Chapter 445: (439) 6.53. Going Off Script

In the end, it took Vin a good couple of hours to figure out exactly what he wanted to say to the members of his cult that he’d had no part in creating. To help make sure he didn’t put his foot in his mouth and make things worse, he’d ended up putting together his own tiny council, enlisting the help of three different people who he felt would be able to offer him excellent advice. Linda, the Scribe working out of the town hall who could do literal magic when it came to paperwork. Avaline, the Writer for the town newspaper who would be able to help with the aftermath of all this. And Tom, a quiet man from wave three and the highest-leveled Diplomat Vin had working under him. He didn’t often say much, but when he spoke, people tended to listen.

With the four of them working together, Vin ended up coming up with a speech and a few talking points he was happy with. Thanks to their help, he understood there was a lot more he needed to think about than just what words left his mouth when he tried to explain to everyone that this wasn’t what he wanted. He needed to come across as powerful enough to make them listen, but not so much that he’d make things even worse. Kind enough that they would want to listen to his instructions, but not so kind that they thought he didn’t mean what he said. It turned out, addressing a large crowd of people was tricky enough for a normal speech.

Adding a freshly born cult to the mix naturally made things all the more complicated.

Even so, Vin felt confident in what they’d come up with. Lumel was still recovering from her dream journey, and his friends were who-knew where at this point while they waited for the swarm of people around their apartment to die down, which meant Vin was largely on his own. Taking a deep breath, he exited the safehouse, following after Alice as she led him toward the other end of town.

“The stage is really the only area we have large enough to fit a few hundred people,” she explained, snorting as she hooked a thumb over toward the town entrance. “That or we gathered everyone up within the colosseum, but that probably wouldn’t have gone over all that well.”

“Agreed. That stage is a better choice,” Vin said, trying to ignore the pounding in his heart as he prepared himself for his first real public speaking event of his life. Sure, he’d shouted plenty of things at crowds before in the heat of the moment. But never before had he prepared a speech and walked toward an appointment like this. The nerves must have shown on his face, because Alice chuckled, clapping him on the back.

“You’re going to do fine! Man, it’s wild seeing you get nervous about something like this. I’ve seen you run straight at epic monsters that would give regular people a heart attack just viewing from afar. It’s kinda funny that public speaking scares you this badly.”

“I’m glad this is amusing to at least one of us,” Vin grumbled, scanning through the notes he’d written down with the help of his impromptu council earlier. “Fighting is easy. You just hit a monster with enough spells or weapons until it stops moving. Or it kills you, and then it’s not your problem anymore.”

“I thought it had to kill you twice for that to happen?” Alice asked with a grin.

“You’re hilarious, you know that?”

While he knew that Terra had started putting on plays to help with the lack of options surrounding entertainment, Vin had never actually checked out the stage just yet. The two of them approached it from the side so as to stay out of sight of the already gathered crowd, but Vin was still able to appreciate the size of the stage and all the effort Witherson’s crafters had to have put into building it.

“This is where I leave you,” Alice said, giving him one last clap on the back as Vin walked onto the stage from the back entrance. With his high focus, he was easily able to hear the loud whispers and excited murmurs of the crowd waiting for him, and he began sweating slightly as he realized he’d be addressing hundreds of people in just a few moments. “Seriously, you’ll be fine. Just imagine them in their underwear or something.”

“I never understood that saying,” Vin muttered, glancing at the stairs leading up onto the stage behind him. “Wouldn’t that just be worse? I’d rather speak to a few hundred people who were fully clothed than a bunch of naked weirdos.”

“Well you’re in luck, last I checked this wasn’t that kind of cult,” Alice snorted, waving at him as she sauntered off. “Break a leg!”

Vin thought, taking a few deep breaths as he turned to face the stairs. He wished he had some sort of spell to help calm him down and prepare him, but he had a feeling his focus attribute alone was already doing wonders to help with that. If someone had thrust this sort of thing upon him back on Earth, Vin probably would have screamed and ran the other direction.

To his surprise, while he was readying his nerves, he received support from an unexpected source. Something whispered in his ear in a method that transcended all languages, and Vin blinked, doing as it suggested almost without thinking as he cast Dimensional Sheath. His new staff popped into existence directly into his hands, and the moment Vin closed his fingers around it, he let out a sigh of relief as that familiar sense of and washed through him. He knew the artifact had to have more to it that he had yet to uncover, but the realization that it helped sooth his nerves was a welcome surprise.

Part of him wondered if walking up there with a grand artifact in hand might be sending the wrong message for what he was trying to do, but Vin decided it was worth the risk. It wasn’t as if anyone in the crowd would be able to tell just how powerful the staff truly was, and if he wanted to get through his talking points without missing anything or turning into a nervous wreck, he needed all the help he could get. Taking one last deep breath, Vin walked onto the stage, looking out over the sea of faces as they immediately grew quiet.

Vin walked to the center of the stage, stopping before the edge and staring across the gathering of people. Seven hundred people really was quite the crowd, and he was surprised to find he recognized a number of faces. Not many he knew by name, but faces that he’d seen a good handful of times walking through town, or those he’d fought beside during the monster waves. Granted, he recognize a few people in particular, and Vin shook his head as he made a mental note to slap them both atop the head later.

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Shuvo and Thomas both, two of his current magical students, were happily standing within the crowd, eagerly waiting for him to say something just like the rest of the gathered people. Vin did feel a bit bad that he’d all but abandoned their lessons when he’d gotten word Lumel needed his help, but he really hadn’t had much of a choice. Seeing as the two of them had joined the cult, they didn’t seem all that upset with him.

