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Chapter 76: Internationale
🕑 Added 2024-11-23 20:23:27 +0000 UTCChapter 76: Internationale
[You will Receive the following. Accept/Reject?
System Permissions
Direct Messaging, Chat Groups
Covenant
Freeman: Class will be lost if you ever willingly worship a God]
“I feel like this isn’t the most equitable of trade offers,” I grumbled.
To be clear, I was a steadfast atheist in my past life, brushing off any hint of belief in anything except the value of my bank account, but those were the values I’d adopted to fit my life at the time. Secular, data driven and profoundly capitalistic, there hadn’t been any room for faith in the scant free time available to me between the demands of the home and the boardroom, but that was on Earth. Now, one reincarnation later, I had no choice except to believe that the soul existed. In a world where the System granted supernatural powers on a whim, demonic horses could be born from a ritual circle, and godlike elementals ruled the skies above, who was I to dare proclaim the absence of divinity? Moreover, it didn’t really matter where I believed or not, because in a society where the Churches held power, there could be real tangible benefits to be found in worship. With that in mind, was the immediate utility worth potentially closing important doors in the future?
“Define God in this instance,” I demanded, looking for more information to sway my decision one way or the other.
[Define deez nuts.]
“No help at all then?” I sighed.
[You will receive the following. Accept/Reject?
System Permissions
Direct Messaging, Chat Groups
Covenant
Freeman: Class will be lost if you ever willingly worship a God]
When the System only repeated the same offer as before, I could only conclude that this was a decision I’d have to make with very limited information, a leap of faith if you will.
“Will?”
Pumpkin had crawled onto my shoulders while I pondered my options, and was now swatting my ears with his paws. I turned to look at him, an accidental companion who became a partner in crime. Someone who could walk and talk like me, in a voice I could understand despite the fact his vocal cords should have made that impossible.
[Offer rejected.]
Alas, I’d seen far too much by now to dismiss the benefits of divinity, so I was forced to discard my hopes for a better chat experience; who knows, maybe I could find time to slip out and go donate to the Church of the System? I’d even be happy to do so, given that they promised immediate benefits rather than a vague suggestion of an afterlife that I whole hopefully not have to visit for a good long time, if ever.
“Sorry, I was just lost in thought,” I replied vaguely. “There’s nothing to worry about anyway, because we’re just the newly hired help. If there’s anything wrong with the goods on inspection, Harvey takes the fall as master of the caravan. Our culpability would be very limited, all things considered, being a junior party that joined less than a month ago.”
Indeed, whilst I was far from an expert in Frontier law, I doubted that I’d face more than a fine and possibly being blacklisted from Heaven’s Reach at the more extreme end of things, which would be far from ideal but not life-threatening. Not that I was too worried anyway; if a mere border checkpoint could catch Harvey out, he’d have died long ago in such a risky trade. My course set, I spent the rest of the ride playing with Pumpkin, stoically ignoring the goings on outside my carriage. Eventually, an indeterminate period of time later, the tent flap opened and a guard peered in, a pair of green eyes the only thing visible through his helmet.
[Level 7 Soldier]
The relative prowess of the North was immediately put on display, as even this guard in the rear lines was at a higher level than any of Allensward’s protectors; the public ones anyway, I amended, remembering that Alice lived there too.
“How can I help?” I asked languidly, raising an open palm in greeting in a gesture that Pumpkin copied.
He stared at me blankly, any trace of expression hidden by his choice of headwear. I guess I was supposed to be intimidated, but it was hard to be when he was leaning so close that I could summon my knife with the tip already in his visor. Just a single twist, and he’d give a new meaning to the term ‘justice is blind’. Naturally, I didn’t betray my thoughts, merely returning his stare with cool confidence until he relented, handing me a clipboard and a long piece of graphite, staring at me expectantly all the while. The entry form wasn’t anything difficult, merely asking for my name and place of birth, my Class, and reason for entering the town. I filled this in honestly, listing myself as a Level 1 Merchant, my public Class at the time and therefore the technical truth, which was the best kind of truth. As for my purpose, I was naturally following the caravan to engage in commerce and learn the tricks of the trade from a veteran, I simply omitted the details of said trade. When I handed the clipboard back to the guard, he glanced at it for all of half a second before going on his way, mumbling something in his helmet that I couldn’t quite parse, and that was that.
I caught a glance of the walls before the tarp closed around me, confirming that we were indeed at the walls, and then we started moving again. That was the final hurdle, as far as I was concerned, though not the end of the journey, as we had to get to the right part of the city, but that wasn’t any of my concern. Lying back, I pulled an apple from the nearest cart and broke it in half, offering Pumpkin his share of the spoils too. Onwards and upwards, quite literally in this case.
