Chapter 32: Grilled Fish.
Leaving the smithy behind, Damien crossed the camp at an unhurried pace. Wherever he passed, people paused and stared at the famous dead man, their stares only made Damien more insouciant.
"Yesss,.. lowly peasants. Fear me".
Before long, he reached Yuri’s tent. Pushing aside the thick cloth covering the entrance, he stepped inside.
"Hmm, smells nice".
Claire and Yuri sat cross-legged on opposite sides of a small wooden table, each with a plate of freshly grilled fish in front of them.
Claire smiled brilliantly and waved at Damien.
"I saved you one".
Damien walked over and joined the duo. Besides, he was curious to find out what a millennia-old frozen fish actually tasted like.
The moment he sat down and took his first bite, both Claire and Yuri stopped eating and quietly watched him. Damien wasn’t entirely sure why, but it wasn’t as though he had anything to hide.
He chewed slowly. His expression shifted several times in quick succession, cycling through confusion, disbelief, and reluctant acceptance before finally settling into a thoughtful frown.
"Gosh, this tastes like Friedrich Hegel wrote the recipe."
Claire was the first to lose it, covering her mouth as a burst of laughter escaped her. Yuri held out a little longer, but the corners of her lips soon gave way, and before long, she too was quietly laughing, her shoulders trembling ever so slightly.
"It’s really bad, we know". Claire admitted.
Damien struggled to keep the rest in his mouth, but he also really didn’t want to swallow.
"If you know it was bad, then why did you feed it to me? You possess a truly remarkable talent for disappointing my already low expectations, Claire".
Damien forcefully swallowed the piece of grilled fish in his mouth before clearing his throat.
"I have no idea what you mean, this tastes vintage".
Yuri and Claire locked eyes before both pushing their plate to Damien.
"In that case, you can have ours as well!".
The two girls giggled softly, fully expecting Damien to give in and admit the grilled fish tasted absolutely terrible. Instead, he calmly rolled up his sleeve, picked up another piece, and continued eating as though nothing was wrong.
Claire’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"Whoa..."
Even Yuri was impressed, but also concerned.
"I know you’re supposed to be dead and all, but won’t this kill you a second time".
Damien smiled confidently.
"Nonsense, I will be completely fine. I’m just preparing myself for something I have planned".
The two girls fell silent after hearing Damien’s answer. They simply watched as he continued swallowing piece after piece of grilled fish, refusing to stop despite its awful taste.
Damien wasn’t trying to prove a point, nor was he being sadistic. If anything, his mind had never been clearer.
He was a man who knew exactly what he wanted, and he had long accepted that the road leading there would be littered with thorns.
Earth had been destroyed. He hadn’t mourned it, but surviving afterward had demanded everything he had. In the end, he yielded to the Tower. Then came death or something close enough to it. Now he was trapped in a world far removed from home, lost somewhere in time with no obvious path back.
He had been locked inside a cage like an animal, fought an army of Eidolons, clawed his way through battles he had no right surviving, awakened strange powers, and watched corpses rise at his command.
Then there was Andrea, and her self-righteous Round Table, quietly trying to strip him of the little freedom he still possessed.
Damien exhaled slowly.
"Greatness is purchased with pain; the price is simply higher than most are willing to pay."
He swallowed the final piece of grilled fish before setting the cutlery aside.
"Tomorrow, it all begins."
A faint smile crept onto his face.
"I’ll deal with every one of you. One by one... until you finally realize you’re completely alone, with nowhere left to run."
His blue eyes grew cold enough to freeze the tent.
"That much, I promise."
"What?". Yuri suddenly said quietly.
Claire tilted her head curiously, a small smile playing on her lips.
"What do you promise?"
Damien’s expression froze.
Only then did he realize he had spoken the last part out loud.
He stared at the two girls in silence before letting out a quiet cough.
"Nothing important," he replied without the slightest hint of embarrassment. "I was merely negotiating with the voices in my head. They can be surprisingly unreasonable."
"Oh"... Claire said with a hint of surprise. "Well then, tell your head voices to go get some sleep, you’ve got a busy day tomorrow with Leslie and her crew, she might seem all innocent, but trust me, that chick’s a conniving twat, she’s almost as snarky as her sister, Naomi".
Damien let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head in amusement.
"Thanks for the heads up Claire, but you see, now I’m curious".
A gentle smirk found its way onto Damien’s face as he turned toward her.
"How exactly did you know I was going to be joining Leslie on a scouting mission?".
The tent suddenly fell silent.
Claire’s eyes widened, while Damien remained as unreadable as ever, the same faint smile lingering at the corners of his lips.
Yuri glanced between the two of them, momentarily at a loss, unsure what had caused the sudden shift in atmosphere.
"What’s going on, you two look like you’re in a low budget detective movie".
Damien looked away from Claire and said ambiguously.
"It’s nothing really, I’m probably just tired".
"Am I getting paranoid? So what if she knows. She probably heard it from Andrea or somewhere else, it’s not like it’s some secret".
Claire coughed lightly, finally getting her wits about her.
"Those voices are really on to something uh, I overheard Andrea and Leslie talking about it earlier this evening, Leslie was worried you were gonna try something nefarious, you do have a reputation".
Damien nodded helplessly.
"Perhaps you’re right and I’m just being a paranoid prick, but a man who expects the knife is far less likely to die by it".