Chapter 53: Blind to Reality
"Cause otherwise it's painful…and I believe in pain cause I'm inferior to you, so sorry if that displeases you. I can stop when I'm in front of you if you prefer, but Joy said I should take care of myself, so I cannot allow myself to stop permanently." I answered unbothered by the question, it's not everyone who knows the importance of breathing after all, and those who know usually don't get to speak their newfound knowledge.
I heard the sound of Natural shaking his head. "You have no need to concern yourself over such a minor matter, for my only interrogation is why death hasn't claimed you yet? All of my senses, all of my knowledge, all of my power tell me one simple fact, that you are death, yet my eyes betray all of these assumptions."
Oh, so that's what he means. Maybe he is worried like Joy and Geeta were? No…from the way he sounds, he doesn't mind my fate at all, he was only perplexed as to why he cannot figure out my situation.
Or I thought, I couldn't see their face currently, so maybe he was on the verge of tears and I didn't know.
"Because I'm selfish."
"And how does it correlate with you refusing to accept your fate?"
"Oh, it was very simple, despite everyone agreeing I should die, I refused to because I was selfish." I paused for a moment as I considered another point. "Well I suppose they're starting to have more people who think the opposite, but the reasoning still started because I was selfish."
Natural still looked as confused as before, but he still kept his smile on his face.
"Heu…sir…sir Solarium…I…I believe that…"
I turned toward the source of the sound that I identified as Yellow, before cutting her. "You should not call me Solarium, I am not allowed to bear that name."
Yellow studerred even more. "I…I am sorry…sir…" Yellow was interrupted once more by what I could only identify as the clapping of hands.
"You should not apologize for anyone other than our lord, you carry is pride each one you bow, so do not waste it." An unknown voice chastised Yellow, so I attributed it to Concordia as she was the only one I wasn't able to hear before coming here.
Yellow corrected herself the best she could. "I'm sor…I mean I apologize…I mean…heu…that lord Natural was asking you how the logistics behind it work. Like…how do you keep yourself alive?"
Oh…so he wants to learn to boring stuff. "Well I just use my power to replicate a normal nervous system, like making my arm think it received a signal from the brain to move, so it does. The good thing is that it allows for my body to survive even when I was riddled with injury and sickness…the problem is that I can't shut off the pain sensor as they are too connected to me to ignore them." I explained as I showcased my arm raising by itself.
I remember reading somewhere that we only used 10% of our brain, and I understand why, as I need to use 95% of it to constantly think of each action I need to do to maintain myself conscious and moving, the 5% that stay is used to think for myself, which just prove more how selfish I am, that I'm not even willing to give it all to my body because I still want to think.
"Is it painful?" Yellow asked in a worried tone.
"Well…I'm not sure, maybe it is, maybe it is not, but whatever it is, I've supported it since I was born, so I'm not able to tell. But if I am able to support it, then it must mean that if it is painful, then it is barely noticeable."
I heard Yellow push a sigh of relief, but my attention was immediately diverted to another matter.
"Then pardon me for my curiosity, but would you mind using it on me?" Natural suddenly asked in a wondering tone.
"Wait, Natural, please reconsider, we wouldn't want you to feel any discomfort over it, so please let us test it first." Anthea suddenly proposed.
"Wait…us?" I heard Yellow asking worriedly, but something must have convinced her, as I heard the three of them approaching toward me.
…well I will have to use the rest of my brain for this, but it wouldn't be that much of a problem in the short term, and maybe if I accept, then he will be more willing to join me to watch a movie!
So I raised my hand toward where I felt they were, before immediately collapsing from my own weight because I could no longer keep myself up. But at least that means I didn't have to feel the pain from my fall, so it worked out fine.
I waited for a second before remembering that they didn't give me any signal for when to stop…well more of a timer, because all of my other senses were currently unavailable…Well, I suppose I just have to stop now and ask them again.
I took back my sense for myself, and was surprised to hear nothing…well I suppose that means they barely felt it, so I was right to think that that impression of having my heart crushed thirty-three times a second and passing a thousand burning lightning inside my whole body each second was barely worth noticing.
I stood up and regained my seat, and awaited his maid to tell the good news for Natural…but no sound came from them.
"Is…is everything okay?" I asked just in case.
