Chapter 79

The Gravity of a Choice

Asher yawned as he stood up from the bed, stretching lazily.

It had been some twelve hours since his outburst in the hall, and there were no visitors yet. There wasn't a punishment either, nor much of anything else, really. He found out that he could go to the Plaza but after simply confirming that he could, he went to sleep, shaking off the stench of month-long isolation.

Following a quick workout session, he sat down to eat a meal when it happened: he spotted Qyne on the barrel right beside him. She was sitting at the edge, her legs flung over, a strange expression on her face. It was a combination of a smile, anger, gratitude, and shame--a concoction not-so-rarely seen, at least for Asher.

He reached over for a cup and poured himself some mead, waiting in silence for her to speak.

“... you almost caused a civil war,” she eventually said.

“Almost? Damn. Must be losing my touch,” Asher replied.

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“I’m not.”

“You’ve signed your end, you know?” she said. “The entire Empire’s now dedicated to killing you, and they will stop at nothing.”

“Sounds about right.”

“You think some limitations are going to keep you safe?”

“Yeah, ‘cause, you know, I was feeling very safe beforehand,” Asher said. “Who was it that entangled herself with a Stage and tried to kill me? Oh, right.”

“That was child’s play compared to what they will do to you now.”

“Then they will simply accelerate me to whatever my end is to be,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Either I die, meaning I was never going to become anything anyway... or I survive, and become whatever I was going to become that much sooner.”

“You don’t get it,” Qyne said. “Remember when you fought Wael? The Void Witch? How close you were to dying?”

“...”

“That will be it. Every Stage. Every battle. Not just the bosses--even ordinary foes. Every step will be a struggle.”

“You’re awfully nice to me,” Asher said. “Your mommy took you back?”

“No,” she said. “But she’s been... compensated. Quite a bit.”

“Right.”

"You smeared the Noble Maiden's honor," she went on. "And did so with cruel apathy. You have displayed her shame in front of the entire Empire. And instead of bowing down, you went ahead and did the exact same thing to the Emperor. It has now become a blood feud that cannot be forgiven nor forgotten."

“Now?” Asher grunted, glancing at her coldly. “So, it wasn’t a blood feud when he dragged my ass into this world and told me to kill to survive?”

“Did you ever consider that you had a blood feud with ants?” she quizzed.

“Ah, right,” Asher laughed momentarily. “There’s a massive difference here, however.”

“Yeah?”

“At no point in the history of mankind has there ever been a threat of civil war because of fucking ants.”

“...”

“Besides, I think you are misunderstanding something,” Asher added.

“What?”

“You’ve watched me all this while--do you think I’m the sort to just throw a tantrum because somebody insulted me?”

“...” Qyne didn’t say anything, though the look in her eyes said enough.

“From the onset, I knew that the Emperor’s position was unstable--otherwise, he would not have needed to put on that show with the Duke. This told me that his reign is young and questioned. Secondly, the fact that it took a fucking month for him to either convince or bribe enough people to serve me that ‘punishment’ meant that his influence over the Empire, especially its most important traditions, was minimal.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“--you think others, those who are against the Emperor, might support you?”

“No, not that,” Asher said. “I’m not dumb enough to think that the racists of your world will take me over their Emperor, no matter how much they dislike him.”

“Then what?”

“Hm,” Asher grinned strangely as he looked at her. “This can be your homework. You failed your first assignment--the little play with the Duke and the Emperor. It’s your chance to redeem yourself. So, Qyne, the remarkably moronic Princess of the fairies... why did I shine the light so bright on me that I became the flame all the moths will be drawn to?”

“Moronic Princess?” her eyebrows twitched.

“Remarkably moronic.”

“You’ve loosened quite a lot,” she said.

“I’ve learned quite a lot,” he replied. “And when I get comfortable... I get kinda sassy, I learned. Hannah hated that about me. Told me it’d be what would kill me eventually.”

“She’s right.”

“And yet, here I stand.”

“Yes... but for how long?”

“Who knows? We’ll see.”

Qyne vanished, and Asher went for a quick ‘shower’ before reappearing in the plaza. There were more people than previously, though it still topped out below three digits. Glancing to the side, he saw that the smithy was still closed, and thus he headed over to the Tavern. As he suspected, Sarah was there, seated in the corner, jittery.

As soon as she saw him, her distressed gaze blew up like a volcano, rage-suffused. Asher merely smiled as he ordered a tankard of beer and went over, sitting across from her. She looked seconds away from tearing his eyes out of their sockets, and though he was tempted to rile her up, he chose not to.

“Wasn’t my fault.”

“A month!” she exploded.

“Like I said. Wasn’t my fault.”

