Chapter 356: [Vol. 6 pt. 35]

After discussing some of the finer details with Fraydranth, Fenrir’s group departed on the mountain trail and left only two people behind: Azalabulia and GG. It was time for Azalabulia to get some training in with her new teacher, and GG offered to stay behind so that he could fly Azalabulia back once they were done.

This was just short of perfect for Eva. While she would have preferred to tell GG himself, there were still the other villagers that she could tell about Fraydranth’s roleplaying.

However, before she could tell the others about the truth, Fenrir stole the spotlight.

“I – I was so scared,” Fenrir admitted, his tail hanging low behind him.

“Seriously?” Cassiel asked. “What scared you?”

“I was kind of threatening a giant dragon back there. You really think that I could have made good on my word? There’s no way that I’d be able to ruin a dragon’s life all on my own.”

“So, you were bluffing?”

“Exactly. I was bluffing to a giant dragon who looked like she was ready to tear my body in half with her fangs.”

“What about the whole DB thing?” Cassiel asked, using the abbreviation for Divine Brigade since GG’s villagers didn’t know about that affiliation.

“Most of our biggest threats were bluffs. I mean, sure, we made good on some of those threats and could defeat way bigger numbers than ours if the game allowed for strategic gameplay like that, but we bluffed. A lot. I never expected to be convincing enough for my bluffs to work, but they do, somehow.”

“Were you always this scared while bluffing?”

“Not really. Random guys on the internet aren’t scary at all. But a giant dragon? Anybody who claims not to be scared when threatening a dragon that huge is a liar. I refuse to believe that anybody could do that without being terrified.”

“Well, my hero, I am sure that there are some who would be aroused rather than terrified,” Nell interjected.

Fenrir was silent for a few seconds before sighing. “Yeah, you’re right. Some people really like dragons. Like those people who make porn of dragons fucking cars.”

“Ah, I was thinking of those who are more serious about their tastes, but there is quite a bit of parody featuring dragons as well.”

“Either way, I think they might like dragons a bit too much.”

“I would say that their love for dragons is as powerful as your love for sweaters. Does this mean that you like sweaters a bit too much?”

“Impossible.”

“What is?”

“The ability to like sweaters too much. No matter how much I may love sweaters, I will never be able to love them as much as they deserve to be loved.”

“I see. In other words, you do love them too much.”

“Nell, I’m going to have to – never mind, I’d feel bad saying that even if it’s obviously a lie.”

“Well, now you absolutely must say it, my hero.”

“She’s right,” Cassiel joined back in. “If you’re going to let us know that you were going to say something, you have to say what it was.”

“It’s the law,” Serra said.

“I – I was just going to say that I would have to reconsider our relationship if you believed it’s possible to love sweaters too much,” Fenrir said.

There was another reason why Fenrir didn’t want to say that.

As soon as Nell heard what he had on his mind, she lit up and those gears in her head responsible for producing all of her erotic fantasies came to life. “Ah! To have a hero so willing to easily toss me aside over such a minor disagreement! Locking me in the house, only coming home to indulge in your alcoholism and to use my body, often staying out with paid women of the night while threatening to throw me out over any tiny mistake that I make. It sounds so—”

“He-hey, you’re making the others think that I’m a horrible person,” Fenrir said, tilting his head toward GG’s villagers.

“Ah, if only you were like that, my hero. Alas, you are simply kind and respectful in all actuality.”

Some of the villagers still looked suspicious, but they relaxed after hearing that.

“Nell, if you ever cosplay, I know a masochist blonde knight and a tragedy-loving mermaid who’d be perfect for you. Especially the latter. Actually… wait, I’m pretty sure you are her,” Fenrir said.

“Ah, I know exactly who you are talking about!” Nell said.

“You do?”

“Of course! I may not be anywhere as near into anime as you are, my hero, but it is only natural for me to know of all my role models across all mediums!”

“So you admit that they’re your role models.”

“I do! Especially the mermaid. Our similarities are simply too strong to deny. You could even say that I have trained my personality to be more like hers over the years!”

“Seriously?”

“Mhm! There is somewhat of a funny story about that, actually.”

“Something something, now that you’ve mentioned it you have to say it, something something.”

“Naturally, my hero. I have every intention of talking about myself. Do you not already know just how much I love to do so?”

