None Of That Was Personal

The army marched for weeks before they even made it to the border so Rukelion had plenty of time to work things out. In the meantime, he was the perfect soldier. Quiet and obedient.

He was feverishly excited to destroy his enemies—what he had dreamed of for so long—that he found himself spacing out once they arrived at the military camp closest to the skirmishes. He really should be listening since the general was explaining how things worked here and what they needed to do.

He immediately snapped out of it. This was more important than daydreaming about how it would feel to finally have some measure of revenge after four long years.

Sweet justice was so close Rukelion could practically taste it but he couldn't lose focus now. He could celebrate accomplishing part of his goal once it was actually done. Living on a farm had taught him not to count his chickens before they were hatched.

"The Aveleenians have a lot of mages on their side but they aren't terribly powerful. It isn't as if they can create giant waves or anything. Mostly they've been making it snow since it's more difficult to fight trudging through that stuff," the general explained.

"We've been throwing a lot of salt around because that helps melt it but supplies are running low so I'm glad you brought a bunch with you. We need to defend our borders and wipe them out. I don't even know why they started attacking in the first place."

Had they though? Or was this another case of the Mireans attacking for no reason and the Aveleenians were simply defending themselves?

Rukelion didn't care much either way. Both sides were despicable.

He was despicable too but he had known that would be necessary to get his revenge from the beginning and hadn't cared. He didn't care about anyone's opinion but Daisy's and he planned to keep this particular detail about himself from her.

She didn't need to know how much his life had been ruled by hatred borne from grief. Someone as cheerful and good natured as her could never understand why he was the way he was.

No one ever said monsters couldn't fall in love. There were stories he heard as a child about princesses who managed to tame monsters with their love and it didn't change what the monsters had done beforehand.

Rukelion may not have done anything yet but he had always intended to, long before he cared about Daisy. He knew he wasn't good enough for someone like her and he didn't care because she was his only reason to keep living once he had accomplished his revenge.

He was a budding monster. A monster-to-be. He would truly be one by the time this was over but wasn't the slightest bit fazed about that.

He had been planning to kill men standing less than ten feet away from him for weeks in a variety of ways and was looking forward to it. That wasn't normal, healthy behavior but he didn't care.

Veese. Bridger. Who knows how many others.

Rukelion might not have to kill all of them. The Aveleenians might take care of some of the scourge for him. He might have to go easy on them for a while in the hopes that they would kill as many Mirean soldiers as possible.

He had no attachment to these people but he wasn't wasteful. He wouldn't purposefully let the younger, innocent soldiers who only joined up for money and thought they would never see war die.

Those were the ones he would save and make sure they knew it so they would be willing to follow him anywhere. That had been his plan all along if he ever went to war. Nothing bred loyalty like saving someone's life. He knew that firsthand.

===

The army had been fighting for three days and Rukelion was getting antsy. He hated holding back when the water mages were right there in front of him but they were the best bet to get the majority of the officers killed off. They all had to have been there long enough to have been complicit in the ruin of Katalya.

He had another reason for wanting them out of the way too. He was more likely to advance and be given command of his own squadron with them gone.

His plan was to end up a captain then make sure not a single member of his squadron died so the higher-ups would take notice of him. He would breed loyalty and show his worth as an officer at the same time.

Rukelion scanned the horizon to see what was going on during other fights. The Mireans were a strong bunch; he would give them that. Now that they had strength in numbers, they were holding their own against the water mages surprisingly well.

This posed a problem. He needed a lot of people to die on both sides and, obviously, he couldn't visibly kill people that he was supposed to be allied with.

The captains and lieutenants were the biggest issue. He had already decided who his first target would be and three days seemed long enough a period of time before making it happen. Today he was going after Veese if the opportunity presented itself.

And it did. After Rukelion took down a few Aveleenians who weren't mater mages, he took his chance. While sword fighting with one hand, he raised the temperature on Veese's hand with the other so it got sweaty.

As expected, it didn't take long for his grip to falter and for the Aveleenian he was fighting to deal a fatal blow. The problem was that it wasn't actually fatal.

No! If Veese was injured now, he would be out of the fight for weeks! Possibly until the war was over. This was the only chance to kill him off and the Aveleenian wasn't going to take it because he had already run off to fight someone else as soon as he saw Veese go down.

"May…help me," he pleaded with a wince.

Rukelion was the closest to him, as planned. He had to be close in order to make the magic work properly. Also to finish him off if this exact scenario ended up happening. No one else was within several hundred yards of them and wouldn't be able to properly see or hear what was going on.

He slashed his opponent across the chest so he went down before looking as though he was inspecting Veese's wounds. That wasn't what was happening at all and a wicked smile lit his face. This was going to be deliciously satisfying!

"Help you?" he asked innocently. "Why should I? Did anyone help the Katalyans you killed indiscriminately without mercy?"

Despite his pain, Veese looked confused. He struggled to get the words out around his coughs. "What are you talking about? Stop…stop messing around and get me to a medic. That's an o-order."

"A prince of Katalya would never follow the orders of Mirean scum like you," Rukelion said with the first hint of anger coming through as he pretended to check the lieutenant's injuries. "Unfortunately, I've had to do that quite a lot to achieve my goal of wiping out each and every one of you the same way you did to my people. I'm sure they'll forgive me for temporarily setting aside my pride."

Fear shone in Veese's eyes for the first time. He was beginning to take Rukelion seriously. "That's…not possible. I was there. I saw the bodies. Every member of the Katalyan royal family is dead."

With an evil grin, he lifted his eye patch since no one else was watching. The fighting had conveniently spread elsewhere so the two of them were essentially alone.

"Surprise! I do hope you enjoyed the sweaty palm trick. That was my doing. Fire magic has so many more uses than people think. And now that we're alone, I'm going to finish you off. You should be honored to be the first Mirean to die for my long-awaited revenge," Rukelion said with a slightly unhinged laugh.

Now Veese was terrified to the point of trying to bargain for his life. "Hey…May…none of that was personal! I was only doing my job. I'm sorry!"

"My name isn't May. It's Rukelion Blaze and I'm only doing mine as the sole survivor of your country's brutal slaughter. And for the record, Veese, it was very personal to me. I wish I could impale each and every one of you on a spike the way I watched my mother, brothers, and little sister die but since that isn't my specialty, I'm afraid this will have to do."

He put a hand on Veese's chest and superheated it so that his organs would shut down. He looked completely horrified the entire time, pleading feebly, until his eyes dimmed showing that he was dead.

Rukelion stood back and admired his handiwork. No visible scorch marks and he was covered in blood. Anyone would assume he had died from his injuries.

One down, who knows how many to go. He put his eye patch down, grabbed his sword, and ran off in search of further opponents.