“Yeah?! And whose fucking fault was it, huh?! You really think you can just fuck with me? You think I’m that easy?!”

“Man, I wish you were. You’re kind of hot.”

“--!!!”

“Alright, alright, calm down. Look, I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t mean to flake out on you. Something happened, and I got locked up in my cabin for a month.”

“... wait, what?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t even leave the place, let alone challenge a Stage.”

“You’re... not lying,” she mumbled, her eyes shining in a strange color for a moment. Before Asher could ask what was that, they returned to their normal hue. “You really were imprisoned for a month.”

“Yup.”

“Why?”

“I guess I pissed off someone with the ability to lock me up.”

“That’s a half-truth.”

“And that’s all you will get.”

“Mysterious.”

“What’s the drawback to that thing?” Asher asked.

“About 80,000,000 Souls per a lie. More if it’s a complex one. That half-truth just now cost me thrice as much.”

“... Jesus Christ.”

“Numbers balloon quickly, Ash. Well, for most people,” she added, getting up slowly. “You’re free now, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Does that mean that our deal still stands?”

“Can’t I finish my beer first? And don’t I get an hour to shit on you?”

“Not today,” she said. “I didn’t quite understand why there was something happening beyond the scope of the city, but now I do. Who would have thought, huh?”

“That a rookie can cause such a stir?”

“Whatever you did... it reverberated all the way to here. Good luck with that.”

“Thanks.”

She walked out right after, leaving him alone. He sipped beer in silence and contemplated; when he made the choice to blow it all up, it wasn’t as though he predicted everything. In fact, a lot of it was raw gambling--though he could foresee some of the more surface-level consequences and changes, because of how much knowledge he lacked about the Empire itself, larger-than-life changes eluded him.

Over time, he knew, they would become unveiled. Despite Qyne’s warnings, Asher wasn’t particularly afraid. He learned to take the dance with death in stride: he had to, after all, as it was his life. Nothing has changed here.

The reason he had been cautious and subdued all this while was simply because he was trying to get a grip on this place. Understand the baseline undercurrents.

Truthfully, he still grappled with the decision. Part of him, the part largely responsible for keeping him alive, was displeased; it wanted more time, more room to breathe, more knowledge. The other side of him, the one that kept him employed for all those years, was jubilant. It had waited for its moment in the light for so long and was now reveling in it.

He wondered, silently, what the next Stage would be.

He knew that, from now on, he may as well choose at random since it wouldn’t matter. All Stages would become twisted and contorted beyond their baseline until very few things of them remained. He would be pushed to his limits every time he stepped through those dark doors and hurled himself into another world.

It would be the ultimate challenge, the sort that would take away the choice he never quite made: whether to become a Shepherd or not. Now... now he’d become one or die in the process of being forced.

Ultimately... he feared more the fecundity of hubris than he feared death. A person’s true death was always when they surrendered to the cage of life, rather than when their heart stopped beating.

“Here,” a familiar voice broke him out of his thoughts; something sweet and spicy twisted from beneath his nose, waking up his rumbling stomach from its slumber. Glancing down, he saw four lemongrass meatballs spread about a bowl of white rice. He had them a few times, though it had been a while. “On the house.”

“Really?” he glanced over to the barkeep, frowning. It was the same woman as before... yet, her appearance was ever so slightly different. But he couldn’t quite put a pin on what it was.

“Some folk here get... rowdy,” she cracked a smile. “It’s just my little trick to keep them from blowing up.”

“So, why the free meal? Not that I’m complaining,” Asher asked, taking the wooden spoon and slowly eating.

“You have a lot of catching up to do. Thought you’d need the energy for it.”

“Oh my. I have an admirer.”

“Hm, rather than an admirer... a cheerleader, perhaps?” she said, walking over and sitting opposite of him. “We don’t have pom-poms here, I’m afraid. So...”

“A true cheerleader wouldn’t let the lack of pom-poms stop her.”

“Ah, you saw right through me. Yeah. I’m afraid I wasn’t quite cool enough for the cheerleading squad back in the day.”

“Any advice?”

“Maybe, the next time, don’t piss off the guy in charge of everything?” she smiled rather strangely, prompting Asher to do the same.

“Well. I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t pissing off people in the position of authority. I don’t suppose you’ll tell me how you know that when even Sarah only knew that ‘something’ happened.”

“What fun would that be?”

“True. The need to know everything all at once has ruined the world, I think. No room for mystery.”

“... six Royal Knights will be sacrificed for the next Stage,” she said, standing up. “If you come back alive, I’ll have a roasted duck waiting for you.”

“When I come back," Asher said as she passed by him.

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “When you come back.”