Life in Vain: Jobless Reincarnation

Pierre set his mug down on the table and then said, "You're right. Since we've passed that point, I can explain it now."

Dad frowned. "Passed what point? And what do you mean?"

Orsted didn't say anything, but he looked at Pierre with a thoughtful gaze.

I just sat there and waited.

It was clear that Pierre wasn't an enemy. And it was also clear that he was family... legally since he was married to Rostelina, but also by blood somehow.

I never really dug deep into it, but I was sure now after seeing my newborn children.

Just as much as I could tell my children were 'mine' at a glance, now I could tell that Pierre was 'related' at a glance. And a close relation too, not by a few generations or something.

Pierre tapped on the table and then said, "As you're aware, multiple timelines exist, along with multiple of 'Rudeus Greyrat.'"

I nodded. "Yeah. That's crystal clear at this point."

I had met two of them by now. Rudeus the Grey and 'Rudeus' from the future who started this whole thing.

Not the Rudeus in that other timeline, but the old man Rudeus who somehow timetraveled here in spirit.

Or something.

Never really did find out how that all happened and whether it was because of Being W or whatever.

Dad nodded. "We all saw that other Rudy show up from the projection when we were kidnapping the pope."

Orsted looked thoughtful, tapping the table. "Other timelines..." He looked at Pierre and said, "I presume these are separate from my own cycles?"

Pierre nodded. "In a way. Hm... how should I explain it?"

I chimed in and said, "I've got it." I looked at Orsted and said, "What Pierre's trying to say is that time is like a river that splits off into different individual streams. If you visited each stream, you would find that they were similar, but different. It's almost the same as what happens when you loop, Orsted. But instead of moving to another 'stream,' you reverse the flow of the river itself."

Orsted frowned. "...I presume that Being W is not privy to this knowledge? Or is he aware?"

Pierre shrugged. "He usually isn't. But I'm sure he's very much aware now. After all." He looked at me and said, "This guy here has managed to somehow trim away all the streams in this river."

Dad held up his hand. "Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying that there's like an unlimited number of Rudy out there? Then can't we grab them all to fight Being W?"

Pierre shook his head. "No. And as to why... It's complicated, but two of the same 'person' cannot exist at the same 'time.'"

I frown. "Wait. That's not right. When I went to the other timeline, Sylphy and Roxy met their other selves. And in this timeline, Rika is here as well as Kishirisu."

Pierre rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That's why it's complicated. It SHOULD be impossible. But somehow, you made it work." He shook his head and said, "I can only guess that maybe this timeline and that timeline aren't two 'streams' but two adjacent 'rivers'... going by your analogy."

Orsted frowned. "...Then am I present in two rivers as well? At that time, I was not able to go with Rudy." He paused. "...And neither were you, Pierre."

Pierre nodded. "Yeah. And that's the weird part that I don't get."

Oookay. Now *I* was starting to get a headache.

This was why multiverses and time-travel shouldn't be mixed.

I waved my hand and said, "We can sort that out later. The important part is you, Pierre. What are you?"

Pierre hummed. "Well, I guess that's enough background context. As for me... I'm the 'Enforcer.'"

I blinked. "The what now?"

Pierre tapped the hilt of the sword worn at his right side and said, "Continuing your analogy, I'm the one who jumps between streams and dam them up when they spill out into dead ends. I also dam up the streams that basically are the same thing as the main 'river' we're on."

I blinked and then held my hand up to my chin. "Well that explains why you keep mentioning fighting so many of 'Rudeus Greyrat' and casually talk about parallel timelines."

Dad frowned and then really stared at Pierre's face.

Pierre stared back and looked amused. "What?"

"...You're not Rudy, are you?"

Pierre laughed. "No. Despite everything, I'm not another Rudeus Greyrat. But it's close." He paused. "...Well. A bit more complicated too." He looked over at Orsted and said, "As I've said before, I'm Technique God Laplace. In terms of my 'existence,' that's the individual I am here in this world."

I nodded. "We've figured that by now. And it's also why Laplace's seal was broken and his castle was empty, right? You're Technique God Laplace, but you have the full Laplace's memories."

Pierre nodded. "Right. In terms of my 'being'... 'what' I am instead of 'who' I am... I'm a composite being made with Paul Greyrat's body from a 'river' that was spun back to its source, the former Dragon God Laplace's memories, and scattered pieces of knowledge from the person who became Rudeus Notus Greyrat."

