Few days have passed since Euler has submitted the patent for his improved typewriter. He was outside getting ready to go to his workshop to test out something, then a newspaper delivery boy came to him.
"Good morning mister. Here's your newspaper for today. And um, please don't rip it in half again…"
"Alright, let' see…" As soon as Euler opened the newspaper, he gave a distressed expression. "What the?" The big headline that he read was: Euler Pierce aiming to dismantle the auto memory doll industry through a typewriter.
"One of the workers at patent office I know has informed me of this new and improved typewriter, made by Euler Pierce. This is only his desperate attempt of restoring his reputation under guise of helping the auto memory doll industry when in reality, it will devastate us and put many women out of job." Said Mara Davis, known as the founder of the auto memory dolls. "A cheap and smaller size will make it more accessible for people, but what's more disturbing is its ability to make correction at user's will. Not only this undermines the discipline of having correct writing, but it will nullify the need for dolls to write pieces. If Euler Pierce was such a 'genius' he was, he would've known this, but it is evident that once again like the previous controversy, he's only interested in himself and his breakthroughs."
"Do not be fooled by the simplistic, sweet aroma of this typewriter. The fact this typewriter also comes with complex characters hardly needed by the doll industry should tell you that it was invented for Euler and him only. I've let other postal companies know of this as well, and they agreed to never buy this typewriter and eliminate its demand. But one postal company, CH Postal run by Claudia Hodgins, refuses to let go of their simplistic attitude. I refuse to sit by and watch the industry fall and women put out of jobs by an invention made by a very controversial figure, and I shall fight for them until it is done."
"This vile, unschooled woman! Is this the thanks you give me after I give this to your industry?!" shouted Euler.
"Woah, calm down, what's wrong with you?!"
"Why don't you let this tell you what's wrong with me?!" Euler said as he forcefully handed the newspaper to the boy. "I'm about to destroy the doll industry with the improved typewriter to thank the doll that helped me, that's what! Go on! Listen to that lie! You've seen me as maniac that uses atomic bomb before, so how much different will this be then, huh?!"
The boy shivered in fear. "S-Sir, whatever I did, I'm so sorry…Please, I'm just delivering these things…"
Since then, Euler did all he could to try to deliver his defense to the public like the last time. However, Euler's counteraction was in vain like the last time. Over time, the group of women protesters pressured the CH Postal company to cease the use of Euler's typewriter (though Claudia only pretended to do so to make the protesters go away), and Rory's Metal has ceased production of the typewriter as well because too little people bought the typewriter, and it was too expensive to keep making it.
"Look doc, I'm sorry to say this, but we have to let this go." Said Rory to Euler who visited. "This is the first time I've experienced something 'boycott'. That movement usually extinguishes, but I never expected it to hit us this hard."
"All I've ever wanted to do was do something for someone else." Euler said. "After I gave up on breakthroughs, I wanted to try…living for others as they say. The first that came to mind was repay Violet with this." Euler's breath became heavy, and suddenly shouted. "But the world won't let me do anything! Again and again, people fall for mediocre reasoning and make me out to be a devil for trying to do something 'good', while the ones who lie are praised! What the hell does it want from me?! The more I try to understand, the more I get lost!"
Rory put his hand on Euler for comfort. "Look, I want you to know that you didn't deserve all of this. That sour old lady was like those know-it-all squeaks that…just needed someone down to raise themselves up. For all I know, all that feel-good, heroic talk they do is to make up for the fact that they're not geniuses like you. I may have lost money for the first time in this business but know that I'm here for you."
"Someone down to raise themselves up…A heroic talk…" Suddenly, Euler slowly began to chuckle at himself.
"You alright there doc? Uh…"
"It's just…Heh, a thought came to me." Euler pushed Rory's hand away from him. Then Euler, continuing to chuckle, slowly made his way out of the shop. Rory was made uneasy and was concerned whether Euler was going to go crazy.
