NOVEL NEXT Chapter 830: You're still here
Eisen looked at the capital city from afar. It was time for him to leave, now that the statue had been completed. Even from here, the pillar of the fallen was still as magnificent as Eisen had hoped it would be. It was the least that he could do for them and their families. But for now, there was something more important for him to do; he had to return to Asgard.
Initially, he would have liked to spend some more time traveling around this country, but he already spent way too long in the capital, cleaning up his mess. There were a lot of matters for him to worry about in his own country, especially since it seemed like the meeting between the Giants and the central continent was going to happen soon.
From the country of giants, the Irngrad and a couple of giants particularly skilled in diplomacy were going to join, and from the central continent, the Kings of the countries involved in this conflict would join.
The fact that they were the ones coming themselves instead of sending some diplomats to do the work for them just showed how major of a situation this was, and Eisen had to make sure that they would all get there properly. Of course, while he was gone, the other originals had already tried to find the best island for the meeting for the peace treaty to happen on, and soon found the perfect place.
It was one of the smallest islands, belonging to a young goddess. She belonged to the domains of love and generosity, so it seemed like the perfect place. It was an abundant and peaceful land filled with various flora and fauna that all lived together in a calm, peaceful environment.
Jyuuk, taking the opportunity to study some of the more unique species of the island, took some of the country's masons out there to build up a base there together with the local species inhabiting the island. It seemed as though they were a race of bug monsters that had developed into a roughly humanoid form. Eisen was quite interested in meeting them, personally.
But for now, he had to get back to Asgard, and that would be a rather long trek. The capital was quite central within the giants' country, and at the speed that they were going, it would take about four days for them to reach the harbor that they had docked their ship at, and that was all thanks to Askr's continued, fast travel.
Eisen figured that he should thank him somehow, and once they reached Prototype, he would probably apply a new coat of finish to the wood golem's body, and repair some of the more aggravating damages. While Askr could heal to an extent, that still had its limits, especially if he didn't have any pieces of Ironbark at the right quality level to make up the larger grooves that formed.
Eisen should probably also focus on developing Fafnir a bit more, and have some of the warriors of Prototype enter the dungeon to make both sides level up a bit more.
And currently, Eisen was seated in the dungeon's entrance area, gazing out of the opened wooden door onto the horizon. He had a glass of whiskey in his hand, and was just trying to relax for a bit. Coming up from behind him, Silber sat down and sat down next to him, "Need some company?" he asked, and Eisen turned his head slightly toward him.
"Feel free, I don't mind."
Silber sat down, and Eisen pulled up a glass from behind the counter he was leaning against, and poured his brother a glass of whiskey as well. After taking a sip, he let out a deep sigh, "Ah, seriously... you can't believe how much my body's been yearning for this!"
"You could have had a couple drinks while I was working, you know?" Eisen replied, not moving his sight away from the view beyond the doorway. Silber shook his head, "No, I don't think so. I can't just go and enjoy myself while you're working yourself to the bone like that."
"...I guess so."
"Man, why's your face like that? You did something ridiculous over the past month. Making something like that basically on your own? That is absolute insanity," Silber pointed out, "I mean, you can't expect much else from someone like you. You've always done pretty ridiculous things. But that doesn't change the magnitude of all this, right?"
Eisen smiled at his brother, "Of course, I'm really quite happy about that. It comes with some reservations, but in the end, I'm still glad that I was able to make something like this. But the fact that it was even necessary still lingers in the back of my mind, and that's going to stay the case for the rest of my life. And frankly, while I don't remember things in particular...
the death of so many people didn't shock me as much as it should have."
Silber listened quietly, seeing the expression on Eisen's face. The old man continued, "It's not that I'm some psychopath or anything... I feel horrible, of course, and sick to my stomach. But after inadvertently causing the death of so, so many people..? I feel ready to move on far too quickly. This is not the kind of thing that you grow numb to easily, Silber.
And while the previous Eisen does influence my personality, it's not like his personality overwrote mine. It's just a certain influence. If that's enough to make me react like this... what the fuck have I done in the past? What kind of horrendous things could I have done or caused for me to become this numb?"
Slowly shaking his head, Silber placed his hand onto Eisen's shoulder, "You don't need to worry about it that much. I can't speak for what happened in the past hundred thousand years, obviously, but... the Eisen that I knew was a kind, honest man. I was born two hundred years after him, but for the next two thousand years before the curse petrified me, that was something that never changed.
Of course, there were times where you lived more introverted than at other times, but in the end, you were always the same as the man that I see sitting next to me right now. If this is what you were like on day one...
what you were like before you were thrown into this world, up to at least two thousand years later?" Silber laughed slightly, "Frankly, I find the idea that there was anything that could have broken you like that ridiculous.
Over time, long-lived races like giants or elves, particularly the individuals who choose to mingle with humans or even monster races that live barely a hundred years at best... generally experience that sort of thing. Death becomes... just a part of life."
Eisen looked down at the glass in his hand. The ice had molten a good bit. Silber continued.
"It's not that you've become numb, you just have a different outlook on life. The people that live in this world now have been fully replaced dozens and dozens of times. All while you were still there. At some point, some others joined you, but a handful of friends is not enough to make you completely forget about things. You can't live as long as you did without reflecting on those matters.
Especially not if you're being forced into action by a sick little man who would try to kill millions of people to teach you a lesson."
The old man leaned back, sighing deeply. He wanted to say something, but upon opening his mouth, his words escaped him. He knew that Silber was probably right, but that still didn't change his feelings about this all. He had rationalized his emotions on his own a lot already. Of course, having someone else tell him these things still felt good, and validating, but... it was still rough.
But finally, Eisen turned toward Silber, "And you? How are you dealing with all of that? You just woke up one day... you didn't have the time to get used to the fact that truly everyone is gone," he pointed out, and Silber scoffed and shook his head, "No, man, not everyone is gone."
Silber slightly tightened his grip on his brother's shoulder, "You're still here, aren't you?"