Under the moon

[Selenes' Pov]

The night had begun to take its place, with the sun saying goodbye for today.

After several days and nights of riding the carriages, which were escorted by four elven soldiers by the orders of Beldroth by the names of Kendel, Anfalen, Sinaht, and Aire, three men and one woman.

Just like us, their heads were also adorned with almost platinum-blonde hair, hair that was pierced by their pointy ears sticking out to the sides, while at the same time being so different, as they were able to ride on their horses for days on end without rest.

It had been quite an amazing trip so far, seeing how the environment around us had slowly changed to further away from Luprad we went, as we looked through the windows on the carriages dragged by the almost silvery horses.

From the dense elven forest,s to going through a mighty mountain range, to now arriving at the large, grassy plains of Esna. As the moon lit up the sky, giving the open fields a sense of still serenity, I was currently the one awake, as Olivia and Lissy who I shared the carriage were sleeping tightly.

Despite the limited space in there, they were still able to sleep by leaning on each other, creating two postures that were half lying down, and half sitting up on the bench covered with red fabric.

I, however, was currently looking through a notebook that I had been keeping with me, a diary of sorts where I wrote down a lot of different important things.

During the early pages of the notebook, I had mostly written down information about the world known as Terros, things like how the three nations were structured. like how Luprad was ruled by the council of elders, while Esna was ruled by their king.

Yet, the further I turned the pages, the more it became nothing but a simple diary, where I wrote down what I experienced during my days in Laowh. Everything from how I had learned to climb the trees just like the native elves, to when I hunted my first monsters.

But even that changed at some point.

The last part of my notebook was filled with nothing but inexplicable symbols, repeating for what seemed like an eternity, as I had seemingly written down these weird symbols over and over again, despite me not even knowing what they meant.

There was one word, however, that appeared every now and then that I absolutely knew what it meant.

'Remember...'

I had no idea what I was supposed to remember, but there was no doubt that it had something to do with the weird symbols that I had scribbled down like a maniac.

At the same time, a part of me sort of knew that there was something that I should remember, but every time that feeling arose, it was quickly quenched by my brain, as if it wouldn't allow me to even try to think about it any deeper.

'Haa... At least the moon still seems to be the same in this world...'

In just a bit over a month, I knew that I had changed a lot, and though I knew that I was still 'myself', it couldn't be helped that I also felt like someone else to an extent.

This was the process of developing, of progressing as a human being... or an elf, in my case, discovering new sides to oneself, brought to light more often due to necessity than because of introspection.

Which was incredibly scary, as I was now about to get to meet my classmates again, and meet the closest friends I had. Just thinking about how George or Stephanie might have changed caused the hair on my arms to rise, as well as stressed me out to the point where I felt sick to my stomach.

'Though I doubt George would have changed much...'

George had always been such a motivated young man who always tried his best no matter what that I found it less likely for him to have changed all too much due to the circumstances. Most likely, he would just face it with a smile.

Stephanie, on the other hand, might not.

On earth, she had always been a bit of a quiet and timid girl, often relying on me as support when she was troubled. Therefore, it was hard to not about the possibility of her changing radically, even bringing with it the nightmarish thought that she might not even be the same person that I once knew.

It was a pretty childish worry, to be honest when compared to the fact that we had been sent to this world with the sole purpose of saving it, fighting with our lives on the line to bring down the demon king, but it was nonetheless something I did worry about a lot.

Simultaneously, I was also looking forward to seeing them again, seeing what kind of classes they had picked, and if they, just like me, had any physical changes as well.

'I wonder if any of them became a dwarf...?!'

"Pfft!"

Just picturing either of them, either the athletic George, or the timid girl with glasses, as dwarves made me have to cover my mouth with my hands, not wanting to accidentally wake Lissy or Olivia up by laughing.

After taking a couple of seconds to calm down a bit, I turned my gaze up to the moon again, shining beautifully in the sky.

There were a lot of things about this world that made me feel incredibly stressed out, giving me a lot of anxiety, but at the same time, I couldn't help but smile when thinking about the future for some reason.

As if I knew that everything would somehow be alright, as long as we all stuck together, as long as we made sure to not leave anyone behind.

****

[Aldric's Pov]

'Did I overdo it?'

Slowly lowering myself to the ground, seeing the corpses of the orcs laying like a disgusting, fleshy carpet on the dry land, I knew that the looks I got from my underlings had changed a bit. Their looks were no longer simple looks of respect, but now they also contained a bit of fear.

Even Gob looked at me differently now, and though it wasn't to the point where he looked scared, the respect that he had lost for me appeared to have returned.

That being said, though it felt pretty great to be able to shed some of the chains that had held me down, I still didn't want my troops to regard me as a maniac.

"Please... don't kill... the children..."

'Oh right, he was still alive.'

Turning my gaze down at the ground, where Dregu was currently slowly bleeding out, with his body in tatters after getting shredded by my feathers. His wolf-like helmet was no longer sitting proudly on his head as if to symbolize their loss.

"Did I not give you a chance, Dregu? Did I not say that if you chose to oppose me, you would inevitably face death?"

Squatting down, linking my eyes with his, it was unfortunate that I already knew that if I wanted to fully become the demon king I acted like, there was no room for hesitation right now. This was the path I had to walk to prove the validity of my existence, even if it meant that I would have to create a bloody light to do so.

"P-please... n-not the c-children..."

Yet, he kept spouting nonsense, as if he didn't hear what I just said.

Even as he was standing at death's door, that was still not the reason for the tears that ran down his face. No, despite him losing his life, he was shedding tears of empathy, thinking of the ones he wanted to protect.

From a purely logical standpoint, it did make sense in my head that I should have listened to his words, taking the people in the village under my wings to increase my numbers even more.

Yet, despite how much I wanted to listen to him, no matter how much I wanted to spare the orc women and children, I couldn't do so. For that would be contradictory to the purpose that I was currently creating for myself. For that would deny my very own existence.

"No. They will all die, Dregu. And the only reason why they have to die is that you and your kin couldn't swallow your pride. Due to that sin, there will be no forgiveness."

"N-no...!"

I was the demon king, and as such, there was no mercy to give to the ones that had disregarded the hand that was reached out to them.

Raising my arm, signaling to my troops to enter the village in front of us, I declared the final order of this battle.

"Kill them all."

Within less than a minute, all of my troops were advancing forward, running with excitement into the village built of stone to fulfill my wishes.

As the screams echoed out into the night that slowly revealed the moon high up in the starry sky, shining brighter than ever, I smiled. For right now, my existence was more apparent than ever, due to the bloody light that I was creating.