As Euler went outside, he noticed people distancing themselves from him as soon as they saw his back augment. When he eavesdropped on their murmurs as he passed by, he heard insults such as maniac, crazy, selfish, and misogynist. Then he recalled the day of his prosthetic arms demonstration, and the crowd's applause. Though nothing about him changed, the same people's perception of him changed from a miracle worker to a maniac. He continued to chuckle to himself and made his way home.
When Euler was inside, he took two pills of lithium carbonate. "I have no idea what I'm feeling, but it's sure as hell overwhelming me. I just might explode from the thought I had at the shop. I don't even know why I'm chuckling, but let's organize my thoughts again…"
This time, he included the actions of Dr. Han and Mara Davis in the notes. A full scope of truth would reveal that their words were the thoughts of a fool, but just add a little bit of word play as well as virtuosity, and suddenly it became a revelation to common people that made them some sort of saint. From his father, as well as daily experience, he was taught and assumed that lying and slander was wrong and had consequences, yet when it mattered the most, that assumption was false.
"Do not lie…Do not steal…Be nice…Forgive…I grow tired of pretending to understand why I should adhere to these ethics when the reality tells me that a supposed saint doing these suffers no consequences, while the supposed devil who is guilty of none, is scorned…The common sense that I've known, all feels backward at this point."
Euler then wrote down a question of why people like Dr. Han did these in the first place. He recalled his time in the Galdrik Empire where everyone actively hoped for the existence of someone of great talent to solve a problem. Wasn't that why the Anointed One and the Devouring One was created?
"Yet here, no one seems to put stake into someone with great talent, at least as much as my home empire. For the crowd immediately forgot my beneficial breakthroughs as soon as I became an atomic radiation maniac, and Dr. Han certainly didn't respect me after breakthroughs; on the contrary, he distanced himself away from me more…"
The answer could be surprisingly simple, Euler thought. He remembered a paper about a behavioral change in lab mice when daily necessities such as food was no longer an issue. Leidenschaftlich never suffered any problem or crisis for its abundant resources. Yet instead of rejoicing for lack of problems, the common people take it as stale life, while those with talents take it as a 'drought' of opportunity to use their skills. To escape such dilemma, those with talents like Dr. Han must actively look for "crisis" to solve, while the public can feel as if they overcame such crisis after an input from the said-individual like Dr. Han.
Then someone like Euler was a source of resentment for Dr. Han, for Euler's superior talent not only puts him out of spotlight, but took Dr. Han's sense of being a hero for the public away too. The only way for Dr. Han to be brought back to the spotlight, was to announce to the public that he was an angel fighting against the devil. This case was applicable to Mara Davis as well.
Euler looked at himself in the mirror. "In this world, the one who fights against the evil is the winner." He put his hand on the surface of the mirror. "Yes…This is the thought that crossed my mind at Rory's Metal…Perhaps I chuckled to myself endlessly, because all the questions I had, instantly became explained…"
Euler then looked out a window. "Oh, Leidenschaftlich. What a luxurious life you live! You kill a man's beloved master as you make him out to be the devil to be overcome by your elites, while believing in your blissful lie that you've somehow saved the day with justice having a victory. Then you become indifferent to the ruins of this man's life, as the delusion of you being the angel must not be broken. How great it must be, to reap the benefit of being a hero without the fear of confronting the real evil!"
Euler took out a letter from Alexei that he received from his parents. "Master, though you told me to be free from my old purpose, I'm sorry to declare those words to be unacceptable, for the world deemed me to be evil, and shall not let me live for others. You are the one that truly…loved me as they say. Your delight was always in my success in fulfilling my purpose. I shall therefore honor your love for me, by resuming my old purpose. If what this world asks of me is to be the angel fighting against evil, they shall receive what they ask. I shall be…their Anointed One."
Two letters that Euler wrote in advance caught his attention, one for Violet and for his parents, which he planned to send once his new typewriter was successful. But now that his new typewriter was rejected, it felt out of place. He re-read the content of these two letters, which was about how he has determined to "live for others" on the basis of his master's love, and that he will keep their words in mind. Both ended with a gratitude.
He crumpled the letters together and threw them into a garbage bin. "Futile!" He shouted. "A simplistic mindset of one who was not made to be the devil!"
