1 The Demon Child (5)

I tried hard to rummage into my memories of a blonde girl with blue eyes, but I really can't remember anything at all.

I don't think there were rich families in our village. If there were, I'm sure they would have left right after the war has been settled. Furthermore, her features are very unique that I should be able to recognize her immediately.

Could it be that she's just bluffing?

"It's okay.", I heard her say, making me put my focus back to her. "I'm not forcing you to remember right away. That's not important right now."

It might just be my imagination, but I think I caught a hint of disappointment in her tone of voice just now. Was it really just my imagination?

I can't help but utter a soft sorry. "I'm sorry..." for forgetting about you. "If you don't mind, could you please tell me-" 'how we met?' is what I wanted to ask before she cut me off.

"No." It's as if she knew what I wanted to ask. Her perceptiveness is amazing... and a bit scary. Before I even retaliate, she continued. "I don't want to."

"B-but-"

"If you're really sorry, then do your best to remember.", she said in her usual domineering voice, springing me up as if it was a conditioned response on my side.

"Y-yes ma'am!", I quickly replied. However, as soon as I replied, her face instantly grew dark, a clear evidence that I might have offended her somehow. But how exactly?

"Good." She said without even looking back at me.

She's been looking outside the window a lot now. Out of curiosity, I decided to glance outside too, just to check out where we currently are. And to my surprise, I found a very familiar terrain.

The rain had weakened into just a drizzle, yet there were a lot of evidence of the earlier heavy rain judging from the amount of mud on the road. The place was swarmed by widely spread trees and shrubs that were accompanied by a nearby river that runs along the same direction as we are headed.

We were in the forest. The same forest I grew up in. But this path, it's leading out to the city.

In other words, we are already very far away from the village.

[END]