How much energy did she use just so I wouldn’t hear whatever Charlotte was about to tell me? She just teleported outside of the city. How did I know that? Because I could very easily see that the city wasn’t crumbling right now. Well… I guess I did have some alone time after all. It wouldn’t be quiet alone time, since the city was celebrating Earth’s newly found freedom, but it would be alone time nonetheless.

To be honest, I didn’t really feel the worst parts of the King’s rule. I was part of the lucky adventurers who made enough money to live comfortably after the very beginning, so even if I wasn’t enslaved, I wouldn’t have had any reason to celebrate. I wouldn’t fit into the crowds, so–

“Comrade! Why’re you so lonely? Don’t you have anyone to talk with?” I guess I’ll be forced to anyway.

“How fucking dare you!” I launched another hundred beams of light at Charlotte, who was dodging and blocking all my attacks. She DARED to not only interrupt an argument I was about to have with Mariel, but tell him about how poor I was in my first life?!

“What? Can’t you handle people knowing the truth? Or are you bitchy about knowing that I could’ve won him over without enslaving him.” THAT WAS BULLSHIT! I used yet more energy to pull pillars of earth from beneath her feet to make her trip before I’d rain them down upon her, but she just rode them to– Oh, shit, she was flying towards me! I teleported away the moment she swung at me and used telepathy to grab the pillar again. She’d hopefully land on it, and then be slammed into the ground when I turned the pillar upside down with enough momentum to level a city. She just… stopped it with her palm. Sure, the pillar fractured into a thousand little bits, but that’s to her advantage. She grabbed a handful of chunks, and threw them in the air increasingly closer to me before jumping from rock to rock to get to me.

“Get the fuck down!” I launched a beam at her line of rocks before noticing the strain all this magic use was taking on my body. That teleportation was already a little much, but following that up with a battle against Charlotte? I would die from exhaustion any minute now. “And calm down too. I’m done here.” I floated down, landing as graciously as my body would allow me to considering the circumstance, and stared at her with utter contempt, letting my emotions unconsciously scrunch up my face.

“You were the one who attacked me, but if you need to blame me for you to stop attacking me, you do you. Let’s get to a proper discussion, shall we?” How could she smile so smugly? “Why did you teleport me out here?”

“Because you were about to–”

“Tell him that you were poor? That you only got rich through luck, and that you messed up again and again even in a kingdom that supported and propped you up? Or maybe you want me to tell him that your last two thousand ‘companions’ ended up resisting you until they were nothing but a pile of ash? I’m sure he’ll get emboldened by knowing you’re so bad at breaking people that you failed that many times.”

“Yea! Exactly that! You would’ve ruined my relationship with him out of nothing but spite!” She laughed. Charlotte dared to laugh.

“Why would that ruin your relationship? Because you’re a hypocrite? Someone who kicked the ladder out after they climbed it?” She stopped snickering between every word, getting somewhat more serious despite keeping that annoyingly smug smile. “Oh, don’t tell me, you’re actually trying to earn this one? Ha… HAHAHA!” She kept laughing even harder than ever before. “You’re even red!” She crouched down, wrapping one of her hands around her belly. What was I even meant to say at this point? I couldn’t defend myself right now.

“Breaking people doesn’t work. I finally realised that. We aren’t products of our past, just our place on the hierarchy, and since my place is up, I must always become more and more righteous with time.” She stopped laughing… again, and moved right in front of me in a blink of the eye before patting me on the head. “Do you want to reincarnate right now?”

“Nope. Just comforting you. You must need it after using that justification to cope.” She was taking advantage of me barely having any energy, especially when compared to her. I would lose the fight against her, so as much as I hated this, it was ‘merciful’ compared to the worst case scenario. Bleh. “Well, I don’t support it. You’ll burn through another two thousand people before realising I will never allow you to feel any comfort in relationships. You are too terrible for any world, and deserve everything that will come for you.”

“Another beer! Come on!” Every tavern was filled to the brim, and I was now crammed inside one talking to people who I met just today. Two of which were communist revolutionaries who didn’t even know who I was pre-apocalypse, which was good. I didn’t want them to remember me after this, since I would most likely appear as a part of the church services.

