Night disappeared from the face of the world as usual, revealing the presence of morning. The castle had more than a hundred floors within it, with each floor being extremely large. As the commander of the retainers' army, Marco received his rightful living place on the floor right below the rooftop, second to none but the floor belonging to the Absolute Spirit.
Marco opened his eyes pretty early in the morning as usual. After changing his sleepwear into his commander dress, Marco casually came out from his floor and climbed downward to the 1st floor.
As soon as he set his foot on the 1st floor, a voice caught his attention toward the left. It was a certain person's voice calling out Marco as soon as he got there.
While he was keeping himself in the abyss of thoughts, Marco's consciousness returned to the real world at Arfanez's voice.
"Good Morning, Marco!" Arfanez spoke, sitting in front of a huge dining table.
"Mind joining me to have a little taste of coffee?" He added with his casual smile.
Marco looked into his eyes and replied casually as he walked ahead toward the table, "I don't mind at all; I'd love to do so."
Marco sat on the other side of the table. The entire table had a decent amount of breakfast items decorated there. While the entire table was made out of pure gold, it wasn't really an active and chattering place to smile in, like a dead castle without any individual to keep it active, to keep their chattering running all day, without a conclusion.
Marco began to drink the coffee in front of him without looking at Arfanez even once. His gaze was down toward the coffee, totally focused on it while keeping himself in the depth of endless intrusive thoughts.
"Marco!"
"Is something bothering you?" Arfanez asked.
His voice brought Marco back to the real world; he shifted his sight to Arfanez and nodded, "Nothing. I'm just thinking of something meaningless."
Arfanez smiled and put down his coffee cup on the table and spoke to Marco, "You're thinking about your parents, huh? I apologize for what happened to them."
"But you know the reason behind that; you know they'll return as better ones, as the best mortals ever." he added.
"Of course he knows that, but.." Marco thought to himself, unable to complete the thought.
"I wonder if their death really does bother me." Marco replied. He widely opened his eyes and glared at Arfanez.
"Family, friends, love, and sincerity. If I can never witness them, then how am I supposed to feel their absence? How am I supposed to be sad over them? I really do wonder." He added, his voice sounding louder than usual.
"Family, friends, love, and sincerity. I had them all; I was lost among them. But they stole it; they took everything; they destroyed everything, and they shattered my hope for survival. So now, I've lost my capability to value them." Arfanez replied.
"That's why I'm trying to rebuild the story, the way I want with all my heart." he added. His voice kept going silent, falling like pieces of shattered glass.
"Perhaps, you never lost your capability to value. It's your intrusive intents that slowly defeated you, turned you into a totally different person from what you used to be." Marco thought to himself.
Arfanez lifted his right hand a little upward and snapped. In the blink of an eye, the dining table disappeared from there to reveal a mini-sized table with a chessboard above it. Both Marco and Arfanez were teleported in front of the table along with their golden chairs.
"Let's have a game; let's see who's better in a chess game." Arfanez said, appearing to be a bit excited.
Marco smiled a bit and stood up from his chair, shifting his gaze toward the right side. Then he narrowly stared at Arfanez with a smile and spoke, "Surely we'll play a game, but at some other time, in some different way."
Arfanez was a bit surprised as Marco stood up. But it was merely for a moment, just to change into a smiling expression after listening to Marco's sentence.
After saying that, Marco disappeared from there with a spark of lightning that covered him and took him away along with the presence of the lightning.
"I thought it was going to be a blank game without a partner to compete with. But seems like I was wrong; the tables have turned." Arfanez spoke to himself, an excited smile appearing on his lips.
After leaving the large castle for a morning walk, Marco began to wander all around the city and the small castles around there. Due to his respective higher position in the realm, it was obvious for everyone to use an extra respective way of greeting him. However, Marco isn't the type of person who will stand above all and call himself a king that deserves to be praised. Marco is a warrior, a true friend who stands beside everyone. Simply, he began to try being friendly with the retainers around him. In the sight of naked eyes, they aren't really some great entity that can destroy lower layers like nothing, but mere mortals trying to survive. While being a part of the great army belonging to the Absolute Spirit, they were simple and casual in the city. The realm of the Absolute Spirit was almost like Zeldia. Everyone there wasn't a retainer, but mere beings as casual as the ones from Zeldia.
They were training themselves; they were fighting; they were studying. Exactly the very thing we call the casual way of living in the lower worlds.
