The God of Jesters
Chapter 361 - 6.06.4 Self Realization.

Chapter 361: 6.06.4 Self Realization.

I walked in the streets with the body of a young child. A child died due to an accident not too long ago. Becoming the perfect new face for me as I watched the smiles of these commoners who seemed to have forgotten the misery they experienced during the last two months.

A sad but wonderful sight, the relief on their face was apparent and filled with hopes for the future.

But I had no interest in these. They were just failed products and nothing more. Products with short-term memory and no drive for anything besides survival.

Even dogs are not this forgetful. Their happy faces were proof of how useless they were. Lacking any potential for greatness.

Well, that was until I saw a man whose face was in stark contrast with others. "Bingo."

A perfect pawn is found and marked.

Named Scurry a simple ironworker whose job before the explosions earned him a net of 150 Dirium a day. Only enough to sustain his family as long as things went great, and the food was still cheap.

A family that doesn’t exist, just like his job.

He was not skilled enough to earn a job in construction, nor did he hold any powerful connections. Because if he did, his family of four wouldn’t have turned into a family of one. With him alone surviving the cruelty of this nation.

Following him, I found a bunch of others. Some with hollow eyes, broken minds, and anger. All kinds of negative emotions somehow overinflated when their freedom was announced.

"Even freedom is given under coercion." One of the young men said all alone on his own.

Not too far away were the coffins of his parents, who were too weak to survive the ordeal the colony went through.

"That’s their game, you see," I say, startling him who fell from his chair and looked at me with fear. "No need to panic, I am a mere child, that’s all," I say as my face melts and reforms a bit before adopting the face I had seen not too long ago.

"Monster.." He said, stuttering. Not knowing what I was or able to see my body under the candlelight which struggled to stay up.

"Don’t be like that... I came to help you and your parents." I pointed toward the coffins where their bodies were kept.

"I.. I don’t want anything to do with you... please leave me alone." The young man doesn’t seem to be in the mood for a dialog, no from what I can see. He was closer to a man on the verge of mental collapse who might just shout out my existence to his neighbors.

"I don’t intend to harm you. What I aim to harm is those that were above us not too long ago."

"... Is this a test? You wish to hear me say I agree with you and then sell me to those bastard soldiers."

"Calm down young man. No need for such paranoia for now. How about you just listen to what I have to say."

At those words, the man finally turned silent. "Among all the ones I met today. You alone were the one to notice a simple thing the monsters in the fortress did that everyone treated as natural."

"Can you guess what that thing is?"

"How they made us bow down when giving us our freedom back?"

"Correct boy, you should know what all that means, don’t you?" I said, turning my head and laughing for a bit.

It’s obvious what their intent was.

"Don’t try to have any wild thoughts."

"Insects need to bow down while listening to my voice."

"Don’t you dare speak about the horrors in the colony ever again?"

I voiced out the answers that were already in the boy’s head, which made him look at me with horror as well. "No need to be so surprised, don’t think I read your mind. It’s just that you are the only one who understood the true essence of that announcement."

"They wish to squash any thoughts of rebellion as well as your indignation toward the country by showing the disparity in power."

"Why... why us? What have we done wrong... what have I done wrong."

"The only wrong you did was born as a commoner in a country that treats you like cattle. This country might have criminalized slavery, but it never went away. The slavers just changed their tactics. With the biggest slavers being the Cynark Kingdom itself..." My speech continued, making the young man more lost in my words.

He forgot how he treated me as a monster, he forgot how odd it was that throughout this dialog, I went from a child to a full-grown human adult under the naked eye. But the young man was too lost to notice any of that.

And at the very end of the speech, the young man finally broke down and shouted. "So.. so what if I noticed it, what if I am aware of my position? Nothing will change. I don’t hold the power to change anything."

"Those monsters, I have no hope against them."

"Like they said. I am an insect. A commoner with no future."

"Why.. why are you here, making an insect like me feel worse than I already do?"

Self-realization of one’s position in life can be tough on certain individuals. More so for commoners in Cynark when they learned how little their leaders and protectors cared for their lives.

Once the young man understood how insignificant he was, he even thought how meaningless his death might be.

"I came here for a purpose of course," I said, walking closer to him, while he stepped back in fear. "No need to fear me. I am the fire bringer, and you will be the torch that will help in burning the forest named Cynark to the ground."

*****

Due to the fact that individuals can gain immense strength on their own, there has been a great effect on the world’s development in technological, political, and spiritual aspects.

The kings don’t fear the commoners for they hold godlike powers.

The mages don’t fear science, for they hold the power of elements in their hand.

As for the spirituality? With the way how gods were real in this world. The ignorant masses claimed all unnatural phenomena as gods, and they never dared to ever turn curious about them.

And hence, they were left in dust by the world of mortals.

"Vekantaraman, how wonderful would it have been, if I had met him." I can’t help but remember the legendary friend of dwarves, who brought with him loads of theoretical and practical knowledge, forcing the start of the Industrial Revolution in this backward world.

A man, who lost his life at the ripe age of 60 due to some odd accidents that happened in Pulgasiri, his home country.

Accidents, that had the shadow of certain churches behind them along with some leaders.

Why? The answer was easier to guess. But enough about why.

It’s what Vekantaraman left that made me his fan.

"Theoretical knowledge of weapons from the Second Great War." Which told stories of weapons that sounded too absurd to even my eyes.

He was a mere civil engineer, but the changes he brought to this world were more than just steam trains and other utilities.

"He truly ran away?" Vegal wondered, looking in the corner of his workshop before shaking his head. "A fool. It would have been safer here than outside."

Vegal sighed and dreamed of the alcohol and food he would eat, once his true body was ready for occupation.

"Sir, this is the report of your B11 Missiles."

"Good, you can go now."

He had long sold the blueprints to his prototype missiles during the very first exchange with Yethel. Who had worked on it for a while and even done some internal tests while their war with Cynark was still going?

A war that they barely survived. But they never used their prototype during the war and instead waited.

They waited for a perfect opportunity and when that opportunity arrived, Vegal joined them and said that their creation was total shit.

"Range and accuracy will deteriorate if it remains in the atmosphere, you have to break through the stratosphere before dropping on your target."

"The magic core for fuel is foolish, the mages will feel it from kilometers away and destroy them midair... only mortal fuels with next-to-know magic radiation."

"The warhead yield is too inefficient, the explosion is just producing heat without enough force, and it will be harder to destroy large structures."

"No need to make it heavier than it is needed, use lighter material for fuel efficiency. No need to make it strong as It’s going to explode anyways."

"Honeycomb structure for inner line, saving money on expensive Letium alloy."

"Beauty has no need for a weapon made for killing, removing redundant parts is necessary for proper optimization."

Vegal was a genius, and he showed his value the moment he came to Yethel. Even earning him the identity of Chief Research and Development Specialist of the weapons department.

And although this decision has earned Vegal some ire from old researchers. But all of them turned mute when he had brought them results.

’Aiming was all over the place, with seven missiles never even reaching the target area... if not for the volley, this test would have been a massive failure... ’

While Vegal was learning about his failures through his report, his assistant shouted. "Sir, the Master of Tower of Storms, just called for you."