Second Chance in the Demon Kingdom

“What do you mean they died?” Caro asked the Demon King, as calm as she possibly could.

“Exactly as I meant it,” he answered. “The second they touch the hilt, they first fall into deep slumber. And then, their bodies react strangely. Some flail about, as though suffering from a nightmare, or never ending pain. Some even screamed as though they were going through hell. And in the end… they died…”

The king walked towards the cased hilt and lifted the lid. “The seer never said exactly how the weapon chooses its holder, but if I were to guess, I’d say they were going through a trial of some sort. Most likely one where they face their own nightmares, their deepest and darkest fears, and are to overcome it. But, as I’ve said, and as we can clearly see, none passed. But you on the other hand…” He turned to Caro. “Stephon said many great things about you. And even if he hadn’t, just looking at your stats itself is enough to convince me that you, Caro, may be the one.”

Caro raised a brow in confusion. “You can see my stats?”

“One perks of being a demon of a royal family. Our eyes can see the stats of others,” the king explained. “And I must say, of the many that were sent here, none had level nor stats even half as high as yours. Each one are special in their own ways, but you? A human who reached over the level of 500 at the age of a young adult, and with the current occupation of but a simple swordsman at that.”

Caro didn’t know if she should feel proud or offended at the words coming out of his mouth.

“Not only that, but you matched my son in combat, even managing to successfully use an ultimate-level Blade Burst technique with a demon sword. Neither of those are feats that just anyone can do, much less at the same time. That makes me even more convinced that you are the one.”

The kushtaka, still on Caro’s shoulder in otter form, looked at her worriedly, wondering if she was going to follow the fate of the other candidates his king spoke of.

“So… I just grab the hilt and go through this trial you speak of?” Caro asked.

“That’s right,” the Demon King confirmed.

The kushtaka didn’t like where this conversation was going. “Hang on. You’re not really saying that you’re going to go through with this, are you? You could die.”

“Like I care,” she answered. “If I die doing this, at least the hilt did me a favor.”

The two demons were speechless at what she had said, as the human walked to the hilt and reached out her hand to grab it. The moment she touched it, everything went black.

******

When Caro opened her eye, the first thing she felt was a throbbing pain in her head. Looking around, she found herself in a bedroom. A small and familiar looking bedroom.

’Don’t I know this room?’ Caro wondered.

A crack and a scream was heard, both as familiar as the room she was in. Something told her not to go, but concern overpowered that feeling, and Caro slowly walked out of the room and towards the pair of sound. Each step she took, the horrible feeling in her grew.

’Why do I have a bad feeling about this?’ she asked herself.

She saw light lit up in a room, where she can see the shadow of a person whipping something. Or rather, someone.

Caro peeked into the room and saw, to her shock and fear, her father whipping her younger self, while her mother poured alcohol all over her, making the wounds sting really badly, especially as new ones formed from the whipping.

’What… the hell…?’ Caro thought.

Next thing she knew, she felt something hit her from behind, hard. Falling onto her side, Caro suddenly found herself in her old and younger body, taking the pain.

“Aah!” she screamed out in pain.

“You idiot of a child! Can you do nothing right?!” her old mother demanded, as her father continued to whip her.

“We told you to make a simple omelette! What’s the big idea of adding all those extra ingredients in it?! Do you not know how much those costs?!” her old father shouted.

“I-I’m sorry- Ah! I-I thought- Ah! It’d be better if- Ah! I added them in- Ah!” Caro tried to explain.

“Are you talking back to us?!” her mother demanded. “You damn foolish brat!” The woman got up from her spot and walked to the kitchen. When she came back into the living room, she was holding a salt shaker. “You think it’s better to add stuff in things that shouldn’t go? Say it after this!”

Without another word, she took the head off and dumped all the salt on Caro’s wounds. The stinging pain was unbearable for the child, followed by her father’s never-ending whipping. She tried to get the salt off, to get move away from the whips, but it was only making things worse for her in more ways than one.

******

In the real world, right after she grabbed on the hilt, Caro was knocked unconscious. Before she hit the floor, the kushtaka took on his human form, catching her before her head hit the ground. He gently set her down on the floor, where minutes later, she was suddenly screaming and flailing about in what seemed like pain.

“What’s going on?!” he asked in shock.

“It has begun…” the Demon King said. “The trial she was to take has started. And once it starts, it doesn’t stop. Not until the person that’s holding the hilt is dead or passes the trial.”

“What? Then what can we do?!”

“Nothing. Except wait, and pray that she is the one.”

He didn’t like that response. If anything, it made him worry about the screaming human even more.

******

Back in Caro’s mind, the girl was finally free from the torture her parents had her go though. And all because she wanted the omelette to be more delicious for them. But now… she had a new problem to go through. What was it? Well…

It was school.

One would think that parents as bad as Caro’s in her old life were bad. The kids at her school were far worse. Especially… when she doesn’t seem to remember her new life now.

