Epilogue: Reality & Delusion, Delusion & Reality

“Haah…haah…haah…”

PEEP—

“Where…?”

PEEP—

“Wha…?”

PEEP—

The room was white. Everything looked bleached and shone bright in the lamplight. The air was sweet, and the bed upon which I rested was phenomenally comfortable.

“No way. Hey… Hey, Clemens!”

I looked to my right, and saw a blond-haired man. A human. Not a goblin. In fact, it was someone I knew all too well.

“M-Maxim? You’re here too?”

“Hey, man. You bet I’m here for you. How are you feeling?”

“Er, where… are we?”

It was the hospital. I was back in Austria, gone from Gobland. I couldn’t believe it. Last I remember, I was shaking Frasmul’s hand. His eyelids shut, and once he popped out of the void, I felt my own eyelids turn heavy and come crashing down. I had been unconscious for a mere week since I collapsed in my room, even though I experienced months of adventures during it. I couldn’t call them dreams, not after how real everything felt—all those sword strikes, muscle aches, and lynx cuts—I could remember them all concretely. Dreams are not like that, at all.

My palms into fists. Grinding my teeth. “Maxim, is it bad if I want to go back to sleep?”

“No, I don’t think so. Sleeping is very tiring after all, so I understand why you’d want to sleep some more.”

“…Rea—?”

“NOT! You lazy prick. I was worried about you, man. C’mon, let’s go home.”

I chuckled meekly. “Whatever, dude.”

And so I returned to my normal life after experiencing kingship in another. Maxim walked me home—“Take it easy today. Call your parents, hop on the game, and we’ll start a new lobby later”—he said as he waved me goodbye. I went to my room and stood in front of my setup. My chair, my PC, my keyboard, my mouse, my… monitor. I stared long. My neck strained, and I walked out of the room.

“Let’s just call mom and dad instead. Maybe I’ll call my uncles too. I haven’t seen them in how long?”

The day passed uneventfully. Evening had fallen, and just because I was discharged today, I was gonna treat myself to a pizza. Margherita, because anything more radical on my pizza, and my tastebuds were going to pop. I devoured the cheesy goodness with no screen or novel around. Just in silence, somewhat at a loss in terms of… everything. Not the taste, though. I was savoring each bite—finally something other than meat and gruel.

I yawned and stretched and cleaned up after myself. Washed a dish or two. Whatever. YAAAWN… again. Tomorrow I have to go back to uni. I probably missed a few things, and I need to catch up on homework, but that’s something for another day. Maxim was calling me on my phone, probably to ask me to join the game, but I simply put my phone on silent. Sorry, man. You can clown on me tomorrow during lunch.

I lay in my bed, the mattress slightly sinking under my weight. My pillow was perfect, and the blanket was warm. Everything soft and pliable. Before I knew it, I was fast asleep, my eyelids shut tight. Tight, but I felt like I could open them. For some reason. I was asleep, but also not? I opened them, and there I was again.

“High chief! Just a short announcement, if you will,” a grey-skinned man walked up to me with his arm raised. He wore clothing made of thick, luxurious pelts—dread lynx fur. “Chieftains Sigvald and Arnric have arrived in town for your coronation. Do you wish to meet with them or shall we leave that for—?”

“Hardalgmar? What’s going on?”

“Hmm? High chief, are you well? O, that’s right. I’ll fetch you your uncle.”

“What?” my hand on my head, I looked around and found myself in a hall. Not just any hall. A goblin hall. Not just any goblin hall. My hall—my Great Hall™! I found myself seated on some kind of throne, because it seemed much bigger than the seat I previously held in my hall. Apart from that, I saw a few servants walking to and fro, cleaning up the place and making some reparations. Other than these two aspects, everything else seemed normal—like how I left it when I headed for the Laiesyces nearly a month ago…

A month ago? Before I met Frasmul in that hazy void place again, I had lost to Thodbargild in some forest on the way to Coidunum. From that town to Casbriga was a journey of little over week. So that makes it around a month and a half ago. If we only just arrived a few days ago, that is.

“Clemens von Hohenberg, I presume?” a mature voice calmly spoke up.

“U-uncle?!” I exclaimed in shock. “How do you know…”

“It is a pleasure to formally meet you, my dear friend, for my nephew Frasmul has introduced you to me, explaining that you have been leading his life the past months. Is that not so?”

“Er, yeah. That’s correct,” I said, eyes blinking in surprise, “God, that lifts a surprisingly huge weight from my shoulders. Does anyone else know?”

