Talk Over a Drink
2062 Words
“What're you here for?” I ask Jasper.
He gives off a smirk before saying, “To pass the time. Until who among those Third Seaters of Olympus is responsible for planning the Apocalypse.”
The waitress comes back again with our drinks. They're on a cart because of how many drinks this guy ordered. Does he even have the money to pay for this stuff?
“Here you go,” she says, putting them on the table.
She leans forward, Jasper leans to the side to see her from behind. With his mouth open wide while smiling, he gestures me to look too. I shake my head. Maybe he's not playing this character. He's just a straight-off p*****t. The lady should've noticed him by now but she lets him.
“Thank you, my dear,” he says as she walks away. He's about to slap her butt again but I stop him with my powers.
“Not for a second time,” I say to him.
“Oh, come on!” he groans in disappointment. “She liked it!”
“So, what do you mean among the Third Seaters of Olympus?” I ask cutting to the important matters.
He drinks from a tankard, sighs, and wipes his lips. “One of them planned the Apocalypse. They're the guys who are-” He drinks again. “capable... of planning it.”
“You mean it could your father, right?”
“Maybe.”
“What're you gonna do if he's the one.”
He hesitates to drink, smirks, and says, “Kill him of course.” Then he finishes the tankard, bottoms up.
“It's ironic for you to talk about that to a person who wished his parents didn't die.”
He grabs another tankard, taking a sip before talking every time. “That's because your parents are innocent. My parents are killers. As their son, it's appropriate that I'll take care of them as part of the family problem that we need to resolve for ourselves.”
“I kinda make sense,” I remark before taking my first sip of lemonade. It tastes good. My jaws are numbing because of the sourness.
“It does. Be thankful that your parents died without doing anything wrong.” So, he knows things about me...
“I've always been proud of them for raising to who I am now. Even though I don't like myself.”
“Oh, i'm sure everyone in this universe hates a part of themselves. Those who don't, probably have mental illnesses. Narcissists, perhaps.”
“So, where's your goddess now?”
“Oh, she's out there waiting for my signal. As well as your friend Philip and the others. Mila told me that you wanted Gwen to fall into our hands. Why is that?” He half-smiles, and stops drinking, showing he wants to listen carefully to my reason.
“Nobody deserves her but your group is the farthest from the most undeserving to have her.”
“So you don't trust us fully?”
“Of course.”
“Well, I can't blame you. We still have to work on it so we can trust each other. Do you want to join us now? You look like you're being abandoned by your friends.”
“That's not a reason yet.”
“You still have the ring?”
“It's here.” I show him my hand where the ring is camouflaged around my finger. I let out some of its power for him to sense.
“You've become wiser and much more composed after that tantrum of yours. Would you spare time describing to me what happened?”
“There's nothing to describe. I can't remember anything. I'm what I am now because I chose to be. I've seen enough to grow up.”
“Is that so? But have you seen a n***d girl?”
He keeps talking about irrelevant things. “I assume that you have. And let me guess, you look at yourself in the mirror after disguising.”
“You couldn't be more right!” he laughs, slapping the table with his hand. “But on some occasions, I've seen n***d goddesses in the baths of Olympus.”
“Now I know why Lady Juliet doesn't want to talk about you.”
“What do you mean?”
“What sister would be proud of her brother sneaking and peeking at n***d goddesses?”
“Oh... my bad then.” He drinks to stop our conversation right there.
“Do you know something about how Lord Enzo is doing?”
“Oh, him? I know not that much but I heard he's traveling around the world with the help of Aiko to wipe out the remainders of the Masked League. It's strange that we don't know what their organization is actually called.”
“We don't need to know that.”
“Perhaps you're right. Oh, it's the last tankard.” He finished four of them while I'm halfway in finishing my lemonade. “Can I have five more?” he asks the waitress from the distance.
“Coming!” she calls back.
“You're quite a heavy drinker are you?” I ask him.
“Thanks to the body of this man.” He massages his round beer belly.
“That's great but do you have the money to pay all this stuff?”
“Of course I do. I didn't invite you here in the first place if I don't have money.”
“Yeah, you better have it. Don't expect me to pay for this because my pockets hold nothing but air.” I narrow my eyes at him.
“Yes, yes, yes, don't worry... geez. Just relax.”
The waitress comes to bring him his drink and he just looks at me because he knows I'll stop him from slapping her again.
