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A sword to a girl’s face. Just because of her braid. Just because she resembled my old self.
I couldn’t bear to watch. The dagger so close to her ear, the pulse resounding in her heart. The tears she shed, the fear she felt. All because they assumed she was me. All because of me.
As a kid, I remembered looking up to my father. Despite the vast armies in his command and the amount of power he held in his tiny fingertips, he always instilled it in me to choose love. To make peace. To create a world where no one would have to suffer because of two men arguing in a smoke filled room.
I held on to those values when I was younger. But when I saw my own father beheaded just because he wanted change, rage and hurt and anger made me feel as if change couldn’t happen. All that needed to be done was to get rid of Claudius violently. What was peace if the man who was lording over not just the kingdom, but all of the Otherworld, the entire afterlife, was able to keep committing crime after crime, sending soldiers after anyone who opposed him, spilling more blood?
At first, I thought fighting fire was the only thing I could do. He was stooping to violence - the very thing that consumed my life. What was I to do to seek out a peaceful world? What nonsense was Hijiri speaking, speaking in my ear the entire way to the Infinite Land about choosing love instead of hate?
I will admit, seeing what the future could be did open my eyes a bit. But seeing a blade to the girl’s ear made me feel like a weight was crushing down on my soul.
She had told me that if she was a princess, she’d make the world a better place. She’d make it so that there’d be no more war, she’d make it so that the world could thrive and kids like her wouldn’t have to needlessly suffer.
I didn’t know much about where she came from. I didn’t know her name or how she lived. I didn’t even know the extent of her pain. But hearing her wishes, and then moments later, seeing the people who killed my father deal a similar fate to her?
The blood spilling all over the world couldn’t keep pouring down, throwing stones in the hearts of those affected. They couldn’t keep losing hope. They couldn’t keep feeling like change couldn’t come.
Somehow, we had to break the cycle.
So I threw my weight in front of the girl. I made myself known, to save her life. At that point, I would have sacrificed my life for her - just to make sure her mother wouldn’t have to feel the same gnawing pain that I felt at the pit of my stomach every hour of every day, grieving the loss of my father to the same bloodthirsty tyrant.
I could tell Hijiri thought I was crazy. He ran to me, making sure I wasn’t dead. That I would be able to have the revenge that I so desperately wanted, even though he didn’t agree with it.
But if anything, standing up to the forces of evil that way made me understand Hijiri even more.
As we finished our journey to the Infinite Land, as we made it to the towers of heaven, I prepared to finish off Claudius once and for all. But in my mind, I couldn’t help but think. Was revenge the only thing that would save the world?
There are so many timelines. So many places. So many worlds. They all converged together in the Otherworld, and so many people here had been affected by wars and tyrants and tragedies.
The pain wouldn’t stop in 15th century Denmark. The blood would keep drowning, like a river, even after I was reduced to nothingness.
It would be humanity’s choice to make a better world. To tell the evil forces “enough is enough”, to put the sword down, to let justice seek its course.
I had a responsibility now. Not just to end Claudius, but to give people hope.
Hope for a better future. Hope that could shatter timelines, to create a world where people could join hands and sing together in the streets. People connecting over their humanity, not just bickering over their differences. People able to take their lives back - not have them end just because of greed and profit.
The stairs soon appeared, and I took my steps into the gates of the Infinite Land.
But the memory of the girl kept gnawing at my mind. So, I thought of her. I thought of my father. I thought of those that Claudius had tortured. Those that he had killed. The wars that he had perpetrated for power. The people that starved while he danced all night at lavish parties. The pain that even in the far off future, Hijiri still had to deal with. The greed. The pain. The hurt.
I knew that with one action, the world wouldn’t change forever. But if I had to do my part, if I could set the world on a righteous course, that’s all I would ever want.
My father wanted a better world, but was hurt by the world’s corruption.
I’d fight that corruption tooth and nail - and create a better world, even if it meant I’d die for it.
Maybe then, my father would be proud of me.
And the girl could live the life she always wanted.