Chapter 14

Be The Other Guy

You are now the other guy, two weeks later. Your name is 2322. A long time ago, you used to be a SOLDIER in the mighty DERSE ARMY. You left behind your home, your friends, and everything you owned for a life of PEACEFUL AGRICULTURE. You are currently standing a distance away from the front of your house, and can see the results of your labor in your field of vision.

The kingdom, in exchange for your promise to grow a certain quantity of food every four days, has granted you a sizeable PLOT OF LAND on which to live and work. To the left, you see your WHEAT PATCH. Its majestic green is split in two to make a path down the middle to your house. To the right, you see your smaller but equally important GOURD FIELD.

The left side of your wheat crop is currently only a day old, but the right side of the crop is two days old. Four days after planting, the beautiful green wheat turns golden-brown and becomes ready for harvesting. In the meantime, it has to be watered and weeded every day.

Your gourd crop is three days old. The gourds are still green, and only about half the size that they'll be when they're fully grown. Gourds have a six-day growth cycle, but they're big and delicious! It's boring to just eat bread all the time! When you first started out, you only grew enough gourds to fill your quota, so you had to eat only bread all the time. You started growing a lot more gourds so that you could eat some yourself.

At the left end of your wheat field, up on a little hill, is your SCARECROW. You tied two poles together to form a cross, and stuck the longer one into the ground. Over top of it, you draped your old purple-and-red UNIFORM. It serves you no other purpose; you now proudly wear your purple VILLEIN ROBES. An EMPTY CAN sits atop the cross, serving as the head of your silent sentry.

As a final touch, you fashioned a sash out of some strips of white cloth you found in your house. You figured your scarecrow deserved to have a sash. After all, he takes care of your livelihood when you're not around.

Finally, there is your house. It looks like a big can tipped on its side. But it's built into the ground so it doesn't roll around with you in it. That wouldn't be good. On the inside, it's three paces long by six paces wide. You have your bed in the back corner on the left, farthest from the door. A wide window occupies most of the wall opposite your bed. It's maybe four paces wide by one pace tall. It has an awning on the outside; quite lovely to sit under. You're growing some potted plants in the windowsill. You like to have some green around you everywhere you look.

The rest of the wall with your bed on it houses your modest storage space. You have some shelving up above the bed, with a chest of drawers beside it. There is also a small footlocker that slides under your bed, but you're not quite sure what to put in it yet.

Ah, how you love your new life out in the countryside. You work for most of the day, and rest for the remainder. Nobody tries to murder you, or shoot you with arrows, or tell you to hurt anyone. You've got a pretty good life.

You find it does get a bit lonely out here. It's just you, your crops, and Brigadier-General Canningsworth. Your scarecrow, that is. That's his name and rank. If he's vigilant enough, he just might make Field Marshal. That's what you keep telling him, anyway. But it's really just an incentive for him to work harder. That particular rank is a little farther down the road than you lead him to believe sometimes. You wonder if that makes you a bad person.

You're only kidding, of course. You know he's just a can, some sticks, and your old army uniform. You don't really tell him anything. Because he can't respond. But it's fun to pretend sometimes.

You wish your best friend 23 could visit more often. But you know they're keeping him very busy back in the army. He hasn't been by the farm in a few days. He must be out on a mission someplace far away. The world's just so much bigger now than it used to be. It's a little scary.

The first time 23 came to visit was two days after you moved here. You'd come to the castle during his break that day to meet him. He looked pretty happy to see you. You'd been working through his break the day before without even realising it. There was so much extra work on the first day of the job, what with the tilling and plowing and sowing and watering.

After you met him at the castle, you led him to your farm so he would know where it is. Out the door, down the stairs, and through the courtyard. Step outside the walls, then follow the moat around to the back of the castle. Turn right after about a hundred and thirty-four paces from the castle's back wall. Walk across the valley floor, and go up the ridge. Arrive at the back wall of the farmhouse.

After you showed him, he would come to visit every day that he could. Which, luckily, was most days. Sometimes, though, he stops visiting for a couple of days. That's when he's on a mission somewhere else. Like right now, apparently.