While wandering throughout the realm, something suddenly caught Marco's eye. It was outside the city side, an extremely vast timberland completely separated from the main city. An old man with gray hair was trying to take on an extremely huge red dragon. The destructive force of the dragon was simply way too much for the old man to be capable of handling. Its flaming breaths kept forcing the old man to run away. Somehow, the old man kept dodging the chaotic flaming strikes.
As soon as Marco appeared there, an abnormally vast flaming breath completely covered the old man's sight. The old man failed to keep himself strong anymore. The magic sword in his hand slipped down from his hand to the ground as he was covered with sweat. Slowly, his legs could no longer keep him standing, forcing him to sit down right there and making him wait for his demise. His eyes slowly closed, losing the final hope for survival.
A little twist in the story.
Some moments passed since he closed his eyes. Finally, he awakened his urge to open his eyes toward ahead. An ice magic barrier made an appearance in front of his sight. While on the other side of the barrier, someone with dark hair and a long, effective physique was holding back the dragon effortlessly using his index finger. Then a magic lightning spark came out from his index finger and instantly killed the dragon right there. The soulless body of the dragon slammed into the ground.
It was Marco all along, looking backward at the old man. Marco revealed a gentle smile to the old man and began to walk ahead to him.
The old man instantly kneeled himself down as soon as he saw Marco's face. Marco offered his hand toward the kneeling old man and said with a smile, "You've done enough; it's time for your rest."
The man lifted his gaze upward to Marco and kept his sight intact without moving even a bit. His face was filled with surprise, wondering how such a high-class entity was showing him kindness to this extent.
After some moments, the old man grabbed Marco's hand and slowly stood up in his position.
"Thanks for your kindness." He said while kneeling himself once again as a sign of gratitude.
Marco smiled once again at the old man's sentence. Then he asked indifferently, "Why are you doing this? You are way too old for that; you shouldn't be someone to be a guardian for the main city."
"I'm doing this for my city, and for the sake of His Majesty. I'm a warrior who must defend the city and the warriors who are going to redeem the world and every single sinner." He replied, a trace of a respective voice lurking within his words.
Marco didn't reply back. His eyes dove into a sea of thoughts.
"I believe it's not something that can be hidden under doubts. It's pretty obvious to say that Arfanez changed their minds. No, he changed every single retainer's mind. While they still make the casual mistakes of a mortal, they are in a state of mind where they're determined to do anything for the very redemption of the world. Thus, even this old man is risking his very life just for the sake of redemption." Marco thought to himself.
"Why do you think the world needs redemption?" Marco asked casually.
"They do. Because they are sinners; they're stupid and chaotic enough to destroy everything just for their own selfish desire." The gray-haired old man replied straightforwardly without any hesitation.
"I've been a victim of their selfishness; I witnessed their selfishness and cruel nature that destroyed everything I had." He added, unconscious as he dove into the sea filled with the images of his past. His mind slowly began to remember what happened to him in the past, what was done to him in the past.
While remembering, he continued speaking indifferently, "They took everything from me. They took my friends; they took my parents, my siblings, and…her."
Some pieces of tear came out from his eyes as he instantly removed them.
The casual smile Marco was wielding slowly disappeared as his face appeared down and ashamed. He kept himself silent for a little while. Then something bothered him strongly, "Wait! If this is the case then…all these retainers."
"I tried to figure out the origin of the retainers, but throughout history, no race even exists like them. They're coming from nowhere; they don't have any root from the beginning."
"Which means….It's Arfanez who brought all the retainers from all around the 5th layer and turned them into an army known as 'Retainers'." Marco added to his thoughts.
"Come to think of it, he used their internal desire and suffering to change their minds to this. It's totally clear now. And the reason for their strength is their negative intents, their desire for redemption." Marco kept thinking over that as he was sweating a little.
In the 5th layer, the regular inhabitants inherit powers following two different paths. Similar to the transcendentals, they become stronger following their own will. However, unlike the transcendentals, they're limited to their own layer. For the other path, they inherit power from their negative emotions and desire for chaos, destruction, and revenge. This turns out to be the reason for the retainers' abnormal strength. With their own internal desire for revenge and chaos, Arfanez keeps amplifying their negative emotions to the next level with his manipulating words.
At that very moment, Marco thought through all these, understanding the way of all this and getting the answer to his questions.
"Just what are you, Arfanez?" Marco thought to himself. Arfanez's narrow smile appeared in front of Marco's imagination as he was sweating a bit.