Chapter 48: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morality Improves
Fuck. It’s been a while since I last took a punch. The last time was… high—
Now that I think about it, all bad things in my life tie back to high school, huh? Talk about some messed-up formative years. Fucking hell.
THUD!
UGH!
I really shouldn’t have charged in like that. Fight or flight… Why do I always wind up picking the fight option?
Luke warned me I was often too trigger-happy, sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. Thankfully, that hasn’t gotten my nose crushed yet, but we’ll have to see about that in a minute…
THUD!
AGH!
While I did turn my head away to mitigate the force of the punch, it still hurt like a bitch. Unlike brawling with other high school boys my age at the time, these men were trained and fit. Each blow has me seeing stars, but adrenaline’s barely keeping me conscious.
I can’t move my arms while I’m being held from behind like this. I can’t fight back like this… No, I’ve still got my legs.
I kick the ground to get some height. I wouldn’t be able to reach the guy in front of me otherwise, and I needed this next little boost.
As he twisted his waist to throw another punch, I kicked him in the gut, sending him stumbling back—and knocking myself backward in the process. I crashed into the guy who still had a hold of me and took the opportunity to slam the back of my head into his jaw.
THUD! CRASH!
“Ugh…”
“You fool! How could you let him get you like that! Hold him down!”
Fuck. I’m too slow.
By the time I tried to get back on my feet, someone had already grabbed my leg. I kicked at them desperately, but it was like hitting a sandbag. Then another person pinned my right arm—my dominant one—while the man I’d knocked down with the headbutt got back up and swung a kick at my head.
SMACK!
“UGH!”
I blocked with my free arm, managing to deflect the kick slightly, but it didn’t negate much of the impact. His foot still slammed my arm back into my face, which probably hurt less than taking a direct hit to the temple.
I really should’ve worked out in my free time. Why was I such a lazy ass back when I was just a dumb NEET?
All that “slim equals speedy light build” crap people spout in powerscaling debates is bullshit. I’m still slow as hell, even without the heavy muscles.
I used my free arm to smack the guy holding onto my right arm across the face, but it didn’t do much. I should’ve aimed for the nose.
I keep trying to resist, but it’s no use. I’m losing stamina quickly.
I’m not some shonen protagonist, so there’s no way I’d get to win against a group of muscle-bound mob characters like this. I don’t get to have my own power-up scene or anything. Reality is fucking cruel.
“B-Benefactor… Please do not hit him… my benefactor…”
Tumble, worry about your own beaten ass first, damn it. Get up and leave before they finish the job.
Grab.
I felt something grab at my hair. It was one of the men pulling me up by the head, staring me down with a hateful glare.
“To think that there would be fools among us who would so willingly shield those ill-born afflicted, as if they were protecting their own family.”
“Stereotypical C-tier villain talk.”
“Huh?”
Ptui!
I try to take the opportunity to spit at the man’s face, but he raised his hand and blocked it with ease. Guess I can’t surprise them a second time with a strategy like that?
SMACK!
“Ugh…”
That was full force. My head snapped to the left as I was smacked across the face with a hand covered with my own saliva.
“Disgusting. For a fellow Espherite like you to raise your hand against your own brethren.”
“Hey, bozo. Are we speaking the same language here? Aren’t you doing the same thing?”
“What? Do you refer to the afflicted? They are not one of us.”
“Afflicted? Is that what you call the gnomes? They’re not disea–no, I guess they are? Do mutations count?”
“What is a mutation? The word sounds ugly and unpleasant.”
“Your mum.”
Swing. CRUNCH!
“AAAHHH!”
As he swung again, I caught his hand with my mouth and bit down. Surprised by the sudden sharp pain running through his hand, he tried pulling it back, but I wouldn’t let go easily.
“URRRGGGHHH!”
BAM! THUD! BAM!