"Oh, it's fine, they just appear to be sleeping, I suppose your possession must be truly relaxing then."
Oh, that makes sense, I suppose these sensations are a step down from what others constantly feel, so much so that their body thinks they are sleeping.
I nodded at his comment as I awaited for his confirmation to do the same thing for him.
As if he felt what I was asking him, Natural responded. "Ah, sadly I cannot allow myself to sleep right now, I still have other things to execute."
"Oh…does that mean you can't watch a movie with us?"
"Sadly no, even if I am curious what this movie thing you're talking about."
"Oh, it's something fun!"
"Really? That seems marvellous, so probably another time."
I lowered my head in disappointment before standing up. "I understand…sorry for imposing on your eye with my presence, and thank you for letting me enter."
"Have a good fun." Natural wished me that as I almost stumbled on something on the ground, but I was able to maintain my balance as I resumed walking normally to leave by the door.
***
Natural blinked slowly with a smile as he watched the Gloom Archon leave his room, before looking down on his lovely maid who was currently sleeping peacefully with their iris completely exposed.
To be honest, he was worried that he hurt them when they suddenly screamed as if all of their bone and muscles became sentient before falling on the ground like a puppet who lost its string.
But as he noticed they carried no injury, it must have meant it was only pain, and pain didn't exist. So that means that they were perfectly fine.
Still, he seemed nice, so it saddened him that he had to keep his distance, he would have loved to talk to him more.
If only he would smile more, then maybe he would have been able to convince his father that he could meet him more often…well, if his father says so, then there must be a reason.
Natural threw one last look toward his sleeping maid before moving toward his room.
He still had duty after all, duty that would be able to make the fiction about pain even more fictional.
***
I walked back to our dorm at the side of Allister with both of our heads lowered in shame. "Failure…I'm such a failure…" I repeated to myself as I thought about how I was incapable of convincing more than two people to join us.
Of course I only passed through the esper side of our commune, but I didn't wish to be hurt more than I already was from all the rejection I got.
Especially when I was already preparing myself for the punishment that nurse Joy would give me for failing to realize her wish…no…she wouldn't do that.
Yet, just thinking that her only reaction to my failure would be being disappointed hurt me more than if she had just hit me.
…maybe I should just kidnap them and force them to come with me? They are already scared of me, so what would it change if they just get their fear confirmed?
But I gave up this idea when I already imagined what Joy's reaction would be if I did that…I think that for this once I would prefer that she just kill me.
"Kyu! (Do not think that!)" Pandora instantly reprimanded me as I thought about it, which made us pause in our tracks.
Seeing that we finally stopped mopping around for an instant, he took this opportunity to raise our morale. "Mi'mi kuy my…mimi kykum'uy? (If you're so scared of bothering this kind woman…then why don't you just call the flashy girl? I'm sure she would be happy to join us no?)"
My head perked up as I realized that I had completely forgotten about calling Iono. I was expecting to meet her during our visit, but I suppose she wasn't able to see us because someone closed the door on us immediately.
Urgh, why didn't I think of that? With Iono, we would have been able to convince so many people! She's so good at being friendly, people would have nodded their heads at her even faster than when they closed their door on me!
I slidded down on the wall, leaned my umbrella on my side so it could still cover me and raised my Meltan.
"What are you doing?" Allister copied my action and leaned toward me to look more carefully.
"We weren't able to find Iono, so I will call her instead so she can join us."
And maybe
A pitiful expression spread through his face as he pressed his face on his arm. "…maybe you shouldn't…what if she decides to refuse? At least if she doesn't know she was invited, then you will be spared from the pain of her deserting you."
I stopped tipping on my machine and raised my hand to pet Allister's head. "You're hurting yourself even more by thinking she wanted to hurt you, so don't. We suffer through a lot each day, make sure to choose the less painful option."
Allister was so dumbfounded that he wasn't even able to make an answer, and could only divert his gaze with a sulken expression. "And it is you who say that…mmmph." He murmured between his breath, even if I wasn't sure whether I fully understood what he meant by that.
The moment I finished typing Iono's number, the device didn't even ring once because she already responded.
"Caught your attention and caught your eyes…" A very excited voice left the meltan, but it trailed down as Iono finally realized who was answering.
