Undead Beast Master: Living Solely for My Desires

The sky was clear, there were little to no clouds in the sky. The temperature was comfortable, not too hot making you wish you wore no clothes, nor was it so cold that you had to wear a jacket so you don't freeze to death.

There was barely any wind either, not enough to cause a potential problem. In other words, the weather was perfect.

The kind of day that could lift anyone's mood with just a short walk outside, breathing in the fresh air.

Yet to David, that didn't apply. He wasn't feeling energized nor hopeful, strangely enough he wasn't angry or sad either.

He just felt hollow… maybe a bit more tired than normal but that wasn't something that was unexpected.

After all, he had just returned to his hometown and buried his sister next to their parents.

"I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised when I saw you. How much you sobbed over her dead body, I feared that you would have become so depressed that you would not want to move," the Spectral Warden spoke, as usual trying to irritate David, but it didn't seem to be working so it pressed on.

"You have to be happy in a way, you know? All your sister was doing was holding you back. You could have gone wherever you wanted with your powers and few would have been able to stop you if they wanted. Yet you didn't, because of your useless sister."

David's shoulders trembled for a second, but other than that he didn't show much of a reaction.

"Man, you must be feeling pretty good right now, right? Sure, it must have stung a little losing your sister after looking after her for so long, but now with her gone—and the same with your parents—you can do whatever you want to. Even if you don't want to admit it, the fact is the world would continue without them."

"As time passes, they would slowly fade out of your memory, as they won't be a priority anymore. First, you will forget their voices, then their faces, their names, and eventually you will forget that they ever existed at all."

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" David roared with all his might. The shout was so strong that it echoed in the surrounding few kilometers by his sheer rage.

"HAHAHAHA!" The Spectral Warden began to laugh in a low, menacing volume. After the death of his sister, the thing hadn't been able to make him display any kind of emotion—but finally, it had succeeded.

"You might think that I am lying, but I am not! Tell me, David, do you remember how your parents looked like? I doubt you do, aren't I right? At best there is a weak silhouette that is too hard to make out, since it has been so long since you've seen them. The same will happen with your sister!" the Spectral Warden continued to mock, seeing David get more and more angry.

"You fucking leech! No matter if you give me powers, the only reason you are alive is because I am, you fucking parasite!" David shouted, his voice still filled with pure rage.

Hearing the insult, the Spectral Warden's laughter began to die down a little.

At the end, both of them stared silently at one another.

That was until a noise broke David out of his rage.

Gawk! Gawk!

Shifting his gaze to the sky, David saw a massive flock of birds. Usually it would not be larger than a few dozens, but at the moment he was looking at about a thousands of birds flying over the town, moving past it. They were so many that the sunrays began to dim a little from their sheer quantity alone.

"I don't have time to waste with this fucker," David muttered as he threw one more glance at the three graves.

'When I die, would somebody bury me next to them?' he asked himself, though he of course knew that this would never happen.

If he died, he would most likely be left to rot on the streets or battlefield, that he died on, as he didn't really have anybody that would do him the favor to bury him here.

'Maybe Zaroth?' David asked himself. Zaroth was most likely the closest thing that he had to a friend—not that the two were that close.

"I wouldn't mind seeing him. We have yet to fight again, after all," David admitted to himself as he continued walking forward.

Usually, he would be careful when speaking to the Spectral Warden not to shout too much, as he didn't really like to seem like a mentally unstable person, but today—here—there was no need.

After all, David's hometown had been abandoned.

Due to the war, the border of the Draconian Empire moving deeper into the empire meant that small towns like this, close to the border with the Crimson Sun Empire, would be abandoned.

It felt a bit weird. David had walked on these streets so many times, yet this was the first time he had seen them so empty, so devoid of life. Everybody—civilians and soldiers—had long left, leaving him the only one here.

…if one didn't count the Spectral Warden behind David.

Thanks to the fact that the town was quite small, David didn't take much time to reach the walls. It was harder to find the entrance to enter them, and once he did, he ascended the stairs going higher and higher.

Eventually, he reached the top. The wall wasn't very tall; a town like this didn't need serious defenses.

For a moment David chuckled. He remembered that time Althea had come to his town to fix the water issue.

Due to the fact that there was no clean natural source of water nearby, it had to be moved by using magical tools. But after some time they stopped. The reason was that the officials of the town were corrupted and didn't maintain them, as it didn't benefit them that much.

But thanks to Althea, the issue had been fixed.

"Althea…" David muttered her name. He had been informed of her death—and that it was most likely Solara, the princess of the Crimson Sun Empire, who had killed her.

Even if they hadn't spoken a word to each other, David felt pain as he didn't manage to repay her for saving his town.

"I just hope that she found peace of mind before dying. She lived a hard life enough as it is, so she deserved this much at least."

Praying that this was the case, David turned around.

Behind him was his hometown—the place where he and his sister had grown up, the place where his entire family had been buried.

And before him stood an army of the Crimson Sun Empire. Thanks to the altitude, David was able to see them coming in closer easily.

"About a thousand men," he counted them one by one. It was a small force for taking a whole town, but they must have been informed that the border of their enemy had been moved, and as such they most likely didn't expect much resistance.

"This is the last thing that's stopping you from greatness," the Spectral Warden spoke. "Rather than wasting your time and risking your life protecting this place, you can just go explore and grow stronger! This is why I dislike humans—you get attached to meaningless things too easily."

"Fighting against an army would make me stronger, would it not?" David, now calmed down, wasn't going to be swayed by the words of the fucker behind him.

"Plus, I have lost too much. This is the only thing I have—the place where I have grown up. How could I give it up like that?"

The Spectral Warden only sighed in disappointment. It seemed that David wasn't planning to change his mind.

What David was saying was the truth, but there was also another reason. The fact that the Crimson Sun Empire was the cause of Althea's death meant that there was a hidden desire in him to cause them as much trouble as possible.

He wanted to make them bleed.

To make them pay.

"Well." Clapping his hands together, he stood upon his two feet. "Maybe the empire has given up on this town, but I have not. So if they wish to take it from me, they would have a hard time."

From now on, this town would be a thorn to the Crimson Sun Empire's side.