[The night of the Banquet, after Claire had overtaken the world as the Queen of Evil]
On this night, Claire found herself lying in bed.
As she closed her eyes, her vision became black.
Claire drifted into sleep after the long day.
And what a long day it was.
She had taken over the entire world on this day.
She had defeated the man who slaughtered her, ensuring that he would not be able to hold the power within this world which he desired.
Did Claire do what was right?
Did she help people by killing this man, or had her own actions created more suffering than what he would have created, should she have lost?
She did not know herself.
But she knew one thing.
That man did not deserve to live.
Not in the previous world.
Not in this world.
Not in any world.
And if she were given the choice to redo it all over again, she wouldn't change a thing.
Even if it meant becoming a demon, a monster, an overlord, or a dictator, it didn't matter.
That man should not live.
He was the epitome of human deception.
He was able to string everyone around him along, convincing them to follow him using his good looks and high status alone.
Combined with his abilities, which he used to continuously deceive people, he was a force who needed to be eradicated.
Claire held regrets for what she had done to the people of this world, but in the end, she believed that this was for the best.
By killing each and every person within this world, she had built a world where everyone was united through suffering and terror.
She would be able to enforce her own laws as she pleased, and mold the world into exactly what she wanted it to be without restraint.
Therefore, as evil as her methods were, Claire came to terms with herself and fell asleep.
However, the night soon passed, and Claire found herself opening her eyes as the light of the day peeked into her eyelids.
'The..... light of the day?'
It was as she was groggy, in a daze and slowly waking up, that she heard the voices.
"My.... the poor thing....."
"How kind of you to stay by her side all this time. To find a girl on the side of the road in this condition, and with her parents nowhere in sight...."
"Truly this is horrendous...."
'Hm? Those voices.....'
Claire found herself opening her eyes to see that she was in an unfamiliar location.
A hospital bed.
'Huh?'
Opening her eyes wide and blinking multiple times, Claire found herself looking around to see three people within the room, talking to one another as they looked to her in surprise.
"OH!! She's finally awake!!"
A man who was likely a doctor looked over to Claire with a bright smile, at which a nurse headed over to the girl.
Claire looked down to see that she was completely wrapped in tubes, her entire body covered in bandages.
There was a respirator in her mouth, and all sorts of equipment tied to her in order to keep the girl alive.
Furthermore, Claire had the body of a young girl.
'Is this..... Earth!?'
"It's alright, little girl. Everything is going to be alright. You've done well. You've made it past the worst of it, so just rest for now. You'll have to use a wheelchair to get around, but you'll survive. We're currently trying to find your parents, so please don't worry about a thing. Ok? Ah, and don't move around too much. You might hurt yourself if you do so."
The nurse spoke quickly and overloaded the girl with information, yet she spoke with a kind tone. Surely it would have been reassuring, in a normal scenario.
Except, it wasn't for two reasons.
The first- Claire had returned to her real body on Earth.
The woman spoke to her as if she was a child, but Claire was not a child anymore.
She had lived 10 years of her life within what she thought was a simulation, and then another few months before rising to the position of demon lord.
Claire was no longer a mere child as those around her would think she was.
'This.....'
However, this was not the reason why Claire was so unsettled.
Sitting in a seat across the room from Claire was a man.
His blonde hair swayed as he looked over to the girl with a smile, sitting peacefully with his hands folded.
As soon as she saw this man, the eyes of Claire went wide.
'That... man...'
"Ah, this person is the one who brought you here. Such a kind man. He found you in such a horrible state and said he couldn't just overlook the situation. It's because of him that you are still alive."
As the nurse said this, a screw was undone within the mind of Claire.
'Took..... me here?'
Claire begun to laugh to herself, the respirator falling from her mouth.
"Heh..... heh heh heh.... heh...hahaha....."
"H-hey... are you alright? Ah.... perhaps you should rest more."
"Doctor, could I be left alone with the girl?", the blonde man asked.
"Ah..... I suppose that should be fine. Please call us if anything changes with her condition."
"Of course."
"Then, please rest, young woman. We will do everything to nurture you back to health, so don't do anything rash such as trying to get up."