“You do love talking about yourself,” Cassiel said. “Not that any of us mind.”

“Story time,” Serra said.

Eva felt that what she had to say to GG’s villagers was a bit more important than whatever story Nell was about to tell, but she reminded herself that being a good lover means being patient! Besides, as much as Nell loved to talk about herself, there was no way that Nell could continue talking throughout the entire trip back. There had to eventually be an opportunity to deliver the news.

Right?

“You see,” Nell said, “I stumbled across that – ah, what is it called when an anime is like a comic book?”

“A manga,” Fenrir answered.

“Yes, that! A manga. I stumbled across the manga online when I was a teen. Given the protests that were happening in my country at the time, especially those targeting all who were associated with the former royalty, our family stayed together indoors. Since we no longer went out nearly as much as we had been, I had plenty of time to pass with the power of the internet! I stumbled across that ‘manga,’ and I will admit that I was not very into it at first but I was curious, and then I met her! Since then, I have absolutely adored everything about her. However, it saddened me when I saw people discussing her in the comments. People complained about how unrealistic she was, they said they wished girls like her existed, and some simply did not like her and thought she was the ‘worst girl.’ So, to prove that such a perfect character was not unrealistic, to make others happy that girls like her could exist, and out of spite for those who disliked my favorite character, I decided to become just like her!”

“So, you changed your personality to be more like her?” Cassiel asked.

“To be fair, not much of a change was required, but yes.”

“Then what were you like before?”

“More boring, certainly.”

“Huh. First time I’ve ever heard of somebody changing their personality to mimic their favorite character.”

“I’ve heard of it a few times,” Fenrir said. “Though… it’s not always for the better. The examples off the top of my head are mostly people who decided to mimic yanderes. In those cases… I think they were just crazy and wanted to call themselves yanderes to justify their unhealthy obsessions. I also knew a couple once who basically existed to spite people whining about anime tropes being unrealistic. The girl turned herself into a bona fide tsundere and the guy acted like an extremely dense protagonist.They were pretty funny to watch sometimes, but they also made me bitter. They were too happy together.”

“I bet we make people bitter,” Serra said, grabbing onto Fenrir’s hand and holding it all lovey-dovey-like.

“We… we probably do now.”

“Question,” Eva spoke up.

“Yeah?”

“You’re talking about genuine personalities mimicking those of fictional characters. If a person is not naturally that way, and they have to go out of their way to adopt another’s personality, does that really make it realistic? If a method actor adopts an unrealistic persona for a film they are shooting, does that count as a realistic personality simply because they are living it even if it’s not who they naturally are?”

Fenrir looked clueless in regard to how to respond, but somebody else looked eager to give her thoughts on the matter.

“Wonderful question, Eva!” Nell said. “I think it is something fascinating to discuss, and I wish that we had our lovely Azalabulia here to discuss it with us given her education. Personally, I believe that it is similar to the ‘fake it until you make it’ saying. Say a young man with social anxiety is thrust into a job position where he must interact with customers for his entire shift. If he is able to force himself to be confident to do a good job, and he eventually overcomes his social anxiety and no longer has to force himself, would that confidence not become a genuine part of his true personality?”

Eva smiled and came closer to Nell. “On the contrary, if he was able to ‘force’ himself to be confident in the first place, was he ever not actually confident? People who lack confidence typically can’t force themselves to be more confident. If you’re able to force yourself to be confident, I would say you already are confident. You either just don’t realize it yet or you’re not used to it, but it’s already there. You’re not actually changing. It’s something that was always there but was never brought out before.”

“Then could the same not be said of those whose personalities shift to replicate their favorite characters?”

“No, because that’s you trying to force a change inspired by an external influence. ‘Forcing’ yourself to be more confident for your job is intrinsic. Actually forcing yourself to act more like a character you like is extrinsic.”

“Hmm. So, to clarify, adapting and growing more confident is simply taking advantage of something that you have always had. Therefore, it is natural, intrinsic, and realistic. However, to mimic another character is changing who you are due to extrinsic inspirations, therefore it is unnatural and unrealistic.”

