A few weeks ago, Ryan sat in a luxurious hotel room, staring into space. It was a rare quiet moment for him, not watching other adventurer streams, not mapping out his next move, not hypothesizing about skill builds. He was simply, still.
Focused.
Clara noticed, and somehow, as if she was a mind-reading [Witch] she knew what he was thinking about.
“I really don’t understand your obsession with that question, Ryan.”
“I’m not obsessed with it. It’s the [Aura Tyrant] that’s obsessed with it. It’s a stubborn bastard that won’t let itself be fixed until there’s an answer it’s satisfied with.”
“Hmm, didn’t you say that classes you embodied without the Trial System are things you embody?”
Ryan remembered when he thought of Clara as just a sheltered girl that took multiple times to learn how the cash register worked. Life would have been easier if that really was all she was.
“You know Clara, for someone that likes to pretend they’re not interested in the whole Trial System, you pay a lot of attention.”
“I pay attention when it’s important. Don’t try to derail the conversation again, Ryan. Why’s it so important to you?”
Milock, who didn’t catch on to the low level argument that was going on between his two friends, just shrugged.
“I’m telling you, man. It’s a stupid riddle with no answer. I bet the Great Civilization just stays in power because their most powerful members are immortal and stay benevolent. I think that’s the best you’re going to get. Wanting a perfect solution or a self-correcting mechanism to what happens when people in power turn into tyrants, actual tyrants, is just silly.”
Milo had said this before, though not quite as eloquently as this time. He’d clearly thought of the question and thought of the answer. That or he had asked the Secretary and this was her answer.
It didn’t satisfy him at all.
Clara shook her head, not willing to let the conversation get derailed again.
“That’s not the point, Milo. The point is I’m wondering why Ryan’s so obsessed with it.”
Ryan did not answer immediately. He did not have a proper answer for him the first time she had asked but he did come up with one since then.
Though instead of answering her he just stared at his own hands. He still remembered it from time to time, when he first stabbed the soldier in the first Trial. Desperation. When he ordered the Skeleton Lord to hack down the last soldier. Anger. When he stabbed Zedart over and over again. Vindication. When he pushed the Trials and killed the head figures on both sides of the army, giving him another S grade achievement, giving him his first Epic.
Hope.
Then it came back crashing down. The more he learned, the more he realized how fragile the world was.
And it would not stop breaking unless the Manager died. Hollow.
“C’mon Ryan, no secrets between teammates, remember?”
Clara’s words broke him out of his spiral.
“Because there’s no point.”
His voice came out a little colder than he wished. Ryan swiveled in his chair and turned his gaze to Clara and she didn’t flinch, but his [Aura Detection: Fear] skill told him everything.
It was a horrible skill in that regard.
As much as Ryan tried to hide it, Clara had seen right through him, and she was afraid of what they both knew was there.
Ryan smiled sadly and gave her his answer.
“What’s the point of anything if it doesn’t last? All of the struggle, all the pain, what’s the point if all of it’s just destined to turn to dust?”
Like Rome, like the civilizations that were left in the Cataclysm Abyss.
Sooner or later, they seemed to come to ruin.
Like The Realm right now. That beautiful perfect world that Ryan had thought was infallible. Even when he’d worked full time at a Manaburger in a poor neighborhood, it had always been there, waiting for him. A shining beacon of what a world could be. If people cared, if people in power were benevolent demigods that liked to nudge the civilization the right way.
“The Realm wasn’t perfect, but it thrived and it looked like it had a limitless future. I didn’t realize how important it was to me until the illusion shattered into pieces.” Ryan chuckled bitterly. “I can suffer juggling a minimum wage job with college, I can suffer being forced into killing people, I can suffer going from disaster to disaster trying to find a way to keep everyone I like alive. But I need to know. I need to know that The Realm will continue and will be that world I loved.”
Ryan could not keep the pain out of his voice. Clara and Milo were staring at him uncomfortably and he was already regretting sharing it.
But he had started and he couldn’t stop now.
