“Well, someone looks over the moon,” says my father as I enter our room in the barracks of the base of the Knights of the Old Way, “I’m guessing by your dumb yet happy expression you didn’t find GIA, but Melissa had finally gotten around to doing what you should have a long time ago.”

I know my father just talked to me, but I can’t keep my mind off of what just happened. I confessed my feelings for Melissa, and she felt the same way about me. I’ve never felt this happy, and I just want to return to her side. I collapse upon my bed and stare at the ceiling in blissful glee imagining the stars that smiled upon me this night.

“Earth to Reuben, I’m talking to you boy,” says my father who pulls his bedside table, and its feet shriek against the metal floors. My ears feel like they are bleeding, and I snap back to reality.

“Sorry, I was just a little lost in thought,” I say rubbing my ears but the dumb smile that my father noted wouldn’t wipe itself from my face.

My father gives a hearty laugh looking at me and says, “So, how was your moonlit rendezvous. Melissa has been planning this for months, and finally gathered the courage to confess her feelings when she became a squire for Master Ophelia. So, tell me was it like a confession you find in a Shōjo manga, as that girl has been reading a lot of those recently. Oh, tell me, did she slip into the ancient tongue of Japanese and say jitsu wa, Reu, ga suki desu?”

“You’re full of it this evening, and it sounds like you’ve been the one reading too much manga recently, not her,” I say tossing a pillow at my father, and his face briefly glazes over, and a bright flash of light fills the room. The pillow splits in two and collides with the wall behind my father not even touching him. Each half of the pillow smolders and appears ready to ignite into flames, as though it was touched by a plasma dagger for less than a second, that second was enough to cut it and light the pillow on fire.

“Shit! go grab the emergency pitcher,” says my father tossing the sliced smoking pillow halves on the floor, while I grab the emergency pitcher filled to the brim with water and thoroughly douse the pillow on the ground to stop it from triggering the fire alarm. I don’t think our fire brigade would appreciate another false alarm, especially another one made by my father and me.

“Aranaz the Lightning Spear Knight strikes again,” I say looking at my mutilated pillow on the ground. Looks like the extra food ticket I’ll be earning for going beyond the call of duty will be used to buy a new pillow instead. The thought of a wasted opportunity to get extra food makes me audibly groan in disappointment.

My father shakes his head and tosses me his pillow from his bed, and I catch it as he says, “When will you learn to not throw things at me. I’m always armed, and I don’t spook, I punch. Anyway, keep that pillow, I’ll buy a new one for myself, and let’s get back to the good stuff.”

“What do you want me to tell you, we went to our favorite spot and just started talking. And no… no Japanese was spoken by either of us,” I say, and the shock of the smoldering pillow dissipates and I remember that my father told me that Melissa was going to confess to me and I continue, “also, I confessed to her not the other way around.”

“Well damn, the manga I’ve been drawing that has lightly used you and Melissa as inspiration for a ‘will they won’t they’ romance plot needs a significant revision then. Mildred even bet me three meal tickets that you would finally grow a pair, and I put my tickets on the girl. Ah well, selling the next chapter of Kiss Knight Kiss should cover my messed-up gamble,” sighs my father and he slams a fist into his side desk, but just as quickly he whips a pen out of his desk and writes a note to himself.

I had never known that my father’s romance comic was based on Melissa and me, and I honestly read his stuff religiously. I was desperate to know if the main leads would ever get together and though I want to feel a certain level of anger, a part of me is also relieved that I know that the next chapter of my father’s comic finally reveals that the couple I’ve been rooting for to get together for years actually do get together in the end. Then again, I also feel a little stupid that I never connected that the manga my father was writing used Melissa and I as a reference. Now that I think about it, the fact that the main character’s best friend magically transformed into a cat because of a run in with a necromancer was written as a plot point into the story about a year ago should have tipped me off that maybe the protagonists weren’t just relatable and familiar but me and my friends.

“How many people know that your comic is based on my friends and I,” I finally muster as I legitimately can’t believe that so many people knew the intimate details of my love life and I didn’t.