"Hi Iono." I waved at her from behind the screen, but she didn't return to me because she was too awkward.
"…sorry Luciel…I shouldn't have said I caught your eyes…" Iono apologized for some reason.
She was currently wearing a more relaxed outfit that I recognized as a hoodie, and she even let her hair down. That's all that I could see as she was probably lying on her bed from the perspective I got of her.
"…so Luciel…why are you calling me? Do you perhaps just want to talk? I saw that my recent live worked really well, and it's all because of you, so thank you."
Hmm? She's not as happy as I thought…maybe she already celebrated earlier?
…or maybe it didn't actually make her happy?
"By any hazard…is the reason you are calling me is because you want to…well…to fulfill my side of the agreement?"
Oh! Right, she agrees to be my friend in exchange for recording her video…I hoped she didn't stay it only because of the contract, but I suppose I should have expected that my only worth as a friend is the worth of others.
"Yes, I want to invite you to watch a movie with me."
"Oh…a movie…I didn't know they had a movie theatre here." Iono put a finger on her lip as she wondered if she had heard anything about it, but I shook my head.
"No, we will watch it in our dorm."
"Al…already?! Not even a normal date before? You…you already want to reach that step?" For some reason, Iono grew embarrassed…and almost pitiful.
"A date? Oh, would you have preferred that I warn you ahead of time? Maybe you already have a plan for tonight…maybe I'm a nuisance to you…I'm sorry…ignore me."
I almost clicked the button to hang up as I already assumed she didn't want to come. But I was stopped by her before I could.
"Wait wait wait! I don't mind coming, don't worry…I promise that no one had any plan with me…I wouldn't want to trouble our deal after all…please don't give up on me."
"Oh really? That's great! Thank you Iono! Also, could you try to invite the other person in your dorm? Please?"
"Yes, no problem, I will…wait what?"
"Thank you!" I smiled before hanging up on her.
"Wait, explain…" Iono's voice was cut off before she could say anything, and I raised myself with joy.
Now, we will have more people joining us, and Nurse Joy won't be disappointed in me, which was all I hoped for.
I looked in Allister's direction and signalled him that I was ready to go, and he nodded in response before also standing up before following behind me.
While marching, I did take another look at the door around us and considered once more to simply break the door so they would at least be able to hear my proposition. It did work for Shantal after all.
But in the end, I discarded the idea, if they were ready to be so rude because they were afraid of me, then I doubted they would be reasonable when they heard my proposition.
Well…I suppose their still one person who didn't run away who didn't give me any answer.
I looked at the ceiling. "Do you want to watch a movie with us?"
The girls froze the moment she realized I saw her, before gritting their teeth and running away while still being on the ceiling.
…well I suppose this is a no.
"Who are you talking to Luciel?" Allister looked up in confusion.
"…a rude person apparently."
***
Lance gazed outside his room once more as he appreciated the sight of the falling sun. He loved this moment because for some instant, it was as if the whole world finally paid the tribute he deserved by covering the land in gold.
It was little moments like these that made him feel like it was worth it to protect the world from those who lived on it. It was this sight that made all of his recent defeat feel naught, for he knew that one day, all of this god will be under his protection, what is but a mere defeat he will be forced to carry on for eternity if it means he had an eternity to create memories of his victory!?
But sadly, the horizon didn't carry the same sweet feeling as it usually did, as Lance's entire mood was wasted.
"That damn troublemaker!" Lance wanted nothing more than to break the window in front of him to expel his rage, but he would never show such a humiliating display to one of his subordinates.
Thinking about that, Lance looked at the side of the room where Aaron was engaged in playful activity with his little bug pokemon.
The dragon archon scorned at the sight of an archon having such pitiful, weak pokemon under him. Even if he did have this type of weakling under him, then he would at least treat them like cannon fodder, not like… a friend.
But at the same time it did satisfy him, because at least he could beat him if he tried to go against him…contrary to that damn annoyance who had a pokemon with a power equal to his…or even worse than that.
"You know, it's not because I can't read your mind that I can't know what you're thinking about." Aaron suddenly interrupted him in his thought.
Lance gave him the honour of returning his gaze who lost all the playfulness he carried while interacting with his pokemon.