“I need to know there’s a future that makes all of this worth it. I need an answer to the problem because even if she falls and I rise, the problem doesn’t go away. Artigan winning doesn’t make the world back to how it used to be—and if there comes a time I am in the Witch Tyrant’s shoes—”
I would do worse.
Ryan didn’t say that last bit out loud.
——
He remembered that conversation as he watched Valmere turn to chaos.
Trial Quest Updated!
It has been fifteen years since King Theskar has abdicated his throne, unrest and change has finally started to come to the Kingdom of Valmere. You are the [Conceptual Metamorph], find ways to influence the kingdom with at least two of your Epic classes.
Trial Completion Conditions:
1 out of 2 conditions completed!
[Arcane Saboteur] has successfully influenced the Kingdom of Valmere’s future!
Capacity: Unique. Due to extenuating conditions, no other Trialist may enter this Trial.
By all rights, Ryan should have been gleefully dancing on top of the chaos and ruin. He had proven that the kingdom of hero worshipping servants was not perfect. That it could not survive true scrutiny.
But for some reason, Ryan could not laugh or smile. He could only shake his head at the fragility—the inevitability of it all.
See? It all falls apart.
Agrinth needed move before it got worse. Because it would get worse. Even Ryan hadn’t expected it to get this bad this quick.
Below him, hundreds of thousands of people were marching in the streets. It was a miracle that it was so peaceful. He knew the other cities of the Kingdom were having the same problem. Though true riots had been limited.
At least, it was for now.
Ryan was considering skipping to the end game. Really tip over the scales and set things ablaze. He had a plan to do it. Just target some of the bootlicking council members and see if he could record conversations with them saying compromising things while pretending he was on their side and he was ready to ‘quell the populace.’
This wasn’t a world where politicians lying out of their teeth was considered the norm. It had only been eighteen years since Theskar had abdicated the throne properly. They were naive, fresh, unused to not trusting those that ruled over them.
It would be so easy. But it was better to burn it to the ground and start an—
[Class Change: Conceptual Neophyte]
Ryan shook his head. Damn.
No wonder the [Saboteur] told me not to take the class back then.
His legs kicked off the ledge as he rolled back onto the roof. That annoying diamond ranker was watching over him still, making sure that he didn’t break any rules they’d agreed upon. He wondered what the diamond ranker thought of all of this.
Then he called Agrinth’s mobile number. The Great Hero picked up almost immediately.
“Hey Agrinth, are you ready to call it quits? This is honestly easier than I expected and I don’t want to see what happens if I make it worse. We can just say you’re wrong and you can fix all of this.”
“No.”
And Agrinth hung up.
Ryan blinked, he stared at the phone for a few seconds, confused. He called Agrinth’s number again.
“Hey! I’m giving you an out here. We can call it a tie then. C’mon, there’s nothing wrong with admitting that your world of heroes isn’t perfect.”
“No. Valmere may not be perfect, but it will not fall to you.”
And the phone hung up again. Ryan almost threw the phone onto the ground.
“This motherfu—”
Well that was that then, whatever happened would be Agrinth’s fault, not his.
——
After a brief search, the biggest bootlicker Ryan identified was a relatively well-fed man in his forties. Born into both minor nobility and wealth, Councilmember Honorus liked the way the world was and constantly fought to keep it that way.
You knew the type. Those that talked a big game, but in reality, they really only voted to make sure their wealth could never be touched, or because they had incentives to vote that way.
Councilmember Honorus marched into his office to find a silver-haired elf sitting in his own chair. Honorus and his entourage froze as they saw him and his fear effect washed over them. Ryan looked up at Honorus, acting as if he owned the place.
“No need to be afraid, if I wanted to kill you, I could do so at any time. Send the others away, we should talk.”
Honorus was silent for a couple more seconds before he cautiously nodded at his entourage.
“It’s okay. All of you should go.”
Ryan sat back up as he nodded at the councilmember.
“Do you have a silencing tool??”
Honorus gulped and nodded, he moved over to his desk, brought out a box and turned it on.
The moment the bubble went around them Ryan leaned his head back on the chair and groaned loudly.
“Man, I really messed up.”
Honorus blinked at the sudden shift in demeanor.
“I’m sorry?”
