"My lord are you down there?"
Izikel heard a second voice from up the steps, his mind spinning with grim as beads of sweat began to form on his face. This voice was different, meaning there were two different people in the study.
'I should have looked for a way to close it'
Izikel tried to stay as quiet as possible hoping that they would go away if he didn't answer, but it was already too late. The secret cave has been a secret, passed down from generation to generation, and now he had exposed it the same day he inherited it.
That wasn't all, if they did decide to come down, they would learn about the altar. In the lunar kingdom, it is forbidden to ignite an altar without permission from the queen. Worst of all this wasn't just any Altar, it was for an Outergod.
He considered his options, knowing that there was only one way out of this.
'I'll have to run away from this kingdom, but where will I go?'
He spent a while panickingly contemplating his options but to his surprise, they had still not come down the stairs, instead they had gone dead silent, making him suspect they had left.
Izikel slowly and nervously ascended the stairs.
In the middle of the study, stood a buffed old man with bloody fists. The two guards that had carried his father's body away were bleeding out on the floor.
He bowed before speaking,
"I'm sorry young master, I sent them to inform you it was time for the burial"
"W-who are you?" Izikel wondered.
The mysterious man spoke to him very nicely, and he sounded familiar. He sounded like,
"Dremlin?" Izikel's eyes widened.
"Yes young master, it is I,"
He had changed so much that Izikel couldn't recognize him. His muscles were now well defined, almost ripping through his clothes.
Even with how Dremlin spoke kindly to him Izikel was still in a state of panic seeing the two bodies on the floor,
"Are- are you going to kill me too?"
Dremlin shook his head,
"Of course not young master, I only had to do this because there was no other way. We couldn't let them find out about the Altar"
His words were able to put Izikel at ease, but Izikel still harboured a mixture of doubt and curiosity towards him.
"The Altar, how did you know about the Altar?"
He could understand if his father had informed Dremlin about the cave and the secret it holds, but the Altar was just ignited by him. It was practically impossible for anyone else to know about it.
Dremlin once again bowed gracefully, this time with one hand to his chest,
"Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Dremlin, and I was summoned by your great grandfather 70 years ago and since then I have served this family,"
"Summoned?" Izikel wondered, "what exactly are you?"
"I am what you would call a dark creature, born from the darkness in between worlds, and that is how I could tell the moment the Altar was ignited. I haven't felt this strong in all my years,"
"A dark creature?"
Dremlin nodded slightly,
"Yes, this face I wear is only a mask, and I have no soul and no conscience. My only desire is to serve and protect the master of this house,"
Now that Izikel had understood the nature of the situation, he turned his attention to the bodies on the floor. It hadn't been 24 hours and people were already dead because of him.
He sighed,
"What is going to happen to them?"
"Don't worry just go down and join the burial ceremony, I will handle it," Dremlin gave Izikel a reassuring smile, with a gentle tap on the shoulder.
Izikel hesitated for a while before leaving. He couldn't help but blame himself for the death of the guards. If only he had taken more precaution.
'but still thank goodness Dremlin was there, if not It would have been end of me'
Dremlin joined him before he could make it to the tree at the back where a small group of villagers were gathered for the burial ceremony.
"What did you do with the bodies?" He whispered.
Dremlin sheepishly used his finger to pick at his teeth,
"I said you shouldn't have to worry about things like that young master,"
Izikel could only speculate, but he hoped it had nothing to do with his teeth.
….
After the ceremony, Izikel was the only one left, staring at two freshly dug graves. He was feeling deep sadness and remorse but it wasn't enough to make him cry, because in truth he felt no actual emotions for this people. To him they were no different than a random stranger.
No matter how much he tried he couldn't make himself cry, so he stood there for a long time wondering when it would be appropriate to leave. He stood until the sun began to go down.
He wanted to pay his respect, since it was all he could do.
That is until a young female voice called his name.
"Izikel?"
Izikel raised his head to see a child, roughly about the same age as him. Her eyes were red and swollen as if she had been crying, and she was about to cry some more. She had faded green hair and bright green eyes.
"I'm sorry,"
And like that the flood gates was opened. She cried, whimpering and sniveling. Liquid rushed out of her eyes and nose.
"Everything is my fault," she managed to say in between her sniveling,
"I almost killed you and now your mom… and dad…"
By now Izikel understood who this was, she was the person who stabbed Izikel during their sword training. He had since been curious to see who gave him this body.
'but I never expected it to be a girl'
To him it didn't look like she meant to wound him, and they said it was a training accident, so it probably was after all.
He approached the girl and hugged her, "it's not your fault,"
Maybe it was the adult in him but he knew that was what the child needed to hear. As he felt her hot tears touch his shoulder, even if only for a moment, a smile of relief appeared on his face.
He was glad that someone could cry on his behalf. At least there is someone here to cry for them.
It was probably because of his new divine powers, but he could tell the girls tears were genuinely coming from a place of sincerity. She felt sorry for what she had done, and blamed herself for the death of both his parents. Izikel could feel it in her.
But It was also because of this new divine powers that he could tell that even with all this tears of sincerity, this girl was still hiding something else.