"You're right, so what will you attempt now that you know I think of you as nothing more than a happy fool who was lucky to be an archon to give yourself a purpose in your miserable life?"
Aaron blinked rapidly at Lance before sighing. "Well…I was referring more to your thoughts about the Gloom Archon…but I'm glad you appreciate that I notified you that he would be going into every dorm to recruit people to join him." Aaron responded with a strained smile.
"Oh…well consider that this gratitude will be used to compensate for the insult I just gave you." Lance said without any hint of shame on his face.
"…sure…well at least as long as we were able to stop the catastrophe from happening, I do not mind."
"Hmm, I warned all of those who joined our side to be ready to answer the door when he knocks on it. Of course, the best-case scenario would be that he forces himself inside their dorm and kidnaps them, as this will be more than enough proof for Geeta to punish him. But I do not consider him to be this inconsiderate."
"Well you did also consider that he wouldn't attempt to make any attempt to build his own group, yet here we are, at the feet of your pride."
Lance scorned at the comment, but right before he could berate Aaron, a purple-haired girl fell from the ceiling before immediately kneeling in front of him.
"Master Redron, I completed the task you gave me." She said in a cold tone.
"Hmm, you'd better have Janine. So now, give me the report on how this trash tries to create his own group?"
"Yes, it appear the designated Luciel Solarium, also know as the Gloom Archon, as the king of Danu and as the Bringer of Eclipse, tried to recruit esper student to join his side, which concluded with an atrocious failure on his part, as most students heard your warning and slammed the door the moment he entered."
Lance raised his eyebrow. "…I did not ask them to slam the door, I simply said to them to prove their loyalty by not accepting the deal that will come from them."
Janine almost raised up her head in surprise, but she managed not to commit such a fault in front of her current employer. "Then I have to guess that his reputation was enough to deter them from even responding to him…not that your effort was useless, for Sir Solarium may have been able to recruit more people if he was allowed to enter by a single individual foolish enough to trust him. So your idea at least allowed them to be the first to respond to his knocking." Janine made sure to flatter him so he would forget the mistake she had just made.
She worked with a lot of different patrons in her life, so it gave her a pretty wide area of experience on how to handle them. Honestly, she was disappointed with her current master.
She thought that as the Ancestral Archon, he would have a type of personality she had never met before, forcing her to constantly adapt on the fly to please him the most, so she could slowly infiltrate his inner circle and be assured of becoming his most used ninja. If she managed to reach this type of position, she might very well bring her whole clan up in an instant.
…but he wasn't anything like she hoped he would be, but simply a fool among so many others she had to work with. Fools who thought the whole world was theirs by right, and even if this one was probably right, it was still disappointing because she could already see herself succeed in her objective in a matter of weeks.
She should be glad that this will be an easy target, but at the same time she was angry that the biggest step of her life would be taken without any issue.
…well she would be even more foolish than he if she made the job more complicated than it had to be, so she will just continue along with his delusion of grandeur, then maybe she will find something challenging to do later.
But right now, manipulating what he thinks of her is not a challenge.
"Hmm, then at least he is a fool who isn't even aware of his surroundings, and he is probably confused why no one wants to join his special group. It's better that we keep it that way, maybe even feed him some false intelligence." Lance considered before gazing coldly at Janine.
"However, I remember you speaking that most students refused, so that must mean some did accept his request, name them."
"Only three dorms were affected, the first one being the dorm of the Ethereal Archon, who managed to recruit two students, one including the Archon, also known as the lost princess, and as the Whisper of Decay. The other student is Shauntal Kadam." Janine bowed more deeply. "I didn't manage to do any profound research on the identity of the latter, but I promise that I will bring back a report soon on everything you need to know about her."
"Tsk, that scenario I dreaded the most, Acerola joining the group of the other two traitorous archons who simply refuse to see this world become a utopia." Lance turned toward Aaron with gritted teeth. "What do you think bug master? You said that the best course of action would be to pressure Acerola first so she would become meek to our command, as she would be the one most opposite to our influence. but now she's under the protection under who you consider as the strongest archon. So this is your responsibility that we failed in our first endeavour."
Aaron rolled his eyes, but didn't try to prove him wrong, as it would simply make him aware of his current weakness to whatever effect Luciel's power had around him.
Like any type matchup, Archon worked the same, with their ability being stronger or weaker than the other depending on the efficacy.