“I didn’t expect the rabble to riot so much just because I told the truth, you know?”
“I–I’m sorry, I still don’t follow.”
Ryan raised his hands up.
“I’ll admit, I got a little excited after seeing Valmere for the first time in so long. It just wasn’t my vision for Valmere, you know? I might have overreacted.”
The funny thing was that Ryan was telling the truth here. He hadn’t expected Valmere to look this way at all. He also hadn’t expected the protests to escalate this quickly.
“So, what exactly are you doing here?”
Ryan sighed as his phone made sure to record everything.
“Well, you know how it is, I expected everyone to understand how powerful ascendants were. All those people grouped up, don’t they know they can vanish with a wave of the hand? Don’t they understand that?”
Honorus paled at that.
“The people have done nothing wrong, they are well within their rights to protest.”
“C’mon don’t talk like that. I’m not going to slaughter everyone, that would be a waste and that’s not how I work. I just didn’t realize at the time just how much motivation helped people continue to work.”
Honorus looked to the ground and clenched his fists.
“You didn’t realize that telling people they were servants would cause them to riot?”
Of course Ryan knew that, it was why he’d done it in the first place. He was just playing the part of a careless power that did as he pleased.
“A mistake! It’s always good to admit you were wrong from time to time. It’s really why I’m here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to know how to quieten the plebian masses, I’ve seen you do it quite often.”
Ryan leaned in closer, hoping to catch some incriminating words on his phone. But the Councilmember was either cautious or didn’t think in the way Ryan expected of him.
Honorus considered the problem for a moment. His fear of Ryan was lowering at every moment but his fists were being clenched tighter. An odd distinction.
“You’ll need to make a declaration. In front of the palace would be best. One where you admit you were moved by the passion of the masses and would learn our culture. Then you will need to make some minimum token appearances.”
Ryan waved his hand.
“Alright we’ll do that. Go write me a script and I’ll follow it.”
Honorus was still staring at his feet, his knuckles white in… anger?
“I’ll do it.”
Ryan thought little of it as he swiveled in the chair and tried to enjoy the way the world danced in his palm. He stopped himself mid spin when he realized he wasn’t having fun, and sighed.
It was always easier to share with a stranger than someone you knew.
“It’s sad, isn’t it? Disaster or not, in a few years, people will have forgotten all about this and settle back into their comfortable ways. Nothing will truly change. Not until it’s too late. At which point we’re always just gambling with our future.”
Honorus frowned, stunned by the sudden random monologue. Ryan stood up and patted the stunned man on the shoulder. Even less fear despite the shortened distance.
Ryan thought little of it in the moment, he was more concerned with his own damned question.
“Ah well. Maybe that’s just how it goes. Maybe there is no good answer and what we do need is a paragon to stand above all.”
Until the end, Councilmember Honorus did not say anything incriminating, nor did the conversation go the way he had planned it. But that was why you planned for multiple scenarios. It was what the Manager and the Witch Tyrant did and it was adventuring 101.
Besides, a speech where a councilmember was standing behind him would be funnier, at least.
It was when Ryan settled on a roof, scrolling through a phone that—for the first time, things did not go the way he had planned or expected.
The headline for the article was this:
I WILL NOT BETRAY THE PEOPLE - Councilmember Honorus releases conversation between him and Artigan.
Ryan sat up as his jaw dropped.
Somehow, the entire conversation between him and Honorus had leaked to the press. It wasn’t him that did it. His original plan had been to edit the recording and make Honorus sound much worse. That was before the councilmember had been too careful to say anything incriminating.
Not to release the entire damned recording completely unedited.
Alongside was a declaration from Honorus that he could not and would not betray or trick his people, that he would stand for the people no matter what.
Is he completely stupid? Does he really think I’ll let him get away with this?
////
Ryan’s flashback and reasoning was supposed to come after this section, Ryan’s flashback and his reason for his obsession was supposed to come after this section, but I thought this was a good time to place it anyway. Partly because of what's going to happen next and partly because y'all kept asking about it and it probably is a little confusing not getting why he was so obsessed over it.
I would like to hear your thoughts on it.