Something For You Is On The Shelf

'Well if I could say anything for you I would say that you are truly truly special.' my thoughts reverberated through my mind as I took a look at what I just found an interesting little creature that just decided to walk up to our very base, and make itself at home.

"Well then little one I suppose if you really want to be in this little area of ours you better be able to pull up your own weight. This place isn't for any creatures that can get killed in a mere instant."

What is it you ask? What is the creature that I am currently talking to? But of course, another denizen of this world of theirs, an odd litte beast that looks more like a pokemon than a scary beast that could tear me asunder.

But I will not deny the fact that the thing was trying it's best. Trying to make itself puffed out a little more, doing it's damnedest to be the scary scary little beast that it imagines itself to be.

It was a little hedgehog with a pretty little dandelion growing on its back. 'Albeit the sort of things that hedgehogs do doesn't exactly make me feel so confident that this is a good gift for the little one.'

Did I just say what I just say? Yes, yes I did. I intend to give her this little hedgehog that has a dandelion growing on its back as a pet, as opposed to the giant bloody deer that has the power to manipulate gravity and possibly crush me within my own weight.

Does please make me a very very bad man? Perhaps. Does this count as bribery? Maybe. But I'm going to be honest her, she needs more interaction with other things aside from a geriatric and a psychic deer.

It's not exactly all that good for her health to be talking to only two people one of them being a deer and the other being a cannibalistic criminal. Does it make me feel like a bit of an asshole? Of course it does.

I'm making a decision without her input, it's not exactly something good to be making decisions for other people without them knowing.

But in my defense this is technically good for her because of course she's getting something else that's going to comfort her because god knows I can't do that with any form of proficiency.

Well that's a lie on my end but then again, what would she rather be playing with, an adorable little hedgehog or a geriatric? I'll be seeing myself out now at this point.

'Alrighty, I just need to go and do some little things to make sure that her heart will be able to handle this. Or make sure that she doesn't try to eat the damn thing because I'm more than certain that she sees most things as food.'

I grab the little creature and then picked it up taking a look first at what it's gender is before I nod and start taking the hedgehog over to her and making sure that it's not too scared when it gets into her clutches.

"Come hither little one. I have a little surprise for you. I know that i haven't been treating you all that well, but this time I have something that you could bond with while me and the deer aren't exactly in for anything at the time."

I handed her the small little creature I watched asked her eyes slowly but surely became wider and wider as she began to squeal and glee at the small creature that she had been gifted.

I am very confused as to whether or not that was a squeal of elation or a squeal of anticipation since I'm more than certain that she could possibly be viewing the thing as another meal.

"Take good care of the little thing alright? It's most likely as young as you and it needs just as care and love as you had for your brother."

I realize what I said and immediately cut my words off. A memory about her brothers is not exactly something that I wanted to bring up.

That was by far one of the biggest blunders that I've done so far. She looked at me for a split second and subsequently nodded to me, while then putting all of her attention to the little hedgehog within her hands.

Huh, that, was a lot more pleasant that what I would've ever been able to do normally. I would say that it was a decent success I suppose?

She wasn't trying to slaughter me for giving her a memory about her brother, so I would either say that her control is getting better, or she's starting to accept the fact that he's not ever coming back.

Well, except that little "fact" was still technically an opinion, since I have absolutely no clue as to whether or not there's a such a thing as resurrection magic or any sort of magic that similar to it, barring necromancy. And I wasn't even sure if necromancy was a real thing in this world.

But let the future be the future in the end. Tomorrow is a thing that brings either the greatest of blessings or the most horrendous curses in existence. I am not going to blame anybody, not even myself, if we never find an actual way to bring her brother back. That is if she even wants him back in the first place.

You know what? Let's just get back to working. I should probably tell her that she needs to feed it with grass and not meat jerky, shouldn't I? Yeah, I should.

The little one was still as busy as I would've anticipated, seeing as how she was essentially in love with the hedgehog at first sight or more possibly at first touch, due to how soft it is despite the fact that it was an actual hedgehog.

Grassy backs turn out to be something very liked amongst children I suppose. Or something that's very fluffy. Whatever is that makes children all the happier, I wouldn't know.

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/??? POV/

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"What is the current location of the bejeweled and accursed artifact boy? You know that crossing us is going to be the last thing that you'd ever do in this life of yours."

The words of the soldiers spoke around me as they kept on beating and bashing me with whatever it is that they had on hand, predominantly their weapons used for training.

The blunt and normally unsharpened blades that they more or less sent over to the trainees for blooding and maintenance. "You really are stupid people aren't you? Always going after the words of your saints and god, as if they weren't as fallible as the rest of us dirt-walking monkeys.

They care not if you live or die, break or grow, be shattered or be mended. The only things that goes through their minds is whether or not their next little meal of faith is going to come quicker than the last time.

And if not? Well, we all remember what exactly came the last time that we were acting like heretics and heathens, not giving them the phrase that they so desperately believe that they've earned.

Thinking themselves as the zenith to this world. but in truth, I am more than certain about what I have learned about. About what happens when the gods have made a man angry.

About what happens when they've done such a grand grand mistake that everybody else will also will also be made to pay for it.

