And so Sora won the game. And the crown.
The Race Piece manifested in front of him, and he grabbed it. It was done.
With Tseru and her elf friend out of the picture, and the crown safely away from the interference of Elven Garde, all of the Elkian nobility crowded around Sora to thank him. Jibril kept hoovering right below the ceiling, a proud smile on her face.
At a certain point, Stephanie managed to reach Sora, and to separate him from the others. The protocol now prescribed a myriad of formalities, that Sora had barely managed to get the gist of. They were, however, considered of the utmost importance by everyone around him, and therefore absolutely unavoidable.
He was feeling more like a mannequin, rather than a ruler, but decided to just go with the flow, trusting the princess's knowledge of the royal procedures. Finally, after a time that seemed almost infinite, Sora received his crown – that almost immediately moved from his head to his arm.
With that out of the way, Stephanie made an announcement.
"My Lords and Ladies, it is almost time for the Royal Speech! Please go to your assigned places!"
There was a murmur of approval, and everybody started to leave the room from a wide door in the center of the wall. At the end, only the princess and three of the most important officials remained. Stephanie approached him
"Please follow me, King Sora"
he obeyed and followed the small group toward another, smaller exit on the side of the room. Right before going through, he started to look around and behind his shoulders, as if looking for something. Eventually, he stopped and turned around "Hey Jibril, do you want to come?"
There was a collective gasp of shock, but nobody dared to make a comment, as she dived to take place beside Sora. With the addition of the Flügel, the humans went through a number of corridors. Leading the small procession, the three officials did not lose a second to start lecturing the new king on what they were expecting from him. They never said anything too precise, probably due to the presence of Jibril, but they did make clear that he had to expect a pretty busy tenure. Apparently, the kingdom was in dire financial straits, its nobility was deeply fractured, and half of the territory had been lost to the Werebeasts. Sora listened silently until they eventually found themselves in the open. A relatively narrow stone bridge, sustained by elongated columns, was the only way to reach the balcony where the new king was to address the people.
Stephanie approached him again "How do you feel?"
He chuckled "All good for now"
She seemed relieved "Good. Do not worry, the speech we prepared together is pretty well balanced to appeal to everybody"
He nodded "Thanks for helping me. I look forward to your review later on"
He was expecting the small party to leave, but they did not move.
"Is something the matter?" he asked
An awkward silence followed, until one of the ministries – an old man with a long beard and a staff that made him look like a wizard from a fairy tail – cleared his throat
"Ehm… Your Majesty?"
"Yes?"
"What about… her?" he asked looking at Jibril. Sora did not even blink
"Half of this victory belongs to her. She will appear with me, if so she wishes"
The man's face contorted briefly
"Your Majesty… maybe the people will not understand…"
"If the people do not understand, then I shall explain it to them. And if they still do not understand, well… fine by me. In this particular case, it is not the people who is required to understand"
One of the other men opened the mouth to say something, but Sora cut him short
"You are allowed to withdraw" he said
"Y-Your Majesty?"
"You are allowed to withdraw to your places, my Lords. And Princess"
The third officer tried to take the word, but was also not given the chance
"I would prefer not to have to repeat myself for the third time"
The three men looked at each other, then to Stephanie, that just nodded; her gesture seemed to settle things. They all bowed, and headed to their places.
After they left, Sora turned to his landlady "So, would you like to accompany me?"
She looked at him "After what you just did, I feel that refusing is not an option"
He shook his head with a smile "Refusing is a perfectly fine option, I am not forcing or pressing you in any way… not lastly because I cannot do anything of the sort" he chuckled "So, I will ask again: would you like to accompany me?"
She smiled "I would be glad to. Thanks for asking"
Stephanie and the others were definitely going to take some time before reaching the stage of the authorities, and so there was a moment of silence as they both waited the time to show up. Jibril took the chance to look around at the imposing architecture of the palace.
"Well, looks like you found a new house! And even bigger than the old one!" she said. He scratched his jaw, apparently not enthusiastic
"Yeaaah… I really don't feel like I am suited to live in a palace! How far is the library from here anyway?"
She told him a distance in an alien measurement unit; after converting, it turned out that he could actually walk that distance in about half an hour. He perked up
"Well, maybe I won't need to move after all! Unless you want me to, of course!" he scratched his head "You have been really kind to let me stay… but I really don't want to impose"
She chuckled "Stay as much as you want"
He smiled with gratitude "Thank you. So, have you decided what do you want to do, now that I am king?"