For example, usually, the Primal archons were strong against the Gloom archon because they relied completely on their instinct, which made their lack of sense rather trivial.
So the fact that his ability to instinctively predict the future wasn't working well on Luciel could mean a single thing…Luciel was way stronger than him. Which didn't make sense considering that all Archons were created equally superior to everyone else…but for some reason, the current Gloom Archon went completely against this rule.
'Nor is he the only one.' Aaron looked briefly at Lance before answering. "For now…my instinct tells me the best course of action is to simply not antagonize them and to build our force. We should persuade all the other weaker groups or those who think they can remain alone to join our group. Then, we should try to make the powerless join our group too. And only then can we start to antagonize their group. Currently, the real problem isn't the two other archons in his group, but his relationship with Geeta. My sense tells me that she would always take his side no matter what, unless the majority of the students are against him."
Lance briefly considered his words before nodding. "That's work for me, so our current set of actions will be to establish our dominance in their battle contest ranking."
Aaron nodded with a wry expression, what Lance asked them was much harder than he thought. Even when they were Archon, most of their power had no effect on the hologram that even some powerless were able to get a higher rank than them. They just had to hope the challenge would change tomorrow.
"Now, you may resume." Lance addressed Janine.
She stayed on her knee for all of their banter without making even a noise to not interrupt them, and only waited for the right opportunity to resume. "Of course, no other roommate from Acerola dorm joined in, but sadly we have no member inside of it either, so it will be hard to influence the rest, they might also be swayed by the group sooner or later."
"Three students are barely something to worry about, and I'm nearly certain that if we do convert them, that girl will kill them." Lance dismissed her concern before waiting for the rest of her answer.
"The other dorm concerned is the one of Sabrina Natsume, the Spiritual Archon, I was unable to collect any more information about her…as she's extremely aware of me digging around." Janine said with a sweat drop dripping down her face as she remembered the feeling of getting torn like an old chiffon. And she felt that this was too much of a challenge.
"Also, it seem like she was already aware of Luciel objectif as they never met each others, and simply walked toward their headquarters I believe with the rest of her doormat…they didn't seem hypnotized or forced…but at the same time it hard to guess if she was the one who forced me to think this."
"Hmm, she acted too fast for us to stop her, but it doesn't matter, she seems rather content to just stay in the back, maybe she even has a plan to control the Gloom Archon like a puppet without him noticing. Whatever it is, I hope it causes them a problem."
Aaron stood silent as he had nothing to add, he knew very well that each thought that passed through his mind was read by her, so he didn't try to use his power to determine the best course of action for her, otherwise she would immediately know all about them.
"Lastly, the last dorm affected was the one where Benga Promotheus resides, who tried to refuse access to Luciel. However, he didn't fail because the Gloom Archon managed to enter, but because he directly contacted a member from it, Iono Shockiol."
"The one who records our fight? What a pity that she decided to join that public menace…do you believe we would be able to convince her to join us instead?" Aaron asked Janine.
"Why would you care about this loud brat?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She already gained a very good reputation among the other, but she also seems to be an expert in building relationships with others and convincing them. If she joins our ranks, our domination would be surprisingly way easier, trust me."
The dragon master furrowed his brow and looked back at Janine. "So?"
"I believe she's following them because of a contract between the two, so if you want my humble opinion, we should first find out what it is, then your group should be prepared to give out double this amount."
"Reasonable opinion, I will ask you the look into it, but first, do you have anything else to report?"
"Yes, two things, first, Natural also made direct contact with him, I ignore the nature of their conversation as I didn't dare to approach too close to the king of Unova."
"Tsk, I don't know what this fool is doing. Even if he joined my side, he doesn't seem to care about my order at all. He even gave up without bothering to try this test just to make a worthless and pathetic girl not feel like the failure she already is! Whatever, if he isn't even ready to listen to me, then I doubt it would be any different with the worst fool." Lance crossed his arms in disappointment.
Janine hesitated a little as she gazed at Lance, but sighed before giving him the truth. "Lastly, I need to report one last thing about the future request you shall give me."
"Hmm? What is it? Do you want a higher payment? My subordinate would take care of it."
"No…it's something about myself…Luciel Solarium…was able to notice me."