It was a dream like no other, even when compared to the tortuous experience he went through in Durum and the kind of dreams he saw. This one stood out from the bunch.
Farhad fought against rats, multiple rats in this dream. While random faces would cheer him on in a language he barely understood. But sotis, he would understand so of them. Calling the na.
"Grifter".
A na he hated for so reason. But for so reason, their cries of his na always made him do his best, while a young boy would sell tickets to the many n who ca to watch the carnage.
All of them appeared poor, just like the boy whose voice would remain ever present, but his face would also never materialize in his eyes. Farhad fought and fought, sotis he fought more than 2 rats at once.
But each ti he would co out on top and the boy would co and pet him every ti he won.
The boy even gave him treats, from little peanuts to cashews he seed to consider precious.
Then one day, Farhad heard the first full sentence in this dream. "Grifter... I don’t know what to do... my mother."
A pitiful voice filled with pain and fear. Farhad can almost feel a bit of relatability with the boy. Because, even without the face, Farhad knew that the child was crying. So Farhad had walked out of the cage and tried to rub his head on the boy’s hand.
But the boy just smiled, his lips stretched far and wide, turning the blank face, horrific.
"??" Confused for a bit, the voice of the boy’s cries kept coming, but the creepy smile on his face remained.
"You are him..."
Then Farhad woke up.
"??"
Looking around, this was a small room with shades covering the windows, while not too far from him. A woman sat, a beautiful woman who kept her eyes on him.
"Farhad?" She asked and Farhad nodded for a while. Before asking. "Captain Remira?" He asked, before shaking his head, and then continuing. "Why are we here?"
******
She looked at as if I was a creep, a weirdo for asking such a question. Before long, she said sothing that made my confusion worsen.
"Guess I found out what happens if I cut off your head." She smiled after saying such horrific things and then pointed toward the mirror and told . "Go look there and see if you can recall what happened before."
I can see her hand on her sword, I can sll danger in the air, I can see my head dropping down. Odd emotions and feelings, as if my body was screaming at to be careful, but I can’t recall the reason why the Captain would start treating like this.
Did sothing happen while I was asleep?
Were her words true? The one about my neck?
As confused as I was, I didn’t let it hamper my movent one bit, I just did as she asked and then walked to the front of the mirror and saw what she ant. "Wha..." I was left speechless. The man in the mirror didn’t seem human. For a second, I even thought it was one of those mirrors from the circus. But then again, I can see Captain from the corner of my eyes appearing normal in the mirror as well.
"You didn’t panic?" She asked with so curiosity, but her stance had not changed one bit. She seed to have treated as a threat. "I will buy a mask," I answered her.
Her question was a bit bizarre in my eyes, to begin with.
I intend to die after earning her trust and putting the knights behind Jester’s tail. Why should a man like care about my looks?
But considering the current situation, whatever happened. I seed to have lost so of the initial trust I had developed before. Sad to say, I don’t know what actually happened. So I just asked her directly. "Captain, can you please inform what happened? And why are you on edge?"
At my question, she sighed for a bit. Seeming to no longer consider a threat, she stood up from her seat and then walked out of my room, leaving the words. "Co to the living room. We will speak there." At this point, I couldn’t understand what was going on in her hand. But one thing I was sure of.
I did sothing. Sothing bad and sothing she won’t ignore. And whatever this thing was, it had ruined the little trust I had developed during our journey to Leshen.
’Hmm. Where are we?’
I thought while opening the window and saw a cityscape in front of . Being closer to the mountain ranges where the Headquarters for Radiant Knights was based, Leshen was a city situated on long hills, causing many elevation levels in the city.
Which made it possible for even a poor hotel like the one I was in, to have a great view. ’The last mory I have of is last night... then it goes blank and now we are here.’
’Sothing happened this morning.’
After coming to a conclusion, I put on the clothes that were set up on the side and looked in the mirror once again.
"Hmm, the proportions of my face seem better than before?" I thought, as I left my room and ca to see Captain Remira eating so bad hotel food. But that was not the problematic part. The real issue was the thing she put in front of her plate while eating her food. "Captain, I didn’t consider you to be interested in mysticism." Farhad was aiming to be an occult magician, so he was used to seeing such little tools in his classes as well.
But Remira just shook her head in denial, while pointing toward the burned skull with her spoon, she inford ."The skull is yours... The one I lopped off."
"Captain, you must be joki..." From what I have learned of her from the limited experience I had. She was not the kind to joke, not when she was ready to kill not too long ago. "Captain, I wonder why you would cut my head off?"
So I ca to accept it as the truth, sitting adjacent to her on the table, I gave a tight look to what Captain claid to be my own head.
"Assassins ca after your head, you saw red and then killed one and tortured the other until I was forced to end his misery. Then you took as a target... the rest, I hope you can imagine."
Her words sounded absurd. "It sounds so absurd," I said, picking up my skull, seeing that there were still pieces of my flesh attached to it. While its inside seed...
This was heavy, and I have handled even heavier skulls before. But this exceeded that weight. It was almost reaching the weight of what I would consider an intact head. aning, there was still so at inside this skull of mine.
A brain, and maybe another ?"
"Please tell , captain, this is just a joke," I asked while putting the skull back on the table. This also made wonder how Captain Remira was able to eat her food when my cooked skull was put right next to her.
"Farhad, why would I joke about this?" She asked . Before striking my skull with her spoon. "This thing, or whatever you beca while fighting those assassins, it didn’t seem to be you. At that ti, you were a threat, so I dealt with the threat."
It was not a joke, as I feared.
But this was not the end of her words.
"Now what confuses ... I have learned about all kinds of undead. The best way to eliminate them is to either destroy their soul, burn them, or chop them to pieces."
"But even in the latter, it’s bizarre for the undead to possess such a strong healing factor. Most of the ti, they wish to rge together and achieve a complete state. But in your case, you grew yourself a whole new head."
"Aren’t ghouls known for regeneration?"
"That’s when we talk about body injuries... once you actually lop off their limbs, they can’t regrow them. And those rare cases where they can, they are then considered a disaster class existence that faces extermination before they can grow any further."
"..."
"But I am sentient." I tried to fight her off not for my own skin, but to ensure that she fulfilled my request. But it seems to be a bit hard now.
"You might be... butt what of this head? What if it grew out a body..."
"Now that is just absurd."
"Farhad, you have experienced as many absurd things as I did, and you even have mories of it, unlike ." She explained her reasoning while looking at the head. " This one seems like a failure, as the flesh had been cooked too much. Most active cells are dead in this one. Nor does it hold protection from the flas in your heart." Before she could continue, I stopped her midway.
"You intend to cut my head again?"
"... Yes."
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