The God of Jesters
Chapter 645 - 9.20.4 Epilogue2: I always hated you.

Chapter 645: 9.20.4 Epilogue2: I always hated you.

Remira’s personal interaction with Alabasta was limited. It mostly consisted of meeting him in passing or when Sir Alabasta came to her batch for a day or two, not more than that.

But if it were to mention who she had more relationship with, it would be Vance. Though just an elder brother with little interaction, Vance did regularly come to support the Trainee knights, and in turn spread the teachings of Alabasta to his juniors.

Come the Durum incident, this small relationship strengthened beyond just being acquaintances. They turned sort of friends, but nothing anything close. Both had respect for each other, and Vance treated Remira more like a little sister who was still blinded by the world, finding her own path.

Understandable considering how much pressure she had to suffer due to her identity and the fate of being influenced by Jester, just like he was.

Which did make the two close. This is how Remira learned of the true state of Sir Alabasta, although not meet him as much, she held respect for the man who had pursued that monster for decades on end.

And the only reason she was able to learn so much about him was also due to the records he had left on him. Records are generally hidden from public view for some odd reason.

But now, she learns that this very man, the one who had influenced the life of Vance and in turn her had died. She didn’t know what to say.

There was no sadness in her heart, no anger, no nothing. She felt nothing. Just emptiness for a bit as her thinking shut off. It might be her mind being overwhelmed by emotions, the prior guilt that had become her heart demon slowly creeping its way back up.

This time, her mind would fall, it might fall harder than before. But Vance, although suffering from grief took a deep breath and spoke to Remira. "Don’t think too hard, Master died on his own terms, he gave his life to secure ours. It would be wrong for us to lose ourselves in grief." Vance was hurt, to him this death made him recall the past trauma of how he lost his family. But Vance was never the old him.

He grew up, and even though he grieved for his Master, he can’t let that affect him. This was no time to cry, he was too old for that. Crying will come later, for now, he had to get up and let the Knight Order learn of the things they saw in the domain, the rise of that man. An enemy in Vance’s eyes.

An enemy that would obviously side with Jester, making the words of his Master all the more important.

"Jester just now acquired a Daemon level support, we have to tell others in the Order." Daemon, they seemed beings from the legend, but Vance knew better than anyone that these things were real.

While Remira, who felt hollow for a bit turned her head to Vance. "Why... why doesn’t it affect you?" To Vance, Alabasta was like a father, she knows as much from the interactions she had with Vance till now. So why doesn’t Vance seem affected after the initial grief he showed? How can he?

Doesn’t he feel sad?

"Remira...hah!" Vance gave Remira a deep look, recalling how he had met her before. Making it all the more important that he doesn’t let it weigh in on Remira’s mind anymore. "The time for grieving will come after we reach home, we can let it all out then and that will be it. We can’t let Master’s death go to waste, we have to take revenge, bring justice to those monsters."

"And for that Justice, we need greater strength, greater support, and no mercy," Vance recalled the words of the current leader of the Radiant Order, Hawking Ziegart. "The enemies are too many, they are too strong, and the path of the old knights is really flawed. Our Morales, how zeal is blinding us from efficiency. Forcing us to walk a harder path when the answer can be so much simpler if we just let go."

At first, Vance’s words did seem sensible, holding hope and the zeal that a Radiant Knight should have, never backing down against the odds that were forced upon them.

But then, his words started to devolve. Turning cruel.

"Remira, get up. I will need your help."

******

Emotions were the very core of human sentience. Before man started to speak, the first they they learned to prove their sentience was to show emotions.

Whether it be anger, hunger, envy, desire, or even grief. Emotions were the very thing that made the living thing, living.

Born around the same time a being capable of thought was born, Lord Emotion was one of the first few chaos gods to be born in this world.

But unlike the Sun God or the Night Goddess who too were children of Chaos, the Lord of Emotions barely had any influence on the mortal world, if at all.

There were no temples, no idols, or no mention of him through the history books, they were not even aware if such a god even existed.

Most of the daemons or totems never even believed in him. But the other born of chaos knew him but never bothered to interact with him. In their eyes, this being which in turn can be considered their brother was too dangerous but useful.

"God of enlightenment they called me, worshiped by the first scholars born on this world." Lord Emotion spoke, reminiscing the past. A past where he was worshiped by the mortal. A small blip in history that had never been recorded, but he never forgot the joy that he felt at that time. "But all those that worshiped me, hoping for my blessing always fell to the corruption."

He felt wronged. Due to his domain, all those who worshiped him went mad with his blessing, blaming him as the forbidden god which the world slowly forgot. "Do you know how it feels?... "

Lord Emotion spoke to the figure that stood in front of him. An old man with glasses and a cup of tea in his hand.

"Misery... you brought it on yourself," Malidi spoke, not sugarcoating his words one bit. "Your blessings are curses, the only ones capable of holding onto your powers are demons, no sane totem or a daemon will bother to touch you."

"The intelligence that you are so proud of was my gift to you." Lord Emotion didn’t like the tone of Malidi. Knowing why he was here, his anger was even more palpable. "And I can take it away with all your wants."

"Try if you might, I don’t fear the puppet." Malidi didn’t feel threatened one bit, not to mention, knowing how chaotic gods like the Sun, night, or Emotion were born, he knew that these ones were born due to the world itself, it was never the other way around.

Not to mention, unlike the Night that took Guardian ship of this whole world, while the Sun took control of reincarnation, Emotion had always been stuck in his bubble, never growing, never achieving something new. Still being a simple god born of the life, not the other way around.

So although this god was capable of taking all the emotions from humanity, this would in turn also weaken him, or outright cause him to fall again.

That was how it worked, so there was no need for Malidi to fear such a wasteful god. Not to mention, this one was not the real Lord Emotion, just a false avatar born into the mortal anchor of this material world.

A birth that would have been impossible by his and Jester’s input.

"Your arrogance, I never liked it." Lord Emotion turned silent. He could fight gods, their angels, or even legendary totems that existed without the protection of a god. But Malidi was far different.

Even before Lord Emotion found him threatening for multiple reasons, ignoring his bizarre magic that went against the very world. What Lord Emotion found annoying was the lack of emotion in Malidi. To him, it sometimes felt that Malidi was not even a human for there was barely any emotion in his heart.

"And I warned Jester to not let you be the vessel... so the feeling is mutual."