Fork This Life!

Chapter 28: A Lone Harpoon in an Empty Battlefield

(POV Gerald)

As we travel towards the old mansion, I prompt Ferdinand to go chat with Lily on a few occasions. Eventually, he becomes fairly comfortable initiating and keeping casual conversation, which is nice. In regards to Lily herself, she seems to friendly enough with him, but nothing on the level that one might consider ‘romantic’ interaction.

Well, these things take time… Probably.

Putting aside Ferdinand’s love life, every time we go into a new city it’s another wave of cheers and celebrations.

Ugghhhh... Another one of these times I am glad being a fork. Celebrations and parties? Count me out, thank you very much. Way too much noise, too many people and there’s always someone who does something so stupid you’re embarrassed to be the same species.

…Although I’m not any more.

Ferdinand isn’t getting much attention behind all the paladins in their fancy armour and the priests with their robes, but he’s somewhat overwhelmed each time with just that, shrinking down into the saddle and staring straight forwards.

He said to me a few days ago, “You were right. This level of praise is just… Scary. Staying unknown sounds good to me now. Have you learnt how to make other people invisible yet?”

Ah, that guy… I’m not a genius you know. I just have a bit of creativity and diligence. Nothing too special.

On the topic of praise, most of the holy folk seem pretty humble. I must say, though, that Luc has a bit of a weird streak in this area. Apparently, he loves to boast… about other people? I’ve seen him at a pub once or twice, and all he’ll do is talk about what happened, except he downplays everything he did and exaggerates what everyone else did.

So yeah, that’s a thing.

After about a week of travelling, I see grass give way to bare earth and a familiarly dilapidated mansion sliding into vision. The doppelganger sits inside, eating dinner.

“He’s in there.” I contact Lily directly.

She nods slightly.

Hello again. This tine I brought friends.

I sit at my desk, eyes panning across the room without looking for anything in particular. They eventually settle on a painting, and I stare at it for a while without actually seeing anything.

Am I better or worse off as I am now, compared to before? I cannot tell.

I am probably going to die. Even I can tell that much, I am not that stupid. But at least – at least I got to experience life at the top for a little while. I look around again, taking in the lavish furniture, decadent ornaments and outrageously expensive artworks.

Back home, it was like a living nightmare. They all scorned me, ridiculed me… hurled insults and abuse. Life was tortuous just getting through every day. Just when I thought of taking that final step, I found myself here.

This place – this world, I cannot understand it. Demons and gods, monsters and magic… levels and stats, why is it so different?

Well… at least it told me about my psychic powers. They were wrong, they all were. And right as well, I suppose.

Which is better, here or there?

Slow torture or brief paradise?

This feels better, but then, knowing that it will all be gone soon enough is another kind of torture in and of itself…

I hear knocking on the door, and I turn to look.

“Who is it?” I call out.

“It’s me, your highness.” The voice replies.

I sigh and move to unlock the door. It is him. Demon, they call him. I turn the handle and pull it open, and there he is, smiling ingratiatingly. When I first met him, some eight months ago, I liked that smile.

“Your highness.” He bows deeply. “Everything is going just as you planned. Within weeks, the Empire will be under your sole control.”

For the first few months, I actually believed that this façade, this cunning act was authentic. Others were quick to tell me the traitorous, evil ways of demons, but I was loathe to condemn anyone merely by their race.

“Yes, only a matter of time.” I say calmly. “Did you come here only to sing my praises, or is there something that requires my attention?”

He fed me lies and fuelled my ambitions, whispering plans into my ears. It was only when he applauded my intelligence that I caught on. I had heard similar words uttered enough times that I recognised the sarcasm in his words, regardless of how deeply he hid it.

His expression doesn’t shift in the slightest as he slightly bows his head and says, “I hear Count Brook was very vocal about his displeasure in your appointment at the ball yesterday.” He sounds sincerely angry at this, but like everything else he does, I can tell that it’s fake.

I school my expression into a mask of anger. “Oh? Then he can be disposed of like the rest.”

I have been acting my whole life, out of necessity rather than choice. If he wants to deceive me, then in turn I shall deceive him without mercy. He may have already manipulated me into digging my own grave, but I’ll not let him do as he pleases.

…Unfortunately, I can’t just tell him to kill himself. My power does not allow it. Nor can I tell him to do something that he is aware would result in his death, such as sending him to the temple – I recently discovered that most all of the native religions hate demons.