Silence.

Dad blinked.

Orsted frowned.

And as for me...

"You're what?"

Pierre sighed.

-RNG-

To sum EVERYTHING up since it would take literally ten thousand words to describe it all...

In one timeline- No, in one 'time trunk' that split off into various timelines, there was a Rudy who got sent into a coma after Paul injured him in a duel.

Said Rudy wakes up almost a year later, and their family is completely broken down.

Mom and Mama Lily move to Millishion with Norn and Aisha while I stick around in the Central Continent with Sylphy.

There's a metastasis incident, I end up becoming Ariel's knight along with Sylphy, we meet Eri, and then things are hunkydory for a while.

And then Being W says fuck you all, I'm killing you off.

He spawns in some crazy monsters and sends monster hordes running rampant around the world as Mom, Mama Lily, Norn, and Aisha are visiting us in the Central Continent.

Things happen, they die, and Dad arrives too late despite being super strong due to training hard to fight off his depression.

That Rudy curses Dad to death, saying that if he was here, they all would have lived.

That Rudy, Sylphy, and Eri die due to being scrubs- I mean, 'weak' because they became complacent.

Dad apparently went sicko mode, cleaned up the Asura Kingdom, killed all of Being W's apostles, and even tried teaming up with Orsted to beat Being W.

But they lost and Orsted looped. On Paul's deathbed, he makes a deal with Laplace, who had just awakened due to the chaos with his memories restored...

"...And here we are."

I stared at Pierre.

There was a long silence.

And then Dad slammed the table and stood up. "I BANG LINA?!?!"

Pierre let out a long-suffering sigh and said, "No, you don't. Lina is MY wife, and I'll have you know that the operating personality here is former Dragon God Laplace, aka, me. And you should be happy she even gets along with you considering that in most other timelines you cause an 'incident' that makes her despise you."

I let out a deep sigh and rub my face. "I hate multiverse theory. And I hate time travel. And I hate more this freaking god who keeps causing these messes."

Pierre smiled and said, "You and me both, Rudy."

I shook my head and said, "Well. I guess that explains why you randomly drop the ball, Pierre." I paused. "And also why you call yourself Pierre. 'Pierre-Simon Laplace,' right? The French Scholar?"

Pierre nodded. "Right in one. I thought about Simon, but that was a bit too plain."

Dad leaned back in his chair, still in shock. "Pierre is... me. Well, not really me, but technically me. And also bits of Rudy. I mean, that's still technically just 'me' considering Rudy has bits of me. But-"

I decided to ignore Dad. He'd probably be like that for a while now.

Instead, I said, "Alright. Pierre." I looked at him and said, "Putting your ridiculous real identity aside, why did you have to wait until now to tell us again?"

"Oh right." Pierre nodded. "I forgot, but basically this 'river' was on the verge of splitting off into a lot of 'streams' up until your children were born. Until then, if I said who I was, I had a high chance of being whisked away by the world since I'm technically too close to Paul. And also since that's right around when the hydra incident happens where Paul usually dies."

Dad snapped out of his stupor and then said, "Wait, were you planning on stealing my spot then? I knew you were a bastard!"

Pierre rolled his eyes. "No, you idiot. It just means that if you lived, you would be different enough from the 'Paul' whose body I modified, and if you died, there wouldn't be an issue since 'Paul' was dead and I was a different person."

"...Okay, let's stop this thread." I rubbed the bridge of my nose and said, "I understand how to calculate spacetime dimensions to hop between parallel timelines but even I'M getting confused now. Not to mention Orsted here has been quiet the entire time."

Orsted blinked and then said, "No worries. I understand the situation." He frowned. "It is just..." He looked at Pierre and said, "From what you said, my subjective experience and 'river' of time should take priority over the streams, correct?"

Pierre nodded. "Right."

"So why did I not know about Rudy until I met him?"

Silence.

I frowned. "That's a good point." I looked at Pierre and said, "From what you said, Orsted should remember your timeline, right? No, 'every' timeline, shouldn't he?"

Pierre paused. "...Maybe the Creator God intervened?"

Dad sat up. "The what now?"

Pierre blinked. "Oh, right. I should mention that. He's not really a person anymore, but the Creator God was the one who plucked me and made me the Enforcer. Well, the Creator God's lingering will at least."

