I woke up screaming, my body burning from an unbearable pain. I couldn't move, couldn't cry, all I could do was scream.
I had never endured a more torturous awakening, I barely remembered where I was. The forest around me was still burning, smoke curling through the night.
I tried to move despite the pain, but my body was heavy, like a weight was pressed down my chest. The burning sensation twisted into coldness.
My bones were breaking and resetting, and the pain made me slip in and out of consciousness.
When I tried to breathe, it was as if ash was caught in my throat, an unpleasant feeling.
What happened to me? I think I should have been dead. At least I remember dying.
And yet, here I was, barely conscious but still very much alive.
A small voice whimpered nearby, I turned and saw her. It was the little girl. She also survived? Lucky us, I guess.
Where's her mother?
The girl stared at me, eyes wide, unafraid. She didn't scream, didn't walk away or take revenge for what happened to her mother. She simply stared.
At the back of my head, I heard a voice.
[Protect her.]
[Serve her.]
[Live until she claims the crown.]
[Never die.]
What did the voice mean? Why should I serve her? Is this my punishment? Is there a reason I'm still alive? Who am I?
Memories clawed their way back, jagged and unwanted.
I used to be an ordinary man back on earth, lived a well enough life, while uneventful, I never resented it.
Due to a betrayal I never saw coming, I died at the hands of someone I trusted over a misunderstanding. When I woke up I was now a noble, born with noble looks, having wealth and comfort, something I desperately yearned for in my past life.
It seemed like a gift, after all the shit I went through. But fortune is fragile. War, politics, and betrayal took everything from me. It wasn't just the wealth and status, I finally had a family. But in just a span of three months, I lost everything.
I was now on the streets, begging for crumbs, shivering under nobles who refused to meet my eye. I used to be them, even for a moment, and now the arrogant behaviour of the past was catching up to me.
The days were spent begging in the blistering cold, hunger a constant reminder gnawing in my stomach, sleep a luxury I could barely afford lest I wanted to die in my sleep.
I had more than once contemplated killing myself, and when I decided to do so, he found me. The Bandit Lord.
A cruel man who had a soft spot for strays abandoned by society. He lived every day as if it was his last, even now I could still hear his roaring laughter echoing from a distant world.
The man had given me food, shelter, and a purpose to continue living on. And I followed him blindly into damnation.
I stole because he told me to.
I killed because everyone else did.
I watched horrors unfold on women dragged screaming into the dark by my "brothers", men forced to play sadistic games while falsely promised freedom if they survived. Children who were sold into slavery after losing their parents to me and my brothers.
And to all those horrors, I did nothing but participate or look away. For someone like me who came into a world of rules and morals, the guilt never quite left.
It sat in my gut like a stone, rotting me slowly, infecting me day by day. But not once had I ever spoken out, because at the core of it I was a coward.
But the day we attacked the mother and daughter... that was the day the stone cracked. Her scream pierced me deeper than any blade, as she begged not for her life or preservation of her dignity, but the life of her daughter.
Her daughter had been dragged away, crying out for her mother. I didn't know when or how, but I had reacted without thinking, and the next thing I knew my brothers had fallen on the ground, their throats cleanly slashed.
I remember the look "he" gave me, the look of betrayal. I remember immediately looking away, because I knew that look, as it had been reflected in the eyes of my killer in my previous life.
Through sheer anger, he had shouted for others to kill me, and in response, I fought for my life. The skills he taught me were being used against him.
When I became overwhelmed and I was about to die, something shifted coming from the mother I was trying to protect. I remember a cold gleam in her eyes and then... I don't remember what happened next.
Wait?! I remember something, fire, cackling, a curse spoken. My brothers died screaming, the mother died laughing, coughing up blood. And my flesh had burned, bones burst, and at last, I thought my sins were paid.
But as I remain awake, death was denied to me.
The girl stumbled forward, her dark eyes hollow.
"You're alive?" she said.
I forced myself to sit up. It wasn't easy, as every movement on my part caused me pain, something I had to get used to.
"Perhaps," my voice came out hoarse.
"Mother chose you."
I tilted my head, confused.
She crouched down, "will you serve me?"
I cackled painfully, "I have no choice but to."
[Ding! You've been chosen as a slave, do you accept?]
Without hesitation, I replied, "Yes."
[Ding! You're now the Infernal Undying Fiend Slave Of...]
"I am your sin," I rasped.
The girl with no visible emotions looked at me, it was as if staring at a mirror. The pain, sadness, anger, and hatred in those eyes, no amount of self-control could ever hide them.
"No, you're a gift from Goddess Hecate, with you by my side, I'll raise an army strong enough to combat the empire and be able to get revenge on my father. From now on you're not allowed to die until I kill him."
My lips curled into a painful smile, "compared to the multitude of sins I have committed, going against the world for you is nothing short of mercy."
She nodded in thought, "now let me ask you an important question, did you just hear an odd notification in your head?"