Dawn- An age of Darkness

"So this is the pet of that demon?" said the woman on the throne, dressed in black.

The throne was golden in color and had heavy decorations. The room in question had similar decorations. Giving it an extravagant design and making me grind my teeth.

I was taken to the castle at the center of this town. It looked like, a replica of medieval castles, nothing unique. The smell was different: It was the first time my nostrils experienced such floral yet desirable smell: I sniffed the air like I was sniffing cocaine or something, at least until the guard told me to knock it off. However, the woman in front of me was anything but typical.

"Yes, my lady," a man by the throne said.

He looks like a minister. Maybe this woman…. I\'d heard snippets of information about how this place was run by a woman in power. This woman seemed to fit the bill. Maybe she was the governor or a princess perhaps.

"You there, pet, what are you grinning at?" the women said.

She was close to my age and I could tell she was beautiful despite her personality. With sharp blue eyes, pinkish-white skin, and deep brown hair, she looked gorgeous. The dress she wore was black in color but had golden threads all over it. There was just one problem.

"Nothing… and I\'m no pet," I said as I was held against the floor by a man in flashy golden armor. He looked too flashy to be a normal knight and had a good face. Gorgan. I couldn\'t even begin to wonder how high his post was.

The other knights immediately pointed their spears at me. I vaguely understood that anything I said would need to be cautiously selected or those fancy knights wouldn\'t let me go unscathed.

"That\'s enough. There\'s no need for that." The woman raised a hand and looked bored to be frank.

"Y-yes my lady!" The knights shouted in unison.

The atmosphere was against me and I could feel it. If they think I\'m a pet of that demon then they\'re not that far off the mark. However, I can\'t waste my time here. I know I\'m no hero, but isn\'t that why I have to be one? My train of thoughts was idiotic. Just a few hours ago I had no intention of risking my life for others, and now I had to be a hero for people I didn\'t even know. Honestly, I was just an idiot.

The woman didn\'t waste time and asked the most fundamental question. "What are you?"

What sort of question is that? I\'ve heard of people asking - who are you but this – this is insane. Yes, she was not a typical woman. She was hot yet cold at the same time. Something about her made me stay on the defensive. "I\'m a human being."

"The demon lord came all the way to our meager city, killed hundreds, yet left you unharmed and you still claim that you are human?" The minister-like person snorted.

"Trust me I am as confused as you are. However, I can assure you that I am nothing like that demon."

None of them seemed to be convinced. The woman made a gesture. At that moment a knight brought a man into the throne room. That knight was the one who lead the soldiers in my capture as well. That damn, knight.

"He is a survivor of that incident. Let us determine your word\'s truth." The woman flashed a slight grin and supported her head on her hand.

That man was frightened. And I wouldn\'t blame him for being so. His eyes displayed grief above fear. "Th-the demon came out of nowhere an-and-and killed all of us… my family…." Tears overflowed from his face and dropped on the marble floor. He was the same man who was spared when I accepted the terms of the demon lord.

"Please tell us how it happened …" the man beside the throne asked.

The man shivered. His face went pale. "I didn\'t hear much but…Th-the demon asked this man something but he refused. That\'s when the de-demon killed all my family in front of me… but that\'s not all. After this man agreed it vanished." Though his looks suggested he went insane or something, his words were perfectly sane.

The man kept crying. He had lost everything because of my indecisiveness. I felt guilty.

"I-I see. You there, pet, what did you and that wretched demon talk about?" The woman looked at me with disgust. I didn\'t blame her.

This was my problem and I had to take responsibility. "If I traveled across this world for a year then he would refrain from waging war," I said with a bold face.

Everyone burst into laughter. I grinded my teeth. How could they be laughing after what happened and in front of this man while he was still crying? How could they! What is wrong with this town? Is this really that same cruel world I\'ve been going through?

"Are you foolish enough to think we would fall for such rubbish?" The man by the throne chuckled.

That guy was grinning the whole time. Well I hadn\'t lied, but deep down I had anticipated such reactions. After all what I just said might have been a little idiotic. "Unfortunately what I said is true"

The woman seemed interested. Maybe she had a weird sense of humor. "Really? Then what would have happened if you didn\'t accept his proposal?"