About what happens when they decide to create a demon unknowingly with their ignorance and arrogance. And what happens when said demon then decides go against every other living creature in our world.

To cleanse the slate of feels and degeneracy that we ourselves have brought upon us. That is our mistake, and I myself intend to try and fix it.

Do not call me a betrayer or a traitor you foolish foolish cur, for you have no spine to speak of when it comes to trying to fix the mistakes that our very existence and race has brought and made.

I will never deny the fact that our method is not the most perfect method, but there is a saying that the person who taught me all of this had once said. "In absolution, there is no solution, for in of itself, it is ab-solution."

I made the mistake of trying to be absolute, trying to make myself akin to the "be all, end all" and make myself the only person that I should listen to. He had plans to ensure that we would have never fallen, that we wouldn't have ever had to resort to all of the madness around us.

And yet we broke all of them, making them obsolete and worthless, simply because he was of a different species to ours."

All of my words went out of me, slowly but surely, as the commander then walked into the tent that they interrogated me within.

"I see that you still haven't decided to talk yet have you? We'll make sure that you will talk, and we will make sure that your words move finally make it to the very top, to our kings and queens that we have so graciously given our lives for.

We will believe in them and we will bleed for our land and if must, we shall also die upon it for our families. Whatever seditious material that you chanced upon shall be located and destroyed with full impunity.

I thought that I could trust you. I thought that you wouldn't be like your predecessors, but it seems that in the end it is destined for heroes to slowly but surely become the very villain that they ought to destroy, isn't it? How poetically disgusting."

He spat in my face as the scribe nearby finished up their scroll and rolled them up with both haste and care, ensuring that whatever it is tht they spoke about me shall be immediately sent over to their liege lords.

It almost sickened me to my core, about how nonchalant they were about the shape of my body and will whilst they beat me for whatever it is that they wanted to hear.

And yet it felt like I truly make a mistake, because I didn't give them the truth, what I gave them, was what they wanted to hear.

'Thank you, old man you finally taught me what it is that makes a person human despite the fact that you through your own humanity away.

Thank you for teaching a simplistic humble and scared little hero about what was wrong with this world and giving him the faith, will, and determination to face it all.

To face the oblivion with a smile, and to finally know what it is like to be a proper hero, despite my Class telling everybody else the exact opposite.'

My thoughts go through my head one last time as they took me out of the tent and marched me over to a little wooden pole in the middle of the clearing.

Two cuffs on it for the person to not try to move despite the fact that they could easily slip out of them, given that they were about two sizes too big for me.

It never really mattered about what its size was all that mattered what's how fast for the arrows going to travel in order to reach their target and finally execute me.

I looked over and noticed there being some nobles that wanted to watch the little "mishap" in command as the archers were hesitant to even try to shoot me.

I wouldn't blame them, if I wanted to, I would've been able to catch whatever it is that they nocked into their bows midair and throw it back with double the accuracy, and triple the power.

Alas, I knew that the shackles on the pole would simply negate all of the stats that I had accrued for myself, thus allowing me to die with relative ease in their eyes. And yet they forgot about something so very obvious. Something that they failed to look for.

I gagged as I felt the cold and alien feeling come right back up out of my gut and into my mouth once again, giving myself a little smile for thinking ahead as they soon lined up to execute me.

"Hero, you and all of your "class" have fallen from grace and have begun to work against the good of this world and of the people living in it, by working alongside the First Demon Lord, how do you plead?"

I couldn't help but have a small, little dry laugh that soon grew bigger and bigger. "Again, none of you could ever begin to see the bigger picture here. You all call yourselves free and filled with purpose, yet the latter is all that any of you would ever be able to achieve.

Or rather, it's the thing that you were given. It's truly laughable that any of you thought that you were going to ever be able to amount to anything more than pawns for the gods and creatures you decide to worship, indoctrinating yourselves to the idea that any of you are capable of reaching heights never seen before, never returning to where any of you came from.

You would all make me laugh, if it wasn't for the fact of those you leave behind in the dirt. Yet the only thing that I'll say, is that you have done absolutely nothing that I would ever consider useful in all of your miserable little existences, neither have I, for that matter, and that's where the differences lie in between us."

I show them the stone that was in my mouth as the commander shouted out a command to his soldiers to shoot me quickly to make sure I didn't break it.

"I am made aware, that I'm a pawn, and I'm happy to do what a pawn is meant to do. Be sacrificed, or be promoted. AND I CHOOSE BOTH!"

I crushed the stone in my mouth as I felt the cold energy burst from it and slowly but surely seep into my body, the "grace" of the System that governed this world slowly losing it's grasp on another creature that was brought into it by its own creators.

The bullets hurt, but they were losing their efficacy, the strength of my muscles hardening and enlarging making them less and less likely for them to hit anything genuinely vital, and even if they had the firepower for it, the true regeneration that's brought by the old man's kin makes things all the more easier.

'Thank you old man, thank you for allowing me to have one final laugh, as a [Thieving Jest]. This was by far, one of my best performances so far. Or perhaps, THE BEST.'

My final thoughts went through me as a swell of laughter fell out of my mouth as the chains that fettered me were nothing more. It was now in the hands of another Fa'llen.