"You mean, whether or not to join the court?" He nodded, and she took a moment to reflect
"I don't know it yet. The things that the old humans were saying… seemed boring, actually. Do you want your reign to be a boring one?"
He chuckled "Well, that does not exactly depend on me…"
"So, what are you going to do to make your reign interesting?"
He gave her a sideway glance "Are you trying to tell me something?"
She smiled "What country are you going to conquer after this one?
His mouth opened for the surprise "I… really did not plan to conquer other countries…"
"So… don't you want to conquer the world?"
He widened his eyes "Uhm… No. Should I?"
She made a pirouette mid-air, clapping her hands "Come on, Master! Let's conquer the world! It's going to be fun!"
He laughed at her cheerful behavior, then scratched his chin and thought about it for a moment. Finally, he smiled "Well, as a matter of fact… I really have nothing else planned…"
That was when they heard the signal. With gran fanfare, somebody announced to the people the ascent to the throne of King Sora I, that was now going to deliver a speech.
Jibril noted that, as Sora started to climb the stairs to the balcony, he was mumbling to himself "Nervous?" she asked
"I just decided to change my speech; I am putting it together"
She widened her eyes "Now?"
"Now"
There was a loud cheer from the crowd when Sora appeared on the balcony, that wavered quite a bit when Jibril also showed up. On the authorities' stage, many old men were murmuring in discontent, while shaking their head. Stephanie was worried, but Sora kept smiling.
"Citizens of Elkia!" he boomed
"Good morning!" there was a sound of surprise from the crowd, as the king greeted them so casually
"My name is Sora, although you will usually hear me being called King Sora I. I hope to find you all in good health and high in spirit!" the crowd was silent now, apparently disconcerted by his easygoing attitude.
"I would like to thank you for coming to this event, that signs such an important change for me. I hope you did not have to renounce to anything important in order to be present today!" this time, the crowd reacted. The citizens seemed moved
"I know of the difficult situation we are all in,
I know that Immanity is the weakest of the wise races,
I know that Elkia is the last kingdom of Immanity,
and I know that in the last years half of the territory of the kingdom was lost"
There was a grumble of depression from the audience, both in the square and in the stage. Many people in the crowd were looking dejected at the ground; some partially covering their eyes. Many dignitaries were trying to act impassible, but they were clearly uneasy, as their failures were thrown around so nakedly.
Stephanie widened her eyes "This is not the speech we agreed on! What is he doing?" but Sora was not done yet
"And after all of that, I know the most important thing of all…" many grimaced, steeling themselves to the next blow
"…THAT WE ARE STILL HERE !" there was a roar from the crowd
"We have refused, and will always refuse, to fade silently into the darkness!"
"The other races had decided to consider weakness what was nothing but kindness. That… was their first mistake… AND THE LAST !"
The crowd roared again and Sora made a fist
"Make the walls around you resonate!
Make the clouds split with your cry!
I want the entire world to hear you!
To hear … THE WRATH OF MANKIND !"
The crowd exploded, Stephanie and the rest of the government stood up, clapping as loudly as they could. Somewhere in the square, a chant was born spontaneously, calling the name of the king. That chant grew and grew in intensity, until it was the only thing that could be heard, rhythmically repeating itself like the heartbeat of a giant creature. From the balcony, Sora let his citizens go wild until they finally came down, then he waved, bowed, and withdrew from sight.
"That was so exciting! Well done Master!" Jibril congratulated him as they walked back
"Thanks. It looks like the people liked it too"
"Is that the only reason why you said that? To please them?"
"No, I changed the speech because I decided to conquer the world. To do that, I will need to remain king for a while, and to do that I need a base of power to support me. Now the layman is on my side, at least for the time being"
She looked at him "What if some ambassador takes issues with what you said?"
He grinned like a shark "Worry not, my LAD, I have that covered. I will try to make that as well as entertaining as possible!"
She made a huge smile "I am looking forward to it!"
As his very first act, King Sora made all of the government officials to lose a game against him, binding them by the Pledges never to make a false report. He considered binding them to actually obey all of his orders, but that seemed to go too far. Also, he was still very new of Disboard, and as such very prone to make mistakes. He wanted his subordinates to be able to correct the mistakes that he was doing. Once he informed of the real situation of the kingdom, he had a meeting with Stephanie and laid out his plan of reforms, that sounded like a real revolution.
Rotation of cultures, mechanization of harvest, looms with flying shuttle, steam engine, plans to set up an electricity production and distribution infrastructure from hydropower, abolition of feudal privileges, professional bureaucracy, merit-based career, income taxation, credit system, public debt; the princess was stunned at the enormity of the implications of what Sora was saying.