Without knowing exactly what he’s planning, all I can do is work in secret against him and limit his movements as much as I can.

We smile at each other, two liars each secretly out to kill the other.

(POV Ferdinand)

“…You again.” The doppelganger says darkly, carefully eying the group. His gaze settles on Lily and Luc, and his eyes narrow. “Paladins of Vitus, huh? My favourite type of people to kill.”

“Oh? And why is that?” Lily asks, a hint of frost in her voice.

The doppelganger frowns. “Because you bastards don’t seem to get it – We monsters, don’t. Want. To. Be. Your. Friends.” He finishes through gritted teeth.

Luc’s eyes narrow and he starts moving forward to attack the doppelganger, but Lily stops him. “Not yet. What better way to learn about monsters than from their own mouth?” She says to him, before turning back to the doppelganger. “Why wouldn’t you want friends? Everyone needs friends.”

“Hah!” The doppelganger barks. “Don’t compare us with yourselves. Monsters don’t have friends. We don’t want friends. There is only the weak, and the strong. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you are friends with a monster. They do not love you. They fear you.” He spits.

“Hm.” Lily shakes her head. “It’s a shame you think so. Call of the wild.” The last words she intones, a burst of holy magic radiating outwards.

To my surprise the doppelganger just watches and smiles as it travels towards him. When it reaches him, his smile only spreads as it bounces harmlessly off.

“I see you don’t recognise this spell.” Lily says, raising her sword and shield.

“Oh, no.” The doppelganger denies, grinning as he twirls his spear once with his only hand. “I do.”

For a moment, neither of them move. The rest of us look at each other, unsure if we should be waiting or attacking.

Then I feel a low rumbling in the ground below me.

I look around in confusion. The doppelganger’s smile is only growing, and Lily is also smiling slightly, although she is now also wary of whatever the doppelganger seems to have up his sleeve.

Soon I can hear as well as feel the rumbling, and I finally catch sight of a dust cloud off to the east, seemingly growing in size… or coming towards us.

‘Uh, stampede!?’ Gerald says in panic. ‘Is this supposed to happen!?’

“I told you. They fear you. But they fear me more.” The doppelganger says, exploding with red mist – killing intent.

The cloud of dust splits down the middle, each half veering off to either side to avoid the doppelganger – but still towards us. At this point they’re finally close enough for me to see what they are – a herd of bronze-horned bulls, their characteristic horns glinting in the light as they charge.

I break out into a sweat. “Um, is that supposed to happen?” I ask fearfully.

Lily looks ahead with a frown. “No.”

The red mist suddenly caves inwards, revealing the familiar red armoured figure wielding its bloody spear.

‘He’s put on the armour.’ I warn Gerald, since he can’t see it.

“Time… For killing.” The doppelganger says.

And charges.

Luc immediately darts forwards, engaging him in a melee as Lily again glows with holy magic, again sending out a burst of energy which causes the stampede to veer off even further and away from the battle.

The doppelganger unleashes of burst of what I recognise as ki, knocking Luc’s shield arm to one side. At the same time, he sweeps his spear towards Luc. Luc is able to jump backwards just in time, but isn’t able to completely escape damage.

As the melee resumes, I spot a small rent in his armour, and a touch of red through it.

Not a moment later, A beam of light shines upon Luc, and his movements get slightly faster. The doppelganger’s head whips towards the priests, and he sends a burst of ki towards Luc. It doesn’t damage him, but it knocks him back far enough that the doppelganger is able to disengage and sprint towards the priests.

I cry out in shock and start to step towards them, but before I can even make it half way, the doppelganger is thrusting his spear towards them… and a glowing barrier stops it.

“Your spear will not reach them while I still live.” States Marco, a steely glint in his eyes. “Yes, this way is closed to you.”

The doppelganger curses and swipes again at the shield without success before turning around to block Luc’s strike.

Carefully approaching with shields raised, the other two paladins – Aidan and Resa, I think are their names – move to box the doppelganger in.

…Surely I should be doing something? But there’s not really any space around him, and I think I’d just get in the way… wait. I have that battle cry skill!

I try to activate it, but I can somehow feel that it won’t work. Why… then it hits me. I have to have a fighting spirit of over thirty. What am I at now… three!?

Come on! Didn’t you want to avenge Richard’s death? Fight!

Fighting spirit + 5

That’s not enough. Come on, fight! FIGHT!

Fighting spirit + 15

More! This isn’t all I can do!