"...Hah." I covered my face with both hands and said, "You're TERRIBLE at explaining things, Pierre." I paused and then looked at Dad. "But I guess that's because you've got crappy hardware, huh?"

Orsted chuckled.

I shook my head and slammed my hands on the table. "Okay! Tangent and discussion about the wibbly wobbly mess that's time aside! For now... What do we do about Being W?"

Orsted rubbed his chin. "Usually, I would gather the fragments of the Dragon God's spark of divinity from the Dragon Kings..." He looked at Pierre and said, "But I presume you know of another way?"

Pierre nodded. "It's not that hard to get to Being W." He frowned. "The problem is that fighting him in his own domain is terrible. Not many Rudy's managed it." He paused and said, "...Though I guess it changes since we have an Orsted with unlimited mana, me, and this crazy bastard here who only knows how to swing his sword around."

Dad clicked his tongue and said, "I knew there was a reason why I hated you, Pierre."

I tapped my fingers on the table and said, "We probably don't want to bring the fight to him. If he's learned anything from our previous clashes, he's probably got too many trump cards up his sleeve if we fight him there."

Pierre nodded. "He might be petty and reckless, but he isn't dumb. That guy picks up on things quick, and considering the craziness you've been pulling off..."

Orsted frowned. "Right. That would be dangerous..."

I hummed. "Yeah... It might be different if we attacked Being W in that other Rudeus's timeline, but- Wait." I blinked and said, "Do we know if Being W can get info from across timelines?"

Pierre shook his head. "Impossible. He can send messages 'back' to himself from the future. But at this point, I've 'locked' the timeline. Well, time river. River of time?"

I waved my hand. "Yeah. Got it. But I mean the Being W in the other Rudy's timeline won't know what happened here, right?"

"Probably not." Pierre shook his head. "Like I said, it seems it's two different rivers of time." He paused. "Though I wonder how we got desynced. It's possible to go back in time, but it shouldn't be possible to go forward in time..."

I cleared my throat.

Pierre blinked and scratched his head. "Right. Sorry. No time travel stuff."

I nodded and then looked to Orsted. "To answer your question, Orsted, it should be easy to bring the fight to Being W. And I know a way to get there too."

Thank you edgy kid me who had a sudden epiphany when he was pretending to be a demon lord in front of Roxy and Sylphy.

Orsted nodded. "I see." He frowned. "...But having the fight here would be worse. Moreover, there is still that other Rudy to consider."

I blinked. "Oh yeah, never explained that, did I?"

Pierre blinked. "Other Rudy?"

I nodded. "Mmhm. Turns out the 'Magic God Laplace' me was hanging around in this timeline. Technically, he's been around since before I was even born and was setting things up in the background after he got unsealed recently. I had Akito track down where he was and had a chat with him in a place where no one could see."

Silence.

And then Dad facepalmed. "Kid. I think that you're the one who doesn't know how to explain things well..."

I put on a straight face and said, "To deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your allies. Now, the reason why we should bring the fight here is because-"

A flash of golden light appeared from outside the window.

I paused and glanced over.

The flash of golden light vanished, but a rolled-up letter was stuck against the window.

Pierre frowned. "That light..."

Orsted frowned as well. "That was Arumanfi. Then... Perugius?"

I walked over and reached towards the window.

The moment I did, a magic circle activated on the paper and the letter teleported into my hands.

Pierre stared at me and said, "What does it say, Rudy?"

I surveyed the letter for traps, but there weren't any. And judging from the official seal, it seemed to be a proper letter from Perugius.

But it was weird.

I hadn't met the guy at all in this timeline, so he shouldn't be hostile to me or anything...

With a bit of confusion, and a tiny bit of nerves, I broke the seal on the letter and read it.

---

Rudeus Notus Greyrat. Or Lord Rudras, if you prefer.

I know that you have joined hands with Orsted and Laplace. And I have confirmed that you have potential to be the worst Demon Lord in history.

Accordingly, I will eliminate you. Humanity cannot take that risk.

But I know mercy.

Decide a place and a time and inscribe it on the space below.

When that time arrives, I will meet you and we shall end this.

Flee or fail to respond, and I will act accordingly.

Perugius Dola
Armored Dragon King

Addendum: The Human God sends his regards.

---

"...Son of a bitch."

Well. I guess I wasn't the only one who realized a bit of talking could convert enemies to allies...

Goddammit, Being W.