Chapter 26

Meanwhile, Draven decided to go out on a journey and wander around the continent.

Other than just updating his own map of the human kingdoms, he thought of visiting a particular place that held a special meaning to his existence.

In a blink of an eye, the tall figure of Draven Aramis disappeared from his study.

His regal body reappeared on the banks of a river that cut through the center of a dense forest. It was an ancient forest generally untouched by humans as it was on the other side of a mountain range flocked by dangerous wild animals.

‘Decades have passed since my last visit yet nothing has changed.’

Several centuries ago, Draven Aramis found himself waking up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by these exact same trees…without his memories.

Draven looked at a particularly rocky place at the mouth of the river. It was as if he could see the blurry images of that time when he found himself in this forest for the first time.

Centuries back, on this same place, he woke up with a deep gasp as if he had been suffocating for a long time. There was immense pain on the left side of his chest. He had no strength in his body and somehow dragged himself towards the river to drink water and quench his thirst.

Drinking water was something his body’s instinct drove him to do, but his mind had been a mess back then. Confusion was the dominant thing in his mind.

“Where am I?”

“What happened?”

“What can’t I recall anything?”

Only the question “Who am I?” had an answer.

Draven Aramis.

An empty name, and the most important clue he had of his identity.

When he tried to sit up, he found his body trembling at the sharp pain he felt in his chest. His palm touching his chest was bright red.

“I’m bleeding…?”

He discovered that he was wearing chest armour and it had a gaping hole on the left side. He removed that hard outer cover and found the white shirt he was wearing inside drenched in blood, also bearing the same gaping hole as the armour. It looked like someone had stabbed him in the chest.

‘But there is no wound.’

He removed the torn top and checked his chest. Although he felt pain, his chest looked fine. There was not a single wound on his skin, nothing except a tattoo of a black dragon.

“What is this tattoo?”

Having that black dragon mark felt weird, as if his intuition was telling him he never had it before.

However, no one else was there with him to answer his questions. He was alone, without a memory, and thus he wandered the land for years all by himself, with only the name Draven Aramis as his clue.

Without any recollection of his identity, he walked out of this forest and entered a human kingdom, not knowing what to expect. It was not a good start. He had so many questions about his own life, yet he was met with encounters that made him protect the people who had come to rely on his strength. The fighting had gone on for a long time, and it made him unable to return to this place to investigate during those warring times.

But then there were those recurring dreams.

He felt that those dreams were fragments of the memories he lost. He thought returning to this forest would make him trigger those dreams. However, even though he came to visit, the dreams didn’t change and only showed her that woman again and again. Having the same dreams caused him to be stuck in his search for the truth and he thought there was no need to return to this place.

Now this mysterious emerald green-eyed girl appeared, he felt that he was given an invisible push to resume his attempts of recovering his memories.

From the small kingdom that bordered the forest, towards the three Great Kingdoms, and then the Empire, he had walked the continent in search of his identity. Along the way, he came across many instances where the supernaturals were discriminated against and hunted as if they were criminals simply for existing.

As someone who witnessed their persecution, the disgust he felt for humankind only grew. He didn’t know why he felt pity for those supernaturals, but he decided to protect them. He never expected back then that his single kind intention would worsen the situation and put the entire continent in a state of war.

‘Devil.’

It was then that he earned such a fearsome name for the countless slaughter he committed in order to protect those races who only want to live in harmony with nature. The empire fell and many kingdoms perished after losing to him and were later on swallowed by other kingdoms. A new empire was born, and kingdoms rose and fell, yet human greed never disappeared.

Slowly, the supernatural beings of the continent accepted Draven as their protector and their leader. Many races and clans migrated to a hidden sanctuary away from the human world where they created their own peaceful world—Agartha.

Draven sighed as he remembered those times of chaos. It took bloody centuries for Agartha to enjoy the peace it was experiencing now.

From there, he took one step forward, retracing the steps he took when he first woke up without a memory.