“Welcome everyone to the final debate before we as citizens of the world will choose our new leader, the President of Rathe,” the moderator for the debate, Vench Closer, began his opening speech. “We’re one week away from the election. As a reminder, every adult is automatically registered for this vote regardless of your nation’s registration standards. If you haven’t already, you can check your polling location anytime by calling our hotline or visiting our website listed at the bottom of the screen.”
“The debate is set to start in the next few minutes between acting Representative of Regend, Gort Hower, and The Fiendish King, Drim Drazah. Rep. Hower has already taken the stage, but there has been no sign of our other contender. All attempts to contact The Fiendish King have gone unanswered and none of his staff have arrived at the premises. In the event that he is late or does not show, the debate will continue in his absence. We will keep you up to date on any information we receive.”
From then on there was silence as the clock counted down to the start of the debate. The right at [800] Gort Hower looked directly into the camera and began with an opening jab. “Citizens of Rathe, thank you for tuning in tonight for what may be the most important debate in the history of our planet. Your time is very valuable, so I don’t want to waste it any further. I plan to show you all the respect you deserve and get to the concise points that you want to hear.”
“My rival candidate, however, does not seem to respect your time. The debate has started, but he’s nowhere to be seen. He’ll either arrive late or not at all. Clearly, he does not value this world's denizens if he can’t show you all the basics of respect. Would you really vote for someone who can’t even dedicate a few hours for you, or believes himself above such things?”
“I’m afraid I must make one correction,” the moderator stepped in, doing his duty. “King Drazah has been in attendance since the moment the debate started.”
“Hmm?” Hower glanced over and then his face wrinkled.
Drim was standing patiently at his podium, waiting for his turn to speak, and for his opponent to finish making a fool of himself. Unlike most of his public appearances, The Fiendish King was actually dressed to impress.
Roque had insisted on having his personal tailor make one for the man. Though most of The Swindler’s outfits made him look like a sleazy salesman, that was by design to fit Roque’s persona, and they were actually of very good quality. When they needed a suit to make even the grungiest looking monster hunter appear presidential, it had been made to perfection.
“I would appreciate it if we could avoid telling as many lies as possible and keep this civil, Representative Hower,” Drim countered, having heard every word the man had said. “Or do you doubt our viewers’ intelligence so much that you believe they can’t see the truth that is directly in front of them?”
It was obvious that the comment got under the man’s skin, but the professional that he was, Hower composed himself instantly before anyone else could catch onto his rattled state. “A well-thought out trick to bait me into shaming myself, and I fell for it. I must concede the first point of this debate to you. Though disruptive antics have always been a core tenet of your group's actions, as I’m sure everyone is well aware. It’s on me, I suppose, for not seeing it coming.”
“Actually, a ‘trick’ might not be the correct verbiage. You employed an ability that the rest of us in the world must suffer without. It must be convenient having a sister that can teleport you anywhere in the world instantaneously. It’s a power that I must admit I’m envious of.”
“However, such an ability is exceedingly dangerous. What is to stop her from intruding on anyone’s home at any point in time? Dear citizens, she could be right over your shoulder as we speak, and you’d be none the wiser. Can the wielder of such an ability or someone with familial ties to it ever be trusted with such a level of authority? You may have your country to rule, Drim Drazah, but why should the people put their faith in someone who can’t be held accountable?”
“I’d say we’ve already answered your question,” Drim stood firm against the accusations. “You need only look back at the years of our work. The Fiends For Hire have been at the front and center of public attention and scrutiny and yet… public opinion on Fiends in general is considered highly favorable at this point, largely in part to our efforts to organize Fiends and delegate them where they can best serve communities worldwide.”
“But if you want to make this discussion Fiend centric, I’d be happy to oblige. Though I fear we’d be treading the same talking points that the world has heard countless times over. I would be thrilled to get into some underrepresented specifics however. Such as several direct quotes from you about the usefulness and merits of Fiends, as well as a list of times that you have employed or contracted Fiends both as a government official and for your own personal interests.”
“No, you’re right,” Hower immediately deflected. “I still standby my comments that Fiends can make meaningful contributions to society as long as they are properly utilized and well-regulated. And the Central Peace has made breakthroughs on regulation this year, might I add. But there are more important issues plaguing the daily lives of everyday citizens.”
“Unemployment rates, taxation, access to benefits, these are what our constituents care most about, something you may have not dealt with too much during your own political stint. I’d love to hear your stances on these issues, Fiendish King, but first I believe we should discuss another major issue, and that is crime rates.”
“Now I’m sure you have a well-rehearsed spiel about how you plan to reduce crime. I wouldn’t even deny that it could be well-thought out with potential. However, when it comes to this matter, and frankly most others, what good is your word? Since you, Drim Drazah, even with your record frozen as a monarch, to this date you hold the highest criminal score in the entire world. Could we as law abiding denizens really trust someone with such flagrant disregard for law and order?”
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Drim took a deep breath to calm himself before rebutting. It admittedly did still sting a bit when he was so flagrantly reminded how much of the world still saw him—a heinous criminal. But he had expected the topic to come up and was well prepared.