"King Sora…" she started hesitantly
"Sora is enough, if it's not an official occasion"
"Very well … Sora. Uhm… I am afraid that what you are proposing cannot be done"
"Do you think they are all bad ideas?"
Stephanie put her hands forward "No, all the opposite! Especially the ones about technology, but… to implement many of the other things that you said… is not possible…"
Sora was unphased "No, it's just very difficult. That's why I will need your help"
She blinked "My help?"
He nodded "Of course. I am not so naïve to believe that I can just impose all of that simply by decree and expect that it would inevitably work out. If a number of people were hell bent on sabotaging this program, all of this is only going to do more harm than good. Also, no matter how much I read, I know that I still know very little about this country" he stopped for a second and smiled at her "You are different though. You know everything and everyone that matters in Elkia, and I know that you only want the best for your people. So I would like to ask you…" he paused again and looked intensely into her eyes "…Will you support this program?"
"Yes" she said after a moment. He smiled
"Thank you. In this case, I will make you my chief minister. Your main goal would be to implement this package of reforms into the kingdom, in a way that does not provoke more harm than good. You can implement these ideas in the order that you prefer, use whatever mean you think is the best, while following a timetable set by you, so that people can adapt gradually to the changes" he paused "For the more technical topics… maybe it is better if we collaborate more, and I hope you will trust me on those. Any questions?"
Stephanie seemed overwhelmed
"I-I-I am honored that you are trusting me so much… what does it make you so sure that I can do it?"
He chuckled "I found your curriculum vitae in the official logs of the king competition. Very impressive!"
She blushed and lowered her eyes "But I have lost! Because I am silly and I trust people too much! If some noble challenges me to a game and decides to cheat… what can I do?"
He waived away her worries "Defeating opponents is my job. If you do not feel like fighting them, just keep a low profile, and then report to me. I will handle that"
"Well… thank you. But there may be moments when that is not possible… and somebody may ambush me to avoid dealing with you"
He seemed to think about it "Uhm… this may be a problem…" he seemed to go into a trance for about a couple of seconds, then grinned at her "The Race Piece… you said that it gives to the owner absolute power on all members of a certain race, right?"
She felt slightly uneasy, and nodded with circumspection. Sora's grin grew wider "So, if I say 'I command that from now, until I decide otherwise, princess Stephanie Dola will be able to telepathically let me know that she is in trouble and where she is' … that would do, right?"
Her eyes went wide "Yes … that would do it!"
"And if I say… 'I want the princess to be teleported here' … that would also teleport you away from whatever trouble you are in, right?"
Her eyes went even wider "Yes… that as well… or you could teleport yourself!"
He shook his head "I am not Immanity; I am Unknown. I really don't think it would work on me… but let me try it right away…"
And so, he tried to teleport. As expected, that failed. Then he tried to teleport Stephanie, which instead worked like a charm. Finally, they tested the ability of Stephanie to communicate with Sora. That test also proved successful. He was a little upset that he could not teleport himself, but he knew that Jibril could teleport, so he hoped that at least sometimes she could give him a lift.
That day, Sora suddenly realized something.
He was talking about Terminator with Jibril, explaining that although the T800 was primarily a weapon, it was covered with human tissue that is actually alive, so in a way it was both alive and a weapon.
Jibril liked the concept "Like a Flügel!"
He smiled "Yes, and like …"
In that moment, the realization hit him. Hard. His smile froze and a shadow fell on his face. For a few moments, he was like paralyzed.
Jibril looked at him; she seemed worried "Sora, are you OK?"
He looked at her in a way she had never seen before "I don't know…" he took a breath "Jibril… I need to talk with you about something…"
She was surprised at the sudden request "What is it?"
He swallowed "I want to make clear that it is perfectly fine if you do not want to talk about it. If you want me to stop, just tell me"
She made a face "Is it a bad thing?"
He seemed at a loss "I… don't know it yet"
She turned serious "I see. Very well, then, what do you want to talk about?"
Sora took a moment to decide where to start "So… You are a weapon. We established that"
"A God-killing weapon" she specified with pride.
He made an awkward smile "Well… what does that mean, exactly?"
She frowned "Isn't it obvious?"
He awkwardly scratched his jaw
"Well… the gods of my world do not precisely walk around every day, so I really have no idea how much power you need to kill one. I know you can destroy a city with one blow, but … I would assume that you need more than that to kill a God? Has it ever happened to you?"