"He would have decimated this city and declared war against humanity."

"What!"

Although what I was saying didn\'t necessarily mean much, they seemed frightened of war. I still didn\'t know the history of this world. There were just too many things I didn\'t know. But one thing was for certain, the emperor had enough power to obliterate this whole city and these guys knew it.

"He will eventually declare war on the world but he chose to give me a head start." I went on. I couldn\'t really understand what I was spouting. My mind must have gone mad after experiencing everything today.

"But why would he?" The woman wondered aloud.

And then all of a sudden I was bombarded with the most important question. To be honest even I didn\'t understand the answer to that one.

I made a desperate attempt to make up an excuse. "He-he\'s preparing for war."

As much as I wanted to tell the truth, I couldn\'t. How could I tell them that the demon emperor just wanted a good ass-whopping? How could I tell them that all he wanted was to escape from boredom?

"Yes, preparing for war is costly and needs time but where do you come into this? Besides, didn\'t you just say he would have declared war if not for your agreement?" She fingered the throne handle and stared.

Honestly I wasn\'t prepared for answering such questions. What would I tell her? That the demon emperor wants me to get strong so that I could kick his ass, or that the demon emperor personally but randomly summoned people to put up a good fight? This is just stupid. My head hurt. Just moments ago I witnessed deaths all around me, and yet now I just wanted to get out of this place and roam around the world or something. I didn\'t have time to come up with excuses. "I\'m actually an adventurer and the demon emperor placed a bet on me with the gods. You do know he\'s power is equal to that of a God, right?" Since this world was so infatuated with the gods and everything I thought up a good excuse, after brainstorming for a good five minutes that is. I might have seen suspicious but I made it look like it was agonizing for me to reveal all this.

After saying what I just said, a little sense of reality came to my mind. I might have dug my own grave. What did I just say? Those looks… don\'t give me those looks…

She squinted her eyes. "What bet?"

They\'re not buying it, are they? It was stupid but I still continued with that excuse. "The bet to become strong enough to put up a fight against one of the underlings of the emperor by a year. If I succeed he won\'t wage war for ten years. "

"Is that so? You aim to be as powerful as the seven monarchs, huh?" She furrowed her brows. She wasn\'t the least convinced.

Seven monarchs? Who comes up with these names? I vaguely remembered that big demon in the forest was supposedly a monarch, or so the female demon had claimed. I didn\'t believe it one bit though.

Whispers floated around. "But a mere human against one of the monarchs…."

Apparently a human just was strong enough to barely stand up to a regular demon despite a life time worth of training. But it sounded like blaspheme when humans called other humans, a mere human.

However judging from their reactions the monarchs were a different story all together. There are even stronger demons? I couldn\'t really imagine the scenario. I nearly died just by fighting one demon and I couldn\'t even win without help. Just escaping took everything out of me. And now I just learned that there are much stronger demons. Life was really fun- not in a good way. And if there were seven of those monsters, like that big guy from the forest, then honestly, I didn\'t know what to think about this world anymore.

As I was silent she continued. "So, what is your first goal towards that?"

First goal? How do you expect me to come up with something like that? "To become s-strong enough." What else could I have said?

She raised a brow. "Huh! As expected of a pet! You have no ambition. But I suppose the emperor has done something similar in the past. So there might be some truth to your words." She ridiculed me but gave me an important piece of the puzzle. So people have been summoned or made to do similar things before…That answers my question. I\'m not alone. But the emperor did say something about summoning others, meaning I wasn\'t alone, to begin with.

Although only a little, my heartfelt light. I already knew pieces of the legends. But now it became a little clearer. I was skeptical about the emperor\'s words before. But he told me the truth. I\'ll trust his words for now.

"However because of you, we have lost countless citizens. Don\'t even assume for a moment that you won\'t be punished!"

She was right in a sense, if I wasn\'t here no one would have to die. But it was also true that I had nothing to do with all this BS. At this point, she was getting on my nerves. I didn\'t care if she was some big fish but I wasn\'t a fan of being ridiculed over and over again. Besides, I didn\'t do any wrong.. I never asked to be transported into such a world! Oh! Wait I actually did….