The Way of the Future: Age of Machines(Completed)

Valentine's Past

I failed.

I failed you, Artemis.

I failed you, Caitlyn.

I don't deserve your mercy.

I don't deserve your protection.

I don't deserve the position.

I don't deserve the heaven you will make.

It felt so near, I could grab it by the hand and never again feel the pain of losing. But, I still failed you two, I am sorry. Though I don't know if you know how I became the Pope's dog, or what the hell is a Requiema anyway.

I will use this time, in the afterlife, in this void, to convey my story to anyone who will listen, to anyone, who is listening.

I am a Requiema, the blessed blood which runs in the Requiema Dynasty, the original dynasty who once ruled the country the world now calls "The Empire". I did not experience any royal-lavish life, I was born in a small rural village to the east south of the Empire's Puppet Dukedom, few hundred of kilometres north from the Republic border, and few tens of kilometres from the Senadate Theocracy border.

I never really knew where I was from or where my parents were originally before living in the confines of that rural village. All I knew at that time was that we were happy. I was uncaring since monsters would only attack every once in a while and were easily repelled by hired adventurers or the local garrison, there was no reason for worry.

It all happened at that fateful night, memory is fuzzy but I can explain it clearly. My parents both went out to the village center for the yearly communal sacrifice to the God of Agriculture. I was snuggled under the sheets of my bed when I heard a loud boom.

The loud boom was followed by a sudden cracking sound, and then the screams of other villages echoed with it. I stood from my bed and opened the door of our small hut and saw the nightmare unfold.

We were being attacked, not by monsters or bandits, but by the same Empire that said it would uphold the peace. I didn't know back then, but that incident was covertly called the "Night of Knives". The crown prince of the Empire caught wind that we, the Requiemas were still alive and living just south of his soon-to-be-ruled country.

He was a paranoid young man, he thought we would rise up against him to take back the throne, I didn't even know that I was a Requiema! My whole life I grew up thinking my last name was Gumovs and was a descendant of the small village.

He sent his so-called great Airship and his fanatic commander and attacked our village, he used the Airships to destroyed the walls and the houses before his groumd troops proceeding to kill the villagers in an attempt to root anyone of Requiema descent out. It was a blood bath, a blood bath I thought would stay like it was, them killing us off while I and my family cowered underneath our hut or fled.

My mother came back running to me as the Empire's troops drew nearer to our side of the village, I could hear their steps and horses sound closer and closer with the screams of the men, women, and children they slew.

My father did not come back, I asked my mother where he was but she simply ignored me. Tears were falling from her eyes and down her cheeks. At that moment, even though I was a frail child, I came to the realization, that my dear father, was dead.