Zweiter Leutnant

xviii.

The eighth war broke out in late December 1814 and Danveur joined the military, successfully becoming a second Lieutenant in such short notice. Inside a small built-in office in the middle of nowhere, he was sitting with his leg over the other on a worn out couch and on his side was a manila folder. Before him was a mini desk and on it lay 60 applicants form.

"I'm here now," A voice resounded and Danveur would have cringed if only he wasn't acting professionally. He looked up from his tea cup and glared at the all too familiar young woman who was busy fidgeting with her rifle.

"Forgive me for not throwing you a parade." He said with a little bit of annoyance. "You are late, I wasn't expecting you to come."

"But I have come."

"And I didn't want you to."

Sera was only silent, her grip on the gun tightening until her knuckles turned white. She was quietly seething but Danveur could see right through it and he was pleased.

"What exactly are you trying to prove?" He asked gravely, feigning innocence as he absentmindedly twirls the pen along his fingers.

"Myself-"

"Then I don't want to see your face ever again." He calmly cuts her off, his words filled with tranquil hatred and obscurity. He looks overly uninterested but the way his eyes bore onto her screams trouble and a promise of another threat.

Danveur hasn't seen her for about 40 years since he last killed her and he hasn't missed her in the slightest. Sera was a distraction and an obstacle on his way, and he wouldn't hesitate to wipe her off for the second time.

If only Thomas didn't give her a second chance to live, she wouldn't be here right now.

"The feeling is mutual. I wouldn't want to see the one who took my life away." She snaps back.

"Don't be clever with me, you wretched brat." He replies coldly, standing and easing his way around the small desk. "I've been asking some mutuality a long time ago, tonight's not the perfect time to give it to me."

The young woman let out a strangled sound, a mixture between mock and bitterness. "I never fancied you, Danveur. It was all just a game to me too as it was to you, just to let you know."

"Are you so blind to see that I do not care anymore? You had consumed your time of being fun and I rather kick you out of my office than let a rotten thing like you stay here and stink." He retorted, shoving her backwards a little too carelessly. She shot him a look.

"Where is the old you that I knew? The gentleman?" She mumbled quietly but she raises her chin and challenged him with a haughty look.

Danveur sneered. His emerald eyes gleamed like well polished jewels in the dimly lit room and he grabbed a handful of her front collar.

"He's caged somewhere in here." He whispered before fully pushing her out and slamming the door to her face.

xix.

The smoke was like acid to his lungs and he made his way out from the crowd and towards the less populated area. He shouldn't have interfered with the fight between men, for he himself was not a man anymore but a monster. He sat on one of the broken concrete wall and stared from afar the vast ruins and debris.

How many centuries had gone already? Two? How many years? He had lost count. He spent his time moving from town to cities, making alias, faking records and such. This eternal life was a pain but he had a new goal, and together with Thomas, he'd reach this. But for the mean time, he'd extinguish his thrist of boredom and join wars that humans had become too obsessed with. It was a part of his own entertainment.

Out of nowhere, Sera suddenly showed up.

"Oh, dear me," Danveur exclaimed with a shake of his head. "What part of I don't want to see your face ever again do you not understand?"

The young woman parted her lips to speak but no words came out. She looked like she was contemplating and finding the right phrases to produce but decided to keep her mouth shut in the end. It was obnoxious and irritating, but Danveur merely rolled his eyes at her. 

"Just go," He says wearily.

In the end, Sera deliberately walked away as a whistle resounded from the nearby barracks.

xx.

"You can't just let this happen, Danveur!" Sera couldn't help but scream as she slammed her palms on his desk. "How dare you set up your own soldiers and team!"

He eyed her for a full minute before tutting and shooing her away with a half eaten apple.

"Danveur, listen to me!"

"It's 2nd lieutenant Daniel Jones, excuse your rudeness and informality." He stated as he leans his back on the cushioned chair. He took an immense bite from the fruit and his canines glistened as the juice trickled down the corner of his chin.

"I won't be addressing you as that, you arsehat! Stop stealing surnames from tombstones, at least show some respect for the dead!"

"I do not want to respect you, darling. Now shoo before I do something drastic, I wouldn't want to stain this pristine carpet red." He retorted with wit.

They stared at each other for a short while before Danveur fished his pen out of his breast pocket and began to scribble words on his clipboard that are hard for Sera to understand. He was writing what seems to be a message in Latin.

"I do not want to fight you, Danveur."

"I wouldn't want to fight me either." He paused and looked at the paper with such concentrated eyes. There was a slight rattle outside and soon, gunshots were heard and a scream broke out.

They both fixed their attention towards the door.

"Please, Danveur!" Sera begged, almost sinking down to her knees but regained her pride halfway through. "You could stop this. You could help your bosses outside!"

"What makes you think I would do that?" That was a question not meant to be answered but Danveur nonetheless sounded intrigued of what her reply would be.

"Because you," She bit her lower lip, feeling her supposedly dead heart pound with inexplicable force. "Because you said that you're better side was still there, caged somewhere within you."

"Perhaps it is as you say so," Danveur's tone was cluttered, distant, however, he quickly rose from his seat. And on his way out, he sent her one unforgettable look that would forever be etched on her mind.

It was the look of a crazed individual seeking out for childish fun. "I've already written a report that stated the lieutenant and captain had been killed in action."

Sera's face turned white, if that was even possible as her skin was already ashen.

"I need to be promoted, dear. And if they managed to live," A few more exchange of gunshots. "I'd finish the job for the enemy."