearby, Rowena Rowel, she is very trustworthy. All of her medicine and potions are effective, well, most of the time that is. While they do have the intended effect…potions are usually very hard to drink due to their taste…."

"Master Runfar!"

Runfar ended up grabbing a bucket that was conveniently nearby and threw up upon it.

Landon and Mordon were apologizing all over for their blunder, all the while Runfar could only think.

"Please let this be over with"

* * *

"Please drink this up, young master."

"Mira, not you too"

"I made sure it did not taste bad and as you know, I know thing or two when it comes to taste."

"I will take your word for it."

Runfar ended up gulping down her elixir.

"Huh? Not bad at all. Considering the dread Landon brought me….Never mind that. Oh, Mira, your birthday is next month, is it not?"

Not sure why Runfar asked such an unrelated topic, the blind maid nodded, her lavender hair moving slightly due to her head movement.

"Right….Expect a wonderful present from me, then."

"Thank you, young master."

Mira nodded gracefully.

"You know, I am really glad you are not trembling all over like the first time we had a talk."

"That is because I know young master is a kind lord whose heart is as broad as his soul."

"Wow, such kind words, Mira."

"The one thing I do regret is not being able to see young master"s wonderful face. Elian described it to me, but I can only hear young master"s gentle voice."

"It is ok."

Unexpectedly, Runfar took Mira"s hand into his own and put her hand upon his face, thereby, allowing her to see him, in a sense, for the first time, through her touch.

As her sensitive fingertips touched his face, Mira started to understand a little bit of Runfar"s appearance, but when she touched the fake scar tissue, she ended up muttering.

"You poor thing, you must have suffered a lot in your life, to have ended up this way."

"I will not deny it, but at least we can understand each other"s pains, even if just a little…."

"True"

Runfar then saw the sad smile upon Mira"s face.

"Seeing my servant in pain is not acceptable. I might as well ask Morphus to aid me with her birthday gift; I know it will cheer her up…"

Then the door to the room ended up opening and the maids ended up falling through. Five maids fell on top of each other, in what seemed like a strange pyramid.

Apparently they were trying to overhear the conversation Mira and Runfar were having, but they leaned in too far, thus ending up in such an awkward position.

* * *

"Let me get this straight, you plan on destroying this entire kingdom but you get done in by stairs?"

"Not so loud, Lukalis"

"I already cast spell of Soundproofing upon the entire outside of the room, even if an explosion occurs here, none will hear a thing."

"So you can cast that spell as well? I see."

"My version of the spell is far superior to what Camilla, that snake servant of yours is capable of using. By the way…gulp this down!"

She threw a flask filled to the brim with strange liquid.

"What is this?" Runfar started to drink it.

"Camilla"s poison"

"Pfftt!" Runfar ended up spitting it out.

"What the h.e.l.l, Luka?!"

"Purified poison made into an elixir, that is. That poor fellow, snake demons have a limit how much poison they can produce at once, yet he proceeded to produce nearly five times the normal amount, to the point he ended up pa.s.sing out after asking me to purify the poison to turn it into an elixir."

"His poison can be turned into an elixir? I did not know that."

"Any poison can be turned into medicine if purified and changed slightly, though it requires a lot of poison to produce a small amount of medicine. To fill that bottle up, Camilla gave me about half a barrel"s worth of his poison. He pushed himself well beyond his limits. He is all right now, just recovering his energy while sleeping."

"That fellow, always pushing himself recklessly"

"It seems like that demon thinks very highly of you, saying such things as "My life is meaningless if he dies, please use my poison in order to save him" and such. What could you have possibly done to make someone like a snake demon loyal to you to such a degree?"

"Not sure. But I can"t say I don"t like it."

"As for the others…is working with them necessary?"

"If I could accomplish any of my goals alone, I wouldn"t have bothered to recruit anyone."

"True, but Dark Lord…I know how strong the heroes are and I know that as Shadow lords are now, they stand no chance against them. So what will you do?"

"When fighting against a mighty foe, it is necessary to play a long game, in a sense, one enemy at a time. We cannot beat all heroes, you are right, but one by one, it will be tough, but not unfeasible."

"Even if you kill heroes and holy knights, and steal their weapons that will not make Shadow Lords more powerful."

"Oh, but it will, especially if those heroes and holy knights happen to have blessings…he-he-he…"

"You seem confident about it, fine, I will not question it. However, they have G.o.ds on their side…and in the offhand chance they summon G.o.ds to aid them, what will you do?"

"I will think about it when we get there."

"Tad bit too reckless, aren"t you, Dark Lord?"

"Unfortunately, I have to be, otherwise, none will get the job done. Speaking of which, did Meros and the others show you around our holdings?"

"Yes, however, the goblin nests…." Lukalis cringed a little, just thinking of the nest of goblins filled with countless naked women being used for reproductive purposes made her feel sick to her stomach.

She even threw up on the spot when Meros and Morphus showed her the place.

Strangely, the one called Goblin Captain was intelligent enough to give reports while the others, though organized, were of wilder nature.

Apparently the Goblin Captain was in charge of them all, on behalf of Dark Lord.

"…That is messed up, Dark Lord, in so many ways that is just wrong."

"I had no other way of raising a quick army, just a little more than three months, and I already have more than two hundred goblins at my disposal, to think I started with only ten. There is no other species I know of that multiplies quite as fast."

"I suppose as long it is our enemies" women being used for that purpose, I don"t mind, but still…."

"You will get used to seeing it eventually. By the way, how goes the construction of five fake nests?"

"They are finished; each one has fifteen to twenty goblins inside as well as women who are no longer capable of bearing goblin offspring."

Dark Lord set up a system in which the captured women would be used for reproduction in the main nests and when their bodies get used up, they will be allocated to the fake nests which will be used to lure in their enemies.

Dark Lord had a grand plan involving those fake nests.

Each one will lead to a very deep tunnel, very deep into the earth, almost like a labyrinth.

Soon, adventurers and knights investigating the disappearance of Holy Maidens would arrive, and when they enter the labyrinths, they shall be trapped.

"Perfect. By the way, are others finished with their a.s.signments? Meros came by earlier and left me some stew…."

Meros made stew with what he called the secret Solros family recipe, Runfar had no idea what to say to that statement, but he just played along.

Morphus also came by, apologizing all over, again and again, to the point Dark Lord had to grab a pillow and smack him with it.

"…but what of the others? Should I contact them or…"

"No need to. Everyone finished their tasks."

Jun was sent to leave several n.o.ble families decorated surprise boxes. Each box contained head of the member of the n.o.ble family. In a sense, it was to send a message "You are next".

Others were simply spying on what was going on, with Meros going as far as tailing the Holy Knights.

"However, their way of teleportation is inefficient and trite at its best."

"Do you have anything better in mind?"

"Certainly, I can create magic items which will allow for far more efficient teleportation."

"Right, carving seals everywhere and having to use marked area only is getting very c.u.mbersome."

"Then you will like what I will make. Think of it as a surprise, then"

"I can"t wait until it"s finished"

Now both Lukalis and Dark Lord proceeded to laugh, a long and consistent laughter, each relishing the fact that everything to their path of vengeance is going accordingly.