Chapter 111: Empathy

Claude approached Ash from behind, causing him to jump out of the way. His interruption also cost valuable seconds of [Focus] since Ash had been prepared to ‘solve the problem’ within that short 15-second span.

After all, he’d made the business decision that he didn’t want someone like Nora as a Vassal. So, he was going to remove her from that position the only way this world allowed.

Quite ironic considering he’d just saved her from his brother. But she’d yet to proclaim her hatred of him at that time.

Anyway…

With Claude’s arrival, that particular solution was no longer within immediate grasp.

Ash continued jumping away until he was out of [Vortex]’s range, then deactivated [Focus].

Coincidentally, he’d ended at the base of the tree on which his brother was perched. Clear looked down with a glee-filled smile and said:

“Y’know, after all we went through… I’d expect at least one visit.”

“Tch.”

Ash simply clicked his tongue and backed away before returning his attention to the rapidly evolving situation, which had gained yet another spectator. Fae had arrived at the same time as Claude and stood off to the side checking on Sandra.

And finally…

Ash’s gaze fell back onto the rampaging Nora.

Claude had willingly stepped into [Vortex], placing himself between her and Ash.

Nora screamed in his face.

“You… Get out of my way!”

Claude answered in a deep, stern voice:

“No.”

“W-why?!”

Claude looked wistfully toward Ash, not even caring that Nora was currently pointing a blade at him while siphoning his mana.

“Ash… is not a good person. He’s a narcissistic, pretentious, selfish asshole. However… he’s capable. Not only that, he’s showing signs of change.”

Ash grimaced.

‘The hell is he on about?’

“Fuck off, Claude! Just move out of my way! I don’t give a damn how capable he is!”

Claude’s glare drifted back to Nora as pellets of water bounced off his cheek.

“Well, I do. For better or worse, I’d rather have him lead us than anyone else. Not me, not Éloi or Sandra… and now… especially not you.”

Nora let out an awkward growl as the water swirling around the space wiped away her tears.

Watching the stalemate, Clear giggled, then whispered to the man to his right:

“Ashley… Dragonkin Champion, what are you going to do about this?”

Ash looked up at his gleeful brother.

“Is there another solution besides the obvious?”

“Pshehehe! Ashley… Ashley, my dear brother, would you, of all people, truly do such a thing?”

Ash’s face twisted in annoyance as he watched his brother’s every micro-movement.

“Huh…?”

“What I mean is… You, with all your haughty disposition, feeling threatened enough to take such action… are you scared of her?”

Ash shook his head.

“Of course I’m not.”

“Then, why bother?”

“Why bother taking down what tries to take me down…? Have the years behind bars dulled your mind? If something’s above you, you drag it down, then step on it; if something’s below you trying to drag you down, you stomp on it and send it plummeting to the bottom.”

Clear clapped.

“My mind most certainly has! Astute observation! But whatever I lost, I regained in raw instinct. However… Ashy, tell me, are you seriously the type to live with this failure? To accept that you’re such a terrible Champion that you let one of your own Vassals die under your watch? No… not just that. To cause them to rebel against you?”

Ash’s ears twitched and his slit eyes dilated as he stared into his brother’s violet eyes. He didn’t even register that he’d been called ‘Ashy.’

“What… did you say?”

“I believe you heard me… You are the Dragonkin Champion; they are your Vassals. Their job is to protect you; your job is to lead and protect them in turn. To let one die, or worse, to kill one yourself… what an abominable failure. What an absolute shame for a leader. There’s no worse failure than that.”

Ash’s grip tightened on [Sealed Fate].

“Failure…?”

Clear snickered, then said:

“Yes.”

‘So, if I let her die… I’m a failure.’

No, it was worse than that…

‘If she remains my Vassal while actively trying to rebel against me… then I’ve already failed.’

As much as he wanted to disagree with Clear, the bastard had found the one angle Ash couldn’t dismiss. As their Champion, Ash had a duty to lead.

He had his whole ‘follow me if you can’ philosophy… but Clear’s words exposed a flaw in it that Ash had never needed to consider before.

That philosophy had been forged inside Mythic Dominion lobbies, where there was no true leader. There were merely five people trapped on the same team, each fighting to have their commands followed. Ash had simply abstained from that competition. He did whatever he believed was correct and left everyone else with a choice: crush their egos enough to follow him, or lose the game.

If they refused, that was their failure. Not his.

But here, there wasn’t any confusion about who the true leader was.

It was him, the Champion.

That changed the equation.

If his Vassals failed beneath him, he could no longer dismiss it as their inability to keep up. Their failures reflected on him. Their division reflected on him. And if one hated him enough to raise a blade against him, then simply killing her would erase the symptom while leaving the failure itself untouched.

‘But… how?’