At least Jess hadn’t joined the two of them. Vin made a mental note to thank the jewelry crafter for making such a wise decision next he saw her.

Putting the matter of disciplining his magic students aside, Vin planted his staff, the heavy sound of the magically dense wood connecting with the stage sending out an echo that caused the last few whispers to die down. Knowing that no force in all of Edregon could move him so long as he held his bonded artifact like this, Vin was filled with a strength and confidence he definitely hadn’t been feeling up to this point.

“There’s no easy way to say this. And I am not one for speeches,” Vin began, watching how everyone hung onto his every word. He only raised his voice a little bit, but he doubted anyone had any issues hearing him with how silent the crowd had grown. “It is my understanding that those of you gathered here before me have come to the conclusion that I am somehow more than anyone else here on Edregon. That I am somehow than anyone else, just because I have a handful of magical spells I can cast, or because I’ve been lucky enough to escape death on numerous occasions.”

As he spoke, his gaze swept across the crowd, watching the hundreds of nods he was getting. Just as he’d been told, most of the eyes looking up at him were bright and fresh, and he could practically pick out the individual members of the sixth wave who had only been on Edregon for a few weeks now. They’d yet to truly experience any of the real hardships that the other waves had experienced, and with Grant goading them on and all the rumors floating around about his past deeds, it wasn’t hard to see what had happened. These people wanted a hero. Someone they could physically point to and place their hopes on.

Vin was fine with that, but like the others, he was worried it wouldn’t stop there with how rapidly things were progressing. If the crowd was already beginning to attack people for not following his ‘teachings’ how long would it be before he was inadvertently responsible for someone’s death?

“You more than the others!” a voice called out, and Vin finally spotted Grant within the center of the crowd, the man beaming as he flung his arms out wide. “You can walk through the sky, lift things with your mind! You can do feats unlike any of the other so-called mages we’ve seen! There have been whispers about your divine abilities, appointed to you by the Gods themselves!”

Grant's words sparked a handful of people to shout out in agreement and a lot of murmurs to spread through the crowd. Though Vin’s reply cut straight through them all, silencing them once more as he shook his head.

“I am not,” he said, ensuring his tone was hard as he stared down the man who was largely responsible for all of this. “The world of Edregon is not the same as Earth. could reach the same heights I have. Learn to cast the same magic I’ve learned. As a member of the first wave, I received a bit of a head start over all of you, but that doesn’t mean I am unique. You want to know how I walk on clouds?”

Vin paused, holding up a glowing finger and quickly sketching out the runic formation for Create Cloud. His pure-white mana shined in the air before him and he gestured to the complex formation once he’d finished.

“This is the runic formation for that particular spell. I can walk on clouds because I sat down and took the time to painstakingly recreate these exact runes within my core. I’m not some magical chosen one. I’m just a man who realized what this new world had to offer us and dove head-first into the wonders of magic. Seeing as the two of you decided to come here today, you might as well come up here and help me out.”

Vin was going quite a bit off script by this point, but his gut was telling him this new idea would work even better than the veiled threats or honey’d words his impromptu council had suggested. The moment he called out their names, the two men jumped, quickly pushing their way through the crowd to join him on stage. As soon as they got up there, Vin motioned to the rest of the crowd.

“Show these people the runic formations I taught you. Just focus a bit of mana into your fingertip, it’s not hard.”

Nodding, the two of them did just that. Barely ten seconds later, the runic formations for Sense Stone and Sense Magic hovered in the air beside his own. Naturally, the tier-0 spells were far simpler than the tier-2 he’d chosen to show everyone, but he still got his point across all the same.

“Anyone can learn to do what I do,” Vin said, nodding his thanks at his two students as he turned back to the crowd. “Whatever is? This strange infatuation with me? It ends here and now. I heard word that fights have broken out, and items have been stolen, and I .”

Vin’s anger flared once more as he pictured Sean’s innocent, smiling face as the man excitedly handed him his signature book. He didn’t know how many others had already suffered at the hands of this surprise cult, or how many would in the future if he didn’t make things clear to everyone where he stood.

“I am not some savior sent by the heavens, and I am not some chosen hero here to rally behind,” he said scanning over the crowd. His eyes narrowed as Grant went to start shouting again, and he silently cast Still Wind, creating a bubble around the man that prevented his words from carrying more than a few inches from his mouth. Only Shuvo and Thomas on stage were able to see what he’d done, and he ignored their excited looks as they glanced between him and the silently screaming man.

“What I am is a council member of Terra, and one of the five people who have taken it upon themselves to ensure the citizens of Terra can live safe, fulfilling lives here on Edregon, without having to look over their shoulders and wonder if the next threat might be coming from inside their walls rather than out,” he said, looking around and making sure his words were heard. “You can talk me up, share stories, spread rumors, I don’t even care anymore. But if I hear so much as a peep that anyone here is doing anything in name, without asking me? Well…”

Raising his golem arm, Vin snapped his fingers in a flash of blue, eliciting a scream from Shuvo and a panicked flailing from Thomas as the two of them had their gravity flipped around and fell upward into the sky. Staring hard across the pale faces within the crowd who had finally realized the rally they thought they’d be attending was actually a warning from the Roamer himself, Vin smiled.

“…Let’s just make sure it doesn’t happen, alright?”