“You’re right, by certain standards, I am a criminal that should have been arrested and imprisoned long ago. But those laws were written in a world before Fiends and the supernatural. They can’t possibly account for how much life and society has changed in just the span of a few decades, and I’d argue it is the failure of the Central Peace and other forms of government to adapt to the new world order—trying to suppress it instead.”
“And honestly, no matter how you look at it, my score has been hyperinflated by those whose own self-interests it serves to do so. The rules and regulations for applying score and charging crimes have had so many exceptions applied to it, specifically for myself and other Fiends, that you may as well just make up whatever number you like and give it to me.”
“Frankly, my score is just funny now, and I’m honestly kind of saddened that it’s been frozen, because it means the joke has died along with it. Fiends have really shown the errors with the criminal score system, haven't they? Because honestly, a bigger score becomes more of a deterrent than a prize. No sane bounty hunter would ever come after us, and the bigger the number gets, the more untouchable we become. What started as an annoyance has become a safety net.”
“That doesn’t mean, however, that the system is pointless. Crime is still a problem and should be treated as such. But not everything tacked to my record as a crime would be considered one by most, because they were rather shortcuts in expediting progress.”
“Take the banks for example. Robbing every bank in the world still makes up a good chunk of my criminal score—though by the rules of the scoring system, it should only be a few hundred points since it was all the same incident. Yet an exception was made and the numbers were piled on.”
“But realistically… was anyone actually robbed? Both the banks and citizens were left with the exact same amount of money in the new system as they had before that day. The only people who might have found their accounts or money missing were those that had no legal owner to claim them, be it business or individual. We’ve actually held onto the money from all those accounts but no one has stepped forward. I wonder why?”
“So would you actually call what we did at those banks a crime? The economy worldwide has grown since the introduction of this new unified currency, not to mention the boom in purchasing because of ease of access. And since we charge a massively decreased interest rate, debt is down globally. Money is also far more secure. People are still falling for a few scams, but cases of fraud are down 98.3% compared to the year before Common Cards were introduced.”
“I personally don’t care if such pointless words and numbers are ever stricken from my record. What matters is public perception, and I’d say that most would see my alleged ‘crimes’ as justified. You’re welcome to name anything on my rap sheet and I will provide to you my reasoning. And we’ll see if I’m still the worst criminal in the world.”
“There is one I’d like to hear your reasoning for, yes,” Gort Hower insisted. “And that’s murder! No one can fault you for the murder of your mother. As a child, you were ignorant, and her death was beneficial to many. But as civilized adults, you, Drim Drazah, seem to resort to brutality far too swiftly. At the beginning of this year, at your very first debate, you killed one of your political rivals right there on the stage.”
“And he deserved it,” Drim doubled down. “As you’re aware, it’s perfectly legal to kill someone with a criminal score above a certain threshold, even if that score is applied posthumously. And with the many atrocities he’d committed, his score put him well into the top 100 worst actual criminals of all time. Such a terrible person needed to be stopped immediately, before he could hurt anyone else, and that happened to be the first opportunity we had to do so.”
“I do apologize for anyone who might have been uncomfortable witnessing the act. We tried to make it happen the least gruesome way possible, even well below the barbary of modern public executions. However, we wanted the people to know what had happened, so they wouldn’t have any doubts or conspiracies compared to if we had teleported him away. So yes, I would say that is my rationale for that particular murder. We were stopping a criminal.”
Hower then calmly replied, with almost a joking intonation, “Should I take to mean that I’m safe up here with you?”
“Of course,” the king replied immediately, not wanting to leave any room for doubt. “Unless you’ve done something wrong that you want to share.”
“Don’t be a fool,” the Rep scoffed at the idea. “I’m proud of my clean record. The only criminal score of mine you’ll find is a parking fine for many years ago. I was in the wrong, so I paid it happily. But that still doesn’t mean you’re free from scrutiny. There may be warranted killings in your history, but the notches on your belt are too numerous to count. For example… Bastion.”
“You are credited with the most murders of any other combatant during that altercation. And now militaries world-wide have been crippled by your hand. So many families lost their sons and daughters, lives that can never be replaced. How do you justify that?”
For a second, Drim really thought he might lose his cool and actually rescind his promise, wanting to kill the monstrous man on the spot for his treacherous, hypocritical words. But he swallowed it all down and declared, “We were at war, sir! Just because your country was on the other side of it doesn’t mean you get to call it murder.”
“My duty was to protect the citizens of Bastion from unprompted, unprovoked, and irrational slaughter. Had my group not intervened, their nation would have been irrevocably destroyed, all for the sake of greed. It wasn’t me or any of the other members of the Fiends For Hire that sent those troops to their death, that blame lies solely on the politicians who ordered their deployment. By the rules of war, any soldier’s life is forfeit the moment they step on the battlefield. We should be thankful so many eventually came to their senses and retreated before it was a complete massacre.”
There was a bit of silence after Drim’s response with Hower desperately trying to come up with an appropriate response. But the man was saved by the moderator who intervened. “I’d take this pause to get things back on track. While we like to encourage freeform discussion between the candidates, there are a few burning questions the voters would like to hear you answer. Let’s begin.”