How was he supposed to simply make Nora’s animosity vanish?

Ash’s ferocious gaze fell back upon Claude and Nora, who were still exchanging short remarks: Nora’s sharp with rage, Claude’s measured and unnervingly calm.

He couldn’t simply beat her senseless.

Ash wasn’t the most socially aware, but even he could tell that trying to answer violence with more violence would only create a cycle of increasingly brutal retaliation.

‘Are words the answer?’

But what words could counter hers? What words would dull her hatred enough to make her stop seeing him as an enemy?

Ash’s mind drifted to the source of her hatred.

‘Her brother…’

‘Who is he?’

To tell the truth, Ash vaguely remembered passing him in the facility once or twice, but remembered nothing more. Not his face or what he’d supposedly said.

‘Waverly… Waverly…?’

‘…’

‘Nothing.’

Ash remembered nothing.

Clear looked down at his brother with an amused expression spread across his face as he began kicking his feet.

Ash looked up at him once, then stepped forward toward the crying girl, finally inserting himself back into the situation.

“Nora… your brother. I truly do not remember what I said to him, but I can relatively guess the kind of thing I said. But… my words are never meant to hurt others. Though I admit that’s usually the sole outcome.”

“H-huh? Y-you bastard!”

Nora’s anger grew even further as she threatened to take a step toward him, but Claude stopped her.

Claude glared over his shoulder at Ash.

“Stop. Don’t even try apologizing.”

“Apologizing? No. I’m doing nothing of the sort. I said it before, but I’ll articulate it more clearly… What I wish to say is this: my words are meant to be heard. I want people to hear them, despise them, and work until they can make me choke on every last one. To forge themselves into someone worthy of standing as my rival. The intention is not harm—”

Nora cut him off:

“You don’t mean harm?! You don’t mean fucking harm?! Do you seriously possess no empathy in that pathetic skull of yours?!”

Claude shouted:

“Ash, stop!”

Clear chuckled and whispered in a voice only Ash could hear:

“Not looking too good, bro… at this rate, you’re going to fail.”

Ash took a step forward until he stood on the very edge of [Vortex].

“Are you seriously going to persecute me despite the lack of malintent?”

“The lack of— you can’t be serious! You—”

Ash cut Nora off this time. And for perhaps the first time since arriving in this world, genuine frustration bled into his voice while speaking to another player.

“I’m unaware… It’s clear you hate me; it’s also clear you’ve done your research on me. You know my in-game psychology, you even know of Clear… So tell me this: have I ever given anyone the impression that I understand people?! You… all of you are confusing to no end! Is the whole point in life not to be at the top?! Because that’s all I know! I simply cannot fathom those who revel in stagnation! I can’t!”

The frustration gradually bled from his voice. He continued, quieter:

“But, I don’t try. I never have. Understanding people, I mean. That’s… a failure I’ve unconsciously ignored. I’ve always treated people themselves as variables too volatile to properly analyze. If I couldn’t measure the factors, then I couldn’t define success or failure… so I simply stopped trying.”

Nora stood with her mouth agape, seemingly caught somewhere between disbelief and awe at his sheer stupidity.

“D-do you really think saying this is helping at all?!”

Claude looked like he wanted to shut Ash up, but ultimately clenched his mouth shut.

Ash stared Nora straight in her teal eyes.

“That’s… what I intended.”

‘[Focus]’

Ash was taking a gamble…

He willingly stepped into [Vortex] while unsummoning his sword.

[You have unequipped [Sealed Fate]]

He slowly walked toward her with open palms.

“I’m naive… when it comes to the emotions of others. So, how about this…?”

Ash stopped when Claude grabbed his shoulder, holding him back from entering Nora’s striking distance.

Ash didn’t fight the hold. Instead, he extended his open palm.

The last thing Cross said echoed in his mind.

Ash added:

“Teach me, Nora. Teach me to understand people. To understand their pain and feelings. Teach me… how to be a leader. Would that not be better revenge than killing Clear or me? Killing either of us accomplishes nothing. But if you teach me empathy… then, if everything you’ve said is true, you’ll give me the ability to finally understand the depth of the pain I caused you.”

For once, Nora flinched and loosened her grip on the blade. For the first time, doubt interrupted her rage. Not forgiveness or acceptance. Merely the possibility that hurting Ash physically may truly solve nothing.

[Focus] ended, trapping Ash in place. He had no way out on his own, unless he unsummoned all but his footwear.

Nora lowered her sword further and muttered:

“I…”

Then Clear’s voice tore through the fragile opening Ash had created.

“Budding flower of violence, is your love for your brother really so shallow that words could shake your resolve? Violence! You have no chance to teach someone like him ’empathy.’ Violence is the only answer! The only way to make him learn!”