“Right. I’m not saying that it’s impossible for somebody to act just like a fictional character, but acting like it, even if you act that way your entire life, doesn’t make it realistic. For it to be realistic, somebody would have to become like that without any external influence – well, let me expand on that a bit. Somebody would have to become like that without any external fictional influence. Obviously, the external affects everything from the moment that we’re born and even before that from a more medical perspective. The external influence of parents affects how a child’s personality develops. That’s realistic, though, because they’re real people – they exist.”

Nell smirked and got closer to Eva. “Then in that case, should a child be raised by parents who both behave like fictional characters, and that child proceeds to adopt elements of their personalities for their own, would that make the child’s personality genuine and ‘realistic?’ As far as the child would be concerned, their parents are simply their parents. They are true and real and not fictional in the slightest. The external influence on the child would be the same as if ‘normal’ parents were raising them.”

Eva brought a hand up to her chin and lowered her head in thought. Meanwhile, Nell looked happy in what she believed was a secured victory.

But Eva was not ready to give up yet.

“It depends on how we’re defining realistic,” Eva said. “If you want to say that it is technically realistic in the sense that it can be achieved, then I guess I’ll have to give you that. It’s realistic in the same way that a monkey writing a flawless book with zero typos in it is technically possible. However, in practice, it’s not realistic. When somebody says that it’s not realistic for a monkey to type a book all on their own without a single error, they’re not saying that it’s impossible. They’re saying that it’s an unrealistic expectation. If somebody wrote a book about a single monkey who somehow managed to type a book up all on its own, and the author tried to pass that as a realistic event, people would still, justifiably, call it unrealistic. Even with an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite amount of time with an infinite number of keyboards, it’s still unrealistic, but more likely to happen.”

“In other words, while it is possible, it is unrealistic simply because of how incredibly unlikely it is?”

“Right. Generally, when we’re talking about realism, we’re talking about if it’s sensible and practical – if it can be expected to naturally happen with regular frequency. If you say that crows are black, you’re being realistic. If you say that crows are white – yes, the very rare albino crow may exist but, given that the vast majority are black, it would be unrealistic to say that crows are white. So when people say that a certain character is unrealistic, they’re saying that you could never expect somebody to actually act like that, not that it’s impossible for somebody to be that way. Becoming an exception to the rule does not disprove their intention when saying that.”

“In that case, am I unrealistic? Is my personality not a ‘real’ and ‘genuine’ personality?”

“First, I want to clarify that I don’t mean anything negative when I say this. I don’t think you should stop what you’re doing or anything. However, yes, you’re unrealistic. If you have changed your personality, even a little, to mimic a fictional character’s, then you’re not ‘real.’ However, I wouldn’t say that you’re not genuine, if that makes any sense. If you genuinely wish to become somebody else, and you dedicate your life to behaving like that character, then nobody can say you’re not genuine. You’re not genuinely real, but you are genuine… in general, I guess? Maybe not. I’ve never put much thought into this before and there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to call you unrealistic and not genuine.”

“If you are worried about offending me or causing any sort of discomfort, please do not feel that way. We are merely having a good-natured and civil debate, are we not? There is not a single part of me that believes you are approaching this from an ill-intentioned position.” To prove her point, Nell grabbed onto Eva’s hand to gently hold it.

Eva may have been used to Cassiel and even Azalabulia now, but this was the first time really doing anything even slightly intimate with Nell. “Th-thanks. I guess I’m used to people getting upset and thinking that I’m trying to attack them when having discussions like this.”

“Please, even if you do choose to attack me, I will consider it some form of erotic play. It is impossible to offend me. After all! There is nothing you could say nor do that is worse than what the masses offered my family.”

“You mentioned that – the protests. I remember hearing about them and… honestly, I was on the protestors’ sides, but I never really considered what it must have been like to be on the receiving end of all that.”

“To be fair, most of my family was on the protestors’ side as well. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do to convince them of that without sacrificing our own safety. If you would like to talk about it some time, I would be happy to share my experiences with you.”

“Sure. But for now, was there anything else you wanted to say about the realism topic?”

“Ah, unfortunately not. I believe that you have countered all of my points and the only rebuttals I may think of would have me running in circles. You win this time, Eva.”

“Well, I’ll just say one more thing then. In the case of a child – they would be a hundred percent genuine and real, but still not realistic.”

“I see. Then, if I were to give birth to children and raise them to have unrealistic personalities, and they went on to give birth to more children who inherited their unrealistic personalities, and this continued until there was a significant amount of them… would the personalities become realistic?”