I couldn’t help but let go after being struck in the head three times with his free hand. Fuck… Did my head bounce on the floor three times there? How am I still conscious?
“G-Ganging up on one guy… when y-you’ve all got thick muscles and stuff… is some pussy shit.”
“YOU!”
“What are you people doing?”
Krrsshh…!
Looks like someone has come to my rescue. Someone with a toy—no, I guess it’s not exactly a toy sword anymore. It’s a plasma sword in Elynthys’s prehistoric era.
Vuuuooom!
A beam of white light that looked almost solid, like a bat-shaped club, was pointed at the men holding me down. The sound quickly overwhelmed the group, intimidating them with the cry of an unknown weapon.
“C-Chief?! W-What is that weapon?!”
“A blade blessed by Esphera herself. This is the holy sword, Agnova’k. You would do well to behave yourself before her light.”
No, the lore I gave you was that the sword was made from a fragment of the Holy Star. You’re making it sound like Esphera herself granted you that wea–Oh, this is bullshiht propaganda, isn’t it?
This sly bastard is sneaking some cheeky larping in to boost his image. Why do I feel like I’ve seen someone else do that before?
“That light…! It must be true! Esphera’s will dwells within the blade!”
“Could that even be called a blade? Its shape is too different… Truly, it must be a weapon from the Goddess herself!”
No, it’s a cheap Chinese knock-off that I bought for cheap online. I’m pretty sure that if it weren’t for the divine enhancements on that weapon that pumped its stats up to +10, it would’ve run out of battery for its lights and sounds in ten minutes tops.
“Away with you scoundrels! Away before I carve your flesh with her holy light!”
Vuuuooom!
KSSSSHH!
In a show of intimidation, Nova’k cut through the corner of a mudbrick building with ease, as if slicing through air. Oi, someone lives in that house, you know. Now they’re going to have to deal with a hole in their walls.
“O-Oh…!”
“Mercy! Mercy, Espheraaaa!”
The men who had been pummeling me mere moments ago let go of me and ran off in a heartbeat. I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief after feeling the weight on my body lighten.
“Ugh…”
“To think I would encounter you here under such circumstances. Perhaps this is fate ordained by Esphera herself?”
Bro, stop making shit up. That’s my job.
Ugh. Fuck. Now that I’ve got time to breathe in safety, I can feel my body screaming in pain.
“You are badly hurt. Allow me to take you and your friend somewhere safe.”
“W-Wait.”
Grab. Lift.
For fuck’s sake. Is he really princess-carrying me while slinging Tumble over his shoulder like extra luggage? This is some gayge ass shit.
If I’m going to get picked up like this, at least let it be a muscle mommy doing it, goddamn it.
“VELL! WE’RE HE–Huh?”
“Lord Yvell! Are you–Huh?”
“Sir Yvell, we are–Huh?”
“Oog?”
“Goo.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Am I really going to be caught in a compromising position like this in front of all of THEM?! Today’s REALLY not my fucking day.
“... This looks kind of hot.”
Fucking fujo. Not now, please.
“This is good timing to meet you all here like this. Let us find somewhere more suitable to converse. There is something I would like to discuss with you all.”
“Bro, can’t you put me down first…?”
The town itself wasn’t exactly the safest place to have a chat right now, especially with Tumble all black and blue after that beating. I’m in slightly better shape by comparison, but not by much, and having more eyes on us in this kind of situation wouldn’t exactly be a good thing.
So, instead, we decided to return to the lake area, which wasn’t too far away from Gnomewood. Since Nova’k was with us right now, the constellation trio (Esphera, Graille, and Ramube) had to sneak out to Gnomewood to fetch some herbs to help heal our wounds while I distracted the chieftain with some idle chatter.
I passed up on the herbal stuff, though. I brought my own first aid kit for situations like this. I have an ice bag too… but I couldn’t exactly use that in front of Nova’k. So, I settled with pain relievers and cold, wet hand towels to cool my bruises. I handed some to Tumble as well.
