Year: 1203 AD
Fuji's POV (POINT OF VIEW),
Ren's face off against that demon surely scared hell out of everyone but Derono was quite calm.
This made me quite unease. Well whatever, we still tried to act like our usual self with that boy and restarted our journey.
The journey to ROYAL EMPIRE. Jerius was still kind of suspicious around us but that doesn't matter much. The other girl with him, what was her name again? Ah yes, Martha was it.
She was nervous around everyone except for Jerius.
Anyways, our journey towards the ROYAL EMPIRE was smooth. Jerius and Martha were slightly uncertain about where we are going but they eventually figured it out.
And here the most foolish person, the kid , Ren was just smiling like idiot he is. Well I can't blame an idiot for being an idiot I guess.
He just kept asking us where we were going.
I mean isn't it obvious? If we want an army against demons, so surely we need recruits, even a muscle head like me can conclude it.
There are certain kingdoms where demons can't enter. These are called DEITIC PLACES. Demons burn to death of they tried to enter the territory.
Only Demons who are top tier among Demon Lords can enter it. Even lower Demon Lords will suffer huge damage.
These DEITIC PLACES are mostly around sacred mountains or sacred forests.
ROYAL EMPIRE is the biggest DEITIC PLACE in the current world. Atleast as far as I know. This was the same place where I had met with Rightman.
Though it wasn't very pleasant place. Taxes were high , civilians had many restrictions, famine was not fare and many things.
But the thing that was most unpleasant was the presence of MAYOR of the town.
I remember sweating bullets whenever I saw him with the crowd. He felt like embodiment of terror. He was ugly but that wasn't what I was scared of. It was something like instinct.
The ROYAL EMPIRE sounds rich but I don't know the reason why it is called ROYAL EMPIRE, it had almost all civilians poor. Even I was in an orphanage with extremely poor condition.
All the treasure and other assets were within the control of nobles and MAYOR. Empire doesn't have any emperor but the MAYOR himself rules over the empire.
I used to think that this kind of title was to deceive enemy but now I think what kind of enemy again?
Anyways, we were heading there to recruit many Top Tier Adventurers according to Derono's plan and also create a huge army within a year.
Just thinking about Derono's plan exhaust me because there's more to it. And most importantly, WHO THE HELL IS GONNA FACE GREAT DEMON LORD?!
While thinking about so much things we already reached near the ROYAL EMPIRE. We set up a shelter by using Ren's abilities. Yes that brat had many abilities under his sleeves.
I was at night duty to guard them while they will sleep. Surely unfair on little life like mine. I am guarding them currently while holding my sword JUTE high. Surely it's mine now.
It was just like normal night. Just few creatures making voices, few roars that can be heard and everything normal until it became abnormal.
Suddenly I felt someone near the campfire. I alerted myself and found a person sitting near campfire. He was looking same as my age. He was a human with lean build.
I approached near him with extreme caution.
"Who are you?"
I was still keeping my guard.
The man took a glance at me and smiled.
He smiled felt warm and also settling.
[That man]: Long time no see Fuji.
Hearing this tone and taking a brief look at his face certainly gave me Deja vu. I suddenly realised who he was.
"Are you perhaps...Derono?"
The man just nodded.
What is going on? This person is Derono? How? Why? What does it mean?
[Derono]: I am here from some disturbing future.
Hearing this I felt weird as if he was just telling me that everyone died in future.
I lowered my JUTE and sat near him.
"What happened in the future? Why are you here? But more importantly will we win?"
To my questions he was just calm. I mean he wasn't happy. This alone cleared everything. We lost. We lost miserably.
[Future Derono]: We lost. But more importantly we lost because of my mistakes. Moreover I kept making it even worse. I made it worse to the point of no return.
I was confused and shock. I anticipated this but what actually happened makes me wonder.
"But we have Ren, he is damn powerful for a brat. How can we lose?"
I asked in a hurry. Obviously that chaotic boy is hella powerful. Though not on Great Demon Lord level but still, he is far powerful than lower tier Demon Lords.
[Future Derono]: Even that was my mistake. When I was at my worst, he tried to consult me but I was beyond repair. I messed up bad. I pushed him away when he needed me most. The idea to create army with ROYAL EMPIRE was the biggest mistake where whole misery had started. So Ren started taking down main supporters of Great Demon Lord himself, alone. Finally the event happened where Ren faced off against Great Demon Lord. Ren had grown powerful enough to match Great Demon Lord but...Great Demon Lord ascended to Supreme Demon Lord during the battle and erased Ren. I was late to save anyone. Everything was already gone. I was later imprisoned and tormented atleast for a decade. They applied all kind of tortures they knew. They reduced me to nothing but some flesh of meat with barely any consciousness. They even inflicted mental torture on me by doing every disgusting act on humans infront of me. Later memories are kinda fuzzy but I managed to free myself and started my lonely journey again. I returned to very first step again. After mny decades I managed to grow more and more powerful and finally defeat Gleno who was Supreme Demon Lord that time but everything was gone. Humans were all demons or were in the process to become demons. I had no purpose left. I was all alone in that world. That was very when I faced off against some weird beings. They were far from sky or another world I guess. Surely not from our Earth. While fighting them I gained a terribly powerful ability called (TIME TRAVELER) so I used it and came in this timeline.
He could see my complex face. He knows that I am surprised by his explanation but there was more I wanted to know.
"You didn't tell me anything about my future? Also what happened to Jerius and Martha? Why was asking help from ROYAL EMPIRE your biggest mistake?"
Hearing my question he looked kinda sad. Not it must be my imagination. This guy is far stronger in mentality that...
[Future Derono]: Everything happened because you died Fuji.
What? I died? I mean what does he mean by I died? Is that really related to defeat?
"I died? Please tell me everything in detail!"
He sighed and again looked into my eyes. Is there something inside my eye? No I should be serious here.
[Future Derono]: Haven't you wondered why Great Demon Lord never entered ROYAL EMPIRE to take the control of the place even though if he had done that then he could have cut down the neck of rebellion Adventurers and hoping humans? What do you think is the reason he never invaded ROYAL EMPIRE himself if he can just do it within mere minutes by entering the place easily? If you understand the reason then you will start connecting the dots and all your questions will be answered.