Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 143

It all came to that night when we were kids, with the flowers blooming, of that fake city and the illusion festivity, of the enemy demon trying to gain fame by betraying Ethan and getting the Demon’s Lord son’s head as a prize and the fame that came with it, the world full of enemies for such a young demon and yet, to me, he would as much weight on his shoulders as me and mother combined, years of suffering for acceptance, only for his first mission to be playing the part of a child and infiltrating the High Lands.

"I remember parts of it but it is...It is quite foggy, almost as if ... as if something is preventing me from even thinking about it, much less remembering it." The memories do not take shape, elusive as they are, but I can tell there is something there now.

"Yeah it is something like that actually." Ethan surprisingly confirms it. "Let me... let me explain first, you have to understand just how silly of me it was to try and prove myself to the demons, how I did not fit anywhere my entire childhood and how I still craved for some sort of belonging, of acceptance, of how I thought the all the problems would cease once I got to meet my father and was accepted, far from knowing it was their fault to begin with that all that happened to me, and in the end they just mocked me, like I was nothing, being his son brought nothing but trouble to me." His line of thought goes all around, as if he is remembering situations from his past all at once and yet trying to convey what they all meant in a single go.

"Like I said, it is not easy to be a demon child from this clan but much worse if you are the demon’s Lord Child, it is as if you have a target on your back and for the first years of my life that I did not know how to hide my crimson horns I suffered quite a lot and always thought of taking my place beside my father, of how I would be received as the lost prince or some fairytale like that, I was actually obsessed with it at first, a child’s craving for his parents, still thinking they would return for him...silly me. "

"When I was finally off age to go back to my clan and be part of it I was exhilarated, but of course it wouldn’t be so easy as to simply take a seat on the throne beside the Demon Lord, in fact the real test began then. "

"I did not think twice about the mission at first, demons that can pass the barrier and are strong enough to launch an attack are far and few between so it was nothing new when they pushed me into this task no matter how hard it was as my first mission, but demons aren’t known to be kind and thoughtful, some were actually even wishing that I would not return and did not even hide it. "

"So with that chance to prove my strength by myself I had to come up with a bulletproof plan and a means to it." He snickers. "I’m not sure you remember our first disastrous encounter, although I did not have this appearance at the time. "

"Disastrous? I don’t recall, unless..." Unless... I narrow my eyes, sensing a headache coming my way to join with the other pains.

"Well, yeah, I was, well, I was the snake you tried to eat."

"Oh, that." I remember it then, after the snake that tried to attack the fairies my small self was so defensive and confident that tried to hunt down more snakes, thinking too highly of myself as their natural predator and protecting the ladies at the time inflated my ego.

"Yeah, I remember hunting you down only to end up caught in an ambush... but how were you a snake? Can you change forms as well? Well, beyond the horned one that is..." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He smiles at me, remembering the messy fight we had, two kids battling against each other. "Yeah, I remember too, and I had used all the money I had to buy a changing rune stone, although it broke later it still could temporally change my form to that of a snake for a time, and I figure it would be the best way to move incognito, although the guy sold me as a bat stone not a snake, after all how could I move around freely and scout as a snake? They don’t even have legs! But when I realized that it was too late, and with no money to buy another I had to go with what I got..."

I have to admit that as much as concealment as being a snake gives it would be hard to move around like that, which defeated the purpose of a scout. "But how come I still don’t remember you clearly?" I can vaguely remember, but after our fight there was nothing.

"Oh we had contact alright, I was even scared at first that you would sell me away, but after our draw we ended up only chatting and playing around, you visited me a few times after too, but..." I say nothing, still waiting for him to answer my question.

"I had a mission to complete and I was a fool to think that you would be spare, that the place would be... to be fair I do not know what I expected they wanted with the High Lands but I regretted completely once I saw what they did to the place, to its people, to you... I was so overcome with shame and regret that I completely disregarded the demons plans and wishes and my previous will to be part of that group to go out and save you when you felt but... you don’t remember me because demons can be quite vicious." He sighs, all this too much for him, strange already for me as I do not remember part of my past and only come to realize it now, but shameful to him to say all this out loud.

"I was taking care of you for a while, but one of the demons must have found out and tried to weaken me by attacking you, they used a flower typical from my clan and hard to grow called the Crimson Flower, once it is given part of the targets, a hair or nail, to grown from it will make however smells it completely forget of that person, all the rest won’t be affected but every time you have seen my face will be completely erased from your past memories, leaving a hole in your memory." That’s quite the troublesome flower indeed, but that’s why, after some time, I remember being helped by someone, a masked figure, but even then I could not remember things entirely, I just have the concept in me that someone saved me from drowning, but not exactly who, for how long, and how they did it.

Next thing I know I remember being beside my master and reaching the Enlightened Sun Bearers peak.

I am at lost for words at that point, not really sure if I should be satisfied to know the truth or should be mad at him for being part of it all, of taking side when all went to hell.

After all he is no simple demon either, related to the one that caused me so much pain and, worst yet, being part of the mission that did such, shouldn’t he be part of my revenge against all those who caused me and mother pain?

"Ethan." I say harshly when he does not stop blabbering around, clearly unstable and eager to explain himself, but some things have no excuse for. "I-... I need some time alone."

It is as if I had stabbed him in the chest, he opens his mouth to speak up only to close it back down tight next, biting his lower lip and giving me a nod as he hesitantly stands to leave my side.

But even that time alone is robbed from me when we are interrupted by a group of people.