“If you can give birth to a new trend of personalities that spreads and even becomes one percent of all personality types, then I’ll call it realistic.”

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“Oh? Only one percent? How many children would I have to birth and raise to match that goal?”

“Probably around nine million or so.”

“I – I see. One percent sounds like such a small number, but we are discussing the human race as a whole, I suppose. Nonetheless, I shall do my best! Is that not right, my hero?”

Admittedly, Fenrir and the others weren’t paying much attention to the conversation between Eva and Nell, but they definitely heard the part about having nine million children.

“We’ve got this,” Serra answered for him with a thumbs-up.

This left Fenrir and Cassiel to look at each other with worried expressions. With her desire for only personally having one child, and Fenrir’s insecurity of being able to properly raise children at all, the idea of having nine million children was a bit… worrying to say the least.

 

After some time later discussing various other topics with Nell, Eva realized that GG’s village was within sight which caused that lightbulb to appear over her head. Though, with how sudden the realization hit her, it was more like an oversized lightbulb was smashed against her head.

“Wait!” Eva shouted, running to the front of the caravan.

“What’s wrong?” Fenrir asked.

“Nothing! Nothing is wrong, just – I have something important to say that I completely forgot about.”

“And what’s this something important to say?”

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“The dragon – Fraydranth. It’s all an act. That wasn’t her real personality, and I’m not even talking about in terms of faking it until she makes it or anything like what me and Nell were talking about. She’s roleplaying, basically. Uh, I forget how exactly it went, but GG’s people expected her to be all high and mighty, so she acted all high and mighty, and now GG’s people feel like they’re expected to be all proper and respectful, so they’re all… proper and respectful. Basically, both groups are roleplaying for the other because they feel like they’re expected to, and neither is being honest. So, you all,” Eva paused to look at GG’s villagers still with them, “can relax. Fraydranth is only acting how she does because she thinks it’s what you all want. She doesn’t expect you to act like you have been, either. You can just… go and treat her like you would any friend. All she wants is to not be exposed in front of Azalabulia. She doesn’t want to heartbreak her new apprentice.”

“So,” one of the draconic women speaks up, “you’re telling us… that we can treat her like normal? She doesn’t expect us to act like we worship her?”

“No, no, not at all. Seriously, you could probably go and just talk about your day with her and she’d be totally fine with it. And you could probably ask her for help since she’s usually bored. Like, she had every intention of helping us out from the very beginning. The ‘quests’ were only to keep up appearances. Even if we failed every single one of them, she would have helped out still.”

“So… I threatened her for nothing?” Fenrir asked. “She was only pretending to be thinking about whether to actually help us or not?”

“Right. That was completely unnecessary. All you really had to do was wait a few moments for her to finish pretending like she had to think about it.”

“Oh… I – I wish I didn’t know that. I felt proud of myself for standing up to a dragon like that, but now… now I’ll only be able to cringe when I remember that.”

“To be fair, she was clearly impressed by you and I think that she’s even more excited about helping out now thanks to that. You did more good than harm. But, yeah, you really didn’t need to say anything.”

Fenrir slumped his shoulders and looked down. “And I actually felt scared, too. I acted all badass, bluffing to a dragon, and I was scared while doing it, and she… was treating the whole thing like playing pretend the whole time.”

“It’s alright,” Cassiel said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Fenrir looked into her eyes for comfort.

“I’ll cringe when I remember you doing that, too,” she continued, causing Fenrir’s eyes to widen before representing his internal death.

“Cass Cass is mean,” Serra said, grabbing onto Fenrir’s arm. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

Some life returned to Fenrir’s eyes as he looked down into Serra’s.

“I’ll only cringe on the inside when I remember you doing it,” she continued, causing Fenrir to look even more dead inside than he previously looked.

He was not simply dead inside.

He was super dead inside.

“Hey, hey, onii-wan,” Saya joined in.

“Please, no, I can’t take anymore of this,” Fenrir replied.

“It’s okay, onii-wan. I understand how you feel. That’s why I’m here for you… to tell you to never do anything cringeworthy ever again because you’re not the only one who has to feel the cringe!”

Fenrir evolved from being super dead inside to ultra dead inside. Nobody could possibly be any deadier than he was. Even the clinically dead and the undead had more life than he did.