She put on a smug face
"One of my best memories is of a battle of 200 Flügel against an Old Deus!" Jibril said blissfully. Sora allowed himself a small smile
"That sounds epic" he said. And he meant it "Did you win?"
she shook her head
"No. Actually, we were almost wiped out. But it was indeed epic!"
"I see. Not just an honorary title then"
She raised her eyebrows "Definitely not!" she seemed to relax, and smiled "Is this what you wanted to talk about?"
He bit his lips, and shook his head "So… you are a weapon… but you are alive…" Jibril cocked her head as he took some time to organize the next question
"On my world… weapons are not alive. Weapons are made, but living things are born" he seemed to hit a wall there, and shook his head with force
"What I am trying to say is … do you have parents?"
"Of course I do!" she said, but Sora adjusted the question again
"… I mean … a father and a mother… like humans and elves, for example"
She changed expression "Oh! I see now… No, not like humans!"
Sora nodded to himself "I see. So… who made you?"
"Lord Artosh" she said simply
He nodded again "And this Lord Artosh is … a god?"
"An Old Deus"
Old Deus were the first Exceed. Sora nodded again, and started to tread carefully "So… can we say that Lord Artosh is your father?"
She smirked "Yes, you can say that. Father and creator. But why are you so interested in this?"
He adjusted himself on the chair, uneasy, but then steeled himself "If you want to stop, just say the word. But I would like to make some more questions"
He was very serious, and that seriousness wore on her "Go on" she just said
"If you wanted to … could you contact Lord Artosh?"
She shook her head "No, I cannot anymore"
"Can I ask you why?"
She raised her shoulders "He disappeared"
"Has that anything to do with the institution of the Pledges?"
"Maybe"
"I see" he was looking at her with an intensity that she had never seen. She was used to be looked at with fear, or hatred, or resentment. But the look that Sora gave her was something new to her; those alien eyes bore a secret that made her both curious and uneasy.
"Is that all, Sora?" she asked more sheepishly that she had ever said in millennia
"So… if I understood correctly… Lord Artosh made the Flügel for the sole purpose to fight in the Great War…"
She nodded "Yes"
"But then the Pledges made war impossible"
She stiffened "Yes"
"And then your creator… your father… went missing"
That seemed to cross the line "Are you angry with me because I killed humans during the war?" she asked, clearly crossed
He shook his head and put his hands forward "No… that is not it… at all"
"Then why are you doing this?"
"I am just trying to understand" he said in conciliatory way
"Do you think that I can't hurt you?"
"I am sure that you can easily erase my existence without breaking the Pledges. Or make me feel things that would make me prefer death one thousand times"
"Then why? Are you planning to use that I-am-forgiven ticket?"
He shook his head "I will not, I promise. And you never swore to uphold it anyway"
She gave him a piercing look "Be careful, Sora"
He nodded slowly, still without losing eye contact, and proceeded carefully
"So… you have been created for one purpose, and one purpose only… And now you have been separated by your creator for who knows how many centuries … in a world that physically forbids you to fulfill your only purpose …"
She was angry now "Are you done?"
"We can stop if you want"
"Isn't that obvious?" she almost shouted
He looked down at the table and took a deep breath. He seemed to make a physical effort to continue "No. I am sorry. If you don't say it… then maybe part of you want me to continue"
She gritted her teeth "How dare you! Do you know who I am?"
"I know your power, Jibril. Who you are, is what I am trying to understand. I am sorry"
"Stop apologizing! Why are you doing this?"
He seemed in as much pain as she was when he answered "I need to ask you this, Jibril. You don't need to answer if you don't want to, but I need to ask. I am sorry"
She looked at him as if she was trying to decide if he was an enemy "Fine, I will allow one more question. But no more"
He nodded and swallowed "Thank you, that's all I need. It's a question that I made you many times already… but this time I hope that you will trust me enough to give me the complete answer…"
His expression changed, and he looked at her with infinite tenderness and care "… How are you?"
She felt something moving inside her, and her eyes went wide.
She just stared at him in silence for a while, before she finally decided to answer
"I don't want to talk about this" she said
He backed down immediately "Sure! I-I am sorry! I know I have been very pushy. I am very sorry"
She looked at him with an undecipherable look "It's your turn now. Why did you want to talk about this? And you must give me an answer that satisfies me"
He nodded, and gave her a pained smile "Yes, of course. You deserve that…"
he sighed
"When I was eight years old, I decided what I wanted to do with my life. I decided to become a warrior. I knew that it was not going to be easy, and so I started to prepare for it immediately. I started by simply putting extra effort in the school matters that were more related to my dream, and choosing martial arts rather than soccer as a sport, but then I kept adding and adding and eventually it grew into an all-consuming passion. Everything that I did was to reach my goal, and I mean… everything. When I trained at the dojo, Master would normally tell us to do something three times: the first time slowly and without force. The second time slowly, but with some force. The last time, quickly and with all of our force. I always did the task three times at full power.