“Oh, near the whole base has known about you two for a long time. Honestly the emotional tension between the two of you was so thick and obvious you could nearly cut it with a butter knife sometimes. The fact that you and Melissa didn’t know that you had mutual feelings after so many years of everyone frustratedly screaming in their minds ‘just kiss already’ is honestly maddening. Most people just liked the updates on whether or not you two finally got around to confessing your feelings for each other, and I figured that instead of telling them maybe I could finally become the romance slice of life author like many of the greats before me and maybe get a few extra meal tickets on the side,” says my father flashing me a guilty smile, “I started making the comic as a sort of creative holiday card, but then it got popular. Granted I then started making many creative liberties and there are several story arks in the comic that are complete fabrications and are fictional, and the character Asuka was added to create some romantic tension in down months, but I kind of found myself with many fans and not enough content, and you two just weren’t providing content sometimes. I promise now that you are in the know I’ll let you in on a cut of the meal tickets.”

“You better, I scrounge for those and have to do almost ten times the work just to get any form of extra payment. I swear grand master Meliodas hates me. Other squires can bring in one fragment and get a bonus meal ticket, whereas I can bring in five full books and be told that I need to find five more just to get the same treatment,” I say and my stomach gurgles. I had forgotten to go back to the kitchens to try and pinch a bowl of Tom Kha Gai.

“He’s hard on you because you can take it and are more successful than the efforts of all his knowledge seeker knights combined. Our libraries are becoming more and more expansive thanks to your efforts, and no one else but you has the tools and skill set necessary to collect and repair data. In fact, Meliodas has been in talks with me to finally knight you,” says my father and I can tell he desperately wants to hear more details about the confession as he is literally bouncing in his bed with excitement. I am extremely interested in what he had to say about me finally being knighted, but I also know that he will bull rush into what he is interested in first before I can start asking him questions about what I want to know.

“I told her that we’ve been friends for a long time and that I love her. I kind of went into the confession thinking she had feelings for a guy named Kyle who must be the smith that made her armor and weapons, so I also said that it’s alright if she doesn’t reciprocate my feelings and I’d prefer to stay in her life as a friend if she didn’t feel the same way about me,” I say quickly and I see my father jot down a few notes and cringe a little hearing that I may have said the wrong things in parts of my confession.

“Okay, the Kyle stuff, not great, but you did pretty good given this is the first time you confessed your feelings for someone and aren’t a connoisseur of romance slice of life manga like your father. I can definitely work with this, but was there anything else that happened. I mean give me a little of the spicy details, Mildred will probably fill me in, but I’d like to hear this from you first,” says my father with a large smile on his face and I can see him already doodling the characters that I had come to love, and now will probably come to hate.

“Well, she kissed me after I confessed and told me how she felt, and our cores touched which told me that she was going to achieve her dream of becoming a knight and living long enough to reach the people of the arks, and be able to do that with the man she… and then we kissed again but I had an attack which kind of ruined the moment. She did her best to calm me down and called me her knight and I was able to regain control of myself enough to sit with her under the stars until we felt it was getting a little late and neither of us want Mildred to kill me so early into our new relationship,” I say, and my father is no longer taking notes and his eyes are filled with concern.

“Who was it this time that came out? We know of four different personalities that have manifested in the past. Did a new one come out?” says my father getting up from his bed and he walks over to my bed to sit next to me.