Fighting spirit + 10

Battle cry! “HA!” I shout, but the doppelganger doesn’t even flinch.

Right… Of course it won’t work. He’s too strong for me to affect him…

Crestfallen, I watch as the paladins slowly box in the Doppelganger. With Luc, Aidan and Resa attacking him, he isn’t able to defend himself. Unfortunately, Aidan and Resa’s attacks aren’t powerful enough to pierce his armour, so the doppelganger is able to focus solely on defending against Luc’s attacks.

However, the attacks are still making it more difficult for him to move, and Luc’s thrusts are piercing hole after hole into the doppelganger’s armour.

But then it doesn’t have any holes? I rub my eyes. Oh. The armour is repairing itself as it gets damaged. I hope that his wounds below the armour aren’t getting healed. I can’t see how they would be.

Yelling out in anger, the doppelganger releases a burst of ki, sending a fair amount of dirt flying as well as pushing back all three paladins and sending ripples across the surface of the barrier.

Taking that opportunity, the doppelganger escapes the encirclement and charges straight at me. I take a step back and ready my sword, but before the doppelganger can get close to me, he is intercepted by Lily. I hear an odd screeching sound as his spear slashes across her shield, but she stops his advance.

The doppelganger sends a series of quick thrusts at Lily, with such speed that it looks to me like there are multiple spears. Lily defends against them but is forced to take successive steps back as she does so.

Then Luc re-joins the fight with Aidan and Resa not far behind, and the doppelganger looks even more pressured than before. Every wound he manages to inflict is healed within moments by the priests, while his own just keep accumulating underneath the armour. Soon I see actual blood seeping out of the armour, splattering onto the ground with every movement he makes.

He tries the ki burst again, with even less success than the last time. As the battle goes on, the doppelganger’s movement gets slower and less varied, while the paladins keep attacking with the same ardour they had at the beginning.

Finally, the doppelganger collapses to the ground, his armour melting off of his body. Not willing to take any chances, Luc plunges his sword into the doppelganger’s body.

In death, the doppelganger’s face and body returns to its original appearance. Its skin changes to a waxy white, the nose flattens to little more than a thin pair of holes and his whole body shrinks in height.

…Doppelgangers look unnatural.

(POV Lily)

‘A bit to your left… a tad forwards… there.’ Gerald says in my head, guiding me to the location of the buried diary. Scooping out the dirt with my hands, it only takes a few handfuls of earth before I feel my fingers scrape against something harder. I dig around it, and within half a minute I have the box out and open.

I take off my gauntlets, wiping the dirt from them with a cloth then temporarily tucking them under an arm as I look at the book, activating my magic detection skill. As far as I can tell, there isn’t any magic on or around it, so I deactivate my detection skill and take out the book, flipping it open to the first page.

I briefly skim through the first page. It looks like it contains the information we need, so I tell the others to search the mansion while I sit down and read through it.

As I leaf through page after page, the situation becomes clearer and my eyebrows become more furrowed. It answers several lingering questions I had had: The peculiar behaviour of the skeletons in the fields, for example, was because the then-necromancer had been ordered to have skeletons work in the fields. Obviously, the necromancer knew full well that it is impossible for the dead to cultivate anything living, so he did the absolute minimum he could while still obeying orders – one skeleton per field, repeatedly striking the ground with hoes.

Apparently, the one controlling them knows nothing about undead aside from their ceaseless stamina, and had hoped to replace farmers with undead; a venture doomed to fail from its conception.

As for their controller himself, his current identity is crown prince of the Empire. The diary states that he did this through the use of his psychic power, controlling some of the highest powers in the Empire, including the Emperor himself. In other words, the Empire is effectively under the control of this man, who is undoubtedly being influenced by the demon under his control – it’s in their nature.

Unfortunately, the diary does not elucidate the origin of said ‘prince’, nor the demon’s. According to the diary, although they are all effectively the prince’s slaves, they operate separately and have minimal contact with each other.

Or perhaps ‘had’ is a better word?

I steadily read through the whole thing. There is little information that seems useful to us currently, apart from his appearance and current location. Snapping the book shut, I stow it away and announce our destination: the Empire’s capitol city.

…Where was that, again?

(POV Ferdinand)

Earlier…

I glance through yet another empty room, half wondering where the doppelganger stayed if all the rooms are like this.

‘Hey. The others have found everything of worth.’ Gerald says, oddly taciturn.