“Slow down you freak. They’re opening as many kegs as they can find.” The group consisted of: this relatively muscular guy who looked incredibly out of place amongst the beret wearing populace, who was called Stephan, the big, cheerful drunkard who found me alone, and was called Bogdan, and a woman around my age, who looked utterly miserable thanks to her messy hair and deeply sunken eyes, yet so happy thanks to her mannerisms and smile, who was called Maria.

Stolen novel; please report.

“They’re not doing it fast enough then!” I leaned forwards to put my elbow on the round table we were sitting around, already getting a headache from the fifty conversations taking place around me. “How are they going to leave me thirsty on freedom day? Do they expect me to drink water?” I chuckled a bit at that. “See! He gets it. What was your name again, friend?”

“Mariel.” It was the third time I had to say it. I mean, what could I possibly expect from a drunkard? At least he was a happy drunkard. That vice tended to make people more depressed than anything. “Just go up and fill your glass up yourself. I’m sure you can squeeze through the crowd.”

“Ouch.” Maria said in advance, and Bogdan just threw his hands in the air theatrically.

“I mean, he believes in me.” He pointed at me with a pointed palm and straight arm. “You two behave around him, alright?” He smiled and stood up with his bottle. Leaving for the lines.

“Well, what now, Maria? I heard one of the King’s brigade has managed to stake their claim to Germany, oh, and France has fallen to those utopianist weirdos. The continent is going at war any second now, and Poland’s probably going to be the spark, I’m telling you.” Of course. History does not go in cycles, but it sure does rhyme.

“Do we really have to worry about that right now? Why don’t you think of something other than constant negativity? You should take a break from politics, like, Jesus Christ.” Maria put her hand on her forehead. “I’m getting a headache.”

“You don’t look like you’ve gotten a lot of sleep.” I said, before she looked at me, dead faced.

“Really now? And is the sky blue? Maybe you’ll enlighten us on grass being green?” Now that was just rude for no reason.

“And you said he’s fixated on constant negativity.” She leaned back, looking annoyed. “Why’re you even here? If you’re tired, you should be at home.”

“I am tired, but I’m always tired. It’s gonna be fine. I just need another drink.” Was she stupid?

“Are you stupid?” Said Stephan, in my stead. “That’ll only make it worse.”

“It’ll make the real pain worse, but the spiritual pain better.” Oh fuck this, you’re not depressed, you’re just messy.

“Pull yourself out of this stupor. You’ll only make everything worse if you resign yourself to temporary fixes on your mood. You gotta fix the deeper issue.” She sighed, then slumped and rested on the palm of her hand.

“Easier said than done. Like, yea, no shit. What even is that ‘deeper issue’? My genes being stupid and making me depressed?” Was she really blaming it on that?

“No. It’s your bad habits, like not sleeping and trying to drink yourself out of stupid situations. Think about it. After the drunkenness wears off, you’ll still be in this shitty world, but worse, because you’d have an even bigger headache now.” She groaned at my words, clearly uncomfortable with the thought of giving up her precious, precious alcohol. Temporary distractions were like chains upon people, only dragging them further down.

“Oh my god, just let me have my fucking break.” She rolled her head backwards, sick of me already. “Everyone does it. Why can’t I?”

“If everyone ate shit everyday would you also partake?” She blinked over and over again, before rubbing her forehead.

“You’re making it worse. FINE, I won’t drink today, now talk about sports or whatever the fuck men do.” I… Alright, she got me on that.

“I barely know anything about that stuff.” Are you kidding me Stephan? Did I have nobody to talk with about actually important stuff? I have stupid shit like the freedom of the whole world and what people will want to do after this. Bleh, so boring.

“Seriously? Fine then. What the fuck do you two even talk about all day? The weather?” Stephan shook his head while chuckling a little, but Maria was in the least bit amused.

“No. Global geo-politics is more Stephans thing. I don’t know jack shit about that so end up talking to him about cooking for eight hours while he waits his turn to stammer out two sentences on how my dish was probably linked to a chef who served a really boring incestious European royal bloodline.” That was too specific to not be true.