You're worried sick about him. On days like today, it's hard to eat, or sleep, or even work. You just don't know what you would do without him! Who would come to visit you, and brighten up your day? Who would come to you with their worries or problems, and seek your counsel? Who would be your best friend if anything happened to him?

And the worst part is, you won't even know. No one's going to come up and tell you when he's killed in action. He could be dying right now. Bleeding. Spear through his chest. Pinned to the ground. Splintered carapace; blood pouring out of him. Taking his last breath before he's dead like so many others!

How many days? How long are you going to wait until you just… decide that he's not coming to visit anymore? Four days? Six? Ten? How long do these missions usually go on for? How long can they go on for? Do they go all the way to Prospit Castle and back? Maybe swing by and try to take Fort Scariosus on the way over?

You sigh, and put down your watering can. It feels like there's a lump in your throat. It's no use trying to work when you're like this. Luckily for you, there's an amazing grassy patch not too far from you. Softest stuff you've ever rolled around in.

It is here that you take a quick respite from your worries. You lie on your front, arms all askew. You inhale the grassy aroma deep into your lungs. It's the only thing you can count on to calm you down without fail.

What are you so getting so worked up over? This is 23 you're talking about! That guy can more than take care of himself! Of course he's coming back. It's just not like him to lose a fight. Somehow, you think he's gonna be all right.

You turn over and lie on your back. The sky's rather cloudy today. You remember how 23 just can't get enough of this big ball of blue. It's scary for you to think about. That there can be something that's so big, it just covers all the land. You wonder what could possibly be above it, up there. Like where you all came from. Just how small are you?

A shiver runs down your spine. You decide to focus on what's much closer. These clouds… so beautiful, how they hang up there just so. Sometimes they show you things. But only if you look at them for a while. The last time they showed you anything was a couple of days ago.

Two figures of white, on the deck of a large ship. But they didn't look like pawns. Not pawns you've ever seen before, at least. There was a man with a fancy hat, and a woman with a pretty pink scarf. They were holding hands. It was a little confusing.

You guess that some of the pawns back at the castle were female. Most were male, like you and 23. But there's no real difference, is there? It's just an arbitrary assignment that doesn't mean anything. Why should it matter if someone is male or female? It doesn't change who they are as a pawn.

Having been apart from the system for so long, you have found yourself really questioning what the fighting is all about. Your king and the enemy king have been fighting each other for longer than anyone can remember. And that used to be a good enough explanation for you. If your king says to fight, then you must fight! …right?

And then they told you that you were supposed to covet the land's destruction. That's what the whole war's really been about. But that's just silly! You don't want to destroy the land! Why would anyone want to do that? It doesn't do you, or anyone else, any good at all!

What about your old peers? The rank-and-file soldiers, like you were? Do they want to destroy the land? You know that 23 doesn't. You guys talked about this in private. Neither of you do. But you'd never talk about that stuff with the average pawn. What would happen to you if word got out that you were sympathising with the enemy? You shudder to think of the punishment for such treason.

Maybe there's something wrong with you and 23. Maybe you guys are the only pawns in the entire Derse kingdom who don't want to destroy Skaia. Oh, wait, there's also that farmer guy, 1836. You guys must be the only three pawns in the…

Hmmmmm. Maybe the rank-and-file pawns don't want to destroy Skaia, after all. Maybe everyone just pretends that they do, because they assume that everyone else does. They could just be afraid of what would happen if they didn't hate Skaia, so they just choose to. It's easier that way.

Well, what about the captains? Surely they must hate Skaia with every fibre of their being! After all, they're the ones who enforce order and military structure in all this! They're the ones who're in charge!

But hold on. The captains aren't the ones in charge. Even they have to report to those mysterious pawns upstairs. You wonder what secrets the upper levels of the castle may hold, such that ordinary pawns aren't even allowed up there!

Maybe the captains don't hate Skaia. After all, they were once rank-and-file pawns, too! So if the rank-and-file pawns don't hate Skaia, then perhaps the captains don't, either! But the pawns upstairs definitely hate Skaia. That's where all the orders come from, after all! And the orders all relate to Derse winning the war, which means Skaia's destruction.

Now, wait just a minute! The pawns upstairs aren't really in charge, either! Even they report to a higher authority! And the highest authority you know of is the King! The pawns upstairs definitely get some kind of orders from the King himself!

