"I brought you food. The tavern owner said he hasn't seen you eat at all these past three days."
Shun Jin. A tavern maid girl with a body and face unlike typical maids. She was more suited to be a princess. Although her personality was not.
She placed a bamboo food box beside me. I was still sitting cross-legged. As soon as I opened my eyes, her face, the face of the maid who looked like a noble princess, stared intently at me. I stared back at her with the same gaze.
She then slapped my cheek for no reason.
"Crazy man."
She then left after completing her task.
I glanced at the food box beside me. If she really came to give me this, why did she have to slap me? Was she so envious of my handsome face that it annoyed her and made her slap me? I'm sure that's what happened.
I picked up the food box and looked at its contents. A handful of rice with grilled fish and a little seasoning. Demons might not need to eat, but my tongue can still taste.
I ate the contents of the food box down to the fish bones. So there was nothing left in the food box except a few grains of rice stuck to it.
"What did that Fool mean just now? Why should I watch that maid get beheaded while smiling?"
Looking at my reflection in the river. I still looked human on the outside. If I held the demonic sword directly without a cloth, my skin would turn pale and black veins would start appearing all over my body.
I am handsome. It seems my guess was correct. That girl slapped me because she was envious of my handsomeness.
"Maybe I should watch that girl for a while. She might know something I don't. And that Fool knows something I don't know from the maid who knows something I don't know."
I stood up. Took the food box given by the tavern maid. Walked towards the tavern and then placed the food box in front of its door.
***
How white is snow compared to her? How beautiful is the full moon compared to her smile? How bright is the sun compared to her words?
Ye Jing sometimes always recites some love poems of longing that I don't understand. I tried asking him about their meaning. He just said he was imagining a girl smiling and laughing.
He is a flamboyant man, even though his teacher is a monk who has abandoned worldly desires and passions. Nevertheless, Ye Jing has never done anything intimate with the women he flirts with and meets, even if the women he flirts with don't mind. He is a true gentleman.
Then what about me? For seven years traveling to the West and East continents, discovering various human races and tribes with their unique characteristics. I don't pay much attention to humans. I might remember exchanging words, but I never remember having memories.
Ye Jing told me to try have fun, be sad, angry, disgusted, and afraid. He also once told me to try love something.
Unfortunately, I don't understand such things at all. I don't understand why people love and marry each other, then start a family. Or why someone kills someone because they hate them or for other trivial reasons like envy, ambition, revenge and greed for something.
I also don't feel anything when I hear someone's scream. No matter what kind of scream it is, I don't feel anything at all. When they scream in pain, scream in sadness, scream in anger, scream in joy, scream in fear. I don't care at all.
Do I like killing? The answer is I only kill people who want to kill me.
Throughout my life, my hands have always been covered in blood. Whether it's the blood of adults, old people, children, or even babies. But do I feel something like Ye Jing feels, which is guilt? No. I don't feel it. Then how was it when I killed Ye Jing with my own hands?
Did I feel guilty?
Sad?
Angry?
Happy?
Afraid?
I didn't feel anything.
He died because of me and I felt nothing. If Ye Jing came back to life, would he be upset that I killed him? I don't know.
His last smile, hoping I would die for turning into a demon. That eternal farewell smile. Do I miss it?
I don't know.
I can't understand it.
But I remember him, his words, the poems he recited, the jokes that sometimes weren't funny at all. He was the only person in this world who accompanied me for seven years and smiled at me. He was also the one who introduced me to various experiences and knowledge.
"Kindness, Long Yi. If you want to have feelings, then do some good deeds. Perhaps, one day, because of kindness you made, you will smile. And when that happens, I hope you smile because you are happy."
I...
Will try what that kindness is. And hopefully what you said is true, you stupid monk.
Like tonight, the inn tavern where the maid girl worked was visited by a group of people in royal combat attire.
Steel armor on their chests and heavy longswords typical of a kingdom. They broke down the tavern's door. Making the customers inside cower in fear.
"Is there a girl named Shun Jin here?" The leader of the royal army shouted loudly inside the tavern.
If you're wondering how I could hear that man's voice, it's because I was inside the tavern. I managed to get into the tavern after returning the food box given by the tavern owner. The tavern owner allowed me in because I was blocking customers at the door.
The waitress, the maid girl, who happened to be named Shun Jin, stood behind the cashier's counter with a worried look. It seemed these people were looking for her. I calmly sipped the warm tea in my glass while watching the events inside the tavern.
"Is there a girl named Shun Jin here?"
A soldier who seemed to be the leader of the group asked once more, looking at each person in the tavern.
"Shun Jin? That waitress?"
One of the customers, an old man, pointed to the anxious waitress behind the cashier's counter.
"Excuse me, gentlemen, is there a problem in this humble inn tavern of mine?"
The tavern owner came out of the kitchen with a meat apron and a butcher knife in his hand. He stood between the waitress and the royal army. He looked at the group of royal soldiers with a confused expression. It seemed he was wondering if he had made a serious mistake against the kingdom, judging by his furrowed brow and narrowed, anxious eyes.
"That girl." The leader of the troop pointed at the waitress, who was still silently anxious behind the cashier's counter, with his sword. "Is a princess who escaped two months ago from her own kingdom. She is a captive, and we are ordered to take her home."
"Is that true, Shun Jin?" The tavern owner turned back to ask the waitress. She nodded slightly, hesitantly and fearfully.
"Please move aside. We don't want to use force here."
The tavern owner still stood in front of the waitress. The waitress looked at the owner with a hopeful gaze.
The owner turned and shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry, Shun Jin." Then he stepped back to allow the waitress to be taken by the royal army.
"Take her."
Two soldiers immediately approached the cashier's counter and were about to forcibly pull the waitress. However, from behind her cloak, the girl had already prepared a kitchen knife to defend herself.
"Wait! Stay away! Why are you looking for me? My father's kingdom may have been destroyed, but I have renounced my title! I have no valuable worth as a captive!" The waitress swung her knife back and forth, telling the two soldiers approaching her to back off.
The leader of the royal army troop laughed loudly upon hearing that.
"Your brother told us to find you and bring you home. He married the king's daughter from the Fong kingdom. That way, your brother won't be beheaded and will become a loyal slave to the Fong kingdom. He also promised to make his sister, you, a concubine for King Fong. Come with us peacefully if you don't want to get hurt, princess."
The maid, the waitress, she gritted her jaw while saying, "I'd rather die than live as a concubine to the rotten king who took my father's kingdom!" Then she was about to stab a knife into her own neck.
I stood up. Stepped quickly. In an instant, I was standing behind the maid and held her hand from stabbing her own neck.
"You won't die with such a desperate face, girl. I don't see you dying like this."
***