With this, the doctor and the nurse left the room, closing the door and leaving the two alone.
"You..... haha..... let me confirm something. You're the one who ran me over, right?"
Claire spoke with demented tone, looking to Oscar with pure malice in her eyes.
The man looked at her with surprise, however he stood up, bringing the chair he sat in over to the girl and placing it so that he could sit right at the bedside.
"I'm surprised you remember that. After all, they said you likely would be in a daze and would have at least some memory loss. But since you know that much, let me tell you something, girl."
Leaning in to look Claire right in the eyes mere inches away from her face, Oscar flashed a wicked grin.
"If you try and pin me as the cause of your injuries, I'll have you sued for libel. I know a lot of people who are very powerful, and with the snap of my fingers I could have your parents thrown in jail for neglect or brainwashing of their child. So if you understand what is best for you, then you'll be a good little gi-"
It was as Oscar said this that Claire reached into her body, pulling out a tube with a large needle at the end, causing blood to begin to spray everywhere.
And then, using this needle, the young girl thrust her arm forward, stabbing it into the throat of the man and slicing his neck wide open.
"AGH!!!!!!"
The man fell to the ground, blood spraying all over the young girl as his artery was severed.
"Urgh..... blur..... umm..."
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The man began to choke on his own blood, drowning out his screams as he died after that single outburst.
Covered in blood, Claire looked onto the man with a bored expression.
"No matter what world I'm in..... you really are a pest.", Claire whispered.
Falling back into her bed, Claire closed her eyes.
She then heard the rushed footsteps of the doctors as they approached the room.
"What was that scream!?"
"We should go check it out!!!"
The sliding of a door was heard, and the two had entered the room.
However, Claire kept her eyes closed, her vision covered in nothing more than blackness.
'I don't want to see anything else right now.', she thought.
"My goodness!!!"
"What happened here!?!?!?"
"The man..... he's been..... he's been killed....."
The doctor spoke in shock as the nurse let out a screech.
"Who.... how..... could..... could the girl have done this!?"
"She's... covered in blood! The blood of the man!!"
"Wake up!! Did you do this!?"
Claire could felt herself being shaken, but she didn't open her eyes.
'Just ignore it.'
'I don't care what happens to me.'
'If I go to jail for this..... if I have to live the rest of my life as a handicapped murderer.... then so be it.'
However, the sound then died out, and Claire's vision remained black.
"Claire. You just fell asleep."
"Is that so?"
"Yep."
"I see."
The girl sat there in silence for a few moments, however it was then that Clarice spoke up to break the silence.
"Claire. One of those two was a dream."
"One of those two?"
"Yep. Either that reality which you just now experienced..... or everything which you experienced within that world as the Queen of Evil."
"Eh? Is.... is that so? Then..... which one was the dream.... and which one was reality?"
Having come to this realization, Claire felt herself holding her breath as she was once more presented with the very issue she had faced since the time she entered this world.
What did it mean for something to be real?
Was anything she experienced real?
However, Claire then heard her other self let out a light sigh.
"Unfortunately Claire, I don't even know that myself. How will you wake up? In a hospital bed as the worlds youngest murderer, or in a luxurious bed as the Dictator of the world? Haha...."
With a quiet laugh, the voice of Clarice turned to a whisper.
"That much..... is Undetermined."
----
Authors Note:
Hello my readers.
This marks the official end of Volume 18, the Undefined Lecher, and with that, this is the official ending of my series, Undetermined.
Stay tuned however! I have written some short afterstories so as to give a sense of completeness for some of the major characters and plot points.
Even so, this is technically the end of what is considered 'canon'
Canonically, there is no answer.
Which one was real? Was the entire world of Yolenos just a long complicated dream, or was Claire dreaming in the final chapter here? That is something which I will leave up to you as the reader to decide.
Yet when I wrote the after stories, I assumed of course that everything was indeed real and that canonically, Claire went on to live as the ruler of the world. So basically, the afterstories are canon, but only assuming that the 'good ending' is the 'true ending'. Which, canonically, is not necessarily the case.
Now, I have so much to say in this final author's note. So I'm going to write what will probably be half the chapter on it's own.
Undetermined is a series which I have been making for almost 1.5 years now.