Now, you're not sure, but you think it might be possible that some of the pawns upstairs might not completely hate Skaia, either. After all, they have to do what they're told. And you've heard stories of certain captains going upstairs, never to be seen on the lower levels again.

And if there are captains who don't hate Skaia, then surely there are a few pawns upstairs who don't hate Skaia, either. It only makes sense! Maybe the fear of punishment for treason extends a ways up the chain of command.

But the King. He definitely hates Skaia. He's been fighting to destroy it for longer than even he can remember! Deep down, he must hate to even have to stand on Skaian soil! But he bears it all the same, because it's the only way he can fight to destroy it!

Now here's a crazy thought. It makes you feel silly for even thinking it! What if… there was a slim possibility that… somewhere inside…

The King didn't really hate Skaia so much after all. What if, after spending so much time and energy fighting, and commanding others to fight, all to blast Skaia to smithereens…

It would just make him feel really, completely silly for him to call the whole thing off? What if he came to like the world over time? It's completely possible. With every change it's made so far, the Battlefield has just become more and more beautiful! It's grown trees and grass and water and hills and plains and fields! Maybe the King could have grown to like it all, just a little?

But how weird would it be if he said "On second thought, maybe the forces of darkness don't covet the land's destruction, after all. We'll stop fighting you now. Sorry for the misunderstanding. No hard feelings?"

You think that would be pretty weird. Maybe he just doesn't know how to say it. There is no good way to say something like that. What if fighting the enemy is all the King knows how to do? With all his subordinates behind him, everyone must expect him to think and behave a certain way. What would everyone think of their King if he were to give up the fight?

No! That's all a load of hogwash! What kind of guy would let something like that get to that point? If he really loved Skaia, he would have stopped all the fighting a long time ago.

Pawns are dying out there! Hundreds of them! Every day! The King knows that! That's his life! He sees them give their lives for him, every day in his Haunt! Does he even care? Do those pawns even matter to him? Of course not! Why would they?

The only reason that that guy insists on sending thousands of pawns from both sides to their deaths is because he hates Skaia and everything in it with all the force of ten thousand raging suns! There's simply no other explanation for any of this! After all, he's the one who started all of this!

Why can't the Black King just leave well enough alone? The Kingdom has space travel, for crying out loud! Of all the places he could be, why does he have to be on the Battlefield? Why can't the King just pack up and leave, if he hates it here so much? Can't he just go back to his palace on Derse and be miserable there? What is he still doing here?

You HATE the King! There! You've said it! YouhatetheKingyouhatetheKing youhatetheKing! Of ALL the possible courses of action he could take, WHY does he have to interfere with your beautiful land? You don't care if you're being disloyal! You don't give a shit about treason! You know what you believe, and you're never going to let anyone tell you any different!

As a matter of fact, you think you'd go so far as to say you hate ALL Kings! Who would just take charge of people like that? Who would boss them around, and make them kill, and send them to their deaths, just because they said so? That's no way to be a leader!

What does it even mean, to be a King? That you're bigger than everyone else? That you're older than everyone else? That you've got special powers, unlike everyone else? That you were here first, and so everyone else should just do what you say? That doesn't make a lick of sense!

Sure, people need a leader to tell them what to do. But what gives anyone the right to boss people around? You think that people should get to choose who their leader is. They should take a vote!

That way, everyone would have a leader who wants what they want. They would see who really wants to destroy Skaia, and who is just pretending, out of fear of the King! If someone was nice, and good at leading, and wanted what everyone else wanted, then they would get voted for, and would be put in charge! Wouldn't that be great?

You sigh. What's the use? You would never be able to tell people about this idea. Because that's against the King, and you would get punished, and locked up, and no one would ever listen to you! You just wish that the world wasn't exactly the way it was. Everyone should be able to tell their ideas without being locked up for them. Even if some people don't like what they're saying.

You think you've finally figured it out, after all these days of living here. This world is a rotten place to live. All the war, and fighting, and bloodshed, and you can't even speak out against it. And there's nothing you can do to change it. Maybe some day, one side will win the war. And then what? If you lose, you die. If you win, then Skaia loses, and you lose anyway.

What's the point of any of this?