novelraw Chapter 57: The Machiavellian
Chapter 57: The Machiavellian
"Ymir, what the hell is going on?" She asked, more softly. "Talk to me."
Ymir’s eyes moved from the rabbit and looked at her for a while. He didn’t say anything, just admired her for the last moments he’ll ever see her.
"Doesn’t seem like an illusion," he murmured, and traced his thumb on her cheeks.
"What...?" She was taken aback by what he said.
"You know...there are countless ways to kill a man," he said. He still didn’t believe that it was reality.
"Making him relive his past is the worst of them all," he continued.
"What are you tryi-"
"Shh!" He placed his thumb on her lips. "Quiet."
"I am neither a man of epiphany nor can I claim to be a Prince in the exact Machiavellian sense."
"But I am willing to be hated for a greater stability that I could’ve provided you, and that was the reason I chose an option which was the lesser evil. One that wouldn’t affect your career, your life, and reputation," he said, inhaling slowly.
"That was why I chose to die cleanly...without leaving a widow who would mourn over my death, and become a political liability in the luxurious but cutthroat society she inhabits. The fact that it became my biggest regret wouldn’t affect my decision."
"A prince does not undo his decree just because they hurt."
Freya didn’t move when he finished talking. Seconds passed, and she simply stood there, his thumb still resting lightly against her lips as her eyes stared into his.
Then...she smiled. But it was different. It wasn’t warm, nor the way she used to.
Ymir retracted his hand.
"You speak," she said softly, "as though the conclusion absolves the method."
Ymir knew it wasn’t her speaking the moment her expressions changed.
"A prince does not undo his decree?" she repeated. "To choose a philosophy that forbids regret after the fact?"
"You justify the act by its outcome, frame abandonment as protection, absence as mercy just so you can have the power of narrative, the power to control your fate, the way you’re remembered...That’s not you being prince, that’s just self-obsession."
"You never once asked whether she would have chosen differently, never discussed with her and yet you claim that you made an extreme choice in your past?"
"That’s not mercy for her, that’s cowardice for yourself." She said.
"Hmm... perhaps," Ymir murmured.
"Perhaps if I were a commoner, a normal man who seeks the pleasures of life, I would’ve gladly done that," he said.
"But, no...I’m a Prince. And a Prince does not seek fairness, mutual understanding, or shared burden. I don’t give a fuck about them."
Silence pressed. Even the entity controlling the illusion was left speechless.
"Because...Do you know what I do? What am I capable of doing? You know how I act? No, you don’t. A Mindless creature gaining conscience can never outmanoeuvre me and judge the actions and decisions of my past!"
"You wanna know where the boundaries of my morality stand?"
"I DO NOT DISTRIBUTE CONSEQUENCES!" He growled.
"You showed my hesitation as cowardice, my success as luck, my relationships as manipulation, my silence as arrogance, my clarity as condescension, my empathy as strategy, my ambition as greed, my patience as weakness, my calm as indifference, my curiosity as meddling, my generosity as leverage, my resilience as stubbornness..."
"And you expect me to believe and contemplate on the conversation we’re about to have?"
*Zzz-Sizzle*
The world turned to darkness once again as Ymir found himself standing on the dark water, lamps hanging in the vastness of the dark realm.
"You’re an evil man, Prince. You pushed a woman you loved while you were on your deathbed, you murdered a count and were the reason why a sweet family of a butler was slit alive, a butler who devoted his life to you."
The dark mass of purple threads spoke again, but this time, it was sitting near a grand piano made of coiled threads.
"Your words, your morals, and your rules impress me, but I would think twice before going near a man like yours,"
"When I was working on the game, our team had a lot of discussion...they asked...in what manner or how do we reveal the first fragment of the flute?" Ymir began, and the mass turned its head to look at him.
"The conclusion we came to was a rift, a naturally occurring rift that would appear inside the broken grounds of the academy of a fallen kingdom when the main character is rescuing other members. You know what the concept of that rift was?" he asked.
"Mirror of the honest flesh. A domain controlled by the fragment itself, where it presents three mirrors...the moment it convinces you that you lived a wrong life, and you should consider death. Not dying, just considering that as an option...that very moment you’ll lose your life," Ymir’s words hit the mark as the mass listened to him.
"I agree things have been quite different because reality is not a game, but the moment you tried to convince and make me realise by three stages, or I should rather refer to them as three mirrors of life, where illusions are based on the memories, I knew who you were..." Ymir said.
"You’re the fragment of Luna’s flute, but then that made me question, if you’re the fragment, where is your domain? Because I am certain, it sure did not look like this realm," he said.
The words lingered between them for a while, and now, it didn’t look like the fragment was the only narrator of this realm.
"-ah, so I’ve been noticed..." the fragment murmured.
"You’re right about this, I’m not inside my realm...I’m in yours," it said.
"You see, the moment my rift opened up, another similar one connected my realm right beside you. As if granting you the chance of acquiring a fragment, but that thought vanished the moment I was pulled inside your realm. I wasn’t or am here by choice or acquisition, but your realm just drew me in," it explained itself.
"And for a while, I used all I have to take control over your realm, but I could only affect a very small space of it, the space you’re standing on right now," it said.
"I see..." Ymir mumbled.
"So, this is my mind realm?" He questioned.
"Odd to ask of me, but I can assure you of the fact. But then it brings me to question your existence because the mind realm is something that only higher forms of beings have. Only gods and demons of the highest authority can hope to possess one of the mind realms, and yet you, a mortal, host a mind realm even if it’s underdeveloped."
"It’s like you stand within a space that bends to you, and you refuse the ownership of it or more like, aren’t aware of it." It said.
"..."
"If you, a fragment, someone that was supposed to be acquired by Darin, is trapped inside my mind realm...Then who’s controlling the rift that has opened in your stead?" Ymir asked.
"I am not aware of that...but if I were to speculate, it probably has turned into a portal towards the outer circle of the demonic realm, hell."
Ymir thought for a while, staring at the silent ripples of water and then closed his eyes.
If it is his domain, how can he control it in front of a presence that has the ability to even affect the parts of his domain?
"I refused to accept it?" He murmured. If the domain is similar to his power of perception, where he can alter reality, he might be able to do something similar to his domain too.
Perception works by perceiving the view in front of him into a blank canvas, on which drawing with his aura as ink can alter reality.
So if he were to assume his mind realm as a canvas too...
<<
He had no name for this particular thought. If severance can cut, distortion can warp, displacement can alter positions, then ...
His mind realm can also form an inescapable cage, too. But it solely depends on his imagination.
*THUND*
*THUND*
*THUND*
*THUND*
*THUND*
Five pillars fell from the sky one by one, each the size of a hundred-floor tower, sinking into the water as they surrounded the space of the fragment.
"Do not mistake my intrusion for trespassing, I was testing you," the fragment explained itself, but it didn’t move.
<<
He spoke, and the water floor turned into solid black graphite, golden runes etched on it as it seeped into the purple-threaded body of the fragment.
Its whole body turned still, not a single speck of thread moved inside the cage.
He completely restricted the movements of the fragment, taking away any leverage of entertainment it could possibly hope to have.
"Lastly...a Prince does not like being tested," Ymir said.
.
.
.
"But how do I get out of here?" he mumbled to himself, looking around.