“None, except myself,” he smiled warmly at me and extended his arm for a handshake, which I gladly reciprocated. “All have been informed that if you were to experience a sudden feeling of disorientation or internal turmoil, that I must be consulted at once, so fret not, for I shall explain that to you which you do not know.”

A week had passed since our victory at the Geber river. Audbernrek successfully led the defense of our forces, and the enemy was quickly thrown into a rout in the face of our troops’ superior quality and discipline. Much credit was especially lent to my war chief Frakaldhelm and his two captains Gazmulgar and Rekmunraz. Perhaps I could establish a General Staff in order to bolster our military organization even further, but that’s a plan for another day.

Both Aremfrid and Hardalgmar had ended their respective opponents back in the forest, and so too had Frasmul crushed Thodbargild with ease. We found Sigvald and Arnric a few paces removed from where our horses had been resting, bound and gagged as common prisoners. Humiliated, but alive and healthy. Audbernrek had personally captured the remaining enemy Gnobble during the large battle, and it was this Gnobble that officially surrendered the Turacetae to us.

Since then, the remaining Turacetaen Highgoblins that had remained in their capital have submitted to my rule, and so too have all other chieftains in Gobland sworn their allegiance to me. From the Toretanii to the Laiesyces, and to the southern tip of Turacetae—everyone was happy to call me the first king of a united goblinkind, the first king of Thodriki, as the kingdom were to be called, according to Aremfrid. Apparently, it meant “the people’s realm,” in the goblin tongue.

“Now, an age of statecraft and nation-building is upon us, for all goblins have been united under one,” he concluded. This is what I enjoyed—what I had studied for at the university. This is where I wanted to dedicate my skills to, and I was more than excited to do so—statecraft and nation-building. I was gonna build roads, infrastructure, cities, and on and on. But those too were plans for another day. My uncle Aremfrid left and returned to his duties. There I was left on my throne, bored and alone.

Yaaawn…

…

…Zzzz

“Ha ha ha! It seems you couldn’t bear the monotony either, friend!’

Again, my hand on my head and I looked around. “What the hell, man? Now I’m back in this hazy world!”

“Tough day, huh?”

“You can say that again, Frasmul. So, what’s up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you here and not in your body?”

He smiled. “Just a chat, if you don’t mind. I was wondering if you really meant those words.”

“Which ones?” I scratched my head. “I’ve said my fair share of them.”

He gave a brief chuckle. “You told me that if you had nowhere to go, you’d stay here and help me govern and rule. Our uncle is quite misguided, as you can tell, but I do not possess his or your political acumen to effectively oppose any of his misplaced policies. And ruling is quite taxing in and of itself, and I don’t understand why, but you really have the motivation for it. I was wondering if we could have a symbiotic relationship in this body. Frasmul and Clemens—two different sides of the same coin that is Albaric.”

“I would love nothing more than that!” I said, a wide grin adorning my face. “Astvid is yours to deal with however.”

“That goes without saying, friend. Anyway, I’m pretty sure it’s time for our coronation, and I think you should be the one to attend it.”

“R-really? I don’t deserve it, you should go instead.”

“No, no. I insist. You have achieved amazing feats in mere months that I have failed to accomplished in years! Listen, our uncle has a coronation speech prepared for us, and he’ll help you revise it. Remember to address the crowd as goblins, and not as Ausmulians. We’re one people now.”

“Frasmul, could I ask one favor of you.”

“Of course!”

“You take the speech.”

“Er—”

“I’ll just sit here, and watch on the monitor. Chop chop, get to it already,” I said as I grabbed and shook his hand by force. His eyelids closed by themselves, and he popped out of the plane of voidness. I gazed at the monitor, watching it intently for an hour or two before the main spectacle of the show began.

All the Gnobbles, from Hardalgmar to Sigvald, filled a chalice with their blood and offered it to Albaric. It was Audbernrek who spoke out, and exclaimed, “Hear! And witness! The birth of our kingdom, and of our first king—Albaric, son of Albar!”

He drunk the chalice in one smooth motion, and the crowd erupted:

“All hail Albaric, long may he live! All hail Albaric, long may he give!”

I grinned, sharing in the pride that Frasmul must’ve felt in the moment. However sweet the occasion might be, it was interrupted by a loud, continuous beep. A traumatizing sound, to say the least. My eyelids shut by themselves, and I opened them once more, and there I was… back in my room. I turned off the alarm, and got ready for class. How my body felt rested despite my mind being awake all night is beyond my comprehension of science. What I did understand on the other hand…

“King Albaric by night, and student Clemens by day,” I smiled widely, “I can get used to this—my delusion and reality mixed.”

Fin.