Insistent Assistant 21 (Patreon)

Insistent Assistant

Chapter 21

-VB-

Illaoi

Illaoi was Illaoi.

To say that she was anything but the Prophet of Nagakabouros would be to state heresy and falsehood!

But it wasn’t, not in this world.

She was not in her world, because it was a copy of Illaoi, not her.

However, her calls to Nagakabouros were answered with favor and fervor equal to what she remembered. And why would it not? She still roamed the ocean, offered her goddess the honor of her kills, and spread the truth of her goddess to those who would listen.

Her master, on the other hand, was not someone who she respected.

“You speak as someone who is strong,” she replied to his response about her question. “The weak die. The strong survive. Is that not what you know about your world and this one? Why do you deny the truth?”

They had stopped at another island while on their voyage toward an island called “Drum Island.”

Her master was strong. There was no doubt about that. Not as strong as her or any of her previous iterations, certainly, but strong enough to have been given the chance to participate in the League back in her world.

His mind… it was his mind that she needed to change the most.

“Everyone is weak at one point,” he shook his head. “Basing someone’s worth on a single moment is foolish, short-sighted, and unnatural.”

“Unnatural? What is wrong with life and death? It is one moment’s weakness that kills anything.”

They had also sparred once more, and she noted a rather interesting growth in his power; he was able to resist the test of spirit. It was only once but it was telling that it took only two tries for him to fight against the power of Nagakabouros. She knew it could happen. Knew that he would only grow stronger.

But this fast?

He was the definition of unnatural yet spoke of reality as if nature was the unnatural one!

The hypocrisy!

“Nature is a flux,” he opinioned. “Some might die. Some might survive. Some might not even grow in any way. Growth itself is a flux where there is no guarantee.”

“There is always a guarantee,” she objected, pounding the sand underneath her with her fist. “Are you saying that my efforts are meaningless? Am I not here, a champion that your power chose and knew to be strong? I was naught but a frail girl once.”

“Exactly! You were weak once!” Alan declared as if he had cornered her. Fool!

“But I survived because one manner of weakness was not all that I was,” she countered. “You think that I speak of survival as a simple concept. No, I speak of survival as a simplified fact of reality.”

He stared at her, obviously thinking without connecting his thoughts to her. Nonetheless, she knew that he was actually thinking seriously about what she said and not looking for ways to outright dismiss her.  “... Elaborate for me, then,” he invited her as he leaned back, arms locked and hands buried in the sand across from her.

All around them, resting crewmates listened, some more seriously and attentively than others.

“Strength is a culmination,” she declared. “You are strong when you are not just good at hitting. You are strong when you are good at hitting and hitting well. You are strong when you know how to hit but also know how to take a hit. Life is complicated! I know you, master. You speak of your old life. And I will tell you this: your world was growing weaker and you hold the ideals of a world that let itself grow weaker. Freedom is good but freedom to enchain others was also allowed. Laws are good but there are too many laws that need too many intermediators to understand. Fame and glory INSPIRES yet it was used to fight over meaningless ideals and projects!”

“Name one.”

“Politics.”

He snorted, though the crewmates did not understand. They need not because it was irrelevant to them in this world.

“That’s a no-brainer and part of life. Try something else.”

“Obesity.” It was a concept she understood, though not a word that she thought she would say. She only knew of it because she and her master were connected in ways that would shame brotherhood and raise envy in marriage!

“... Okay, lay it on me.”

“We are tired, they whine. We are poor, they beg! We are alright, they defend. Yet they do not train their mind, body, or soul. They stay exactly where they rot, complaining but not moving. They beg others to drag them out of the mud! They seek not the strength but the convenience of civilization! They are weak!”

She saw differing opinions about her statement from the crewmates. She saw that a few agreed, but most did not. Their opinion, once again, did not matter.

He frowned. “I can see where you are coming from, but circumstances are hard to change. Not everyone has the knowledge, education, instinct, or wisdom to act as you do. Am I not weak myself in that regard?”

“You were,” she snapped with irritation. “You seek comfort. You seek convenience just like your peers. Had it not been for the strong morals your parents drilled into you, you would have certainly become a pirate in these waters. You would have been a middling thing not challenging the world but feeding off the weak. You were barely above average in mind and knowledge, perhaps stronger in wisdom, but weak in body and discipline! How many times did you fail? How many times did you allow opportunities to slip from your grapes? You were weak!”

This time… this time she got a response out of him.

He glared at her.

“Strength is the culmination of your power, and before you were miraculously chosen to become this powerful thing, you were a middling, normal, and thoroughly average man.”

“... Then why even teach this fool?”

“Because your saving grace, master, is that you are at least aware of your weakness and pathetically try to get better. Your lack of discipline made you stop again and again, but Thorkell did not care, did he? You either did as he wanted or you got beat up. He dragged you along until you got used to it. And that was what finally made you become strong, wasn’t it? You got better. You got used to power. You wanted to keep it. You never cared about influence, master. No, you cared about your personal power. Do you not remember? Those arms of yours,” she said and gestured.

He looked down at his arms. They were thick, muscular, and well-suited for the warrior that he was now.

“What did they look like when you first found yourself with Thorkell, hmm?”

“... Twigs.”

“Injustice to yourself is also a weakness. It clouds your judgment!” she scolded. “You were weak but not dying!” She spread her arms. “Look around us! Our crewmates are strong, are they not? They are here because many of them seek to amend their weakness! Do you see the frail faces and bodies of slaves that joined us after you attacked those pirates? No, I see strong men and women! They are weaker than you or I, but they are strong in their own right. The people around me are not weak! But the slaves who gave up? Who simply ran away? The pirates that gave up on personal growth? Where are they now, captain?”

“... Dead.”

“Because they are weak.”

He stared at her in dissatisfaction and then shook his head. “What you said makes sense if you ignore the fact that not all choices are ours. Even the strong die. The weak also die. Am I weak if I die to someone stronger than me? Aren’t I strong now?”

She groaned. “My captain and master is a thickheaded idiot,” she lamented. “He cannot see a simple truth. You must just become strong enough to not die! To know how strong or weak you are is also strength!”

“And I keep saying that life is complicated that can’t just be ‘git gud’!”

“Indeed, and that is why you must be strong!”

He sighed. “We are going around in circles.”

-VB-

A/N: my sleep deprived mind wrote something dialogue heavy after last chapter’s action.