‘Okay.’ I start to head to the front again.

‘There’s something you’ll probably want to see.’ Says Gerald, proceeding to direct me away from the group, to the east.

‘Where are we going?’ I ask, but he ignores me. I soon notice that something is sticking out of the ground in the direction I’m walking. ‘What’s that?’

‘You know as well as I do.’ Gerald says gravely.

And I do. I walk up to it, reach out… and suddenly everything seems so real.

This is where it started. And now it’s ended.

I sit down in front of the lone harpoon on an empty battlefield.

It’s stained with blood and soot, but it still stands.

“It’s over, Richard.” I say. “The one who killed you is dead.”

I let out a deep breathe and smile wryly. “I just wish I could’ve done it myself.”

‘Does it really matter?’ Gerald asks quietly. ‘Dead is dead. If all this didn’t happen, who knows when we might’ve been strong enough to beat him? And by then, who knows where he might’ve been?’

“Maybe you’re right…”

I feel a tear slide down my nose and drip down to the ground as I reminisce.

“You shouldn’t mourn, kid.”

I turn my head. “Joe?” I say in surprise.

“What?” He says, smiling sympathetically. “I said I’d offer a few wise words every now and again. I think this is a good time.”

I look back at the harpoon. “Can you do that later?”

“Yep.” He says, sitting down next to me. “But I’m not gonna.”

I sigh in resignation.

“As I was saying, you shouldn’t mourn. If there’s one thing that all life has in common, it’s death. From the day something is born, you can say with absolute certainty that it’s going to die someday.” He shrugs. “Nobody needs a crystal ball to predict that.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I say bitterly. “Of course everyone’s going to die some day. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mourn.”

“If everything’s going to die, it’s only really a question of when. Death isn’t fair, as one of my friends likes to remind me. You never quite know when it’s the end.” He scratches at his neck. “In effect, the only difference between people is what they do while they’re alive.”

He turns his head to look at me. “Don’t mourn his death. Celebrate his life.”

Joe spreads his arms wide. “Remember who he was, not who he could have been. He was a man among men. A sailor and warrior worthy of song. A beloved husband and father. The friendly neighbourhood fisherman. And he went out fighting the man who killed his son.”

He smiles warmly. “That’s a life worth celebrating, don’t you think?”

I slowly nod, my lips stretching into a smile, albeit a sad one.

“Wait, the doppelganger killed his son?” I ask, finally noticing what he’d said.

“Hm? Yeah, of course.” Joe says. “Doppelgangers need to kill the person whose appearance they copy to retain it permanently.”

I nod in understanding, looking into the distance. “I wonder if he knew…”

“He had his suspicions, no doubt. But enough of that!” Joe says, pulling out a ceramic bottle from nowhere and popping the cork. He swiftly pulls out a pair of cups and starts pouring a sweet-smelling liquid into them. “It’s just fruit juice.” He confesses. “Left all my wine back home. But we can pretend.” He hands me a cup and raises his own. “To Richard!”

“To Richard.” I raise my cup as well, clinking it against his.

I take a deep drink. It’s good. “I think I’m getting a bit drunk already. Drunk on sadness.”

“Hey, it’s alright. We all get a bit sad when we realise we’ll never see a friend again. You get to my age, you start counting how many friends you have left, rather than how many have passed away…”

I see a thin film of moisture in his eyes as looks over the horizon.

For a while we just sit and drink in silence.

Finally, I stand up. “I’d like to make a gravestone for him.”

A large, smooth rock breaks through the dirt a few meters away and floats over, thumping to the ground in front of me. ‘Here.’ Gerald says.

“Let me do a little something too…” Says Joe, grabbing the harpoon and pressing it to the stone, causing it to sink slowly into the rock.

When he lets go, I find to my confusion that the stone has somehow fused with the haft of the harpoon; it doesn’t budge in the slightest when I touch it.

It dawns on me that I don’t have any tools to carve words into the stone. I turn awkwardly to Joe. “I don’t suppose you have a chisel or something…”

‘Use me.’ Says Gerald.

Oh, right. I fetch him out, and he changes into a thin rod with one end tapering to a point. With him absorbing little bits of stone at a time, I etch some words into the stone. Then we leave, leaving behind only a harpoon pointing into the sky…

Richard

Husband, Father

Sailor, Fighter

Fisherman and Friend

May his soul find peace as it drifts away.

Gerald: Status

Ferdinand: Status