Writer: Henet
Overlord Ascendants Arc 2: Crescendus
Overlord Arc 2 Intermission: The Princess and Death
“Come on, sister. Read us a another bedtime story. Pretty please.”
A pair of twin girls were lying on their bed. However, their eyes were wide open without any signs of sleepiness. Their big round eyes were locked on their elder sister who was sitting by their bed.
The elder sister fought the urge to suppress a sigh. She had already finished two stories with them but the twins were still wide-awake. Her thoughts wandered towards the work that was left undone and the hour was getting late.
“Okay. This is the last one. Both of you got to sleep after this.”
“Okay.”
“We promise.”
The elder sister proceeded to close the door to the room and closed the curtains, blocking the street light from filtering into the room. The atmosphere within the room turned eeries with the encroaching darkness. The eerie atmosphere was further supported by the brief silence that was broken off by the occasional cracks of thunder and pitter patter of thick rain drops hitting the glass window
The elder sister then turned towards the twins and spoke.
“Then, I shall tell you the story of the Princess and Fell Death.”
The creepy and menacing tone that the elder sister adopted resulted in both the twins pulling the bedsheets up until their noses, as if the bedsheet would protect them against all the horrors that will spawn from the darken corners of the room.
The elder sister suppressed the urge to smile as her trick worked like a charm. The stories of Fell Death, the Destroyers of Cities, have long been used to frighten kids into behaving. The elder sister recalled the nights where their grandfather used the same stories to frighten her when she was at their age. She brought out the same old story book about Fell Death which was the only inheritance left to her.
The elder sister pulled up the book from the little wooden drawer by the bedside. She flipped open the first page and began to read.
A Dance with Death
A Kingdom of Old,
A Princess wept.
She cried for the mothers, who held their starving children on the streets.
She mourned for the fathers, who died defending the country from monsters.
She wept for the children, who lay sick on the steps of the temples.
She grieved for the babies, who entered a world that only knew suffering.
The princess prayed for miracles,
A miracle that would feed the hungry,
A miracle that would destroy the monsters that tormented her people,
A miracle that would cure the plague that ravaged the young.
As the last teardrop fell from her eyes,
A raven-wing Angel descended from the night sky,
“What do you cry?” The Angel asked.
“I cry for my people’s suffering.” The Princess lamented.
“Would you seek my help? But, my assistance shall come with a price.”
“Anything to end the suffering of my people.”
The Princess did not hesitate.
“For I seek wisdom. The knowledge of this world.”
“Then, I promised give you all the books my country’s library.”
Presented with the magical grimoires from the royal library, the Angel fed the hungry.
Given the maps of the land, the Angel tamed the monsters.
Bestow with the history of the world, the Angel cured the sick.
The people of the land rejoiced.
For their suffering was at an end.
As days turned to months,
months became years.
The Angel’s thirst for knowledge remained unsatiated,
He demanded more from the princess.
Unsatisfied with all that was given to him.
The Wise King sensed the danger that was looming over his daughter,
For the King feared that the Angel,
would one day demand the impossible.
The King beseeched the Heroes of the Old,
who came from lands far and unknown.
For fearing the calamity that the Angel would bring,
Upon his country, daughter and kin.
The Wise King and the Heroes pondered and thought,
Soon a plan to imprison the Angel was wrought,
Under the night of a snow white full moon,
The trap was sprung by the Heroes with the promise of the Kings boon,
By chance, the Princess found out about the scheme.
She was tormented,
On whether she should stand by the decision of the king,
Or warn her friend.
Alas, it was too late.
The act was carried out,
The Heroes descended on the Angel,
without a single doubt in their hearts.,
To save the people,
Men, women, elderly, and children.
To banish this great evil away from the people.
Little did they know,
They all have underestimated the Angels power.
Burned, cursed and, hurt.
The Angel shed its mask,
turning into a terrifying demonic monster.
Thus, the Demon of Destruction, Fell Death was borned.
His vengeance descended upon the world.
In his anger, the Demon of Destruction slayed the Wise King and many Heroes.
In his fury, the Demon of Destruction leveled the great cities of the kingdom.
In his madness, the Demon of Destruction purged the people.
In his wrath, the Demon of Destruction scorched the earth, and
In his rage, the the Demon of Destruction boiled the seas.
In the face of such overwhelming terror,
The Princess stood up and confronted the being that she was called her friend.
“Fell Death stop!”
The Demon of Death turned its gaze upon the helpless Princess,
Arms raised and ready to extinguish the light of life within her.
As the claws of death reached out towards the the Princess,
The Brave Princess brought forth a treasure of old,
passed down by her ancestors centuries ago,
She chanted a spell and unleashed the treasures power
and sealed the Demon of Death within its fold.
The survivors cheered,
They celebrated the heroic deed of the Princess and the Heroes of old,
Who saved the world and stopped Fell Deaths rampage.
Yet, the only was who did not rejoice was the princess.
For her heart was plagued by the chilling warning.
The final words that were spoken by the demon before it was sealed.
It vowed to return someday,
To finish what was left undone.
“The end.”
After the elder sister read out the last sentence, she closed the book gently and looked towards her younger twin sisters. As she reached the end of the story, the both of them had covered themselves in their bedsheet in fear. The only thing that indicated their presence were the two trembling lumps that bulged out from the straw bed.
The elder sister smiled and reached out towards the twins. Before her hands reached them, the trio jumped at the sound of a bang that came from the direction of the stairs.
The three sisters had their attention focused on the bedroom door. Even the elderly sister momentarily thought that Fell Death was about to burst forth through the door. She dispelled her ridiculous imagination when she heard a familiar voice calling out their names.
