I trust you've heard of the Gustark-Rekidona War, Ekkehardt?
[He figured Toki hadn't, considering that was the one class he happened to skip to investigate his office. So he would explain it anyway... but Ekkehardt may or may not recognize the name "Artina" if he was familiar with it.]
More than four centuries ago there were two provinces near the Holy Roman Empire in modern Germany called Gustark and Rekidona. The two provinces were always at each others' throats... and that eventually escalated into war. A brutal, bloody war that lasted over 20 years. The cost of human life and materiel was staggering during the course of the conflict, and the two sides eventually resorted to clandestine use of magic, daemon summoning, and forbidden techniques to wage war on one another. This caught my personal attention, so I traveled there with the intent to punish and terrify the people using daemons for their own ends.
[After all, he could not allow humanity to start recklessly summon daemons with the risk of eventually learning to fully control them.]
...Artina was from Gustark. She was a nun. And she wanted the war to end, to stop the death, the suffering, and the misery caused by it. But she was no warrior, no fighter. Hurting people... wasn't really in her nature. Instead, she treated the wounded in her small chapel, and it didn't matter where they were from. She would rescue the wounded and treat them, no questions asked, and would never ask for a single cent in return. She lived a poor, humble life, and would go without to make sure her patients survived.
But make no mistake. Though she wouldn't harm a fly, her spirit was stronger than any human I had ever seen. She was audacious and utterly dauntless in the face of death itself.
[He set down one of the brushes he was using to scrape away the moss on the stone, swapping it out for another brush, which he sprayed with a solution to clean the surface.]
...She was not afraid of me. When I demanded the blood of a soldier that tried to attack me, she refused, and offered her blood in his stead. Without fear, without hesitation, and without a way to stop me from taking what I wanted. And she did it out of pity not just for the wounded man, but... for me as well. And I was insulted.
[He pauses for a moment, a small, bemused smirk crossing his lips.]
Imagine it. Someone feeling pity for a Tyrant that could crush armies without a second thought. I was too proud to take her offer. So instead, I promised her I wouldn't drink blood until I showed her real fear. Until I saw real terror in her eyes. Only then would I take her blood. ...Naturally, with the war going on, I knew there was a good chance she would be in constant danger, so I stayed with her with the intent to keep her alive, constantly scheming and executing ways to show her real fear.
[He closed his eyes and paused his work for a long moment, before he continued.]
...Couldn't even get so much as a tremble from her.
But eventually, Artina's activities in rescuing soldiers from both sides got noticed. After she had rescued and treated a Rekidonian officer, a very large group of Gustark soldiers showed up at her chapel, called her a traitor and demanded her to hand over the officer. She steadfastly refused... and they tried to take her by force.
As you can imagine... I took umbrage with that. When they marched into her chapel after her, I cut through their brigade without mercy or hesitation. I thought I slew them to a man. The overwhelming stench of their blood left me unable to notice that one of them had hidden and played dead between the pews. In my hubris and carelessness, I didn't check. When the battle was over and the soldier saw an opportunity... he leapt to his feet and ran Artina through, crowing in victory that he got the traitor before running for his very life.
...She passed in my arms. Even in death, she showed no fear or regret.
[He hesitated again, and started scrubbing harder at the stone. His expression looked impassive, but there was an unmistakable pain and impotent anger in his eyes for what he was about to say next.]
Her name went down in history as a traitor, blackened, spat upon, vilified. She was called a witch, a murderer, a heretic, and so much more than that, by both sides. Scapegoated conveniently as a daemon-summoner and worse, to hide the actions of the worst of both sides. Her chapel was burned to the ground, her message ignored, and many more lives destroyed before both nations were themselves by opportunistic lords in the Holy Roman Empire.
...And I, the most powerful daemon in the Human World at the time, failed to protect her. Because I did not show her fear, I could not take her blood... or anyone else's.
no subject
[He figured Toki hadn't, considering that was the one class he happened to skip to investigate his office. So he would explain it anyway... but Ekkehardt may or may not recognize the name "Artina" if he was familiar with it.]
More than four centuries ago there were two provinces near the Holy Roman Empire in modern Germany called Gustark and Rekidona. The two provinces were always at each others' throats... and that eventually escalated into war. A brutal, bloody war that lasted over 20 years. The cost of human life and materiel was staggering during the course of the conflict, and the two sides eventually resorted to clandestine use of magic, daemon summoning, and forbidden techniques to wage war on one another. This caught my personal attention, so I traveled there with the intent to punish and terrify the people using daemons for their own ends.
[After all, he could not allow humanity to start recklessly summon daemons with the risk of eventually learning to fully control them.]
...Artina was from Gustark. She was a nun. And she wanted the war to end, to stop the death, the suffering, and the misery caused by it. But she was no warrior, no fighter. Hurting people... wasn't really in her nature. Instead, she treated the wounded in her small chapel, and it didn't matter where they were from. She would rescue the wounded and treat them, no questions asked, and would never ask for a single cent in return. She lived a poor, humble life, and would go without to make sure her patients survived.
But make no mistake. Though she wouldn't harm a fly, her spirit was stronger than any human I had ever seen. She was audacious and utterly dauntless in the face of death itself.
[He set down one of the brushes he was using to scrape away the moss on the stone, swapping it out for another brush, which he sprayed with a solution to clean the surface.]
...She was not afraid of me. When I demanded the blood of a soldier that tried to attack me, she refused, and offered her blood in his stead. Without fear, without hesitation, and without a way to stop me from taking what I wanted. And she did it out of pity not just for the wounded man, but... for me as well. And I was insulted.
[He pauses for a moment, a small, bemused smirk crossing his lips.]
Imagine it. Someone feeling pity for a Tyrant that could crush armies without a second thought. I was too proud to take her offer. So instead, I promised her I wouldn't drink blood until I showed her real fear. Until I saw real terror in her eyes. Only then would I take her blood. ...Naturally, with the war going on, I knew there was a good chance she would be in constant danger, so I stayed with her with the intent to keep her alive, constantly scheming and executing ways to show her real fear.
[He closed his eyes and paused his work for a long moment, before he continued.]
...Couldn't even get so much as a tremble from her.
But eventually, Artina's activities in rescuing soldiers from both sides got noticed. After she had rescued and treated a Rekidonian officer, a very large group of Gustark soldiers showed up at her chapel, called her a traitor and demanded her to hand over the officer. She steadfastly refused... and they tried to take her by force.
As you can imagine... I took umbrage with that. When they marched into her chapel after her, I cut through their brigade without mercy or hesitation. I thought I slew them to a man. The overwhelming stench of their blood left me unable to notice that one of them had hidden and played dead between the pews. In my hubris and carelessness, I didn't check. When the battle was over and the soldier saw an opportunity... he leapt to his feet and ran Artina through, crowing in victory that he got the traitor before running for his very life.
...She passed in my arms. Even in death, she showed no fear or regret.
[He hesitated again, and started scrubbing harder at the stone. His expression looked impassive, but there was an unmistakable pain and impotent anger in his eyes for what he was about to say next.]
Her name went down in history as a traitor, blackened, spat upon, vilified. She was called a witch, a murderer, a heretic, and so much more than that, by both sides. Scapegoated conveniently as a daemon-summoner and worse, to hide the actions of the worst of both sides. Her chapel was burned to the ground, her message ignored, and many more lives destroyed before both nations were themselves by opportunistic lords in the Holy Roman Empire.
...And I, the most powerful daemon in the Human World at the time, failed to protect her. Because I did not show her fear, I could not take her blood... or anyone else's.