The God of Jesters
Chapter 329 - 5.16.1 The true evil.

Chapter 329: 5.16.1 The true evil.

Her memories were something I can’t read. It was not due to the request of Baldar, but there were other reasons I didn’t wish to sully the sanctity of her mind with my will.

Whereas, if she were to call for me, it would be a different matter altogether. Just like she did now.

Her mind echoed in the dream world, sending signals, letting me know her calling. She welcomed me to her dream. A dream in which she was in a boat caught in a storm, while she stood there silent, looking at the horizon, instead of manning the boat so that it doesn’t capsize.

"Aware of your dream?" I asked, attracting her attention. "You are him?" She found me odd, for I came in a form she somewhat found familiar. "You look like."

"Your Jara? He used to look like this as a kid. I thought you would find this form a bit more appealing, considering the conversation we are going to have today." But before we could continue, she looked at me deeply and requested. "Change it."

No, it was a threat. I can see the chains appearing out of thin air, ready to bind me if I didn’t do as she asked. "If that’s your wish." I don’t know how much control or understanding Sheva had of her bloodline, but for her to visualize those things in her dream was enough to let me understand that she had learned a bunch of stuff.

And although her real body might not be able to achieve the effect of creating those chains until she reaches Master level. But in this dream of hers, it was easy for her to produce it through a trace of her bloodline alone.

So I changed as she asked, turning from her little boyfriend to someone else.

A gruff man with pitch black iris, wearing a raincoat. Just a normal everyday man that won’t stand out from the masses, if not for his height.

And she seems to have noticed this oddity as well. "Is this your real face?"

Or I might be wrong. But I just shook my head. "I died early, I was a child then, far younger than Crow that you met with."

"..." She seemed surprise to hear my confession, but no worries. This is not even the crazy part about it.

"But to answer your question. The man that stand in front of you is Shakhik the torturer. In my past, our fates have intertwined and he, who worked as the torturer for the Dusk Knights, joined them in my pursuit. Which ended int his very city."

Dusk Knights, the dogs of Red Sun and considered mere stories among the masses. But they were very real, they were far more dangerous due to not possessing any bottom line when it comes to achieving their goal.

A threatening bunch whose danger is second only to a Radiant Knight.

But considering the amount of collateral they cause, one could say that they were far more violent and destructive than a Radiant Knight.

"What does he have anything to do with all of this? All I wanted was for you to come and save Crow. He is innocent in this."

"You need to listen well about this man. Because, regardless of what you think. He is very much relevant to your current situation." And as I said this, I pointed toward the rising ocean in the storm. "The story begins with a girl, a little orphan girl in Red Sun’s Orphanage." Then an image formed in the waves, the face of a young girl.

"I was still ignorant of this world, I wanted to know more, learn more, see more, but I could never touch this world, I can’t even turn a page."

My story continued, showing how I used the little girl to turn the pages of books, and then went as far as to teach her magic of the likes that I could never use. "She was talented, she was something I created, a perfect child of mine in this great world."

I was a proud father, for there was a life that I had molded in a way much different than my own.

As she was much different than the orphans that I took under me. Given free rein to be who she wants to be and how she wants to be.

She was the reason why I even bothered on training a bunch of orphans to do my bidding. She is the one that inspired me.

But all good things come to an end. And ours did as well, when she learned of my true nature. "Although I loved her so much, after seeing what I had done before, she became scared of me."

"The only ever being beside Grifter, who I treated like my family was scared of me."

And it was in that fear that she made a terrible mistake. Whether it was guilt driving her, or her fear, I was not sure, she went a confessed my existence and actions of the church.

Who originally never believed in me.

"If only I was more controlling toward her, a bit more involved. Giving her freedom made her susceptible to the wolves that exist in this world. That was my one mistake which I still regret to this day. And why I never repeated it again after it."

She showed them her magic.

With the world still in the process of industrializing, while the mages were still treated as dangerous beings that all churches hated. The knowledge she obtained was considered blasphemous and due to her abilities, catering toward mind and fearing that the words she spoke to them might not be true. She sent her to their dungeons.

"That is where this man comes in." I said, pointing toward myself. "Your father, that is."

******

A dungeon where light never came to her.

There were no warmth beside the warm nails stuck in her fingers, no water beside the cloth drenched in water which was sued to suffocate her.

"We are purifying the evil out of you, so don’t cry, child." Spoke the giant man in a gentle voice as everything about her was violated.

Why did it have to be her? All she did was learn magic, all she did was hope of becoming someone more than just another orphan on the streets.

’Why is he not coming?’ She had kept repeating these words in her mind. She had kept asking for help from him, but she never got any response since the day she confessed to the church.

The being she considered her closest had abandoned her.

"Father?"

"Yes child?" But it was not the torturer that she called "father". No, it was a first and last cry to Jester, where she considered him her father.

And that was it.

"I was a mere wraith then, unable to influence the real world, how could I even touch her, help her?..."

"I was powerless then, and I had promised myself to never feel such powerlessness since that day." The girl that entered the dungeon and the one that walked out of it were much different.

They twisted the mind of an illusionist, they molded her to their liking and turned her against me after years of brainwashing.

"My... father did that? You knew all along who my father was."

"Yes I did. The bastard that ruined it all for me, and a great friend. So of course I had to take care of his daughter... until Jara ruined it all."

"What do you mean? What did Jara do?" Although she had wished to speak about Jara, but she never expected his name to come up at such an inopportune time.

"Oh please, don’t act so innocent, even an earth worm would have known the potion was always meant for you, but he felt sacrificial that day and chose to give it to you. But no worries, Crow, although a bit stupid, did as I asked and lo and behold, you drank it yourself."

"You wanted me to drink it so long ago? Why me? Why not just kill me?" She asked, confused over the revelation.

From the story and scenes she saw, she knows how much hatred Jester holds for the man that he claims is her father. So why not just kill her? Take revenge and get it all over with?

Why did someone in his position of influence would want her to awaken a bloodline? Why give her power? What did he want from her?

"Why should I kill you? Like the bastard had turned my daughter into my enemy, I planned to do the same with you."

"??"

"Don’t you get it? Wouldn’t it be poetic to be killed by his own daughter?"

"..."

"Oh, do give me that look. Imprint this face in your head, for you are going to meet him in the future, tell him who you really are, which I believe won’t be hard considering your stature and then kill him. Cut his fingers apart, cook his balls for all I care. But make him regret his life, make him beg for mercy. Make him look forward to dying by his own daughter’s hand."

"That’s your part to play in this game. It is your destiny. And although Jara made a massive mistake early on, we can still rectify it. As a gentleman’s revenge can take decades." And my revenge is not going to be a simple one where only Shakhik suffers.

He is just the very last one that falls.

He needs to see what his mistake brought upon his people. Furthermore, he needs to regret ever touching my people.

His death will not be a peaceful one, I promise you that.