“Uu… I am so sorry that my incompetence has resulted in such a violent outburst from my own followers. I had not…” (Tearful Whispering)
“Calm down, Esphera. You cannot hold yourself accountable for every action your followers take. Something like this is inevitable in large populations when tensions arise.”
“Vell’s got a point. Why blame yourself for something a few dumbasses did? Wouldn’t it be better to punish them later for it instead of bawling your eyes out now?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea, Ori. I shall see to it that their time in the afterlife will be an unpleasant one.”
“Uh.”
That… sounds extreme. But par for the course with a constellation, I suppose. No, it may very well be her responsibility to do so as a goddess.
No matter how much affection you have for your own followers, if they start pulling shit like this, then a flick on the wrist wouldn’t be nearly enough. But I don’t think that punishment outside of public view, like that, will change much of this sort of behavior.
“If you plan on punishing them, let it be a grand public display. An ambiguous, unseen, and cruel fate is not nearly as effective as a punishment on full display for the world to see.”
Humanity has yet to reach a point where it has achieved a clean moral line to serve as a guide to its own actions. Although Esphera has already set up a foundation for that with the afterlife, advising people to act sincerely in life so that they may face no enemies in death, that isn’t a reality people get to see while alive.
Believing in a miserable afterlife is just the first step to establishing a moral framework. It establishes that punishments for selfish, harmful actions can be severe and can even be eternal. But that is merely the start.
While people can believe it to be true and see it as undesirable, they don’t know it for certain. They don’t feel the repercussions they might face in death for their most wicked acts committed in life. And humans learn better from mistakes, both their own and others', than they do from teachings and warnings.
What better way to have people face those mistakes than through a thorough public scolding on the scale of a constellation’s divine punishment?
“But go only as far as necessary—and do so to educate, not to gratify your own grievances. If you act on emotion again, they will come to fear you, not the act itself. Be sure to teach them the consequences of their actions, not only upon themselves, but upon those whose lives they have harmed.”
“...! I understand, Lord Yvell! I will do as you say!”
“Educate, not gratify… Wise words, Sir Yvell. I will be sure to keep those close to heart for when my own people begin to grow in number.”
Although I say all of that, with the way things seem now, I doubt it’d be enough. Whatever spurred those men to act in the violent manner that they did, it must be something complex and deeply rooted.
What warrants such an extreme degree of violence that it leads men to gather and act so violently upon near-harmless individuals? While there are random crimes done out of pure sadistic joy of inflicting pain on others in history, I don’t think this is what that was.
There was that key line they said that still sticks in my mind.
(To think that there would be fools among us who would so willingly shield those ill-born afflicted, as if they were protecting their own family)
Why would it be foolish to protect a gnome?
The immediate answer that comes to mind would be if they committed a crime, but I doubt that Tumble would do such a thing. He seems too silly a character to go about pilfering food, and would have less reason to after we handed him some fish to share with his people in Gnomewood.
Then, what if it were something a little different? What if it wasn’t a crime itself that spurred on this senseless act of violence, but rather, the accusation of one?
To label the gnomes as ill-born was a pointed accusation—casting their birth as sickly, perhaps even shameful, and therefore worthy of being shunned. Whatever the case, the truth would soon reveal itself to us.
After all, Nova’k had finally finished eating the spicy ramyun we gave him.
“Ooooh! How… hot! Ho! Hot! Hot! Hot! Yes, this warmth that is spreading inside me—This too must be Esphera’s blessing! Uuuuuooooohhhhh!”
… I would have preferred if you hadn’t let out that last cry in the end. I have a feeling someone out there in the great fabric of existence is probably going to start spamming crying emojis in response.
Anyway, now that he was done eating, it was finally time to talk.
No, on second thought, maybe we should pass him some milk first.
“I feel the fire raging inside of me!”
“Bro, shut the fuck up.”
