The God of Jesters
Chapter 209 - 4.01.1 When will it end.

Chapter 209: 4.01.1 When will it end.

My fate was that of a bait. It’s what the captain dictated after she told me about the weird group that came after her.

"What sort of growth?" I had asked, acting ignorant of my choices and the bloodlust that I held before losing consciousness.

And it would seem, she also thought that I wouldn’t remember it, as she had tried to overlook the matter and only explained that I shouldn’t fight.

But should I tell her that it was already too late? There was a high chance that they were wishing me to awaken my memories from my last life.

One where I was the pet of a young boy, a young boy who was like my mother, my friend, and my enemy.

A young boy whom I had killed many times as a sort of revenge. And for some reason, the desire to kill him was a lot stronger in my head as well.

And yes, he was a young boy. He died in his youth, his ill mind locked forever in a certain mindset, incapable of growth. He only pursued one thing and one thing only.

It was entertaining for him to watch the misery of others. At first, it was the rats, my prior incarnation. In this life, he had grown stronger and much worse. He now had the godly power to manipulate people as much as he wanted.

As for how? I don’t know. But I know for sure, he became like this due to what he had gained in that dream.

That ever-repeating dream where I enjoyed killing that boy again and again.

"Your face, it’s cold hard isn’t it?" Suddenly, the captain asked me an odd question. Which made me lift my hand up and touch my face.

No, it would be more appropriate to say, I tried to do it, but couldn’t feel a thing. It’s not only my face that has frozen, but my fingers as well. "The folly of the dead, my body doesn’t generate heat I guess." I smiled, looking at the gloomy sky which hailed down snow on me.

"Tell me if you have any problem moving, I will bury you on the side and go to the place myself," Captain said with cruelty that was unbecoming of her. It makes me wonder if it was a joke or not. Though considering the mood between the two of us and the lack of trust, it’s easy to treat it as truth. She might really mean it.

So I shook my head. "Please no, captain. I won’t be a burden to you. As long as I move my joints, I can generate enough heat to keep the cold out." I lied, or it’s better to say, I didn’t know if it was possible. As for the fact of that corpse fire that my body is able to produce now?

I didn’t mention it, I believe Captain did know about it, but as I said before. For some reason, she doesn’t want me to recall my actions from before. Meaning I shouldn’t know of that flame’s existence.

This made me consider whether was this a trick question. She asked me to confirm if I have control over whose samadhi flames or not.

If I had said that I could use the flames, it would mean she had caught on to my lies.

But one thing I did know, I don’t want to be buried here for a long time. Not to mention, in case something happened to the captain, or what if she forgot where I was buried? Things would become a bit problematic.

And I still have to save my foolish sister. The only family that hadn’t tried to kill me and showed actual concern in her own way.

It won’t be a repeat of that last life. Although I don’t remember most of it, I know for sure that I killed them. Killed my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, all in the name of survival.

Blame it on my animalistic instincts of the training that young boy made me go through. But it doesn’t wash my hands over the things I did. I was smarter than them, I should have known better.

It’s why I was adamant about that past not ever repeating again.

And this woman, this captain was my key to it. The power that I lacked, she could provide me with it. That is of course, if she came to trust me.

"So keep moving, I believe the village is not too far off." She ordered me, dragging me to some old village. A village that seemed very close to her heart. Although she had hidden it, I could see the little movements on her body and twitches in her head as she tried to find any sort of sign of that village’s existence.

Or the path at least.

Which meant, we should have been in the village already, but we were still not there yet.

Was it this mellow snow that fell from the sky being the reason? I don’t think so. "Captain, this village of yours, is it below some mountain or in an open field?" I asked, curious about where it was.

From what I can tell, we were already a few thousand meters above sea level. With even taller mountains that surrounded us. There was barely any flora, and for animals to hunt, it was much harder.

There was next to no food here, so why would anyone live here?

Unless of course, we are in the wrong area.

"Surrounded by mountains but in an open field. So you can think of it as both."

"So small paradise in this cold hell?" I smiled, but my frozen lips weren’t able to fold upwards.

She turned to look at me, but she didn’t say a thing. Guess, she caught something? I don’t know.

"Was it some secret village? Why would someone live here unless they were hiding from the world."

"Something like that, but this village was not closed to the outside. There were countless outsiders that came to live here before the curse of undead devoured the village whole." She didn’t turn around this time, she just kept on moving while giving me the answer.

The curse of the undead is one of the most potent and infectious curses known to mankind. But then I wondered. "Won’t the corpses just freeze instead of starting to move... was it during summer?" Being a student of the occult, it was easy for me to find an issue with that claim.

Usually, those born out of that curse were weak towards the cold as well as fire.

They were just moving corpses, rotten and dried in some cases. Easy to burn, and brittle and slow when in cold.

While in such a snowy environment, they were completely harmless as without any body heat or cold defenses, they would just freeze and wait for their time to come. Which might be, never.

Truly a cursed fate for those undead, and even me who was slowly freezing from top to bottom. And it won’t be long before she finds it out.

’I need heat... shelter at least.’ I thought. But asking for it is the same as accepting the fact that I was lying. I couldn’t keep my body worn just through movements alone.

’When will we reach there?’

Then, something caught my eye. "Captain, on the right, there is a white wolf," I said. Knowing full well that the captain must have seen it.

So why didn’t she mention it herself?

Was it another game of hers?"

"A wolf won’t be here unless there is something to eat." She pointed out, before making me wonder if the thought that the wolf might have considered us its food came to her mind or not.

No, I was being a fool. Animals possess much stronger senses than us humans. They are beings of instincts, I know this better than anyone. It’s a skill honed in our DNA, it’s through this instinct that we know what is food and what is the thing that might consider us its food.

Rats being small and so abundant, they were food to virtually everything in existence, it’s why we were fearful of everything and knew when to hide from danger.

It’s why I believed this wolf might be the same and it won’t climb down from that hill and hunt us. And the captain should have believed as such as well. Or to her, the thought of being a prey never entered her mind. She believed in her strength.

"It is going somewhere... we will follow it." She spoke to me, it was more like an order.

"Captain, the wolf never hunts alone, its fur is white as well... our sight is also limited due to the snow... I fear an ambush." I spoke my fears.

No matter what, these snow wolves were larger in size than normal wolves. I can even feel some kind of danger from it.

Not that the wolf itself was strong. But something told me that following it was dangerous. But the Captain seemed adamant on following it. Almost as if possessed, she ignored my words and started to keep up the pace with the beast.

’Fuck.’ My body was partially frozen, I couldn’t move so fast. And I can’t afford to fall behind.

The pure samadhi flames didn’t have any heat, the one mutated by the mixture of my body was too bizarre and filled with curse energy, which if I used will obviously be felt by the Radiant Knight in front of me, who was super sensitive to curses.

’What to do?’

I thought, before a crazy idea formed in my head.