“By the way, how's Philip doing?” I ask.
“He's great. He seems to have a fondness towards Gwen.”
“And her?”
“She likes him too.”
“No, how is she?”
“She's fine and quite interested in knowing more about our lady.”
“Thank you.”
“My turn to ask. How's my sister?”
“Tch, I don't know. They have ‘abandoned’ me, remember?”
“Yeah, I forgot. The booze is starting to cloud my mind.” He laughs then coughs.
“You might know more than me.”
“Not vastly.” He coughs again. “All I know she wants to keep our family whole—not that I believe she can.”
“You should be supporting her for it. You don't know how hard it is for her.”
“Our family problem is unfixable. We're separated, our parents don't have time for us. I don't even know if my mother is still alive on Mars.”
“Do you care about her?”
“A little.”
“What if she's alive?”
“Then that's great! If she isn't, it's okay. If she dies, she dies.”
“You're a terrible son.”
“I am.”
“And you're proud of it?”
“No, but if I was given a chance, I could be a son that they will be proud to talk about. That's if they made me proud.”
“What do you mean?”
“I'm not proud of what they've become. Those who fall under their command are automatically their sacrificial pawns. I don't want to walk on the path they trod. Especially, I don't want my sister to walk on that cursed path too.”
“So that's why you don't care about them that much.”
“Yeah.”
“But then you have a sister. Are you sure you want to keep going on the path you chose and abandon her?”
“If necessary, yes but I know she can handle herself.”
“Again with your carefree thinking. It's good for now that she's fine. And I guess you wouldn't care that much about whatever happens to her.”
“That's not it but it's complicated.”
“It's frustrating, really. The people who have what others have, tend to value them lesser.”
“Then that's why I like your life more than I like mine. You can get girls anytime you like but you're choosing not to.”
“Girls are overrated.”
“You'll regret saying that when you die a virgin.”
“I don't care about my self-satisfaction right now.”
“Then why do you keep living up until now?” He chugs a tankard.
“I don't know. I feel like I'll see the end of the road for me, letting the wind take me to the direction it wants.”
“So, you're detaching yourself, huh?”
“Yeah, that kind.”
“It's a good thing. It's true freedom. But we can't be free because we have powers.”
He's right. “I know.”
“Not all winds lead to detachment. Probably the wind you're following is leading you to your purpose as the God of Force.”
“How'd you know about that?”
“My sister told me after you went nuts and before I visited you in that cell. That time you went nuts, your presence is like a god. You can copy the abilities of other deities. I saw you teleporting, super speed, controlling light, and fission reaction. You could've used more powers if you were given more time.”
What? “I did those with relics, right?”
“No, you didn't but only with your bare hands. You could be the God of All, indeed—just as what my sister had predicted. She's so smart, I'm proud of her.”
God of All? A god that can control everything? Am I ready to harness that power? Or maybe I'm just mistaken. If it's real I might as well know what to do with it.
“So, what if I am?” I ask.
“You could cultivate it and save the Realm. With that amount of power, who knows what you're capable of. Or maybe, write what you have learned for the next God of Gravity and rest without worry—a much chiller path.”
I can't answer that. I don't know what to decide yet. I need to think carefully. “There's no guarantee that the next inheritor of this power will learn the things I learned from Lord Enzo and King Rai.”
“That's right.”
“Most of what I achieved is out of luck.”
He nods once. “It's even a miracle that you survived everything you've been through.”
“Yeah, it is.” I sip from my lemonade and realize it's empty. I put it aside.
“You want another drink?” he asks. I shake my head. “Okay then. This will be my last tankard too.” He drinks the last one. His disguise has a big stomach for drinking all of this beer. After sighing in satisfaction, he says, “You have a huge chance of success cultivating this power in my opinion. You've gone through a lot that made you stronger than a normal human. A human like you is one in a trillion. It's even one in a zillion chance that the power is passed on to someone like you. Discovering the secrets of this power could be dangerous of course and we don't know if it's for the best or the answer we're looking for. In the end, it's up to you to decide.” He stands up from his seat. “I'll leave that thought to you. May you find the answer.”
I sit here for a while. Is my existence made for this moment? To know the secrets of this power... is like a deep trench that not even the deep-sea dwellers had not yet ventured. I don't know what sits at the bottom. If I go further, I wonder what will I find. Will I find nothing? Will I find that this power will the destruction of the Realm or the one that will save it?
- Writer
