Marcus's past

"What do you mean?" I ask with real curiosity in my face.

I haven't been here for a day and I'm just looking for information that's probably public.

The Count shifted his gaze from the paper to me and I could see a small frown on his face.

"Who are you?" he asked as his look became more aggressive.

"I don't understand what you mean, I've lived here for 23 years."

I said everything with a cold face, but inside I was extremely nervous.

Who the fuck are you, Marcus? You have almost no memories, and if the Count decides to kill me, I won't even be able to blink.

"You've lived here for 23 years, but I've never seen you with a straight face or a fixed gaze. You have always been useless, and now your maid has informed me that you have been reading for 12 hours straight.

Ingrid had obviously sold me out. It bothers me to be betrayed, but without knowing the past of this idiot body, I cannot know what would be a strange behavior.

In any case, I must try to find out something now. Should I kill Ingrid? I'll think about it later.

"Father, what do you mean? My memories are all blurred, and fortunately I can remember a few names. Since I didn't even remember where I was, my idea was to find out."

The Count's frown deepened and his look became a bit more aggressive.

"Explain to me how you knew what kind of place would give you information about yourself when you have no memories. You shouldn't know more than a few basic words, after all, you never learned anything or left your room in your entire life," he said as the air around him distorted.

Never left your room? How am I supposed to know that?

A few basic words? I think I understand.

Marcus must have had little or no intelligence, so his memories are fuzzy. Only a few names of a few people. What little I knew was probably because he had a lot of trouble absorbing any kind of information.

Fuck... Could you give me a worse body, Decrea?

The real question is what am I going to say now. How do I justify reading Elvish and speaking it fluently?

Could I use my status as an apostle of Decrea? Considering that Decrea planted the Tree of Essence, she should have a large portion of believers.

It's my only option.

"I don't really know either, all I can say is that I heard an ethereal voice that gave me knowledge and a mission. And then I woke up and everything became clear.

I decided to keep the information as vague as possible so that he could draw his own conclusions.

The Count's frown softened a bit, but it did not disappear. The air around him also returned to its usual calm.

"Are you saying that a voice gave you a mission? And what would that be?" His voice was still cold.

"It told me that my mission was to destroy the Human Church for murdering King Azrath. And I was to find out what the Human Church was."

Apparently it works. His eyes now hide sadness and almost no hate.

"So she chose you... why?" he said between murmurs, clearly a rhetorical question.

"Let me analyze you," he said as he reached out his arm to me.

I accepted, and as he touched me, I could feel his energy scanning my body. This was also done by humans to analyze the physical changes that mana could cause.

After a minute of suffocating silence, the Count moved.

"Good, you have awakened your core. It's only violet now, but it's only been twelve hours since you woke up. So it's pretty impressive. I will officially appoint Elijah as your protector, plus you have permission to check out the library as you see fit, and you will get back the money that was never given to you due to your inability to spend it... Don't worry about the humans yet. That's something for later," he said, turning his eyes to the papers as if there was nothing more to talk about.

Without another word I got up and left the study. Outside, Ingrid looked at me fearfully. She knows that she has to report everything to her superior, but she also knows that she has no status and no one will bother me if I slit her throat.

I won't kill her, but I must change her allegiance from the count to me. She is a determined woman and she is about to evolve. I must analyze her core afterwards.

"Ingrid, get me a steel sword and a dagger and then accompany me to the market.

I know that elves have minerals and things that are superior to ours.

Ezekiel was already thinking about what to do to survive, while a very disoriented Ingrid followed him from behind.