[EX] Uncertainty (1)

Let's start off with a question. One that everyone has asked themselves at least once in their lifetime.

What is life?

A philosophical question isn't it? Everyone reacts differently to this question. Some shrug it away without thinking too much about it, some take it as a joke, some turn it into a life mantra, others wallow on it all day long.

And there are also those who'd react in a suicidal way.

It's not like I've never asked this question myself. The first time it ever crossed my mind was when I turned 12. When I asked my father for his opinion, his answer was short, and he would repeat the same thing again and again every time I asked about it. I know, I was pretty dumb back then, constantly pestering my father over the meaning of life when he had answered that same question of mine over a dozen time. In the end, his definition of life became my definition of life.

Life is: whatever you think it is.

You're free to do. Free to feel. Free to experience. Free to act. Free to ponder. Free to think.

What you aim for, what you act towards, what you give energy to-- that's what you'd get in life.

Back then, I actually thought he cleared that smog that painted my mind. I thought he gave me the perfect answer. I thought what he said was all there needed in the definition of life. There wasn't anything wrong with defining life as whatever we deem it to be--

I never really experienced anything traumatic to put me in a position of confusion before. So having Lyndia's mental wounds transferred to me, in a way, became a sort of artificial 'trauma'. Not that I really felt the 'trauma', since her memory didn't come in the package.

That said, this 'trauma' had brought back this infamous question to the surface of my mind.

What exactly is life? Everyone views the world through rose tinted glasses, a million other definitions could be given to this question. Fact is-- I myself wonder why I want an answer to this question. I want to know why, now of all time, why this question keeps tugging at my mind, begging to be answered-- when I'm aware there isn't a definite answer to the question to begin with.

Or was there an answer?

What are human beings? We're not just simple creatures that eat, live, sleep, work and reproduce right? Think about it, at our most primal instinct most things we do are driven from pleasure. Working a 9-5 job or serving a just cause, though they may seem to not bring pleasure in a direct sense, but as a whole, it does. A paycheck and security gives us pleasure, seeing others smile, improving the life of others, things that make us feel fulfilled-- as you know: pleasure.

Heck. Even self harm and overworking is pleasurable. Holding a pity party and dwelling in despair is pleasure, if not, why else would there be such a thing called masochists? Yeah, even thinking now, as I'm dwelling on these thoughts, I'm experiencing pleasure to a certain degree.

Are our lives really just built on pleasure? That.. that's just empty.

These thoughts crossed my mind while my hands kept busy.

Busy with what you ask? Busy with pulling up grass. And what grass am I pulling you ask? It's the grass growing on the outer area of the school track field.

Mondai High. That's the school I'm currently studying in. One of the only two schools in my country Gilgamesh that's built by the government to support and nurture students with 'troublesome' TALENTS.

An example being Lyndia's TALENT. She has the ability to transfer wounds to another individual as long as she makes eye contact. The wounds inflicted on me were to put it-- an accident. She had no problems transferring her physical wounds to other people, but it was the first time she had tried transferring mental wounds. Which is the result of the me now-- the me that's griping for an answer to what the fuck life is.

Another example of a 'troublesome' TALENT is my TALENT.

Manifestation Into Reality.

In the beginning, I thought it was merely a superior summoning TALENT, but with all the events and crazy scenarios that had happened till now, it's more deep and profound than just 'a summoning TALENT'.

If I was told to explain my TALENT with my current knowledge. It's a TALENT that turns my life into a story, turning reality into fantasy. I don't really get why it is like this, I mean, my TALENT could've taken many other forms like the ability to create something at a thought-- or bringing a dragon into existence or the ability to change civilization… or the ability to script my life...

My TALENT is basically all the above with certain limits attached to it.

The limit being: I can't control what would appear. I can't control what I can create. I can't control the direction of my own story. That's my TALENT. And part of my TALENT also includes my first ever 5-star summon-- and she's not human but rather, a demon.