When I had to do a job, I would always put all of my strength into it, and if it was recommended to alternate hands to avoid getting tired… I would use only one hand on purpose… to get used to being exhausted and carry on anyway. When I biked to school, or anywhere for what matters … I was not leisurely cycling. I was putting all of my power on the pedals. Always. And if I felt thirsty, or hungry outside of meals… I would just ignore that and endure it until the next meal. Everything that I was reading was related to war, to a point that sometimes I stopped consider myself a human, or even a warrior. Sometimes I simply considered myself as a weapon. Conversely, everything that had nothing to do with fight, including social skills, was completely ignored. That was my life for ten years"
He made a pause and looked at her. Jibril was looking at him intently, but proffered no word
"And so, the time came when I had to show that I was worthy of becoming a warrior. As it turned out, I was. I was one of the best. But as it turned out, in those ten years I had not managed to gather exactly all of the data… and apparently, I had missed a pretty critical piece of information. My fault, I suppose. My mistake. I don' think that I can blame anyone but me. And so, I resigned. Basically everything that I had done until that moment was for nothing. But more important than that... I had lost my purpose… I had lost the one reason that motivated my every action. Family and friends just kept saying not to get worried… that I was going to find something else, and I always agreed. But I was lying every time. I never managed to find another purpose. And so, for the last ten years, I have been like a ship that was headed to a certain destination, but was caught into a storm, and lost the ability to navigate… and now it is just drifting away following the flow, without the ability to go anywhere. And most importantly, without the will to go anywhere"
He stopped again. In front of him, Jibril seemed like the statue of a goddess
"What are you trying to tell me?"
"I think… that we had similar experiences… I know that ten years of preparation and ten years of aftermath are a very short time for you… but it still makes up most of my memories. And the ship … the ship will eventually sink, and so will I… although I am afraid that you don't have that luxury... I have still a few decades to go… I know that that is also a very short time compared to your lifespan… But sometimes, I look at those few decades and I think: this is going to be such a long wait…"
She was silent for a few seconds, but still simmering
"So you are saying that it is my fault" she hissed
He widened his eyes "What? No… no, absolutely not"
"You said that you and I are the same… and that it was your fault if you ended up like that!"
"I said that we had similar experiences… not the same. There are differences…"
"Like what?"
He took a deep breath "I decided to made myself into a weapon. It was my choice. My mistake. You are different. You were made by somebody else…" he smiled tenderly at her "…You did nothing wrong."
The next thing he knew was that she had flown into his arms. He could feel her body trembling, her breath escaping her mouths in soft sobs. Warm tears were flowing from her eyes and on to his shoulder. He embraced her, trying to comfort her, and waited that she was ready to talk.
"Six … thousand … years …" she finally whispered "… six thousand years… can you begin to imagine living for such a long time?"
He shook his head "I cannot. I am sorry"
"I have been drifting around like you for all of that time…"
"That… must be the most terrible thing that I heard…"
She held him tighter. She was almost hurting him now, but he ignored the pain
"Lord Artosh… my father… died"
"Oh, Jibril" He held her tighter too, trying to bridge with physical contact what he was unable to do with words
"We, the Flügel… have been living in despair ever since. Some of us even ended their own life…"
Her voice died, and for a few seconds, Sora just heard her breathing heavily, trying to calm down. He gently stroke her hair, until eventually she spoke again
"You know what it feels like. And you gave yourself a purpose! Help us, Sora! Please, help us!"
Sora felt something breaking into his chest. He had to think carefully on how to formulate his answer… if he had started to say 'I don't want to give you false hopes', maybe Jibril would have interpreted the 'I don't' as a refusal to help, and may have felt even more pain, or even interrupted him and disappeared forever. So he tried to avoid connecting himself with any words carrying a negation, even if it sounded awkward.
"I really hope… that you won't get your hopes too high too soon just for them to be crushed immediately afterwards… because I can barely help myself on this one…"
She shook her head on his shoulder and laughed weakly "You always sell yourself shortly. Please, just try"
He nodded "I will do everything that I can"
"Do you promise?"
"I promise"
"Thank you, Sora… You are a good friend"