“This is abuse. My girlfriends, my virtual assistant – everybody is bullying me,” Fenrir whined. “Even Rock would probably cringe at me if she was here to see this. Even an actual, non-sentient rock would cringe at me…”

“Eh, I think it was pretty cool and attractive even if it was unnecessary,” Eva said.

“Absolutely!” Nell joined in. “My hero, even if you did not have to say a single word, to have stood up to a dragon who you genuinely believed was serious was incredibly attractive! You truly were just like a shining knight standing up to a mighty and fearsome dragon no matter the odds!”

Fenrir looked to Eva and Nell, the two girls who were supportive of him and who did not find his previous interaction with Fraydranth cringeworthy at all.

He pulled his arm away from Serra and stepped away from Cassiel, instead moving to bring Eva and Nell together against his sides with his arms wrapped around their shoulders. He had to surround himself with those who would protect his ego rather than continue smashing it with a spiked baseball bat while it was already dead.

But then he saw Serra.

Serra, with wide eyes, looked at the air where his arm previously was as her fingers wiggled around as if to try and find where it disappeared to. Then she looked up at him and held her arms out to make more of those grabby hands that none could resist.

“Allow me, my hero,” Nell said, grabbing onto Serra and bringing her over to them. She positioned Serra so that she was between her and Fenrir, allowing Fenrir’s arm to reach over both of their shoulders.

This compromise was good enough for the munchkin pervert.

However, now Cassiel was left out.

“I’m fine,” Cassiel said after noticing them all looking at her. “Serra gave me enough physical… I don’t want to call it affection so much as it was harassment, earlier.”

Serra lowered her eyes to target Cassiel’s rear, causing Cassiel to adjust her stance so that it was completely hidden from Serra’s perverse gaze.

“You’re as bad as Fen with sweaters,” Cassiel told Serra.

“Hey, nothing involving sweaters could ever be bad,” Fenrir said.

“Cass Cass… you don’t like it when I want to touch you?” Serra asked.

“It – it’s not that,” Cassiel answered. “You know I like it, but…

“But what?”

“It’s embarrassing!”

“Then… I can’t?”

“I’m not saying you can’t, I’m just saying that it’s embarrassing.”

“So… I can?”

“I’m – I’m not saying that, either.”

To rely on her new favorite trick once more, Serra held up those grabby hands toward Cassiel.

“Fine! You can!” Cassiel said, immediately giving in. “It’s not like you ever weren’t allowed to anyways.”

And just as quickly Serra got between Fenrir and Nell, she ran out to pursue Cassiel once more.

And once more, Cassiel wasn’t going to make it easy for Serra even if she did consent to it.

 

Meanwhile…

The mountains were on fire.

Trees were blasted down.

Wildlife was fleeing in all directions.

And GG stood there, observing the utter destruction of the area that he previously believed was meant to be sacred. “No… no good is going to come of this,” he stuttered as he watched on in disbelief.

It was only the very first training session between Fraydranth and Azalabulia, yet there was already so much merciless destruction.

As for what caused this destruction, there was a dragon flying around with a human woman sitting atop her head.

Could any of this even be called destruction?

As far as GG could tell, the two were simply having fun. There were no instructions, no practicing, no lessons – there was merely destruction and nothing but.

What was meant to be a wise and powerful teacher teaching a young apprentice was nothing more than the equivalent of a bored parent showing off what they could do to their giggling child who was more than happy to watch.

It reminded him of the time that one of his friends in real life got his hands on a flamethrower and decided to burn a bunch of random things while the kids stood around and cheered.

In both cases, somebody who was meant to be mature took way too much pleasure in setting things on fire while somebody younger was there to be a cheerleader.

GG was concerned.

GG was very, very concerned.

One explosive blast from Fraydranth’s magic caused a building-sized boulder to fly just over GG’s head as he stood perfectly still with shocked eyes.

Taking cover may have been a good idea, but—

He looked behind him.

There was a small cave behind him that he could have hid in. Now, that cave was home to a massive boulder that thoroughly destroyed it.

It didn’t matter whether he stood still, ran for his life, or tried to hide. No matter what he did, his life would be in just as much danger.

All he could do was stand and hope – hope that there would still be something left of this world by the time that Fraydranth and Azalabulia were done playing.

And he had very little hope for that.

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