I have written daily chapters for this series for a long time now. When I first started this series, I didn't have this ending in mind. I had world domination in mind from the start, but it was not until Volume 7 when I came up with the concept of Clarice when I came up with the final fight and ending to the series.
When I started writing my first series "Mercenary", I wanted to create an 'infinite story that never ended'. And with my first work, this ended in failure.
However, I learned a lot from my first work, and took those lessons into Undetermined as I wrote it.
Even so, at the point in which I started Undetermined, I only had a bit less than 100,000 words of writing experience under my belt, so it was far from perfect.
As a matter of fact, the majority of my real progress as a writer occurred throughout the course of this series.
I learned so much about writing as I continued to write this series, and I would like to believe that the story and my writing got better and better as it progressed.
Now, after 18 volumes, I have finally finished this long long series.
This series is something which was..... very different from other series from the start.
The very fact that my main characters were evil was one tell of this, but I remember those first days creating the personalities of my antiheroes. I thought to myself 'How can I make my main characters as unlikable and likable as possible at the same time?'
The entire purpose of this series was to be different.
It was to explore the depths of experimental writing, telling a story which nobody would ever expect to be told in a way that nobody would ever think could happen.
There are a number of series which inspired my writing in this story, so I suppose I'll go ahead and point them out.
1. Overlord by Mayamura. I love this series, and this was the primary inspiration not only for the plot and many of the aspects, but also for the writing style. A large number of things I did, the narration, the way I described people's emotions and thoughts from a 3rd person perspective, all these things were because I had read overlord and it's particular prose. Of course, the whole "Evil MC who is somewhat justified in his actions because he cares for those close to him but doesn't care about anyone else" trope was taken from this series. Also the arcs where Coran and Berith led a bunch of people into their respective lairs were inspired from the whole 'adventurers invading the tomb of Nazarick' arc.
2. That time I was reincarnated as a slime by Fuse. This series was also a major inspiration for my novel, particularly the whole 'monster vs. human' aspect and the idea of a nation of monsters, and humans who couldn't accept these monsters.
3. Re Zero. This series didn't really inspire me too much until the later parts in the series, but it certainly had it's inspirations. I will say though- I came up with the idea of the 7 hosts before reading this series, so I didn't take that from it. What I was inspired by was the concept of the witch of jealousy, of which I then molded Claire to somewhat resemble, yet with significant differences. In Re zero, the witch of jealousy was just this massive being of selfish evil, whereas while Claire was seen by everyone as essentially what the witch of jealousy was in re zero, she also had a lot more going on within her.
4. Cautious hero. This series partially inspired a number of aspects about Trevor's cautious personality in general.
5. Bleach. I've always loved the concept of the inner demon, and bleach was my real inspiration for this when I created Clarice. I love split personality characters, especially people who have a good side and an evil side. I suppose in this aspect, I was also inspired a bit by 'Evil Iruma'.
6. Bastard and Home Sweet Home. These series, while I can't directly point out which parts they inspired me by, definitely inspired me. The overall bleakness and darkness to both of the series, the seemingly hopeless situation, which drove the main characters to the point of madness, and their ability to finally overcome the challenges in the end... I think that was a major inspiration, especially to Claire's journey but also to some other side characters such as Mackayla and Melody.
That's more or less it as far as my inspiration goes. There might be some other series which I pulled some things from, but that is all which comes to my mind immediately.
Man. There are so many characters which I ended up creating in the course of this series. If we were to total them up, they would probably be over 100, right? And that's not including the characters who were just sorta there without any individual backstory or personality.
So one thing I really do want to talk about, and one thing which I only really truly realized after finishing this series, is the entire message I was trying to make here.
Who is Claire?
Claire is someone who, without doubt, tried her best to help people.
She tried, and tried, and tried.
And she failed, and failed, and failed.
Claire is someone who, no matter how much she did for those around her, was always seen as the villain. While Oscar harmed people he was loved, and while Claire helped people, she was hated. And it was this constant inflow of hatred and fear towards Claire that truly drove Clarice to manifest. And it was for this reason that she embraced her role as a villain.
