After Aron’s announcement, the silently nervous world could no longer sit still. Most people were divided into a few main categories; there were those who were excited for the future, assuming what the emperor had said was true; those who didn’t believe it at all and, in fact, actively disbelieved it; and those who couldn’t care less, as they were still mourning their dead loved ones and preparing for their funerals.
……
Meanwhile, Aron, having rushed his announcement to completion, had logged out of the simulation and headed to where his and Rina’s parents were. Herschel and Virginia, at least, deserved to know that Rina was safe, though she was undergoing her awakening and wouldn’t be present in the real world for a while. Sure, she could explain all that by meeting them in the simulation on her own, but they still deserved to be informed face to face and brought to the secure pod vault where they could stay beside her through the process.
“And you can visit whenever you want. Your glasses have been updated with new access permissions so you can reach the secure pod vault,” Aron finished explaining as a new destination navigation option appeared on Rina’s parents’ AR glasses, should they choose to visit her.
“Son, let’s talk,” Herschel said, then stood and walked out of the room.
Aron silently followed him, motioning the others to stay behind and telling them they would return shortly; he had an idea of what Herschel wanted to discuss.
Herschel immediately got straight to the point. “Tell me the truth—is this really a blessing, or are you just keeping the public calm?” he asked. He was quite used to people in positions of power outright lying to those under them, either to buy time, avoid responsibility, or just set some other poor schmuck up to take the blame.
Aron thought about how to answer for a moment, then just shrugged. He was already the emperor of mankind, for fuck’s sake; he could just be himself and nobody had the right to give a shit but him.
“Yes,” he answered, then continued, “but the situation is rather better than I told the public.”
“So why not tell them that? I mean, if you know it’s even better than what you said, wouldn’t the effect of your announcement only be even better?”
“Because it’d be weird for us to have too much information about a situation we’re facing for the first time. And in a matter of hours after the awakenings began? Who in their right minds would believe that?” Aron answered, then returned a question to the older man.
“Makes sense... wait—awakenings?” Herschel was so inwardly nervous that his IQ seemed to have dropped. He had failed to consider that Aron had no reason to lie, even if things were bad, but realized his mistake soon after making it. “Sorry about that,” he apologized for the first time in quite a few years.
“No problem. You should go visit her,” Aron said, neatly sidestepping his own verbal gaffe by referring to awakening by its proper name to someone who wasn’t in his inner circle.
“Sure. We can continue this later, after everything on your plate is taken care of.” Herschel stuck his head back in his suite and called Virginia out to accompany him to visit their daughter.
……
“So that’s what happened to the shepherd. He’s been blessed!” the second-in-command of the cult exclaimed after watching the emperor’s address about the ongoing pandemic.
“But is it really a ‘blessing’, though? Consider the source—the devil himself is the one calling it a blessing, so wouldn’t that make it a curse?” another higher-up mused.
The room fell silent for a long while.
Clearing his throat to break the awkward silence, the doctor said, “It at least explains the problems we had diagnosing his problem.” He sighed with relief, as he knew his life was no longer in danger. It wasn’t his fault, after all, that the devil had either blessed or cursed the megalomaniac leader of a bunch of fanatics, so everything that followed would obviously also not be his fault.
Alas, before he could even enjoy his new lease on life, Rick’s assistant turned to him and said, “From now on, you’re responsible for ensuring he makes it through this process. Stay by his side and give him whatever he needs. If he dies, you’ll follow him, understood?”
‘Fuck’ thought the doctor.
The bad news didn’t stop there as the assistant turned to the other advisors and continued, “Comb through the remaining members of the flock and look for anyone else receiving the so-called ‘blessing’. If you find any, have them brought here and put under the doctor’s care. Give them the best we can provide, because if the devil’s minions are going to have superpowers, then we need them too.”
The doctor internally cursed a blue streak thick enough to make every sailor that ever put to sea blush.
The others responded in the affirmative without even questioning her right to give the orders. In their minds, it was obvious that, with the current leader set to receive superpowers, it would be better to treat his shadow as though she was him when he was unavailable.
“Until he wakes up, lay low. Cease the attacks, since every attack costs us a potential superpowered weapon, and that’s a loss we can no longer afford. Once he wakes up, we can work on coming up with new plans. So unless anyone has any objections, I think everyone understands what they should be doing now... right?”
The assistant cast a loaded gaze at the doctor, who immediately began planning a course of treatment for the “blessed” individuals to ensure they survived their evolutions.
……
A week later, Aron finally finished his whirlwind world tour. He had presided over state funerals on the sites of the worst terrorist attacks without missing a single one.
His schedule had been completely packed, with an average of about half an hour at each funeral. Luckily for him, his shuttle was hover-capable and extremely fast; by taking off meters from where the event took place and landing near the next event, he could reach practically anywhere on the planet in fifteen minutes or less. But even with his superhuman endurance, the fatigue of land-mourn-leave cycled over and over was really beginning to drag on him, especially since he only had minutes to rest between each appearance.
That said, the entire process had caught the attention of the planet, and more people were discussing his shuttle, his monstrous endurance, together with his dedication rather than the attacks.
