Scroll 5: He blinded me with science, then stole my destiny
Liberator from the Imperial Yoke, Protector of the Realm, Head of the Church, Lord of the Moon, Husband to the Sun, Master of Beasts, Professor, Doctor, and leader in-perpetuam of the Planet Kingdom of Gardenia, his Serene Majesty Theofilium XII was dead.
And he couldn’t be happier.
As soon as Hiro’s sword penetrated his chest, Theo’s event listener kicked in. The running environment noticed the triggered event. The event’s signature was “tirant_defeated”, its data variant was 48280.
Theo jumped up from the submersion chair, almost pulling down the cranial-sense injector that but seconds ago had been embedded in his nose.
“This is it!” Theo exclaimed. He felt sure of it.
“Just needs some tinkering. A hair here, a death there, a sickness over there,” said Theo as he plopped into what he liked to call the “Thinking Chair”.
This moniker wasn’t inaccurate, the “Thinking Chair” could brag that it had provided comfort to one of the smartest bottoms in the universe.
A processing tower gave an audible ping, like a kettle, a rather irritated kettle as well.
“Coming,” screamed Theo at no one in particular. A second, even more irritated, ping resounded across the room.
“I said I’m coming Yap,” said Theo, “I can’t process information as fast as you can.”
A smug series of pings sounded in the room.
“Slow down Yap. I understand morse code, but there needs to be at least more than 100 milliseconds between each letter if you want me to keep up.”
A reproachful series of pings.
“You’re right, I haven’t been studying. But if this works out, we’re going to be getting a lot more free time.”
Theo wheeled himself over to the pinging console.
“The future 50 year simulation looks good. Not too much tragedy really. Couple of rebellions, all quickly put down, and a strong dynasty is established as well,” said Theo as he nodded approvingly.
“There is a definite advantage to killing the BF during the campaign. Note to self: Change abbreviation of BF to something else. It sometimes makes it difficult to differentiate between Best Friend BF, and Boy Friend BF.”
Theo pressed a series of buttons on the console and reports started to roll out from the asthmatic matrix printer.
“Which is running out of ink,” said Theo, “Note to self: Walk down to beach for squid rings and ink.”
Theo wheeled himself over once-again to the printer and started reading the data.
“Ok, so let’s look at base stats first. Lost heir to the throne is the perfect way to go, clearly. People like a bit of pomp I guess. Also female is always better, particularly if they’re born to exiled nobles. A sword as a personal side-arm is a must have, I wonder why?”
A series on inquisitive beeps sounded off.
“That’s true Yap, swords and sword-like weapons are always associated with justice, truth, and nobility. Which is of course ridiculous. There is no justice or nobility when a sword skewers a infant, although there is a sad kind of truth in it I guess.”
Reaffirmation beeps.
“That’s true as well. We’ve got the best variables now. The perfect side-arm. The perfect best friend. The perfect first kiss. I even managed to let Hiro decide for themselves who they want to romance. As long as they stay away from Malinha, they should be ok. Of course, that requires me to kill her off after she has served her purpose.”
Regretful beeps.
“Well yes, but to be fair, that is her purpose in life, isn’t it? Be evil, turn to good, die for Hiro’s sake. There is a lot of purpose in a life like that.”
Sad beeps.
“You know you shouldn’t get attached to them. They’re tools.”
Silence.
“Fine!” exclaimed Theo, “If you manage to find a way to save her, do it. Just make sure she stays away from Hiro for say the next 50 years after they defeat the tyrant, ok?”
Dutiful beeps.
“Ok Yap. I’m going to rest now. Tomorrow, we can continue working on the successful run. Who knew that a trainable smart cheeky pet would be a must-have?”
Night-night beeps.
Theo walked past a series of spherical containers. One of which was labelled “Hiro”.
“Sweet dreams saviour,” whispered Theo while lightly brushing his fingers across the concreglass of the container.
“It isn’t fair what I’m about to put you through and there are no gods or spirits that will forgive what I’ve forced you through to get here.”
Theo walked into his little sleeping cove.
“But I don’t need forgiveness,” he said to himself, “all I need is for Gardenia to be free.”
And so Theo slept. He slept the uncomfortable sleep of the criminal who knows he has done wrong. But every now and again he would have little dreams. In these dreams he finally released Hiro into the world. With him where all the companions that he had carefully selected.
The Mentor, The Best Friend, The Lover, The Spouse, The Veteran, The Enchantress, The Villain, The Kind Priest, The Boisterous Warrior, The Mage.
They were all sitting in spheres alongside Hiro’s. Whenever he remembered this, Theo managed to sleep quietly for a moment, and dreamt of freedom.
Scroll 5: He blinded me with science, then stole my destiny
Voice over done by Harry Frost(https://www.facebook.com/bellowsaudio)
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