I love Claire, and I love Clarice. Could I say she is like my daughter? In a sense. She is a character who went through so much, and was broken. Truly, broken, to the point where she was pushed far beyond the edge. And how satisfying it was to see her fall all the way off. Yet she isn't a bad person, or at least not in my book. She is a beloved character, and one who I will never in my life forget.
But what is my actual message here?
Are you one of the people who is villainizing someone who is legitimately trying to do the right thing? Are you one of the people who drives people to the breaking point, claiming that you are right and they are wrong- when in reality, perhaps it is the opposite?
We all should look at ourselves.
Nobody wants to be seen as the villain. Nobody tries to be the villain. But also, nobody makes an effort to see the person who is the villain.
This is my own personal opinion, but it takes an adult to try and see things in the shoes of another person. Anyone can throw blame around, and demonize people who are against them.
It takes a child to scream and cry, but an adult to shut the hell up.
I can't tell you all how many situations I have found myself in where people insult me, and I sit there quietly, not saying a thing, because the moment I open my mouth the entire crowd will freak out on me, calling me a bigot or a demon.
People love being the victims. People love claiming that their lives are difficult, and obtaining sympathy from everyone around them. But often, the real victims are the ones who go unnoticed, or even the ones who are seen as the perpetrators.
A lot of the people in my series were idiots, who we could laugh at how stupid they are as they walked to their deaths.
But the reason why it's so compelling is because there are so many people like that in this world.
All I ask, to the people reading this, is that before you judge someone, call them evil, think of them as a bad person, or whatever, just try to understand their situation. And if they scream and cry, let em scream. Be the bigger man. It's not easy, but if it were then everyone would do it.
Now, I will say the following. Since Undetermined is coming to an end, and because writing has become such a critical piece of my life, my mind is restless.
The closer I got to the ending of the series, the less creativity my brain was allowed, because I had already figured everything out for what was left and didn't want to create any more plotlines.
As a result of this however, my brain has been little by little coming up with my next series "Infected"
At the time of writing this author note, I honestly am still in the very very preliminary stages of creating the concept of this series, so I have no idea what I want to do with it or where I want it to go, but I do have some of the details that I'm playing with- and I know that I'm going to do a zombie apocalypse series. I've always wanted to do something like this, but have had Undetermined to work on so I didn't. As you all should know well by now, I am a writer of dark and truly demented stories. However, perhaps I will write a protagonist who is at least less directly evil for this coming story. I was thinking about doing a story where the mc isn't overpowered. This will..... be interesting. That's for sure.
Furthermore, please look forward to the upcoming webtoon for Undetermined. While it is progressing at an excessively slow pace, and I honestly can't tell you if it will be released in the next year, I am looking forward to it. The artists who are working on it have already shown me some great things, so I can't wait to see my characters really come to life.
As I've been working on the paneling plans for the webtoon, I begin to realize just how different the medium is, and how much stuff I have to actually rearrange and change. Even so, I think that the webtoon will be better than the novel. When I was first writing the novel I was not exactly a great writer, so right now I'm working my hardest to take the best parts of my writing and add in some better stuff, changing stuff around.
The fact of the matter is though, I finished.
I did it.
I finally finished Undetermined.
This is perhaps the greatest achievement of my life. I hope you all enjoyed reading it at least half as much as I enjoyed writing it.
However, with this ending, there is something that hits me.
Because I will stop releasing for this story, the majority of my viewership will decline.
While there will be some various places that people might find my story (Such as those who read the webtoon who are interested in the novel), for the most part it will be hidden away in the corners of these novel sites that I post on.
Therefore, I would like to ask you all two things.
If you've made it this far, then either you're nuts or you enjoyed my story.
Please leave a review!
Be honest in your review, don't try to suck up or whatever. But if you have strong feelings about my story, let people know!
And second, is that if you did enjoy it, then recommend my story to others.
With that being said, I think it's time to end this already. Stay tuned for those afterstories. And thank you. Thank you so much for reading to this point. The fact that I was able to captivate someone to read almost 500 chapters of this story is..... well, it's honestly heart wrenching.
Have a great life, yall.
And remember.
There is no greater evil than he who is seen as righteous.
-Dubstheduke