“Hey look, it’s the wimpy bookworm,” said one of her old bullies, and leader of the group at that. She didn’t remember their names and faces, but she did remember the hardships they put her through.

“Go away…” she weakly told them.

“‘Oh geez, just go away~’” another bully mocked, causing everyone else to laugh at her.

“By the way, wimp. You look like you forgot a little something when you came in earlier.”

Caro didn’t forget; it was more that she hoped she didn’t have to deal with these kids today. She had dealt with enough problems with her parents; she didn’t want her bullies to add on to it. Of course, it didn’t matter what she said… when they didn’t have the heart to hear her out.

“I didn’t forget anything…” she dared say to them.

The bullies were not at all satisfied with the answer.

“Maybe we should refresh that memory of yours then,” the leader said, punching into his hand, as he and his group of bullies all prepared to beat her up.

As one can see, the bullies at her old school didn’t at all care about the ‘boys never hit girls’ policy.

All Caro did was endure. Endure all the punches, the kicks, the hair pulling, even some stomps here and there. This… was Caro in her old life. The Caro she herself hated with all her heart and soul.

Weak against the world, both physically and mentally. Not at all able to stand up for herself as much as she liked. And whenever she did, she got beat up for it. This was the life Caro hated with all her being. She lost count how many times she had wanted to die right then and there, how many times she asked god to grant her wish and end her, how many times she had prayed for a miracle of any kind to occur. But sadly, her prayers were never reached.

That was what she had thought, all her life, until that day.

The day when he came into her life.

The scene changed to a classroom in a middle school. Everyone sat in their seat, waiting for their teacher to arrive. Caro sat in the corner by the windows, trying to make herself small and unnoticeable to everyone else, especially her bullies. Yes, unfortunately for her, they are also in the same class as her.

The door opened, and the teacher walked in. Following her in was someone unfamiliar to Caro.

“Hello class,” she greeted. “Today we have a new student joining us. His name is Alex Peterson. Please be nice to him.”

“Hi. My name is Alex Peterson. Nice to meet you guys,” the new kid greeted.

Like any new kid, Alex got the attention of everyone in the classroom. Not just in appearance either; he was quite athletic and extremely intelligent. He was practically the star student to the whole school, known enough to get the bullies off Caro’s back… for a while…

One day, Caro’s bullies challenged him to a game of soccer, a sport the group was proud of. But after somehow being beaten by one boy, they were furious with the outcome and went back to beating her. Well… one of them was.

“I can’t believe we, as a team, a group! Lost to that new kid!” the leader said, kicking Caro so hard in the stomach, she could’ve sworn she could cough out blood more than once, or get a hole in her stomach. “We need to practice our kicks some more. And the best way is to kick this wimp hard enough to make her cough something out or break a bone!”

“But wouldn’t we get in trouble if we do that?” one of his underlings asked.

“Hitting her was fun and all, but none of us would go that far,” another one of his underlings said.

The leader was upset with the response and landed one last, hard kick in Caro’s gut, causing her to cough out some blood. Did he care? Not as much as his ‘friends’.

“Like anyone cares. She doesn’t care about any damage done to her, her parents don’t care, not even our classmates or teachers give a damn!” he said to them. “Tch. Now I don’t feel like kicking. Instead, my brother gave me something the other day, and I do want to test it out.”

Caro weakly opened her eyes and saw the boy took out a pocket knife. Her eyes widened at the sight of the weapon, as did the others.

“Wait, what are you using that knife for?!” one of them asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? My brother gave me this to protect myself when I’m in danger. But what’s the point of it if I don’t know how to use it?” the leader answered.

As they talked, Caro’s eyes were on the knife. One look at it, and she felt something familiar. Something in her was calling out, and it wasn’t fear. Visions- no, memories were sent to her head. Memories… of her current life. The life of a swordsman in another world, and the last thing that occurred before she was in this horrible memory lane.

Eyes narrowed and newfound, rather recurring, strength welling up in her, Caro wiped the blood away from her lips and slowly got back up. Her bullies all ceased their conversation and saw her standing.

“Huh? You want to do me a favor?” the lead bully asked with a smug smile on his face. “Fine by me. Now don’t you dare move!” He ran at her with the knife, ignoring his buddies’ calls for him to stop. He thrusted… and had his wrist grabbed by Caro in a tight grip.

He was surprised that the girl stopped his stab, and was even more surprise to feel the grip she had on his wrist tighten, painfully. It was so painful, he dropped his knife and went on his knees.

“What the hell?!” he shouted. “Let go! Let me go, you damn wimp!”

“NO!” Caro shouted back, glaring at him. Her stern voice and glare shocked the boys, for they only know her as a shy, quiet, and timid little girl.

As if it wasn’t surprising enough, Caro kicked the knife into her hands and jabbed it straight in the leader’s eye. The bully cried out in great pain when she did, while the others were incredibly frightened.

“You are not taking over my life! Not again!”