“It wasn’t the Gearhead as he only comes out when I’m around the technology of her people. The Gearhead is also kind of passive and just wants to teach me things. The God Complex scientist in me generally likes to rant and rave, and his consciousness isn’t all that powerful or strong, and he’s a lot like the Gearhead as he just wants to pass on his knowledge. In fact, I think those two consciousnesses are friends, as they sometimes refer to each other kindly. Then again, they could be planning something. The Knight is quiet and only really reacts to things when I find a truly impressive literary work. A part of me thinks she acts as an intermediary between me and the other consciousnesses. However, the Knight isn’t perfect, as The Death Syndicate assassin in me, he finds ways to circumnavigate the Knight and that terrifies me. His memories flood me, and I don’t know why. Sometimes I have this extreme attraction to a woman that I do not even know. The assassin is desperate to get back to her, and I used to think that the other people in me were teaming up to control my body, but only the assassin desperately claws at me. He has a death wish he wishes to be fulfilled, and he won’t stop ripping at my mind until he gets it,” I say, and my father rests his arm on my shoulders listening to the plight of my existence.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I was created by the merging of many souls in the form of computer data, and now some of those souls know that they are back in the physical world and wish to return to what they were. I’ve spent years of my life learning what it is to be Reuben, but deep down inside of me are four others, and I’m not entirely sure if they are planning and wanting to get rid of me and claim what I stole from them. Every day is a fight to remain me, but I also have to acknowledge that without the four consciousnesses in my body I wouldn’t have access to knowledge and abilities that any normal Knight of the Order would possess.

“So, which came out? I’m assuming the assassin, as he is the only one that has been successful in the past of manipulating you physically,” says my father and I nod to confirm his quick response.

“He took control of my body and tore me away from Melissa. Memories of the strange woman flooded my mind, and now that I reflect back on my thoughts in that moment, I could only feel guilt and shame. It felt like I was cheating on someone really important to me, like I was cheating on Melissa even though we just barely started our relationship, and she was the woman I was kissing. I was so focused on regaining control, that I couldn’t really process those feelings until now,” I say, and my father leans forward and puts a hand up to his chin.

“You are legitimately the only one of your kind, being a reformed that somehow gained the ability to escape the digital realm. Only your mother would have the knowledge and ability to remove the other consciousnesses from your being, and I can’t come with you to the digital realm as my CRHD core is so badly damaged and fused into my CRHD implant, that the surgery necessary to repair it would definitely kill me. I can only really give you locations where I found your mother in the past, and unfortunately the beach and tower you told me about are nowhere within the public charts of the digital realm held by the Order, or even amongst the places I explored in the digital realm outside of those charts,” says my father and he bites his lip in deep thought, “Unfortunately, another secret needs to be revealed, as I told the grand master to not knight you.”

The excitement I felt assuming that my father was going to tell me that I was going to be knighted is crushed in the darkness of despair and disappointment and I say, “Wait, I was going to be knighted, and you prevented that. I’ve done nothing but serve the order for years and worked hard to deliver hundreds of books to the Order’s archives. Father why did you do this to me!”

My father gets up from my bed, kneels on the ground and places his face to the ground bowing before me before he speaks, “I beg your forgiveness, as you’ve done nothing but proven yourself time and time again, but you have to understand that there is great risk in letting you become a knight. Only knights are given access to the plasma weapons and deepest archives of the order, and we still at this moment don’t know whether the assassin, gearhead, or God Complex scientist will emerge completely. Imagine if that consciousness did fully consume you and you had the powerful armor and weapons of the knights of our order. The assassin could use your body to go on a massive killing spree. Assassins of the Death Syndicate literally worship death and wish to bring death to all those that achieve the immortality of the CRHD implants. Until we can be sure that you will always be in control, and that your consciousness attacks are a thing of the past I cannot with good conscience give my approval for your knighting.”

I haven’t really thought of the danger I pose before. I hold the consciousnesses of three people that pertain to rival and enemy factions inside of me. If any of those consciousnesses did rise up and claim my body the amount of things they’ve seen and know about my people could possibly bring my people to their ruin. Not to mention that they would have a powerful advantage and weapon on their side, as my body could become the perfect camouflage for an infiltration that could legitimately open the flood gates for a faction to use the reconstitution chambers of my order to create an inner assault of our base and home. I know that this has been a fear for a long time, and it is also why there is always a person stationed as a guard at the reconstitution chamber. Though the chamber is protected by permitting only certain users from reconstituting, that isn’t to say if a knight went rogue the settings couldn’t be changed for devastating results.

“I understand, get up you weeb, I don’t need that apologetic bow to know you are only looking out for your people and me as well,” I say, and I get off my bed to lift my father from the ground.