Liliath Toren.

A beautiful girl with natural velvet hair and eyes red as blood. An incomplete demon lord and princess from another world.

She was created, an individual that never existed to begin with. Life that appeared out of nowhere, life that shouldn't exist...

"Noel, how much longer do we have to do this?" Liliath asked, pulling up the grass at lightning speed.

Of course, safety first, we were properly wearing gloves.

"Well.. I don't.. know," I said with a huff, perspiration all over me.

"Um. Miss Glib, is this really necessary? I can't find any benefit in this that would help in improving my grades?" Liliath turned to the teacher with a concerned expression.

Standing there imposingly with a cane, a black spectacle frame around her eyes, her body donned a suit with a grandiose red tie-- she was our homeroom teacher, and also one of the school's counseling teachers, Glib.

"It is a necessary punishment," she said, smiling wryly.

I exhaled again, readied my shaking hands and gripped another tuff of grass.

Teacher Glib wasn't wrong-- you could say this was a punishment since Liliath failed half her exam papers. Then again, the other half of the equation was that this punishment was per my request.

The fact that Liliath managed to get an almost passing score should be a commendable thing-- and teacher Glib and all the other teachers weren't too concerned about it since it was Liliath's first ever exam in this world. They didn't really think a punishment was necessary-- more like they were afraid of even giving her any punishments since Liliath was-- in the government's eyes, a precious gem-- and also, in their eyes, a ticking time bomb.

They trust that she'll eventually be able to get her grades up--

So then, why did I request we pull grass as a punishment?

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Special Quest:

Have Liliath find a centipede. 500P

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RULES: Liliarth cannot find out about the specifics of the task. If found out, the quest will be terminated. Special quests cannot be removed and will be refreshed weekly. Special Quests completed before the week ends will only be refreshed the following week..

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This was the main reason.

A status window created by my TALENT. And this is one of the weekly special quests that I thought we'd have the chance to complete. That's why we were out in the field-- plucking grass as teacher Glib watched over us.

I asked teacher Glib to punish us in this way, thinking that the best place for Liliath to find a centipede was the school field.

I digress.

It had been an hour plus-- but Liliath came up with nothing.

I saw ants, grasshoppers, snails, worms and other bugs-- but no centipedes. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU YOU HUNDRED LEGGED BASTARDS?!

"That's enough for the punishment. It's getting late, I allow you two to return to your apartment," teacher Glib said in a tired voice, a little sympathy laced into her words.

"Huh? What?" I sounded so dumb, in disbelief.

Liliath hasn't found a single centipede yet.. and we've been plucking grass for so long now it's a waste if we just gave up. We wouldn't be able to get the chance to do this again..

"Thank you teacher. Noel, are you alright?" Liliath got up from squatting, and turned to me-- I realized that she didn't even break a sweat. Her P.E. clothes weren't wet in the slightest.

Damn. That's a demon lord to you.

"Uh-- yeah."

I tried to stand up-- and felt an intense pain against the base of my neck and spine.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow..

"I'm sorry you had to go through this--" Liliath said then applied her healing magic to remove the soreness-- also aired the sweat on my clothes.

"No.. it's my fault.."

"Stop blaming yourself." she glared at me, the evening sunset reflected in her eyes.

"Thanks for healing me," I said with a sigh. I guess this self-sabotaging habit isn't going to go away anytime soon huh?

"As long as you're alright. Miss Glib, thank you for today. Noel and I will take our leave now."

Teacher Glib nodded.

Liliath walked in front, I followed her from behind, absolutely dejected. Just before we went back into the school buildings to pick up our bags, I turned behind to look at the track field--

One half of the outer ring had turned barren naked, a heap of grass that reached my height could be seen. And mind you-- Liliath was limited to only using her physical body-- since she would kill the centipedes if she used magic.

I hung my head at the sight and continued following Liliath.