As the elder sister opened the door of the bedroom, she bumped face first into a set of familiar bust. The elder sister recognised it as the bust of the eldest sister. She was hugged briefly before she pulled herself away.
“Olene-nee….”
The elder sister stopped mid-sentence as she noticed her sister’s usual tired expression. The eldest sister wore this expression everyday after work. She usually started her work early morning and ended her work late evening. On top with helping out with the baking, the eldest sister helped out with the cleaning up as well. The elder sister knew that part of the reason her big sister was working so hard, was to repay the kindness of the elderly couple who had taken them in.
Back then, the sisters came from a poor farming family in the countryside. When they were younger, they had to starve during the winter periods as most of their crops were taken by the local noble, leaving barely enough food for them during winter.
When their elder brother got married, the eldest sister calmly announced to the rest of the family that she intend to find work in the nation's capital, Caldera. In her heart, the elder sister knew that the land they owned will not be able to support so many mouths in the coming seasons. Now that their only brother had taken in a wife and, the couple will be expecting a child.
During autumn, the eldest sister brought along the three of them to the city to find work. Their elder brother gave them all the money he could spare as he understood what his siblings were trying to do.
When they first arrived in Caldera, the elder sister never once saw the eldest lament nor looked depressed about the challenges they had to face out here. Even during the moments where they had to sleep in the streets or had to beg for food scraps from the local bakeries to feed themselves. The elder sister knew that their eldest was putting on a strong face to keep the rest of the sisters from losing hope.
Eventually, as fate would have it, the sisters met many kind people who helped them, like the elderly couple from the bakery, who gave the sisters some of their unsold bread when they had no money to buy food. Now, the couple hired their eldest sister and taught her to bake. They even allowed the four of them to stay in the top floor above the bakery for free.
After that, the eldest sister also met her husband to be. The two met each other as he was a frequent customer of the bakery. The young man worked in the adjacent airship factories. He courted their sister for a full-year before proposing to her. Now, the two of them were working hard to save up for their marriage. The elder sister decided to chip in on the family’s finances by helping out at a nearby florist shop.
Things could not have gone better for them.
But this time, the elder sister saw the a worried expression that briefly pass through the face of the eldest. Her eldest sister placed both her hands on her shoulders.
“Naira, help me prepare my bed.”
The elder sister, Naira did not understand what was going on. She felt puzzle by the rather strange request. Then, she noticed the blond-haired boy, that was around her height, standing just behind the eldest sister. The boy was massaging his forehead with his right hand.
Naira was familiar with the boy. After all, the boy was her would-be-brother-in-law’s junior. The boy had followed Tristan to patronise the bakery where Naira’s elder sister worked.
“Ah, Tim, is it?
“....Good eve..ning...” A slightly drenched blond boy greeted her lethargically.
Naira noticed the deep eye bags that was forming around Tim’s eyes. He looked half-past dead to Naira.
“Tim, you better stay here for the night. It’s already very late and you are in no condition to head back yourself. Why don’t you use my bed? I can sleep with my sisters.” Olene offered as she feared that the poor boy might collapse on the way back home.
The crime rate in Pound Town was not alarming but one cannot be too careless about their safety.
“...Thanks, I will gladly...take...take up that offer.” Timothy yawned midway as he dragged his feet tiredly towards Olene’s room that was just beside the twins.
“What happened to him?” Naira asked curiously.
“Oh, he had been running around Pound Town, delivering messages for Tristan’s boss, Mr. Shanks. Poor Tim was so tired that he bumped his head on the stairs earlier. Really, Mr. Shank is such a slave-driver. Working the poor boy like this.” Olene complained.
Naira nodded vehement in agreement after remembering her future brother-in-law’s lethargic expression whenever she saw him.
“Naira, I will be heading out to bring Tristan some supper, looks like he will be working late again tonight. Really, just last week he was saying that he could take some time off. I am gonna have a word with Mr. Shanks for treating my Tristan like a work mule.”
“Nee-san, do you think that it is a good idea?” Naira asked nervously.
“Tristan can be such a coward sometimes. That’s why I will speak for him.” Olene thumped her chest confidently.
“Are you sure it would be safe to travel in this rain.” Naira asked her elder sister who was preparing to head downstairs into the kitchen. Usually, Naira would not be particularly worried as her sister had made those journeys before during the night. But the heavy rains that descended on the city made travelling a hassle.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll catch a carriage to Tristan’s office. Ah, before I forget. We’ve to wake up early tomorrow. Tim said that Mr. Shanks will be bringing the immediate family members of the company for a picnic.” Olene turned around and told Naira.
“Eh...This is unexpectedly nice of him.” Naira exclaimed in surprise.
Of course, Naira would look forward to such a rare occasion. Then again, she could not help herself but developed the mental image of everyone dozing off during the picnic itself from sheer fatigue other than herself and the twins.
“I will be home later.” The elder sister braced herself against the rain with an umbrella and set off down the street.
After seeing her sister off, Naira returned upstairs to check up on her house guest, only to see Tim wolfing down the leftover buns from the breadbasket her sister left behind for the family’s supper. Tim’s cheeks were bulging from the two buns protruding from his open mouth as he attempted to stuff a third one in.
“My buns!”
Naira had to wrestle the basket away from the pint-sized glutton less her sisters go hungry for the night. Naturally, it was not an easy task with her alone. But the twins were able to keep their hungry guest at bay for the night.
Authors Note
Dear readers, sorry for the long absence. I got bogged down by work last month, barely had any spare time last month. The current update would just be a short intermission chapter but I will be posting something longer by next Saturday.
Authors Note
Dear readers, sorry for the long absence. I got bogged down by work last month, barely had any spare time last month. The current update would just be a short intermission chapter but I will be posting something longer by next Saturday.