My father has tears in his eyes as he rises from the ground, and he quickly wipes them from his eyes before saying, “I haven’t really been a good father to you this evening, especially with my getting in the way of your knighthood and well the comic that probably went too far for its own good. However, I have a gift that should make up for my failings tonight, and though it pains me to give you this information as again it carries a massive amount of risk given your current condition of split being, I will tell you about a secret from the deepest archives of our order.”

“What is it, and will it help me?” I ask, desperate to hear my father’s words.

My father nods and says, “Your mother may be the only entity that can help you and rid you of the other consciousnesses housed in your core. I know we’ve searched high and low for her in the digital realm, but maybe there is a part of the realm that we haven’t been able to reach because it’s not public. I think I may have found the location of the legendary server room that houses and protects the entire digital realm and maintains it as a neutral ground for all mankind. I’ve also discovered the name of the central program and artificial intelligence that acts as the digital realm’s protector and mechanic. She is called the Global Interface Amalgamate, or as we know her GIA. It could be possible that there are parts of the digital realm that are private or user restricted much like reconstitution chambers can be set to restrict and give access to specific people, but if you were to use an administrator terminal, maybe you could find the place you remember when your consciousness was born.”

My father removes a piece of paper from the vest he is wearing and unfolds it to reveal a picture of a tower with several antennae jutting out of it. Embracing this tower is a feminine figure that has large, outstretched wings, and I mouth the word ‘mom.’ My father, recognizing the word that I had said nods and says, “yes, GIA is the main program that holds the entire digital realm together and is a magnificent artificial intelligence. In fact, she had me convinced that she was a human and one of the few Normies that use CRHDs and the digital realm. We fell in love, and I eventually learned who she was, but my CRHD was damaged, and I couldn’t go and see her anymore, and eventually you came along. I still can’t believe that she wants to be freed of the digital realm just to see me again.”

“I’ll go and free her for the both of us,” I say putting a hand on my father’s shoulder, “I can’t continue living my life with other people stuck inside me, and you and mom should be able to see the person they love again. I don’t want to live my life feeling the feelings of someone else when I’m with the person I love, and potentially be a danger to her and all of the people here that are my dear family and friends. Tell me where to find this server room, and I’ll go and find mom.”

“That’s the problem, the server room is locked and located at the very corner of the border that the Order shares with the Death Syndicate, Gearheads, and God Complex factions. On top of that, each faction bears what is considered to be a sacred artifact that once combined to make the master key to enter the server room,” explains my father and he reaches under his bed and collects a small box which he opens. A cylindrical device looking like a core of a CRHD lies inside the box and engraved on its personality coin is nearly the exact mirrored image of my own coin. Except the human figure is feminine and the binary reads, ‘child of data and flesh, I await you.’

“So, to find mom, and fix myself, I’ll need to steal every one of the sacred artifacts of each faction, and then travel to Everest to find the server room,” I say and my father nods, “After that, I’ll be knighted, and can live with my love for the rest of my days in peace.”

“Sounds like you understand the quest you will have to embark on to find GIA, to save her and yourself,” says my father and as he finishes that statement the door of our room opens, and I see Neil and Melissa standing in the doorway. In Melissa’s hands she holds a bowl of soup, and Neil’s mouth is agape.

“My mother told me to take this soup to you Reuben and told me to collect some meal tickets from your father. Something about losing a bet, anyway, ummm… goodnight,” says Melissa, quickly walking into my and my father’s room and dropping off the soup on my bedside table and she takes a few steps to exit the room but stops, “we heard everything, and if you need any help, I will do all I can to help you save your mom and help fix your core. I know that we just started our relationship, but don’t feel guilty about your attacks. You can’t help them. I know that you are in there and wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. I lov…”

Melissa turns around and blushes and Neil regaining his composure walks in the room and says, “alright enough with the lovey dovey stuff. She loves nya, and I could say the same except not in a romantic way. I mean I love nya, but not like that. I know your journey will take nya to dangerous places and having an apex mountain cat on meowr side should even the odds when things get desperate. I’m with nya brother till the very end.”

“Thanks, as I’m going to need as much help as I can get to gather the key, and free my mom,” I say smiling knowing that I’m not alone in my journey ahead.