12: Remodeling

David’s view

Waking up to feelings of envy pointed at my other self can’t be a good thing. It is however, becoming a normal thing when I wake up as David. Geeze, why can’t David be so lucky as to be living with two beautiful ladies that love him? … oh, right, because I did my best to avoid such relationships thinking it was all fake. Damnit, I wish I could go back and redo my past.

Rev would probably tell me to seduce Ed, but I don’t want to be a bother. It’s not like I’m gonna believe Revenna about Edward being in love with me. If he were, wouldn’t he be more obvious? Maybe I shouldn’t be using rom-coms as a standard. Fuck, how do normal people do this?

Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got a dungeon to clear, then… *sigh* I’m really starting to think of David and Jessica as two completely different people aren’t I? Are we really two people with shared memories? Or two sides of one person? What answer would I prefer to be true? I don’t even know. Fuck, I just want to swing my sword. It’s fun running and fighting. I don’t want to deal with these philosophical questions.

… This dungeon is full of goblins, huh? I do hope they aren’t as filthy as they are in stories I read in my past life.

…

Jessica’s view

While I really enjoy waking up in the arms of a woman I love, David’s musings have left me with a thought that is a little concerning. Am I one person, or two? Which would I prefer to be true? If I think of both lives as one person, as me, then it kinda hurts to know that one half of my life is rejected by my loves. 

Revenna and Osia do not love David. They only love Jessica… and each other I suppose. I haven’t actually asked them how they feel about each other. I’m not really sure I want to know the answer. I feel like knowing the answer would change nothing about our relationship, and if the answer was that they only put up with each other for my sake, then that would make me sad. Though, considering Osia is letting Revenna put a baby in her, they probably do like each other at least. I don’t think that would happen if they didn’t.

I don’t want to believe David isn’t me. If I believe that, then my first life probably wouldn’t be me either, and I just have memories of a dead man. Having all these lives be different sides of me is preferable. Just a person I could be were circumstances different. A person I am. It is still weird how I react differently depending on which life I’m living though. 

“Are you thinking of that priest again? You’ve got that daydreaming smile on your face you got last time.”

“Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me. Rev is the one who doesn’t want you loving anyone else. I don’t mind. I’m actually kinda glad that being with you lets me have Rev too. I know you don’t want to father a child, and I don’t either. So I’m glad Rev is willing to give us children, and I like Rev.” 

The smell of breakfast being cooked began to enter the room.

“Smells like it’s time we got out of bed and said good morning to Rev.”

…

When we eventually arrived at the city, I was once again declared king of demons, and awoke some sort of AI servant that makes maintenance much easier. I can’t help but wonder how these city cores were made. I understand the basic concept, but duplication is currently beyond what anyone knows how to do. 

As for the maintenance work, well… it’s goblins. The monsters of this city’s dungeon are goblins. As I suspected it’s definitely the same place the hero went. It does make me wonder though: Do goblins have to follow this design? I could redesign them, right? Monster summons are really just a form of magically constructed creature. They aren’t true living things in the normal sense. So it should be possible to make anything I want. Though monster choice is usually limited to what the townsfolk know how to make, so I’d need to teach people to make a different type of goblin, if I want the change to stick around. I didn’t need to teach anything for the pink slimes. Changing slime colors is easy and entirely a matter of the creator’s preference.

I decided to have a chat with the town leader.

“We wanted to make something scary, but aren’t really strong enough to make anything big.”

“If you really wanted to be scary, wouldn’t it work to go even smaller? Like, tiny insects? The main issue would be vulnerability to spells that hit a large area, but that can be handled with a small boost to resistances, I think.”

“The Parlo method? Yes, I suppose that would make going smaller more effective. I’m not sure I can convince people to make insects though. Making something truly creepy is going to make it harder to find people with the skills to do it.”

“Right. If they can’t focus well, the result is weaker, and it’s common for people to find insects disturbing, and difficult to focus on during creation. Maybe it’d work better to make something the people would adore? It’d be easier for them to put their all into it, and you’d have more people capable of contributing to the dungeon’s defense.”

…

Edward’s view

The goblin dungeon wasn’t full of goblins. David as usual, showed no concern about this, and no fear. It was pretty reassuring to be with him. It felt safe. Still, I did wonder...

“Wasn’t this supposed to be a dungeon full of goblins?”

“Yup, it was.”

“So… why are we fighting little humanoid rabbits, cats, and dogs? They’ve even got armor and weapons! Much better equipped than goblins usually are.”

“The dungeon got an upgrade.”

“Is that why so many of them have accessories? That last one had a pink flower on its head!”

“Yup. Their creators got pretty enthusiastic when the new design was proposed.”

“They are really cute. Were you involved?”

“Well, Jessica was. I’m still not quite sure if we’re really the same person. How does one even judge such a thing?”

“Has she done anything you wouldn’t?” 

“Uh… not really. I mean, my sex drive is totally different from hers, or rather… she hardly has one? Other than that, no, I don’t think there’s anything she’s done I wouldn’t do in her place.”

“What about the reverse?”

“I don’t think so. It’d be easier to answer if I were Jessica. I can think of one thing she’d probably do differently, but it might just be that she has more courage than me.”

“How can she be more courageous than the guy who took down an ancient dragon?”

“It’s not courage when I am not afraid. It’s just fearlessness. I never really feel like I’m in danger in a fight.”

“What do you fear?”

“Social stuff.”

“Like confessing to a crush?”

“Yeah.”

“I, uh… can’t offer any advice there.”

I mean… I’ve got a crush on David here, and I’m not doing anything about it. I’ve given people advice on things like this before, but now… now it feels like I’d just be lying. I have no real experience with love and relationships, I just repeat things I’ve heard from others. Maybe a change in topic would be good.

“What do you do for fun?”

“Fight.”

“You mean what you’re doing now?”

“Yup.”

“... it doesn’t look like you are even remotely being challenged here.”

“Just because it looks easy doesn’t mean it is. That one over there, I had to tap him on the head twice, because I messed up the first hit.”

I only saw one swing. He hit twice?

“Then there’s moments like this, where I’m surrounded, and I’m trying to get them to hit each other, but it’s not working. Their reactions are too good.”

He’s dodging all their attacks by such a small amount it’s really amazing. Is he really trying to lead them too? 

“I can get a little more forceful about it…”

Ah, he’s deflecting the spear of one into the torso of another.

“But doing it this way isn’t as much fun. It’s not as contingent on successfully predicting all their movements.”

If I had heard David’s actions described in a bard’s story, I’d assume it was just an exaggeration. Seeing it for myself, with his explanations of what he’s doing, just makes it clear how much further beyond what I’d thought possible, this man is.

“What does Jessica do for fun?”

“Study magic.”

“Do you enjoy studying magic as David?”

“Don’t know, never tried it.”

“Does Jessica enjoy fighting?”

“Don’t know, never tried it… wait… do you think trying it might give me a clue? That would make sense. If we do enjoy the same things, it’d be easier to think we’re the same person. If we don’t, that’d be evidence we’re different… I still don’t know which outcome I’d prefer to be true.”

“Well, regardless of which it is, your interests match. The magic she likes studying is involved in creating these dungeon creatures, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Then you come and fight them! Isn’t it a good match?”

“Haha! You’re right! I wonder how good of a fight I can make.”

***Author Note***

… did I just set a flag for a Jessica vs David contest? Hmmm...